Fairbrook Naze 1,000

Sunday 23/10/2011

Well aware that I've been creeping towards the thousand-cache marker for a few months I had given a fair bit of thought about where to do it. The "epic gang" that I walk with occasionally, for their 10k and 12k+ caches, had even asked me if I'd got anything in mind back when we did Helvellyn in August.

As it was only 1,000 caches, and with the seasons and weather rolling along, I didn't fancy a long drive up to the Lakes so I looked around for a decent series more local and came up with Fairbrook Naze which starts near the Snake Inn on the A57 and heads up Kinder Scout. I chose this for a few reasons but I think the main one being that I've been caching up there 3 times previously and always enjoyed it. A smaller reason is that the GeoGeriatrics (who I only met once and confess I wouldn't recognise if I met them again) laid down two of the previous series I did up there so I have some respect for their walks and efforts in laying them down.

I now had a dilemma. Well maybe that's too strong a word but my first problem is my kids; they hate Geocaching and they hate walking - they don't appreciate the views, the exercise, the fresh air and the day out. So I've come to an arrangement with them where they have a 'lazy' Saturday and then on Sunday they walk with me. I have to do this as I work five days a week. Anyway this weekend I couldn't leave them with their mother, not that I ever want to do that, but I also didn't want to drag them up a mountain if it was throwing it down. So my problem was this: if I invite people, and they attend, I can hardly abandon the event when I get there and it's raining - I decided not to run the risk. I didn't invite anyone.

I ran my proposed walking route by Patrick, as I know he's done the series very recently, and it turned out that this series and the additional caches I'd planned were exactly as he'd done them - and what's more he'd like to join me to do them again.

So on a dull, yet dry Sunday Patrick picked us up in his van, with Dizzy the dog, and drove us to the A57 where we parked up and set off. I needed 13 to get my 1,000 and hadn't really given much thought to which one it would specifically be as long as it was a Fairbrook Naze one on the way back down.

It was hard work from the off as I'd not warmed up, but also because my rucksack was a whopping 17Kg in weight - yes I'd even weighed it because I had realised it was much heavier than normal, and no wonder...

* 2 litres of water
* 2 small bottles of pop
* 1 flask of tea
* 1 bottle of champagne (!!)
* 4 glasses
* sandwiches for 3
* flapjack, boost bars, crisps
* gloves, hats
* first aid kit

We started with three quick caches, nicely on level terrain, before starting a long gentle climb along the River Ashop towards a couple of points where we needed to gather clues for a mystery cache further up. One of these clue points was at the site of two plane crashes from 1953 where two fighters came down together - presumably after a mid-air collision? There's still debris scattered around and quite rightly a small tribute to the pilots.

All the caches were easy finds because Patrick has done them before and I was quite happy for him to show me where they were and thereby not spoil the flow of the walk. (Yes I'm more of a walker than a Geocacher.)

After about 3.5 miles, 90 minutes from the start, we stopped for a quick cup of tea before starting the hard ascent straight up Kinder with no path - this took us over 20 minutes to get up 130 metres and I was cursing the rucksack I can tell you. (Adam did helpfully keep offering to carry it but I'm determined as I've always seen it as an aid to fitness.)

We stopped and watched the jumbo jets fly overhead - they circle here on the way to Manchester and they looked amazingly close.

Walking along the edge of the plateau for about 1.5 miles, in the freezing wind, we got to the mystery cache and stopped for a lazy lunch sheltered from the wind before getting to our first (actually the last) of the Fairbrook Naze caches - this was number 11 as they're actually numbered ascending up the river for people starting at the bottom.

Adam tucking into his lunch

Patrick and Jade do the same

Laying down to (unsuccessfully) get out of the wind

Dizzy in glorious 3d

Another standalone cache before hitting the actual top of the stream and starting the descent proper. The caches were now numbered simply Fairbrook Naze 10 through 1 and all were simple finds with rather forgettable containers - having said that, these types of walks are more about the walk and the location rather than a fancy box.

My 1,000th cache was actually Fairbrook Naze #5 and we stopped for a couple of pictures and I cracked open the champagne - OK - overpriced sparkling wine. We relaxed over a couple of glasses each before continuing our descent all the way back to the small woods and back up to the car.

My 1,000th cache!
(and a glorious case of hat-hair!)

So that was that. We did about 8.3 miles and bagged 17 caches. Jade was quiet the entire time; in her own world of music. Adam alternated between music, chatting and complaining about the cold. Patrick just boosted ahead and made me suffer from carrying all the excess weight! Only kidding, it was great to have him there for the company, his help and to help me celebrate my 1,000th when I guess he's been there for a good few hundred of the previous ones on the journey here.

Final thanks must go to the GeoGeriatrics for their time and effort in placing the series.

Only 996 to go to the next major milestone!

October update

Here's a VERY quick update to my sadly neglected blog:

On Sunday 02/10/2011 the kids and I did a great series starting at Hoylandswaine, circling through Penistone, Oxspring and back to the start. "Calmac's Canter" came in at 8.3 miles and 21 caches in total including a few unrelated odds and ends. A nice walk in an area I'm only partly familiar with.

On Sunday 09/10/2011 the same three of us did a series called "PAT'S 2K" which was laid down recently by my good Geocaching friend Patdhill to celebrate his 2000th find. A terrifically windy day, this series around Old Ravenfield came in at 6.4 miles and 12 finds. It was doubly nice for me as Pat's series celebrates some of his favourite finds and one of the caches was named after one of my caches! Thanks Patrick.

On Sunday 16/10/2011 we three again headed off to Wadsley Common (near Hillsborough) to do a quick-ish series before meeting Dad for lunch. "Wuff's Wadsley Wander" was 2.9 miles and included 13 finds, 1 of which was a nightmare to locate. I had to phone-a-friend to Patrick for this and then again at the end simply to rush to the final as we were late for our appointment. Some innovative hides in this series, especially the last one.

I'm now 13 short of 1000 so I'm hoping to do something nice next weekend to celebrate it. I have a good idea what I'd like to do but it depends a little on the weather plus, as Patrick teasingly says, it's hard to get people to join me when I've done "so few" and everyone else has done them all!


More news next week...

Elemental my dear Odysseus

Tuesday 19/07/2011

(For a small change today I'm going to put times into my blog so I can reflect back on the evening more accurately.)

Working with computers. Playing with computers. Working with computers. Playing with computers. Working with computers. Playing with computers. Working with computers. Playing with computers.

It's taken me longer to spot that pattern than it has you dear Reader.

Feeling stressed from work I decided to get out and do an evening cache. I'd solved another of Patrick's excellent puzzles the day before called 'Elemental'. This turned out to be in the approximate vicinity of two caches at Roche Abbey, a place I visited last year to do a series. The two new 'Tales of brave Odysseus' caches fit neatly alongside the original 'Roche Abbey' series.

17:45
I got home from work, got changed and set off straight out with a plan to drive-by Patrick's puzzle and to then park at the abbey and get the two others. No such luck. After tootling down a tiny B-road for a while I got to the cache to find a farmer parked next to it surveying his land and animals; he looked like he was there for a while so I decided to skip it and go straight to Roche Abbey.

Driving a mile or so up the scariest B-Road I've ever seen (not one single passing spot) I got to the Abbey and parked on the main road, donned my rucksack and set off into the wild blue evening.

18:18
Taking a different route to the one I took last year, which I think was a big error back then, I walked around the abbey and towards a tumultuous noise.

Approaching the abbey

The other side of the abbey

...and again

I hadn't realised at the time (but have confirmed since) that it had been raining heavily most of the afternoon and this was the cause of the noise:

Despite its size this is possibly the noisiest waterfall I've ever heard

18:34
Crossing the stepping stones at the top (one of which was submerged) I headed off towards the first cache and carefully slid down a slope to what was quite a scary spot. The river at this point was a couple of feet deep, very turbulent, and the bank was of course slippy mud. With no path I took great care and got down to the presumed spot and my heart sank - the obvious location for the cache looked like it involved stepping into 20" of water. (Having not been here before I presumed the water was not normally this deep here).

I did a quick search around and then decided to back up, cross over the bridge/path and come down the other side. An easier route here and after a few more minutes looking I was despondent - I couldn't even phone-a-friend as I had no signal. There were fewer possible locations here so I crossed back over and around and after carefully sliding down the bank again I got out my torch and started examining all the nooks and crannies on the off chance that the cache wasn't where I'd first expected it to be.

Hurrah! Found the sneak hiding away and joyously signed the dry log book before scrambling back up the bank, pausing only to take another snap for the diary.

I can't swim but given the reasonably shallow depth I was more afraid for my iPhone!

18:49
Gathering my bearings I then headed off deep into the woods towards #2. A beautiful walk through a damp woods with a long gentle incline until you come out at some farmers crops.

18:59
Along the field edge, past a couple of old caches, and arriving at the cache site - a bench overlooking a valley.

View from the bench

Reverse view from almost the same spot
(Note dynamic 'I'm trying to be a photographer' angle)

19:15
So now what should I do? I'm about one and a half miles from the car with no caches to do except Patrick's and I'm in no rush to get home. A plan... Rather than walk to the car and drive to the cache why not do the opposite? It's a cirular route (a wonky triangle if you want to be more accurate) and the extra distance will do me good.

So for the first time in my Geocaching life I cut across a farmer's field that didn't have a public footpath. Feeling a little guilty I only let myself do this as there were two distinct tracks directly across the field where the tractor tyres had prevented seeds from being sown and I'm pleased to be able to truthfully say I didn't damage a single ear of barley/wheat/whatever.

The rest of the walk was pretty uneventful. I kept up a good pace along the road and arrived at Patrick's puzzle at 19:46, signed the log and quickly moved on. I followed a track across a field and around some woods before joining another track and then coming out onto the road at 20:10 which leads back to the Abbey, finally arriving back at the car at 20:20.

The back of the abbey again, this time taken from the road

Total distance covered tonight was 5.3 miles in two hours with about 35 minutes stop time (caching, writing and taking pictures.) Not bad going and do you know I felt great.

The Puzzle of Long Thwaite Wood

Sunday 17/07/2011 - waking up at 8:15 I lazed in bed and checked my emails. Noticing a new cache had been published nearby I loaded up the page to read the details; it was a puzzle cache created by my good friend Patrick. It claimed it wasn't too difficult and included a checker page so I thought I'd have a look.

Scratching my head and looking through bleary eyes I studied it for a couple of minutes before inspiration struck; I checked the coords I'd come up with. Nope. Wrong.

Another idea. Check. Wrong.

Paging back and forth between Internet pages on the iPhone, and not having a pen and paper to hand, I was relying on memory as I solved from one page and re-entered the coordinates on the checker page. I noticed I'd mistyped (or mis-remembered) a number so re-tried - success!

Why not I thought? Sunday morning, may as well make an effort and leave the kids playing on their computers for an hour. Up, dressed, teeth, hair, pint of water, boots, GPS, pen, goodbye and out.

Patrick has set this up as not only a puzzle but also a feeder cache; the solved coordinates take you to a mini-cache in which you find the coordinates for the actual cache hopefully somewhere nearby.

I parked as recommended and was looking for the feeder cache by 9:05.

By 9:25 I was utterly frustrated!

The clue indicated the cache was in the middle of an ivy tree. I knew exactly what type and colour container I was looking for (a green waterproof match holder, sort of like a plastic test tube but fatter) and I knew it would be tricky but I couldn't believe I couldn't find it. No exaggeration - my hands and fingertips were cut, stabbed and spotted with blood. My lower right arm was pretty much the same and I'd also stabbed the top of my head. Damned hobby!

I knew there was a small chance of being the first-to-find and had it not been for this then I would have rung Patrick for another clue but as it was I didn't want to 'cheat' for the possible FTF.

I was just at the point of giving up when bingo! got the little bugger - I'd been in the right place all along but it was just eluding me.

I entered the new coordinates into the GPS, dropped my jacket in the car and set off walking to the main cache about half a mile away. A lovely Sunday morning stroll through a field or two and into some woods where the cache was quickly located and I had the joy of seeing an empty log book - I'd got the FTF and also the bonus of a free travelbug that Patrick had kindly left there as a prize.

A gentle stroll back to the car, a text and a chat with Patrick to thank him for the puzzle and the prize, and then back home for 10:15 - still an early day!

[1.4 miles and just the one cache with the bonus of FTF]

Addendum: Patrick never wanted the feeder to be so tough so has actually been back and covered it in white tape to make it easier to find!

Silverwood Pit Top

This last weekend, thanks to some wedding or other, we had another 4-day weekend. I spent Friday doing housework in the morning and then socialising in the afternoon and evening. I had Saturday set aside for food shopping and then to lazily settle down and watch the semi-finals of the Snooker World Championship (which is held 5 miles down the road.)

Struggling to balance my weekend time with the children and their hatred of Geocaching, I decided to take them out early on Sunday for a quick walk aiming to get back in time to watch the first session of the snooker final and also giving the kids the afternoon free to do as they pleased.

I settled on the idea of doing Patdhill's nearby Silverwood Pit Top series. (You may recall Patrick as my good friend and a regular member of our Team PADS Geocaching group.) This series was published a while ago but I had deliberately put off doing it so that I would have a nice walk to do one evening after work.

I've since realised that I'm actually busy 6 nights a week so I scrapped that plan and stole the series as a perfect quick-fix for a Sunday morning.

We parked up near Wickersley and spent a steady 90 minutes doing the 3.5 mile circuit. It really is a lovely walk across regenerated land passing by woods, fledgling plantations and views down to a (presumably new) lake.

This was one of my ideal walks...

I've realised as time has passed that I'm not keen on the actual Geocaching side of Geocaching (yes I know that sounds odd) but I do like that it takes me to new places and presents me with walks I would never have found otherwise. The caches here were all easy to find so there were no frustrating delays and we could pretty much just enjoy the steady walk in the countryside listening to the birdsong, taking some pictures and chatting to the kids.

The kids seemed happy enough with this arrangement although I do think the anticipation of a nice slow-cooked stew waiting at home was the only thing on Adam's mind.

Many thanks to Patrick & Donna for the series.

[3.5 miles, 7 caches.]

Lincoln let-down

On Friday Patrick, Donna and I had all arranged to do a long walk near Lincoln which tracked due West along a long-disused railway line.

I set off at 8:15 (getting up earlier than on a work day!) and did the 45 minute drive down to the end of the walk near Newark. Donna, Patrick and Dizzy the dog then arrived in the van, parked up and got into my car and I drove to the start of the walk, about a further 30 minutes away.

It was a very cold day, somewhat surprising after the day before, but fortunately I had packed my gloves and hat just in case.

The cache owner here had placed four consecutive series in a straight line, with each series having a bonus cache calculated from numbers placed in the preceding caches.

We set off in good spirits and found the first few with no problems but then the proverbial started to hit the fan.

Number 5 was obviously a tough one as proven by the ~55 did-not-finds (DNFs) against ~70 finds. The hint was near useless so eventually we resorted to phoning-a-friend who told us exactly where it was. Except it wasn't. I'm not sure if it's been stolen (highly unlikely given where it's meant to be hidden) or if it was pushed too far in or frozen into the surroundings but we simply couldn't find it.

Frustrated we headed to the next.

Number 6 couldn't be found anywhere and to add to our frustrations the given hint was meaningless; I guess it might mean something to locals but to us it meant nothing. There was also a previous DNF logged.

Frustrated we headed to the next.

Number 7 couldn't be found anywhere and even with the hint there was no sign of it. We think this one has beeen muggled as there was also a previous DNF logged.

Frustrated we headed to the next.

Number 8 couldn't be found anywhere and even with a (finally!!!) useful hint there was no sign of it. There was also a previous DNF and again we think this has been muggled.

By now plain annoyed, we headed to the next cursing the cache owner for not maintaining his series (ie. checking caches after DNFs), for having mostly useless hints and we were all beginning to think that we'd wasted a day's holiday.

THANKFULLY number 9 was found and indeed for the rest of the day we found every cache (except for one and the bonus for each series) and slowly, as we progressed, our frustrations eased although we were still disappointed that each bonus cache was behind us. I guess the series owner wanted people to walk (maybe cycle?) 9 miles west, picking up ~30 caches, and then walk 9 miles back east to pick up 4 bonuses - rather a strange plan given that it's possibly the most boring walk I've ever done - nine miles on a perfectly flat track, on perfectly flat landscape, with nothing to view except empty fields.

Needless to say I won't be returning to pick up the 5 DNFs and the 4 bonus caches.

However the day wasn't a complete washout because of the company - we did a walk that would likely drive a solo walker to suicide but the three of us entertained ourselves and the walk, after cache 8, passed by quite quickly.

In the end we logged 30 finds (no idea how, I thought we'd done about 16!) and almost 9 miles walking. It was also a great real-world test of my new GPS and I'm getting the hang of it now.

Last but not least we then had to reverse the vehicle procedure of the morning and despite it being Friday afternoon the traffic was great and I was home quickly.

500 and one thousand

27/12/2010

A hungover day after Boxing Day, and Patrick rang me wanting to get out and about as he was pushing for his 1000th cache before the year was up; he'd started caching on New Year's Day and as he was almost at 1000 it seemed like a good way to round the year off. We know it's not all about the numbers - but it did seem like a neat coincidence.

Just he and I went up to Dodworth once again, this time to visit a couple of series there by 'terencem' called Waggonway Trail and Dodworth Muck Stack.

We parked up and set off in the bitter cold at 11am and commenced a 4.4 mile walk along and around the Waggonway Trail - based along the route of the railway line which served Dodworth Coal Mine in years gone by. It was a lovely, well planned out walk and we had a good chat as we also wandered around and over the nearby golf course. We detoured a little to pick up two extras and Patrick didn't break tradition and managed to take us on a small wild goose chase. All good fun and 8 more caches and one DNF.

By the time we ended up back at Patrick's car (at 13:10) we noticed all the hedgerow's now wet and no longer frozen - the thaw was setting in.

After lunch (a sandwich and flask of tea in the car) we drove a short while and started the nearby Dodworth Muck Stack series which is through a regenerated woodland presumably on the waste created by the old mine. If it was originally wasteland it is very mature and makes a good woodland walk, which was made all the better by some ingenious hides.

The first, a microcache, caused us a nightmare and eventually we had to give up. However on the way around we PAF to Easiron (thanks Ron yet again!) and he told us where the micro-cache had fallen so we picked it up on the way back to the car.

On this smaller 2 mile walk we found 12 caches and also, on the way around, we detoured a little to pick up an extra one which turned out to be my 500th cache! Hurrah for me!

Finally, with Patrick desperate to close in on his 1000th, we popped over the motorway to Locke Park where he knew there was a (very probably) missing one and two more to find. We scanned quickly for the missing one and then easily bagged the other two.

Total count for a busy and great day out with a good friend was 20 caches, two DNFs and 7.4 miles walked. Marvellous.

(Incidentally, both the DNFs were maintained and replaced by Terencem the very next day - I'm very impressed - a big thanks to him for being so prompt.)

Reindeer Ramble

17/12/10 - After the stress of work the last few weeks I insisted on a day off to finish my Christmas shopping. I took this opportunity to get in and out of Meadowhell as fast as possible and to then do some solo caching in the peace and quiet of open countryside.

I had chosen to do the Reindeer Roundabout Ramble series near Overton, a village 20 mins up the motorway. This is a short walk of around 4 miles starting and ending at the Reindeer Pub near the National Coal Mining Museum.

I arrived at midday and quickly set off south down the road looking for the path off to the left heading east. It was bitingly cold, extremely frosty, with all the puddles frozen solid but I thought I'd be OK. After all I had a flask of tea!

I was stressed from work and I was stressed from Christmas shopping so I was hoping to 'come down' as I walked around.

I was at the first cache within 10 minutes and then the problems began. I simply couldn't find this cache and the hint was being no help. I phoned-a-friend (PAF) to no avail. I'd forgotten my hat, my batteries ran out and I had to keep taking off my gloves to use my iPhone for calling and also searching previous logs for information that might help. It was BITTERLY cold and the driving wind was of course making things much worse.

So it was starting to look pretty grim but THANKFULLY I found the little bugger. It was a test-tube style container hidden in the crack of a tree which was perfectly covered up by a blob of ice.

Change of batteries. Still stressed. Deep breath. Try to chill out (mentally not physically, that was already happening) and onwards.

The next two caches were thankfully really easy although again I was really exposed to the wind. The fourth was tricky as it was hidden under a stone I couldn't even see - it was frozen into the ground under the grass but luckily I tripped on it after about 15 minutes of looking.

An easy one and then one I was convinced had been Muggled. I PAF Patrick again and he tried to recall the cache but nothing rang any real bells. Fortunately I'd been misled by a pile of stones and somehow, I never figured out how, I found the cache stuck in a little hole half the size of the cache and covered with a clump of dead grass. I couldn't replace it similarly so had to resort to putting it under the stones 6" away. Freezing cold I stopped for a cuppa.

The walk now moved away from fields onto a tree lined track which afforded me some protection from the elements and as a bonus the sun was also peeking out - although it was guaranteed nothing was going to melt today except my stress which was starting to fade.

The next cache was at the side of the track, down a ledge and under a tree. I'd not seen one single solitary soul in the two hours since I'd started and as I stepped up onto the track it must have looked as though I was trying to abduct this poor female horserider. The horse reared up only marginally higher than I did as my feet got even colder temporarily leaving my boots. I apologised but I think she'd lost her voice, or her bowels.

We trotted off in separate directions both no doubt adrenalised by the experience and two minutes later I bumped into, it transpired, her friend leading a pony. She asked me if I'd lost my dog as one had been running wild nipping at her pony. We got chatting about the area, Christmas, the weather and her friend with the newly found heart murmur further up the track.

The next cache was a tricky one, frozen and camouflaged as it was into the mud, and it wasn't until logging it later that evening that I noticed the two previous loggers had logged a DNF (did-not-find) - it's a good job I'd not noticed these or I'd likely have given up searching.

The 'pony girl' returned and we chatted for another 10 minutes before our paths separated.

Now into woods and on the way back there's little of interest to note as I found the next three. I then couldn't find the last of the series certain it had been Muggled and finally I had to PAF Patrick again as like a wally I'd forgotten the clues from the first three caches of the day to get the final mystery cache.

A mile back to the final (thanks for the coords Patrick) and then another quarter mile back to the car - too late to get a sneaky pub lunch.

Total for the day was 3.8 miles walked, 14 finds, 1 DNF, frostbite and a tiny heart attack.

(Thanks must go to MikeG for the series and the two randoms I picked up en-route.)

Christmas Corroboree VIII

I'm not sure why the organisers have used an aboriginal word (for ceremonial meeting) but on Saturday afternoon we attended, for the first time as we've only cached for 6 months, the annual Christmas Corroboree VIII in Elsecar. This year it was run by MikeG and involved a HUGE puzzle cache hidden up in the woods full of presents and sweets for the children, a raffle for charity, pie and peas and of course lots of chatting to friends old and new.

Having some time constraints I decided we wouldn't do any caching on the day except for the related puzzle cache "A Gift from St. Nicholas" which now takes the credit as being our largest find to date, it being about 36" long, 18" wide and 24" deep. A hearty and merry thanks must go to MikeG for the effort (and cost!) in arranging and positioning such a festive treat for everyone.

I had a lovely chat with Mr Truffles about my planned walk along the Yorkshire Dalesway next year, met up with The Black Sheep (Rob and Jen and their super-energetic 20 month old son), chatted to MikeG and Penfolio, and teased Bleaklow about him not being able to find Not a Bit Sticky - with an invite around for a cup of tea next time he looks for it.

Patrick and family were all there and also YorkyPudding and AgingHippy, many more I don't know and no doubt a few I do know but I've forgotten to mention... sorry!

We bought a fiver's worth of tickets and ended up winning the donation YorkyPudding brought (a string/wood puzzle) and in return she won the ready-to-place cache container I'd donated. Such a small world, she only lives a few doors away so we could have just popped around, done a swap and saved ourselves a few quid :) [I know that's not in the spirit of a raffle, I was joking!]

Big thanks again to MikeG - well done Sir.

Great Scots

(I make no apologies for the blog spam today - this is my diary!)

We had a day off work on Monday to unpack, wash and generally relax from the excesses of Ireland before returning to work on Tuesday. However by 5pm I was fed up of being in a stuffy house so, encouraged by an email from Patrick, we spoke and arranged a quick night caching trip out to pick up a new series near North Anston - Great Scots.

Each cache in the series was related to a Great Scot, for example Sean Connery and William Wallace, and we thought it an amazing coincidence that as we sat in the car waiting for Patrick that Radio Two were interviewing an author who had just published a book on Robert The Bruce - or cache #5 as we'd later call him!!

Patrick arrived at 6:15pm, in the bitterly cold darkness, and we set off on a 3 mile stroll through woodland and open fields. This is a pretty simple, yet very good series on flat terrain, which was made more difficult by the cold and the dark. (I've found a fault with my super-high-powered police-issue torch - it's metal and it's flipping freezing!!)

Time for the gloves to come out methinks.

It was great to catch up with Patrick and tell him all the Irish gossip and to see what he'd been up to without us this weekend. A very good geocaching friend indeed.

We got home about 8:10pm having logged 3.1 miles and 6 more caches, cold and fresh I knew I'd sleep well later that night.

Rewengy

Stuck for cache inspiration Hannah came up with the idea, on our way home from work last night, to do one we'd aborted way back in July (pre-Blog days). This had recently come back up on our radar as the cache owner had just put another cache on the same path - two for the price of one.

Back in July we'd missed a subtle turn in a path and had ended up the wrong side of a river in complete darkness - it was about 10pm. We'd already found two so we aborted that cache and headed home with the thought of returning, and of course we never got around to it. Until now.

This time we, of course, took the turn and headed along the woodland path to an easy find and then continued further along to the new cache - a nano hidden on a metal fence, the fence identical in design to where my "Queen 1" cache is hidden.

Well what a nightmare! We were quickly on location and Hannah actually started in (it turns out) exactly the right spot but we simply couldn't find it. I even spent 20 minutes behind the fence (having simply walked around the end of it 20 feet away) inside 'private property' (and goodness knows why it's private, it's a lump of nothing in the middle of nothing on the outskirts of nowhere.)

We eventually reluctantly phoned-a-friend and Patrick (one of only two previous finders here) directed us back to the correct location but we still couldn't see it. However two minutes scratching around later I found it in the mud underneath. We signed the micro-log and replaced it in the same spot but moved it slightly under the lip of the fence cross-bar to shelter and protect it from the wind and rain and to hopefully help it stay stuck on. Bloody nanos.

It was dark by the time we returned to the car but I still fancied picking up one of Patrick's puzzle caches (Carr Car) that I'd solved a month previously. It was only a mile away as the crow flies, but turned out to be a 3 mile drive. Despite the pitch black the coords were good and Hannah had her hands on it in mere moments.

Three more finds but only just over a mile walking.

Only fools and horses

We rushed from work last night to a new local cache that had been published two hours earlier. I knew the odds were against us as my friend Patrick was out and about and I had a sneaking suspicion he'd be onto this one.

The cache was a simple find and it looked good for an FTF until I opened the crisp new log sheet and saw his name at the top. He emailed me later mocking me, saying "Hi STF" (presumably "second-to-find") and then saying his wife had found one earlier he couldn't find and he hated being a runner-up, something I presumably was used to by now.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold so I'll bide my time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As promised last week (here) I returned to pick up the actual Wath Wood Wanders cache last night.

Despite abandoning my son at his guitar lesson ASAP, parking the car nearer to my destination and also running 200m to the cache it was still dark by the time I arrived. And I'd forgotten my torch. Again.

Fortunately the cache was a doddle to find.

As I leant on a nearby fence, to sign the log, I got the fright of my life as a horse nudged me. It had followed me up it's field as I'd walked up the woods. I petted it and within a couple of minutes there were 4 of them.

I showed them the swaps in the cache but they weren't interested.

Funny things horses.

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.