Wait Until Dark 2

Well the day (Thursday 19th) didn't start out has planned. Had arranged to do the Wacky Races Series with The Syllogiser in the afternoon but on arriving in Shevington I could find my wallet in the car and after a couple of phone calls home it was looking that I might of lost it. So had to drive home only to locate it in a place that I never leave it. Back to Wigan and the time had passed so plan B was put into plan for a quick cache. We headed upto, well that would be telling as its a puzzle cache we went for. GC1VB4J - NYZN SVRYQ GC 0825. After following the instructions on the cache page the tub was found and the log signed. I was able to grab another micro in the area before we had to return ready for the main cache of the night. So leaving Shevington with Mrs Syllogiser driving we picked up Steve of Team SLuG in Standish and continued onto Brinscall via Chorley to pick up Ferreter38. Once at Brinscall we meet up with GamesRmeLife, ChannelFadge and JHewitt15. It was then the start of GCMW16 - Wait Until Dark 2. Heading up the lane to the start of the path and then onto the first firefly. It was then into the woods in the darkness of a November night. After about 3 fireflies the woods disappeared and so did the fireflies due to logging in the middle of it all. This was the hardest part of the terrain, making sure you stayed upright. On the other side when the trees started again there was no signs of any fireflies so it was upto the GPSr to find the way to the cache. The cache was homed in on and the final location was found by the final fireflies being spotted. Unfortunately the cache had been taken and the contents left buried under the rocks. It was now time to head back to the car via GC19MWT - Top o' th' wodds Stables and then onto Brindle for the Monthly Meet of the North West Cachers.

Cache Maintenance

Back in May I was asked by Mongoose39UK if I wanted to adopt the main trail of the Oldham Way Cache from him as he was moving out of the area. I accepted the offer and became the owner of 39 caches. I have found all of the caches I was adopting and didn't think it would be that hard to maintain them. Well, that was a mistake to think that. Since finding them, some over 18 months ago they have grown legs and wondered off from where I returned them after signing the log. My first big maintenance run was when I got DNF reports on 6 caches in a run. Off I set with replacement caches, logs and pencils and the dog in tow. I came home some time later with all cache I had left with having found them all. A couple of weeks ago I headed up towards Hartshead Pike to replace some damp logs on the furthest caches from home. Today it was a trip out fro more damp logs and a coordinates check. After a 3 mile stroll with the dog covered in mud I had replaced 2 logs, repositioned 1 cache to try and keep it dryer and got some new coordinates for another one. So the main trail of the Oldham Way from Medlock Vale to Harthead Pike is all OK, hopefully for the winter. The log in the picture is the one I replaced in Oldham Way - What's Next

A Quick Test

Just a quick test to see how good Androidblog is on my phone. I can't believe that seeing Google have come up with this operating system for mobile phones their isn't a native Blogger application built in.

Underground Manchester

Well it's been some time since I last wrote a blog but i'm hoping to get back into it.

So last night was Halloween and I ventured into Manchester for a Halloween and tunnels tour by Manchester Confidential. The tour started outside Bar 38 and headed straight into the Great Northern Warehouse. We headed down a steel staircase which lead to the old canal basin of the Manchester and Salford Junction Canal. This area was lit by uplights but the following sections were in total darkness. The photo here was taken on a long exposure of about 30 seconds and picked up light from another camera flash. Not to sure if that is a ghost in the middle of it or not. After about 30 minutes of being in the tunnels it was on with the rest of the tour.

Manchester Ship Canal Cruise

On Thursday (27th August) I went on a cruise on the Manchester Ship Canal from Salford Quays to Liverpool Pier Head. Setting of from outside the Lowry Centre at 10am on the Mersey ferry Snowdrop. The cruise took 6 hours, passing throught 5 sets of locks, under 2 motorways and having 6 swing bridges and 1 swing aquaduct opened to allow us to pass. Throughout the cruise there was a guide telling you the history of the canal and also the future plans for it. You can view all my photos from the day here.

Piratemania 2009

Well this was my first geocaching event and what a cracker. The weather was hit and miss on the Thursday and Friday but for the main event on the Saturday it was sun sun sun. For the Saturday they had been two new cache series set. One with eight caches and around 3 miles walk and the other with 18 caches and a 8 mile walk. There was also some earth cache to take on.

I arrived on the Thursday afternoon and after throwing up the tent and unloading the car it was a the time to get it off the camping field and to the car park. This was not as straight forward as it should of been as due to heavy rain in the days before the track up the small hill and off the field was a mud bath. It was a matter of going for it and keeping the power on. As i hit the top of the hill the car just swung round and lined itself up with the track and off I went and stuck it in the main car park. Time for a brew and a wonder round to see who else had arrived.

Not much later the crowd started to turn up with the first being Betty Boo and Gruffty. Then it was the entrance of Nandad who slid there jag gracefully down the field. The corner of the field later that night with the arrival of Geotrotter and Carlos and the Birdie Crew and there Mansion. The rest of the night was spent chatting and having a few drinks.

On the Friday some people headed off caching but I decided to stay on site for the morning. I was able to nip across the road to grab In a Tiss, which was a nice ammo box just of The Tissington Trail. In the afternoon in between thunder storms I headed out on the bike for a 16 mile ride along the Tissington Trail. The evening was spent again chatting and drinking while taking in the great view of the night sky's.

Saturday was the main event day and it started off with a bacon roll and a cup of tea. It was then onto the marquee to submit the order for the mass Chinese takeaway order before 10am when the new cache listings would be given out. Due to technology problems with the garmin Colorado and Oregon it was a number crunching exercise to get the coordinates into the devices but that didn't take to long thanks to the touch screen. I set off on the series close to camp with Richardson6 and Muttoneer and after a nice 3 mile walk we had picked up 8 caches and the clues to the first part of the final cache. It was then a short stop to grab some more drinks and then into the car for a short drive down to mill dale for the second series. Here it was just Muttoneer and myself. We decided to work our way around it in reverse which worked out better as we kept meeting other cachers who were telling us of the difficulty along the path between caches 1 and 4 which were to be our last caches. After a nice walk we decided to miss out the last few caches a stay on the path on the other side of the river from the caches and head back to the car and camp ready for the arrival of the Chinese pirates and food.

Saturday evening was spent sampling more apple juice and watching the games being played by the children to win doubloons for there team. In the end the blue team won which was the team I was on. Sunday morning came the the drink was still flowing but in the end all the pirates headed off to bed. What a great weekend.

Heading off to Piratemania 09

Well the car is packed and all I have to do is sling the bike on the back and then its off to Piratemania 09. A weekend of camping and geocaching in Derbyshire. Full report on my return.

1000th Cache

As 12 months of caching approached in December 08 I was hoping to make it to 200 caches. I then started to get out more and with new rosters at work I was able to hit that target and more and i've just carried on going. After logging on to the Northwest Cachers forum I started to head to the events and getting out to new parts of the world with other cachers.

So on the 1st July I had arranged to go to Tatton Park to attempt The Tatton Incident Whereigo with The Syllogiser. We arranged to meet in Knutsford and drop one of the cars of somewhere in town and then head to the park. Having found the spot in the car park to start the adventure it was off on the trail. Don's PDA would not see his bluetooth GPS receiver when running the whereigo player and my Oregon kept switching off on the way around. The good thing about this whereigo is that you can get the multi cache of the same name before finding the final cache of the whereigo. The sun was shining and the midges and flies were out in force as we made our way around. On arriving at the final stage of the multi the cache was laying on open ground with the hint around it. After signing the log book and grabbing a coin from the cache we returned it to the hide and tried to cover it up better than when we found it. This was cache 999. It was then onto the final of the whereigo which was just a short distance away. On the was there I was confronted with a shallow ditch, not a problem unless you are in shorts like me due to the ditch being full of nettles. I had to take the longer route round but The Syllogiser just went straight through the middle of the lot. While Don search one location I looked in another and sure enough there was the cache. With the code word inputted into the whereigo cartridge and the completion screen shown I was now at 1000 caches. Time to head to the pub to celebrate.

Tegs Nose Caches.

Headed over to Macclesfield on the 30th June and a short walk around Tegs Nose Country Park. The first cache is right next to the car park, this is GC1T7RW-Park Up. I looked on the wrong side at GZ at first but once around the other side the hint became clear the the cache was found. On returning to the car after doing the other caches in the area there was a family who had set up a picnic right at GZ. It was then on to GC1T7T4-Macc View. This was a gentle walk uphill along a path running along side the road before heading off into the country. At GZ there is a great view of Macclesfield and I could see as far as Manchester with The Lovell Telescope in all its glory. The cache wasn't were I expected to find it from the hint but was soon found after a quick search.

After Macc View it was onto GC1T7T8-Cattle Grazing. Not to sure where I went wrong on this one but I ended up on the lower path so had to double back along another path before making my way uphill to the cache site. The cache gets its name from the fact that you need to cross a field that has cows grazing in it. Lucky for me they were spending the day on the other side of the field but I still kept one eye on them and the other on the low parts of the fence just in case. the caches was a quick find. There should off been a geocoin in it but it seems that someone had taken the coin but left the keyring with the mission on it in the cache and have not yet logged it. With the log signed and the cache back in its hide it was onwards to the next cache. GC53EC-'Nosing' About, was the next cache to be found. Not a sole around apart from a group of abseiler's on the other side of some trees making the most of the weather and the old quarry. The cache was a quick find thanks to the hint.This means that there was one cache int he area left and that was GC1T7TB-Reservoir View. On arriving at GZ the cache was found nice and easy due to it being on plain view. I took a seat on the nearby bench for a quiet moment but was then joined by a group of school children who were on a field trip to the area. After signing the log I explained to one of the teachers what I was doing so that I could replace the cache without one of the kids picking it up after I had gone.

The picture in above is of a crane that was used in the quarry.

Completing the LEGEND Series.

After finding Lowe Hill on the Warpers Trail all that was left to do was to complete the Turton Section between Turton Towers and Tookholes. I had arranged to do this with The Syllogiser before going to The Midsummer Nights Event. We arranged to meets at Dimple Lane where we would leave one car and then take the other over to Turton Tower and walk back over the moor to Dimple. We then collected the car from Turton Tower and returned to Dimple Lane and left it one there again and took the other to Crockfield Road Car Park to then walk the rest of The Turton Section back to Dimple Lane.

So the following caches were done in stage one:

WWWTS - Cheetham Woods

Dead Slabby

WWWTS - Warped

WWWTS - Trig

Cheetham Close (Now Archived)

Lizardman's Curry Cache

Turton and Entwistle View

WWWTS - Turton Crossroads

WWWTS - Wanna Be Cairn

WWWTS - Snake Nest

The decision to complete this section from this side was so that the walk to the summit was done on the easier side as if you make your way up from Snake Nest then it's a lot steeper. There were a number of Army Cadet groups making there way up the hill and The Syllogiser was having a natter with there CO's as I made my way along the trail and he was catching up while I was signing the logs of the caches. The only cache that Don needed to find on this section was The curry cache. All the cache were an easy find in a round about way expect for the Snakes Nest which could have been a long search or even a DNF if it hadn't been for Don giving me a huge hint.

After repositioning the cars it was now for the second stage of this section. The caches on this were:

WWWTS - Old Mans Hill

WWWTS - Catherine's Edge

WWWTS - Mounds For Hounds

WWWTS - Another Babbling Brook

Dragon Quest 6 (DNFed)

WWWTS - Stake Moss

WWWTS - Inch Profile Wave from PVC

WWWTS - Don't Tell The Council

WWWTS - TURTON SECTION

Dragon Quest 5

WWWTS - Charters Moss

WWWTS - Tress House

WWWTS - Dimple

This section was a more pleasant walk with the most of it being flat with only small uphill sections. Just as I was replacing Mound for Hounds 3 people approached. They included Ian4724 and Caching Quick. They told us that they couldn't find Dragon Quest 6 and also Don't tell the council. I wasn't to bothered about DQ6 but if I couldn't find Don't tell the council then it would mean that I was one short of completing the whole series and would have to return. On arriving at DTTC the hint was read and it took some time to figure out what it was all about but once you do the cache is a quick find. The Syllogiser found the cache and tried to hide on the other side of the wall to sign the log and was hoping to put the cache back before I saw him with it but that plan didn't work. So after a good days caching and the with DImple in my hand it was the end of the LEGEND series for me.

Some figures from Geocaching By LEGEND website

Caches found on the series - 155

Caching trips to complete the series - 7

Number of days elapsed from start to finish - 117

Which gives me an average of 1.3 caches a day.

Date	Cache Finds
Feb 24, 2009	24
Mar 4, 2009	35
Mar 20, 2009	39
Apr 10, 2009	22
May 18, 2009	22
Jun 19, 2009	1
Jun 21, 2009	23

A Middsummers Night Cache.

The 20th June was the date for A Midsummers Night Cache (GC1R3XV).

I arranged to meet Don aka The Syllogiser before the event and do the Turton Section of the Legend Series. These were the last handful of cache I need to complete the how series. See next Blog. After that it was on to Tookholes for a pub meal before heading up the hill to Jubilee Tower for Sunset.

On getting to The Royal in Tookshole we found The Linedancers propping the bar up with Natty1 so we joined them for the meals. So with a meal inside us and a pint or two the time had come to head to the car park and get ready for the walk. People started to arrive and just before the off we gathered in the car park for a team photo taken by Irene of The Linedancers. Then following a roll call by our event organiser Foinavon it was off to the tower we heaeded. The Geogeriatrics had headed up early for a head start and had only just arrived as the first load of us arrived. Also already at the top was Phil of PhilPamAndRob who had been out one one of the trails before making his way to the tower. I headed up to the top of the tower to get some photo of the group arriving but was having trouble keeping the camera still on full zoom while trying to get my breath back. Once everyone had arrived there was time for another group photo before heading back down the hill and back to the pub. The sunset was not what we wanted has there was a lot of cloud coverage. While on the way down I was able to look for Round the ruins No'6 Owd Aggie's (GCW76X). On find the cache the log had already been signed as a group entry otherwise the log book would off been full and it would of taken sometime for everyone to line up and sign it in turn. This was another great event and an opportunity to meet so many cachers.

Completing the Warper Trail

On the 19th June I headed back to the Entwistle area to try and complete the Warpers Trail for the Legend Series with the one cache on it that I had to find. Parking at Entwistle Train Station I headed up the road towards the top end of the Reservior with the dog in tow. On the way around I was able to stop and get E-Glade (GC1C6KM). I was unable to look for this cache last time I was in the area as two farmers were carrying out some work right next to GZ. This was a quick find and with the log book signed it was back onto the main task and Lowe Hill (GC1M5M9). After my DNF here last time I put it onto my watch list and after a number of finds on it I sent a message to one of the cachers who had found it and was sent a reply saying that the cache was around 20 meters from GZ. I did read the early logs on the cache and it does seem that at first it was right on the nose for the numbers but had somehow been moved for what ever reason. I started my search at around the 20 meter mark but came up empty handed. I continued to look for around 15 minutes and was just about to give up when I decided to have one last bash it it and on approaching the search area I spotted the cache hiding behind a stone. It was more like 20 feet from the original GZ so I took some numbers and added them to my log. That was the Warpers Trail completed now and I was a step closer to completing the whole series. I headed down the hill from here to visit Gruffty's Fairy Battery Earth Cache (GC1TKH0). You find yourself down by the clough looking across at Fairy Battery with great views. There was a group of climbers making the most on the dry weather. With a photo taken of my GPSr at the site and the answers for the cache it was time to head of. While in the area I decided to grab some of the Toby Treasure Trail caches. My last cache in the area that day Jess and Melly's Birthday Cache (GC14NVK). This was a nice colourfully ammobox hidden just of the path that follows the reservoir around.

Apart from getting the last cache on the Warpers Trail one of the highlights of the day was the sighting of a Roe Dear in the wood above the reservoir. What a sight.

Ghost Train at Slate Mountain

I know its been some time since my last blog, its been finding a spare moment to get around to updating it. Anyway I have got there now. Back in June I spent the weekend In Llanberis and one of the cache that was on my hit list was Ghost Train at Slate Mountain. (GC12RFV)

I first attempted this cache on the 1st June 2008 and after a hard slog up the old rail incline was only left with a Did Not Find. I put it on my watch list and planned to do it the next time I was in the area. So the time had come to have another bash at this cache but there was no way I was going up that incline again and decided to walk up the hill using the stepped path to the side of the hill that starts just outside the country park. This was alot easier going. On arriving at GZ my GPSr was taking me up and down the side of the old winding house for the incline and it was my muggle friend Roy that spotted the spoiler. After a quick search the cache was in hand and with a lot of joy knowing that this time the hill was conquered with a result. Knowing my luck someone will put

a cache out there further up the hill. After taking time to take some picture of the stunning views and have a look around Anglesey Barricks and the main reason of getting my breath back it was time to make the journey down to the bottom. This was to be via the rail incline the the challenge here is to stay on your feet on the way down.

Llanberis - Diving and Caching

Decided to head to Llanberis for the weekend. The plan was to go diving on the Saturday at Dorothea and on the Sunday at Vivian dive centre.

On the Friday evening after setting up camp it was decided a change of plan was needed. Roy, the other diver and my buddy for the weekend hadn't dived for some time and not since his dry suit had been back to the shop for a repair to a leak. I had just got my regulators back from service so we decided to go to Vivian on the Saturday and just spend the Sunday wandering around Llanberis. This turned out to be the best decision as when Roy had his leak repaired the inflator valve had been replaced but had a different connector for the hose. We were able to borrow one from John at the dive centre. Then once in the water my primary reg was breathing wet all the time, this was because the diaphragm on the front had slipped and was allowing water in as I breathed. So after 29 minutes we surfaced and call it a day on the diving front.

It was back to the campsite then to pick Roy's other half up and a trip into Carnarfon. I had taken my GPSr with me and so decided to introduce them both to Geocaching. First stop was a cache on the path alongside Lake Padarn, Things me Dad told me. No1 - The Haunted Track. Parking just of the road we walked along to a gap in the wall where some steps took you down to the path and an old railway tunnel. We walked to the other end and then walked back through the tunnel using the hint to find the cache. The cache was located with the use of a head torch that I had in the car. I picked up a nomad geocoin and signed the log before replacing the cache just before some muggles entered the tunnel at the far end. It was then back to the car and into Caernarfon and some shopping. While in Caernarfon we had time to find one cache. It was on the other side of the marina from the castle and easy to get to via a swing bridge from town centre. After a short walk along a path we soon arrived at Coastal Castles Cache No.8 Big and Brash. There had been a number of DNF's on this and I'm not to surprised. The plant life was very over grown and hiding the hint very well but the cache was soon found. Signed the log and dropped in Finnegan Home again TB. It was then back to the car in time to avoid a parking ticket and back to the campsite for a bar-b-q. I spent the Sunday around the Lake and will post in a separate blog.

Grommits Grand Day Out

Thursday 11th June saw me meet up with The Syllogiser for this new series of caches put out by 1Grommit. We were nearly a hour late starting due to the M61 being closed to allow the air ambulance to land for an accident just before Chorley. Arrived to meet Don in Aldi at Bamber Bridge to grab some of the offers and then we set of for our first section. Parking at the junction of Jackson's Bank Road and Bezza Lane. We headed from there to cache GGDO21 and worked our way round to GGDO25 before bypassing the main village of Balderstone and dropping down to GGDO15 and heading back around to GGDO20 and the cars

The paths were very overgrown in parts (see photo) and the need for a map is required. Lucky for us we had two print outs from memory map, a pda with memory map and an OS map of the West Pennine Moors. This still didn't stop the situation of someone heading in the wrong direction because they had selected the wrong cache, the last one in fact to navigate to. After this technical problem it was onwards again arriving back at the cars 12 caches later. We then moved the cars around to the church in Balderstone and had a spot of lunch there. After taking on food and fluids it was off again to the start of the series and GGDO1. We had 14 caches ahead of us, 13 traditional and 1 unknown. So after 13 more caches we had completed the loop in two sections and had all the numbers to find GGDO Final. If you have had the privilege to meet The Syllogiser you will know that he doesn't talk that much, sorry that wrong. Anyway Don took the opportunity and the fact that we had different ideas on how to make our way to the final that he asked a local man doing some DIY for directions. It took Don about 10 minutes to run through the basics of memory map before we could set of for the final cache.

Because of the way we had done the series we were right next to the area the final was hidden in and it only took us about 5 minutes to make our way there and find the cache. At first we overshoot GZ but using the hint the cache was in hand in no time at all. Sat down to write the log and drop and retrieve so TB's and enjoy the sound of the wilderness with no sounds of the 20th century around. This is a great series, very hard going and difficult if you didn't have a map with you but as more people do it over the weeks i'm sure cachers trails will appear.

Eight Acre Lake

Last weekend was an chance to get in the water again, the first time since may bank holiday and the trip to Eyemouth. I could of gone to Scotland for the weekend but decided that as I was on early's on the Friday before and the Monday after that I would be too tried to get out of bed for work. Instead I opted for a puddle dive. I put a post on the DiveLife forum but got on reply until a regular puddle diving buddy gave me a bell asking where I was think of going. Over the next day we decided to give Eight Acre Lake a bash. It would be 4 years since we last dived there and it had changed hands in that time and reports from the dive forums was that the viz was better than before. With the car loaded it was a matter of a trip down the M62 to North Cave. Eight Acre is the result of quarrying for sand and clay and has a maximum depth 14 metres.
The only item that is under the water from the last visit is a pipe that sits in 4 metres of water. The new owners have added a lynx helicopter and two boats plus some training platforms. The viz on the surface was crystal clear but over by the helicopter in 12 metres you could only see about 1 metre. The good thing about this site is that as its only small the water temp had risen with the hot weather that we have had and on the surface it was 16 degrees C dropping to 13 at the bottom.
Registration forms filled in and photos taken for the membership cards it was time to get the kit together and head for the water. I had put my kit together the night before as i had been changing some hoses and needed to check they were OK. With my drysuit on and twinset on my back Andy (My buddy) and I set off for one of the jetty entries and a giant st raid into the water. Once in the wet stuff we dropped down and headed over to one of the boats. Andy had left the map and bearing chart in the car but on arriving at the first boat I found one half covered in the silt so grabbed it and stuffed it in my drysuit pocket. This was going to be very helpful later on. We then made our way to the second wreck and from there used the bearing chart to find the way to the helicopter. After a look around the helicopter we headed to the the pipe but forgot it was in the shallow water and on hitting the wall from 10 to 3 metres. After swimming along the wall for a couple of minutes we headed up to the 3 metre shelf and swam back in the direction we had come from and found the pipe. After taking a swim through it we headed back to the exit point and out of the water.
It was now time for a spot of lunch and a drink before a second dive. Once we were ready to head back in we just decided to use the gravel entrance in front of the car and walk into the water. We headed back over to the pipe and from there took a compass bearing of 180 degrees or due south. This should of took us to the helicopter but things don't always go to plan and missed it completely and instead stumbled across one of the wrecks. The navigation then went from bad to worst as instead of finding our way out were we wanted to head for we hit the training area on the other side of the quarry and then back to were we started.
All in all in was a good days diving and it was a good try out of my kit ready for the trip to North Wales next weekend.

Woodhead Wander

Yesterday the 19th May I headed to the Woodhead Pass to Meet up with Tony, Mongoose39uk to have a bash at the new caches by Mr Truffles. These were the Woodhead Wander Series and the Woodhead TPT Series. Both series having 8 caches in them, with the coordinates for the Master cache being split between two caches, one on each series.

I arrived slightly late due to the amount of traffic, this was due to the M62 being shut around J27. Once at the meeting point close to Woodhead TPT8 I picked Tony up and we drove to the other end of the trail to park near the tunnel entrance. The plan was to complete the wander series than the TPT series and use Tonys car to get back to the tunnel to pick my car up.
The rain was on and off for the first part of the day with the on setting being very heavy rain. Lucky for me I had put my waterproof pants on and boy was I glad. The going at first was rough until we reached the track along which the caches were placed and then it was easy going apart from the section between Woodhead Wander 4 and Woodhead Wander 3

After completing both series and checking where the Master Cache was it was decided to leave it for another day and head home to get dried out. Another good days caching.

Getting there with the Legend Series

Well after a very wet day on Monday out on the Warpers Trail I only need one cache to complete it and then its just a matter of finishing the Turton Section and the whole series will be completed. The cache I need on the Warpers is Lowe Hill which seems to be missing. There is no hint for it but after a couple of phone a friends and one call back LogieB and myself found what was described as the hide but no sign of a cache. Have added it to my watchlist so hopefully it will be found or replaced.

18 caches to find on the Legend Series

So it should only take me one more day hopefully to gain the completed medal to my profile, it all depends on how long it takes for confirmation on the missing cache.

New Caches on the way

Spent an hour today writing the cache page for one of the two new caches i'm planning on putting out. Placement day will be Wednesday and hopefully, fingers crossed they will get published later that day but we will have to wait and see. If all goes to plan one of them will be eligible for a place on two of PopUpPirates bookmark lists on GC.com.

One is going to be a Traditional and the other is a Puzzle but are going to be close to each other so possible to find in one visit along with some others in the area if it's a place you haven't already visited.

Cache Adoption

The other night I was asked if I wanted to adopt some cache as the current owner is moving out of the area soon. I agreed and within an hour I had 38 more cache to look after. Most of the cache are one that I started caching on the Oldham Way. They are located along the way in Daisy Nook and Park Bridge Country Parks and some around the Chadderton area. I will have to make a trip along them to see if I can find them again and to do a maintenance check ready for the summer as this seems the main time for these caches to get visited.  So for the time being I will have to put on hold some new caches that I was planning but this isn't too much trouble. So if you haven't done the Oldham Way series yet, get out there and have fun and write me some good logs.

Welcome to Eyemouth, Scotland

After a day of getting stuff sorted out, making sure I have packed everything I'm going to need for the weekend it was time to head off. I picked my mate up without hassle but then had to pick Steve up from the dive shop.  This was to be stop, load the car and go. One hour later we were finally on our way and it was looking that we weren't going to arrive before 10:30pm. With the Tomtom taking us via Leeds ringroad to avoid traffic we arrived in the fishing town of Eyemouth just before 10pm. Leaving the dive kit in the car it was bags in room and out to the pub. The following day (Saturday) was and early start with breakfast at 7.30 and ropes of an hour later. This would be the first dive in my new kit configuration so I would find out if I had made the right decision. The first dive was a drift in a gully with a max depth of 12m gained. We were the first in and the last out with a dive lasting 53 minutes. The second dive was onto a pinnacle that started at around 4 meters with the sea bed around 14 meters.  This only lasted 20 minutes as I lost sight of my buddies and was getting cold mainly due to the water slowly leaking up my arm from my wrist seal. Sent the bag up and after completing the safety stop was the first back onto the boat. 

Now what can I say about the night life in this quite fishing village. Well what happens in Eyemouth stays in Eyemouth along with the A Pink Care Bear, Little Bo Peep, Cat Women and Red Riding Hood.

Turning upside down

 

I have made a big change to my dive kit configuration over the last week. This as resulted in the fact that I was never any good at doing shutdowns in any grace but got there in the end. My last dive on the 5th April at Swanage Pier was the decision maker for me. While kitting up I pulled my shoulder which seems to be a reoccurring thing follow the car accident last year. The following days I spent looking on the internet for the best way to invert my twinset meaning that when diving the tanks are upside down so that reaching the valves is just a matter of reaching behind my backside instead of up and over behind my head.

I found a site that makes stands for twinsets, this bolts to the bands holding the two tanks together and then you can stand the set upside down with no problem of the valves and regulators getting damaged. A quick phone call to Mike at DiveKitUK and the order was placed. It took just over a week for it to be made and delivered and then it was fitted while I had a spare minute at work on night last week. 

The only other change I needed to make was to my low pressure inflator hoses. I decided that I would go with Miflex hoses as these route better due to them being more flexible. I needed to 1.5m hoses and this would of have to be a custom order putting the price around £60 each. I was then pointed in the direction of using regulator hoses with an adaptor on it to connect to the inflator on my wing and drysuit. This make it around 40% cheaper than custom lenght hoses.

All the pieces were put together today and will get tested in the North Sea on Saturday.

 

Whitespace and Werewolf

Today was a great day. After completing both Whitespace and Werewolf with a lot of help from other cachers it was time to find the two boxes in the wild.

Whitespace - GC1AF96

My 800th Find.
After walking around the moors to pick up two other caches because i'm rubbish at maths and would have missed a milestone here otherwise I made it to GZ. The sun was covered by cloud and the wind was as cold as it was when I left the car nearly one and a half hours before.
The hunt for this cache started about 4 months ago when I looked at the cache page and got stumped on the first hurdle, staring at the cache page thinking what the hell. Tried all sorts but it wasn't until I looked at it on a windows computer at work that I found the starting point. It was then the second puzzle that got me but got a hint from PCT at the After the gold rush event. I needed help for the 4th and 11th puzzles and a big thanks for this has to go to Emma (Scorpionqueen) and Mick and April (Nandad). The chance to get up onto the hill have been thin on the ground so with an invite to go looking for another great cache I decided to head for this one as well. I took a seat to watch the world go by while I signed the log and took some photos. Spent 5 mins having a brew and just enjoying the location. Took the Evil Wind geocoin to help it on its journey. Thanks for a great cache and all your hard work in setting it.
Its now time to meet up with some other cachers to head off for the other cache that will make this on great caching day.

Werewolf - GC1NH60

After my solo stomp to Whitespace it was great to have some company for this one. The puzzle was hard going but with some great hints from LFC4eva and Mongoose and a lot of hard work that really did give the brain a workout I got the numbers on Thursday evening. Then I arranged with Don (Syllogiser) to head over the hill on a joint find. The trip in total took us around 3 hours at a steady pace. The cache site was made in good time and then the hunt was on. The hint is very clear but it took some getting to put our hands on the cache. Taking a seat to sign the log and take in the views I was gutted to find out that I had put my camera back in the car after getting back from Whitespace and didn't replace it in my bag. Will have to wait for the email from Don with his pics on. Thanks for a great puzzle and a fantastic place for the cache, this is what I enjoy about caching. Beats searching for a nano in the city centre.
Congratulations to Syllogiser on this, his 1000th find

A Grand Day Out in The Jungle

Spent the day caching in the area around Brook Bottoms while completing The Jungle Book and Wallace and Gromit series. I was advised to do the Jungle Book one first. There is 6 traditional caches in this series in which you will find the numbers that will leave you to the final cache - GC1H3K5 Shere Khan's Lair. The caches are well placed and involve a circular walk from the car park. The final cache is at ------ well that would be telling wouldn't it. There was one other cache not in the series that I picked up on the way round called Down By The Riverside which has a very clever hide. On the final stretch of the walk back to the car I came across a section of the Thelemere Aquaduct which to me is a great piece of engineering. On returning to the car it was time for a quick brew before heading of to find the lair. I had read the previous logs and one of then came in very handy. This was a great series to complete so what was in store with The Wallace and Gromit series.

It was now time to commence The Curse of the Were Rabbit - GC1KZ09. On the way along the river there was a cache to be picked up which was Bugs from the brook which took me to the other side of the river. After finding this I decided to stay to this side of the river which meant I had the big hill to climb first, getting it out of the way. There is 11 traditional caches in this series with plenty of variety in the caches, placement and hints making it a crack job done by The Phantom Camel Train. At just over the half way point I had all the numbers I required so took a seat on a style to work out the final location and a spot of dinner. By now the sun was out and as I walked across the field from here I could see Blackpool Tower and The Big One on the horizon. The final part back along the river was very muddy but thats part of the fun, I think. The search for the final saw me climbing up hills and sliding back down for no reason at all. Find it, not a rabbit but a very nice ammo box. Sat on a nearby fallen tree while I signed the log before returning the cache to its burrow.

This is a must do day out for everyone, CRACKING.

WWW - Tacklers Trail and Roddlesworth Section

Thursday 19th March saw another assault on a section of the LEGEND caches that have been placed on the Wittion Weavers Way. I arranged to do these with a friend from work who I introduced to geocaching. So off set LogieB and myself for Crookfield Road Car Park and the start of our adventure. Starting at the nearest cache, WWW - I Can See Great Hill we then carried on in a anti clockwise direction around the trail. This meant we got the big climb to view of Winter Hill out of the way early on. The sun was shining making it a very pleasant day with no heed for a coat which only came out of the bag so that I could find my sandwiches. Lunch was eaten at Darwen Tower which great views over Darwen and Blackburn. The climb to the top gave even better views. After lunch we only managed 3 more caches before falling into the pub at the bottom of the hill in Sunnyhurst. After a refreshing pint of strongbow it was then onto the rest of the trail and also the Roddlesworth Section. A great days caching taking in 44 caches and 13 Miles. The route taken can be viewed at Wikiloc by clicking here.

Friday 13th - A Misty walk on Winter Hill

Friday, March 13th was the first chance I had had to return to Winter Hill and find Pete37038's cache that was placed in January, you know the one - I'm Slipping, just a short walk down Deans Ditch from the Transmitter. I parked at the car park on George's Lane and walked along Belmont Road to the path the goes around the back of the mount that Rivington Pike is on. As I walked around the mount the mist was so dense that I couldn't see Rivington Pike. I left the path here I took to the open moor. There is a rough path from many people walking to the transmitter that you can follow and this was extremely muddy in places. Five days earlier there was a cache published that was along this path so I took the opportunity to grab it as well. This was In the middle of nowhere, thats the cache name and its true to its word. It was a straight forward find once I was looking in the right place. I sat on the small bridge while signing the log and then it was onward towards the top of the hill and I'm Slipping. The only reference I had as I couldn't see the transmitter or the pike was the elevation reading on my GPSr and the OS Map that I was carrying. On arriving at the top I took a quick photo, the one above, of the maintenance cradle for the transmitter and still no sign of it. I continued around to Deans Ditch and followed the wall down to the cache site. This is the third time that I have been along here. The first time was to get a FTF on Egg Hillock and then a return visit to get Counting Hill as I missed it the first time round. One arriving at the cache site I looked for about 5 minutes and then spotted it peeping out from under the hint on the other side of the wall. I signed the log and took a geocoin out before return the cache and heading back along Dean's Ditch. I decided to take the path over Smithills Moor instead of just going down the road. This would give me the opportunity to try to find Will Yo' Come O' Sunday Morning. Passing the shooting lodge I got a phone call from Pete number for a phone a friend which soon had him finding the cache he was looking for. I was successful in find Will Yo' Come O' Sunday Morning and it didn't take me long either. The last time I was here the ground was covered in snow and my hands were freezing with the cold. It was then time to head back to the car which was a simple walk along Coal Pit Lane and then taking the footpath over to Winter Hill Road and then down the hill to Wilderswood and the car. The track can be viewed here on Wikiloc.

WWW - Reelers Trail and Houghton Section

Today was a solo adventure on a second visit to the Witton Weavers Way. The plan was to do the Reelers Trail and also pick up the Houghton Section. Setting off from the village of Abbey and picking the Reelers Trail up at the village pub I headed off in a anti-clockwise direction around the Reelers Trail picking up the odd traditional cache on the way. Following the cache trail I passed Roddlesworth Reservoir heading down and across the dam face towards Head Over Heels, should be renamed arse over tit in this case but I managed to stay upright. After finding this cache it was then back up to the path above around the reservoir which was a mission on its own. Note to self, don't leave your trekking pole in the car when its been raining and you are likely to encounter mud.  It was now back to the main job and the caches of The Legend. A short walk among the trees and 3 more caches found before heading north and uphill. After this it was then on towards Tockholes and this is where my latest purchase came in very handy. It was out with the OS map to figure out which way to head. I did take the wrong path at first but soon corrected this by walking past some small cottages and then down the road toward Old School Lane. Here I went left and again it was only for the paper map that I found my way. A stomp across the fields and another cache found and it was back on tarmac and the other end on Tockholes from where I was before. I made the quick walk up the lane to collect a cache in Tockholes - No 3 of the treat series before back tracking to return to the Reelers Trail. It wasn't long before I made it to the M65 and the noise of the traffic thundering pass. Between here and reaching Cherry Tree I made one mistake with my navigation and only realised this when I came upon a sign saying No Public Access, a quick check of the map and it was back the way I came before rejoining the path and making my way towards Broken Stone Road. On the farm track up to Broken Stone Road I passed a ewe with her new born lamb that still had its umbilical cord attached. A quick photo session and then back on the trial.

On reaching Cherry Tree the weather changed to the normal rain so it was on with the waterproof pants which paid off on the final leg of the trail when the heavans opened up. I walked along the road to the Leeds Liverpool Canal and continued down the towpath. I had set my GPSr to find Riverside Regeneration Land and this was going to be my downfall in completing the Reelers Train but as I wandered down the towpath I checked my GPSr only to realise that I had just passed Industrail Zone so I had to turn round and go back, luckily it was only by about 500ft. I gracefully hopped up the wall and soon found the cache. It was then back off along the canal for one more cache before heading off onto the Houghton Section. This was to be a very testing walk along the banks on the River Darwen. After finishing the Houghton Section it was back to the Reelers Trail walking around Hoghton Towers Estate and along the Canal picking up Gruffys NW Nutters cache on route. On getting back to the Reelers Trail it was over the bridge and along the side of the canal for the next two caches before dragging my feet uphill towards the M65 again. It was now the final slog back to Abbey Village and the car. So eight more caches to go, mud, river crossings, mud, hills and did I metion mud. On the approch to the Reelers Trail Cache I had my only fall on the day and went flat out on the hill side. The good thing about this was when I picked myself up I spotted the cache on the other side of the fence in its hide. 

The rain started to come down heavey now so all I wanted to do was get back to the car and head home for a cup of tea. So after a grulling 14 miles and a total time out of over 8 hours I made it back to the start with a total of 39 finds and two more parts of the Witton Weavers Way completed. I have upload the track from my GPSr to Wikilo and that can be viewed here

I think I may wait for the weather to improve before tackling the next section, this had to be the wettest caching day I have had, but it was fun in parts.

Witton Weavers Way - Beamers Trail

Yesterday was the first attempt at the new Legend Series of Letterbox Hybrid Caches. Mongoose39Uk aka Tony had posted on the NW Caching forum on Monday night to see if anyone was up for a walk on the Beamers Trail. This takes you to the very north of the series, apart from a small number of caches on the Houghton Section. Meeting at 9:30 at Witton Country Park we headed in an anti-clockwise direction. Passing some ground workers that were constructing a new play area and carving animals into old trees it was uphill out of the park and into the country side. Going of the logs we were following Grandad John and 1Gromit along the trail until we got to Riverside Ruins and the log had not been signed by them. It turns out that they had gone off to grab some of the Houghton Section Caches and we passed them coming back to get this one meaning that they were now following us. The walk was 8.8 miles long and took 3 hours moving and 2.5 hours stopped, most of this talking. Now the big question is have i got the Legend bug, just spent the last half hour looking at the next stage but have decided to stay local has its work tonight.

500 finds

Yesterday I was handed two TB's from the NorthWest Caching TB race and as I was approaching 500 finds I decided to combine the two for a reason to visit the Lake District. My last visit to the lakes was in July last year for a trip to Wastwater for a dive.

Yesterday while visiting Home After Dark, Emma (Scorpion Queen) handed me hers and Pop Up Pirates Racer TB's. I had done some caching that day and got to 499 so looked at where the two hadn't been and Waiting for the ferry was the one to visit. Leaving a dull Manchester behind the drive upto the cache was straight forward, approaching the Lake from the South on the A590 avoiding the main tourist route in. After driving along side the lake for some distance I pulled over to get the GPSr out of the back of the car and check where I was heading for, 2.3 mile still to go. After about 5 mins the signs for the ferry appeared and I pulled into the car park just up the road and found a parking space among all the boats that were being stored there.

It was a short walk from the car to GZ, just as I got to the little peninsula that is home to the cache the ferry was mooring up at the jetty but luckily it had a quick turn round and was on its way within five minutes. I sat on the bench near by while I signed the log and got the TB's I was dropping out of my pocket. As well as the two racer Bugs I dropped two other TB's I had. 

It was then back to the car for the short drive to Bowness and a Carvery Lunch at the Lakeview pub and then onto Ambleside for treat myself to some new boots.

500 finds on the Horizon

Was able to grab a couple of caches today including a Lizard power. This takes me to 492 finds so only 8 more and 500 is done. This isn't bad as back at the beginning of October 08 I had 140 finds and set myself a target of 200 before December 18th which would have been 12 months of caching for me. Well, I got set to make this target and then Grandad John had the Middlewood Way Circular Published and this helped me to smash the target and I have just kept going. I found 74 caches in October, 92 in November, 45 in December and 82 last Month. Following new shifts at work i plan to get out a lot more this year and you never know, maybe 1000 before the end of 09.

Back to UK Diving

 

Today was the first time for a dive in the UK for four months. Work, Illness and other commitments have kept me out of the water. It was off to Stoney Cove Inland Dive Site for a dive or two. Setting of at 6:45am, picking my buddy Mark up on the way and then heading down the M6/A50/M1 and M69 at a steady pace. Arrived at the dive site for around 10:15am. It was just a matter of getting dressed for the occasion as the dive kit was put together the night before and slung in the car. 

Twin set on the back and stage (7lt ali) ready it was down to the bus stop entry point for the the jump in. Hood, Mask and fins on all that was left before the big splash was the gloves. Stage cylinder left on the floor and in I went. Cold is not the word to describe it. The water temperature was 4ºc. I had to swim back to the bus stop to collect my stage. This is because its easier to put on once I'm in the water. Once Mark had got in and we had taken a rest it was time to commence the dive. With a quick OK and Down signal we dropped to the first depth of 6 meters and then down the slope to 20 meters before finding the road and heading into the gloom of the pit and 35 meters. Reaching the bottom at around 12 minutes it was time to make  the return trip. Passing the bottom of the quarry road we came upon the deep hydro box. After a bit of a quick ascent and back down it was up the road passing the tower and BOP. At 13 meters it was time to switch to the stage cylinder that had 68% O2 in it. By this time the hands were numb with the cold and 5 meters was reached for the 3 minute safety stop before getting out and defrosting. 

After an hour and half of surface interval it was time to go again. The plan for this dive was to get in the water and follow the chain along the bottom of the quarry to the wreck. This was done to the letter but at arriving at the wreck it was a quick turn round and back due to the coldness. The pain in my fingers was getting unbearable and was not able to bend them. The dive was cut short and was only 19 minutes long.  Well I did it, back to the cold dark water that is the UK inland site also known as puddle diving. Will get some more in before the trip in May to Eyemouth.

Stoney Cove Dive Site

High Bullough Reservoir

 The last time I visited the place I left empty handed. So today (12th Febuary) I decided to head back there I wasn't leaving until I had completed the two caches that beat me last time. These being Jacob's Ladder by Pop Up Pirate and Jacob's Other Ladder by Foinavon. Here are the logs from the cache page.

Jacob's Ladder - GC13Z2B - This was a bit of Deja vou for me. I had been here to pass the time away before heading for Januarys NWCMM. While walking around the reservoir I got side tracked onto The Other Jacob's Ladder Cache but without success. I walked back along a path and down some steps to get back to the car. These steps were Jacob's Ladder.

I headed to the ladder after finding 123, how mays resers can you see? and tried counting the steps on the way up and managed to get to 60 something. This is the point were I went wrong, left and right, how do you get them mixed up. After about ten minutes of searching and changed my direction and found the step down that I was looking for, how did I miss it in the first place, I had walked past it the last time I was here. Having a look around a I spotted the likely hide and there it was. The cache was half full with water so after cleaning the marbles inside I emptied the water out. Tried signing the log but struggled even with a pencil. Thanks for the cache.

Jacob's Other Ladder - GC16D4X - Short Log - TFTC SL TNLN

Long Log - I know how much the cache owner loves those one line logs. I made my way to the cache along the upper path from PUP's Jacob's Ladder Cache and soon arrived above GZ. I had tried this before on a day when I must have left my brain at home. On that occasion I had scrambled up the hill from the lower path and by the time I got to the top I was too knackered to look for a cache. So called it and went back to the car.
I carried on along the path until I could see and easy way down and then back tracked to where my GPSr was taking me. I was going back a forth between two of the items in the hint. After about ten minutes of getting caught up in trees with my bag I had had enough. Dropped the bag on the floor, put the GPSr next to it and took a good look around with the hint in mind. Would you believe it, I was only stood right in front of the cache. It took me just one step up to reach it. Signed the log and then placed the cache back. Now for the trip down the hill to the lower path to continue around to Dotties Delight. Thankfully I had a trekking pole to keep me upright. Thanks for another exhilarating cache.

All I can say is that this area is full of great cache and I haven't even scratched the surface. Can't wait for the long days to come round when I will be able to get up here before the birds wake up.

Cache Placement

After some time of collecting and buying different types of containers for cache placement it was time to hide some. Up till this point I have only had 4 caches, 3 Traditional and 1 Multi. I have noticed a gap along the Rochdale Canal that would be a perfect spot for some so set off with a number of different caches in a plastic bag and no idea of where I was going to put them. After about 40 mins of walking along the canal the job was done and it was time to head home and write the cache pages up and submit them for publishing. 

I have just started to use html coding in my cache listings and this was where it went a bit wrong. I decided to write the main information on one page and then copy and paste it into the other but ended up with many line breaks in the text. This took some time for me to delete all the unwanted line breaks but I got there in the end. The caches were published about an hour after submitting them and then found twice in just over an hour of that.

They are :- Rochdale Canal,

M60 Tunnel

Boat and Horses

Chadderton B

No Fishing

Flying Road

Lock 64

An eventful few days

 Decided it was time to attend a geocaching event and have now done 3 in as many days. First two were a Saturday. The first was GC1J1M1 - The Service. I parked at the Ridgeway in Blackrod, this is the venue of the second event, and walked along the A6 with the Linedancers and then took the path down to the Service Sation area. On the way down we were able to get the following caches. GC1KFF4 - Bocca Della Verita, GC1KFF4 - Unlucky Seven, GC1KFEQ - Motorway Gridlock, GC1KFDY - Close encounters of the M61 Motorway Kind. After this it was inside for a brew and a sight that this service station will most likely not see again. There was close to 50 people in the resturant and the staff looked amuzed to where everyone had come from. After leaving the service i walked back to the Ridgeway Arms and the second event of the day, GC1JVJ2 - After The Gold Rush. On the way to here i took the oppertunity to pick up GC10RR5 - Cemetery Gates and GC19970 - Side Tracked Blackrod. It was then into the pub for a drink, food and a chat. After spending about 2 hours here i decided to head upto Windy Hill and drop three Northwest Caching Race Bugs off into GC3A42 - Windy Hill. But before leaving the Horwich area i decided to find GC1JNMB - Lest We Forget - Horwich and GC163PE - Station to Station Park. 

The final event was GC1GPKE - Clare's Birthday Bash Cache. The night started off with 11 caches to be found and then a meal in the pub, this being the Smithy Inn, Much Hoole. The birthday cake was in the form of a ammo can complete with swaps and TB's. So after never being to an event before it was three in 3 days.