SOTC#10 - So much for subtlety Traditional Cache

The Ships of the Culture series is named after spaceships which feature in the science fiction novels of the 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.

'So much for subtlety' is a Culture spaceship which features in the novel 'The Player of Games'. It is a General Systems Vehicle, which are mobile habitats and / or factory ships, and are the largest Culture ship type. They may be home to billions of people.

I was fortunate to meet Ian Banks at the Literary Festival a couple of years ago. He still lives in Scotland, near the northern end of the Forth Bridge. He is 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 uses the middle initial M to distinguish between his science fiction and other fiction.

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.

Greenway Lane is impassable to motor vehicles beyond the cattle grid, unless you have a quad bike or Land Rover. The Lane is steep, rocky and muddy, and was virtually a stream when I last walked up it. It can be slippery underfoot. It is possible to access the Lane from the top, joining the circuit at SOTC#4. There are livestock in the fields, usually cattle out on the Common, with horses in the fields by the farm. Please keep geodogs under control. Some of the paths on the Common can be welly-boot sticky. Please observe the Country Code, closing all gates behind you.