Because we haven’t seen enough trees recently,  we decided to spend most of the weekend in the forest. 😉

We were keen to return to a great, local trail set in Mildenhall woods. We’ve visited now on two previous occasions and have always had a great time here. The wood is home to a fantastic play park and the caches are varied and fun so it’s an easy trail to get the children engaged with.

After a testing few weeks dealing with the delights of chicken pox (I had run out of patience with my patients.) it was an absolute joy to be back out in the great outdoors. 

Walking the path into the woods (photo above) I could feel my tension slipping away and a grin to rival that of the Cheshire Cat spreading across my face.

 Just lovely. 

It’s hard to be fed up in the forest! 

  

This section of the trail took us on a peaceful riverside walk at the edge of the woods with caches to find at regular intervals along the track.

  

My favourite find of the day, this little toadstool. Sat bold as brass beside a tree, along the riverbank. 

I flipping love caches like this. A cache that sits brazenly. Wanting you to see it, yet regularly overlooked by passers-by.

  

With spring in full force there were lots of natural treasures to be found too.

Our next Geocache search however ended with a DNF. 😞 

The clue for the cache hinted at a bridge, coordinates led us to nearby and so we scoured under, over and around the bridge and surrounding area to no avail.

 We knew we were looking for a film pot.

 As we widened our search area I was somewhat surprised to hear my husband call out; ‘You mean this bloody great thing? I thought we were looking for a film pot.’ 

Eh?!

Closer inspection revealed we had found another cache entirely. 

Sadly it didn’t help much as it was registered on a different website. I still can find no trace of this different cache online to claim this other find.  The irony of this is not lost on me.

Time to navigate to our final cache of the series, we could either backtrack some distance and take the footpath, or do what any self-respecting geocacher would do and navigate our way through the wilderness.

  

Manoeuvring through fallen trees, ankle-grabbing brambles and avoiding unexpected bogs all help you to feel like you’ve really had an adventure. 

Footpaths – so dull! 😉

  

The road less travelled also means that the children get to explore the natural world, undiluted. 

WildTime in its purest form.

Thankfully we are excellent bog dodgers and so with dry feet emerged at the area of the final cache.

I soon spotted a sign that we must be near the cache….😉

After admittedly a bit of a faff we located the great big ammo can. 

Ammo cans are awesome.

With the caching fun finished and the trail finally completed it was time to head to the play park.

The play ground in the woods is a fantastic one and one we would have never known about without coming here in search of caches. 

Geocaching – discovering far more than just Tupperware!