Camping near Lynton and Parrambled!

This has been planned since May and amazingly the weather changed for us....for the better.
Jules and I are off to Sunny Lyn Holiday Park in Lynbridge, near Lynton. They allowed us to pitch 2 tents on 1 pitch and had electric hook up for my tent, the cost £30 total for 2 nights....fantastic eh?

It was a lovely site with a stream running down the side of it and a nice pub just outside.
This was our camp for 2 nights so that we could do the big Parramble series in and around Parracombe.

We set off just after 7am and made our way down the M5 to our first cache of the day
LQ:Bristol - Clifton Down This was in a nice area very close to the Clifton suspension bridge.
It was good to pick up another Little Quest cache and then to drive over the bridge towards our next stop.

Bristol Estuary

Clifton Suspension bridge

We decided that next we would do a small section of 5 Parramble caches that would cut down tomorrows walk by a mile and then set off to pitch our tents at the above mentioned campsite.

It is a small campsite but just the job for 2 nights camping and a good base for doing the series as it was only a 10 minute drive.

Two tents on one pitch at bargain price.

Once the tents were up it was time to hit the trail. We arrived and were booted at around 2.45pm.

Parramble by kevham1 and CeeKay1
It was decided to do the much smaller southern section today (around 10 miles) and then with an earlier start we could do the northern section tomorrow (18 miles).
I am unsure of how hot it was but it can't have been far off 30°C as we really struggled and worried about running out of water.

A slight incline, a sign of things to come.

There are lots of little hills on this series so most of the time you are walking either uphill or downhill, it really added to the walk and would make doing the whole series in one go very difficult.

Nowhere to hide from the hot sun.

It was hard walking in places due to uneven ground but this added to the whole experience and around 5 hours later we were back at the car and ready for an evening meal.

We first went back to campsite and shared a bottle of cider before hitting the showers. These were very dated but very clean and done the job. We then decided to rive into Lynton/Lynmouth to try and find a chippy.

The lovely Lynmouth

Lynmouth is lovely but seems very quiet. We parked up and soon found a chippy, but it had closed at 9pm doh....so what do we do now? All the pubs had stopped food at 9pm too...
We tried Lynton but nothing, I did manage to get a 4 pack of cold Cidre but really needed food.

Last resort was The Cottage pub which was right next to our campsite, they had finished food but agreed that they could  make us something that could be cooked quickly yay.
So fish and chips twice and a drink to swill it down, the owners of this pub went out of their way for us.
I tried phoning home but could get no signal, so they let me make a quick call on their landline :)

Waiting for dinner after a hard afternoons caching.

The food was delicious and of generous size too. We took our time eating it and then retired to our tents.

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Well considering how shattered I was yesterday I managed a brilliant nights sleep and Jules said she did also.
Jules cooked a huge breakfast to keep us going and we filled our rucksacks with as much water and food as possible as we knew this was going to be a monster day.

Parramble by kevham1 and CeeKay1
We parked at the same car park as yesterday to hit the huge Northern section. It was not as hot today but was lovely and sunny all day. We decided to stop at all the pubs on the route but unfortunately there was none haha.

Lots of novelty containers on this series.

It didn't take long before the hills kicked in and there were lots of them. There was nothing very steep but just continual ups and downs.

Near to the sea!

Jules was struggling after a while due to discomfort from her knee when we hit the downhill sections, but fairplay to her, she just plodded along without any moaning.

Woodland

We walked through fields, down small country lanes, through woods, along streams and even got pretty close to the coast, well close enough for a couple of pics.

A nice stream

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

All in all it took us around 11 hours to get round and we still had 4 left to come back for tomorrow. We just didn't want to miss out at the chippy again.

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I had another fab nights sleep but its got to be due to all that walking.
Today was our last day and only a few caches were planned. So after another cracking breakfast and taking down the tents, we walked towards Lynton.
There was 4 caches pencilled in and they were all great.

Exmoors First by Dave And Niki
Located on Hollerday Hill near Lynton, this was the first cache we got to and the views were stunning, a fantastic cache and location.

Exmoors first cache... Dec 2001

Behind us in the pick is the Valley of the rocks were we are heading next.

Valley of the Rocks by Shorty ger adopted it from signyred
An earthcache in a lovely location and well worth doing.

Walking down towards the Valley of the Rocks.

At the info board.

Next it was on to a traditional with plenty of fave points


The Valley Of Rocks by MegMania
This cache was different as it was a bison tube attached to a key ring but was hidden in a really stunning location up in the rocks. It was great to walk past the goats on the way up.

It's up the top of there :)

On the way up.

Well one more left to do and thats a virtual from June 2002.

Castle Rock (North Devon) by DJH
A virtual with an easy question to answer in this lovely area, all these 4 caches have received a fave point off myself.

It was time to head back to the campsite to complete this 5 mile walk.

A great view on way back to campsite.

Next it was back to Parramble series to pick up the remaining 4 caches. We stopped off on the way to pick up Woody Bay Choo Choo.

So we have completed Parramble series and found all 150 of the caches...Credit must go to the c/o's as many of the caches had new logs in and maintenance on their caches is always top notch....


Our time in North Devon was done and it was time to head home but there was just one stop left, another Little Quest cache.

LQ: Somerset - Hyden Wood by The Morgan Mob
We started and ended this break with a little quest. A lovely walk through the woods to GZ.

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A totally brilliant break with caching buddy Jules, we managed to rake in 157 caches

Piratemania V

Woohoo at last, the weekend as landed.
Here we are again and time to board ship and dock in at Peak Gateway campsite in Ashbourne for some piratey fun at Piratemania V.
We had camped and attended this last year so it was an easy decision to come again, just like next years will be.

We arrived at Friday lunchtime and set about marking off some of the land to keep as pitches for our fellow caching buddies from the West Mids Geocaching facebook page.

All pitched up and watching campsite fill up

All Weather cacher was first to arrive and it was fab that his 2 kids and sons girlfriend were here to stay also - a really lovely family.
Next to arrive was thehorde who also brought a torrential downpour with them, they sheltered in our tent until the rain stopped.

By now everyone was slowly turning up and it didn't take long before we were all there except for the Dibboids who were only camping the Saturday night.

Due to all the cars bringing the tents and the human traffic, all around us became very muddy but fortunately there was to be no more rain all weekend, infact it was pretty hot at times.

Happy days.

We set up the West Mids section with all the tents/caravans facing in towards 4 gazebo's where we could cook and have a sit down and talk all things Piratey!
Kate made a huge curry for tea on the Friday and we all sat around eating it and supping a few alcoholic beverages, the kids had a great time drinking coke and a bit of freedom around the campsite.

No drink consumed here eh?

The Friday night was soon coming to an end with people escaping to sleep one by one. In the tent I really struggled to sleep as I was cold all night....its supposed to be July for godsake.

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Day 2 and event day is here yay. We all had a nice breakfast to get us up and ready for the walk.

Day 2 and blue skies....get in!

All Weather cacher and I were the first to put names on the log sheets which was nice I guess, but the best thing about it was that Bryan the Groundspeak Lackey  signed after me and enabled me to have a chat with him and to recieve a free "Founders TB".

The Piratemania V logbook.

Bryan with those Bedfords!

He is a very nice chap with lots of personality and he even looked the part too being dressed up for the occasion.
On the way back Kate called me and said I had better come and look at car.....haha Blokiebloke and Citrus-Lizard had shrinkwrapped Shan's and our cars....There will be revenge!

Shan's car!

So now it was time to prepare for the walk, which was a new series. Captain Calico Jack, our friends from Blackburn joined us and we picked up the waypoints from PuP.
I downloaded a gpx file from on the internet and then uploaded it to 20 or more Garmins!!

The new series was around 8 miles long without diversions, but was very hard going due to the amount of Pirates on route, we had to queue at some stiles for upto 10 minutes.

Arrrr! wheres the rum!

It was also rather warm which started to affect some of the kids around half way round, so Mrs. BCC and a few others headed back, the rest of us did over a miles diversion to a pub for some grog and sandwich.

We didn't stop for long as we wanted to get back and on the way back we bumped into some more cachers from the west mids and walked with them.
The pace was much quicker now as there were no kids in the group and after a short while we were back at the campsite clocking up around 10 miles.

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Around 6ish it was BBQ time and the fun and games started. Citrus Lizard made me laugh as he doesn't like any spices in his food yet he soon demolished a chilli pepper.

Haha was it hot Andy?

We were also treated to another visit from Bryan the Groundspeak lackey who came over and chatted to many of us West Mids cachers and answered some questions we asked.

A group shot with Bryan.

We really appreciated his time and his effort to mingle with us all.
Shortly after darkness settled in and we learned of another victory to the cheating red team and then were treated to a few fireworks.

Mrs BCC and B.I.L Steve.

Arrrr! there be fireworks.

After all the fun and fireworks we all had a couple of beers/ciders and chatted this last night away as anotherr Piratemania comes to a close.

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Final day and time to pack away and take tents down, it has been absolutely fantastic and was great to spend it with so many friends.
Mark and Liane have done another fantastic job as did all the helpers.

Heres a few pics taken while we packed away:

All Weather Cachers Travel bog hehe

BCC junior can sleep anywhere

A few of the group posing

The traditional lean

So we waved goodbye to Peak Gateway and headed into Ashbourne for a flash mob. We had attended last years and it was a great laugh.

Initiation A bottle of rum was placed on a table with a sign saying "Take me", what happens next is a muggle will come along and take the bottle, a horn will sound and that muggle will become a pirate arrr!

Ashbourne square getting ready.

Waiting for initiation to begin.

 True to form and very quickly the rum was picked up and the horn was sounded and the muggle became a pirate and recieved many gifts.

Arrrr! he be a pirate now.

We had so much fun and there was lots of laughter just before flash mob started when a young couple drove out of the carpark to a chorus of Carrrrr! They were laughing but so embarrassed.

Roll on next year.

Many thanks to all the Piratemania team and all the members of WMGC fb group for a brilliant weekend.

A handpicked day.

The main aim today was to grab 6 different icons and a 5/5 with the Bedfords.
As we set off today it was great to see lovely blue skies for a change but they did become a bit overcast at times.....but, it didn't rain!

First stop of the day was a multi in Malvern, On the Wagon - this was made a lot easier by solving it on the internet and just going to the final GZ for a nice quick find.

Next was a short drive to the second icon which was to be an Earth cache.

Malvern Springs
This was a pleasant cache where we had to visit 2 close springs and record some information.
We parked opposite Hayslad first, it was a shame we didn't bring an empty bottle or two so that we could bag some natural water.



We finished answering the questions and then made our way on the uphill path. Once we were up near Dingle Well the scenery and views are stunning. Malvern Hills are just so beautiful and worth visiting over and over again.

At Dingle Well

We recorded the info for this and took the required pics and then noticed there was a cache not too far away and it was a nice climb up to the top.....that decision to walk to the top of the hills was easy.

It was worth it for the views, the cache we picked up was a Traditional and our third icon of the day.

 Sugarloaf

View from one angle

and from another!

I love Malvern Hills they are so fantastic so it was a bonus to pop up for a cache today.
We bagged a cache at bottom by where we parked and then moved on.

Next we took in a tricky Traditional which probably took us 10 minutes to find Concealed Entrance and then it was on to go for the 4th icon of the day, a mystery Irony,
The puzzle for Irony I had solved which was pretty cool as lots of others have struggled, just like I normally do on puzzle caches.
We parked up close by and within a couple of minutes scramble/walk, the cache was found.

Next it was on to the 5th icon of the day a Letterbox Hybrid, which was also a 5/5.

Lair of the Lost Boys by ghekophyte 
We parked on the big car park for the Rugby & Football clubs and walked down for a recce as we knew some specialist equipment would be needed. Stage 1 was soon found but we were extremely unclear on what we had to do so returned to car for a coffee break.

We did some googling on our mobile phones and were still getting nowhere. I suggested we returned with our specialist equipment and have a better look around.

We ended up calling a previous finder to get some idea of what to do and thankfully he obliged.We decided to move car slightly and managed to park pretty close to final GZ, it was just a matter of finding some specialist equipment and then the cache.
We found what we was looking for  and finally cache was in hand.....or was it? haha.....

Next up was a Little Quest cache, which I like to pick up every time I am relatively near one, today it was the turn of LQ:HEREFORDSHIRE - Apples and Pears .
We parked up leaving a small walk up through the side of fields to this one. I think the way we went wasn't used much as you couldn't even see the stiles due to being very overgrown.

We had a good laugh getting over the stiles and then carried on past a huge mast to turn right down towards the cache.

Seemed to be a popular viewpoint here.

The cache was behind us.. The Malvern Hills in the distance.

It really was a lovely location which seemed really popular as we saw 2 others sitting and just taking it all in.

Just up from the cache was a Trig point which was also a YOSM....this gave us our 6th icon of the day a virtual. See here for details if unsure what a YOSM is: Ye Ole Survey Monuments.

We sat and had a few minutes break here # as the scenery was so nice and the sun was shining for us.
Next up we were on the way to our highlight cache of the day but first stopped to do this one Climb The Line .....the cache was about 10 foot up a wall.


28 Days Later by SidAndBob

This one was definitely the best cache of the day but unfortunately I cannot say anything about it as it would give the game away.
One clue is GZ takes you to side of a field and the cache listing includes an attribute of torchlight.

A "Lost World" within a mile of GZ

This cache is a must do and there are plenty of others in the area to fill a fantastic couple of days.
Get in touch with me if you would like some recommendations for this area.

Well this was the last cache of the day which took up quite a bit of time, todays smiley count was 11.

Born to be Baddesley

Today I was heading over Baddesley way to meet up with friends to do a series and then carry on to an event. We had arranged to meet up at 9am at the church carpark, which surprisingly had a cache at it Tamworth Village Church Series - 10 - Grendon .

At the car park on arrival there was many there with the added bonus of another group meeting up. It was very quickly decided that we could all cache together...... so myself, B.B.B., Lorri-Ann & Kev, lgxkls, Sukygoeswandering, pfaffabouters, stevo185, [Monki], colonel&crew, Blue Nora, BaggieDave, Lime Candy, T A G, The Strangler & Grizzly Pair hit the road.......
It was great to be in the company of people more addicted to caching than myself.

Once everyone was booted up and the above cache was bagged it was time to hit the trail..

Wind Power Circular by martin and carol

http://coord.info/GC3M067

A series of 16 caches over approx 4.5 miles, taking in canal towpaths, public footpaths, green lanes and two short stretches of quite busy road. Some of the fields did have cows in and due to all the recent rain a lot of places were waterlogged.
There area other caches that can be picked up along the route and slight diversions.

Yay we found one, well Lorri did!

On with the series which we begun with number 5 which was an absolute cracker and got us all excited about what lied ahead.
We were lucky with the weather today as rain was forecast but never turned up and when the sun did make an appearance it was nice and warm.

The muddy coloured canal

James retrieving a cache

The caches on the series really were fantastic with quite a few favourites. I definately recommend you do this series if in the area as there will be many smiles along the way.

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Come and Meet event by Baddesley Bodgers

http://coord.info/GC3NVN7

This was an event at a pub in Grendon which was attended by the Mega 2013 committee and it was also Chris the organisers 40th birthday.....ouch.

The Strangler & Baggie Dave

Chris "birthday boy" & Mrs Grizzly Grrrrr!

This was a nice well run event and was great to catch up with Gaz-Zippy and others I hadnt seen for a while.
We sang Happy Birthday to Chris and even had a slice of lovely birthday cake.
After having a swift drink and catching up on everything caching, it was time for a walk again as we were handed out a sheet with 10 new caches on.


Baddesley Ramble parts D,E & F by Baddesley Bodgers

Mass caching

It was great to also be joined by shank's pony & carrie_and_chloe as yet again we cached in another large group. What a fab day rounded off with ten newly published.
We all had a good laugh in nice sunshine and had no trouble finding the caches, fake tree being one of the highlights.

Woohoo Griff found a cache at last!

A pause when Baggie Dave made easiest find of the day.

This walk of a hour took around two haha but it was nice and a great way to end this nice day off.

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Total smilies bagged today = 34