Not-So Wet Weekend

After picking up another couple of loose-ends on Tuesday we didn't have the time or the weather to get out again until Saturday. We met up again as Team PADS (minus Adam and Jade who were in London for the day) to complete the KB series near Doncaster which we'd started the weekend before and which Patrick had expanded a little with four more caches in a nice additional loop to the south.

After the torrential rain of Friday we were a little apprehensive, and packed accordingly, but the day turned out to be a total joy.

We arrived at 11am to find Patrick and Donna mopping up the remains of the third 'final' cache which had been Muggled and scattered around the parking area.

(This series has a final cache which you calculate the coordinates for on the route around. This final cache has coordinates inside for a bonus cache which itself has coordinates inside for an extra bonus - it was this one that had been damaged.)

We did almost 6 miles walking over three hours in lovely autumn sun and picked up 14 caches. The ground was extremely wet in places and involved some walking around or paddling but it was all good fun.

At one stage we passed (what I thought was) an amazing wooden bridge structure that appeared to be carrying a gas pipe across a ravine. We walked under it and I've never seen something so old-fashioned, large and bizarre. It was very Hollywood-esque if you imagine the old westerns or suspense movies where a steam train crosses a rickety bridge.






En-route we replaced one of the missing caches which had been alerted to us by the series owner. Patrick took the tub, pen and pad and we took some goodies to drop in it. We had a little fun watching the kids searching for it for 5 minutes before Patrick 'found' it in his rucksack. Needless to say the children didn't share our sense of humour.

On the way home we stopped off for a drive-by that Patrick had seen en-route. This was at a lifting bridge in Barnby Dun and was a magnetic nano attached to the fencing on the bridge. We had just arrived when three barges and boats queued up so we had the bonus of watching the bridge in action. (I doubt it's much of a bonus for the 100 cars that were sat waiting within 5 minutes!)


Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the bridge raised, or being passed under, as I was videoing it.

We'd all given up on this cache and were just turning around to leave when Hannah found it. She was very pleased with herself and for good reason, it had been a tricky one and rather than ending the day in frustration it turned out to be a good final find of the day.

Return - and revenge

It's been a busy week with little time for Geocaching since our Bank Holiday but we have managed two quick runs...

On Tuesday, when we were supposedly having a night off, we had just finished watching a film when an email arrived at 20:55 reporting a new cache only 4 miles away. Well of course we couldn't resist and dashed off in the car, arriving and signing the log by 21:15! FTF of course, but more satisfyingly also our quickest to date. On the way home we detoured several miles and picked up a drive-by down at J31 of the M1. A nice easy 2 in the pitch black.

Tonight we planned a quick walk back to Rother Valley - firstly to get revenge on the one that eluded us on Monday and secondly to pick up another very close to it that was frustratingly published on Monday while we were already out.

The bridge was a doddle - it was a bit annoying we didn't get it before, but at least it's now done.

Two caches and two small miles.

Frogs, Friends and Frustration

The Bank Holiday weekend just gone has been a hectic few days of Geocaching.

We started with a lazy day on Saturday and just picked one up as a drive-by while we were passing; it was competely unplanned and we actually forgot to log it for two days.

However on Sunday we went on a trip arranged by our new Geocaching friends "patdhill" and family. (Patrick and I have emailed each other a few times and we went around to meet them last Tuesday). This was a 10 mile hike around the top of Froggatt Edge for our two families, and included some serious rock-climbing to get to 3 caches rated 5 difficulty and 5 terrain.

The day started off pretty grimly with driving winds making the drizzle pretty awful but within an hour it was easing off and by lunchtime the sun was shining brightly. The wind never let up in the exposed places but it was a very pleasant day.

Owing to the complexity of some of the finds (12 overall) the 10 miles took us 7 hours but we had a great day (well most of us did, I think the kids are sick of hiking) and we cemented a friendship we hope will last a long time. Incidentally for the logs we came up with an on-the-spot group name of Team PADS for Patrick, Aggrajag, Donna and Spandannah which is of course much easier than writing 4 (or 9 with kids) names.

On Monday rather than rest our aching legs (and arms!) Spandannah and I decided to go to Rother Valley and pick-up the new series dropped there only 2 days earlier. Patdhill had, coincidentally, picked up First-To-Find on all these on the Saturday so we were, in a manner of speaking, following his trail again. As it was Bank Holiday Monday, and we didn't set off until about 1pm, we were already about 8th on the logs with 3 other Geocachers finding them before us on the same day - it seems like a very popular trail and it's not even 4 days old!

It was a pleasant 6 mile walk with no 'bush whacking' or 'jungle thrashing' but we did manage to get lost once when we added in another cache that wasn't from the same series and deviated from the desired route.

The series of 17 had 16 normal caches, some with clues in their lids, and a final puzzle cache you found from the lid clues. Out of the 17 there was one we simply could not find despite spending a good half an hour looking. Blasted bridge, it's frustrated us both and we'll have to go back another day and try again.

Typically the one we couldn't find included the last clue we needed for #17 but fortunately with one of the coordinates complete we used logic, the hint, skill and a dash of luck to successfully find #17 - and very proud we were too. Overall this was another 17 finds.

Tonight we need a night off - my back, my legs, my arms and even my aches are aching.