Barcraigs Reservoir

After an early morning visit to Kia in Linwood for some warranty repairs on one of the cars I decided to take a quick detour on the way home to grab a few caches. I hadn't really planned for this to be much of an effort but in the end it turned out to be quite an adventure.

First up was A Fine Reserve and after negotiating some rather curious fishermen (or were they anglers?) I quickly reached the GZ. As luck would have it this cache was hiding in the very first place I looked... todays gonna be easy I thought... but no, the next two weren't nearly as simple!

From here, I followed the path around the edge of the reservoir and then along the boundary road until I reached a gate back down to the dam. After dodging some more anglers (who seemed to be attempting to catch birds in mid flight with their lines) I got to the top of a sort of levy or overflow channel and followed the arrow down it to The Green Mile, now where could the cache be hiding? After ruling out a few places where I felt the cache would surely never survive I hunted for a further 10 minutes without luck. Out of desperation I then started checking those places I'd ruled out too. Surprise surprise it was exactly in the place I'd ruled out first! Doh! I thought this was a really interesting spot for a cache and I guess it is technically a waterfall so makes sense considering the CO was Amazo. Favourite point awarded!

My final cache of the day Water Water Everywhere........ was probably meant to be quite simple, just a walk over a causeway and there you are, but the bridge at the far end of the causeway was down (poachers apparently!) so it was the long way around for me. It may not seem much farther around from The Green Mile on the map, but most of the way is ankle deep mud and knee deep bog. Add to that the local sheep and cows who have helped decorate the place with coo pies everywhere and you have quite a challenge to get to GZ. I eventually made it only to find coos hiding in the bushes right where the arrow was pointing. Not being a big fan of the bovine race I was ready to turnabout an abandon the cache but I'd worked so hard to get there I decided they weren't going chase me away. So, armed with a big stick I did my impersonation of Sir Alec Guinness as Obi Wan (when he chases off the sand people) and just like in the film, off they scarpered (the cows, not sand people!). The contents of the cache itself were a little disappointing so I added a few bits of treasure and signed the log (I may have used the word evil a few times which reflected my mood at the time nicely!!). Before heading back the way I'd arrived I decided to have a look at the broken bridge from the other side and yes it's knackered but it's only over a small weir so providing the water level is low it's wade-able using the bridge to hold on to. I did just that and got a bit wet but it helped clean off the mud and coo poo from my boots and troos! Another favourite point was awarded!