Return to the Greeto

Last week myself and the kids visited the Greeto falls which are in the hills behind Largs. We were aiming for an FTF on a new cache. The walk took us longer than expected as we took the wrong path to start with, and then the weather forced us off the hill before we could find it.

A week on and upon checking www.geocaching.com the cache still hadn't been found. So, despite having planned an all out attack on the caches in and around West Kilbride, I headed back up to Largs to have another go - on my own this time.

The Greeto Water (not quite a river, not quite a burn) descends from the hills of the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park. Making my way back up the farm tracks which lead to the Greeto the weather was grey, a little windy but dry. Reaching a bend which leads around the hill to the small bridge which crosses the Greeto I veered off the path and took the direct cross country route down to the Greeto falls cache where we'd been last week using the GPS to guide me. Once at the falls my search began and initially I found myself re-visiting all the places I'd hunted before.

Twenty minutes or so later the cache was still eluding me, so I took a seat for a rest and a think. Using the clue, I'd been looking for an over hang and a couple of rocks and had even made my way out onto a number of precarious ledges over the falls. I was ready to give up at this point but being determined to find it this time and not have wasted yet another walk up there I had another look. I decided to look in some less obvious places. There's not a lot of loose stones around the GZ so when I had a wee poke in a small hole on the far side of a mossy bank and found one I knew I had it. This was our eight FTF! We left a TB for the runners up as a consolation. One thing I will point out to future cachers visiting this location is that it is quite a dangerous spot, the cache is near the edge of the gorge but you shouldn't need to take any risks to reach it. Be very careful with kids in tow.

Moving on I made my way up to the bridge where I met a guy out walking. At first I thought he might be a fellow cacher, but he was just out taking photos. Over the bridge I turned to the North and followed the Greeto up stream until I reached another cache Greeto View. This cache was a simple find although I never found the "view". I did however have a visit from a couple of sheep... maybe it was supposed to be called "Greeto Ewe".

From here I was planning on heading back downhill to look for my third and last cache of the day,  Mau See's favour, but as I was keeping to high ground to avoid the boggy areas of long grass I found myself heading up towards to the crags which overlook the bridge. Since I'd already done most of the work I decided to take a detour and headed up to the top to have a look.

Reaching the top I was rewarded with a spectacular view over the Firth of Clyde, both Little and Great Cumbrae Islands,  Bute and Arran in the distance. The wind up here was howling but for the beginning of January it wasn't too cold and I spent some time in the shelter of a large rock having a rest and admiring the view.

Once rested, I spent a short while taking photos (which really don't do the view justice - my camera skills aren't too good) and then went off on a mission to find somewhere to place the Super Collectors first Geocache which I'd brought along just in case I found somewhere of interest. Watch this space for more details once/if it gets published!


Finally coming back down the hill I made for Mau See's favour. This is in a great wee spot which looks right down the Gogo Water to Largs. There are a number of obvious spots to hid a cache but despite searching on both sides of a wall where I suspected the cache to be hidden I couldn't find it. After checking the cache details again, I had another wee look and something caught my eye... I had the cache. Inside I was pleased to find a lovely Robert Burns Geocoin and I saw in the log book that I wasn't the first person to visit the cache today.

To get back down the hill I then had to make my way back over to the Greeto Bridge as there's nowhere to cross at this time of year. As I was approaching the bridge I spotted a couple of walkers with a week dog on the other side also heading back to Largs. It never even struck me as odd for anyone to be way up here just to walk a wee dog like that on a cold wet and windy day.


I was late back by now, really late, over an hour late, and I still had to get off the hill and back to Irvine. Mrs SC was planning a trip up to Glasgow to buy a new phone so I was going to be in big trouble! Picking up the pace I made my way back down the hill as quickly as my tired little legs would carry me and eventually caught up with walkers, passing by quickly with a brief, "hello" and nearly tripping over their wee dog. I jogged the rest of the way down and was knackered by the time I got back the the van.

It was only when I was sitting having dinner in F&B this evening that I realised that the walkers I'd passed were actually the cachers that had visited the Mau See's favour cache before me, The Burton's. In fact they'd visited all three caches.

3 out of 3.