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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Middlewich Favourite

GC1KXRP - Big Lock Pound - Croxton aqueduct and Flash by Bargee

This one was our favourite cache of the day for many reasons. We parked on the layby alongside the main road and had a very short walk to the canal. Kyla my eldest is always reluctant to do caches by canals as for some reason she is fearful of falling in, so we had to coax her a little.

The walk along the canal started just like any other canal but a short wander around the bend and it opened up into Croxton Flash. It was such a surprise and made even more lovely by the fading light. The Canadian Geese were all marching in a group out of the water and up the field, there looked like there were hundreds of them, all on a mission.

At this time of evening it was relatively quiet with only the odd dog walker around. Within no time we were at the GZ and a short search later we had the cache in hand. The girls were extremely pleased to see a big container so grabbed the cache to see what they could swap. This is what keeps them interested in caching and both have their own swap bags full of goodies. The adults in the group all like the larger caches as it gives us a chance to move the TB's and Geocoins around and all too often we are finding micro's just plonked at the side of roads with no thought at all.

The return walk was very quick and all in all it was about a mile round walk. A great cache, recommended to all.


Information Board


Croxton Flash


Kyla and Alleghnee at the GZ with the Cache

Biking the Forgotten Track

GC1T3VD Forgotten Track Series - Start

What a great series to do on a Mountain Bike. A nice flat track which we clocked as being 5.4 miles long having the added bonus of having 12 caches along the way. For the beer enthusiasts there is even a pub half way along. We decided that we were going to go straight past this today though even though the weather was lovely enough to sit in the beer garden and have a nice long glass of the cold stuff.

All of the caches were easy finds for us, most being rock micros although there were some small caches for swaps along the way. The track runs from the edge of Stafford near the castle all the way to Gnosall in South Staffs. Lucky for us today it was nice and quiet and we were able to search undisturbed by muggles.

We completed the series in under 2 hours and made our way back along the track to the car. The return 5.4 miles was completed in just 20 minutes, all of us having a nice steady speed of 16 mph. We even rumbled a couple of cachers from Essex trying to look discreet with their GPS but any cacher can spot another cacher a mile off. It was great to spend 10 minutes chatting about the joys of caching before continuing to the car.

A nice couple of hours out finished off by another 3 caches in the centre of Stafford.



The Forgotten Track



Me and My Bike



Logging one of the finds

Keele Caches

GC1QR5N Dead Roman's Society
This was my second cache of the day. I parked in the Students Union carpark, a place that I've been to many times. Got out the trusty GPSr and followed the arrow. Well this is where I made my first mistake, as I had come into the woods in the wrong place and made a right old hash of it. I looked at the clue as where I was the co-ords seemed to be right out. Yep I'd gone through a tunnel and to a clearing but no cache. So I phoned a friend who had completed the cache and it all turns out that I was through the wrong tunnel. It seems bizaare that there would be tunnels in a wood like this but hey, there was a few. So after a few instructions I found where I was supposed to be and to be honest, I really should have trusted my GPS as the co-ords were pretty spot on. What a wonderful place to visit, it was amazing. There was a bridge with 4 little archways on it and up above was the tunnel that I had gone through. I so wish I had taken my camera for this one but I really wasnt expecting anything so spectacular especially on a university campus. This cache comes highly recommended from me.


GC14P9Y Keele Woods and Mud
This was my next on the list after Dead Roman's Society and thankfully I found the right track immediately. Another surprise for me, I hadn't realised there was a really impressive hall on the campus. The walk took us right past the hall and into the grounds passing a really lovely lake. I was fully expecting to get into the woods and as the title said....so get caked in mud. I found that the path had recently been done properly with a hardcore surface so was able to walk there with nice clean shoes. Got to the GZ and started looking at the likely places but nothing so resorted to the clue. I'm glad I did as my GPSr was showing 120ft out when I finally located the cache. The woods were really quiet so searching wasn't an issue.
Again the walk back was even more impressive as you got the full view of the hall with its lake and little weir with stepping stones going across it. What an ace place. Caches that I would certainly recommend.

In total I completed 10 local caches today, ones which had been on my closest to home for such a long time. There are many more to get around the area, but I keep being pulled to other areas.

Tomorrow is another caching day, I'm all prepped and have planned a couple of Earth Caches, about 18 traditionals and 5 Virtuals. We shall see if we get round to them all...especially with all the pups in tow. And this time I won't be forgetting my camera.

Fun Caching

GC1VK8N - Splish, Splash Cache & Dash






This has to be my favourite cache of the whole weekend. It definately begs the question "What would you do to get a cache"?. Luckily for a few, it was completed when the fountain was switched off, but for the rest of us great fun was had, not only grabbing the cache ourselves, but watching the fun of others doing it as well.

Etruria Industrial Museum

Yay managed to get out and do a geocache even though the rain has struck us again.

With the girls at their Grandparents I went off to a morning appointment and on getting back I just managed to be in time for them to be going off to get a cache. So in the car I jumped...will we get first to find I wonder....I doubted it as the cache had been published a while before.

We arrived at the location and luckily the car park was quiet. Thats the problem with urban caches, there's always a chance that you won't be able to hunt for the container as doing so would put it at risk.

Surprisingly the gps was pointing us away from the museum and out onto the main road which was a shame as I've never visited it before despite being on my doorstep. Maybe thats a trip for another day. The cache find was quite an easy one really, hidden on a metal archway and unless you actually know what you are looking for, it would never be found by accident. Generally I'm not a fan of these hides, little magnetic nano containers that are the size of your fingernail and only containing a tiny log, just big enough to put the date and your initials. I much prefer a nice long hike across the moors or in the open countryside with nice big containers to find...but hey you can't have it all ways and these are good for the numbers.

But as a walker.....its not all about the numbers!!!!!! Or is it?????