Haltwhistle - Day 3

Day Three of our Easter break in Haltwhistle and the kids wanted to go egg rolling, so while they were busy boiling eggs and decorating them I headed out on my own to bag a few caches at another stretch of Hadrians Wall.

Parking roadside at Caw Gap I first headed East up a steep climb in search of Bogle Hole - Caw Gap. This is supposedly the goblins hollow and a haunt of evil little folk. Today however there weren't any little folk in sight just dozens of people out walking the wall. In Scotland, when we go out walking we go for the peace and tranquillity of being out in the open away from the crowds for a while. It doesn't seem to be the case in Northumberland as everywhere we go there aren't just a couple of people around there are dozens!

By the time I reached this first cache of the day I was close to tears. My poor old legs were like jelly and my foot which I'd hurt before the holiday and had bandaged up was aching. The cache was a quick find but once I'd signed it I had to wait for ages for a gap in the muggles to put it back in it's hidey hole.

Cache two was further on eastwards which was made doubly difficult as this stretch of the wall goes up and down like a yoyo. Eventually I reach the given coordinates and started looking for The Clayton Wall which turned out to be quite simple. No problems returning the cache this time so it was quickly logged and I returned west towards the car.

West of the road where I'd parked the path was a little easier. After stopping to admire the ruined outlines of a watchtower I moved on to look for Thorny Doors. This was another cache which was only tricky due to the vast number of muggles wandering past in both directions. Job done it was back to the car and back to the house.

In the afternoon we decided to visit the Allen Banks and Staward Gorge woodland which is owned by the National Trust and not very far from Haltwhistle. En-route however we took a detour to visit a tiny village called Beltingham. This turned out to be a beautiful little place with the most picturesque church and graveyard we've ever seen. In these are several large yew trees but by far the most impressive was the one hidden around the other side of the church. Held together by large iron brackets this collossus of a tree was what I'd been hoping to see when we visited Fortingale in Perthshire last October. This one wasn't just few stumps of rotten remains however!

The tree was also the location for a multicache called The Ancient Yew of Beltingham for which we had to make a couple of observations in order to solve a given formula. Once solved we then had the final coordinates of the cache and despite a steep scramble, lots of undergrowth and a stream to traverse we soon had the cache in hand!

Eventually we reached the Allen Banks car park located in the old walled gardens of Ridley Hall. Much to the girls delight there was another Easter egg hunt on here so we signed the girls up and went off in search of rabbits paw signs, clues and of course some more caches!

More information about this location can be found on the NT website including the history of the site (see the History link on the left navigation) http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/allen-banks-and-staward-gorge/

First of the three caches here was Near the Knuckle. This was further down the gorge than the egg hunt reached so I split off from the rest of the family. This was an extremely pleasant walk and by the time I reached the coordinates given I'd managed to escape the crowds and at last had some peace and quiet. Now to find the cache which I'd remembered was somewhere on the steep slope down from the path. After a while searching without success whilst trying not to slip to my death in the gorge below I decided to have another look at the clue. This was a good idea as there were quite clear instructions detailing how to locate the cache which I hadn't followed. In the end the find was quite simple but one part of the clue could keep some people puzzled for a while, luckily I'd come across a couple of similar clues before so got it right away.

This cache was located at the site of a summer house, the floor of which was made from sheep knuckle bones (thus the cache name). Farther up the path towards the car park there is a newer summer house with a beautiful wooden book built onto the table. This contains a history of the site and is a lovely thing to have there.

From the cache I headed downhill via a twisting, turning wooden stairway down a lovely little valley to the river below and then headed back upstream to a suspension footbridge. Once on the other side I headed up although finding the best route was tricky. Eventually I reached the top of the slope and then had to trudge back downstream to find The root of it. This was another easy find in a quiet part of the forest and I decided it would be a good place to leave a new trackable. Good luck Davy the Dino!

My final target was Bush Tucker Trial - 2008 which took me back upstream and even farther uphill to a small but gorgeous tarn in the midst of the forest. It wasn't until I reach here that I remembered this was a multicache which meant I'd have at least another stage to find. Luckily upon checking the cache details there was only one other stage and not a whole set. It was at this point I got a call from Mrs SC to say they were back at the car and when would I be back. I assured her I'd be back soon... hmmm not quite accurate!

Finding the first cache was quite trickly. The clue said it was in a Rhododendron root, however they were everywhere and it was a little further away from where the hint suggested. The coordinates for the final cache were in the log of the first box so armed with these I set off however I lost all phone signal and so was working without maps. I was really tired by now so I ended up walking in a straight line following the arrow on the GPS. A small tip for anyone who might think about doing this in the future, don't!!

Finally, I reached the cache after quite some distance through dense undergrowth and down a very steep slope. Thankfully the cache tub was fairly large and was full of goodies which cheered me up so after making some swaps and signing the log I started on the long walk headed back to the car.

I was an hour and a half late but found everyone in a surprisingly good mood. The kids were eating easter egg whilst watching a DVD and I think Mrs SC had had a sleep. I on the other hand was exhausted and could hardly stand up, I was drenched with sweat and pretty dirty... but I had fun and in the end that's matters!