Delta68's Caching Year in Review – 2016

Delta68's Caching Year in Review – 2016

This brings us to the end of yet another action packed year of caching.

It’s been a year of change for us, starting with uncertainty over Mark’s job and then we made the decision to relocate to Lancashire finally moving house at the end of March. This move put us within easy reach of The Lake District so we decided to start ‘ticking off’ the Wainwright Fells. We have been following a set of suggested routes which are designed to minimise the amount of going over the same ground twice. Although we still find caches while walking in the fells, the emphasis is very much on the walk rather than finding caches.

Coniston Old Man

In April we finally held our first CITO event.

In June we celebrated 25 years of marriage by flying to Hamburg and doing a brilliant 9 day road trip in North West Germany, we filled in a few more of the German states and also attended a Giga event.

Another major addition to the caching kit was a VW T5 Campervan! This is just awesome.

Although it doesn't have a shower, it does have a toilet and after buying it we had a night-heater and additional leisure battery fitted so we can happily (and comfortably) go away for a few nights at a time 'off grid' and we have stopped overnight at some amazing locations!

View from the camper van!

This year's miscellaneous stats/achievements

Four new countries:

Lithuania

Latvia

Estonia

Finland

New furthest East: Terrorism GCKQAJ Estonia
New Furthest North: Sun Gear GC72  Finland

As well as a Leap Day Event, we hosted events in Lithuania, Latvia and  Finland

September 2001 cache - Anglesey, Holyhead Mountain

We also decided to make a concerted effort on finding old UK historic caches and this year we found seven more UK caches set in 2001

Having logged the Electric Mountain webcam in North Wales in August, there are now no more active webcams in the UK for us to log.


As usual, a summary of 'rare' cache types logged by us in 2016:

• 59 Wherigos
• 8 Webcams
• 60 Virtuals
• 68 Lab Caches
• 3 CITO events
• 4 Mega Events
• 1 Giga Event
• 1 ‘Maze’ Exhibit

A Happy New Year to everyone!

L E G E N D - Warpers Trail, Witton Weavers Way

We've had so much fun doing the Witton Weavers Way caches that we were keen to continue with the series as soon as possible so the forecast looked dry for today so the plan was to do the Warpers Trail (follow the link for a walk guide).

On the way to the starting point, this sculpture caught our eye as we drove past.

It's a sculpture by Thompson Dagnall called 'Arte et Labore' and apparently it caused local uproar when plans were announced that were was to be a statue of a naked man as the gateway to Blackburn   There was a cache hidden there too which was a bonus.

We parked up at a familiar parking spot at Turton and Entwistle Reservoir.  It was the car park we parked in when we last visited back in July 2009, once again, just like the visit in the October of that year, the weather was horrendous and we started the series in torrential rain and pretty much gave up after a short walk.  So the Warpers Trail series has been on our to-do list ever since to come and complete it.

Turton and Entwistle Reservoir

Today the weather was dry but foggy and icy underfoot.  We made good progress and even found the two caches that we'd DNFd back in 2009.

Once we'd climbed up Fox Hill we were out in the sunshine and this took the chill off the air.

We continued on and we were soon back into fog again.  But if anything, it was perfect walking weather as there was no wind at all, really pleasant.

We past some really interesting things along the way and the walk was well marked on good footpaths all the way.

We walked just under 10 miles and made it back to the car just before sunset.  I would highly recommend this walk to anyone.  All the caches we found were straightforward finds, good sized with no micros or nanos.

Here are a few more pics from the walk:

This chimney is all that remains of Horrobin Mill bleachworks

Held up with wire rope!

Bridge at Turton Tower

Can't wait to get back out and do some more of the Witton Weavers Way caches.

L E G E N D

27th December

Way back in July 2009 we travelled up to Chorley for a weekend of caching.  Our main aim was to make a start on the L E G E N D letterbox caches.  The LEGEND series consists of 623 Letterbox Hybrid geocaches in the North West of England. There's not a micro amongst them and the terrain is varied.  We completed the Beamers Trail Section in July 2009 and returned in October 2009 to attempt the Tacklers Trail Section but the weather took a turn for the worst and we had to give up after only completing a short section.

Having recently moved to the area we thought it was a great opportunity to restart our attempt on these caches as they involve walks in some fantastic locations and living closer it would be easier to plan visits around the weather.

Today we planned a 7 mile walk up to Jubilee Tower on Darwen Hill and pick up some of the  WWWTT - Witton Weavers Way Tacklers Trail caches that we missed on our last visit and any other caches en route.

We parked at Roddlesworth Information Centre, Tockholes Road, Tockholes (pron. 'Tockles') to start our walk.  There are public toilets there, a cafe and a pub.

Enchanted Forest

The first bit of the walk took us through some lovely woodland and very soon we recognised the route from our previous visit - this time minus the torrential rain.

As we continued on we came to the ruins of Hollinshead Hall.   Another area that was nice to explore in the dry weather.

2009

2016

Soon we came to the road and made our way up Cartridge Hill where at the summit we were rewarded with an amazing panorama stretching from the mountains of the Lake District to North Wales.

The route took us past Lyons Den which is an isolated clump of trees.  Lyons Den - named after John Lyon, a seven foot tall giant who apparently constructed a simple house of turf and heather here around 1790. The story goes that when three local men went to visit him, they saw him crawling out of the lowly entrance of the hut on all fours. One of them called out 'See... he's coming out of the Lyons Den!' The name stuck.

We followed the path until we reached Jubilee Tower, referred to locally as Darwen Tower.  The 86ft tower was completed in 1898 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.  It also celebrates victory for the local people gaining access to the moors after the landowner had closed the paths and denied access.

The tower cost £773 3s 5d to build which is roughly equivalent to £720,000 today.  The tower was built by a local builder James Whalley using a horse and cart to carry the materials.  In 2010 the top was blown off in a storm and powder-coated stainless steel replacement was lifted into place using a helicopter in 2012.

The tower is open to the public and you can climb to the top of the tower using the stone spiral staircase.

Great views from the top of the tower

Here are some links to news items about the tower.

Tower in pictures
2010 storm damage
Dome replacement delayed due to high winds

From the tower we retraced our steps back along the path until we reached an opening in the fence and then headed steeply down the hill and back to the car park where we'd started.

A really enjoyable 7 mile walk.

28th December

Today we decided to head back out to Darwen Moor to try and complete the rest of the WWWTT caches.  The forecast was for frost today so it was time to dig out the lined walked trousers, it's been a couple of years since I've had to wear those.

We parked at Crookfield Road Car Park just off Belmont Road and set off just as the sun was coming up.  The ground was frozen underfoot.  I love being out walking when there's been a hard frost, it makes it so much easier to walk on any muddy paths.

As we walked up to higher ground across the moors it got foggier and eventually visibility became quite poor.

We continued walking and following the Witton Weavers Trail signs and eventually Darwen Tower was in sight again and the fog lifted and we were back out in the sunshine again.

Darwen Tower in the distance

We returned via the same path as yesterday, down Cartridge Hill and out onto the road.

Me in Oct 2009

same spot Dec 2016

A brisk half mile walk and we were back at the car.

Today's walk was 9 miles altogether, thoroughly enjoyed it.