This is a series of caches located a mile or so north of Nettlebed in South Oxfordshire and towards the south west end of the Chilterns. The Chiltern Hills are a chalk escarpment that stretches in a south-west to north-east diagonal from Goring (Oxon) to Hitchin (Herts) but is most prominent in Buckinghamshire. The chalk ridge approximately coincides with southernmost extent of the ice sheet during the last ice age and its highest point is located in Halton Woods near Wendover. The Chilterns landscape was recognised as amongst the finest in the country and was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1965.
The Chiltern Ramble covers approximately 5 miles over quite hilly terrain and will take about 3 hours to finish (and a little more if you prefer a relaxed pace with lunch). Most of this series is dog friendly but unfortunately there are a number of stiles to negotiate if you wish to complete the series without relocating your car or retracing your steps. Please also note that at the time of placing there were some very muddy sections of footpath and good pair of walking boots is a minimum requirement. The intended route is from CR1 to CR16 although dog walkers may struggle with the stiles between CR10 and CR11 so may prefer to relocate to the additional parking location for caches CR6 – CR10.
All completed in the following order on the 11th of June
A rather ambitious series for a fat knacker with two kids aged 5 and 3, regardless we forged ahead with the intention of completing the series in one fell swoop. Probably should have done some research first but throwing caution to the wind we headed off parking was the first hurdle we ended up leaving it at the top of the side road in front of the houses. We headed down the road and promptly got lost... yeah obvious now we should have turned down the right hand fork rather than going straight on. We found a little side turning and watched a remarkable aerial fight between a crow and a red kite. Anyhoo we found the first cache after a couple of fence hops. Not the most promising start.
A nice straight forward one, hid this a bit better as it was very exposed.
Both the kids had a good rummage for this one but couldn't find it. It's surprisingly well camouflaged even though it's just sat there. I found it very quickly which my boy found very suspicious.
Keen to prove himself after being blind as a bat on the last cache the boy found this one in double quick time. My daughter was much more interested in the beautiful pony in the next field.
Nice and straight forward starting to wonder if my phone is going to make it all the way around. Starting to actively save battery power... hmm might have to get one of those portable battery charger things.
Nice walk through the woods the kids heard a funny noise they think it could have been a bear I told them it was zebras.
Wow steep hill we thought we had found it hard going until we saw the cyclists. When you are peddling and moving slower than a walk is it really worth it? This cache was not in the obvious places and took us a little while to find.
More hill OMG when will it end! Oh there we go.
Nice easy one sent the boy in and had a little rest here.
The tree cover and many possible hiding places made this one really tricky. We had to use a photo posted by an earlier cacher which made it obvious.
Okay this is where a little bit of reading ahead would have saved us a long and exhausting walk and a telling off by a farmer. Whatever you do don't head in the direction of the next geocache there is a stile waypoint which you should instead head for. We took a direct route then turned right and headed up toward the houses before doubling back jumping several barbed wire fences and going down a scarily steep hill. The cache itself was easily found but I was really annoyed with myself for taking us so off route especially when we were already tired.
Very nearly went the wrong way again turned right to head up the hill but decided it wasn't up there and headed back down the kids were proper tired by then. Thankfully this was a nice easy find in the end.
Founds this in seconds great but obvious hiding place. I hid it a little bit better for the next cachers but is still really obvious.
NOOO! More hill walking my 3 year old lost it about here insisting that I carry her. My 5 year old son lost it a little further up. May promises of ice cream and xbox playing time later we reached the cache location. Three likely places but my first guess found it.
Felt like we were heading onto private property but it soon turned out okay. The cache was an easy find and then MORE HILL'S! Having nothing else to promise we trudged on some of us more miserable than others The cache was a nice easy find.
Hang on this looks familiar! No red kites or crows this time but at least we knew where we were and the batteries on the phone / GPS were still working which is a testament to my battery preservation skills (Although I should have used some batter power earlier when we lost). With a cache in hand and laughs all round we gave ourselves a literal pat on the back and a sandwich hug with me as the filling for finding all 16 we headed home for a well deserved KFC, Ice cream and Xbox time SIX hours after starting this most epic of series (well for us anyway ). Thank you so much for the cache and the series we had a great day out finding all these and will recommend this series to everyone especially those with energetic kids .
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