GC45NZR

Up from Devon for a 9:30am meeting near Kiddy and I wasn't sure whether to go for this one or Hifnal Bridge - but it wasn't a long process to decide since this one had fun fun fun written all over it! (No offence Hifnal Bridge - I'll see you next time!)

However, as usual on these trips it meant night caching again. This time, that was an absolute joy - primarily because the tree I decided to spend an hour hunting in was nothing to do with any part of the multi whatsoever, having shot past "that" tree and climbing a nicely shaped and explorable oak tree on the edge of the wood in error...! The climb began by starlight, then dawn broke - with the woodland dawn chorus breaking the otherwise perfect silence, and I came down as the sun just cleared the horizon, casting a fabulous golden wintery light over the field. It was breathtaking.

But I was pretty grumpy about the lack of cache!

Having read all the logs the night before I was certain it would be up one of these two trees, and the one I was up was clearly the more attractive to climbers (though I kept anxiously pointing my headtorch over to its neighbour as I failed to find anything in my tree.....)

Anyway. I climbed right to the top of one tree, rappelled down in various directions to get different lines of sight on both trees, and rummaged in all the holes. Then at 8:30am I really had to go in order not to be late for the meeting. So down I sailed, packed up, and stomped back along the edge of the field only to find that tree looking at me.

It made me cross.

Then I looked inside!

And then I made the decision to "just have a quick reconnaissance of what I now knew to be GZ" in order to be prepped for next time. Aaaaaand, when I got there couldn't resist quickly chucking up a line, setting a rope, flying up, signing, flying down, packing up, and sloshing through the mud to the car. All that took five minutes! Which meant five minutes late and walking into a meeting whilst simultaneously stepping out of my arborist harness with a sheepish grin on my face and muddy trousers.

Re-sult! Thanks for a great cache and a beautiful morning. This is what caching is for me. Your mileage may vary.