Saturday, 7 July 2012

Searching for micro's in Hopwas

Well this weekend myself and geoson were due to go to the Geocaching Camping event EmCamp with Jules and her geodaughter, but due to lots of rain Jules pulled out and straightaway I did too as my geoson Ben had a cold and he didn't want to go due to all the rain.

So today Jules and I decided to have an easy day and headed over Tamworth way.

Round & about Hopwas by martin and carol

http://coord.info/GC3AGFA

We parked up on the Tame Otter pub car park in fine sunshine, that definately wasn't forecast haha.
This series of 13 caches takes you on a 2.5 mile circular walk around part of the village of Hopwas and the surrounding countryside.
The walk was mostly easy going with some canal, country lane and footpath walking. Some of the footpath was a bit misleading and very overgrown in one section but it didn't really interfere with the walk.


There were some really nice hides with 2 of them being very good. We did have a shower of rain where we had to shelter for ten minutes due to leaving our waterproofs in the car.
Overall it was a nice short walk with some well thought out hides.

Once we were back at the pub we decided to go and get some lunch from a chippy and then returned nearby to take in a few more caches.

I had a couple of puzzle caches solved which were nearby so we picked those up incorporating them into a walk we were doing around Hopwas Woods.

Hopwas Micro by stevo_the_saddler

http://coord.info/GC24P77

A small series of 5 micro's in Hopwas woods. The woods are also used as a Military training area but thankfully we didn't get shot today.



There was also another three caches in the woods that can be picked up at the same time, however we totally missed 2 caches and 1 was disabled.
The walk was a very nice one as most woods are, Jules larked about on the rope swing and I had a go too as these things sometimes have to be done.


Monkey Jules!

We were surprised how much time we used up walking through the woods but we did keep missing the main paths making the walk much longer.




A military den haha, we had a quick look inside but there was lots of rubbish. After spotting this we shortly afterwards arrived back at the car.
Another caching day had come to a close.



A total of 21 smilies were claimed today



Saturday, 30 June 2012

A Day full of Epic caches.

Well in the winter of 2010/2011 Mr & Mrs. Basketcase spent many hours trying to solve 2 certain puzzles. After lots of trial and error, research and nudges we eventually solved them and had planned to go look for them with friends who we worked with at the time. We were going to go in Feb 2011 but had to call it off at last minute due to horrendous weather forecast.

Over the summer we even pitched up next to the evil C/O of the caches at the brilliant Piratemania event. We gave him a lot of stick for putting us through many frustrating hours but said we would get to them as soon as poss. Well unfortunately many things happened after Piratemania that it didn't even get thought of again until this year.

I have being doing lots of fantastic caches this year with my caching partner Jules of the Bedfords and a few months ago I told her about these infamous puzzles and the fact that I wanted to go do them and Mrs. BCC wasn't too fussed. Jules was up for it but wouldn't go without solving the said puzzles herself. She did well and seemed to solve them a lot quicker than we did.
Anyway a month or so ago it was decided that this Saturday was the day that we should go get these 2 epic puzzle caches.....The 5/5 Werewolf and the 4/4 Whitespace... but that we would hand pick a few others to do.....

At 4.30am alarm wakes me up and at 6am I pick Jules up and we are on our way up north.

Tunnel-Tastic by Chillie Slim Kid & GONE-2-FAR

http://coord.info/GCRRB0

We had decided to start off with this one which had been recommended to us as we quite like having a look in tunnels. We parked up by the school nearby and it was a quick walk to entrance, then it was a simple task of following the disused railway track for a short distance to GZ with torches of course.
We did enjoy the cache and was glad we stopped off to do it as it was on the route.

Jules following the track

My pose with cache that Jules found!

It was good to get one in the bag, next stop a tree!



Forest Walk 5 by Mulkky

http://coord.info/GC35MT0

This cache was part of a series but we only wanted to grab this one as it was a D1/T5 which we both needed to help fill in our D/T grids. We parked nearby and enjoyed a short walk to GZ. Jules soon identified the tree and I spotted cache. I went up tree first but chose the silly/scared way up, I got the cache but struggled to get log out. Jules then climbed up a different way with myself still up tree, she managed to get log out and passed it to me to sign...Great team work eh?

Another grid square coloured in. :)

Next we had a short drive to grab another cache in the Little Quest series, this time it was LQ:Gtr Manchester - King of Swing. It was not in the most scenic of places but we want to try and finish the series one day. It was now time to jump on the M62 and head east a bit so we could go and seek those puzzle caches we crave.





Werewolf by muttoneer

http://coord.info/GC1NH60

We found some good parking so that we could grab 3 caches on a little loop with one of those caches being Werewolf. We took the Pennine way at first and was really enjoying some sunshine for a change as the weather has been so naff lately. We past a fair few walkers and I took a photo of a couple of them at the trig point. The terrain so far was easy and absolutely no problems at all and we made a quick easy find of White Hill which was near to the trig.

It was sunny honest haha

We had to leave Penine Way now and well the terrain all of a sudden became much harder with muddy peat, reeds around hidden streams which Jules enjoyed seeing myself take a couple of big squelchies to way above my boots and grassy tussocks haha. We loved it, it really was fun and not as difficult as we thought but hey we were having decent weather.
We had to pass Way Stone on the way as there were some dog walking muggles sitting there but we did that on return and that was also a great cache with brilliant views. The Waystone could be spotted from where we had set off it was that big.

Way Stone

We were a matter of feet away from Werewolf and could see that it was a long way down, but we needed to go down a few feet to get to GZ, we had to be careful here as its not the place to fall. The views round here were fantastic and we could see for miles, even mighty motorways looked so small.
Within a minute of being down and searching Jules moved a rock and we heard the metal clank of an Ammo can....OMG YES we have at long last slayed that tormentor, Werewolves are not a myth as we have tracked the menace down....This cache definately lives up to all the hype and my fave point awarded was its 100th, you don't get 100 fave points on a none series cache for nothing.

Yep we found the menace!

A long way down

We loved GZ , it was a very peaceful place and a shelter from the wind just a few feet above us. I reckon we probably spent 20 minutes or so just taking everything in. The views, the cache, the logbook......this cache was everything from start to finish.

Jules with the beast.

Gotcha!!!

On the way back down to the car we took the direct route but to be honest we wished we hadn't as it was even harder walking of dodging boggy marshes, infact I don't think it was any quicker.
We arrived back to the car in time for a quick coffee and then off we set again......




 Whitespace by muttoneer

http://coord.info/GC1AF96

With Werewolf done it was now time for Whitespace, we knew that there was a good chance of a shower so we set off almost straight away. We got to Acrophobic's solace which was just on the side of the big, high footbridge that crosses over the M62, the cache was a quick find and over the bridge we went.

There maybe trouble ahead (Black clouds)

A bit more along the Pennine Way

After a short easy stroll along Penine Way we took in this cache Windy Hill and admire the views, it certainly was windy here haha.

Windy Hill cache nicely hidden

It was now time to leave the path and off route, this is where the terrain started to get harder and was similar than the descent of Werewolf but steeper and more difficult in places.

The last pic before the storm. FMF or mwahhpets could hide a cache down here!

Next cache along the way was Frosties First and the moment I put my hands on it we felt a couple of spots of rain, by the time I had signed log and replaced cache I was soaking. Why oh why didn't I put waterproofs on first before signing the logbook. We were now in the middle of a fierce hailstorm.

We quickly moved on and tackled a bit of rock walking which was pretty tricky but due to the torrential downpour we made our way across it quickly with our heads down to reach the next cache Mad Hatter's Home and by this point we had thunder. Jules was becoming a little nervous at the thought of lightning and I tried to reassure her.
She really is a trooper because this for me was also a huge challenge, we are not used to these conditions but we kept going, unfortunately photos were becoming sparse as there was nothing to take pics of as we couldn't see anything.

We took in some more rocks and walked down some a while before we eventually arrived at GZ for Whitespace where Jules immediately found the lovely sized ammo can. It was a shame we could not appreciate the location as much as Werewolf but it really was lashing it down.

YAY Whitespace found :)

Lashing down but we got there.

Taking everything in stock this cache was fantastic and we were delighted with our success. In hindsight we shouldve done Whitespace before Werewolf but not due to the weather but due to harder terrain.

Tired, wet but there's still more caching to do. photo by Jules

It was hard work walking back but it did stop a couple of times and every step nearer the car we were the better we felt. When we finally got back to the car after a couple of hours walk, it was time for another coffee before jumping in the car for the next section of the day.



It was now a 8 minute drive to grab another Little Quest cache, we parked up at the side of Buckstones Moor #5 - Haigh Gutter and made a quick find there and then it showed up as 0.3 of a mile to LQ:W YORKS - Willmer Green which was a nice little walk but squelchy in places and our feet kinda hurt a bit from the battering of pursuing Werewolf and Whitespace.

View from LQ W Yorks thanks to Jules

It was nice around GZ but yet again as we found the cache we had to get waterproofs on sharpish haha, we took the details and returned to the car.
It was now time for a rest and a 40 minute drive back west, it felt good to be dry for a bit.



We parked up just as the heavens opened up yet again. Do you reckon we will have a summer?
We parked next to Reebok View and I quickly found that while Jules got her waterproofs on. We could see the Reebok stadium in our views but hey its only a football ground. I put my waterproofs on and we made our way to another couple of caches on the agenda for the day.

Valley of the Tiger by The Magna Defender

http://coord.info/GC2BAAZ

An earthcache with a rating of  D3/T4.5 in which Jules needed towards filling in her grid.
This really was a lovely Earthcache and although the terrain was a bit high it was definately very slippy and easy to fall in places.

Jules is laughing cos I slipped and almost fell!

It took in some lovely falls and lots of greenery around lovely streams, it was a little gem of an area that we enjoyed exploring.

Down by the lovely stream

It took us a while to find all the answers but we were also doing a multi at the same time.

#300 The End of the World by The Magna Defender

http://coord.info/GC3A7DZ

This was a fun 2 part multi where some questions had to be answered by going down a bunker, another place Jules and I enjoy going down.
I went down first and Jules went down after as we came up with coords that put us quite away from us, but one of the questions was a little confusing.

A bit of a tip down there!

OK lemme out it stinks down there.

The final coords took us up above the falls that were in the earthcache so we completed that in between these 2 stages. Once we were near GZ we were unsure of what side of stream we needed to be so I walked across a few times but it was very slippy.
After a bit of doubt about being in the correct area Jules announces that she thinks she can see it!!!!
YAY she did and we were rewarded with the site of a nice big ammo can.

Very slippy but pretty

The cache is in hand.

Wow can this day get any better, we got back to the car and we only had one hour left before we had to return home and we really wanted to get another 5/5 but wasn't sure we would have time.
I phoned our caching pal GolfChick and she assured us that as long as we found the entrance fast it was doable......Well that sealed it.



We jumped into the car and made our way to the next destination.

Ghost Train by gaznshell

http://coord.info/GC29M8V

This was our 2nd D5/T5 of the day and we were under pressure to find the entrance to yet another tunnel cache. We parked up where it suggested and just followed the paths but headed towards water, afterall there was water going through the tunnel.
I think to both our amazement we walked straight to the entrance and had to just cope with a slippy bank to get down so that we could head on.
Jules had already got her wellies on as they have good grip but I had to put mine on before we went any further.

Ok already and we were off into the water and entered the tunnel, the water wasn't very deep and didn't come above our wellies at all so it was quite easy going. A couple of minutes of walking down we soon arrived at possible GZ but we were just at wrong end of it, a minute or so later and the container was spotted and the cache was found woohoo.

Near the entrance!

The entrance has disappeared yikes!

Although this was over very quickly it was still a fun cache and better than Tunnel Tastic that we did at start of the day, now back to the car and even time for one more as we can park almost next to it hahaha.

The cache in hand!

Back at the car we knew that we could just about fit in one more which was another Little Quest, it was the last cache I had pencilled in so it meant we would complete them all.

LQ:LANCS - Hunter's View

We arrived at the car park and it was only a short but very scenic walk to GZ. It was definately the best Little Quest of the day and a great way to finish such an epic day off woohoo.

Lovely scenery from the cache site.


Well thats it our day is done, we have a 100 mile drive to drop Jules off but it really as been fantastic caching at its best.



Smilies bagged today = 18


Saturday, 23 June 2012

Wet & Wild

A quieter and much later start to this weeks Saturday as Mr. Bedford was away and not back home till lunch time, so around 2pm I was picked up by caching partner Jules.
She had planned this weeks caching and made in nice and easy due to a few probs I have had with my health lately.....I have been suffering Sciatica but not sure what or if there is any damage until I manage to get a MRI scan.....but enough of that. lets stay positive.
Today due to the pain I have been in it was a very easy day, but a very fun day....aren't they all hahaha.

Waterfall Reachin By Geobuzzbee

http://coord.info/GC31HCY

So the time had come again for myself and caching partner Jules to come back down and attempt this cache again. We had failed this one in April but didn't really try hard enough....Today armed with wellies, shorts, sandals, flippers, snorkels (hehe ok maybe not all) we were back and were not going to take no for an answer....So a quick change opposite church and we were ready for some wild wet fun, we didn't bother taking GPSr as we knew where we were going, but after a fair few minutes search we decided that we really needed to read a hint as we weren't getting very far. So I emptied half the stream out of my wellies and we climbed back up the bank and headed back to the car together to grab a GPSr and a quick warm  up as the water was so cold.

Smiling but very cold...

We read what we needed to know and set back off all giggly just like the big kids that we are and were ready for round 2....and boy were we ready. We almost went in head first as we were so determined, the water was so cold that our ears were hurting after being under water for quite a bit

I secretly began doubting we would find it and then of course my fantastic caching partner found it, we made a bit too much hard work of this but you are definately going to get wet searching hehehe.


Yay, it's in the bag.Well done partner!

An absolutely brilliant cache and some of the most fun we have ever had together, even though I ruined my camera videoing us as it fell in the stream.
We got back to the car and shielded each other so we could get wet clothes off and dry clothes on, we must've looked a right pair haha.

A new trend?...I doubt it!

Completely drenched hehehe


We stayed in car with a coffee each for a good 20 minutes or so just to dry out properly before moving on.



We then did a cache which was a few yards away from where we were parked opposite the church before heading off to do a few more.
The Waterfall was definately the highlight of the day and we then went to a chippy for a bit to eat before heading back home.



Total smilies bagged =7



Saturday, 19 May 2012

Gentle day in Malvern

So another weekend and another Saturday. Jules was in charge of todays caching and after a stop off around Bromsgrove we would be heading to Malvern.
It always seems to be Jules who is driving lately and today was her turn again. I was picked up at 7am and after attempting and failing on a drive by we headed to a high muggle area to attempt a couple of caches.
Sugarbrook Rapids by SOAPY chickens....We had failed on North but it does turn out that it was not there at the time so we will have to go back for it, but we succeeded on South and had great fun in the process.... do go and check it out.

It was now time to go and hit some hills and where better locally than Malvern.

Colwall Circuit by Fane

http://coord.info/GC3GQNH

9 Caches on a walk of just over 3 miles with some quite steep sections but there is only a total ascent of around 600ft.
We actually parked up and started at number 9 and then did the route in normal order.
The first field did have cattle in and there was 1 bull but thankfully he only kept his beady eye on us and nothing more.

Weather was a tad miserable!

We then headed down the hill to #1 across a pretty waterlogged field before taking the steepest section of the walk up towards #2. It was all fields until we entered some lovely woods where #4 was hiding.


Taking a peep down the hill.

Most of the rest of the walk was along muddy paths with trees alongside. Although the weather wasn't the greatest due to constant drizzle, we thoroughly enjoyed the caches and the very nice walk.
We didn't have any problems finding the caches.



We were back at the car where we had a quick coffee and a chocolate biccie apiece before heading off to start second series of the day - which was a little lower down in altitude.


Castlemorton Common's Cunning Caches by Oly 'n' Kate

http://coord.info/GC32M0X

This is a series of 9 caches placed around Castlemorton Common of Malvern, the walk is approximately 4 miles long. There was a lot of water underfoot so wellies or walking boots are required in the wetter season. The walk is dog friendly as no stiles but keep them under control as there are cows & sheep on the common.

There was some great hides on this walk and they were a little more testing but we did manage to find them all without help.




Cache #2 was the one that probably took us 10-15 minutes until Jules had a huge grin across her face and cache was ours, it was a sneaky hide even though we had guessed what we were looking for.
We enjoyed this walk as it was pretty much follow the arrow at times which is always nice not to have to worry about boundaries, stiles etc.

Another nice stroll and really enjoying a more laid back day today.



Next up was a d4/t5 which we thought we would have a crack at as we were in the area. Skidmarks on my trousers by Dazzly, Andy, Kayleigh & Stephie We parked up at British camp and took short uphill stroll to this one, we then had to descend of the track around 100ft but it was a pretty steep bank but it all honesty today it was very easy. We then went back down towards carpark and picked up Curse of the F2F - Worcestershire #5 (L. Malvern) by Cagney37 which was down the road a little and in some lovely woods. It was then a hard slog back up the hill and down the footpath by the toilets to go and grab 2 other caches: More rooting around (Herefordshire) by Dobunnis which was the first one we came to, it was pretty easy to spot GZ and cache was soon found


I shrunk Jules here haha.

and Rooting around (Herefordshire) by Dobunnis which was set in a spectacular location, there was a blanket of Wild Garlic and a scattering of Bluebells....my camera doesn't do it justice.... simply great time of year to do this one.

Isn't geocaching great, look at that!

Hello down there :)


It was now back to the car again and Jules had one more cache up her sleeve to end our outing with.
EE14 - Variation XIV (Little Malvern) by Dobunnis I have to admit I am not usually a fan of multi's as if one stage goes missing then you cannot complete the cache...This one was brilliant!

Resting place of Composer Edward Elgar.

Stage 1 took us to the resting place of Worcester born Edward Elgar the composer of "Land of Hope & Glory" , there were a few questions to answer and then stage 2 (final GZ) took us up the fantastic Black hill.

Looking down from Black hill.

This was a stunning way to finish our day off and we even carried on up to the top of Black hill as it is simply a must. Thanks Jules for a brilliant day out, if only the weather could of been a little better.


Total caches found today = 27


Saturday, 12 May 2012

Little Britain

This has been bookmarked for far too long and we finally came up with a date in February hoping that the weather would be kind to us.
So at 6am this morning Jules and Dave (BaggieDave) met at my house and we set off in the cachemobile of Jules and headed north up the M6.
We grabbed a McD's muffin and coffee at Congleton (or Congletoon in Jules case ) and then bagged a couple of drive by's on route to our destination for the day.

Little Britain by khoomfay

http://coord.info/GC31AMH

A series of 50 caches set over 12 miles of lovely hills. Terrain is obviously not easy going  and the route we took was almost 15 miles as we had to bag one or two extra.

At the parking coords we met up with caching buddies Lou (The Horde) & Shan and geopup Tia (Griswalds n dogs), we all got booted up and set off on our way.

Shan finds the first cache of the series....yay!

The start of the walk was ascending slowly for quite a distance and we could all feel the difference from walking mainly flat terrain lately. The views to be fair were absolutely stunning as we could see for miles and also the landmarks such as a lovely viaduct.


One of the best containers on the walk :)


Lovely scenery that I won't forget in a hurry.

The walk kept going up and up until around cache 9 and then path found its way to road where there was a lovely stream at the side of the road. We had already done a couple of caches on route at this time but we also made a diversion and view below is what we saw.


We may be strange hunting plastic, but look what we get to see!

We started to ascend again after around 3 miles and at getting on for around 7 miles in we reached a pub, where it wouldve been rude not to stop for a swift one...



Time for a swift one!


A lovely pic of Shan & Jules.

It was nice to stop at pub as we were almost half way round and almost at top of 2nd biggest hill of walk but we did start feeling a bit nippy so it was good to get back on with it.
We only had to climb a bit higher and then we had 2 miles of descent which pleased Lou especially as she hadn't had any sleep last night due to coming straight from work..

They are definately spoilt for views round here.

As we got lower it was pretty waterlogged in places and lots of mud but thats what adds to this walk, we were flying through the caches now and even managed to do a night cache that can be done in daylight by enabling the chirp to gain the coords.
There was also a nice pub down by the nightcache but we resisted on stopping again as the walk was just too good to stop again.

There were 2 more hills but not as relentless as first 2 but the 1 was pretty hard going and we stopped for a couple of minutes at top to get breath back.

The last couple of miles were actually flat much to the relief of the ladies and as we finished off walking around the edge of the reservoir we also took in the fantastically large bonus cache.

Jules about to sign the logbook for us all :)

Shan & Dave with the cache!

What a truly fantastic day we all had, it was certainly one of my favourite walks, definately recommended but do not take series lightly.

Total smilies in the bag today = 69