12 November 2017 (Sunday) - Coxheath

I slept like a log, but was disturbed by a pitiful whimpering at about 3am. I got up to find Fudge at the foot of the bed wanting to be lifted on to the bed. As I got up Treacle made herself comfortable where I had been sleeping, and by the time Fudge had got settled there wasn’t much bed left for me.

Over brekkie I had a quick look at the Internet. It hadn’t changed since last night, so I programmed “Hannah” for the day’s planned walk and we got ourselves together. I had a minor disaster in that I couldn’t find my gaiters. Or (to be precise) I couldn’t find a *pair* of the things. After a while I decided that life was too short to fart around, and no one would be checking my gaiters anyway. We loaded ourselves into the car and drove out to Linton where we met Karl, Tracey and Charlotte, and once I’d put on my non-matching gaiters (which no-one noticed) we set off for a little walk which (as usual) was marked out by one or two geocaches.
We had a good stroll through some rather pretty countryside.
We hadn’t been walking long when we were caught up by friends who were also walking this cache route, and in the end we were a party of ten (and two small dogs). The going was rather muddy as it had rained overnight, but the mud wasn’t deep; the ground was still rather firm, and the paths were well-marked. As we walked we saw chaffinches, and at eleven o’clock we stopped and had a little two-minute silence.
The walk was billed as one of nine kilometres. I looked at Google who told me that nine kilometres was the same as five and a half miles. My GPS unit “Hannah” measured the distance as six and a half. But I’ve always said the mileage on these cache routes is under-estimated (and there are those who say that “Hannah” over-estimates).
Geocache-wise it was an excellent walk. We found all our targets, and felt that the given co-ordinates were very good. I even got to use “really skilful geocaching” to find one cache, and I was insufferably smug for about two minutes as a result. Mind you I would have increased the difficulty rating on one or two of the hides; some were quite tricky to find.

Once back at the cars we scoffed our sandwiches whilst watching people driving round the car park. For a car park in the back of beyond there were a surprising amount of people driving about it. And not one was able to park a car with any proficiency.
With sandwiches scoffed we crossed the road to The Bull and had a couple of pints. I do like “Late Red”. It was a shame it was so cold; the views frim that pub’s balcony are spectacular. But even with the heaters on, we were shivering.

I took a few photos of the day, Once home I got them on-line after we’d hosed the mud off of the dogs. "er indoors TM" boiled up a rather good bit of dinner then went off bowling.
I stayed home with two sleeping dogs. They needed their sleep; it was a shame they were kept awake by the fireworks. I wonder how late the fireworks will go on for – they were still going off after midnight last night…

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