Within these walls traditional geocache
Zr7's team S&B geocoin
A-Road Anarchy: (A44) Elvis Rocks traditional geocache
Gloria in the valleys TravelbugSet out before first light from Cardiff nominally for a staff Christmas dinner but covertly prepared for potential caching opportunities. My goal today was the "Within these walls" cache and the Netherlands geocoin contained therein.
Arrived at Dryslwyn Castle in the foggy gloom. I have taken a picture of the cache site from the bottom of the hill.
I scrambled up the hill and found the cache site very easily with the help of the clue. Very pleased to get off the mark so easily. Alas, when I opened the cache, there was no Netherlands geocoin.The staff dinner - my first ever office dinner - went better than expected. None of the usual cliches about sitting on photocopyers in my company!
I set off north for Aberystwyth - ostensibly for a car repair - but hopeful for further night-time caching opps. I knew there was quite a rare geocoin in my brother's cache in Borth. Thankfully the repair only took a few minutes and I scooted over to Borth, mindful of the need NOT to break down in the vicinity of Pyongyang. As I turned the corner towards Glanwern, Radio 2 started to crack up, as if Pyongyang's Ministry of Fun Detection was trying to block my radio signal.
Parked by the Animalarium and made the short walk across the potholes towards the cache. The geocoin was attached to a keyring and I attached it to my own car keys for saftey. Replaced cache and walked back to car. Had a conversation in the dark with the owl in the animalarium, and passed on Maalie's seasonal regards to the owl.
Back to the trusted geocaching outpost of my parents in law, where I could make limitless cups of tea and log on to ascertain further possible geocaching opps. I am intrigued by the Rainbow series which has been laid in Aberystwyth by The red Kite, a fairly new cacher. I polumped for the orange cache, on Constitution Hill - complete with geocoin. I flailed and eventually failed in the darkness despite the cover of the light. It looks as though I was frustratingly close to the cache by the look of a photo on the cache website.
Having spent some time on "Consti" - I decided against the walk up Pen Dinas for the "purple" cache. I also decided against an easy travelbug pick-up from the Nant yr Arian cache. Now I'm into geocoins I've become a bit blazé about the more common travelbug dog tags.
However, heading east into Powys, the A44 passes past the leghendary "Elvis" rock, with a chache situated in a nearby lay-by. I found the "Elvis Rocks" cache within seconds of parking, and this restored equilibrium of time after my lengthy failure on Consti. More importantly, the Elvis cache was my 20th cache since I started in August - an important psycological target. The travelbug was a nice bonus.
So, a mixed day. Hassle with the car but worthwhile using time to get it fixed. Pleasantly nice staff "do". Two new geocaches. No Netherlands geocoin and a failure on Consti - but a much rarer geocoin in the Cors Cache and a travelbug as well. Up to 20 caches for the career - will settle for that even if no caching is done in the hols - though hopefully will have another crack at the Aberystwyth rainbow series on 29th / 30th...?
