SOTC#3 - Just read the instructions Traditional Cache

The Ships of the Culture series is named after spaceships which feature in the science fiction novels of the late Scottish author Ian M Banks. The ships are autonomous beings and choose their own names, which often leads to amusing results.

The series is a small circuit of about 2 miles/3 kms, with a steep climb up Greenway Lane, across Shurdington Hill, then back down. At the top there are views across to the Malvern Hills.

This ship featured in the novel Player of Games. It is a General Contact Unit (GCU), which are normally ambassadors, scout ships and light transport ships. They are also main warships in peacetime.

Iain Banks was an author renowned for his mainstream fiction novels, as well as science fiction, and one book, 'The Crow Road', was adapted for television some years ago. He used the middle initial M to distinguish between his science fiction work and other fiction. I was fortunate to meet Iain Banks at the Literary Festival a couple of years ago. He was a very nice man. He died in June 2013 of cancer.

I also have another cache based on another of Ian M Banks' science fiction novels. This is Feersum Endjinn ( GC3MP23 ), one of the Cheltenham Circular Caching Challenge (CCCC) series. The CCCC is a 26 mile circuit around Cheltenham, following Cheltenham Circular Path. Some of the series pass close by in Shurdington. If you have climbed up the escarpment to the top, you might consider some of the caches nearby, such as Glorious Gloucestershire ( GC18FA ), which last year celebrated 10 years as a geocache, making it one of the oldest caches around.

The cache is a bespoke hanging container, containing only a log.

Congratulations FTF!
Razorfishy
28th July 2012