Lloret Ring

Lloret Ring, 32 caches, 8 miles, Lloret De Mar, Catalunya, Spain

Hola,

Back from a great holiday in Spain now, so time to write up on the only Geocaching series we had time to do :)

It was August 18th, an important day for us cachers - International Geocaching Day 2012. Even though it was unimaginably hot, we decided to celebrate in Spanish style, hiking in the forested mountains surrounding Lloret de Mar, about four towns south from where we were staying. Woke up bright and early to yet another warm, but this time very foggy day. The Lloret Ring seemed do-able in the heat, so it became the main focus of the day.

From the start, it was clear that most of the caches were going to be micros. But that didn't really matter, because the first few were quite well hidden. The walk was nothing short of excellent from start to end; there were some very steep hills/mountains to hike up at the start, with views of Lloret, the sea and surrounding hills and forests emerging behind us. Every cache was placed in a nice viewpoint, or by an interesting structure.. there were quite a few odd stone structures on the route - including a traditional cottage, abandoned but in perfect condition, a pillar which seemed like the "Devils Chimney" near Cheltenham, UK, and even a church - all remote within these forested mountains! I loved how there were all these interesting things to see, along with lots of hills to keep us moving in the first half of the loop. International Geocaching Day was going fantastically. 

My uncle, "el fantasma", was keen to join us on the series. We'd done a few caches with him when we last came to Spain in 2010, but a whole walk with lots of them was a completely new experience for him. He liked the way the micros were hidden too, I think quite a lot of thought and effort had gone into them. However, a few had been VANDALISED! : Lids missing, logs missing - I had no lids with me, but I did have logs so we signed those and placed them in the caches which didn't have one, meaning we could still claim those finds. My favourite of the day involved a little bit of tree climbing, too :D.

Although most of the series took you along broad sandy paths within mountain woodland, I still thought the route had a good variation in terrain, particularly on the way back down (second half, no longer hiking up mountains ;) ) I enjoyed admiring the views as we made our way back down, too.

Another thing I loved about the series was how remote we were. No civilisation to be seen, our elevation was quite high - we were really within what seemed like endless woodland, lots of different trees and nature to be seen, one of the trees we saw more frequently in these forests was Cork Oak - cut for making corks for bottles. I was also surprised on how big the ants were in Spain!

Unfortunately, as we were nearing the end of the series and walk/hike we were running out of water, and were also running tight on time. It was now midday, so the sun was at its highest point, and we didn't want to push ourselves... we only searched briefly for the last nine or so caches, and most of them resulted in DNFs (can you really blame us?) and we skipped #31 and #32 altogether to get back to car quicker... well, we did, and we enjoyed a nice, cool drink in a nearby restaurant to round off a very enjoyable morning celebrating International Geocaching Day, and getting the all-important souvenir - I missed getting it last year! 

A cracking hike and series, I recommend it if you're ever in the Costa Brava/Lloret area. Definitely a days caching that I will remember for a long time! Back in the UK now too, and the next CacheWalker event has been published - 23rd September, Dovers Hill in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire. Click here for more, and log your WILL ATTEND now - GC3N6X0 

Griff Grof

Geolympix Cyclerama

Geolympix Cyclerama , 27 caches, 13 miles, Thame, Oxfordshire

Hello,

Well - today was interesting! Or should I say pathetic? 31 caches attempted and more than 10 DNFs! The temperature was 30 degrees c, and we had a long way to ride (6.5 miles each way, it's a Linear series) and, being far from home again, we concluded that we didn't have much time to dilly dally. And we gave up on many; the whole trail was packed with muggles - and we looked silly starting and stopping every 500 metres! The thing that most annoys me is that for the Bonus, when we arrived at GZ I dismissed it, and moved on. Now looking at the pictures in the gallery, I found out we were indeed in the right place. I dismissed it because the listing said "In a forest" - there were four or five trees, in one line!

I didn't bother with #25 and #1 - what in the world is a "blue WO"???? That wasn't a good start to the series, then at #2 another DNF - I moved on quickly after seeing all the litter - I didn't really want to bother searching within litter and who knows what else! This happened a few more times in the series - I skipped about four others due to large amounts of litter. After #2 things got better and we were out of Thame and into the countryside. But there were many more DNFs to follow due to muggles. They were all over the place.

There were some nice spots on the route; with good views over to the Chiltern Hills; reminding us of the rest of our Geolympix glory a few weeks back; accomplishing 11 icons in 11 hours and most of the marathon series. We were glad to be able to complete (in distance, not caches ;) ) the cycle series too - so now we feel we've had a bit of everything the Geolympix had to offer.

Caches were, to be honest, quite boring. Micro after micro. I think you could have fitted a couple of smalls and maybe regulars on there; I do see the bonus and bonus bonus are of that size - but it would have been nice to have more - and more sneaky containers to keep you on your toes.

The  route itself was enjoyable and there were some interesting sculptures and seats to have a rest on. We decided not to bother trying again with the DNFs on the return route; and to just enjoy the ride. Overall a good route, in a lovely area, but not sure the quality of the caches were as high as they should be. We still enjoyed it a lot though, and recommend it for a family day out for caching. 

Of course this was my replacement for not being able to make the Mega tomorrow - instead I might be able to grab a few caches in Devon, then we're off to Spain on holiday where I might be able to bag a couple more. 

I'll post back as soon as I think I have enough to tell you about. 

Griff Grof

A not-so Mega Weekend

Hello! 

Still not found a cache since all the Geolympix days; but hopefully setting out to that area again tomorrow to do the Cycling series. And then on Saturday we'll be off to Devon for the weekend due to some unforeseen issues... I know what you're thinking! 

Yes, Mega 2012 is on Saturday. Unfortunately, I will now be unable to attend due to these issues. You can't imagine how upset I am that we'll no longer be able to make it; so many cachers I was looking forward to catching up with in Cartmel. Apologies if you were hoping to meet me too, but there's always next year - www.mega2013.co.uk which, thankfully, is a LOT closer to home! However, it would have been a good long weekend up in the lakes doing some "proper" caching and camping too. But I guess that wasn't meant t be; I might be able to bag one or to not-so Mega caches while down in Devon. It's just all a matter of the dates crashing; to be honest I have no idea why Mega 2012 was scheduled so late in August; all UK Megas were previously late July/early August. Oh well. 

So, I wish everyone a safe trip to Cartmel; and a very enjoyable Mega weekend; mine will somewhat be not so Mega. See you all next year if not before; and congrats to the organisers of Mega 2012 - the whole event programme and Mega looks outstanding and simply superb; for what is promised to be the BIGGEST UK Mega to date! 

Griff Grof