Gypsum Gyratory part two

A two hour drive (several minutes of which was spent sitting in the traffic jam that led to the M25) took me to my starting point at 11:10. At about 18:45, I'd done about 40 caches, and was totally wiped out, plus my back hurt, plus my feet hurt (one of my boots pretty much broke, and that pair of boots is getting the chop), so I decided to cut short and get back to the car. I got there at 19:15, and collapsed into the driving seat. I had lunch (!) and then made the two hour journey home.

The main problem was mud. Mud. mud and more mud, I took quite a lot of it home with me, but I left plenty for then next cacher. It wasn't just the mud, it was the squishy terrain underfoot, which made walking a lot more difficult. And I lost count of the number of times I nearly slipped over. Going uphill was bad, going downhill was worse, but even level terrain could be difficult, as a lot of it was so churned up.

At about 3pm, I got to the village that had a pub, but I was so muddy, I didn't even try to go in. I had my head torch with me, otherwise I'd have been groping in the dark after about 5pm.

One the way round, I did two great caches, one involving water, which I wouldn't have been able to do but for the fact that I carry, as standard equipment, and medium-sized polythene bag.

And I saw my first snowdrop of the year.