On Thursday 02/06/2011 Jade and I drove up the M1 to J35A and onto the A61 towards Stocksbridge & Manchester - a road I've travelled on over a thousand times given that I commuted on it for over 10 years. However this time I stopped pretty quickly, turning off towards High Green and then another quick left onto a B road headed into Westwood Country Park. I was amazed.
Sitting in my vehicular cocoon I've been aware of woods to the south side of this road for many many years but I've never thought that they were accessible; I just presumed it was fenced off woodland that had been cut through by all the new roads when the Stocksbridge bypass came into existance.
These beautiful woods are flooded with a myriad of paths, indeed I've never seen a woodland with so many possible routes. However they all look natural and don't spoil it at all.
The series I was hoping to do, another Mr. Truffles set, was called 'Geocaching - A Trivial Pursuit' and involved finding 6 caches (one for each colour Trivial Pursuit 'cheese' wedge) and solving a puzzle therein. The numbers collated would lead to a final. Additionally I was hoping to pick up two other random caches nearby.
I planned a rough route before we set off, pretty much ignoring Mr. Truffles' recommended order, so that I could get these extra caches as I was walking around. Thankfully, as mentioned above, the plethora of paths helped me accomplish this.
The 6 puzzles all had me stumped - my general knowledge is reasonable I believe, but none of the questions were anything I (or Jade) would have an interest in so the iPhone was out at each stage and the numbers were soon compiled.
One cache had us stumped for a good 20 minutes as all relevant clue items were searched and the cache simply wouldn't reveal itself. Reading previous finder's logs I gathered that the relevant clue item had fallen over and rolled down a slope so this gave me more hope and I set about scratching round again in a more focused area. The cache was soon unearthed - literally - someone had buried it. I replaced it under an obvious (to Geocachers) pile of camouflage.
We took 15 minutes at this point to sit on a nearby wooden bench to eat and drink and wash my hands. These woods were really special, the sun was beating, and the birds and squirrels were out in force.
Off to the final for an easy find and the end of a very successful but all-too-short Geocaching trip which bagged us 9 caches over 3.5 miles.
Thursday 9 June 2011
Wednesday 8 June 2011
Notton Navigation
31/05/11
Just Jade and I out on our first duo caching trip of the week. For this I'd selected Notton Navigation; a series of caches around Notton between Barnsley and Wakefield. This series was highly recommended and I'd been planning to do it for ages however I have to say that ultimately I was a little disappointed. This is probably my own fault for having high expectations for so long.
It also started badly in that we simply couldn't find the first cache. It was a glorious day so I was in no rush and we spent 40 minutes looking, including ringing Patrick for a clue. He was talking about a railway bridge nearby, of which there was no sign, so I presumed he'd got his caches mixed up (easily done considering he's done well over 1000.)
Having given up we moved along to the second cache. This was a really tricky find but thankfully, considering the frustration-depression I was in from the first, I found it quickly. The third was also a great hide, but no match for Jade, and having found somewhere to sit we enjoyed the sunshine, relaxed, ate our sandwiches and drank some tea. The 4th and 5th were also great hides, again easily found, the 6th was a bugger to find and then the series, in my opinion, deteriorated; the innovative cache containers were gone and we were finding nanos hidden in public places and film canisters hidden on semi-dangerous roads. Such a shame. However I don't want to sound too negative; the series owner had made a GREAT effort on most of the hides and indeed more effort in those than some people take for an entire series.
Having missed one cache, and stupidly forgetting to get clues from two others, we didn't have the coordinates for the final. I tried a few possible coordinate matches on the way back to the car but there were too many options for a realistic chance of finding the cache.
Once back at the car I decided to pop back to cache #1 again. I'd noticed that on my GPSr each cache location had a waypoint marker as well as a Geocache marker, and that there was a waypoint marker near a railway bridge. This tied in with what Patrick had said. We hurried back, searched, rang him again, search some more and then gave up.
Once back home I realised, as had Patrick by this time, that the original cache #1 HAD been near the bridge but it had been moved a couple of months after Patrick had found it and the series owner had updated the Geocache coordinates but not the waypoint.
So cache #1, somewhere near where we first looked, had still eluded us. I think I shall return to this series shortly and get clues from (hopefully) #1 and also #2 & #3 and then go for the final.
In total we did 5.5 miles, bagged 9 caches and had a lovely walk and chat around some great countryside.
Just Jade and I out on our first duo caching trip of the week. For this I'd selected Notton Navigation; a series of caches around Notton between Barnsley and Wakefield. This series was highly recommended and I'd been planning to do it for ages however I have to say that ultimately I was a little disappointed. This is probably my own fault for having high expectations for so long.
It also started badly in that we simply couldn't find the first cache. It was a glorious day so I was in no rush and we spent 40 minutes looking, including ringing Patrick for a clue. He was talking about a railway bridge nearby, of which there was no sign, so I presumed he'd got his caches mixed up (easily done considering he's done well over 1000.)
Having given up we moved along to the second cache. This was a really tricky find but thankfully, considering the frustration-depression I was in from the first, I found it quickly. The third was also a great hide, but no match for Jade, and having found somewhere to sit we enjoyed the sunshine, relaxed, ate our sandwiches and drank some tea. The 4th and 5th were also great hides, again easily found, the 6th was a bugger to find and then the series, in my opinion, deteriorated; the innovative cache containers were gone and we were finding nanos hidden in public places and film canisters hidden on semi-dangerous roads. Such a shame. However I don't want to sound too negative; the series owner had made a GREAT effort on most of the hides and indeed more effort in those than some people take for an entire series.
Having missed one cache, and stupidly forgetting to get clues from two others, we didn't have the coordinates for the final. I tried a few possible coordinate matches on the way back to the car but there were too many options for a realistic chance of finding the cache.
Once back at the car I decided to pop back to cache #1 again. I'd noticed that on my GPSr each cache location had a waypoint marker as well as a Geocache marker, and that there was a waypoint marker near a railway bridge. This tied in with what Patrick had said. We hurried back, searched, rang him again, search some more and then gave up.
Once back home I realised, as had Patrick by this time, that the original cache #1 HAD been near the bridge but it had been moved a couple of months after Patrick had found it and the series owner had updated the Geocache coordinates but not the waypoint.
So cache #1, somewhere near where we first looked, had still eluded us. I think I shall return to this series shortly and get clues from (hopefully) #1 and also #2 & #3 and then go for the final.
In total we did 5.5 miles, bagged 9 caches and had a lovely walk and chat around some great countryside.
A Months Motivation
I confess to being rather lax lately with regards to my blog. As I confessed a couple of blogs ago, Geocaching has become less important to me than the visiting of new places, sights, and the walking. Don't get me wrong, I still like to find and sign caches but I'm less motivated by difficult hides or time-consuming delays.
This means I've not stopped and here's the start of a round up of the last month.
16/05/11 - Catshaw Circular
Out for a Sunday stroll with Patrick, Donna and our 5 kids near Millhouse Green. This was a small series of 3 clue caches leading to a final and was a nice circular walk of 2.5 miles and just what was needed for a Sunday afternoon. After this we headed off towards Win Scar (I think, I'd never heard of it) but as we arrived the weather toured really nasty and we aborted much to the delight of the kids.
29/05/11 - Wentvale and Brockadale
Once again out with the usual gang minus Adam who was on holiday in Cornwall. I've got Jade to myself for a week. Patrick had selected a long series at Wentvale with an option on some other caches. Well he says it's an option but we all know he's going to do them anyway.
This walk turned out to be quite an epic given that we merged the two series together, and also picked up a random couple of puzzle caches on the way through the village. This meant a fair amount of repeated ground and backtracking; indeed we crossed one particular bridge 4 times. Dodgy weather to start with but the day ended in glorious sun. 8.2 miles overall and a surprising number of caches (25) and also many different types of finds including some very original, and funny, hides. Great series to be recommended.
This means I've not stopped and here's the start of a round up of the last month.
16/05/11 - Catshaw Circular
Out for a Sunday stroll with Patrick, Donna and our 5 kids near Millhouse Green. This was a small series of 3 clue caches leading to a final and was a nice circular walk of 2.5 miles and just what was needed for a Sunday afternoon. After this we headed off towards Win Scar (I think, I'd never heard of it) but as we arrived the weather toured really nasty and we aborted much to the delight of the kids.
29/05/11 - Wentvale and Brockadale
Once again out with the usual gang minus Adam who was on holiday in Cornwall. I've got Jade to myself for a week. Patrick had selected a long series at Wentvale with an option on some other caches. Well he says it's an option but we all know he's going to do them anyway.
This walk turned out to be quite an epic given that we merged the two series together, and also picked up a random couple of puzzle caches on the way through the village. This meant a fair amount of repeated ground and backtracking; indeed we crossed one particular bridge 4 times. Dodgy weather to start with but the day ended in glorious sun. 8.2 miles overall and a surprising number of caches (25) and also many different types of finds including some very original, and funny, hides. Great series to be recommended.
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