Egypt 2010 - Part 2

Day 2

Dive 3 was on The Dunraven, also known as The Dullraven after you have dived it a number of times. The wreck sits on the seabed upside down. On reaching it the first section is a quick swim through with the second section taking you pass the boilers and engine and you then leave the wreck at the stern just below the prop and rudder.

From the stern marking your way along the hull of the wreck back towards the reef to finish of the dive with a nice gentle drift. Life spotted on the dive included a Giant Moray, Blue Spotted Ray's and some Red Sea Anemonefish

For the next lot of dives we moved across to Abu Nuhas Reef. Here there is four wrecks to dive. The first for dive 4 was to be the Kimon M

A interesting dive. Even after diving it 3 times before there is always something new to find. A good rummage around the wreck and a swim up onto the reef to look at the anchor and get a photo of it before swimming back along the outside to the shot line for the trip to the surface.

Dive 5 was on the Chrisola K. This is my favourite dive on Abu nu has reef. Plenty to see and loads of swim throughs. Managed to get down into the engine room and over into the generator room. My exit was smaller than it looked and I only managed to exit to the waist before having to drop down and find a different exit. The rest of the dive was just a swim around the cargo holds and along the sea bed looking at some of the debris that has come off the wreck.

No pics of this dive as I left the camera on the boat.

The night dive was on Abu Nu Has reef. The highlight on the dive was a Spanish Dancer.

Egypt 2010 - Part 1

The journey started at 8.15pm on the Saturday (11^th December) evening when the taxi arrived to take me to the coach station. Once there I had to wait an hour for my first coach of the night.

This would take me to Birmingham and a wait of 1 hour 20 minutes before the second coach left. This took me on a tour of Coventry and Heathrow Airport before arriving at Gatwick just after 5am Sunday morning. Within 50 minutes I had checked in, passed through security and made it to McDonald's for some breakfast and to sit and write this.

So after a good flight which took just 4 hours and 15 minutes due to a strong tail wind we landed I Sharm to be greeted my galeforce sinds and a sandstorm. After the journey through the airport, a coach trip to the port and more security checks there it was time to get on the boat, unpack have some dinner and get some sleep.

Day 1

The wind has now died down but we are having to wait for the harbour master to allow us to set sail. Finally we got the all clear at just before 12. We should get our first dive in by 3 o'clock.

Dive One

Beacon Rock and The Emperor Fraser

So this was the check dive and the first time a check dive has passed the 20 meter mark. The current was fast moving so it was follow the rope tied to the fraser's bow and have a little swim around. On returning to the line the current had picked up slightly so I decided that I was going bacl up the line instead of swimming up the reef and fighting against the current. After a 2 min stop at 8 meters and safety stop at 5 meters it was out of the water.

Dive Two

Night Dive at Beacon Rock

Not the most interesting night dive that I have done over the years but it was a dive. Two Jack Fish were out hunting for there supper and towards the end of the dive I spent time helping a lion fish hunt by shining my torch on the small fish.

WWWWAL - LEGEND Caching

Tuesday 23rd Nov I spent the daylight hours on the  Walsden section of LEGEND 2. Starting and finishing at Watergrove Reservoir. Covering 13.5 mile in just under 8 hours. Finding 36 caches, one DNF and a trig point to boot. I was accompanied by LogieB on the walk.

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Donna Nook - Seal visit

Today I visited Donna Nook Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire.

From the web - 

Grey Seal Breeding Colony

For much of the year grey seals at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trusts’ Donna Nook National Nature Reserve are at sea or hauled out on distant sandbanks. Every November and December, the seals give birth to their pups near the sand dunes: a wildlife spectacle which attracts visitors from across the UK.

With over 1300 pups born annually and tens of thousands of visitors, management is required and this is achieved thanks to the fantastic support of a team of volunteer wardens and the staff of RAF Donna Nook.

There isn't that much to write so I will let the photos tell the story

Hough Hill Triangulation Piller

TP4036 - Hough Hill can be found at Grid Reference: SJ 96843 97423 

Having dropped my car off for a MOT I decided to grab a couple of geocaches in the area and on the way there happened to be a trig point that I hadn't visited. I walked up through Gorse Hall before walking across some open ground and getting sight of the trig. Now all I had to do was find a way over to it. There was no path marked as going to it so after some time of wandering the local streets I got directions from a dog walker. I got onto a dirt track that serves a farm yard and stables and walked this until finding the footpath sign. This footpath doesn't pass the trig point but goes over the hill behind the cover reservoir that is next to it. 

After walking to the crest of the hill I left the path and headed to the trig keeping to the east fence of the reservoir. From the trig point you get great views over Tameside and on towards Manchester. I could even see the stream from the cooling towers at Fiddlers Ferry Power Station above the haze. From here it was a short trot down the hill, over a barb wire fence and on towards four geocaches to find.

A Manchester Meet - Winter 2010

Well the time had come to have a get together so I decided to sort one out in my home town. The Angel Pub had been mentioned a number of time to me so decided that the would be the location. The pub is a real ale house with a different selection week in week out. With its wooden floorboards and coal fire its a true pub. Not to sure on the total numbers that turned up but a good number of mew cachers came along as well. The quiz had the brains working overtime with a number of people caught cheating. The winner in the end was nursemike who went home with a ammo can ready to hide. My night ended at midnight when I made it home after a tour of more Manchester pubs and a curry at Akbar's. Thanks to all the cachers that turned up, hope you all enjoyed yourself.

Manchester Night Togging

Well it had been mentioned on a number of time about heading into the city centre for some night time photography so I decided to make it a geocaching event. 

So we had Lights Camera and a Beer, Manchester Nocturnal 

Meeting in Exchange Square and then heading towards the Town Hall via St Annes Square and Cross Street.

From the Town Hall we headed around to St Peter's Square and the front of Manchester Central Library. Here the main shots were of the metrolink trams using a long exposure to get that light streaming effect.

Next stop was the now Manchester Central aka G-Mex. Since the last time I passed here they have built a new entrance which hides the lower part of the old station structure. After some time here and the Bridgewater Hall oppersite it was onto Great Northern Square. The home of The Great Northern Warehouse and Bar 38.

At this point the group started to shrink as people started heading home to there different parts of the world. You will be asking why I used world there and not country, well with had the company of The Oz's who are Mary and Steve from Ohio, USA. The soon a breakaway group headed for food leaving Wicker and myself to wander down to Piccadilly Station and see what shots we could get down there. That didn't last long as we got moved off the footbridge over London Road by a plastic copper saying that it was private property and we needed permission to take pictures from it.

So I managed to get one shot from that location.

2000th geocache find

The time had come for the next milestone of 2000 cache finds. The Syllogiser and myself had decided to go for it together so planned a day out in Derbyshire. We headed to Froggett Edge and Johan's Journey.

After walking up onto the edge we needed one more cache for 1999 so on the way we managed to pick up Roman Lounger. This was off piste from the main path but was quickly found. Log signed and cache returned it was onwards to our milestone. We headed down the path that took us to the bottom of the cliff and on to GZ. With the search under I was under the cache but was unable to find a way to it. Don headed up to the top while I looked on the other side. I returned to where we had dropped our gear to the sounds on Don calling from the top. Before I could make my way up there he had descended down the hole in the rocks at the top and was making his to the cache. After some time I heard "got it"
Once the log was signed all that was left was to get The Syllogiser out of there without the help of the Mountain Rescue.

Healey Dell to Hail Storm Ridge and Back

A day out with Don (The Syllogiser) geocaching on the new LEGEND series. 23 caches and 2 dnfs over 10 miles. Starting at Healey Dell we winged it to Rolo and then set of up the Pennine Way with 2 diversions to other caches. The turning point back was Hail Storm Ridge and Wickers Hike 4 near to the trig point.

On the way back we did some Top of Naden caches and some more Wickers Hike caches.

Healey Dell to Hail Storm Ridge and Back

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Manchester Airport Viewing Park

Nimrod-Nose_tonemapped
Originally uploaded by scubaclogger

Went for a short visit to the airport viewing park. There charges for parking are stupid so I parked near The Romper Pub and waled the half mile down the road. I was expecting to see more planes on display but there was only 3 intact aircraft outside. The Nimrod was fenced of leaving the Trident Three and a RJX. The concode is inside but was closed at the time of my visit.
Plenty of action out on the runways, aircrft landing on runway one and taking off on runway two.

Salford Quays HDR Day

Spent the day around Salford Quays taking pictures and then editing them into HDR images. I have to take 3 pictures at -2, 0 and +2 exposure. then I just run these through a program called Photomatix Pro to generate the HDR image and then tonemap them.

Just some of the shots that I got. I wonder where I will get to next.

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Its been a while

Well it was back in March when I last posted a blog and that was for the Beer Festival in Wigan. Now after getting a macbook and find a nice program for writing blogs offline i'm hoping to pick it back up and update more often.

So what have I done that I could of blogged about but didn't get around to -

Geocaching camping event in Rivington, Dalesbridge, Derbyshire and Snowdonia. Walked up Mount Snowdon and been diving in Scapa Flow and Swanage.

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Wigan Beer Festival 2010

Went to the 23rd Wigan Beer Festival on the 5th March at Robin Park Sports Centre. This was combined with a geocaching flash mob event but the beer was the main reason for being there. During the evening I sampled six different beers.

Banks Top Sweeneys - 3.8%

A amber beer brewed with a highly rated German hop. Bold crisp flavor with a delicate spicy aroma.

Little Valley Organic Ginger Pale Ale - 4%

Light and fresh with a hint of ginger and citrus.

Lytham Blonde - 3.8%

Pale golden beer with a subtle hop aroma and a smooth dry finish

George Wright Mocne Piwo - 5.1%

Name is Polish for 'strong ale'. Light amber in colour with a morrish hop aftertaste.

Saltaire Blackberry Cascade - 4.8%

American style pale ale hopped with cascade and centennial hops, infused with a hint of blackberries.

The place was rammed with the loud music of the live band and plenty of beer flowing.

Solstice With The Stones

IMG_4029
Originally uploaded by scubaclogger

Saturday 23rd Jan - Arriving at The Last Drop Village for 05:30 there were was a number of other cachers already parked up and ready for the walk. The walk was to take us across Turton Golf Course and up to the Trig point on Cheetham Close to watch the sunrise. The sight of the trail of headlights behind snaking down the hill is a sight to be remembered. Once on top of the hill I made my way to the trig point with Wicker and then waited as the rest joined us. As the sun came up the mist started to clear to reveal low laying cloud below us. The sight of Winter Hill Transmitter to the West and Scout Moor Windfarm to the Southeast with clouds rolling past below was amazing. As the sun peered over the top of the cloud the whole sky turned orange and the chill in the air seemed to disappear. While the main group headed of along the paths to find some tupperware I headed down hill with Ferretter38 and Bargee before heading back towards the car. Total time of walk was 5 hours and just 10km.

Post Christmas Chocolate Cracker

Early in the week it was decided to postpone the three events in Bolton that I was going to due to the weather that would effect the first. These being Solice with the the Stones, Appalling and Camouflage. So having noticed this event on the groundspeak weekly newsletter I decided to head to North Wales.

I arranged to meet Don (The Syllogiser), Francies (FFloss) and Steve (1/4 of Team SLuG) in Shevington for a 7:30 departure. With all gear loaded into the car and all passengers on board it was a matter of getting of the ice rink side roads of Shevington and onto the M6. We arrived at Abergele Railways Station just before 9am for the start of the day. Cachers turned up at a steady pace and then it was time to get the train to Llandudno. The train was early for once so we had some spare time to grab a couple of caches that weren't on the route for the day.

After some running around town finding a stage of a multi it was to the band stand for the start of the walk. The route was along the coast taking in the Little Orme, Rhos-on-sea, Colwyn Bay, Llanddulas and finaly Abergele. The full route has been uploaded to Wikiloc here.

On arriving at the Little Orme a splinter group headed to the trig point go get some numbers for a multi cache. The views from up their over the bay of Llandudno were just amazing. The wind was biting but the sun was shining. So after a great walk of around 15 miles, there was 26 caches found and 2 events attended.

One Thousand and Two

Yep, 1002 is the number of caches that I have done in 2009. Not bad for my second full year of caching. I started mid December in 2007 and got 14 and in 2008 357 caches in 38 caching days. So last year saw me cache for 114 days. My best month was in March with 195 finds which is when I was doing the LEGEND series a lot. It also saw me get 17 first to finds that month, all on one day with a new series not far from home.

I have also got addicted to one cachers caches. The Sparrowboys have a number of cache around the Partington, Carrington and Durham Massey area. There 2 and 3 stage multi's are some of the the best cache I have done and I believe it will take a lot to beat them. I also got my one and only 5/5 rated cache thanks to Muttoneer and his Werewolf cache. Which I combined with finding Whitespace at the same time. January saw me attend my first geocaching event and I now have a total of 16 under my belt and hope to beat that number this year but I don't think it will be by too many more.

So here is to 2010 and many more caches.