Curses! Foiled again

So, over the weekend we made an assault on a particularly tricky cache, mainly to get our grubby little mitts on a certain Travel Bug, with the final part of co-ordinates to another cache, needed for yet another one … anyway, southwards we went to the start location. The first bit was straightforward then several minutes were spent searching for the second part. That was eventually found and all the details for the next options were duly noted so we set off to start scouring the countryside. To and fro we drove, criss-crossing the countryside trying to find suitable parking places within reasonable walking distance of our various destinations, all the time not knowing what size of object we were hunting – some of them were described as ‘unusual’, and we’d concur with that! However there was too much to complete in one day, so we came home.

Next day we returned to continue where we’d left off; however after about half an hour’s searching in likely and unlikely places we drew a blank with our first hunt. That was a bit of a blow, so we went to the next nearest option – and failed to find there, too. I thought I had it when I found a rotting stump with a squirrel’s skull (I think it was probably a squirrel anyway – certainly a large rodent) in a hole; but no. This was disastrous – if we failed on the final option we might as well go home – but hurrah! success within moments of arriving at the site, which gave us two further choices.

It was at this stage we came across hills. Very, very steep hills. So steep that it was almost easier to crawl up on hands and knees rather than walk – but it did at least allow me to appreciate the primroses in all their sweetly-scented beauty. However that turned out to be a dead-end trail; as did our final possibility. An email to the cache owner for confirmation of our co-ords was called for; time to get home (via another cache on an even bigger, steeper hill). It turned out I’d misheard part of the details and written 4 instead of F, which had thrown us out by about a quarter of a mile, and we looked forward to the coming weekend’s continuation – and hopefully completion – of the hunt.

This morning I read that somebody else found it on Monday and has taken the Bug. Damn damn damn! Where will it be placed next? And do we go bother to return to complete without the goal we wanted?