The Rotten Calder Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Located in Calderglen Country Park, just off one of the main
trails.
**Don't go down the slope, stay on the ridge**
Use the first car park on entering Calderglen for quickness, or the
main one if you fancy a bun & a coffee afterwards. The park can
be busy, but the cache is hidden a short distance down/up a steep
and vaguely traceable path off the main trails, so you're unlikely
to be disturbed at GZ. I've given it a 3 for terrain, but only for
a few dozen yards either side of the cache, where the ground is
very steep and overgrown at points. Be careful not to fall down the
slope into the Rotten Calder when retrieving the cache!
The Rotten Calder begins less than a mile upstream from the cache,
when the Calder Water is joined by the Rotten Burn. It runs north
all the way to the Clyde, joining it almost directly opposite the
North Calder Water. Yet another Calder - the South Calder Water -
joins the Clyde nearby. There are numerous other River Calders too,
not only in Scotland but also in Yorkshire & Cumbria. The
origin of the common river name 'calder' is not known for sure, but
the most widely accepted etymology is from the Brythonic (i.e.
Early Welsh) *kaleto *dubro meaning 'rocky, fast flowing
river'.
'Rotten' does not imply that the river is polluted, but that it is
reddish in colour at some point due to discoloration from
underlying rock. Apart from the occasional shopping trolley, the
Rotten Calder is kept in pretty good condition, and there have been
sightings of salmon reputed in the past few years.
But if the Calder Water isn't rotten, then the local council
certainly is. Calderglen Country Park hit the national news
recently when South Lanarkshire Council attempted to sell off parts
of the publicly owned land to a developer planning to build plush
housing for commuters, but fortunately a sustained campaign by the
local community council put a stop to the idea, preserving the park
for future generations.
The burn immediately below the cache isn't the Rotten Calder itself
- that's a few yards east - but a tributary called the Kelvin
Water. It's still wet though!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Fgnl ba gur evqtr naq sbyybj gur unaqenvy.
Treasures
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