Wednesday Walk: Muddy Paths, Birdsong and a Geocache Find

Today, for my #wednesdaywalk initiated by @tattoodjay, I had a stroll through Ashgate Plantation. I was looking forward to it as I've never been to this spot before.

The Weather ☁️

It was overcast and cool but I didn't mind as it was perfect walking weather.

Parking 🚗

I looked on Google Maps beforehand to see if there was any parking. I found a layby next to a metal barrier, parked up, and headed straight into the woods.

The Walk 🚶‍♀️

I didn't have any idea what it was going to be like or even where I was going. I just decided to follow the path and see where it led me to.

The first thing I came across was two phone masts hidden in the woods. Not very attractive.

The good thing was that there was a lot of birdsong going on. They seemed to be competing with each other. When I opened my bird app, several kinds appeared.

It was getting quite muddy in parts. I had a job staying on my feet. I wanted to go to the supermarket after so being covered in mud wouldn't be a good look.

I was expecting to see more fungi as it was so wet. I only spotted one tiny one on a fallen tree.

This is a tiny mite whose females suck on the leaves of sycamore trees, causing small galls to form in which the mites live and reproduce.

The walk was very short and a little disappointing. It wasn't the most interesting of walks. At the end, I decided to pick some of the litter up.

A Geocache Find

After a quick look on my geocache app, I realised there was a hidden geocache not too far away. It was just up the road on a junction.

The description was 'a micro magnetic cache hidden at low level but not on the floor'. I didn’t find it on the sign post so the only other place was under the wooden bench. Can you spot it?

It was a small plastic container with a magnet taped to it. I opened the container and signed and dated the paper inside to say I'd found it. I then logged it on the app. A happy ending.