"In your hands, the birth of a new day... " (Limahl)

30 April 2007

Late night coin grab

Kiwi 2006 Geocoin


Was up for quite a while pottering about, dishes etc. Checked on geocaching.com to see if there was anything of note had happened in the area over the weekend.

Among the cache listings, sticking out like a sore thumb was the "Kiwi 2006 Geocoin", that was residing in the geocache off J30 of the M4. Duly tuned into Janice Long on the car radio and popped off for the short circular drive to the cache.

The rather attractive coin belongs to the Cuckoos. The coin is racing against two other geocoins to get to New Zealand.

Hmm - not sure I'll be able to help much on that front...

Abercachers race update

Tortoiseshell's Aberystwyth race Travelbug


The race travelbug moved on 12 miles over the weekend to a cache on the south Devon coast. It was immediately picked up by "Stuey", a reknowned geocacher with 1812 finds to his name all over the world.

I'm hoping he'll add a few miles to the TB's profile...


27 April 2007

First "unknown" geocache! Sock-puppet geocoin!


Zr7's sock puppet geocoin


"Estuary 1" (traditional geocache)


"Estuary 2" (unknown geocache)


Work business took me up to north Wales for the third time this year. Again, I was able to combine the trip with some successful geocaching.

I came up to the north armed with five possible caches on the hit-list. These included a cache at Conwy Castle and two simple "multicaches" in Rhyl town centre.

A couple of months ago I would have gone all out for all 5 of them. However, in the more mellow, post-75 finds era, I settled for two straightforward caches on the estuary of the River Clwyd, about a mile west of the town centre.

I was attracted to the first cache - Estuary 1 - by the occurence of a "sock puppet geocoin, possibly the cutest coin there is (though I'm sure Syndey Koala geocoin would have something to say about that)! Took a few minutes rummaging as the cache was wrapped up in a tidy cammo bag.

Fig.1: Zr7's Sock-puppet geocoin, retrieved from Rhyl.

Took the cache to one side and signed the logbook. Took the sock puppet coin. I also bade farewell to the lovely geocoins I've been hanging onto of late, and left them all in the same cache, so that the cache now bears the "multiple geocoins" icon at geocaching.com.


Fig. 2: Multiple geocoins icon

The other thing which atrtracted me to "Estuary 1" was that the logbook contained the co-ordinates to a nearby "unknown cache" ("Estuary 2"). Also known as "puzzle" or "mystery" caches, unknown caches come with a question mark icon, as shown at the top of this page.

Notwithstanding some rough looking dog-walkers, I retrieved the cache from a fairly unpleasant location under a fence near the main railway line - and chalked up my first "unknown" cache! On another day, I would have easily ticked off the two "multicaches" in Rhyl but I was fundamentally too tired after a long, hard day so I jumped on the train and headed back home.



24 April 2007

Impromptu geoswag gathering

This is probably the finest collection of geoswag I've had on my hands since my gathering of travelbugs and geocoins at a Travelodge hotel in north wales back in January.

I'm up to north wales again tomorrow and I'm aiming to disperse of this lot (apart from my own 2 coins) whilst I'm up there.

Back row, left-right:

1) Tortoiseshell's 50th find World traveller geocoin; 2) Signal the Frog November 2006 geocoin; 3) USA Geocoin; 4) Tortoiseshell's 75th find 2007 CITO geocoin.

Front row: 1) Finland geocoin; 2) Canadian Christmas micro geocoin; 3) Whitebear 2006 geocoin.

Coin launch: Tortoiseshell's 75th find geocoin

Tortoiseshell's 75th find geocoin


Found myself browsing ebay late at night recently. The upshot was a purchase of this geocoin to celebrate my 75th cache find (historic Tenby multicache). My rationale for the purchase was that it was fairly cheap from a UK vendor - and with a suitably wacky icon for my geocaching.com profile.

The "species" of the coin is the "2007 CITO round the world geocoin", and its original source was thecachingplace.com. (CITO is a geocaching acronym for "Cache in, trash out", a motto of all responsible geocachers). The coin is pictured, below. It won't be travelling anywhere but I might let Maalie and TCA log it onto their geocaching profiles...


Mêl Pur Cymru


Currently enjoying a jar of "Mêl Pur Cymru" ("Pure honey of Wales") in the mornings. It is without question the finest honey I have sampled for some time.

Hats off to Mr J Griffiths of Llain Deg, Commins Coch, Ceredigion for this excellent produce.

20 April 2007

A nice pair!

I am currently in posession of several interesting geocoins. Pictured here is the Whitebear 2006 geocoin which I missed out on when it passed briefly through my own geocache in autumn 2006. I picked it up last week at a nearby cache on the outskirts of Cardiff.

The second coin pictured here is the Finland gecoin I picked up at Resevoir View, near Merthyr. The predominant design is the Finland flag.

The two smaller flags are of sub-state territories over which Finland has part juristiction. The flag in the top-right quarter is that of Lapland - a territory which spans across several states.

The flag in the bottom-right quarter is that of the Aland Islands, a predominantly Swedish-speaking territory which is, to all intents and purposes, independent of Finland.

Simply Delicious day out!

B&M C1 Stable Bridge (Traditional Geocache)


"Finsko 1" (Finland Geocoin)


"Norway or bust" (USA Geocoin)



"Smiler" Travelbug


Had the pleasure of a quick dash round south east Wales this week. I went up through the eastern coal-mining valleys, stopping at an old favourite cafe - "Simply Delicious" in Newbridge on my way.

It's always a very informal welcome. The decor isn't great (plastic tables etc) but they're always very friendly. I like the setting in an old terraced house.

Later, I was able to resume geocaching after a break of a week. I had a lovely stroll down the Brecon & Monmouth Canal (where K and I were recently) and I picked up an easy cache. Also grabbed "Smiler", a travelbug that had been left outside the cache - contrary to geocaching protocol. Tsk tsk.

From Gilwern, I drove across to Merthyr and turned north. I had expected to pick up a Belgium geocoin from "Resevoir View" cache but when I got there, I was surprised to see that 2 new coins had taken its place. I was glad to pick up a lovely Finland coin and my 4th USA coin.

Hear, Hear!

Billboard Advert for Lurpak spotted in Cardiff.

16 April 2007

Relaunch: Tortoiseshell's 25th find geocoin


Regular readers will have tracked this geocoin as it travelled from Cardiff down to south Devon, then onto Dartmoor. I have just had a report which says that the coin is on its way to Cornwall.

Previously, the coin was nicknamed "Cute Coot geocoin" in memory of one of my first caches. However, in the interests of bureaucratic efficiacy, I have renamed it the "25th find" coin to commemorate my 25th cache find at Tiger Bay Toddle in February.

11 April 2007

Quality, not quantity


Whitebear Geocoin

"All About the UK" (Travelbug)


November 2006 Signal the Frog Geocoin


"A Milestone Cache!" (Traditional geocache)


Canada Christmas Micro Geocoin


Historic Tenby (Multicache)



Earlier on this blog, I talked about the prospect of 100 geocache finds. This week, I reached my 75th find, and the coveted "100 finds geo-acheivement geocoin" is clearly going to occur much quicker than anticipated.

The 75th find is probably a good place at which to announce my intention to scale down on geocaching activities.

I think this week's caching is a good example of the type of caching I'll be doing in future. No more hurtling round the country taking in 5, 10 or even 15 caches in one go in order to play the 'numbers game'.

Rather, the aim I think will be to concentrate on 1 or 2 interesting caches at a time. This week, in Pembrokeshire, I could have gone for any number of traditional caches located on the coast path.

Instead, I opted for a single - but more interresting "multicache" which involved collecting a set of easy clues located around the town.

This new "mellow" strategy may also allow focus on unusual caches - "earthcaches" (e.g. at Kimmeridge), "virtual caches" (e.g. Llangefni) etc, rather than a scramble for lots of trad. caches.

Geocoins and bugs may become more of a feature in "semi-retirement". This week I was delighted to see the return of the whitebear coin to Cardiff, which had eluded me last autumn.

Two other interesting coins were also to be found in the area - the wacky Canadian Christmas microcoin and the delightful November 2006 Signal the Frog Coin with its racing car motif.

Roll on the 100 finds geo-acheivement geocoin - and pass me the pipe and slippers!

Aberystwyth race travelbug 1

Tortoiseshell's Aberystwyth Race TravelBug


Since February, Abercachers have been planning a travelbug race. Easter was the big weekend when we all set off our travelbugs from various caches around town. I placed mine in the 'Blue' cache at the bottom of Park Avenue. The race will take place over the next year, and the winner will be the travelbug who has travelled the furthest.


After April 1, 2008, I think the travelbugs are meant to travel back to Aberystwyth. My own bug includes a "hitchiker", i.e. a trinket other than the reference tag. My hitchiker is the little yellow mini I found in Portland Bill. After that Abercachers race is over, I would like the travelbug to return to the Dorset coast to retire...

Eggcelent Easter

Off yer trolley (traditional (micro) cache)


Watery Wales 1: Llyn Blaenmelindwr (traditional cache)


Coast Path capers (traditional (micro) cache)


Dinefwr Views (traditional cache)


Printed out a load of possible caches, so that there would be a cache to be found at some point during the holiday weekend. We went up to Aberystwyth via the Elan valley mountain road but didn't have time for caching - nevertheless a good 'reccie' and it was good to check out the mountain road for reference hopefully in the not too distant future...

Placed my Aber racers travelbug in the Blue "rainbow series" cache at the bottom end of Park Avenue, not far from the old stomping ground of Maalie and I at Aberystwyth Town FC.

Crossed the road to tick off the micro cache in Somerfield car park - it's so weird that geocaching has suddenly superimposed itself on Aberystwyth. The town is imbued with so many old memories for me - personal, political, professional - and now geocaching has created yet another mystical, personal sub-culture in the town.

We went out o the lakes between Penrhyncoch and Ponterwyd - had time to do one cache at Llyn Blaenmelindwr, no doubt I'll be back to sweep up the rest when time allows. I went out for a late stroll up the coastal path and ticked off the micro near the top of Constitution Hill.

Family outing to the beautiful Dinefwr Castle in the Tywi Valley of Carmarthenshire allowed one more, easy cache for the weekend.

2 April 2007

Garland's: the best cafe in Cardiff...?


A quick nod in the direction of Garland's Coffee Shop in Cardiff, which I haven't blogged yet.

The Cafe is a quiet antedote to the madness of Cardiff Queen Street shopping.

I had some business in town today and made sure I popped in for a simple pot of tea. Sitting by the window, I decided it is the best cafe in Cardiff.

Tortoiseshell's home-made scones are a winner!

Recently I reported on the foul cream tea we had in the monstrous carbuncle of Portland Bill.

This week, to make up for this disappointment, I made my own scones.

Served with Rodda's Clotted Cream and raspberry jam, they were perfect eaten in the oppen air at Dyffryn Gardens.
Spent Sunday at Dyffryn Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan, a short hop from home.