Tag Archives: whereigo

challenge cache, hq duck dash, road trip, solo

Day #379 – Chorley Challenges

Monday, 8th August 2016 Caz

Trad: 10 Multi: 1 Challenge: 6 Letterbox: 1
Whereigo: 1
Walked: 10.7 miles

Chorley has lots of Challenge caches in the area with tasty DT ratings. I had been planning a visit here a few months ago but it never came off in the end. But heading a little further north from the Mega in Wales seemed like a good plan, to extend my caching trip by a day.

I had selected a variety of Challenges and other interesting caches in the vicinity to target. Euxton was a pretty village with a cache at the crossroads. Just as I parked the car, the heavens opened – but I didn’t have to wait long until it had stopped to make the find.

Little Quacker wanted to help out at the Zootime Challenge, ducks especially welcome!

One of my main objectives for the day was Chorley Challenge #1 – Bring it Back, a D5/T4.5 which would add another tick to that box in the DT square. It involved grovelling under a bridge on the banks of a muddy river. The rain was back again. It wasn’t too bad, I only got slightly filthy in the process!

Various other challenges around about were collected, plus another Letterbox in a new county, and finally a Whereigo at Astley Hall, A Classic Conundrum. I knew exactly how to solve it as it was similar to the Whereigo I did with Gilly in Llangollen last week, but annoyingly, it involved walking most of the way around the lake to get from one zone to the other and back again. It took ages!

I finished caching around Chorley at about 5pm but had organised my route home from there to dip into four new counties on the way. The SatNav then took me a very silly way home and I arrived at just gone midnight, thoroughly wishing for my bed!

Anyway, here’s how my Counties map looks now – just a big fat hole that is Herefordshire, which somehow I failed to go near during my epic driving. Oh well… anyone for another trip?

Counties Map 10th August '15 — Counties Map 10th August ’15

Back to work in London tomorrow, which I suspect will be a bit of a shock to the system after my geo-roaming.

grand day out, hq duck dash, with friends

Day #374 – You’ll Be Amazed!

Wednesday, 3rd August 2016 Caz

Trad: 17 Multi: 2 Earth: 1 Whereigo: 1 GPS Maze: 1
Walked: 9.3 miles

When you’ve been caching for a few years, it’s not often you get the chance to find a new cache type, but today was the day!

But first, I met up with Essex caching friend Gilly of Bean & Sprout to walk a section of the Llangollen Canal Trail between Berwyn and Llangollen. We also did a couple of extras (including an Earth Cache) while we were passing.

The canal walk is a lovely relaxing stroll, all very flat, and a good wide track to walk or ride along. We saw a horse-drawn canal boat excursion while we were on our route.

After “lunch” of a lovely Cream Tea at the canalside café, we made our way to the Llangollen Pavilion to visit the GPS Maze Europe – a rare beast indeed and the first time the GPS Maze has been seen in the UK. Another cache type added to the list, yay!

Little Quacker met a little duckie friend who was also in the HQ Duck Dash races, they got along well while they quacked away happily, telling each other of their adventures.

After the Maze, Gilly and I found a few more trads around the town of Llangollen, which has the pretty River Dee running right through the middle of it.

One fun cache was Over The Bridge, a Whereigo implementation of the classic Famer’s Conundrum (with caching-based characters instead of the usual Fox, Chicken & Grain). We ended up quite a way out of town but bumped into another group of cachers at the final GZ, so we all posed for a photo.

It was getting late, so I left Gilly to sign in at the campsite at Carrog about 10 miles west of Llangollen while I returned to my hotel in Oswestry – via a delightful (but tricky) little CM5266 in Llandysillio, which earned me Powys on the map.

The Llangollen hides had already earned me Denbighshire today, but I couldn’t resist also adding Shropshire to the list by finding Mile End Cache & Dash, conveniently placed in a corner of the car park at the hotel in Oswestry!

with friends

Day #341 – Steyning Saunter

Friday, 1st July 2016 Caz

Trad: 1 Multi: 4 Puzzle: 1 Whereigo: 1
Walked: 8.4 miles

After a lovely sociable evening staying with my muggle friends Ken & Carolyn last night, myself and Ken decided to take a walk around Upper Beeding and Steyning this morning. Ken loves walking and talking, and doesn’t mind stopping so I can stick my head in the bushes every now and then! I found lots of caches and it was great to catch up, us not having seen each other for over a year.

There was a good mix of series – Village Signs, Church Micros…

… and a most enjoyable tour of Steyning’s quaint architecture thanks to an informative Whereigo. Even Ken learned something, and he’s lived in the area for years!

We found the final pot and then retired to the pub for lunch and a well-earned pint. What a grand way to spend the morning and early afternoon.

We found a few more trads on the way back to Ken’s house and then put our feet up for an hour or two, before heading off to Henfield Cricket Club, where both Ken and Carolyn are very active members. It was the Henfield Cup Twenty20 Final this evening – and it was great to just sit at the boundary, drinking a beer, watching the cricket. It’s rare that I just sit and “do nothing” (usually out caching, or when at home I’ll be noodling on the computer or watching telly). But the evening was a perfect way to wind down. And we were very pleased that Henfield were the victorious team, although it was a close game.

grand day out, road trip, solo

Day #340 – Sussex Smörgåsbord

Thursday, 30th June 2016 Caz

Trad: 3 Multi: 5 Letterbox: 2 Earth: 1 Virtual: 3 Whereigo: 1
Walked: 11.9 miles

I was going to stay with muggle friends near Shoreham this evening, but having spent overnight in Chichester, that meant I had all day to have a potter around West Sussex, looking for several different tasty cache types.

My first was a Virtual inside the famous Goodwood Aerodrome (used for flying and racing) – at the statue of an iconic WWII pilot.

The next stop was Worthing, for a lovely walk around the town following a Whereigo:

Nearby were a couple of Letterbox hides which were easy finds after a nice little walk. I wasn’t so sure about the dude guarding this one!

The final location of the day was Shoreham-by-Sea, where I picked up another Virtual at the old lighthouse, and took a longer walk for some other types of cache.

Of course, there were a few Church Micro multis in the mix!

Then I relocated to Shoreham Beach to complete the Earthcache on the shingle. It wasn’t very cold but it was extremely windy out there!

Finally, I had a rest on a bench and found its secret hiding underneath. Ella was the view.

Originally, my reason for being in Shoreham this evening was to attend a Boat Only event, to christen my newly-acquired inflatable kayak, Boaty McBoat Face. But as the event time drew nearer (7:30pm) the weather got worse – threatening with rain and very cold and windy. I scouted the location and decided that, as a novice, I wasn’t really up to launching at any of the given points, so decided to bow out gracefully and go to meet my muggle friends a bit earlier. They were delighted to see me, and I was delighted to get warm again!

with alistair

Day #248 – Heaton Hobble

Wednesday, 30th March 2016 Caz

Trad: 9
Walked: 6.7 miles

We thought we would take it easy today, after yesterday’s exertions. So we started off with a walk to Iris Brickfield to pick up a couple of caches which Alistair had already found. But then it turned into a further walk around Heaton to grab a few more…

The Church Micro at St. Gabriel’s was an easy find and an imposing building to view while we were signing the log.

St. Gabriel's, Heaton — St. Gabriel’s, Heaton

Once we had returned home and had some lunch, the weather looked better than predicted, so we headed out again, this time to Paddy Freeman’s Park to attempt a Whereigo, Secret Of The Ocean (UK). Sadly, the technology let us down a bit and we could not complete the cartridge to get the co-ordinates. Rather frustrating!

Fooling In Paddy Freeman's Park — Fooling In Paddy Freeman’s Park

But there were a few more trads to find in the park, so we grabbed another trio before heading off to meet friends at Maker Space for the evening.

with friends

Day #231 – Devil’s Porridge, Plus

Sunday, 13th March 2016 Caz

Trad: 2 Whereigo: 1
Walked: 5.6 miles

I’m on a bit of a roll with Whereigos at the moment. The Devil’s Porridge in Wat Tyler Country Park by Grimmserscotting has been on my radar for a while. So when Kitty!! suggested a caching outing today and asked if I had ideas for a location, we decided to head to Pitsea and try it out.

The Whereigo was excellent, one of the best I’ve done to date. It told us the history of the old munitions and dynamite factory which used to stand on the site, through the narration of Grimmerscotting’s Great Grandfather, Ted Baker, who used to work there. It was a really well put together story and much more engaging than just walking around the footpaths reading the notice boards which are scattered about.

The only trouble we had was getting into the right location for Zone 13 – but we were fore-warned from previous logs. Kitty rather gamely bushwhacked our way through with her secateurs and determination!

Eventually we arrived at the right spot so we could continue our journey – nothing was going go stop us at this point! But the selfie below does show we looked rather relieved to have got this far!

We had nearly completed our mission when there was a nasty incident with Kitty!! being mauled by a mutant Cockroach along the path…

She managed to escape its clutches and we homed in on the final prize, a lovely, big, well-stocked ammo box hidden in a corner of the park where few visitors would venture.

So there was quite a lot of effort involved, but it was a really rewarding cache to complete. All too often, people want the instant gratification of a cache-and-dash, but sometimes slowing down and working for your reward really pays off in satisfaction value.

To celebrate our success, we stopped off in Pitsea for the SideTracked hide which Kitty!! found almost immediately. Thank God, as I, and many others, have DNF’d it recently! We bumped into another couple of cachers who were looking for it at GZ who were also very glad of Kitty’s cache-sniffing abilities.

After an expensive trip to Go Outdoors nearby, we picked up another Church Micro in Vange on the way back to Kitty’s for tea and cake.

challenge cache, grand day out, solo

Day #230 – Assiduous Adventures

Saturday, 12th March 2016 Caz

Challenge: 15 Whereigo: 3
Walked: 9.4 miles

There are lots of great Challenge caches in Scadbury Park near Chislehurst in Kent, set by RubyShoos under the banner of the Assiduous Cacher Series. I have qualified for about 17 of the 20-odd in the park and thought today would be an ideal time to go and look for them. Two appeared to be AWOL but I picked the rest up during a lovely walk around the park.

RubyShoos has also set challenges in Greenwich around collecting various cache types/stats. I’m working on the qualification criteria for the I ♥ Wherigos Challenge, one of which is to have found three Whereigos in a day. So I was delighted to notice that there are three Whereigo caches by SkiCycle based around Scadbury Park, and was determined to pick them up as well during my outing today.

Scadbury Stroll was the first, a quite short walk with a little micro pot at the end. That was completed while doing some of the other challenges. But I did find it bit confusing having the Whereigo app running on the phone and finding other caches with my GPS, so decided to leave Scadbury Story and its Bonus to do separately at the end.

It turned out that their route took me around many of the same footpaths I’d already covered! But hey, ho, it was a great way to tell the chronological history of the now ruined Scadbury Manor, giving details of the rise and demise of its former owners.

Having eventually visited enough of the zones to get the co-ords for the Story and Bonus caches, I realised they were at opposite ends of the park again. So more walking, but at least I met my targets today with only a couple of DNF’s. A great day out.

puzzles, solo

Day #225 – Weeley Wander

Monday, 7th March 2016 Caz 1 Comment

Trad: 15 Multi: 1 Earth: 1 Letterbox: 1 Puzzle: 1 Whereigo: 1
Walked: 9.5 miles

I took a trip further east from Wivenhoe today to find some caches around several villages in the area. The first stop in Alresford was for the Village Sign – this isn’t it, but it did make me smile! The sign was also my 4500th find!

I also picked up the SideTracked hide while I was there. I was very careful to take this image when I knew there were no trains coming!

The Church at Great Bentley not only has a Church Micro multi, but also an earthcache. Both of which I found easily today. Two for the price of one!

Then it was on to Weeley for a walk around a loop taking in several types of cache, including a Whereigo which took me to a curious “stone” circle and “Easter Island” heads! What a find. Eventually, I made rather a meal of the actual finding even though the Whereigo was easy enough!

All in all, a nice haul of 20 finds with a few more DNF’s. C’est la vie.

challenge cache, events, grand day out, puzzles, solo

Day #188 – A Divergent Day

Saturday, 30th January 2016 Caz

Trad: 2 Multi: 2 Challenge: 3 Letterbox: 1
Event: 1 Earth Cache: 1 Whereigo: 1 Virtual: 5
Walked: 14.4 miles

My previous best cache-types-in-a-day was 5, a few years ago. But there are a few Challenge Caches which like you to have found 8 in one day, so I had been planning a trip to Greenwich, Lewisham and Central London for today, to coincide with an Event by a visiting Polish cacher and his daughter. Perfect! Sadly, I can’t go for 9 types in London as I’ve already found the only webcam cache at Abbey Road. I’ve also been saving London’s only Letterbox cache for such an outing. Here’s how my day panned out:

The first Virtual of the day was in Greenwich Foot Tunnel, SUBTERRANEAN SUB-AQUA (Isle of Dogs/Greenwich).

First Virtual Of The Day, Greenwich Foot Tunnel

The event was next, organised by krogulec, (+Amelka), First Caching In London. It was a nice little international gathering with visitors from Poland, Czech Republic, Germand and Italy, as well as a few locals.

The Whereigo, Church Micro 3690…Greenwich-St Alfege, was a bit of a challenge as the cartridge should have been updated with a slightly different location hint, but thankfully the CO was quick to reply to my message and I found it soon after that. The Whereigo was also an excellent third type of CM for my mini 7-day streak.

I found a couple of trads too, the first was in a murky Isle of Dogs. By the time I got to Blackheath, the sun had come out as I found Ranger’s House.

I picked up three Puzzle caches in Blackheath, this lovely square was the location of Icons Golden Oldies Challenge.

The Earth Cache I had targeted was on Point Hill, overlooking the city, one of the Battle of Britain Earthcaches.

Next stop was the Multi at Church Micro 8128…Blackheath – Ascension, with a surprising final GZ guarded by a fake crow!

The final type on my list was the Letterbox Church Micro 7456. .. Blackfriars-St Andrew near St. Paul’s. Another surprising final GZ, but I won’t give that away, it would spoil the surprise.

Having completed that challenge, I also wanted to make it 5 virtual finds today, for another challenge cache. I’d found two in Greenwich, two around Tower Bridge and then struck out at my final target – at 4:30pm on a Saturday afternoon, I couldn’t get anywhere near the location!

So, despite the distance, I decided Plan B was in order – I got on the Circle Line from Tower Hill to Paddington and quickly found Paddington Dare. Phew! 5 in the bag.

However, the day wasn’t without cost – I felt like I was coming down with a fluey lurgy by the time I got to Paddington, so some hastily purchased drugs from Boots on the platform gave me the strength to get home, where I collapsed on the sofa!

solo

Day #134 – Mersea Meander

Monday, 7th December 2015 Caz

Whereigo: 1 Multi: 1
Walked: 6.6 miles

A few days ago I noticed I would qualify for an interesting Challenge cache if I could keep up a streak of 15 days (not a problem) AND find one Puzzle, Multi, Virtual, Letterbox, Trad, Church Micro, Challenge, Whereigo and Earth cache during the streak (only one type to be used each day).

Having looked at my recent finds I realised that the period starting on 24th November had in fact already accomplished most of this – I just needed a Whereigo and an Earth to complete the requirements.

The nearest Whereigo accessible by public transport was the Mersea Island Meander, set for the UK Essex Mega week, which I had not had time to find then. So a bus, train and another bus later (nearly two hours!) and I was standing at the start point with my iPhone app fired up and started following the instructions.

I was mighty pleased that it all worked OK and I found the pot at the end, after about an hour’s stroll around West Mersea.

It’s only the second Whereigo I’ve done, but there are a few more of interest not too far away, so I may give them a go in the near future.

There was just time to bag the Multi, Watertower #21 before the bus was due to take me home again.

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