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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
Day 2 and event day is here yay. We all had a nice breakfast to get us up and ready for the walk.
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| 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".
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| The Piratemania V logbook. |
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Mrs BCC and B.I.L Steve. |
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| 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.
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:
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| All Weather Cachers Travel bog hehe |
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| BCC junior can sleep anywhere |
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| A few of the group posing |
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| 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!
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| Ashbourne square getting ready. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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