Who was Here 2: Daleks in Penarth
Southern CompassTravelbug:
"Tommy Atkins"Geocoin:
"Highly Addictive" geocoinA surprisingly good run of form since Christmas was continued by two caches in the Vale of Glamorgan. Despite its name, the county of the Vale of Glamorgan has very little to do with the famous "south Wales valleys", the former coalfield north of Cardiff.
Aside from the town of Barry, the Vale of Glamorgan is a mainly well-to-do, middle class area focused on the gentile market town of Cowbridge. It is one of the minority of seats in Wales where the Conservatives are obvious challengers. They came close to winning in the National Assembly Elections and the constituency will be a key target for David Cameron in the next UK election.
Part of "British Wales" in Dennis Balsom's seminal "3 Wales Model", it could even be argued that the Vale has more in common with the Cotswold area of England than with the Welsh valleys (a good Welsh politics exam question!). No doubt, The First Minister (Rhodri Morgan) and the Presiding Officer (Dafydd Elis-Thomas) - who both have their slubrious country residences in the Vale - would disagree!
My caching today was facilitated by a fortuitous early getaway from work. My first cache was a piece of unfinished business from August 2 last year, when I was working at the old regime. I had found a cache on Cardiff barrage, but failed to find the "Dr Who" themed cache by Pezzini. The cache was located in a fairly untidy playing field in Cogan - basically an adjunct of Cardiff.
The second cache was located at Rhoose Point, on the Glamorgan Coast Path. "Southern Compass" is also the most southerly cache on Wales' mainland. The cache contained both a travelbug and a geocoin, which I duly knabbed. The "Highly Addictive" geocoin was emblazoned with the motto: "Geocaching is highly addictive. Don't start". Quite!
"Highly Addictive" geocoin pictured in front of inscription marking Wales' most southerly point, at Rhoose. Unfortunately, I failed to locate a second cache in the vicinity, which was probably located under any one of 1000s of rocks on the shoreline nearby. Weather was getting gloomy and I called it a day, taking my newly acquired geoswag back west.
