Peterborough

Today's plan was to head over to Peterborough to do the Wherigo that was published in Werrington for Christmas and then to attend an event in Bourne in the afternoon. 

Wheri Christmas 2013

This was a fun wherigo with a panto theme in the town of Werrington just outside Peterborough.  All worked perfectly on the iPhone and Samsung S4 but the Oregon 550 crashed half way through.  We really enjoyed the straightforward gameplay of this Wherigo.  It was a bit of a walk to the final location, we could've relocated the car but we decided as it was such a lovely sunny morning we'd walk.

Cached Out

When we were on our way to the Werrington Wherigo the new Cache Out Wherigo was published in time for the nearby event.  We decided to do it before heading off to the event because straight after the event we needed to head home.  4 hours had elapsed and we naturally assumed that other caching teams would already have done the wherigo whilst attending the event so we were amazed and pleasantly surprised to find we were FTF on it!

Cache Out Event - Bourne

This event was held at The Jubilee Garage Pub in Bourne.  When the event was published I saw that it was in quite a unique venue so knew immediately we had to attend as it looked like something a little bit different.  The host Darlynne57 was really friendly and welcoming, in fact everyone at the event was really friendly and chatty, this was helped by the geo-bingo and was one of the reasons we attended as this is a great way to get everyone talking and mingling and is a game we've played at one of our own events.   Rather amusingly we were the only ones at the event to have travelled so far to get there (106 miles), so there was quite a queue to get us to fill in the relevant box on the geo-bingo square

Here are a few pics from the event:

We'd certainly done the right thing heading East for the day as the weather back home had been dull and rainy for most of the day.

A Wherigo Day near Bristol

Frampton Windmill

The main plan for today was to do 2 Wherigos and a virtual near Bristol.  Frampton Windmill was published only a few days ago and Snakes had been disabled for quite some time and was recently re-enabled.

Look at all those lovely sun symbols!

The forecast was for sun all day so we were really looking forward to a day without rain for a change.

Frampton Windmill involved a walk around Frampton helping to rebuild the sails for the old windmill.  I played the wherigo on my iPhone as my new Oregon 650 doesn't have the ability to play them, Mark played using his Oregon 550 and Samsung Galaxy S4 but by the time we reached the recreation ground Mark's Samsung decided it didn't want to play any more.  All worked perfectly from then on with the remaining equipment.  A really enjoyable Wherigo which took us just under 1½ hours to complete which included a couple of detours.  With the natty little temperature widget for my Oregon we noted that it was 5°C although felt much colder.

Next stop was a placed called Keynsham, just SE of Bristol to do Snakes.  This Wherigo had been disabled since June due to work being carried out in the in area.  This was re-enabled this week so we thought we'd take this one in whilst in the area.

This Wherigo would only work on the Oregon 550, it took us a little while to get to grips with what we were doing but the idea is that you avoid being bitten by the Snakes in the forest.  The snakes are moving all the time which is possibly why it won't run on smartphones due to the moving zones.  Anyway, at one point we had to return to the beginning but armed with new information gleaned from the description we were better equipped to fight the beastly snakes and eventually found our way to the end.  A thoroughly enjoyable Wherigo with a fairly unique puzzle aspect to it.

The next stop before heading home was the virtual at Stanton Drew Stone Circle.  Stanton Drew is the 2nd largest stone circle in the UK, the largest being Avebury.  A much quieter location here than Avebury.

Nice shiny new Oregon!

SATURDAY

Last year I was very tempted to upgrade to the new Garmin Oregon 650 but couldn't really justify it as my trusty 300 was working perfectly and hadn't let me down in over 5 years - also Mark has never been 100% happy with his 550 as it doesn't record distances anywhere near as accurately as mine.....  Well, unfortunately my 300 has now reached the end of its useful life so I decided to treat myself  to a lovely new Oregon 650.  After a bit of Googling of all the local shops, Go Outdoors seemed to offer the best deal (with Quidco) so I reserved it online to collect in the store.  When we went to pick it up we noticed they had a Price Match Policy - they'll match any price +10% off if you find it anywhere else cheaper in the UK, this includes online.  So whilst I was trying on some walking trousers Mark had a bit of a Google (where would be be without smartphones?) and found one cheaper - so they agreed to knock £60 off the price - Whoo hoo WIN!!!!

I was really keen to try it out so on the way home we stopped off to find the Church Micro at Rushock ....So far so good...... I particularly like the fact I can now take photos in the rain!!

Then it was time to go to Saza's 18th Birthday Bonanza.  Really enjoyed a meal and meeting up with caching friends old and new and as always the time just flew by ...........

SUNDAY

The forecast was for rain all day but due to other commitments we hadn't been able to get out caching yesterday so we decided whatever the weather we were going out.  We chose the reindeer series at Hatton as it looked like a nice walk.  We hadn't read any of the logs before we set off and very soon we realised that a lot of the hides were very well hidden and hard to find with a fair few DNFs on some.  We're not fans of tricky hides on a walk as we prefer to keep walking, especially when it's cold and wet, so we decided to give each one 2 mins and if we hadn't found it in that time we would move on.  At the end of the short series we had 15 finds and 4 DNFs.

There was a short stretch of caches along the canal that were set for the 2013 Midlands Mega Event that we hadn't yet found so we got the bikes out the car for a muddy ride up the towpath to the little cafe at Hatton Locks for cake and coffee.

Delta68's Caching Year in Review - 2013

2013

WWFM X - Jó estét - May

Wheesh, this brings us to the end of yet another action packed year of caching.  I don't know where the time has gone but we've got some brilliant memories and have fitted a lot in this year.

Here's a very quick summary of achievements for this year and a few pics:

New furthest cache found: Nyúzó Gáspár Fazekas Tájház

New most northerly: Cachopol #23/24 - Kungsträdgårdsgatan/Hamngatan

New most easterly: M30 12km West

Readymoney Cove, Cornwall - May

'Rare' caches found in 2013:  134 Wherigos, 12 Webcams, 36 Virtuals

Webcam cache with other nutters in Stockholm

New cache type: Maze exhibit

4 new countries (Hungary, Sweden, Denmark and Czech Republic)

Kippers in the Jungle - From September 2000- GC6A

 
3 new 'Jasmer' squares: March 2001, August 2000, September 2000

Our 'city' hire bikes at Match Stash - GC4D

New Maximum distance in a day: 968 Miles

New cache types in one day: 12


So there it is, can't wait for our next adventure.........

ROAD TRIP!

A couple of months ago, whilst planning what to do over the Christmas break, we decided it would be fun to go on a short trip and find as many Virtuals and Wherigos as we could, we spotted a nice cluster in the Lincolnshire/South Yorkshire area .  We have always enjoyed finding Virtuals as it's something a bit different, they're quite rare and you just never know what you might find when you get there.  Also as they are no longer allowed to be published then the plan is to find them all - well at least in the UK anyway

Is this door for Tom Thumb?

FRIDAY

We set off quite early from home on Friday morning and headed towards our first stop of the day which was Tom Thumb a virtual with a couple of stages in Tattershall, Lincolnshire.  We had fun looking around for Tom Thumb related items and exploring the church before heading off to our next stop.

Dambusters Memorial

The Dambusters Memorial virtual in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire.

A memorial wall depicting the breaching of the German dams in Operation Chastise, otherwise known as the 'Dam Busters' raid.  It is dedicated to the memory of those from 617 Squadron.

A very moving and poignant memorial.

We enjoyed a walk up and down the high street, what a lovely place, would like to spend a bit more time having a look around here in the future.

Ramblers Church

Next stop was Only The Good, a virtual in Walesby, Lincolnshire.  It's set at All Saints church at the top of a hill, it's a Ramblers Church which is on the Viking way, a long distance footpath running 147 miles between the Humber Bridge in North Lincolnshire and Oakham in Rutland.  

 
What an interesting place, spent ages looking around the church - rather amusingly someone had written in the visitor book that it was a shame the church was no longer used and that it should be 'brought back to life!' there was a reply beneath this setting them straight, commenting that the church is very much in use!

Next stop Wheriwalk around Caistor - a really fun wherigo set in the small town of Caistor, Lincolnshire.  All the stages worked perfectly and took us to places of interest around the town.  We stopped to have a look around the church of St Peter and St Paul before continuing with the Wherigo.  Rather interestingly it mentioned that this small town of population 2600 used to have 29 public houses - now only 1 remains!

Inside St Peter and Paul's Church

Next on the list was Crash Landing - a Wherigo around Cleethorpes Country Park in NE Lincolnshire.  This took us around a lake where we had to find parts of spaceship.  It was quite exposed here and very windy, we had a job staying upright.  All stages were found easily and cache found after a short search in between many muggle dog walkers.  Before heading back to the car we did Cleethorpes Country Park Earthcache and then it was off to do a few challenge caches, we'd planned to do quite a few more in this series but we completely ran out of time.

Cleethorpes Country Park

SATURDAY

A nice early start after a good breakfast at our hotel, then it was over the Humber Toll Bridge to the first virtual of the day Going in Deep.

The second visit was to another virtual Prime Medidian Again - just a quick stop by the side of the road then on our way again.

Next stop, Oi! Can anyone hear a Zeppelin? Which is a virtual set near Spurn Head - It's an acoustic mirror which was a forerunner to radar, they were built on the south and north east coasts of England between about 1916 and the 1930s. The ‘listening ears’ were intended to provide early warning of incoming enemy aeroplanes and airships about to attack coastal towns. With the development of faster aircraft the sound mirrors became less useful, as an aircraft would be within sight by the time it had been located, and radar finally rendered the mirrors obsolete.

Acoustic Mirror

Wheesh!  Next stop Trans Pennine Trail - Eastern End - We were at the Western End in Southport last weekend!  Cycling the Trans Pennine Trail between these two points is definitely on our to-do list!

Then a quick stop in Seaton to find a virtual - Sign of Old times before heading off 87 miles towards Bradford to another Wherigo - A Neolithic Geocaching Adventure - We were just hoping we'd left enough time before it got too dark.  Just as we reached the first stage a friendly face appeared - it was UK Reviewer Castagnari - it was really good to meet him and put a face to a name, enjoyed a chat before continuing on our way.  The Wherigo was really great fun, all stages worked perfectly and one of the stages was timed and involved racing up to the top of the hill - Great fun!  We were rewarded wtih a YOSM/trigpoint at the top.

After this we headed to the nearest Toby Carvery for a slap up meal before going into Leeds city centre to do the Leeds web-cam cache.  This was fun as we had to hang around by the Town Hall waiting for the page to refresh, this only happened every 5 mins, the first time the picture was just too dark so we had to reposition until we could be seen in the picture, must've looked very odd to anyone watching but hey-ho we're used to it now

Waiting for webcam to refresh

I noticed there was a church micro nearby so we decided to see if we could find that one, it was a straightforward multi so no problem.  I really like finding Church Micros - must make time to find more in 2014!

SUNDAY

We couldn't make a very early start this morning as breakfast wasn't served until 8am!  So the first visit of the day was to When???, a quick virtual in a layby - we noted down the necessary details then we were on our way again.  Next stop - a wherigo in Kippax just outside Leeds called Lost Cachers in Billy Woods - This was an enjoyable stroll around Townclose Nature Reserve, the weather was sunny and dry and all worked perfectly on the smartphones - once again we found the Oregons did not want to play.

The next virtual Tiles in the Wood was a real gem.  This is what I love about virtuals, you just never know what you are going to find.  This was a complete surprise, on our way along the track we were trying to imagine what we'd find and we certainly weren't prepared for this - sorry no spoilers here - just go and find it!

Last but not least on our list was the virtual A Moravian Walk - This virtual takes you on a walk through Fulneck Moravian Settlement, which is a village in Pudsey just outside Leeds West Yorkshire. It was established in 1744 and is named after Fulneck (Fulnek), the German name of a town in Northern Moravia, Czech Republic.  A really interesting walk and once again somewhere we'd never heard of before geocaching brought us here.

Fulneck School

Well that brings me to the end of the blog for this trip, a very brief account of what we crammed into the 3 days.

Altogether we covered 600 miles over 3 days
Found:
11 Virtuals (+ 2 YSM)
6 Traditionals
4 Wherigos
4 Unknowns
1 Earthcache
1 Webcam Cache
1 Multi

.................  Already getting itchy feet for the next trip...........