This spaceship features in the novel 'Matter' and is a Plains class General Contact Vehicle (GCV). This novel concerns the work of a branch of the Contact organisation named Special Circumstances, which operates outside Contact's normal sphere of operations, in situations which are highly complex. SC is the group which carries out 'Black Ops' for the Culture, often used mercenaries and other hired agents. Contact may seem similar to Star Trek in its quest for new civilisations and cultures, although the Contact is able to influence and shape less advanced civilisations, while the Prime Directive of Star Fleet prohibits this.
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. The series passes 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.
Congratulations FTF!
Razorfishy
28th July 2012