Caching in September

OK, I know it's not until September (or 83 days and 18 hours, but I'm not counting), but plans are well under way for my week away touring the UK. The better half of the household is off to Cyprus with her sister, and I'm heading south (I did north last year!).

First stopp, Graffham camp site, arriving on the Sunday for a little light caching, followed by tackling the Sussex Amble series of 72 caches on the Monday.

Tuesday sees me heading a little further south to Portsmouth for a ferry over to the Isle of Wight, where I'll be joined by Graham1875 to grab some of the hundred or so caches on the island.

After 3 nights there, and saying my goodbye's to Graham, I'll be heading off to Cornwall for another 3 nights (and days) of caching with the geomutt.

I've already got the PQ's set up and have started planning caches to grab while out and about, including some that help fill in the gap's on the D/T grid (I'm up to 63 of the 81 now...).

I was thinking about 2 days in Hampshire to complete the UK Mega Series, but I've decided to try and get that done before then, in fact, Julie and I are toying with one of the loops for this Sunday weather permitting, mainly as her son has a load of mates coming round for his birthday barbecue, and I don't want to be there when the neighbours start complaining!

I shouldn't be getting excited yet....but I am!

Kinder Scouting!

Last weekend, with cracking weather again, we headed back to the Peak District, but a little further north this time, to tackle Kinder Scout, and the excellent Fairbrook Naze series of caches.

We covered just under 10 miles, parking up east of the plateau, and followed the valley to the north, then returned to the car along the northern ridge, tackling the caches in reverse order after grabbing a couple on the outward journey.

Some piccies of the day out.....


The start of the Fairbrook Naze series


View from the north ridge of the plateau


The landscape along the north ridge


Yours truly on the outward journey up the valley

Caches found at time of posting...........2265

The Spoodle's Last Day

We've been looking after a rather rotund dog while it's owners spend 2 weeks in Egypt. It's something of a cross between a Spaniel and a Poodle, so I assume it's a Spoodle (I could be wrong, it could be a pedigree for all I know).

Sunday was it's last day with us, so we decided to take advantage of some more good weather and headed up to the Peak District for some walking, and of course some geocaching!

Stoney Middleton was our destination, a place that was host to the very first episode of Most Haunted. We parked up near to The Moon pub, where they held a nightime vigil...and most likely discovered absolutely nothing as per, but that scouse fellow probably fainted at some point anyway.....

From Stoney Middleton, we headed in a vague south-westerly direction to do the Quarry Caper series of 14 caches, and a few more along the way.

A cracking walk is was too, although we had to wait until cache No.9 of the day before we actually saw the quarry!

The final Trad cache before the bonus involved walking (or should I say climbing) a really steep bank through some woods, luckily it was fairly dry, it would have been impossible in the wet!

After finding all the main caches, we worked out the Bonus cache coordinates, thinking that the worst of the terrain was behind us, only to have to battle through waist high nettles and thorns for a quarter of a mile to get to the bonus cache.... at least it was a decent sized ammo can!

A cracking day out!

Caches found at time of posting...2223.

Frustration Beyond Belief

Last week, I had to go to our Bracknell office for a meeting. I left home early, at about 6.30am.

I always have the RDS on the radio, so that any travel news warns me of impending disaster ahead, but for once the system failed, and due to a fatal accident involving 2 lorries and 2 cars on the M40, I was literally stuck on the M40 for three and a half hours.

If this wasn't infuriating in itself, for the vast majority of the 3.5 hours I was less than 200 feet from a cache, which was actually on the road above the motorway!!!

I was tempted a few times to lock the car and run up the embankment for a quick forage, but common sense dicated that I stay with the car.

Since then, weather and work have been getting in the way of geocaching.

Another strange occurence yesterday.....I'm involved with the Forum for the Built Environment, and the committee are looking to hold an event later in the year, and quite a few (mostly bad) idea were pinging around by e-mail (I suggested Monkey Tennis, and Karaoke with Chas and Dave, but no-one seemed keen).

All of a sudden, an e-mail pops up and someone suggests geocaching!!!!!

Blimey, there's another one out there! I bumped into the guy this morning, and although he knows a little about caching, he has yet to find one, so he left the breakfast with plenty of things to look up on the www, and I don't think it will be long before he gets the bug (you've got to feel sorry for him, haven't you?).

Caches found at time of posting.....2192...a slow month so far, only 24 finds in 9 days!

Spandau Ballet!

I must be mental. I went to an NSPCC fund raising event last night at the Jam House in Birmingham, and they had an auction.

The "top" item was 2 VIP tickets to see Spandau Ballet, complete with backstage passes and a meet and greet with the band!!!!!

I'd had a couple of drinks, and before I knew it, I was in a bidding war with a woman across the room. Bidding started at £150, and soon reached £200.....I eventually won the tickets for £270!!!!

Having woken up this morning thinking "what have I done?", I'm actually looking forward to it now, sadly it's not until October 24th so I'll just have to wait.