Awwww little Squidgy

Couldn't resist posting this as I love this picture. I'm really chuffed with it as I took it myself in London and the Squidgy was quite happy to keep on posing whilst I got closer and closer to it. Just after I got this shot, a baby squidgy came running right towards me. I held me hand out to it and he came closer but me being a scaredy cat pulled my hand away to quick (Well I didn't want to end up fingerless did I?) He most probably would have ended up on my hand. The squirrels are so friendly in the parks there, it was a joy to just sit, watch and take pictures.

Hope you like it as much as I do.

Graffiti Art

GC1FPRV - Banksy woz 'ere

This was the second cache that we had completed in London after getting off the train at Waterloo. As we had come from the sidetracked cache we had to walk through this tunnel to the GZ. I must admit, I didn't know what to expect apart from a horrible dingy tunnel under the tracks. Imagine our surprise when we went through the most colourful place ever imagined. The art on the wall was absolutely amazing and obvious that a lot of time and effort had gone into creating it. I must admit that I would much rather have art adorning walls than the usual spray painted names scrawled everywhere and I'm pleased that there is a specific place for graffiti artists to show off their art. Maybe all towns and cities should adopt this principle although I'm sure that many wouldn't share this view and would say that it cost the tax payer millions to get rid of the rubbish. Maybe take a look at the photos below and you decide. I wish I had taken more photos of it as this is only a tiny part of the tunnel.

Spray Paint city

The cache itself was out of the tunnel and was quite an easy find. Whilst we were signing the log, Kyla shouts that there was a mouse, we all jumped and looked and within 10 feet there was the cutest little field mouse ever. What a strange sight though, A field mouse in a city surrounded by concrete rather than grass and hedges. Poor little devil.

The JACK's cache London!!!

Ahhh here I am again after not having anything to write about as I haven't been doing much caching over the last few weeks, so I thought it was about time to put fingers to keyboard again. Now that I'm sitting here and thinking what to write, I realise that I have actually missed my blog, nearly as much as I miss my trips out caching. For me writing about my exploits is part and parcel of my addiction to caching. I just can't get enough of it.

Our first caching expedition in what seemed like ages took us to London. A few weeks ago I promised the geokids a trip away to somewhere that was their choice and after what seemed like forever they both decided that the would like to visit the Imperial War Museum. Rather than take them to Manchester we thought it would be a great idea to go further afield and take them to the city to show them the sights. I've never seen the girls so excited leading up to a trip, it got so bad that they could hardly sleep. On the journey down it felt like I had a pair of crickets in the back of the car chirping away.

We arrived at our destination mid Friday evening and settled in to our travelodge. What we didn't realise at the time was the travelodge that we had chosen was situated in such a great place for easy access to the city. Secure carparking right next to the hotel and the train station to Waterloo just 3 minutes walk. We also had a 24 hour ASDA right next door to us. What more could you ask for.

Day one, Saturday morning we were up bright and early and with a hearty breakfast inside us we all trooped to the station.

The Girls at Feltham Station ready for the day

We caught the train from Feltham to Waterloo station where we met up with one of my very old friends Greg and his partner Lorraine. For a number of months now, Greg has constantly taken the mickey out of me for my geocaching addiction so imagine my surprise when he said that he had bought himself a GPSr and that he wanted to join in the fun of caching. I jumped right on this and throughout the day we managed to complete a total of 10 caches whilst seeing the sights of London. Greg and Lorraine now are fully addicted to this great hobby and even went out the next day and completed a couple more caches on their own. Thats it Greg....mickey taking over matey....when's our next trip?

We R Lost 2, The Bignall Boppers & Leprechaun JACK

Outside the Lyceum Theatre

The girls really enjoyed seeing the London Eye, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. They were also impressed with Horseguards parade and pretended to march across the parade square then giggled as they tried to tick tock, which had us falling around in laughter. We then ventured along Pall Mall towards Buckingham Palace before hopping on the tube train to take us to Covent Garden. This was probably one of their highlight as they had never been on a tube train before. We finished our day stuffing our faces with a Macdonalds in Leicester Square before making our way back to our hotel tired but happy.

The Girls outside the barracks

Day 2 had us visiting the Imperial War Museum. By the time we had packed, loaded the car, had breakfast and travelled, it was nearly lunch time. They couldn't wait to have a look round and to learn things that they could share with their class mates. This term they are learning about World War 2 so although it might have been surprising that 2 girls would choose a war museum to visit on a weekend, there was a good reason why. They certainly weren't disappointed with what they saw. Our favourite part about the whole day was the Blitz Experience and although we had to queue for about 20 minutes to get in, they were still enthusiastic. We went into a little room which was all made to look like the interior of an Anderson Shelter and listened to the voice of the warden with the sounds of aircraft above and bombs going off all around us. It felt very real especially when there seemed to be a bomb going off right beside us and all of the seats jolted us forward making everyone jump and scream. We then went on a tour of what it would have looked like when they left the Anderson Shelters after the bomb had hit. We walked along a cobbled street with houses demolished all around us and fires burning in the distance. What a fabulous exhibition that was and very real.

The Imperial War Museum

We took a break mid afternoon to go back outside for fresh air and couldn't resist finding the nearby cache in the Tibetian Peace Garden. The area was just as it said, very very peaceful and a place for quiet contemplation, not rally the place to be rummaging around in bushes I suppose, but nontheless, a fabulous place to hide a micro.

Tibetian Peace Garden

Unfortunately it was all too soon time to leave the museum and head towards home, but not before walking the 0.35miles to Elephant and Castle for another cache before catching the tube back into London and onwards from Waterloo back to Feltham. We then had the long drive back to the midlands and after eating a lovely dinner in a small village somewhere near Marlow, we joined the M40 northbound and ticked off the miles. Within minutes the girls were softly snoring in the back of the car signifying a happy but tiring trip. When will we return.....knowing the girls, they will want it very soon.

OOOO What a Trig!!!

High Bent, Lask Edge, Biddulph Moor, Staffordshire

The last time that I drove past this trig it was a horrible rainy day. So when the sun came out today I thought it was an ideal opportunity to stop and log this trig. I have been driving past this particular trig for many many years and never once stopped.

I'm sure you will agree that the views are spectacular. The photograph is overlooking Cheshire and Derbyshire but you get 360 degree views from here. You can see the Cheshire Plains with Jodrell Bank in the distance and Mow Cop. Looking in the other direction you can see the Roaches and the Staffordshire Moorlands.

High Bent Trig Point

TP 3772

WM775Q

If you have been reading my blog for sometime you will know that I have recently started both trigpointing and waymarking. So on returning home I logged my find on trigpointing and then set about getting this published as a waymark.

Galavanting in Gawsworth

GC1Y8ZD - The Dark Lady's Cache by Dillon the Dog

What a glorious day to go galavanting. After picking up a few of the local caches we ended up in Gawsworth, Cheshire to complete a multi cache that had recently been published. I have to admit that I have never been to Gawsworth before and didn't know what to expect but was really pleased when I arrived. We pulled up by the first stage, the Lych Gate by St James' Church and within minutes another car pulled up...cachers I wondered but no they weren't. Obviously just a very pleasant place to pull up for a natter.

Lych Gate

Our mission was to find the gravestones and gather information to find the final cache. The Church yard was pretty big with 100's of headstones and we just wandered around reading everything. We even found a couple of headstones with my surname and wonder if we are related in anyway at all. Actually this stage took us ages as we were so interested in some of the headstones and one of the kids piped up that we had been looking for 35 minutes. Now even they were interested in it all and were quite happy trying to help us. One of the interesting ones that we had to find was Tatiana who was the daughter of a Count and Countess and when we found it we were pleasantly surprised that she had been born in St Petersburg and the top part of the headstone was in Russian.

We eventually found all of the information and calculated the final which turned out to be only about 500ft away. The cache was a fairly easy find although I found myself monkeying around again. I sometimes wish I was taller so that I could reach the caches a bit more easily but then that wouldn't be half as much fun would it.

Whilst we were at the church we found a cut bench mark located to the right of the front entrance so as I'm also interested in waymarking I decided to mark the co-ordinates so that I could research this when I got home and maybe post a waymark.

Cut Bench Mark

When I got around to researching the church it was amazing how much it was steeped in History. There was once a Norman Church built in the 13th Century located on the site of the newer church. The church is Medieval and the oldest part of the church dates from 1430. It is also a Grade 1 listed building. Apparantly it is also haunted and the ghost of Mary often wanders around the road ways near to the church. She was one of the daughters of of Sir Edward Fitton, 1st baronet, and his wife Anne who died in 1619 and 1644 respectively whose tomb is situated in the Church. It is said that Mary, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth I and was a candidate for the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets.

                                     

St James' Church, Gawsworth

I also found out that the cross in the grounds of the church is also listed and dates to the same age as the original church. The Cross has carvings of animals which represents the expulsion of evil spirits. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of this for which I'm kicking myself for so I feel another trip coming on to the church. The Gate posts in the photo above date from the 18th Century and are Grade 2 listed. The posts have engravings of Skull and Cross Bones on them.

We decided to complete another cache within the area so hopped back in the car and drove to the parking spot. Whilst passing through the centre of the village I saw a triangular lawn with a cross and memorial on it. So as usual when I see unusual things, I stopped the car and got out for a closer look. I was really interested to see a World War I Monument on the green, also behind this was some sort of stone plinth and across from it was an old water pump. I didn't pay much attention to either the stone plinth of the water pump but did take some pictures as I was more interested in the monument. However when I went to research this momument, the one thing that did take me by surprise was the history behind the plinth. I found out that it was a Medieval Preaching Cross and is not only listed as a scheduled monument, its also a National Monument with English Heritage.

Medieval Preaching Cross

Standing Crosses are usually of stone and date from the medieval period, mid 10th to mid 16th centuries AD. They served a variety of purposes from places of prayer and pilgrimage to places of public proclamation. At one time, there were over 12,000 of these crosses throughout Britain but many were destroyed during the reformation. There are now less than 2000 crosses remaining, many incomplete.

World War I Monument

So for me today has not only been about grabbing those caches. Its also been a day of research and learning about the local history. It's funny, when I was at school, I hated everything about History and its only now that I'm really beginning to appreciate what came before. I honestly wish I had payed more attention as actually it really is interesting.

A Great TB Hotel

A50 Temporary Respite Home for Travel Bugs

GC15P7A

Well I have to say that I'm probably very very biased on this one as 2 years ago when I was part of the Bignall Boppers team, I was involved in placing this one.

But it is still very much worth a mention as this is a cache that is found on a regular basis due to where it is situated. To date it has had 183 visits and 42 notes posted as it is used time and time again to drop off bugs by repeat visitors.

The cache is situated just off one of the major roundabouts in Uttoxeter and has parking within 50 metres of the cache. It is accessible for both East and Westbound traffic giving TB's a good place to hide before a longer journey. The cache is a large ammunition box and is full of goodies. After my visit this morning it now has 9 extra Geocoins and 2 extra Travel Bugs in it. I hope they get picked up and moved on soon.

What's in a Geocaching name?

My geocaching name started off as somthing where we put our initials together which at the time was JACK. I was trying to think of something which went well with JACK and ended up coming up with Leprechaun.

I think it represents us quite well really as Leprechauns are known for being very mischievous, quick witted little elves. He is also known to carry 2 pouches one with a silver coin and 1 with a gold coin. A little bit like us with our caching bags, 1 full of swaps and the other one for geocoins and TB's. Leprechauns also like to avoid being caught, which is also true for us...we don't like being caught by muggles and will use our quick wittedness to try and blag our way out of a situation.


Leprechaun also means small body and yeah thats us as well. I have barely made it to 5ft tall and am often referred to as munchkin or shorty and I'm sure my kids aren't going to be giants either.

None of us are cobblers though but hey...I have one hell of a liking for shoes and my wardrobe just isn't big enough to house my collection.

So all in all, we are pretty like a leprechaun so a perfect name for us really.

It would be lovely to find out what's in your name, how did you come up with it and does it have any special meaning to you?

Caching in Rudyard, Staffordshire

Caches around Rudyard Lake

We had really wanted our day trip out as being on our mountain bikes doing some trails however we never got round to doing the planning for it. I had a night out last night with the girls in Stafford and in the early hours of the morning, the last thing that I wanted to be doing was running pocket queries and getting myself ready for what wasn't even the next day. So it ended up as a day clearing the local caches with my parents of The Bignall Boppers. I was feeling rather groggy the whole of the day through lack of sleep and anyone who knows me knows of my love of sleep. I can sleep for England!!!!

Rudyard Lake Station

Now we all are very familiar with this particular area as we have spent a lot of time here and my parents lived here for a while so when we discovered that one of the caches was disabled as it had the wrong co-ords published we thought we would go looking for it. Named the Kissing Gate, we knew pretty much where it would be and we weren't disappointed. We had a really easy find on this one which allowed us to complete the rest of the caches with ease. Only until we returned home did we find that another one had been published after the pocket query had been run the night before. Doh..that means another trip back to a place that we have cleared of caches.

The Canal Feeder

The walk to the other caches was a nice peaceful one especially the Canal Feeder cache. Along a small footpath with a stream running by the side of it. This one was a regular cache and was a lovely quick find. I sat myself on the bridge when the log was handed to me and ended up nettling my back. Every countryside cache I go to, I always get stung!!. Horrid things these nettles and I'm sure, the cachers worst nightmare.

Steam Train

The station is right by the parking co-ords given and runs every weekend and holidays up the lake and back. Its so lovely to see and hear the steam train chugging by. They even do special gala events such as Santa's Steam, Easter Egg specials and Halloween events. Trips generally cost about £3.50 for adults and £2 for children for a 3 mile return journey. Not bad!!!

At our trip to Rudyard we found the 3 caches that we had planned on completing and found a further 7 throughout the afternoon.

Caching Curtailed...but only slightly!!!!

Well today see's me back in work for my second day after having 8 weeks off work. I'm not going to go into details of the reason why I have been off for that long but needless to say, I wasn't on Annual Leave.

The last 8 weeks have been pretty tough but one of the thing's that has got me back on track has been the trips out caching. I have to say, I don't feel at all guilty for all the caching that I have done lately (around 500) especially when I can put it down to .... "Doctor's orders".  She did tell me that exercise is good for me and that I must do the things that I enjoy doing. So that's caching. I have been out on long walks but they have all been arranged around the amount of caches in a particular area. I've also got back into cycling and have done trails with caches on....all good for your health.

But now what am I going to do without being able to cache all week. Well one thing I have learnt is the importance of a really good work/life balance. I've made lots of changes so if I want to cache after work, then the washing up can wait and there is still the weekends. The kids have also got a new found interest in caching after I got them their own swap bags, so now its no longer...."do we have to mummy?" to .."Yeah OK...now where did I put my swap bag"? But then theres always every other weekend when they are with their Dad. So I get to do "Long haul caching" and stay up late!!!

So, would you say that I was obsessed with caching....well so what if I am!!! I'm fit, I'm healthy and I'm happy, and if thats what caching does to you, then who am I to argue!

Wicked Cache

Well this one has to be one of my all time favourites. I'm not going to give away any details of its location or what you need to do to log the cache as all will become clear (or maybe not) if and when, you ever find this cache.

I just had to write about it as it's ingenius and certainly wasn't what we were expecting when we arrived. We were expecting just a normal traditional cache as in keeping with the rest of the series that had been published over the last month or so. We arrived at the GZ and found the container almost immediately however logging the cache wasn't that simple as there was no log.....or was there? After a few minutes of scratching our heads we had a brain wave and bingo...log found. So all signed and replaced again we were still chuckling over what a different and strange cache this was.

These are the types of caches that I love finding and over the last 4 days we have seen some pretty good ones. Glad to see that these caches are filtering in to our local area.

Special thanks to the team that thought of this....won't name you as it will give the cache away but if you read this, you know who you are. Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant.