Kinder Scout - yet again!

At last I'm back.

The guilt caught up with me and I decided to ignore the kids' grumbles and go out for a proper walk; my first this year. Adam's had plenty of band practice and several gigs recently, making me feel like a taxi driver, that I put my foot down and planned a full day out. Then I get 8 hours notice for when and where he needs to be - so I put my foot down. Tough luck. The band can suffer and perhaps plan a little more in advance - it's my weekend as well as theirs.

On Thursday, before I knew all the above, I had planned another excursion around Kinder Scout as it is one of my favourite walking places; it's quite near (about an hours drive) and also has many different routes and views. As a bonus there's also some caches.

We set off at 8:30 Sunday morning (clocks forward, 7:30 in my head) and drove there in thick fog. It was quite scary in places and I'm no slouch when it comes to driving but there are people asking for trouble. We arrived safely at 9:30 and I parked at the bottom of Edale, below the railway station, and we set off up the road. It was still misty in places.

Up the road, round the back of the pub and head off up towards Ringing Roger. Blimey it was hard. The raincoat was off after 10 minutes, the long-sleeved shirt after another 10. Huffing and puffing up to the first cache "Anniversary View" (about half way up the hill) it was an easy find, a difficult sign (soggy book) and then back to the kids who'd waited about 50m away. Back to the cache for my walking pole. Back to the kids. I took a short break here while we all slapped some suncream on - the sun was burning through the remains of the mist and you could tell it was going to be a glorious day. Unlike my last visit to Kinder THIS time I was prepared.

Edale in the mist

Now dear Reader, hold your forefinger and thumb about 0.5 centimetres apart. Continuing up the hill I was this close to quitting. I know I've not been out this year and it always takes me a while to get going but this was terrible, I was exhausted. We struggled up to the top, I say we but I mean Jade and I as Adam was fine, and we bore off left at Ringing Roger around towards Upper Tor (this is all on Kinder Plateau.)

Thankfully all the altitude work was now done and as we found another cache I decided at 11:30 to stop for a cup of tea and a rest. Sitting in the glorious sun I realised how beautiful the misty views were over Grindsbrook River and Edale so we made the break into an early lunch and soaked up the distant thinning mist and the microscopic runners on the next brow. (There was some annual running event going on, which had started at 10:30, of which a passing hiker had kindly informed us.)

Half way along the top of Grindsbrook

We took our break at leisure, about 45 minutes, and then continued West along the edge of Kinder towards the top of Grindsbrook, passing the point where I ran out of water on my last visit on a baking hot day. Today was warm but perfect, not too hot.

Continuing along to the top of Crowden Brook I we veered off the trail towards another cache "Noe Head for Heights" which Jade found quickly whilst I was looking lower down the rocky outcrop. Continuing on towards the top of the River Noe I had to inform Adam he was going to be late. He wanted to be in Sheffield for 3:30 and we had an hours drive home, he wanted to shower and change and then be taken back into Sheffield. I told him 5pm but privately thought it would be earlier - give them (the band) the worse case scenario and they can deal with it rather than put them off again and maybe again.

At this point we started to face runners coming towards us, the best of the best as there were only a few. They looked better than I felt. I was ashamed.

Adam posing as always. Jade just looks naturally beautiful.

We got the furthest West point of our circular route (near Kinder Low) and started to head South towards another cache "Cracker of a View" where I left the kids on the trail and climbed up 15 metres to the rocks and fortunately quickly found the cache.

We then headed East along a good trail, now passing many runners (or were they passing us?), but fortunately we got out of their way by turning off the main trail to head down Jacob's Ladder. After the lovely walk along the tops this was where the tiredness in your legs started to kick in and it was hard work going down the rocky path. Even Adam was feeling the pain here.

We passed a cache here that I had to leave, it was about 15m below the path and I knew that by the time I'd descended, found it and reascended it would have been at least 15 minutes and I was very conscious of Adam's sound check. No worries - I'll be back one day, I'm sure of it.

We drifted South-East and then East alongside the River Noe (more of a trickle to be honest) and then over Crowden Brook at Upper Booth, all relatively easy going with a gentle stroll along and slightly down fields. After Upper Booth we had a quick detour off the Trans-Pennine-Trail to pick up our final cache "Korean Bed Lab" (no idea why it's named as it is, I never read it.) At this point my legs were like jelly and my right ankle was really hurting. I'd not twisted it but it felt as though I had and it was hard to bend it upwards so I was struggling on any inclines. Fortunately after about 50 metres we were back on the level and it was all flat and downhill the way home (albeit another 1.4 miles away.)

A quick stop at Edale campsite for a well deserved round of icecreams and then down the road to the car and home.

Adam was at his soundcheck for 4:30.

5 caches but most importantly a fabulous 10 miles (right on the nose) of exhilarating countryside in gorgeous weather.

My lack of fitness opened my eyes to the task I have ahead of me in June (the National Three Peaks) which will be 3 times this difficulty AT LEAST, and all within 24 hours. However I'm confident I can get back to last years levels and succeed. Especially with my sister there to kick me up the behind!

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.

Ghosties and Geocachers

Hannah's parents Julie and Martin (Geocaching name Fat Bloke) came down for the weekend to do a spot of local Geocaching and also to attend a Halloween Geocaching event with us.

After catching up on our geo-gossip we set off to Barnburgh, near Doncaster, about 11am on Saturday, arriving a little early for the Noon meet but not early enough to do any nearby series although we did pop off to do a single find just up the road.

There are quite a few series around this area almost all placed by Mr Truffles. He has a local Barnburgh 1-12 series, plus two small series (each with 4) placed specifically for last year's Halloween event and another series of 8 placed for this year's event. He also has two random single ones locally too.

It was really nice to meet so many Geocachers and to have a proper chat with Ea51ron and Mr Truffles, both of whom I have a lot of respect for. Ron has done several well planned series with nice hides and always manages to make really interesting walks. Mr Truffles has found over 9000 caches and has about 200 of his own hides; he almost single-handedly keeps Rotherham Geocachers busy. He kindly complemented me on my recent puzzle cache and container and pointed me towards two other infamous puzzles that I've since started work on solving.

I must thank Angellica for organising this event, the travel bug swap box and for scattering lots of horrid creatures around the tables, but I must also make a mental note to myself so that next time I do not do as many or even any caches and to invest the time in meeting and greeting and exchanging stories and tips with fellow Geocachers.

Anyway I had planned two routes to take in most of the local caches but by the time everyone had arrived and we'd met many familiar names (and put faces to them) and then eaten, time was pushing on so we decided to just do one of the circuits.

We set off with Patrick and family and planned to meet up with Yorkypudding & AgeingHippy later.

A few easy caches later we came across one of Mr Truffles epic hides. This was an off-set cache where the coordinates point to a location that has the coordinates to the actual cache. Nine of us spent 40 minutes hunting high and low for these coordinates all to no avail. It was one of those occasions where you've invested so much time it makes you less likely to quit but eventually we had to tear ourselves away and get on with the day.

We completed the part circuit and arrived back at the carpark far too late to meet YorkyPudding and AgeingHippy who I correctly presumed had gone on without us. We left Patrick at this stage and Hannah, myself and her parents decided to quickly do another nearby series of 4 before retiring for the day.

In total we did 5.4 miles and picked up another 11 caches - I ended the day (without realising at the time) on 399 finds.

UK GC Podcast

I've just been listening to the UK GC Podcast via iTunes (link on the right) and I got two mentions! Well one-and-a-half to be accurate.

I've emailed Collin (the host) several times in the last 6 weeks or so as he has the first UK based podcast about Geocaching and I was really impressed with him making the effort on our behalf.

However it transpires that his web-based contact form has been broken for ages and he only realised this week. I emailed him to ask how long it had been down and then based on his reply tried to remember everything I'd emailed him previously.

In this months show (episode #3) he gave me a simple shout-out (ie. a mention) and also gave out this blog's web address; I hadn't told him this so he must have done some research!

Then in his mention about the previous show's question-of-the-month, for which he'd misplaced all his email replies, he did say he had heard from someone, he couldn't remember who, who had said they were currently about 15 feet from their nearest Geocacher at work - but as it was also his girlfriend it was a little bit like cheating as he also lived with her. Well as you've guessed by reading this, that was also me. (I had mentioned that I also only live about 8 doors from Yorkypudding and Aginghippy but he must have forgotten that too.)

Anyway my other email gave him a possible question-of-the-month and he thinks he may use it next month.

Fame at last!

Chapter 7 in which Pooh discovers an amazing co-incidence

(I couldn't resist a Winnie the Pooh type start; I loved the books as a kid and I loved reading them to my kids when they were young enough.)

Anyway I couldn't believe my ears when, as I was packing the car ready to set off on holiday last week, a lady pulled up outside my house and introduced herself. I had spoken to this person before regarding an irrelevant (to this blog) local issue and knew she lived 8 houses away, but I didn't know who she was.

Well slap my thighs and call me Frank but it was Yorkypudding; a local Geocacher with a couple of thousand finds, dozens of hides and an equally keen Geocaching husband Ageinghippy. We'd conversed by email several times and knew we were in the same area but 8 houses! It sure is a small world.

It also has to be noted that she's the owner of several of the nastiest caches I've ever scratched, bumped and scraped my way to finding - damned woman :)

I'll add a P.S. here for myself in years to come... weight loss now up to 12lb. (Hey and that's even after having just been on an all-inclusive holiday!)

Day two

Day two of my blog and today I'll be starting the mundane log of reporting about my previous day's caching - and trying to come up with interesting stuff when all we did was walk. Fear not, I'm pretty sure I'll not write about everything; after all this is my diary and when I look back on it in years to come I'll probably not care that I walked down xxx lane to get to yyy woods.

Having said that, it's partially interesting that last night we walked down First Lane to get to Wickersley Woods, got the cache, and then walked down Second Lane to get another. It seems the inhabitants of Vicker's Ley back in 1600 didn't have much of an imagination with regard to road names.

In total we walked 3.1 miles to find 4 scattered around caches including a mystery one by the legendary Mr. Truffles for which I'd worked out the clue several weeks ago. The clue to his next mystery (written inside the lid) was solved quickly on-site, with the help of Google, so we'll probably get onto that one at the weekend.

It was also nice to find another one by Yorkypudding and her other half Ageinghippy. It was the next one in the multi-user series after the first one we planted; Rotherham Curse of the First To Find #9. We really must meet up with them as I believe they live only 1/2 a mile from us.