As a New Year treat (sort of) we decided to head off out into the wilds of Warwickshire for a day of box hunting. The location in question was the small village of Long Compton, and the reason for going there on this particular day was that a local cacher had organized a New Year’s event in the local pub, to be preceded by a walk around the local hills looking for tupperware.

We set off fairly early in the morning on what was a cold and rather grey day. There were traces of snow and ice on the ground still from a “big freeze” just before Christmas, and it looked like we were in for a cold walk.

When we arrived at the pub there were already a big group gathering for the caching. Ami and me decided we were up for the walk. Kas decided to stop and look after Izzy in the pub, so off we set in a large group with about 4-5 miles to walk and around 16 caches to find.

Unfortunately we weren’t in company very long, as whilst Ami and me were fiddling with the GPS and trying to gather information for a multi most of the others were just wandering off up the hill (as they knew where it was already) and were generally not paying attention to us, not waiting for us, which I thought was a bit impolite.

Anyway, it was pretty much the last we saw of them until we got back to the pub, several hours later. It’s a good job we had some provisions with us and we had a map. We could have struggled on our own.

As you can see from the photos it was generally a cold, drizzly and grey day all day, and by the time we got back to the pub (nearly an hour after everyone else) we were ready for a sit down and something warm to eat.

We’d unfortunately failed to take heed of the warning in the event description about taking a change of shoes, so me and Ami had to leave our mucky boots by the entrance and walk through the pub in our socks. That was quite nice in a way, though, It allowed the feet to relax properly.

When we got back Kas and Izzy had about had enough of sitting and waiting too, so they were also ready to get something to eat and go home.

It was a worthy trip, if only to establish that we need to always cater for being on our own, and not to trust others if they say they’re doing a “group” walk. I haven’t made that mistake again.