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.

Back to Rivvy - Part 2

 Now it was time to head over to George's Lane to tackle Pop up pirates Cats and Dogs Multi. I set off in the direction i thought it was to the first stage but had to back track to the car park and onto the road. Here is my log from the cache page - Having spent the first part of the day caching over near Coal Pit Road I was now ready to tackle a multi. Parked in the car park as suggested and set off along George's Lane to round up the missing animals. 1, 2 and 3 quickly done. Took some time with number 4 due to leaf fall covering it up but it was soon discovered. Continued on and located 5, 6 and 7. On arriving at no' 8 I was looking too low down but had to hold off my search to put some grit on the road to help a van up the hill. Once the van had passed with one happy driver it was back to the search for pet number 8 and it was soon found. I then worked out the final co-ords and to my surprise they worked. Got to GZ and with the help of the hint found the cache. Signed the log and left a whistle key finder that I took from Boggarts Behind You yesterday and had on my car key but it was starting to annoy me. It was now onto Douglas & George, In the Shadow of the Pike and Round the Ruins No 9, Prospect Farm plus a maintenance job at Two Tower View on behalf of Team_ShadowWalker. I also made it upto the Pike for the first time, smaller than it looks for a distance but a fantastic view from up there. Thanks for the cache, great fun doing it, took just over an hour. 

Its was then onto Douglas & George, In the Shadow of the Pike and Round the ruinsNo 9, Prospect Farm before dropping a new log off at Two Towers View. It was then time to head up the hill to the pike before returning to the car and home to get warm.

Back to Rivvy - Part 1

With the New Year here it was time for a trip back to the Rivington Area. I set of just after 8am for a 30 min drive to Horrocks Fold Car Park on Scout Road. From here i got everything together and set of along Scout road and then up Coal Pit Road before taking the path where the Mass trepass took place on Sunday 6th September 1896. From here it was a short walk to Ground Zero for cache GC10R9v - Will Yo' Come O' Sunday Morning by Lollybob. This was last found in May 08 and had to Did Not Find's since then with the last being in November. I was up against it since leaving home as during the night it had snowed and the ground was frozen. I spent around five minutes looking before it was time to call it and more on. The fact the by now my hands were freezing searching in the snow was also another factor.

It was now onto GC10RAA - Power to the people by Lollybob. This was a quick find once I had finished taking pictures of the area covered in snow. I soon signed the log and placed the cache back in its hide before continuing up the hill to GC169TC - Hole in the wall by Lollybob. On arriving at GZ it became clear how the hint was going to work and after a quick walk around i started my search and soon had the cache in my hand. I signed the log which had seen better days and then return the cache to its hole and headed back along the path which i came along before heading uphill just pass Power to the people and on my way to GC115GT - A Bonnie Lass by Lollybob.

This was going to be another hard serch in the snow covered heather and i was just about to give up when my foot kicked something and on looking down it was the cache. With my numb fingers from the cold i opened the cache, took the log out and signed it before placing the cache back where i had found it and movong on.

Next was GC1AQ6F - April Showers by Lollybob. This i will do a seperate blog for.

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