Lights, Camera and a Beer. Manchester Nocturnal Event Cache

Well I hadn't planned on attending this event cache but I'm certainly glad that I did.

Got a phone call of Mum in the morning to say that she was ill and would I go with Dad in her place, and even better, she would babysit the kids. Hmmmm that was about 11ish so I asked the question, so what time would we need to set off. Well about 4.30 was the response, mind racing, damn, I'm working till 4.30 and my kit isn't packed, and worst of all, didn't know where it all was either. Believe me, I'm not normally disorganised but these lastminute.com things send me in a bit of a tizz. So in my 1/2 hour lunch break I dashed around the house, dragging things out of cupboards, stuck the batteries on a quick charge and was sat back at the computer all organised with time to spare.

Although I enjoy taking photos, I've never been really that adventurous with the settings and haven't had the chance to play around with the manual settings, neither have I ever taken photos at night without the use of a flash. Hadn't a clue what to do so got Dad to give me a 5 minute whistle stop tour of the buttons on the camera before we set off.

Arrived in Manchester City Centre with time to spare and wandered over to meet the group. Well what do you look for...a group of people with camera's and tripod's...well yeah, that's exactly what it was like, all stood on the steps busy taking photos of the wheel. I thought I'd give it a try and test out the little bit of knowledge that I had of some of the settings on the camera. Actually I think I did a fairly good job for my first ever attempt.

The wheel at exchange square, Manchester

Got chatting to some of the group as we walked round, in particular Don "The Syllogiser" who had me in stitches for most of the evening...great hat as well!!!

Its amazing what you find out when chatting to people. We met a couple who were visiting from America and their hosts only come from the same village as I live in, it's such a small world. So to Mary of the Oz's, thank you for the lovely keyring, I think I'll be keeping that to myself rather than putting it into a cache.

So on we went, the town hall was next on the agenda and a bonus for the evening was to grab a local cache. Pretty much all of the group descended on the GZ and the log and pen was passed around for all to sign...a great group effort. We stayed around and took a few more pictures before moving on.

The group in front of the town hall

St Anne's Square

Next stop was Central station...I think. We spent quite a long time here taking a variety of shots. Also had to get my gloves out as it was getting incredibly cold :(

Central Station

Although I was getting quite comfortable with the settings, I was struggling a bit without the use of a tripod. The shutter opening for such a long time made it really difficult not to get camera shake and make the pictures blurred. Ahh well, you have to start from somewhere and learn from your mistakes (my excuse)

I'd always wondered how people got those great pics in the dark with the lights streaming from the back of cars...now I know...I tried it and Yippee...I got a photo. Now it may not be the greatest photo in the world but hey, with plenty more practice, I may get a picture that I could be really proud of.

Yay Car Lights!!!

At this point we decided that we had best be making tracks home, we were both starving hungry and had an hours journey to get home, so we bid goodbye to the group and made our way back to the car....detouring into Macdonalds for a large meal.

So a fantastic event cache was over with thanks to Kev AKA Scubaclogger for organising this very unique event. It was great and I hope that there will be many more to come.

Carry on Caching in Holmfirth

WARNING - THE ATTACHED PICTURE IS A SPOILER

So, what do you do when you are trying to get a cache in the middle of a very very busy place on a Saturday afternoon when you are 45 miles as the crow flies from home. Do you decide that its too busy to complete and carry on with the next caches, or do you pretend that you are completely mad and carry on regardless.

For me and my caching companion Greta from the Bignall Boppers, we carried on regardless. Unfortunately neither of us are of a height where we find caches hidden on signs easy. I suppose if you are tall, reaching up for a nano is all in a days work but being no taller than 5', planning and rather a lot of stupidity comes in. This particular cache was hidden on a sign and the only way to retrieve this was to climb the pole...and that is exactly what I did. Easy I hear you say..well yes it was but the embarrassment factor makes it a hell of a lot harder. Like I said, a busy village, which is famous due to a popular programme filmed there and located right next to the main road by the side of the traffic lights.

The retrieval was the easy part, replacing it was a completely different matter as the magnet was no longer in place. Instead it was wedged inside a hole on the side of the pole which is there to site extra signs. So not only did I have to get it in the hole, I needed to wedge it somehow, all with 1 hand as the other was white knuckled and holding on with dear life. Luckily I was also being held up with a hand on my bottom...well it was near norridge bottom so in for a penny in for a pound!

Did I get spotted...more than likely but what the hell, I never saw anyone looking at me strangely, I was too busy with my happy hobby!

Is Autumn finally here??

After we had attended the Derbyshire Crafty Cachers meet at Hartington in Derbyshire, we trotted off to complete a few of the local caches. Some were still awaiting publication but others had been on our to do list for quite sometime. A couple of the caches were in Beresford Dale. We had walked this a few years previously and I recognised the area immediately, more than likely because the river had burst its banks and we had to wade through a field which was under water to continue our walk along to Milldale. I really love this area and although it gets so busy in the summer months, the autumn days seem to be strictly for serious walkers only and is really peaceful. I think I was more interested in taking photos today rather than the caching as I was trying out new settings on the DSLR. The colours are so striking in Autumn, I was hoping to recapture this in picture and I think I finally succeeded today.

Beresford Dale in the Peak District

So with masses of images taken on the camera and a few caches bagged today turned out to be a really successful day for me. Certainly for me its not all about the numbers anymore, although having a few high number days really does make you feel good, but this is what caching is all about. I love it