River Stort cycle ... part one

My caching pal, Jill, and I decided to cycle along the River Stort on Saturday. We drove to Harlow and parked up near the train station as we planned to cycle as far as we could and get the train back. I wanted to park as close as possible to the train station as I knew we would be pretty tired by the end of the day. As it turned out we were closer than I had thought, which was very welcome.

We parked up, got the bikes off the back of the car and

cycled up to our start point of the river. Last year I had already gotten the first two caches, so Jill quickly notched the first one; unfortunately the second one has gone missing. In the first five or six caches we found a collection of Brussel sprouts with different coloured crowns. When we got home we found out that these Brussel "scouts" are owned by a local scout troop and are in a bit of a race against each other. Jill and I both took one each. I am going to Sheffield next weekend so hope to find a nice little spot for my one when I get there.

We set off on our journey to get the rest. I was pleasantly surprised with the new fantastic footpath that has recently been laid. This made it much easier to cycle along than the expected rut in the grass.

We had a good journey along the river. The weather was not too cold, but unfortunately we didn't have the glorious sunshine that had been around all week whilst I was stuck in my office at work! As we cycled along we easily picked up all the caches which were about a third of a mile apart. We noticed that all the ducks were paired up, along the whole route. Clearly it must be mating season.

There were also some pretty cool statues along the river. Our favourite spot was at Mill. There was lots going on here. The bridge here is an amazing structure with lots of metal and glass artwork. It was all we could do to distract all the 'muggles' around so that Jill could quickly sign the cache. There was a group of people mucking around with canoes and a couple with two gorgeous black labradors who were setting cray fish traps. Once the cache was signed and put back without anyone noticing! we walked on a few feet and Jill exclaimed "Pigs" and there they were. Two very large pigs enjoying the little bit of warmth from the sun that was struggling to shine through the cloud. One pig was lying in ash. Another lovely statue was nearby. We were directed by the footpath signs through a mill where apparently some artists live and work. Their work was all around and it was lovely to see. Also, amazingly enough, there was a boat named after me!! Annie's launch. How exciting. We went on to get a quick church micro nearby and then re-joined the river path to continue our journey.

With excellent paths and fantastic pieces of art dotted about, we were having a wonderful time picking up caches and cycling along a lovely part of the River Stort.