West Kilbride

Saturday morning, and off I headed to West Kilbride to tackle some of the caches I'd planned to look for last weekend.

My first find was R. U. Coming or Going (West Kilbride) which is located to the North end of the town on the Portencross Road. This was a simple drive past. I managed to stop the van right at the cache and found it within a minute or so.

Next came kilbride hide which is a recently placed cache. For this I moved the van further up the road and parked. A short distance away I found a small narrow path. The cache was hidden in a wall along the side of this path and was also a pretty simple find.

Back to the van I then headed North out of town to a small junction with a triangular traffic island. There are two bits of old farm equipment on display here and the cache was there too, Glen goes Tattie Howkin. One thing I hadn't anticipated however was how busy this wee junction would be. After getting a few funny looks from passing cars I put the vans hazard lights on and pretended to be on the phone getting help. That gave me some cover whilst searching and if nothing else help me feel a little less awkward. It took short while to find this cache as it turned out that the clue given was slightly wrong.

Heading back into town I went in look of a parking place but found that the small car park I had planned to use doesn't allow vans so after a drive around I ended up parking at the Train Station (which was deserted). From here I headed over the railway bridge into Law Brae and up the hill in search of Journey to a Hill. This was a nice little walk with some good views over West Kilbride and the cache was simple to find (although a bit damp). On my way back down the hill I spotted a sheep with a crow on its head, but as I went for my camera it flew off.

Back down in town I ventured into the Kilbride Glen. This is a great walk which follows the Kilbride Burn and along it are a couple of caches. The first of these I visited was at the far end of the Glen (I managed to walk right past the other one on the way down). Journey into the Glen turned out to be one of the simplest caches I've ever found, but only because it was strewn all over the place. Luckily the log as still sealed within a separate zip lock bag so was still dry. Gathering up the rest of the debris I reconstructed the cache, signed the log and returned it to it's hiding place (removing a bag of dog biscuits which had probably led to it's being muggled, or more likely duggled).

Coming back up the Glen I found the location of the other cache Tree for Two, however I didn't find the cache. Going by some other logs I found part of it but I think there's a problem with it. Logged what I'd found but will need to return at some point when the CO has confirmed it's still there or has replaced it.

In addition to these caches I also went in hunt of a multi-cache called A Wander Around West Kilbride. This involved gathering a collection of numbers from various locations around West Kilbride and then using them to work out the coordinates of the final cache. This led me to a location that seemed likely but I couldn't find the cache. I logged this as a DNF but after discussion with the CO it seems I was in the correct place. He also suggested I log this as a find which was kind, however I think I'll wait and go back for another look now I know I had the correct location.

I had a nice relaxing morning wandering around West Kilbride and even managed to find a sundial which let me complete a challenge I've had on my list for a while now.

5 out of 7