England's Oldest Surviving Geocache

When we were in Chesham at the weekend, we took the opportunity to visit England’s oldest geocache. There was a delightful irony in visiting a cache called “A view from Coombe Hill” when visibility was down to 50 yards but despite that, the pleasure of discovering such an old cache wasn’t diminished. Placed in January 2001, it has become a place of caching pilgrimage, visited over 1000 times, with many of those visits in more recent years as the cache has aged and geocaching challenges that involve finding and logging elderly caches have been introduced. I’m glad we found it!

Snow in the South

Although we'd enjoyed a snowy walk up Skiddaw last weekend, we didn't expect to be walking in icy conditions on our visit to Coombe Hill in Buckinghamshire, yesterday. We were trialling the route directions for a circular walk that Richard has devised for inclusion in a walking book celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Chiltern Society later this year. We set off from Little Hampden and before long were above the snow line! By the time we reached the high point at Coombe Hill Monument, the mist was down and conditions underfoot were treacherous. Luckily, they improved along the  Ridgeway!