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

27 February 2008

Kodak moment


"Kodak Moment" (Traditional cache)


Very quick cache and dash on the outskirts of Llanelli. The most notable characteristic of this cache was that everything was hidden in the body of an old 1970s(?) Kodak - the camera equivalent of the brick-like mobile phones of the 1980s. The camera had to be opened up to find the cache contents.

End of the line for railway multicache?

Parc Cwm Darran Micro Cache 2 (Regular cache)


Heart of Wales Llanelli to Llandovery (Multicache)


"Cache Movers" geocoin


Business in the Rhymney Valley gave me a chance to travel via. Llandovery to finish off a cahce that I had started a couple of weeks ago, during a trip to Powys. I had collected all the clues for the cache on a train journey up the Heart of Wales. Now all I needed to do was find the cache. After some time searching, I found a small plastic wallet (which would have contained the official cache logbook). It contained an obscene note, scribbled by some local yokel yoof, telling us geocachers where to go.

I have debated with myself whether or not to scan the original note into the blog. My liberal instinct says go ahead, but I've opted to censor it. Here goes:

"We had a read of your stuff LOL
Strange f***s
Get a life you sad w*****s
Love xx?"

Fortunately, "xx?" had the presence of mind to leave behind a geocoin which had been in the cache - so I rescued it. The cache has been temporarilly disabled by its creator, Eclectic Penguin (aka Hywel) - I hope doesn't give up on it.

Onwards to Parc Cwm Darran. A disastrous session was averted by finding a single, easy microcache. I failed to find 3 others!

22 February 2008

"Floreat Salopia"


By finding the "Zodiac Seroes - Aquarius" cache just inside England, I closed a gaping hole in my topographical profile on the geocaching stats site, itsnotaboutthenumbers.com (see bottom of blog for more details). Despite several circumnavigations of Wales, and the odd foray into the midlands of England, I had never picked up a cache in Shropshire. And so a gaping white polo mint-like hole had been present in my caching "empire" of counties. This irritating fact has now been remedied after my brief forays across the Chirk Aqueduct....


Before...





















After...

21 February 2008

What have the Romans ever done for us?

"Major Wonder" (Multicache)


"The Zodiac Series - Aquarius" (Regular cache)


Business took me to the north eastern corner of Wales this week. From my location in Chirk on the Wales / England border, I actually accessed two caches inside Shropshire (and did not find either of the two available caches in walking distance on the Welsh side). "Aquarius" was part of an extensive, complex series by Team Maddie. The cache is one of several located across severalareas of north east Wales, Shropshire and Cheshire. I found it just after walking across the spectacular Chirk Aqueduct. On the second evening, I took a slightly longer walk into the village of Weston Rhyn. There, a multicache (my first multi in ages) was found in the woodland, based on a stone circle folly by a guy (not unlike Maalie?) who fancied his own little version of Stonehenge.

15 February 2008

Tortoiseshell's 150th Find Geocoin

Amidst all the activity of the last couple of weeks, my 150th cache find passed in a bit of a haze. As it happens, the 150th find was an Earthcache ("Ria View", based on Cleddau Bridge in Pembrokeshire). A bit of an anti-climax really as all that was required was to walk onto the bridge and take a photo. Nevertheless, as has now become custom, a geocoin was duly purchased to mark the event.

On this occasion, I have gone for a Liverpool City of Culture 2008 commemorative geocoin (icon shown above, left). I also got one for my bro, TCA, to mark the occasion of his 37th birthday. I was in a bit of a dilemma as to whether or not to release it into the wild. It's a nice shiny coin and I don't want it to go AWOL. In the end, I decided to put it in "Geocelc Mynydd Penbre" as a resident geocoin for others to log, but not take.

Geocelc Mynydd Penbre

Among all the geocaching activity of the last few weeks, I finally managed to hide my first cache in my new locality. On a crisp, late-winter evening, "Geocelc Mynydd Penbre" was placed by myself and Small Tortoiseshell on a public footpath just north of Burry Port. Small Tortoiseshell opted for her warmest "Doormouse" outdoor suit. She is pictured here holding the GPS and guarding the cache.

Small Tortie's First Hide...

The cache itself was stacked with a host of trackables from my travels in central Wales. It also included the White Jeep travelbug which I nabbed in Cardiff. The Jeep and my Liverpool 2008 geocoin are visible here amongst the diverse array of other travelbugs. Note also the cammo bag in the foreground - a sign that this cache is in it for the long haul after 3 short-lived attempts to place a cache in Cardiff.


The final two photos show the general location of the cache. On the way up, there are superb views over Burry Port, the Loughour Estuary and Gower. The cache is located on a footpath, just north of the stone in the photo. However, the footpath is one of a labyrinth of paths that cut across Mynydd Penbre. Surprisingly, this "easy" cache flummoxed one of Wales' most experienced cachers, Satellite Kid, who was First to Find on this cache.














The "geoswag"...
His exploits underline the democratic nature of geocaching - a relative upstart like me can flumox a virtual pro like Satellite Kid. On this occasion, it was the multitude of possible approaches to the cache which undid him...

"Crickey moses!! What a to do!! Set out early as I had a busy non caching day planned and got to Mountain Road at 8.45am....found the cache at 11am and was surprised to find I was the first visitor which was a hard earned bonus!

Drove to the parking spot at Penymynydd only to find it locked so I drove up the road a bit to a bridle path and pulled onto the side. I was 1.1miles from the cache but it was such a beautiful clear and frosty morning I thought it would be a good walk. Walked down the bridle path for ages before the path turned and I was actually heading directly towards the cache. Lovely walk through the fields over the hill on the public footpaths. Eventually came out on to a road near Carmel Chapel to be confronted by a scarey Gravestone, see pic, and then took the wrong route up St Illtyds way.
Lovely views - but which way to the cache?

When I reached the top I realised there was no way over to the cache so had to retrace my steps back down the hill. Found another hill and headed up that. Then at the top of this hill I ran into a troup of cadets coming the other way. they were all a bit muddy and two of them were caked in mud up to their armpits. The guy in charge warned me that the path at the bottom was seriously muddy and two of their number had fallen in. How bad could it be, said thanks and headed off. They were right, some of the deepest, slimiest, sucking slime I've seen for some time and it stretched for yards. Forced my way through without falling thankfully and took a pic of my boots as proof. Then headed on up the hill. I ended up going away from the cache again and came back out on the Mountain Road. At this point I'd walked over 2 miles and had only got to within 0.3 miles of the cache. So I headed back to the car which was now nearly a mile away and decided to try the Burry Port approach.


Didn't fare much better here at first as I took the wrong road and ended up half way up the hill at a dead end, returned to the car back past the impressive chimney and found the correct road.
Walked up the relatively short path and found the cache 'easily' at 11am....at long last!!!2hours and 15mins to find a cache that you can almost park next to! Great walk though on a lovely morning...enjoyed it immensely despite all my errors....knew I should have taked an OS map!!! :-) TNLN Cheers for the cache..."

14 February 2008

White jeep!

"Tedman" White Jeep Travel Bug


Regular Travel bugs:

"Eagle Bluff 2 Carabiner Key Chain"


"Irish Maiden"


"Yorkshire Meet 2007"


In work at Cardiff, I spotted that a White Jeep had been placed in the Taff TB Hotel - a great haunt for trackables coming into Wales' capital city. Jeep Travelbugs are a limited edition promotion by the Jeep company in conjunction with Groundspeak (the organisation who organise geocaching). I had previously got my hands on a green Jeep, but never a white one from 2005. All that is left is to find a red 2007 version...

10 February 2008

Spotted in Knighton


Due respect to this table soccer shop in Knighton, Powys. (Subbuteo used to be my first love).

A nice pair

Two of the nicer geocoins I've come across. The first is a "Micro film canister" geocoin. I retrieved it at a cache in Elan Valley, and dropped it into a cache in Pembrey, not far from my home.
















The second coin depicts the territorial regions of the Federal Republic of Germany. I found it in Dolerw cache in an unexpectedly green area of Newtown. I let go of it into my own cache, "Geocelc Mynydd Penbre".

9 February 2008

So much to blog, so little time...

Traditional caches (x12)...


"Grumpy's Grotto" (Pembroke, Pembrokeshire)
"Afon Clettwr" (Tre'r Ddol, Ceredigion)
"Dylan Thomas - Quite Early one morning" (New Quay, Ceredigion)
"Seascape" (Borth, Ceredigion)
"Sarn Cynfelin" (Clarach, Ceredigion)
"Nia and Ffion's Elan cache" (Rhayader, Powys)
"Cycle up Tumble Down: Cynheidre Colliery" (Cynheidre, Carmarthenshire)
"Swansea Micro: Victorian Iron Bridge" (Swansea)
"Yr Eglwys Blwyf (Newtown Part 2)" (Newtown, Powys)
"The Wooden Couch (Newtown Part 3)" (Newtown, Powys)
"The Stones (Newtown Part 4)" (Newtown, Powys)
"Dolerw" (Newtown, Powys)

Earthcaches (x2)...


"Ria view of a flooded valley" (Cleddau Bridge, Pembrokeshire)
"Gwaith Cwmystwyth Mines" (Cwmystwyth, Ceredigion)

Travelbugs (x6)...


"Pink Tiger"
"Jack Skeleton"
"Barry #44"
"Puzzle Snake"
"Boris Badger"
"The Paisley Buddie"

Geocoins (x3)...


Prime Meridian Geocoin


Mini Film Canister Geocoin


Germany 2007 Series 1 Geocoin


..."Grumpy's Grotto": had my sights set on this for months, hidden in a front garden in Pembroke, did a 4-mile round trip on foot for this one, and encountered a rat on my way..."Ria View of a Flooded Valley": an "Earthcache" so all I had to do was walk on to the Cleddau Bridge and take a photo...

GPS @ Cleddau Bridge Toll

..."Afon Clettwr": a nice stroll which I used to do as a boy with Maalie 20 years ago..."Dylan Thomas- Quite Early one morning": my latest (4th) find in the series of 7 caches based on the Dylan Thomas Trail in New Quay..."Seascape"; "Sarn Cynfelin": two more caches part of my boyhood terrain, on the cliffs south of Borth (found Meridian geocoin in Seascape - this type of geocoin just eluded me in Cardiff last year)..."Gwaith Cwmystwyth Mines": another earthcache, just needed to answer some questions on information board...Nia and Ffion's Elan cache: an almighty scramble up a bank prior to a business meeting in Builth. retrieved cache (and film canister geocoin) at last minute, thank goodness...

GPS @ Cwmystwyth mines

Cynheidre Colliery: cached this rather haunting spot last thing before arriving home from Builth...Swansea Iron Bridge Micro: train timetable cock-up gave me 3 hours to do a second attempt on a devilish hide, possibly my best find ever. Only now I realise the history behind the site...4 x Newtown caches: an excellent series of micro caches hidden all round Newtown by "Uze", including a couple dedicated to the great social reformer, and Newtown's most famous son, Robert Owen. Found 3, didn't find 3 others. Found a seperate regular cache (with German geocoin) in Dol Erw Park.