Warwickshire Wanderings

The main target for the day was the Stag Ramblers new Kington Lane Loop series. The weather was forecast to be very wet, but clearing up later in the day.

We drove down the M6 to the parking location in steady rain and donned our waterproofs, including our new waterproof trousers, which were on their first outing. We'd seen the comments on the logs about the mud on the walk and expected it to be worse today - it was!

The walk was in some really beautiful countryside and I bet it's an absolute cracker on a sunny summer's day, with a nice stop for a picnic part way round. Today it was still a great walk, but very wet and with tons of standing water everywhere.

All the caches were easy enough. The highlights of the walk were:

1. Number 5, where GZ was under at least a foot of water, so I sent Isaac off shimmying along the fence to grab the nano.He really enjoyed the challenge :-).
   
2. Number 8, where there was so much water that the track was more like a stream. The cache was the trickiest find of the walk by far.
3. Number 12: we made a right hash of getting to this one and had to bushwhack our way through lots of brambles. One of these days we'll learn to read the instructions on the cache page!

After the series was completed, the rain had stopped, so we set off to clear up some of the newer caches in the area. Lots of Sidetracked caches round here to find, along with some familiar locations from old Wykenwizard caches.

We ended the day with a run around the new M42 caches in the SE corner of Brum before heading homewards. On the way back I dropped Isaac off at his Grandparents in Blymhill as myself and Mrs Bolas Heathens are out at some friends for dinner this evening.

32 finds in total today and another fun day out that we both enjoyed.

Earthcache published!

Our new Earthcache has just been published. It's at one of our favourite places in the Peak District - Windgather Rocks, in between Macclesfield and Buxton.

We were a bit worried about the proximity issue as a Traditional cache is 488ft from the stated co-ords and had seen the following quote from Deceangi on the NW Caching forums:

Geoaware is stricter on proximity than I am, if a Earthcache is within 528ft of a existing cache. He requires that you obtain permission off the cache owner for the location of yours.

We'd even emailed the owner of the Traditional cache nearby as suggested, but have not heard back from them. Luckily it was not a problem and the cache is now live.

I wonder who will be FTF as it's in an area we've not set a cache in before.

Cache Clearup in South Shropshire

We still had the need to find some caches after yesterday's half-day caching in Brum so planned a trip to try and find the new Lollybob caches around Bridgnorth.

On the way, we stopped off to find the three new Rabbit Run caches on the road between Telford and Dudley. We've no idea what the first one was about as it was a very convoluted puzzle with multiple answers, but a bit of lateral thinking soon put us on the right tracks.

Then, it was back into Highgate Common woods for the three new Trick or Treat caches. The first one "The Legend" was a really funny container - glad no muggles saw us holding it as it would have been a tricky one to explain our way out of.

After that, a nice easy one, followed by one we could not find. We were just on the verge of giving up when we heard someone shout "what are you doing in those bushes!". It was Diane, Ron, Billie and Ben from The Washers. Great to meet you all again. We joined forces and Isaac soon came up trumps with the cache in a place we'd not checked (as it only partially matched the hint).

The Washers were planning most of the same caches as us today, so we set off in convoy to find the rest of them. 

A few easy caches later and we arrived at St Georges Flute. I won't give away what is involved here, but suffice to say some special equipment is needed. We all set off carrying a variety of things - another one where we'd not want to meet muggles as they would wonder what the heck we were all up to.

We had great fun getting the cache, with an initial attempt ending millimetres from the cache. Second time lucky, but not before dropping some of our special equipment, which rolled down into a nearby stream. We had to be quick to rescue it!

After that, we said our goodbye's to The Washers and headed off to Severn Valley County Park for the two new caches there. Lovely walking in this park with some great views of the big river.

On the way back home, we stopped to bag the new Earthcache in Bridgnorth and then onwards to the final cache of the day - Severn View, near Buildwas. Great views over the river from here, made all the more special by the sun setting over the hills in the background.

We were now perfectly timed to make our way to Freya's dancing school Christmas show, which was not too far away.

A great day out, made all the better by the great company of The Washers. 19 find in total.

A trip to Brum

On Saturday, we were due to meet up with Mrs Bolas Heathens cousins and children, to go on our annual jaunt to the Symphony Hall in Birmingham to see the Police Symphony Orchestra and the children's concert they put on for Christmas.

Myself and Isaac were dying to get some caches in, so set off first thing in the morning (not too early as we're not morning people!) to bag as many caches as we could near the city centre before the concert.

Our main aim for the day was the Ring A Ring A Ring Road series, which is set round Brum's middle ring road, with the bonus cache somewhere in the city centre. We'd planned to also bag the new Brummie Cut cache and a short diversion down to Bourneville along the way.

All started off well, with an easy find of the Brummie Cut cache and the first Ring Road cache. The latter was especially satisfying as we had a DNF on that one in the summer.

The next two Ring Road caches were DNF's and we were starting to think we'd lost our touch. It turns out the first one had been muggled and we just did not look hard enough on the second - doh!

After that, we had a successful diversion to Bourneville and back, finding the new caches along the way. The only fly in the ointment was the Sidetracked cache at the University as there was nowhere to park.

We then headed off to find The Strangler's puzzle cache, which was at a fab location not too far from the city centre.

A few more caches later, and we'd found all the Ring Road caches and had the co-ords for the bonus plotted. Time to go and see our concert now :-).

After the concert, we walked into the city centre for some food, but not before finding a cache right by the BBC Mailbox studios and then the bonus cache of the Ring Road series.

A good day out, but our caching itch has not been fully scratched for this week so we're planning a trip out tomorrow as well. 20 cache finds in total.

New Earthcache Submitted

We've just submitted our first Earthcache to earthcache.org. The form says to allow up to 10 days to get a response so we'll be patiently waiting to see what they say.

Hopefully all will be ok and it will be fine as it is. 

The only potential problem I can see is there is a Traditional cache 488ft from the stated co-ords. It's very obvious which cache is which so we're hoping that will not cause a problem as the usual proximity guidelines do not seem to apply for earthcaches.

Earthcache confusion

We're thinking of setting up an Earthcache and have the perfect location in mind.

Our main gripe is it's not exactly clear what the process involved is. We know you have to submit the details at www.earthcache.org and then a member of the Geological Society of America reviews it and if it's ok:

1. They create a cache page on GC.com for it.
2. You adopt the listing over from them.
3. At some point (either before or after 2) above, they publish the listing on GC.com

We've also heard that it can take a few weeks for it to go live, assuming all is ok with your submission. Not a problem as I'm sure they have their work cut out for them with reviewing all Earthcaches submitted anywhere in the world.

Watch this space...

Middlewood Circular 3 and the edge of the Peak District

On Saturday, we returned to the Macclesfield area to finish off the Middlewood Circular series of caches. Part 3 of the series had been published during the week so we were looking forward to finding them.

We drove up through Congleton to Macclesfield and opted to park up for the caches in between Bollington and Macclesfield. Out came the bikes and off we set. 

All were easy finds, like the previous ones in the series. At the Trail End cache, we had a laugh as there was a big blue portaloo sat by one of those huge circular gas canister thingies. Everywhere was shrounded in fog this morning, so the scene looked very atmospheric and like something out of a Dr Who set.

A while later, while on the canal leg, we spotted theblackwidow by one of the caches so stopped for a nice geo-chat. That's the second time we've bumped into her while out caching (the first time was while doing the Brummie Cut series).

After we'd finished stage 3 of the series, we drove off to clear up the two DNF's from last weekend on stage 2 of the series. Can't believe how we missed the Iron Bridge one last week as it was a very easy find this time and was in plain sight, if you looked in the right direction.

At the final one of the series (Wood End), we bumped into yet more cachers - nice to meet you M'over Arrows :-).

We then headed off up into the hills at the back of Macc to clear up a few between Macc and Buxton as they had been on our list for too long. The highlight of these was walking up out of the fog into a beautiful day with clear blue skies at a cache called Mineshead Revisited.

It started to go dark but we still fancied a few more caches, so cranked up the big torches and carried on. 

After doing the easier Macc Forest caches (will be back for the harder ones in the daylight), we headed off to grab a quick final cache on Alderley Edge. This turned out to be a trickier find than we expected, especially given it was such a big box.

We're now well positioned for the road through Holmes Chapel and onwards to home. Another great day out, with 30 finds and no DNF's :-).