"Up and Under" (Traditional Geocache)
Have lived in Cardiff for 10 years but never visited the Wentlooge area. This a flat, green area which separates Cardiff from Newport. along the coast of the Bristol Channel. It is somewhat similar to the gloomy coast of Norfolk where I spent some miserable camping trips as a child.
I was awake late at night so thought I'd pop down to see the lights on the Bristol Channel.
The fact that there was a balloon geocoin logged in the cache was of course incidental...I had just missed out on "Where's Mary's balloon geocoin" at Tiger Bay Toddle. The balloon geocoin has a smashing icon :
Fig. 1: the elusive balloon geocoin iconFound the parking spot OK but how to get onto the sea wall? Didn't find the public footpath till my return back to the car.
Walked through a bizarre prefab housing estate at St Brides - spotted a Hedgehog - then lept over someone's fence and scrambled up to the sea wall.
Beautiful sight of twinkling lights up and down the Bristol channel at 1.30am. Lighthouses, shipping lane indicators, etc. Red lights of the Severn Bridge in the distance.
The lights of both Cardiff and Newport could be seen, as the walk to the cache along this no-mans land between two cities became increasingly eerie. This got worse when I heard a couple of dogs barking somewhere in the darkness.
Got to the general area but started looking under the boulders on the shore side of the wall. After 10 mins dropped down and found the red gate.
ARRRRGH! No geocoin to be found! This is the second time I've missed out on the same "balloon geocoin!" Valiantknight had got there during the day but obviously hadn't had the time to log the coin out of the cache.
Cache was damp and muddy, logbook a bit damp - may be worth the cache owner having a look for maintenance.
