Taking that ride to nowhere

I suppose, if I’m to look on the bright side, today wasn’t entirely wasted, although I got absolutely nothing done that I’d planned. What I’d hoped to do was place a new cache in a place with a particular view. It all started a week or so ago when we picked up a Bear travel bug who wants to go to Canada. Well, that’s not one of our more immediate plans, lovely though it’d be, so I got out the map and started looking for possible alternatives, along the lines of Halifax (Yorkshire) instead of Halifax (Nova Scotia). I discovered London, Gloucester, Bristol and Woodstock in Canada, but then aha! Bingo! (No, there’s not actually a place called Bingo to my knowledge, certainly not near here.) In Quebec there’s a town called Warwick! Ideal for my purposes – and the Warwick county emblem is a ‘Bear and Ragged Staff’. Even more perfect for a Bear TB to set off from. As there’s no cache there it means setting one ourselves, so we got out the local maps and studied all the public footpaths that might have a view of the castle.

There were surprisingly few. I suppose in the old days it wasn’t a good idea to have people wandering too near your fortifications. Anyway, we were sure there must be something suitable. We walked about six miles, which isn’t too bad a distance if the surface you’re walking is good, but we were slipping in the mud because we didn’t have our proper boots on. We also had a total lack of success, unless you call Ned narrowly avoiding falling into the canal (one hand went in) a success. And it rained. And it was cold. And my legs really, really ache now.

But today wasn’t completely wasted inasmuch as we now know that there aren’t any good hidey-holes where we originally hoped. And I’ve spotted another couple of places that, on the map at least, have potential. We’ll have a look there tomorrow.