Looking for nice caches in Southern England

[+Die LeseEule]

Hello Cachers in the United Kingdom,

my husband and me plan to come to Southern Englang in June and I started to look for nice caches

and little trails on our way... (and we take our dog with us!)

 

We don't have plenty of time because we want to travel the whole Southern

England (up to Lands End and back) with a Mobilehome in 2-3 weeks, so we have to

plan the time very well ...

 

Maybe you have tipps for interesting caches in your homezone too? That would be

great (Terrain max 3,5!)

 

THX for your help and support

Kirsten (Team LeseEule)

 

PS: Please excuse my bad english, I don't have practise so far :/

 

Here is a discription of our tour (1st plan)- As you can see, we have a lot of plans, we'll see what is possible

Folkestone

Rye

Hastings

 

Eastbourne

Brighton

Arundel Castle

Chichester

Winchester

Salisbury

 

Stonehenge

Stourhead

Avebury

Lacock

Bath

 

Bristol

Cheddar

 

Wells

Glastonbury

Dunster / Exmoor NP

Lynton

 

Clovelly

Morwenstow

Tintagel

Newquay

 

St. Ives

Lands End

St. Michaels Mount

 

Lizard

Falmouth

Mevagissey

 

Plymouth

Polperro

Kingsbridge

Dartmouth

 

Torbay

Exeter

Beer

Lyme Regis

 

Dorchester

Isle of Portland

Isle of Purbeck

 

Southampton

Poole

Bournemouth

Portsmouth

 

Isle of Wight

 

Groombridge Place Gardens

Royal Tunbridge Wells

Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens

Leeds Castle

 

Canterbury

Deal Castle / Walmer Castle

Dover

Edited April 18, 2013 by Die LeseEule

[+whh0]

What a busy time you will have - you could easily spend 2 weeks caching in any of those locations and not see everything.

 

My favourites would be:

 

Itchen Navigation Series, Winchester

Close Cathedral Close, Winchester

 

Ocean View, Shanklin, Isle of Wight

Blackgang Lookout, Blackgang, Isle of Wight

 

Any of the Hennock Trail, Dartmoor

 

I'm sure whichever you choose you will have a great time, there is some beautiful countryside and lots to see.

[+mellers]

It is easier for us to recommend a cache to you, if you say what you think makes a cache "nice" or "interesting". Do you like nice views, historic monuments, a puzzle to solve, a clever box, a hill to climb? Or is it important that you can find the cache quickly as you will have very little time in each town? We call quick caches like this (which are very near to a car-parking space) "Cache and dash" in the UK.

 

My most favourite series of caches is this one and I would recommend it to anyone:

"The Devils Dyke Circular Series" (which starts here); a circular walk of 17 caches over about four miles around the outer perimeter of Devils Dyke. There is parking at the pub on top of Devils Dyke which is now a pay and display car park. It involves a steep climb at the end. The nearest large town on your list is Brighton.

 

These are home-made, unique caches and are a LOT of fun. A lot of thought and craftsmanship has gone in to this series and they are well-maintained. You will need to bring:

A medium phillips screw driver

About 5 feet of string

A key ring

A metal nut

Two 13mm or 1/2 inch spanners

A small torch will help

At least 1.5 litres of water.

 

Something else you can look out for on your travels is any cache which begins "Church Micro...". There over 3000 of these caches all over the country. A "Church Micro" cache will be near to a church - most of which are interesting and picturesque buildings (check each church on Google to be sure). When you see "Church Micro" you will usually be taken to an interesting location.

[+Bear and Ragged]

Eastbourne has caches along the seafront worth looking for, some are easier than others, but read the logs, there's one that seems to keep going missing...

I'm down there on an irregular basis, and try to get one or two caches if I have the time.

 

Stonehenge has the virtual cache http://coord.info/GCA68D

[+thehoomer]

It is easier for us to recommend a cache to you, if you say what you think makes a cache "nice" or "interesting". Do you like nice views, historic monuments, a puzzle to solve, a clever box, a hill to climb? Or is it important that you can find the cache quickly as you will have very little time in each town? We call quick caches like this (which are very near to a car-parking space) "Cache and dash" in the UK.

 

My most favourite series of caches is this one and I would recommend it to anyone:

"The Devils Dyke Circular Series" (which starts here); a circular walk of 17 caches over about four miles around the outer perimeter of Devils Dyke. There is parking at the pub on top of Devils Dyke which is now a pay and display car park. It involves a steep climb at the end. The nearest large town on your list is Brighton.

 

These are home-made, unique caches and are a LOT of fun. A lot of thought and craftsmanship has gone in to this series and they are well-maintained. You will need to bring:

A medium phillips screw driver

About 5 feet of string

A key ring

A metal nut

Two 13mm or 1/2 inch spanners

A small torch will help

At least 1.5 litres of water.

 

Something else you can look out for on your travels is any cache which begins "Church Micro...". There over 3000 of these caches all over the country. A "Church Micro" cache will be near to a church - most of which are interesting and picturesque buildings (check each church on Google to be sure). When you see "Church Micro" you will usually be taken to an interesting location.

Ive just had a look, the Devils Dyke series has been very well favourited. It looks like you have just highlighted the destination for our camping trip at the end of May. Thanks very much Mellers, it looks great .

[+Malpas Wanderer]

Hi Kirsten, that looks like a big itinerary, I often travel in a moderate size van. Major pit falls I find is not achieving as much as you expect. I'll likely come up with some suggestions but fist might I ask about the trip.

 

Is the trip predominantly sight seeing or geocaching.

Are night stops prebooked.

Will the cache itinerary be set before outset or can you select/route as you travel.

How large is the motorhome.

 

Hope it is a great trip for you but certainly parking and narrow roads are something to consider with a larger vehicle.

[Blue Square Thing]

There are some nice simple caches just to the south of Avebury - one near Silbury Hill which is a really nice one and then a short walking route at East Kennet. As well as a couple of virtuals in that area as well. Worth a look certainly - you could walk either from or to the stones at Avebury I'd say without a problem.

 

On the Isle of Wight you'll probably want to go to the Needles anyway - at the far western end of the island. There's a cache inside the fort there - you need to pay to get in but it's a nice place to go anyway.

[+Die LeseEule]

WOW, that all sound great... Thank you very much, I will collect all your tipps

 

And you are right, I had to say a little bit more about our trip and wishes ... OK, here we are:

The itinerary is planned with a map and a travel guide, nothing is prebooked and we are free to change the route.

Of course we want to see the highlights (sightseeing like normal tourists) , nice landscapes and scenic views. But maybe there is something, that normal tourists don't see.

Geocaching in Germany is popular for finding places you never saw before even if they are in your nearest homezone (for example: I found a little private cemetary only 500m from my home that I never saw the 20 years before )

Because we have not so much time we want to "Cash and Dash" mostly (that was a a valuable tip, we call this type of caches "Drive-In" )

Easy to find will be great, but I also love to see how you hide caches in the UK (in the Netherlands you often have to search on private land, thats unusual to do for germans )

And we only bring basic equiment with us because we don't have so much space in the motorhome (its about 7,5m long)

And of course we take our dog with us and so we want to do some trails without climbing.

 

I created routes on geocaching.com, but there are so many caches that I don't know which to choose. I looked for favourite points but I love to hear about caches which are worth to do even if they don't have so much fav points. Clever hand-made boxes are welcome, maybe I can find some new ideas for my own caches

[+Malpas Wanderer]

Kirsten,

Thanks for the greater insight into your trip it helps us tailor suggestions more.

 

By all means do the Devils Dyke series if you can but for that series allow at least half a day, be tired from walking the undulations. You should be fine with access and parking the van there.

 

I'll look through your other towns when time allows.

 

It would be at the end of your trip but unusually for me I enjoyed a part day at Dover. Unusual as I don't like pay parking and throngs of people. I did enjoy the earth cache and another there but that is a bit strenuous as it's a zigzag steep stepped cliff descent. Tip is to park in the higher car parks with the motorhome.

[+The Blorenges]

When you're down near Land's End I recommend Kernow I and the nearby Crowns Jewel.

 

Just a wonderful location. (Look out for Cornish choughs)

 

MrsB

 

[+The Blorenges]

At Tintagel, you might like to do Tintagel Castle, one of the oldest caches in the UK.

 

And at St Michael's Mount (if you have time) there's St Michael's Mount Meander where you have to collect some numbers from on the Mount itself (in two, free, publically accessible spots) to get the final cache location which is back on the mainland.

 

MrsB