The Lovely Dovedale

Today was somewhere we have wanted to go to for a while and better still the forecast looks good again.
We arrived at main car park at 8am only to find it doesn't open until 9am doh. So we decided to park on side of road and do an earthcache first and then reposition car onto car park.

SOTL - Thorpe Cloud by PopUpPirate

We walked  along the river and then around the back of the hill following the path up to the top. We saw a couple of groups of ramblers way below us as we were almost at the top and then as we reached summit we were almost blown over by the wind hehe.

On our way
 

A shot from a few feet up the steep side.
 

Some crazy woman on the stones

Despite the wind it was great to be up here and look down at the lovely green scenery. There were a few questions to answer and a couple of pics to take and then we decided to take a much more direct route to the car.

It's a long way to roll down!
 

Me with knoll behind me.
 

Lovely blue skies as we approach car.

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Back down on low ground and £2.50 later we were parked up ready to walk down the river to Milldale and back down the other side.
The walk is spectacular and as I said earlier it is one we have wanted to do for a while.
We grabbed the first trad of the day before the stepping stones, unfortunately lid was cracked and log was not very signable.

Our first of a handful of trads today.

 

Down by the riverside

 

A bit of a walk to next cache
 

Jules in awe of what we can see.

It was quite a walk to the next cache but it was great as we had more time to take in the beauty of the area. There were some lovely rock faces down the sides of the river and we even passed a few climbers who were certainly making the most of the weather.

Further along we chatted to a couple of walkers for a couple of minutes and whilst chatting I spotted a lovely rock archway....perfect for a photo with tripod.

Natural beauty at its best.

We did another couple of earthcaches next, the first one being Lionshead rock mimetolith by pete37038 which was a rock which looked like the picture of a lions head, but we thought we saw lions head in a different rock haha.

Me near Lionshead earthcache

 

A nice pointed rock.

The rocks around here are fantastic though and next on the journey was SOTL - Dove Holes by PopUpPirate .

The dove holes

 

Me in front of Dove Holes.

The Dove Holes are impressive caves which are created by water wearing out the soft limestone cliffs.
There were a fair few people at the Dove Holes when we arrived so we only took a couple of quick pics and answered questions the best we could.

We then carried on along the river until we arrived at the lovely little village of Milldale.

Milldale

 

 

Whilst in Milldale there was a little shop selling food so we both had a nice warm pasty and a soup and then sat on wall at side of river. It was really lovely to sit down and enjoy watching the river flow.
Before we moved on we had to put our waterproofs on as it had started to rain and the sky looked full of it, but within a few minutes it had all blown over and the blue skies were back.

We headed up the road and connected with the footpath which was to take us to our next cache and then we had to somehow find our way to the next one but there was no logical way without back tracking.
We decided to just follow the arrow and what a mistake that was.... but being the adventurous pair that we are, we eventually got down to the path we needed and then DNF'ed the next cache doh.

It levelled out a bit
 

YAY more blue skies

The walking was a tad more difficult this side of the river but added a great deal of fun to the walk.
We could see the Dove Holes again and picked up a couple more caches as we approached the bridge to cross back over the river.

The Dove holes with someone climbing across the ceiling.
 

We had fun here getting through
 

Almost back
 

There was just one more cache before we arrived back at the car for a cup of coffee and to see where we needed to go next...

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Robbers' Safe House by chramm

Whilst we were down Wales a week ago Jules picked up a TB that wanted to go back to this cache, so of course we obliged and had a great day out in Dovedale too.

We did a couple of Baggiewhite caches on journey home to round off another perfect day.

Total smilies bagged today = 11

A trip to Wales.

Well it seems a while ago that I booked a cheap travelodge room at M4 Swansea, infact I was going on my own up until a week or so before when my caching buddy Jules announced that she had managed to get a reasonably cheap room too.
The reason I chose Swansea area was just for Mumbles Lighthouse Island but as usual we added a few more on so we could collect the oldest cache in Wales and to colour in all the lower counties.

I picked Jules up around 6.30am on an already beautiful, sunny day. We arrived at parking for first walk of the day at 8.20am.

The First in Wales by The Gecko's

Jules had chose this cache for us to do as it was the first cache placed in Wales, it was placed on 17 Feb 2001.
On the way to it there was a YOSM that we picked up, it was a lovely walk high up on top of the hill.

Blorenge YOSM

The views were fantastic when some early morning fog disappeared, this walk in lovely countryside with great views is what Geocaching is all about.
When we arrived at GZ after just over a miles walk, we were greeted by lots of rocks and underneath those rocks was (yes, you guessed it!) the geocache.

YAY Jules with the cache.

It took us ages to find but just as I began lining everything up with the spoiler pic, Jules had found it yay....... a nice big ammo can.

View from cache.

We then moved on to a park which should help us colour in South Glamorgan on our maps.

Caedelyn Park by Teaonesugar

A short walk around the boundary of some playing fields. There are 4 caches available but unfortunately we could not find one of them.
The park was ery busy with kids playing football but it was a huge distraction for us and enabled us to search for them no problem at all.


We moved on after the DNF and this time we did a fair few caches as drive by's on the way to Porthcawl where we wanted to do a cache which was close to the shore.

The Secret Diary of the Cacher's Tales by The Pacman Clan

We parked up close to the start of the path as possible and took in a couple of caches on the way in to this one. What attracted us to this one was the fact that you could make your own story up about the cache experience....We do enjoy doing things that are different from the norm.

Looking towards Porthcawl.

It was nice to be walking on the edge of the beach in lovely sunshine, the walk to the cache and back was less than 2 miles but so glad we chose to do it.

Not far from GZ.

We had a few minutes sit down while Jules ate something and then we moved on back to the car.
A few more drive by's later and we arrived to do a well favourited series but after looking at first 3 caches we gave up.... 2 weren't there and 1 was just lid and pencil only.
I won't name the series as it's obviously normally a great series.

So next stop was a pub called the Copper Penny in Port Talbot where we both had a voucher for a free drink....It was good to stop and chill which I think is a first for us...

Next we decided to head of to the cache which was the original reason for this trip.

Mumbles lighthouse island by golden pig

We parked up at car park on main road above seafront and made our way down to this one. This cache is tidal and low tide today was at 5.20pm..... we arrived at parking just after that time.

It was a nice walk down to the beach and we even walked straight past a cache as we wanted to get this on first.
It was then over the rocks and then up Lighthouse Island. Cache was easy to locate and while we signed the log we also took in some of the fantastic views on offer from here.
A great cache.

Swansea over there!
 

Wow, simply stunning.

On the way back there was a slight diversion to another cache that was a must do. We had read up beforehand and there was lots of fave points, so whilst back on the rocks it was time for a bit of climbing....

Seal View by sdh1412

It was a bit of a trick climb up at the bottom but once so far up it was no problem at all. The views up here yet again were stunning and offered the best shot of the lighthouse.

Mumbles lighthouse.

The cache was also found quickly, this really is everything great about geocaching!

One last cache by the pier and then it was time to head off to the travelodge and grab our rooms, luckily as it was quiet we had rooms away from motorway noise and right next to each other.

We had decided to get ready and then head off to the nearest Wetherspoons for tea, it was absolutely rammed but we only waited 30 mins or so for food so not bad.

So a fab days caching comes to an end, it was a shame we pulled out on one series but we were so disheartened that caches weren't there.....

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Sunday morning and an overcast start, a bit different to the lovely day yesterday. We grabbed a McD's breakfast and then hit the road picking up drive by's on the way home.
I had to be home for 1pm to join family in celebration of my dad's 70th birthday.

Another fantastic time caching and another 30 smilies in the bag.

Upper Arley

Well Mrs.BCC was away for the weekend on a school reunion and Ben was staying at his cousins, so I had another day out caching this weekend.
It was a later than usual start as Jules had to do some stuff and I struggled to get ready with lots to do.
At around 11.20am Jules picked me up and we headed of towards Arley for the afternoon.

We did stop off on the way to bag a couple of caches Maisie Moo & JessieGoat. Both were found quickly and were right next to each other.

Kara n Keirons Upper Arley loop by blokiebloke

http://coord.info/GC3TQ53

A walk of around 5 miles taking in some lovely countryside along the river, reservoir and woods. There were 16 caches in the series plus a fair few more close by and on route.


We parked up on main carpark at side of river and paid £1 for the whole day, which is fantastic value.
We soon had first cache in hand as it was on the car park and then while Jules bought a pasty to scoff we decided to pop over the bridge to bag 2 on the other side which weren't in the series.

In front of Arley station.

We soon bagged A Ferry Nice Place! & Kara n Kierons SVR sidetracked, Arley and then had our photos taken at Arley station.

Back over the bridge and we were soon on PF at side of river and picking up more of the series. Paul (blokiebloke) does have some nice hides.

Some dodgy people in the woods.

The weather was gorgeous yet again and it was so lovely round by Trimpley reservoir. One of the caches here was on a bench so it was also a good excuse to have a drinks break and admire the lovely reservoir and blue skies.

Trimpley Reservoir
 

Severn Valley Railway.

As we left the reservoir area we had to cross the railway but had to hang on and admire the steam train going past first, this really is a lovely walk with lots of different settings.

Along the trail we also picked up Root to Lou's Loot & Simply Trimpley.

Some local cachers we bumped into

Jules needed the caches in the woods in which I had already found last year and whilst looking for those we bumped into cachers Cybermoley and Ace of Paynes, we had some quick geochat and then parted ways. Once exiting the woods it was through the last of the footpaths and on to the Arboretum where the series finished.

This walk really is lovely, we made it a lot longer by adding bits on but the kids will have a lot of fun doing this.

Total smilies bagged by myself today = 24

A day in Cranborne

Out for the day with Griff aka Dave (BaggieDave) and James (Pfaffabouters). Dave picked us up from my house at 6.30am and we arrived by Cranborne church at 9am. We had a quick bite to eat whilst putting boots on and we hit the trail 10 mins later.


Cranborne Chase Circular by KPFB

http://coord.info/GC3EEXH

The Cranborne Chase Circular is a walk of under 15 miles taking in 95 caches plus a few others enroute. The route is mostly on footpaths and bridleways but there are a couple of short sections on country lanes so take care. We didn't come across many stiles at all which was very welcome.

Nice blue skies.

We started off by getting info for multi and then discovered the final GZ was between caches 1 & 2. So onwards with the series and no problems with any of the caches, I think we were probably lucky on how quickly we found a couple of them as it really could've been so different.

On our way to this series we did notice a couple of potential cachers and once reading a couple of the logbooks we realised that we were indeed following someone, but by #20 we had caught them up and said a quick hello.

At #22 there is a tree climb which certainly added a bit of spice to the walk, James and I went up but as James was higher up he soon spotted it...... we enjoyed that one.

James up the tree.
 

Hang on, i'm coming up too!

We were moving quickly and clocking up 2.4 mph, which by our standards is very good.

Half way round the walk in Sixpenny Handley we hit another multi but before we completed it we decided to make a slight diversion from series and visit the pub for a swift one.

What we saw ahead of us.
 

Loved this walk.

The second half of the walk began with the final GZ of the multi and then we had a bit of uphill walking which took us a bit by surprise, infact we struggled a little but think that was mainly due to it being the hottest time of the day.

I only wanted to do a few caches!

By the time we got to the car, which was 6.5 hours later......we had 98 smilies in the bag.

We decided we should reward ourselves in the pub next to where we were parked with a drink or 2.
While we were here we decided we were going to do another series close by which should pull in another 9 smilies.

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Walk in the Countryside by DizzyPair

http://coord.info/GC3B2XV

A linear walk of under 3 miles (there and back) down a bridlepath through some lovely woods.

We really enjoyed this walk in the shade as we were all pretty hot and a little tired from the pace we had walked at.

A rarity happened on this walk in the fact that Griff found most of the caches...this never normally happens....don't let on that we let him though hehehe.

Is that Griff really finding a cache?

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Once we were back at the car we stood on 107 smilies and decided that we would just grab a few drive bys on the way home. We also diverted slightly to grab a thickshake from McD's each.

I had a wonderful day in good company and loved the walking....we got back home with 116 smilies each

A marathon series in Cheltenham.

Well what a hectic week its been, I won't go into too much details but I have been in and out of Eye Clinic this week. I was due to either attend a camping event in Notts or take Ben to Butlins, however due to a bit of laser on Friday I was unable to drive.
Dave and Shan had been planning this day for a month or so and I said that I may go but it was doubtful, however with the kind offer of being picked up and brought back home, it was just the tonic I needed.

I set the alarm for 4.30am and was picked up at 5.30am and then it was off to Frankley services so the others could bag a cache.
Today there was Shan (the Griswalds n dogs) Dave (BaggieDave), Paul (Blokiebloke) and myself.

The Cheltenham Circular Caching Challenge

http://coord.info/GC3MVDB

The Cheltenham Circular Caching Challenge (CCCC) is a walk of over 26 miles with more than 100 caches to grab on the way.  The first half is quite hard going in places due to ascent and mud and the second half is completely flat. 
The trail starts and ends close to Cheltenham racecourse taking in some great views along the way.

We dropped Shans car off in Churchdown as a get out clause 3/4 of the way round the circuit and then drove on to some parking opposite the racecourse where the adventure began.

The Racecourse.

The first 5 miles were nice and easy but the next 7 miles were a bit up and down with a steep bit between miles 7 and 8. After mile 12 is was almost totally flat.

We had a big task today considering how many miles we had to walk and how many times we would have to stop to look for caches but as always there was lots of pranking each other and it was right from the off.

Dave was in contact with a couple of the c/o's beforehand and during the day.  He had agreed to do maintenance and replace caches that were definately not there.....We teased Dave a bit and made believe he was on the phone to an imaginary friend, I think in the end he pretty much believed it. Poor bloke!

On the up!

 

 

This bit ended the climb, we were shattered.

Most of the caches were easy to find but towards the end of the walk we did DNF a few but think it was possibly more down to our tiredness and lack of light.

Lovely blue sky

Further on in the series we bumped into the c/o DanDruff, it was very nice to meet her and we had a nice chat before finishing off this epic marathon.

Another excellent day in great company, smilies bagged was 112 by myself, but the others found more as I had already found some.