Here's an
opportunity to meet up with some fellow cachers before the
Christmas season really gets going!
Saturday 10
December 2005
12.00 noon until
3.00pm
at The Greyhound
Inn & Restaurant, Tidmarsh, Reading
The Greyhound,Tidmarsh, Reading, is a beautiful
thirteenth-century thatched pub on the A340 at the Sulham Road
intersection. Retaining its charm and original country inn decor,
the pub features exposed low beams and two open log fireplaces. The
pub caught fire earlier this year and had to be refurbished,
reopening just a month or so ago. Food is very good and prices are
reasonable. PLEASE NOTE: This is a non-smoking venue. Not
sure whether that has anything to do with legislation or due to the
fact that the pub has burnt to the ground twice in the past six
years! A sign on the door says "No Dogs Allowed"
unfortunately. The landlord of the pub has said we can have sole
use of the restaurant as there are 50+ of us signed up so
far.
Parking: The
car park is quite small, with a bit of roadside parking available
in the lane beside the pub. We've also made arrangements to
overspill into the car park at Tidmarsh Village Hall 200 yards
along the road heading Pangbourne direction. We will put a
Geocaching sign and/or balloons at the entrance so it's clear where
it is. Coordinates N51:28:217 W001:05:205. We had our arms twisted
to give a £10 donation for this privilege! Christmas cheer? Bah
humbug!
The pub is in an area which is fairly
densely populated with caches. There are thirty or so within a
four-mile radius, the closest one being The Cache Hoppers' very
own River Pang Series - Tidmarsh Mill which is less than 500ft
from the pub! A cache (Santa's Sleigh Has Crashed!) has been set
for the event and will go live on Friday. It is within walking
distance of the pub and we would anticipate that lots of people
will be going off together to do this one. Without going into
too much detail, you will initially be heading in the same
direction, but it will soon become clear why you will be
splitting into separate groups. You will be able to leave your
cars at the pub/village hall to do this cache. We will have
printouts at the pub.
There's a fairly
extensive lunchtime menu and food will need to be ordered in
advance. I have already put the orders into the pub, but there
is scope to phone orders through up until tomorrow (Thursday 8
December) probably. Although there is no children's menu as such,
the chef has said that he will sort out sausages/chicken nuggets
and chips for them when we know how many there are likely to
be.
As the run up to
Christmas is expensive and busy, we're keeping this as simple as
possible. No raffles, no Secret Santa, just a pub lunch and a few
drinks in the company of lots of lovely people, interspersed with a
bit of caching maybe. If you'd like to make it an all-day event,
you could start the River Pang Series in the morning, have lunch,
then finish the series in the afternoon. There are nine caches in
the series. starting with The Source, Compton and ending with
Journey's End, but they can be done in reverse order. There will of
course be the customary TB swapping going on.
We hope that as many
cachers as possible are able to make the event and look forward to
seeing you there. Please state in your log how many of you there
will be and mail your food
requirements to us as soon as possible if you have not already done
so.