As a warning to others let me start off by saying I returned from this adventure avoiding the more hazardous mishaps but I did manage to mess up a dismount and do a backwards roll through some nettles. Which, whilst not life threatening it is quite painful and irritating so be warned.

I saw this cache discussed in a Facebook group, only frequenting OC sporadically, and being not too far away and having had lots of fun with the COs previous caches I couldn’t resist having a look and the FTF was just an added bonus although I wasn’t expecting to complete the cache today attempting it alone and not having any specialist climbing equipment. I’m not one for heights either but any  tree climbing cache over 6 ft gets my adrenaline going so my love/hate relationship has resulted in me completing a few of these now.

I used my Dr Zaius like skills to get through the code and soon had the co-ords for where I was going the next day. Not been to this area before but it is a brilliantly picturesque with a many an interesting feature probably more than one cache could fit in. It was more ‘Planet of the Sheep’ today but there is no chance of this especially timid variety taking over the world. Anyone watching from afar today would have been convinced I was sheep herding. Quickly made my way to Stage one and the theme for this cache, in case there was any doubt, was quickly confirmed.

It is always tough to discuss a cache without giving away the number of stages but there were a few tricky and interesting climbs. There were plenty of annoying branches I felt like just snapping off but then remembering it was probably against any sort of geocaching or countryside etiquette. Some great containers and some I needed to climb up to before spotting them. Always a fun climb as well, which, if I have any critiscism of some tree climbing caches, is that a high/challenging/dangerous climb does not always equate to a fun climb; athough I’m certain there are many for whom these terms interchangeable.  Even though the cache has the proviso ‘GPS coordinates to wander a little in this valley’ my GPS was always spot on but if future finders are in doubt if it looks right it almost certainly is right.

I finally made my way to the final stage.  I spotted the cache from the ground and could see I wasn’t going to get up passed the first stage and was ready to walk away and come back better prepared. I couldn’t fashion a ladder without causing damage to the lower part of the tree and I wasn’t going to get to the climbing bit without some help up. It was at this point I spotted something manmade  I could climb and transfer across via a long thick branch. Tricky but doable alone, equipmentless and without damage to the tree. This was a bad point to notice my lace was undone but it was not hard at all to settle in the lower parts and do it up. A fun climb and not too challenging but take your time as this type of tree has quite brittle bark and can be slippy although you pretty much always have multiple points of contact.

Got to the box; as is customary when I’m signing logbooks in trees my handwriting is twice as big and my message half the usual length. Took the FTF prize (not sure if I was meant to leave the chest or not but I did) and Darwin TB and left a mechanical toy snail. Thanks for the prize, brilliant again and in perfect keeping with the theme of the cache. Did some photography (on Darwin TB page linked in previous log) before making my way down rather ungracefully for the last part deciding on the straight down rather than the traverse approach this time.

A brillliant cache in a brilliant location. Recommended to all especially those terrain junkies with limited/no equipment. As always looking forward to the next one.