Polecat End - What a Stinker! Multi-cache
JollyJax: another one bites the dust.... Box lifted
Polecat End - What a Stinker!
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Forest Hill with Shotover is a parish formed April 17,1883, by the addition of Shotover and Shotover Hill Place, 1.5 miles west of Wheatley station on the Wycombe, Thame and Oxford branch of the Great Western Railway and 4 miles east of Oxford. The village extends into two parishes; forest Hill and Stanton St. John.
The Wheatley railway station sadly no longer exists but the Railway Inn where the 2005 Dreaming Spires Cache Bash was held would have been well accustomed to the noise and clamour of a market town railway station close at hand. Today all we have are reminders of the past and local caches have celebrated this, including Simply Pauls’ “Mouth of Hell” and Happy Hippos’ Thame Town Teaser”.
Other things also change with time, including the roads and footpaths in the area. The coming of the A40 Trunk road to London severed the parish and even broke the line of a footpath without a bridge or other way to continue the path. The village of Forest Hill is less than two miles from Wheatley and yet the journey to it now is far greater than it was 100 years ago.
This walk is primarily about Forest Hill and the surrounding lands but can be attempted from two distinct points. The first, from the village itself will lead you on a walk in idyllic countryside and close to a decent pub as well. The second starts at the boundary of this parish and tackles the problem in a different way, through no less a scenic part of this lovely valley.
As the name of the village implies there has always been a considerable amount of woodland in this area. Whilst you walk look at the sky line and the scenery and imagine how the extensive woodlands you see might have been 200 years ago.
At each start point you will find an identical micro hidden in an identical manner and with an identical clue to find it. The contents of the micro are the final coordinates of the cache.
You might ask why have two clues and two routes to a single cache. The answer is that not everyone walks whilst caching. For those that like to cycle cross country or on bridleways or even use a Horse to do their geocaching, then the second access is ideal with a broad, if somewhat under used pathway to the cache. The first and primary access is restricted to a footpath like way for very large parts of this walk.
I know that it is possible to get to the site on a bike, because I set the cache this way. The last few hundred meters aren’t for lesser cyclists though … I had to get off and push but I expect that someone will do it just to tell me you can. You do not have to enter the woodlands to get to the final cache. There is a barbed wire fence here that should not be crossed.
Waypoint One is temporarily out of commission so please one attempt this one from Waypoint 2.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Fgneg Cbvag Pyhr: Oevqyrjnl fvtaf pbagnva gur pyhr.
Svany Pyhr: Ybbx sbe gur boivbhf ubyr, ragre vg gheavat fyvtugyl gb gur yrsg. Xrrc lbhe urnq qbja ybj.