Somerford Series Information
The series. A walk of 5½ miles / 9 kilometres (with route options) through the Wiltshire countryside around the villages of Great Somerford and Little Somerford. The walking is easy going along footpaths through river meadows, pasture and crop fields, with small sections of road in the villages and a country lane west of Little Somerford. The route is essentially flat in the vicinity of the River Avon but climbs very gently to the dizzy heights of 100m ASL at its northernmost point. You will encounter stiles and gates, which makes the series unsuitable for wheels of any kind. Some caches on or near roads can be reached by buggies and wheelchairs (as indicated by the cache attributes).
Route Alternatives and short loops. The main (long) loop has two route options north from cache #1 to #22: the eastern alternative route (#2-6) and the western alternative route (#23-25). You might choose one or other if you wanted to avoid livestock (see below). Combining the eastern and western routes makes for a nice short loop of 12 caches on the flat. There's an even shorter loop of 8 caches comprising #11-16 and including the Village Sign cache and trig point - best start at #14 for this loop.
Animals. You may encounter livestock. Cattle are put out to graze in the Avon water meadows around caches #3-6 (east alternative route) and #21-24 (west alternative route) during the summer months including bullocks that can be very 'inquisitive' and intimidating to some. There may be cows on either alternative route but not usually on both ... or come in the winter for an almost guaranteed cattle-free experience! Cross country horse trials sometimes take place around caches #8 and #9 during the summer: in the interests of safety please keep clear of areas where horses are being ridden even if that means missing out on finding a cache. During the winter months the only animals you are likely to see will be wildlife. Dogs are probably OK anywhere if well controlled: you'll see lots of dog walkers around #2-4 and #23-25, so it's the done thing.
Parking. Parking is available at many points where the route meets roads but I recommend the parking places advertised at 'For Starters : SS1' (this cache), Truncated Tree : SS7, B4042 : SS14 or Rivermead : SS20.
The caches. There are 25 caches in the series in total (including route alternatives) and there are half a dozen other caches either on the route or within easy reach. You can find caches belonging to the following series: Little Bridges (2), Church Micro (2), Sidetracked (1), Village Sign (1) and War Memorial (1). There's a trig point too. If you want to make a long day of it, you can combine this series with Rothallo's Lea to Lucent circular that adds another 5 miles and 22 caches. You will encounter a mix of containers most of which will be easy to find but there are a few moderately challenging hides and some that require a little additional agility. Bring a pen/pencil - the smaller micros don't include one. You will probably want to research Head in the Clouds : SS19 before leaving home, and maybe take a look at what might be required for From Pole to Post : SS18.
D/T ratings and Logs. Cache difficulty and terrain ratings are, of course, subjective. I have rated caches as I think appropriate and as a reasonable relative measure of difficulty. However, I reserve the right to amend D/T ratings if need be in the first few months after publication to reflect the actual experiences of finders. And in this respect, I (and subsequent visitors) appreciate comments in finders' logs that relate to their experiences of finding (or not finding) each cache. Comments on the series as a whole are most welcome on this page.
There was a FTF prize in one cache but it has been claimed!