Peak District Caching

Decided that I needed to get out for a walk and do some caches so gave Stu (Logieb at GC.com) a call and we arranged a walk on and around the hills in the Peak District. We decided to meet at the car park at the bottom of Birchen Clough at 9am. 

An early start was on the cards so after one snooze on the phone it was time to get up to make some food and a flask up. Setting off at 8-am I made it to the meeting place in 35 mins as the road were quite. We set off from the cars just after 9am and head off following Stu's excellent map reading. I would tell you the route taken but I still have to purchase a map for the area. 

It was a difficult walk for me as i'm not the fittest of people. The route was a total of 12 miles on some of the hardest going paths I have walked. We manage to find 4 Traditional Caches and completed 1 Earth Cache (still waiting for confirmation from the owner) along the route returning back at the cars just as before night fall.

Caches found were:

GCH1Z0 Cascading

GCD59A Upper North Grain

GC163N4 Grains in the water

GC15D7R Not a castle in sight.

Just back

Back from a great holiday to Egypt and a weeks diving on board MY Whirlwind. A liveaboard operated by Tornado Marine Fleet. I completed all of the 21 dives that took place with the highlight being a full day on the Rosalie Moller and 4 dives on The Thistlegorm.

The dives are listed below.

Whirlwind was built in 2006 and can accommodate 20 divers in 10 twin cabin with en-suite. It is 36m Long and has a 8m beam.

We set on at first light on the friday morning (12th Dec) for our first dive site and a check dive. From here it was then a bit of a choppy crossing over to Abu Nu Has Reef which is home to 4 wrecks. 2 to dive today and 2 on the Saturday with a night dive on the reef. The Saturday night was spent at Gubal moored above the Barge. Day 3 was the Sunday and this was spent on the Rosalie Moller. There was no night diving due to the depth of the 3 dive completed during the day. Day 4 saw a dive to the Ulysses but the zodiac dropped us up current of the wreck so it was a matter of drifting along the reef and taking in the sights. One being a large ray. (Photo above) On surfacing from this dive it was 25 mins before being picked up due to the distance we had drifted. While we had breakfast the crew got the boat ready for the trip upto Shag Rock and a dive on the Kingston. After this it was onto the Thistlegorm and 4 dives on what is one of the most dived wrecks in the world. For the first 3 dives we had the wreck all to our selves. The second to last days diving was 2 dives on the Thistlegorm and then the Dunraven (Dullraven as some call it) and a night dive on Beacon Point. The last day was here and it was a Shark and Jolanda Reef and Stingray Station to bring an end to a great weeks diving.

Day 1
Dive 1 - Alternatives
Dive 2 - Kimon M
Dive 3 - Carnatic
Dive 4 - Abu Nuhas (night dive)

Day 2
Dive 5 - Chrisoula K
Dive 6 - Giannis D
Dive 7 - The Barge
Dive 8 - The Barge (night dive)

Day 3
Dive 9 - The Rosalie Moller
Dive 10 - The Rosalie Moller
Dive 11 - The RosaliebMoller

Day 4
Dive 12 - Reef and remains of oil rig
Dive 13 - Kingston and Shag Rock
Dive 14 - The Thistlegorm
Dive 15 - The Thostlegorm

Day 5
Dive 16 - The Thistlegorm
Dive 17 - The Thistlegorm
Dive 18 - The Dunraven
Dive 19 - Beacon Point

Day 6
Dive 20 - Shark and Jolanda Reef
Dive 21 - Stingray Station

Red Sea Liveaboard - December 2008