Two months of green calendar squares, it’s a strangely satisfying feeling to see them, so even though Adam (UKCacheMag) had given up on his quest to fill the days in I thought I would continue. There have been several new caches put out within a mile or three of home, but I am studiously ignoring them so I can do them one at a time on days that I need to fill in – the easier it is to get to the cache the more likely it is to be left until later ! (Drive-bys saved for days of unrelenting rain when you don’t want to be outside for more than a couple of minutes etc)

The first blank date I had in April was Friday the 5th, so I took a detour from a shopping trip to find a cache

5th April 2013 – Stumpy? GC47082 – cache #2392
As often the case GPS accuracy wasn’t good under the trees and meant a bit of searching around before I found the items in the hint. (well actually I found another location that sort of vaguely matched the hint so I searched all round there first)
Eventually I got to the right place and then the cache was not hard to find

6th April 2013 – CH1 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 1 GC3QAYG – cache #2393
Almost unbelievable, a warm sunny day and no mud to slog through. An easy enough find though I did have to dodge the motorcyclists who were leaving the track making it a busy spot
Parked at the designated spot, along with 2 builders bags full of old broken window frames and glass, I’m sure that as I had my car boot open while I changed my shoes that the passers by were thinking I had flytipped the rubbish – or at least was adding to it !
The cache itself was an easy find with the prescriptive hint

6th April 2013 – CH2 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 2 GC3QAZ8 – cache #2394
Lots of tree felling going on around here, so I was a bit concerned that the cache may have got caught up in it, but the cache was still there

6th April 2013 – CH3 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 3 GC3QAZ4 – cache #2395
As I have said on many logs in the past…. I do like a cache with a convenient place to sit and sign the logbook

6th April 2013 – CH4 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 4 GC3QAZD – cache #2396
As I walked out of the woods I was expecting the cache to be in the tree on the left of the path, it seemed to be about the right distance ahead, but rather than just going by instinct I followed the arrow and so found the cache, which I wouldn’t have done if I’d searched around the tree

6th April 2013 – CH5 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 5 GC3QAZM – cache #2397
There were people out and about around the nearby houses, and I felt a little exposed rooting around to retrieve and replace the cache… I also was not too happy with a non too sturdy stile to get over the barbed wire topped fence

6th April 2013 – CH6 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 6 GC3QAZR – cache #2398
Through years of experience I didn’t need the hint for this cache, I knew where it was going to be hidden… I did have to try all the possible identical places before finding the right one though !

6th April 2013 – CH7 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 7 GC3QAZW – cache #2399
I had to do the shoelace tying misdirection to avoid attention from a dog walker at this cache…

6th April 2013 – CH8 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 8 GC3QB03 – cache #240
I found an obvious pile of camouflage…. but it was a decoy
Then I spotted the cache and then had to rush to avoid another dog walker, so much so that I forgot to note down the bonus number (which I didn’t realise until I got to the next cache which is far enough away to make it not worth the bother of going back)

6th April 2013 – CH9 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 9 GC3QB07 – cache #2401
GPS coverage a bit dodgy under the trees, so I looked at the hint and then looked around for something it could relate to… Soon spotted a likely place but made a pigs ear of fighting through the undergrowth to get to it… fortunately it was the right place for the cache so my efforts were not in vain

6th April 2013 – CH10 Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood 10 GC – cache #2402
I wasn’t too sure how to get from number 9 to number 10, none of the paths seemed to be going in the right direction. Eventually I just decided to head through the trees in a straight line to the cache, fortunately there were no obstacles in the way

6th April 2013 – CHBonus Castle Hills & Highroyds Wood Bonus GC – cache #2403
I was relieved to see, when I looked at the formulas, that the one bonus number I hadn’t noted down – H, was the one number that I didn’t need to get the correct answer, as it only appears as H/H so that was always going to be 1.
This meant that I had a full set of coordinates and so rather than having to make assumptions as to the whereabouts of the bonus and have to try a few possible locations I could go straight to it

6th April 2013 – #RW3 A lot of love and affection GC48RDZ – cache #2404
After doing the Castle Hill series I was a bit early for Rebekahs event in Garforth, so I thought I’d take a walk along the railway and grab the first few of these new caches… due to the number of people on the track I walked past three caches and did this one first, then headed back the way I’d come for the others

6th April 2013 – Eight Year Cache GC3A5GE – cache #2406
A cache that was rarely visited, I wrote in my log “Hopefully now Richlay has put some more caches along the railway line this cache will get more visitors” – I was the first visitor in 4 months… it got 14 more visitors in the next 3 weeks
It was a bit of a scramble down the banking and then a struggle to get the cache from ‘the dry side’ but I managed.

6th April 2013 – #RW2 She offers me protection GC48RC0 – cache #2407
I’d had to walk past this cache going the other way as there were two families walking two dogs who had stopped for a chat here, and a family of cyclists passing them… all in all about 10 people virtually on top of the cache – whose camouflage I could easily see…
On the way back though there was nobody around but me so it was an easy find

6th April 2013 – #RW1 And through it all GC – cache #2408
Last cache of the day for me, and a nice easy one to find, can’t see it lasting long though as it seems to be in a place where children play (or youf’s hang out)

6th April 2013 – Garforth Gonks Gathering GC – cache #2409
Another pub meet, this time to celebrate Rebekahmarie73’s birthday.
A pub full of people with a DJ playing right next to us didn’t really allow for conversation with anyone but those right next to you. I sat and chatted to Rebekah and Desertfoxuk as others came and went, discussing some of the more difficult puzzle caches put me in the mood for having another look at puzzle caches including Whistleblowers impossible ones.