Geocaching in Kentisbeare

This is a post mainly aimed at those of you who are interested in geocaching, but the walk itself is still enjoyable and the footpaths and quiet country lanes are perfect for walking dogs. We’ve done a few geocaching series in Kentisbeare, and I’ll write up more about the others another time, but this one is focusing on the loop that leads towards Stoford Water and back again to the village, which was just under 3 miles and not too strenuous. I won’t say too much about where the caches were hidden, but there will be photo spoilers in this post!

We started the walk in the (surprisingly large) free car park in the village, which is located behind the church and village hall. (EX15 2AB) From here we walked down a public footpath to the right of St Mary’s Church. The pub here, The Wyndham Arms looked rather inviting as we walked past the beer garden and to the village square in front of it; we were tempted to pop in for a drink, but thought we had better press on with the walk instead.

Some countryside views from the footpath.

From here we walked up the road, passing the village stores and telephone box library on our left, then past some cottages before turning left onto a public footpath hidden away next to a national speed limit sign. This footpath took us past a cottage garden on our right, we admired the pretty flowers, vegetable patch and friendly chickens before crossing over a couple of stiles and entering another path next to a field on our left, where our first cache was located. There were beautiful views of the rolling hills from this path, but the footpath itself was a little overgrown with nettles. This wasn’t a problem for Jo, who was wearing trousers, but I thought it would be a good idea to wear shorts (seeing as it is summer!) so I did get stung a few times. Once we finally found the first geocache, (which took us longer than it should have, and we had a large group of cows watching us the whole time!) we crossed over another stile and walked down to the bottom of the field where we soon spotted another stile to cross over for our next cache.

The path through the wooded copse.

Over this stile our next geocache was waiting to be found. We knew it would be somewhere on the small bridge that crosses over the stream that leads to the local fishery lakes. Again, this one took us longer than it should have, considering I’ve found about 600 caches in the past, I couldn’t believe how slow we were at finding these ones today! This one was even in plain sight and in an interesting container; That’s one thing about this walk, children will love all the interesting and funny containers the cache owner has used on this loop. Once we found the cache and signed the log, we continued on ahead, followong a path through the wooded copse which soon led to a quiet country lane. The next cache wasn’t far away, and we found this sneaky one a lot quicker than the first two.

Some of the geocaches found in this series.

After signing the log, we continued up the lane to our next cache opposite an old farmhouse called ‘Lower Moneysland’. This cache was quick and easy to find, by a field full of corn. This was another funny container which I’m sure children will enjoy playing with. Our next cache was a bit further up the lane, in the small hamlet Stoford Water. We passed some pretty cottages and a garden full of roses before arriving at this next geocache. This one was probably the longest one to find as it was fairly small and hidden away very well. There were lots of ‘Did not finds’ logged for this geocache so we were pretty pleased we managed to find it in the end. Nobody likes a DNF when trying to complete a series!

Beautiful views from the top of the footpath.

To get to the next cache, from the crossroads ahead, we took the path to Sainthill with the crossroads sign saying Baptist church pointing in that direction. This took us up another country lane, where we soon found our next cache, the container was definitely one I have never found before, an unusual choice of container but a great idea. After a short walk up this lane, we spotted the footpath on our right which we took to our next cache. This one was a quick find, as I've found ones like this before, and they’re one of my favourite types of container, they blend in well with the surroundings! We continued up this path and once at the top, we found our next cache and were rewarded with beautiful views of rolling hills and Dartmoor in the distance. We stopped to see what places we could recognise from here, before turning right at the end of the path and walking down the lane, where we soon found our next 3 caches, all with quirky and funny containers!

Some of the quirky geocaches on the series

On one of these caches we were pleased to read that it was ‘all down hill from here’ on this walk. The walk itself isn’t at all strenuous but it was a fairly humid day, and I was carrying our 11 month old baby, so walking up the footpath we had just done, was a little bit tiring! We continued to see views of Dartmoor ahead of us on this country lane, as we walked further down until we reached a junction. From here we took the stoney path on the other side of the road to find our next geocache which had 168 favourite points. This one was the reason I wanted to do this series, as I was intrigued as to why it was so popular! It was soon clear as to why it was highly rated. This very large geocache was easy to find, but had a fun game to play in order to find the logbook. We read the instructions then began the game, where we also found a trackable which we decided to retrieve. We were fairly lucky and found the log book quite quickly, but Jo made sure to hide it well in the container for the next cacher!

A very interesting geocache!

We now had just 3 more geocaches to find. The next one was just further on down the path, a lot smaller than the last one, and very hard to find! It was a very clever hide as I was actually looking right at it without realising at first! We carried on down this path which soon passes some farm gates on either side, and then crosses over a stream, where the path turns into a track under tree coverage. As we stopped to find our next cache, I found it rather peaceful here listening to the stream flowing and the birds singing above. The next cache container was yet another clever hide, but we managed to put our hands on this one a lot quicker than the previous one.

The track that leads under tree coverage

We were now just a short walk away from the last geocache of this loop. Once we arrived at the end of this track, we took a while to find this cache even though we had an idea of what it may be, as the hint said it was magnetic. Once Jo reached a bit further over the gate, we found the cache, signed the log and were happy to have completed this series! From here we just had to walk up the road ahead which soon took us back into the village, where we recognised the footpath, village stores and pub that we passed at the start of our walk. We briefly stopped to look at the books in the telephone box library and admire the pretty thatched cottages opposite the pub, before taking the footpath back towards the car park.

Back to the car park next to St Mary’s Church

This walk took us a couple of hours as we were stopping to find all the geocaches and some of them took us longer than others! Children will definitely enjoy the fun and quirky geocaches on this loop, and it’s not too much of a walk for little legs. It was a fairly leisurely walk, with only the slight incline up the footpath to the views of Dartmoor that may be a bit strenuous for some. I would suggest anyone doing this walk to wear suitable footwear and trousers, as the nettles were a little bit overgrown at the beginning of the walk, and some of the paths were a bit uneven and may get muddy after a lot of wet weather. As I said before, we did this walk for the geocaches, but it was still enjoyable and quiet, which is perfect for social distancing at the moment! We didn’t come across many people on this walk, and only a couple of cars passed us on the country lanes, meaning it would be suitable for dog walkers too. If you wanted to have a bite to eat or a drink after your walk, there is the local pub in the village square that I mentioned earlier, but also on the outskirts of Kentisbeare is ‘The Keepers Cottage Inn’ which we drove past on the way into the village. This thatched cottage pub looked rather inviting, with plenty of outdoor space and a pretty little cottage garden out the front. We’ve made a note to visit this pub next time we’re in the area, which I’m sure won’t be long, as we have more geocaches to complete in the village soon.

A Short Walk Geocaching Around Uffculme

This is going to be a quick post about a walk we did geocaching around the woodland and country lanes in Uffculme. For those of you who aren’t aware, Uffculme is a little village in Mid Devon, close to Cullompton. We chose this geocaching route as it seemed to have quite a lot of ‘favourite’ points, and I hadn’t really explored this village much before. Jo has family that live nearby, so we decided we would do it one morning with his dad’s dog, before seeing his family in the afternoon. Just a warning…this post does contain photo spoilers of some of the geocaches we found on this walk!

Gadded Woods.

We started this walk by parking in the Magelake Pavillion free Car Park in Uffculme (EX15 3DP), from here we exited back through the entrance and walked up the road to the right, where we soon found our first geocache along the roadside. I’ll try not to give too much away about the caches on this walk, but there will be some photo spoilers! We soon turned right up a road named Cocks Hill, here we walked up the hill, past a house that was selling french beans, and another green house that stood out, not just for its colour, but also the witches broom by the front door! We ignore the turning on the right and continue up the hill. This road, although not very busy, does get narrow for a while so those with children or dogs will need to be careful. It’s not long before we find a public footpath on the right, through a metal gate. This leads us up through some farming fields and then crossing over two stiles. As we walked up this track, I turned back to see beautiful countryside views of the Culm Valley, and Uffculme village below. We could even make out Coldharbour Mill, a woolen mill in Uffculme just to the left.

Countryside views, looking down on Uffculme.

Once over the second stile we entered some Gaddon Woods. There are plenty of paths here to explore, but as we were following a geocaching route, we walked straight on ahead, keeping the trees and bank on our right the whole time. As we stopped to find another geocache in the trees here, we looked down once again at the village and rolling hills beyond Uffculme. The weather had been quite unpredictable today, but we could see the rain was about to start again as we saw the rain clouds and mist come in over the village first.

Walking through the woods, with the countryside views to our right.

Once we found our geocache we continued on ahead through the woods, ignoring a kissing gate to our left, but making a mental note to come back and explore this area another time. The track soon turned into a gravelled path where we saw some cyclists pass us, just as we were about to find another geocache! The trees looked beautiful here, sheltering the path, making me think it must look even more stunning in Autumn, once all the leaves have changed colour.

The muddy track down a hill.

Soon we came to a sign post at the end of this path, here we took the track to our right which took us down a hill, still sheltered under trees. I would definitely advise you wear walking boots or wellies for this walk as this stretch of the track had become quite muddy in places due to the rain we’d had in the previous couple of days. As we walked down this track, we continued to see the beautiful views of the countryside through breaks in the trees on the bank on our right as we descended deeper into the woods. This track soon became a bit narrow and more stoney as we followed it round some bends and then out of the woods. Here we found another great geocache, before continuing on past a high brick wall, which we soon find out is someone’s garden, as we walk further on along this path and hear chickens clucking away over a gate. This path soon becomes less stoney and then turns into a country road just after we passed a beautiful big white house called Gaddon House.

Two of the geocaches we found today on our walk.

As we walk past Gaddon House, we continue on down the hill, on what has now become a country lane, ignoring a signpost pointing towards some houses to the right. We find another geocache in this area, then walk down the lane and pass a red brick house on our right. We soon reach the end of this road, with a tree in the middle of a junction, here we turn right up the road, where we stop at a farm gate to find another cache and look over the fields at the views of Coldharbour Mill chimney in the distance. We both agree we’ll have to come back and visit the mill at some point, as it’s closed at the moment due to the current Coronavirus pandemic.

Views over the fields of Coldharbour Mill in the distance.

As we continue our walk up the road, we walk past a footpath sign on our left, leading through some fields. We don’t go this way as we are following a geocaching loop, but we will be coming back another day to walk this route as this footpath leads towards the River Culm walk which appeared popular today, as we saw several dog walkers in the distance. It’s not long before we reach our next geocache, then walk up a hill and past some houses on our left. We notice one had a lot of old brick buildings in the front garden which made us think it used to be a farm. We pass another house with horses in some stables and an old vintage car on the driveway. On the other side of this lane we see a vegetable patch and some cows in a field, there’s also a footpath here but we ignore this, which would have taken us back to the path just after Gaddon House. Instead we continue up the hill, past a house that had eggs for sale in their garden, where we meet our last geocache.

Down the road, passing houses and stables.

Sadly we didn't find the last cache! We stayed here for a while, determined to find this one as we had managed to find all the others of this circuit, but eventually we decided to give up and both agreed it wasn’t in the place it looked like it should have been. We logged our ‘did not find’ then walked down the road and past a house with some happy chickens digging around in the front garden. On the other side of the road was a yellow house with a garden full of eye catching flowers, here we came to the junction at the beginning of our walk, with the green house now on our left. We then turned left down the hill which brings us onto the road we started on, with the car park just a short walk up the road on the left.

This walk is only around 2.5 miles long and not at all strenuous so it would be perfect for families with young children, especially those who enjoy some fun geocaches. The walk is dog friendly, it does have some country lanes to walk on but they don’t get that busy, and the footpaths through the woods really do make up for it. As I said previously, you can make this walk a bit longer by exploring the woods a bit more, or taking the footpath towards the River Culm. There’s a pub in the village centre called The Ostler Inn, which looked rather inviting from the outside. Bridwell Park, on the outskirts of the village is also temporarily open to visitors to have light refreshments in their Orangery’s pop up cafe, all produce from local suppliers and is also dog friendly. This was something we were tempted to do if we had more time, we’ve made a note to come back and visit it soon when we do a walk along the river.

My favourite geocache of the series.