Canals of Schiaparelli Traditional Geocache

Small clip-lock box, no parking here at the canal locks. Take care with children and dogs here, there's plenty of slippy slopes and water.

You could 'perch' a car next to the cache for a quick cache-and-dash but be quick!

The Canals of Schiaparelli

In 1877 the Italian Astronomer Schiaparelli looked at Mars and mapped out what he simply called straight 'lines' (in Italian 'canali') all over the face of the planet. Various English-speaking astronomers decided that these were artificial canals built by a dying Martian civilisation to move water into their desert regions - and so the 'canals of Mars' edged into popular mythology. Apparently they are simply optical illusions caused by atmospheric distortion on Earth, and we are told that Mars is a dead planet, but someone sure shot down the Beagle Lander - British technology doesn't just crash, does it? In any case, take a moment to admire the Trent & Mersey Canal, a 300-year old example of British technology that both made sense and still works…

Giovanni looked in his scope And saw some lines on the surface of Mars Our Beagle was sent by a dope! Now find this cache quick! Move on to some bars!

This is a 13km (8 mile) loop, mostly in countryside, which can be walked in any order or direction. The series 'bonus' cache is actually a 6-stage multicache interspersed between the series caches, which you can collect on your way round or separately. Walking Notes are in the Series multicache GC3BHE6

There are plenty of options for parking - look near to 'Dragon', 'Ghouls', 'Pegasus' or 'Grææ'.