Geocaching and Trigpointing

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3rd July 2010 Cwmcarn (see route)

We'd been walking the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal earlier in the year and just had the last stretch to do. A couple of caches had remained unfound in this area because one cache had been disabled for rather a long time. Now it was back in action we could wait no longer. Tramway Teaser was a lovely cache taking us from the outskirts of Cwmbran to Pwll Tra. A steady, but not particularly steep climb. I love it when you don't have great expectations for a cache and you really enjoy it. We then headed off to find our second multicache of the day down at the Giant's Court. An obelisk gave us an abridged Welsh history lesson of the ancient tale of Olwen, Culhwch and Twrch Trwyth the wild boar. Scenic Drive is a popular place due to the ability to drive to a location (tool road) which you would only normally be able to access via foot. We saw no other walkers, though there are always mountain bikes around here.

We had planned our route around where we expected the two multicaches to take us. The first was correct, but we had envisaged a lot longer walk on the second. Our next challenge was to get up on the ridge for SWMCC 6. The map had shown some tracks, but of course they didn't exist in reality. With a combination of finding paths and making our own we got there and were rewarded by views to the Central Brecon Beacons. A shaded walk down to Cwmcarn was followed by our final section of the canal and then some beautiful countryside on our way back to the car, which we had left at the start of the first cache in Henllys. We struggled at the very end trying to find a way into the housing area where our car was parked. The pub there looked very inviting after a long, hot day, but we had to be home, so we made do with a nice cold one from the fridge. This left us on 1299 finds. It would have been nice for any of these three caches to be a milestone for us, but it wasn't to be.

26th June 2010 Brecon Beacons (click here to see where we went)

This was our third consecutive weekend in the Brecon Beacons, but the first looking for caches. One of our very favourite walks is from Blaen y glyn to Fan y Big and as we were there we offered to do some maintenance for some fellow cachers on our favourite cache, Alien Encounter I. We were also lucky enough to have three new caches to do that would make an interesting change to our walk and take us to our most admired cairn at Carn Pica. It was great to see Red Kites along the way and the caches were brilliant, but I would expect nothing less from Morgs4mountains. The weather was superb with a breeze that just keeps you cool enough, but you have to watch out for sunburn, as you don't notice it here. We tried to find the direct path back from Fan y Big, but just ended up yomping. We enjoy nothing more than stopping for a nice cold one in Llangynidr by the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal on the way home on a long summer's evening.

31st May 2010 Rockhampton and Forest of Dean

After a good break we decided to give the cache trail a chance. Things started out OK, passing a couple of Alpacas (or Llamas) and passing through some pleasant meadows. To make the walk long enough we had to try and incorporate three trails, so we diverted to another series. The paths were very poorly marked and overgrown, but we generally managed to continue despite all the nettles around the stiles stinging our bare legs. We could not find a way out of one field and when confronted with cows decided to exit under a hedge onto a lane. I came out bleeding and cut. Nothing I haven't done before, but very annoying as we discovered the stile was concealed and there were no signs. The Geocaching part went horribly downhill from here. Why would anyone want to place a cache behind a road grit bunker with no views or any other favourable attributes - especially when the last cache was just around the corner. I don't get it.

This sort of thing went on for a while until I decided to leave a cache because I was not happy with it being placed so far from a PRoW. This is trespass, but something a blind eye is always turned to. Shortly afterwards we had big problems with young cows (our only other instance of this was very, very close to here on 3/6/2010). There was no alternative route, so we turned back having our dislike for trails confirmed. The better the day out, the more photos I take. 23 is a very low number for me.

The following day (which was a bank holiday) we made a walk of two local caches. We had thought of placing a cache at New Fancy when the Geomap appeared, but gave up trying to get the FC to answer a phone call. The other cache marks a plaque commemorating where the Oak trees were felled to build HMS Victory with.

Caches with a purpose, whatever next?

3rd May 2010 South Wales Event, Gower

Another year has flown by and it's time for our favourite event. There had been some turmoil this year with the original organizer throwing his toys out of the pram when disagreeing on Mega Event location. The next person in line decided to re-use this event from two years previously. He too pulled out due to a dispute with Groundspeak, so it was left for Von-Horst to pull together the final threads. I was happy to re-visit this location as it's so beautiful and there is still much for us to explore. I was rather disappointed in the announcement that the Mega Event will be in Swansea next year. We already knew that Mega Events don't fit our profile, so we'll just have to look out for some other events that do.
We took a strange route via Pontypridd to pick up Cipher Cache 7 (an unusually easy cache to reach for this series) and then pitched up at Clyne Farm on Friday evening before visiting the local Pizza place.

We don't hand around the events during the day, as we much prefer to be out walking. We set off for the western end of the Gower and spent a humid day walking the beaches and hills around Llanmadoc. We only did four caches and a trigpoint, but it was a good 10 miles. The varying temperature (freezing on the hill tops and boiling humidity on the way up) along with the dunes added to the difficulty level. We had a great time though and were relieved that the forecast rain didn't materialize. We had huge beaches to ourselves and particularly enjoyed Burry Holms (Burryd Treasure) and Llanmadoc Hill, where there are two caches.

There's plenty of time for socializing in the evening, so we stopped on the way back for ice creams and burgers for the evening's traditional barbecue, which wasn't very well attended. We had a great evening in the company of some lovely people. I think the best thing was that Geocaching was barely mentioned at all. The heat from the BBQs made it almost bearable to sit outdoors. Will and I both slept in full clothing to keep warm. Fleeces, walking socks, everything.

The next day we packed up (too cold for the planned three nights) and headed over to Worms Head, where an event had been planned to mark the 10th birthday of Geocaching. Most of us walked to the head, which is tidal and is further than you think. We loved the cave at the end, Devil's Bridge and the huge anchor from a wrecked ship on the causeway. It was a great day and we headed home afterwards for some creature comforts, like warmth and a soft bed.

On the Bank Holiday Monday we met up with mostly the same bunch on the Blorenge for another anniversary event. Geocaching events are a bit like buses. This event was also very well turned out. Possibly something to do with the great weather, though there was a bitter wind on the top. The site was chosen as it is where the first cache in Wales was placed Geocaching's first year. More OpenCaches here than in the rest of Wales put together.

I do wonder where Geocaching will be in another ten years. Like many things the change is exponential with time, so who knows?

11th April 2010 Ebbw Vale

I wouldn't be here if not for Geocaching. The hills are lovely, but they're strewn with rubbish and surrounded by industrial units. Motorbikes tear up the beautiful countryside and paths are generally poorly marked. There seems to be very little pride in the wonderful assets that this country possesses. It's easy to talk patriotically, but these places depress me. We had to walk up through a vandalized park along the long gone railway, through housing and up the hillside, diverting around a golf course. My main aim was to find another Cipher cache, which we achieved. The first of two DNFs was just supposedly in heather on the hill top. Five minutes looking was long enough for me. Life's too short for these silly hides. I'm pleased to say that I have better things to do. The round towers were the best find of the day. They were built to protect the local mining owner and his ponies.
Thanks for showing me the area, but I won't be back.

27th March 2010 M&B Canal Part II

Although we've been down here every weekend there aren't that many caches to report. We did two on this section, though they were very much away from the canal. It was nice to do our first cache by The Moor We Hunt... as we had the pleasure of meeting them at our event. Ffynnon Angoeron (Holy Well) is a lovely cache. Although the well is marked on the OS map I doubt we would have visited without this cache. SWMCC 1 takes you to the top of the ridge where there is a memorial to a crashed plane's crew. Unfortunately the cache requires a yomp across bog land. I love this series, but this didn't do it for me. The final cache was a replaced cache at Shell Grotto, which I was unable to find due to a bad back. Never mind, we come this way quite often. I would have been annoyed not to find the earlier cache though. Back at the canal two boys had caught a fish, their 10th in an hour apparently. I hadn't seen one along the whole route.

21st March 2010 Web site updates stuff

Lots of non-walking work here. I got the OS map walking routes sorted a few months ago and have been adding routes to them regularly, but now I've created an overview map. By clicking any of the pretty stars (gold, silver or bronze rated walks) you get the walk overview and a link to the details including the OS map route. On this page you can see exactly where we have walked on our caching (and non-caching) trips.
I have built upon OpenSpace to show all of our Geocache finds. This is available from the pretty link above. All of this data is rendered from a database, so it is not hard coded.

6th March 2010 Kenfig Nature Reserve and Event

We came down to Kenfig (near Bridgend) to attend an event designed to raise funds for next year's Mega event in South Wales. We're not really interested in Mega Events, but wanted to support Mollyjak anyway. It's always good to meet up with other cachers, some we have known for a few years now. Sociallising is good, but it doesn't beat walking, so we found a few caches before and after the lunchtime meet. Mollyjak had kindly placed a cache near the remaining hut at Island Farm POW camp for me as I had been interested in the history here. It would have been an FTF too if not for some dubious caching methods by a caching friend.

We had a nice lunch and chat and a bit of a boggy walk. We met some lovely Geocachers on our walks and at the event. Someone even found Bob's lost tag and posted it home for us.

28th February 2010 Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal

Over the past few weeks we'd picked up two lone caches. The Dead and the Undead was worth a mention as it involved an interesting ruin of a church in Tintern which I had almost walked passed on several occasions without knowing it was there.

I'd decided to walk the length of the M&B canal as I can't imagine another canal in such beautiful surroundings. The start at Brecon was to take in a cache I had nearly gone to find whilst at the Flash Mob event last May, but again I skipped it due to a demanding day. The views of the central Brecon Beacons covered in snow were spectacular. It wasn't until the next weekend that I picked up my first cache on the walk. Pielips had placed three caches along this canal almost three years ago. They were not easy to link to other caches and we don't like to drive to caches, so they waited.

While none of the caches are in remarkable locations, they are a great way of introducing people to this beautiful canal. Saturday ended up at the first cache and Sunday took me from B&M C3 to M&B C1, 30 miles in total with the circular routes. Two weeks later I reached the last in the series, M&B C2. You can see our route here.
There is plenty of scope for interesting caches along here, but as it's within the Brecon Beacons National Park it's too much hassle to comply with the ridiculous guidelines. Maybe I'll place one on OpenCaching. The end of the Brinore Tramroad is especially interesting with it's lime kilns, mock dram and information boards.

We came across lots of unfortunate animals on our canal walks, including a drowned badger, a dead lamb and a rabbit that could barely move.

Some may argue that they enjoy the search or they like the trades, though I would strongly disagree. Trades are invariably just tat. It is the location that is important, or at least it should be for the vast majority of caches.

The Rolls-Royce of Caches marks the resting place of Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce. Although his legacy is a symbol for luxury and quality throughout the world, it is less well known that he was the first person to fly across the English Channel in both directions. Sadly his other first was to become the first British person to die in an aviation accident.
Charles was buried in the beautiful rolling hillside of Monmouthshire at Llangattock-Vibel-Avel near his family seat of The Hendre. His parents were Lord and Lady Llangattock. 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of his death.

23rd January 2010 Chepstow to Tintern

This is one of my favourite local walks. I started off by finding my first ever OpenCache at Chepstow Castle. I'll give more details of OCs shortly. Rather than take my normal route of ODP I took the Gloucestershire Way. This gave me a chance to check the southern portal of Tiddenham Tunnel (which was sadly well and truly fenced off) and allowed me to visit a Church Micro cache. I don't care for this sort cache. If the church is particularly interesting then fine. This church is not. I can not bring myself to drive to a cache like this (even though I regularly drive past here) to make a find. Incorporating it into a walk adds another target along the walk, which also helps break the hike up.

I crossed back to ODP at The Devil's Pulpit and down to Tintern where I attempted I found the old crumbling church remains at The dead and the undead. Due to muggle activity I couldn't look for the cache, but that doesn't bother me these days. The fabulous location with it's great view over Tintern Abbey was the real reward. From here I picked up the Wye Valley Walk to the Eagle's Nest, 365 steps (both closed at the moment) and on past Piercefield Park. The path here was due to reopen this week, but it didn't happen again. I met a contractor fixing the path. It had been finished, but the loose rocks above the path has already slipped down the hillside. It was a bit of a half-assed job really, as it's obviously just going to keep happening. A couple of viewing platforms had been rebuilt and are just awaiting railings to be fitted.

The hypocrisy of Geocaching #1

Geocaching.com have a guideline that a cache should not be placed without appropriate permission, but conveniently turn a blind eye to the huge majority of caches which have no permission. If I want to place a cache anywhere in the Brecon Beacons I now have to locate the land owner and provide evidence of permission. If I want to place a cache on farm land almost anywhere else in the UK no questions are asked. If anything, placing in the Beacons should be easier as it will almost certainly attract fewer visitors. Added to this the Brecon Beacons are actively trying to attract visitors to the park, which is more than you can say for most farmers. When all's said and done, both are privately owned fields. So how can it be anything but hypocritical to treat them differently.

31st December 2009 Dinedor Camp, Herefordshire

We'd spent much of the holidays walking locally due to the snow, so no caching. Today was spent doing a circular walk between Dinedor Camp and Warriors in Aconbury Wood. Don't forget you can see our routes here. There were still some traces of snow and the Black Mountains looked fabulous and white from here, so we went there a couple of days later. This walk started out well, but soon became a slog through incredibly muddy fields of boot-clinging mud. I think we were both glad when we arrived back at the car. We did bag one trig (as you can see), though we had to leave the other one as it appears that access may be harder than we had initially thought.

Well that's it for 2009. Just 196 finds. Easily our lowest yet for a year. Here's to 2010.

19th December 2009 Westbury-on-Severn

The weather's been so miserable lately we just wanted to stay near home, so we braved the ice on a walk along the Severn. Two of the four caches today were pretty poor, but the walk just about rescued them. The Severn itself is a pretty desolate place at the best of times, but in Winter it's even worse. We saw a flying Seagull with a carrier bag stuck to it, a church with a seperate spire in the same church yard, and walked along the top of some cliffs we had only seen from the far side of the river. It's hard to believe the Sharpness Canal is so close, though it may as well be 50 miles away with the river blocking the way. We fondly remembered sunny days in 2006 and 2007 when we had cached over the there. All there is there now are a bunch of pointless series

12th December 2009 New Inn

Judging by other people's caching logs (with a couple of exceptions) we always seem to have a more interesting day than the most cachers. I usually put this down to the fact that we walk much more, which brings it's own little adventures. However, today the fun started before we left home. Whilst getting my rucksack packed I found a mouse had made it its home in the last 5 days. A half eaten banana I had left there was the first sign, but then it became evident that the blighter had tried to nibble through the headband on the Petzl head torch I had found a few weeks ago. Later I discovered he had also nibbled a hole through my Berghaus ruck sack. I was not very happy at this and set Frank, our cat on him. Frank is quite old now and let him get away. Something that would never have happened a few years ago. Old age is a terrible thing.

We parked at the banks of the Llandegfedd Reservoir and picked up a couple of caches on our way to the Shell Grotto at Pen-y-Park above Pontypool. The fields were very wet and muddy and most of the day was a bit of a slosh. The shell grotto is a small building, built in 1794 and the interior walls are adorned with many thousands of shells in various patterns. Unfortunately it is only open in the summer season, so despite this being my third time up here I still have never seen the inside of the building.

Soon we found ourselves in the middle of a hunt. The hunt had lost their dogs, but they soon showed up on the wrong side of a fence and couldn't get through. We left them with their dilemma and dropped down the hill to the canal for another cache and then under the busy A4042 before passing through a industrial area (tip).

Back in the countryside we reached a bog on a PRoW which came well over the tops of my boots. I have made a new resolution to report all situations like this. The Torfean Countryside Access Officer is now looking into what can be done to rectify the path. I wish more people would report these issues as they can ruin your day.

Next an old Springer Spaniel decided to follow us. Much like the one on 4/10/2008, this dog just would not go home and ended up walking the last 3 or 4 miles with us. I was very uncomfortable with him following us past a freshly killed sheep in a gully by a farmhouse. Even though Bob will walk at my ankle if I tell him to I know some farmers will be quick to point the finger if they see a dead sheep and a dog off the lead, so I put him on the lead in these places. To make matters worse the dog did not have an ID tag.

Our last cache of the day was Mirkwood - Sor Brook. Despite being a bit concerned about the lack of daylight, run down batteries on PDA, no route on our main GPS and the dog, we enjoyed the scramble up the steep slope to find this cache. We found a route back to the car through the waterworks and up to the reservoir dam (though it's been grassed over) before completing out walk in darkness. All we had to do now was to find the dog's home. We drove back down a long and very bumpy track to the farm near where he had joined us. I was pleased that this was his home and he had been missed. His name was Henry and he was 16, very deaf and quite blind. At least this explained why he didn't come when we called him. He was still full of life, though the owner said he would sleep for a day after his little adventure. These are the things that make caching/walking so enjoyable to us.

31st October 2009 Hay-on-Wye

When we walked to Hay Bluff a couple of weeks earlier we said we really must walk Hay Bluff to Hay-on-Wye, so today we did it. There are only two caches in Hay, but we found them easily and enjoyed a rare chance to have Fish and Chips before heading back to the mountains. Highlights were a beautiful Shetland fold, slipping on a gravestone (that really hurt) and finding a Petzl head torch to add to my collection as we arrived at the car. The weird thing is I spotted a zip-loc bag and thought it could be a cache (who knows why in this remote landscape). I opened the bag to find a notebook (empty) and pen and a head torch, which is now my backup.

I just realized I did not take one photo of Hay-on-Wye. Doh!

27th October 2009 Manmoel, South Wales

The weather was not great, but we felt the need to get out, so headed to a spot on the Sirhowy Valley near Argoed to start our walk between the Ebbw Vale and Rhymney valleys. It was only a short walk to See you on the other side and Will waited at the bottom of the very steep, slippery slope while I pushed on through the gorse to the cache. We then had fun calling Bob up and down the slope, which he made short work of. After this we had a lovely walk up to Y Domen Fawr after a DNF and a find along the way. When you reach the cache you get your first views of Ebbw Vale. It's safe to say that the view is not the most pleasant. There is a road/track that runs along the top of the hill. It's not well advertised and is pretty rough. At least it's not widely used, which suits us well.

Old Boiler House is the sort of cache I like for its industrial history. Much of the boiler, which provided the power needed to dig coal and power trams is still in place. The flywheel is pretty much in tact and can be seen on our log.

After walking back via Manmoel and a second DNF, we went to Bedwellty in the dark to find the only cache of 50 in the CC series which evaded us. I had forgotten that this cache was outstanding until Sniffadogz provided this role of honour for South Wales series completion. We finished the other 49 2.5 years ago. The funny thing is that much of the series is very challenging, and this was our only DNF. Of course it had to be the easiest rated cache. A 1/1. We found it very easily this time.

31st November 2009 Stourport

We started off our week's holiday with a trip to Stourport to visit Allcock's. While we were there we did a couple of caches along an old railway line. Picking out interesting caches can be very challenging. The first one we picked didn't live up to it's name, but was OK. It dumbfounds me how this cache has never been reported as it broke so many rules. Burying caches is a strick no-no, but criminal damage is a different matter again. We did a second cache by the same owner. We had to re-walk 20 yds from start to finish of th multi on a route we had already walked for the previous cache. When we found it there had been yet more offences committed. These people are not a good advertisement for the hobby.

17th October 2009 Hay Bluff

Whilst walking an elongated version of The Cat's Back we walked down to Hay Bluff and on to Call My Bluff, one of several caches that have been placed in the Black Mountains by cachers whilst finding one of our own caches. This gave us a chance to check in on our own BBC5 The Valiant Owen Jones. It was great to see the views from up here as there was a white out when I placed the cache nearly two years ago. We had the new experience of dropping down the Olchon Valley and back up. We met four girls who said you can catch a train from Pandy to Hay-on-Wye. Sounds like something worth looking into.
There were a couple of paragliders about and plenty of walkers on ODP. We were also lucky enough to see this chap close-up and personal.

3rd October 2009 Garway Hill

One of our first ever caches was on this hill and it's just our sort of place to walk, so when The Flying Boots released four new ones we knew it wouldn't take long for us to be out there. The weather was a mixed bag, but on the hill it was very windy. After quickly finding the first three we walked up to Orcop Hill and back through Orcop to find the final cache. By now it was raining. In a way I was glad, as we'd carted our coats around all day, even up steep hills in the sunshine. A man in the house by Orcop Hill kindly directed us to the trigpoint as the path marked on the map had long since been overgrown. The football pitch nearby made us laugh with "WAGs Stand" painted on the shed. All the sheep here rushed up to see us. It would have been quite intimidating if they had been any other animal.

26th September 2009 Llangynidr, Brecon Beacons

Will wanted to do the Raven Walk again, but I talked him out of it so we came to do a route I had planned a while back. I say "planned", but the OS maps are so poor here that there isn't much planning that can be done. We knew the unmarked path to the Chartist's Cave (SWMCC17) as I had been introduced to the cache there nearly three years ago. I haven't been back since as it's a bit of a barren moor really. Having said that, it does provide outstanding views. The cave is well worth a visit. The Chartist's stored their weapons there in 1839. The main cave is huge and smaller cave systems run from it. The rock here is all limestone, which is perfect for caves. People travel from all over the UK to cave in this area. The moors are covered in Sink Holes, where the surface gives way into caves under the weight of the soil.

We'd been asked by ITV News to do a spot of caching on film but couldn't fit in with their timetable. One of the caches here was placed with them on the trip we should have done. I'm glad I didn't go as I would have refused to place such an simple roadside cache as caching is about walking in beautiful places to us, not parking in beautiful places.

The last cache of the day was a slog though heather for a few miles, but we found a lovely little waterfall. We were forced to drink from the stream as the water at home was being fixed so we came with almost nothing and it was a warm day. The water here should be relatively safe, but it is not something I would normally advocate.