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