Ben and I had a nice week down Cornwall and spent 1 night at home before being picked up by caching partner Jules for 3 nights camping at the NW UK Mega.
We managed to get all our stuff into Jules's cache mobile and set off around 10.20am, it was a sunny day and the forecast looked very promising for the whole of the weekend.
Jules had handpicked a few caches to do en route to the mega, which would also give herself a break from driving....good thinking eh?
First stop off of the day was for Jules's d/t grid.
Puzzlecache by Jamisaro
As the cache title says this was a puzzle cache with a d/t of 4.5/3. We needed teamwork in solving this at home and then there were a few more stages to do in the field. All in all the walk from car and back was just over a mile and it was nice to find the final and be able to get inside to grab cache.
Next up was my fave mainly due to it being a 5/5.
Two Tunnel Adventure by The Magna Defender
We managed to park up with 0.3 of a mile for this one and all donned our wellies and torches. Once at the tunnel entrances we could see what was required and Jules and Ben did a bit of crawling along the wooden planks, while I decided to wade through the water. Both ways were effective but I was at GZ first., the cache was easily spotted once there and our names were addes to logbook.
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| Making my way back to Ben & Jules. |
The water came up to the middle of my thighs and on the way back to car we all had a giggle as my wellies were making funny squelching noises, great fun this one and a fave point awarded by me.
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| My little man on way back. |
Next up was another cache needed for the d/t grid of Jules.
Motorway Madness (Literally!) by The Magna Defender
This was a 1/4.5 and needed by Jules.
We parked up not too far from GZ and crossed a field of cattle on the way to GZ.
Once we got there we were extremely surprised to bump into the Webbies who had just started searching.
The cache is hidden under a bridge on a ledge but it is not reachable without specialist equipment, this is where Ben came in. I hoisted him up and cache was in hand straightaway woohoo.
Next it was off to a little side event.....
Mega2012: Welcome Cuppa in Cumbria
We parked outside coffee shop and quickly attended event and then did a little walk alongside the canal bagging another 5 caches.
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| Another cache bagged. |
Next stop was Cartmel Racecourse, which was where we were going to be camping for the next 3 nights.
We arrived at our destination late afternoon and once our pitch was found, we erected tent while Ben had a look around the site. We then hit Grange over Sands and grabbed something from the chippy for tea.
During the evening we met up with the Red Trolls and attended the nightcache event....
Mega2012: On the Trail of the Pendle Witch
It was due to start at 9pm but there was that many that turned up to do it that it was around 10pm when we set out.
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| Loads of cachers awaiting the nightcache, including CEO Jeremy Irish |
We were told a story by Muttoneer (C/O of Werewolf) and then we had to head into the woods and follow various steps. We struggled on a few steps but so did everyone else, but it was good fun.
Ben got stuck in boggy land and his croc got stuck....he was covered in mud.
By the time we got back it was late so Jules and I had a drink outside tent while Ben went to bed.
Friday 10th August
A lovely sunny start to our first full day in Cartmel, apparently some had already been here a week and said it was a mud bath at start of the week. The important thing is that the groundis dry and weather scorching.
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| Some neighbours from Leipzig, Cornwall, Devon & Scotland. |
We had breakfast and chatted to German lady who camped in front of us, we were going where she had already been but we weren't able to do as much due to Ben's little legs.
So first on the agenda today was the village of Coniston....
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| Views through windscreen. |
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| Views through windscreen. |
South Lakes Webcam Coniston (Cumbria).
I tried to take a screenshot of us on webcam with my laptop but I couldn't get a signal, so I had to phone up Kate who done it for us from home.
This was both mine and Julia's first webcam cache so it was nice to grab a new icon.
We then repositioned car not too far away on the car park for Coniston Old Man.... We wouldve liked to have got to the top but it was pretty hot and Ben would've struggled and whinged a tad.
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| PF Sign on car park. |
The views from the car park were stunning. I jumped out car to open and close gate to let car through and then took a couple of pics while Jules parked car.
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| WOW I love it here. |
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| Lovely view on a hot day. |
We all got booted up and put on plenty of sun cream and took up lots of fluids as we made our way to the first cache.
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| Took the path up behind Ben. |
LQ:Cumbria - Old Man's Bell
We just couldn't come all the way to the Lakes without picking up the Little Quest cache, could we?
We followed the path up to the Bell passing a young female adder on way, I would put pic up but its not brill. We got to the Col and then took a steepish path up the grass bank towards GZ. From here you could see mine shafts in the background.
At the top of the grass bank we stop for a quick drink and a bite to eat before carrying on the short distance to the cache.
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| Just chillin' |
At GZ there was other cachers, we could hear the geokid of the group from a fair distance as he had knocked his head on the rocks. I tried to help diffuse the situation by going in for the cache.
We took the required info and headed back towards main path.
As Ben was beginning to feel it a little we decided to just do 3 more caches which were all at the same altitude we were at and less than a mile in total. All 3 were standard trads but tucked away nicely.
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| Ben searching wrong area. |
Once we were back at the car we took a look at the map and decided that it would be nice to take Ben to a park for being good and better still it was on the shores of Lake Windermere.
Fell Foot Park by Bog Bears
This is a series of
6 caches set in Fell Foot Park. The caches take you around Fell Foot Park, along the shore
of Lake Windermere and through the meadow.
We parked up and straightaway spotted cachers next to us, with one being Liane's (CacheHopper) sister..It was nice to meet her and hubby.
The reason they were there is that amazingly there were some caches for us to find. But first thing to do was go and find the cafe so that I could treat us to an ice cream each.
The English Lakes ice cream is so so nice yum yum.
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| Ben with his twister lolly. |
We then took a slow walk along the shore of the lake and picked up the caches en route. We have certainly been blessed with the weather this weekend.
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A really nice flat park for Ben.
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All 6 of the caches were easy finds and once complete Ben had a good 20 mins or so on adventure playground.....He certainly deserved it.
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| My boy in the playground. |
After playtime it was back to campsite for a wind down and tea, followed by an event on site.
Mega Camping 2012: The Mega Rodeo
Ben was excited as his friends had arrived meaning he had a bit more freedom around the campsite.
It had took the Dibboids and Soapy Chickens 6 hours to make the journey up the M6 but now they were here woohoo.
The Rodeo was fun with lots of games going on but I spent alot of the time chatting to friends and making new ones.
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| The Mega Rodeo. |
By 10pm Ben was tired from the days adventures so it was time to close day two....
Saturday 11th August
Well todays the day and it's finally here. A nice breakfast and then a quick tidy up and it was time for the 500ft walk to the centrepiece of the weekend.
North West England 2012 - The 5th Annual UK Mega
As we walked in it was a smooth collecting of our registration packs.... In our packs were a name badge each with name and caching team on and a cache container complete with pencil, rubber, logbooks and camo bag, what a nice touch that was. I think when I hide mine I will name it after this mega.
We carried on in to the grounds which consisted of lots of outside stalls and then a huge tent with lots of other stalls in.
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| Early arrivals inside the huge tent. |
We had a look around the big tent first and whilst in there dropped off some trackables. The stalls in here were the usual type, with friends Saza36 on the UK Mega 2013 stall......did we mention that the 6th annual Mega will be coming to the midlands!!!
It was time to go outside for a bit to enjoy the sunshine and watch the opening ceremony. Muttoneer did a great job of Opening the event and Jeremy Irish (CEO of groundspeak) said hi himself.
We had a good luck round and chatted to lots of friends who had come up for the day, Ben really enjoyed the attention too.
This is without any shadow of doubt the best annual Mega I have attended. (ok this was only my second annual one, the other 2 were Piratemania IV and V) The effort that has been put in by the committee, the ouside feel to it, the location and the weather.....WOW!!
It was also great bumping into another lackey... Foxfire and also meeting Jeremy Irish again and also grabbing a couple of free trackables off them.
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| Ben with the lovely Foxfire. |
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| Jules with Jeremy Irish. |
After all the fun we popped back to the tent for a quick drink and then walked a small series from there.
A Mega Ramble
Eleven caches placed along an easy 5km circuit from Cartmel Race Course along some nice footpaths through the fantastic Furness countryside.
We really enjoyed the series which was put together with the Mega Event in mind. It was also funny to see the various polite notices from Landowners telling Geocachers which way to go...
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| I rock at colour coordination....Ben you look fab x |
After the walk we had showers and then went for a walk into the lovely Cartmel village. We fancied a pub meal so went into first pub we got to and I got us drinks in while we looked at the menu.
The menu didn't give much choice and was a bit dear for what we had in mind, so we decided to go the shop and buy some tea to make back at tent.
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| Cartmel here we come! |
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| A cool Ben pose. |
We had a chilled night back at the tent as the Dibboids and Soapy Chickens had gone out, but it was a nice way to see the last night in Cartmel out.
Sunday 12th August
So the final day and some more dry weather to take the tent down. We all said our goodbyes to a fabulous weekend here in Cartmel and headed back home.
Jules was not finished though and had a couple more caches for us to do, which broke up the journey nicely.
Terraform by The Magna Defender
This is a D2/T4.5 cache which Jules needs for her D/T grid. We parked up and walked around 1.5 miles there and back over moorland for this one, I really expected Ben not to enjoy it, but he did....He even found the cache haha.
We were glad to get back to the car just as a heavy shower kicked in.
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| Where's the gate gone? |
Next and not far away was a totally different cache, mainly as it was up in a tree.
Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants by Metal Eddie (adopted by TMD)
Another for Jules's grid, this time its a D2/T5.
We parked up nearby and then just followed the needle, it took us down a slippy muddy bank so we hugged trees to help us get down. Once we made it down to the bottom (a path!) we spotted the tree straightaway.
So without further ado, I took Jules foot and lifted her up so she could grab the cache.
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| I gotcha! |
What an end to a brilliant weekend.
In total this weekend yielded 36 smilies.
