Piratemania 7

Thursday 24th July

So after having a couple of days turnaround from our trip down South we were to set sail again to the Piratemania Mega Event.
We had booked the camping a few months ago and will be staying at the Cartmel racecourse for 3 nights.
On our way there of course there would be a few diversions and the plan was to get as many of the nearby virtuals as possible. Due to time restrictions a walk up Scaffell Pike and Helvellyn was out of the question so we still have those virtuals left to do.

So a lovely early start in fantastic weather too, our first port of call was Civic Trust (Cumbria).
A quick virtual just off the M6. This is a drive by and the answer is quickly found. An interesting spot with some great views.




Ben near GZ

Stunning views

Next on the list was quite a big diversion in the opposite direction to Cartmel. We headed East to a virtual just off the A66.

Bridge Stone (Cumbria)
Another drive-by virtual in a nice area. Information was easily obtained and we even met other cachers there who took a pic for us.

The bridge

Onwards a bit more North now but in a westerly direction to one I have been looking forward to for ages. It did not disappoint.

Long Meg [Cumbria]
A stone circle that has been around over 4,500 years.
Well this really was a fantastic area and a big reason as to why we love Geocaching. We may have even converted some muggles from Colorado who were over for a few weeks.

Ben, DS & the circle

Long Meg

That was the last one this side of the M6 and next it is the Lake District woohoo.

Ben and I visited the Lake District 2 years ago for the NW Mega at Cartmel and this time we really wanted to show mummy what she missed out on.

First stop was Keswick and a walk along the lovely Derwent water.

George Hodgson
We had trouble parking at the car park due to it being so busy. It is always busy up here but especially when the weather is as gorgeous as it is today.

We headed down from car park and along side the water, it is a stunning walk with the most spectacular views.

The first view from car park

The information was found quickly enough but luckily we looked in the right place for the answers.

Amazing place

Not far from GZ

A quick walk back the the car and then a very short drive to another fantastic location.

Mirror Image (Cumbria)
Just Ben and I went over to this one so we didn't have to park up properly again. This virtual is supposed to get a great photo across the lake with a Mirror Image effect. Unfortunately we couldn't get that effect today but we were able to answer the simple question to claim the find.

An amazing spot

Ben in his element

That was our last virtual of the day and now for something different - a traditional cache with lots of favourite points.

Cathedral Cavern Cache
Cathedral Cavern is a disused quary which has created a beautiful cavern - the size of a Cathedral - with a spectacular pillar and a marvellous window out to the sky (Taken from the cache page)
Finding the cache was easy but that isn't what this cache is all about, the area is amazing.

Inside the cavern

Through the window.

At the back of the cavern you can clamber over some big rocks and up to reach some tunnels, but a torch is required.

The tunnel

This cache definitely deserves all the fave points it gets and is a place we would definitely return.

So apart from a couple of drive by's it was off to Cartmel to settle in with the fellow campers.

All pitched up and ready to rumble.

We had a relaxing couple of ciders before heading across camp for the BBQ event.
Lots of chat with familiar faces and some new ones before our first day was done, a great day and good to be back at this lovely village.

Friday 25th July

Our first morning and second day in the area. We were going to go up Scaffell Pike today but last night we decided against it due to temperatures getting as high as 30 degrees.
So today we spent around Coniston on an epic adventure.

Pirate's Mystery Trail II
A 6 stage 5/5 in blistering heat, are we up for it? hell yes.
This is one of the best caches we have done with every stage in a fantastic location.
We won't spoil it as it is a cache that you won't regret doing but here is a handful of pictures.

A paddle is in order

Ooh a cave?

Water?

Views

Wow

The treasure

It took us a few hours to complete this but it was worth every single minute. Coniston is a stunning location so lots of pics are necessary.

So just this main cache today but we did grab one more cache and then in the evening headed into Cartmel for an evening get together in the Royal Oak Inn.
It is a lovely pub with a very nice Beer Garden. With this event you could book a burger which was cooked on the BBQ and it went down very well. We enjoyed chatting with friends galore and Ben and Blokieblokes lad played in the little stream in the beer garden.

Back at the campsite afterwards we carried on the chatting and swilled down a couple more Cider's before retiring to bed exhausted from the heat.

Saturday 26th July

It's Mega day

Summer Hols - Minehead / Lynton

It's about time that we started to blog again after such a long break.
The Summer hols were full of meeting people and seeing many countries within Europe, we even managed to grab a cache or 2.

We kick-started the holidays with a cheap sun holiday to Butlins Minehead and then added a night at the wonderful campsite "Sunny Lyn" in Lynton.

The caching choice for the Saturday was handpicked as we wanted to grab a couple of Virtuals in South Devon, a Webcam and then a few challenge caches.

The Virtuals - Torquay Round Table & Face it, you're stumped! were very easy and were done in no time. It was still nice to drive around the English Riviera though.



Face it, you're stumped!

We moved on to Teignmouth next and did 4 challenges caches based on having so many favourite points and 1 challenge of completing 100+ caches in a day.

The weather was pretty good down south as it was horrendous in the Midlands so it was nice to pop off to an old favourite seaside town - Exmouth.

Last time we were here was not long after we began caching and at that time we had absolutely no idea how to do a Webcam cache. Thankfully nowadays we do haha.
For those who don't know you have to post an image of yourself that appears on a webcam by taking a screenshot from the relevant website, simple really..

"The Hotspot"

"The Hotspot" webcam is finally grabbed 4 years after wondering what to do.
A few drive-by caches now so that we can get back to Butlins for some Ben-time.

All Revved Up.

Ben loves Butlins, as do most kids as there is that much to do. Thankfully he isn't fussed about the night time entertainment so the rest of the night was spent relaxing outside the pub on site.


Sunday was an easy day with a 5/5 and 2 old caches planned, but they were so worth it.
First off was Exe View (Somerset) which was placed in May 2002. We had to take a short walk up a very overgrown path to GZ and it was a simple find.  The next one A Winters Tale was a multi placed in July 2003. It was easy enough to get the information but the walk to GZ and then GZ itself was truly fantastic, which is often the case for the older caches.

Next up was the highlight of the day Look into the Light which is a 5/5 puzzle cache.
We are not going to say much about it except for that it definitely needs bookmarking.
Here's a couple of pics:

Look into the Light

Look into the Light

By the time we had completed the challenge set and got back to the car it was very warm so we decided to head back so we could grab a couple of Ciders and allow Ben to run around the playground. A perfect way to end the afternoon all round we think.

Monday started off with a huge breakfast before setting off for the lovely Lynton/Lynmouth area. The drive along the coast is just sensational, we did a couple of drive by's on the way and a YOSM in which got Kate appearing on the cache page.

Countisbury Hill YOSM

 

View from YOSM

Next we carried on to the wonderful campsite Sunny Lyn to pitch our tent before heading off to do a simply wonderful series Hunter's Hike.
The views on this walk really are breathtaking, the walk takes you high above the valley, along the North Devon coastline, up a quiet country lane, down through woodlands and along the river Heddon.

Getting Higher up

At the coast

What a great footpath

Don't get many coastlines better than this.

Into the valley

This is definitely one of the best walks we have done and we were fortunate to have wonderful sunshine the whole way. All 25 caches were found and we all went back to the campsite happy.

Sunny Lyn is one of the best UK campsites we have stayed at. We all enjoyed a nice lazy couple of hours drinking our drinks which we chilled in the river at the end of our pitch.

Chilling the drinks

Pre-water fight

We popped into Lynmouth as we had promised Ben a fish and chip tea and afterwards took a walk in the evening to the nearest pub and had a quick drink there before heading back to the tent.

Chips on the seafront

Lynmouth

Tuesday - Our last day, so after enjoying a Full English breakfast in the site café we packed up the tent before taking in one more series and then heading home.

Yer Tis is another series next to the Hunter's Hike one and another lovely walk was enjoyed. It wasn't quite as scenic but still fantastic to walk in hot sunshine.
We had our first dnf on the trip as we did the walk but it turned out that it was missing so not all bad.



More views on Yer Tis series.

So after a tiring walk in the heat it was time to say goodbye to North Devon and head back home to prepare for our next trip to Piratemania on Thursday.