GOTN - Ghost of the Navigator Series

Today we completed 11 caches, 8 of them belonging to the GOTN series on and around the Tissington Trail. In each of the 8 caches are clues for a bonus cache to be collected. We will find out what they are on the way round.

The weather was as usual murky, typical of the Great British Summer. We had all our kit with us and were actually wearing our waterproofs when we started the walk for a change. The dogs were wet within about 5 minutes of starting.

First cache was only around 360ft from where we parked the car on the side of the road in a layby (why pay for parking to walk 200ft less). The series was one with no clues so you have to trust the GPSr and hope that the co-ords are pretty spot on and trust your instincts as to where someone would hide a cache. This one was fairly easy and located just over a drystone wall.

Next was a fairly easy walk through open fields onto the road. There has been so much rain over the last few days that the lane was flooded. we had a short walk to the next cache however the GPS was pointing us through a church yard which really is a big no-no. So a quick rethink took us back to the road. Sometimes it just helps to stand back and take a look around and this was the case with this one. I spotted a lot of footprints in the mud by the wall and on closer inspection, there was the cache.

Next one was a bit of a nightmare, just a huge hill and with the cloud being very low you couldnt see much of the lovely countryside that I know thats around. We continued over the fields picking up the next few caches before we turned back onto the road and onwards back to the trail. By this time we were pretty wet, the dogs were soggy but happy prancing around.

We took a bit of a detour to pick up another cache along the way before heading back for the last few of the series. Most of the caches were fairly easy finds apart from 1. Not that it was a hard cache but the terrain was most challenging. The banks were really slippery and Mum came a right cropper on it really hurting her shoulder. Sometimes you really do risk life and limb if you're not careful or sensible.

The last caches in the series were uneventful and to be honest, we were glad they were finished as we were all soaking wet.

We now have the SOTN series to complete before picking up the bonus cache and knowing the terrain of the area....this is one to be left for a sunnier day.

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?????

Burbage Edge, Derbyshire - 27/07/09

Milestone Cache - 1000th Find

After managing to complete 42 finds on Saturday with the Bignall Boppers I was up to 999 finds and I wanted to find a really good cache to mark my milestone. We had planned to attend the Piratemania cache event on the Sunday but on waking the Great British weather had struck again. It was pouring with rain so a rethink was in order. After checking the met office weather forecast it was decided that Monday was probably the best day this week to go cache hunting so up came the thought of a cache that I have been wanting to complete for ages and had been sat on my to-do bookmark list - GCJA3V Jonah's Journey on Froggatt Edge in the Peak District.

Monday morning arrived and as usual it was pouring with rain but by lunchtime it had eased off and the sun was beginning to shine through. We packed the waterproofs in the rucksack, got the geokids, the geodog and the Bignall Boppers in the car (Bit of a squeeze for a Ford Focus) and off we set. By the time we reached the parking area for the cache, the sun was glorious and it was warm enough for t-shirts.

We set off with about 2 miles of walking before we reached Ground Zero, the dogs were having a whale of a time jumping up and down on the rocks and even the girls were happy with the scenery and the not to difficult walk. They were excited as we had told them about the cache beforehand and they wanted to be fully involved.

At the GZ - The co-ords on the GPS took us straight to this one no messing, but theres always a bit of apprehension....is this the right spot....especially for a cache that is rated 5/5 - the most difficult there is. But here it was, a not so big hole between the rocks that we were going to have to go down. First of all John of the Boppers went down the hole first, closely followed by myself. Maybe it would have been a better idea to have bought some climbing type shoes along with me as walking boots maybe aren't the best things to go rock climbing in. But in for a penny in for a pound..it just had to be done.

Actually the find was relatively easy, John got to the cache first and passed it up to me and I climbed back out of the hole to show the kids the cache. The cache was a good one, a nice sturdy old ammunition box holding quite a lot of trinkets for swaps. This is the bit the kids always like, having a good rummage through and seeing if there is anything they want to swap and take home with them.


The girls were really excited now so it was time to rope them up and teach them some new skills (always comes in handy later in life). They had a great time and both enjoyed the experience, just as we all did. All in all it was a fantastic cache in a really beautiful location and the other bonus for us was that there were other caches for us to complete on the way back to the car.

8 caches were completed in total that day as the Garmin Nuvi located a few drive by's as we were going past.



Fab day,
Claire
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