Off Broadway - GC28A3A

I found this one whilst out with Sarah on an afternoon's shopping and caching in the Urmston area. After a successful find at the nearby 'Nature Reserve' cache we headed for the Trafford centre as indicated in the description only to realise we didn't need to go that far. We turned around and parked just 'Off Broadway' and then crossed the road into the woodland area. After walking through a small cutting in the trees and looking for the item mentioned in the clue, we still hadn't found it after ten minutes. It was time to broaden the search and so I walked round a large area of trees looking for the hint, whilst Sarah searched intensively in the first spot.

I eventually came back round to the first cutting where we had started and so I looked to the left of it. In a few minutes I had found the item mentioned in the hint and the cache location was revealed by a small telltale pile of sticks. The container was great, very neat and compact - I've only seen one of these a couple of times before. Sarah did the admin whilst I took a few pictures and then we were off to Asda to finish off the shopping.

Nature Reserve - GC1QW22

This was my second visit here, the first time I came after 7.30pm only to find the whole place locked up. This time I was with Sarah doing a bit of cache and shopping in the Urmston area. I didn't need to use the GPSr to get to the car park for the Nature Reserve as I could remember where it was from last time I was here. However, it was now 6.15pm and as the car park would be locked at 7pm we debated whether we should park inside or not. We decided it would be OK as the GPSr said the cache was only 0.21 miles away.

One of the reasons for doing this cache was that I am now into birdwatching, and I thought this would be a good place to do it as well as geocaching. I took some binoculars and a camera, hoping to see something new, but unfortunately there was very little about - it was one of the hottest days of the year so far and the heat had probably got to the birds so they were staying cool in the shade. We walked a little way past GZ without realizing it and so had to backtrack to find the item mentioned in the hint. Sarah was first to spot it and the ingenious container holding the log. She did the admin whilst I took some photos and then we were on our way for quick circular route back to the car.

On the way back the Chiffchaffs were very vociferous and we did see a Great Tit fly in front of us and a cormorant on the Ship Canal. But apart from a crow, and a few magpies and a blackbird there was not much else to see. Perhaps we'll come back for a longer walk on a cooler day, because this is a great little place.

Urmston Greenery - GC254AC

I found this one after a quick visit to the Trafford Centre to get my glasses fixed and buy a birdwatching magazine. The park looks beautiful at this time of year, with the trees starting to leaf and the rhododendrons in bloom. It was quite a sentimental journey for me as this is the closest park to where my father used to live in Davyhulme before he died. We often went with his grandchildren to the playground here when they were young.

After signing the log out of the gaze of some local youths, I returned the cache to it's hiding place. Hope I didn't re-hide it too well!  Then I took a few pictures of the park on my mobile phone, breathed a sentimental sigh and returned to the car.