Geocaching and Trigpointing

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25th July 2010 General chat

I listened to an interesting show on BBC Radio 4 last week called Cache in Pocket. It was the first well presented insight to Geocaching I have come across. I do prefer not to talk to non-cachers about Geocaching as you can't help but sound like a dweeb. I hate the childish terms like "muggles". I'm a grown-up. I do like to find interesting locations. I don't like to hang around parks looking for tiny containers. One facinating thing I learned was that the UK cacher with the highest find count (around 15,000) is the founder of Dr. Solomon's Antivirus Toolkit. I found myself asking, "would I be Geocaching if I was that rich"? I wouldn't be sticking around for another miserable summer, that's for sure.

There was also an interview with Dave Ulmer, the guy who placed the first Geocache 10 years ago, though he called it the rather less catchy GPS Stash Hunt.

My favourite part was when the presenter was out finding a cache with a guy calling himself Geocaching Womble.
GW: I'm Geocaching Womble. The Wombles are a completely different people.
BBC: Yes. <pauses while considering this statement> They are, they are...
For those that don't know, there are long established cachers called The Wombles, but the interviewer wouldn't have known this, but the interviewer didn't know that. It made me laugh anyway.

25th July 2010 Llanbedr, Crickhowell

Down by the River involves four micros and a cache along a stunning 6 mile walk (we may have gone further than necessary). There is a fair bit more up and down than the name would imply, but the view are just breathtaking on a pleasant summer's day. We had planned to link it to another long multi, but it was very warm and I was back to work the following day after having a week off. Never mind, only five more days and I'm off again.

After a good while spent playing in the Grwyne Fawr with Will and Bob we went into Abergavenny as it very quiet at 4pm on a Sunday. We weren't in the mood for the multicache there, so I bought Will and ice cream and we went home.

23rd July 2010 Big Pit, Blaenavon,

We made use of the semi-secure parking at Big Pit. There are three caches there that we hadn't done, including an Earthcache. After a quick find we walked up to Pwll-du, where we checked on a cache we had previously found only to find a lizard sunbathing on the rock that concealed the cache.As we closed in on Clydach and The Nook Near the Alder Grove we stopped for lunch. With our legs dangling over the embankment, large waterfalls to our side and fantastic views we wondered if it got any better than this. A group of 30+ mountain ponies meandered up the road to where we were sitting. The animals never bother us in any way, unlike the domestic horses we come across. We found the cache in quarried hillside and then wound our way down to the Clydach Viaduct where a large group where going through safety before they abseiled down the large bridge.

There are also four lovely lime kilns there too. The old station house, which is now a private residence, still has the platform in the garden. We couldn't follow the railway, so we took a steep ascent. The next cache was Gelllifelen Tunnels. One of the pair of railway tunnels has been left open for walkers and the cache is placed in the middle. Some kids were making such a noise whilst passing through without proper lights that we thought we'd hide and wait for them. I think we scared them half to death, but we all had a good laugh. We followed the railway to Brynmawr and then had a real struggle to find the paths marked in the maps. When we did hook up with them we were trapped in a field by a totally impassible stile. We arrived back at car to find a nearby cache and take the required photos for the earthcache. The Big Pit museum was closed by now, so we had to Google the answers, but that wasn't too hard.

19th July 2010 Hoarwithy, Herefordshire

We were hoping to get up to Snowdonia this week, but the weather forecast was awful. We did one cache at Backney Bridge, before setting off to place a couple of caches. The first didn't work out (we will place it one day), but the second went pretty well. It's not a straight forward cache, so we'll have to see how it's received. The cache is called 28 Days Later and I'd love to say more about it, but I can't because it would give the game away. Anyway, we had an absolute blast setting it. As we expected there were a couple of DNFs and a couple of finds the first weekend. Judging by the logs and emails I have received it has gone down pretty well. We had planned to set another cache in the area, but a cache location didn't show itself. There is a brilliant building which I've wanted to use for years. It will happen one day.

I was experimenting with my camera (Canon Powershot A710 IS) whilst setting the cache and managed to knock it over lens first in some sand/mud. Grit has got in the zoom mechanism and it is now useless. I spent a while considering new cameras. The Canon SX120 IS looks almost perfect for my needs, but I also like the more expensive Panasonic Lumix TZ10 and the Samsung WB650, both of which have in-built GPS receivers to geotag their images. Both also have large zooms and a wide angle lens, not to mention hi-def video recording. In the mean time I will stick with my Canon Powershot S3, which I bought last December to see if I really wanted a DSLR. I quickly found I'm not ready for one yet (they're just too big and bulky), but the S3 has everything I want, though I just want it in a smaller case. My requirements are good zoom, easily accessible, flip and twist display, fold down flash, fully manual and auto, good macro, fast continuous shooting, view finder (many new models are doing away with these), AA batteries, excellent image quality.

17th July 2010 Cleeve Hill

Will had a drum exam in Cheltenham at 16:59 (they are very precise), so we thought we would make use of the trip. I can easily see my office from the top of this hill, so it's a bit of a busman's holiday. Once you get past the golf course it is a pleasant hill. It's been extensively quarried, but as it's so flat around here you can see for a long way despite only being at 1,000 feet. I've cached here before on a long lunch break, but a few caches have appeared since then and there were a couple left to clear up. I was particularly pleased with this photo which I took of Bob jumping a stile which says on it, "Dog Leap". We hit Rock School in plenty of time and Will knock 'em dead. We'll be back for grade 5 next year.

10th July 2010 Dinmore, Herefordshire (see route)

Herefordshire is a caching desert, so when an event was organized here we thought it was only right for us to put in an appearance. We spent the day walking poorly signed paths and through crops with almost no path left by the farmer. The Linseed was bad, but I am very allergic to Timothy grass, so wearing shorts and ankle socks meant my legs were a bit of a mess by the end of the day. This was hugely compounded by a wooded path being totally overgrown with nettles and brambles. Ouch! The barbecue event was great and we had a very enjoyable couple of hours chatting to many people, a surprising number of whom I had had email communications with previously. We made our 1,300th find at Westhope Common, a very enjoyable cache.