2016's caching in review

Hello!

This is my first post in months, sorry about that! I haven't been caching very much as I've been busy studying. However, I've still been on some fantastic walks and found some great caches this year. I've written several articles for the GAGB's Seeker Magazine about a few of them but sadly never got round to writing anything here.

This is my annual 'in review' blog post in which I recount the highlights of 2016's caching and assess the degree to which I've met the goals I set myself at the start of the year.

These were my goals:

1. Reach 3,000 finds
2. Find more than 576 caches (my current record)
3. Find more quality caches 
4. Complete more of my D/T grid
5. Place my next series

At time of writing, I've found 2,535 caches - so I am still not near to 3,000. I've found 258 caches this year. Whilst not my best count, it's still more than I found in 2013 and 2014. I filled in only one more space in my D/T grid with GC5X3MZ. However, it's not all doom and gloom! Far from it!

I have found some excellent, quality caches this year - and that's what matters most. I have just updated my Cache of the Year bookmark list highlighting my favourite finds. This year's winner is Mont Tendre: le sommet 1679m (GC59HC1). It's placed at the summit of Mont Tendre, which is the highest point of the Jura Mountains in Switzerland. The walk up was fantastic; the sun was out and our surroundings were simply beautiful. It was a unique experience to see so many friendly cows up there and hear their bells ringing, from both near and afar. The views were gobsmacking from the summit. We could see across Lac Leman to France and Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain in the Alps. The sense of achievement was great and finding a nice cache container in good condition was the icing on the cake. We had a great walk back down the other side of the mountain too. You can read my article about this trip in a recent issue of the GAGB's Seeker Magazine.

The competition for my Cache of the Year has never been closer, with Amour Series Bonus (GC6D641) as the runner up. This was an immense ammo container that served as the finale of a super series of Multi caches. Each Multi had an ingenious first stage, each of which put a smile on my face. The caches themselves were all ammo cans. Other notable caches include Pi In The Sky (GC446E2), Magic Eye View (GCTV41) and Reloader's Cache#20 - Romainmôtier & le Nozon (GCQ8YJ).

I also thoroughly enjoyed various events. The Geolympix Mega was excellent and so was the GPS Maze, which was in the UK for the first time. I also had a great time at the CacheWalker Twixmas Bash yesterday. We were very lucky with the sunny weather for the pre-event group walk! Next year is CacheWalker's 10th anniversary so I'm excited to see how we'll celebrate it - I'm sure I'll have a lot to report in next year's 'in review' post!

In addition to meeting my goal to find quality caches, I managed to achieve my final one - to place a new series. It's called Brailes Bonanza and consists of 20 caches on a hilly route of 6 miles. I first walked the route back in May 2015, so I already had an idea of where I was going to place the caches. I really love the route - it's my favourite of all the series' I have placed! The views are fantastic and the area is so quiet. I chose the final route and designed the cache placements to reflect what I perceive to be the perfect formula for a series. Obviously this is subjective! I'm happy that several of the caches have quite a few favourite points now. I'm really looking forward to walking the route again and maintaining the caches in 2017.

Once again, I can conclude that finding quality caches is far more rewarding than seeking numbers and improving stats. The fact that I've managed to write a reasonably blog post having not found many caches or improved any stats is a testament to this.

Happy New Year and all the best to all for 2017.

Griff Grof

Ilmington Jubilee Walk

ILmington Jubilee Walk, 3.5 miles, 11 caches, Ilmington, Warwickshire
The cache page links to this walk guide. 

Hello,

I knew that we'd be a little busier this weekend so I decided that a shorter series would be ideal. Clearly, we were very pleased to see this new series being published on Thursday, as it certainly fitted the bill. After a day of relentless rain, and more forecasted for later today, we decided to head out to complete the series in the morning as a sunny interval had been forecasted.

Arrived in Ilmington where we initially struggled somewhere to park. It was then along some pretty streets and past the idyllic church, which had its bells ringing for its Sunday service. We were soon on the footpath, which was flooded! The little stream running across the field had burst its banks so we had to dodge the water to get to the first cache, which was quickly spotted.

Before too long, we made an ascent up the northern face of the Cotswold Edge. We were rewarded with some spectacular views and we stopped to have a snack whilst we admired them for a little longer. There were plenty of other people up here today, from fellow walkers, to cyclists - great to see people enjoying the outdoors as well, and the sunshine whilst it's still here!

Looking back: some nice views

We spent ages searching for the fourth cache. The hint stated that it was in the bottom of a wall, which confused us as one of the cache placing guidelines says that caches should never be placed there. Knowing this, we widened out search but eventually, having almost given up, we spotted somewhere where the cache could be and I can confirm that there is no reason to move any stone associated with the wall whatsoever - I'll make a note of this in my log. How did we miss it to begin with?!

It was then across a couple of crop fields, and, with the recent rain, our boots were extremely muddy by the time we got to the other side. There wasn't really a path through the field either, so hopefully people will still be able to find their way across in the summer months once the crops are fully grown.

A nice lane with some great views

The next section of the walk led us down a quiet lane, where we enjoyed the great panoramic views ahead of us. It was surprising to see daffodils and snowdrops in flower, just goes to show that we really have had an unusually mild (and wet) winter.

It was very interesting to pass a healing well, which people used to heal their eyes in. It's a shame that a landowner diverted a stream into the pond in the eighteenth century which muddied the water! Unfortunately, we didn't finish the series soon enough as the rain caught us. Luckily, it didn't last for too long, and the sun was soon out again - talk about changeable weather!

The old healing pond

We were soon back at the car, having completed a good, pleasant walk in some lovely Cotswold countryside. The views were great and the caches were good, some were even a little challenging as they took longer to find than they should have. The route was quite muddy, though, but as you'll gather from my other recent posts - it's muddy everywhere! We really enjoyed the series.

Griff Grof

Walking in Warwickshire

Hi,

As some of you may know I really enjoy caches set by Wrighty. So, as you can imagine, it was a nice surprise to spot that he had a series called 'Wrighty's Warwickshire Walk' I had never really noticed! We decided to complete the walk today, in the sunshine.

WWW and part of the WeeW series, 14 caches, 5/6 miles, near Weethley, Warwickshire.

The walk took us through some very pleasant countryside, although the paths were certainly muddy to begin with. Of course, this is expected at this time of year, and it was no where near as muddy as our walk last week! It was an added bonus to be able to pick up some of the WeeW caches along the way, and these had been recently maintained which made them all the better!

Unfortunately, we got a DNF on WWW #1. The hint stated that the cache was near to a bridge, yet there wasn't one at GZ which threw us a little. I decided to read the recent logs, and noticed that the previous two finders had found it on the floor within the mud. We looked around for a little, both in the obvious places and on the ground around us, but we came away empty handed. One of the recent finders said they had replaced it within a tree, yet the next said they found it on the ground, so we decided to move on to avoid looking for a needle in a haystack. However, I later realised that these cachers had been caching together, thus the cache must have been in a tree - I shouldn't have dismissed the idea! A very annoying DNF; we'll be back!

Very pleasant Warwickshire countryside

Luckily the next few caches didn't cause us any trouble, although we also DNFed GC5WCTX, which was part of the WeeW series. The countryside was very pleasant and we were soon walking uphill through a ploughed field - you can imagine what our boots were like by the time we got to the other side. I tried to clean them in a puddle, but it was a little deeper than anticipated - which made us laugh!

Some fantastic views began to emerge, as expected from any good Wrighty walk. We found the final WeeW cache of the day as we continued towards the picturesque church ahead of us; unfortunately we decided to skip the Church Micro as there were people in the church when we passed by. We thought we had seen the best of the views, but once we crossed the road and joined another footpath the camera came out again as they were truly stunning, especially under the sunshine. Nice to have a change in terrain too, as it was no longer as muddy and we were soon walking on a lovely path through the Ragley estate, finding more Wrighty caches.

Some of the great views

All too soon, the walk was over and we were back at the car. It was a great route, taking us through some very pleasant countryside, with some nice views and great caches. It's a shame about the DNFs, but the good thing, as with all DNFs, is that it's another reason to come back.

Griff Grof

Caching in South Gloucestershire

Hello!

This is my first post of 2016, so I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

I hadn't been caching since the CacheWalker Twinew event a couple of weeks ago. That was an enjoyable but wet experience, it's a shame that it's the second CacheWalker Twixmas/Twinew event to see the rain - the sun has shone for the others. Let's hope the weather's better for this year's event.

We fancied visiting a new area today; I noticed the 'Toy Story' series, which is in a part of South Gloucestershire we had not been to before.

Toy Story series, 10 miles, 39 caches, Tytherington, South Glos

It was unusually warm today due to the tropical air mass which was blown up to the UK. Unfortunately it wasn't sunny, but at least it was dry, unlike the day of the CacheWalker event! Our first find was a Church Micro; in fact, today was the day for finding caches from several nationwide series'. Overall, I found 5 Little Bridges, 2 Fine Pair's and 2 Church Micro's. Several of these were incorporated into the Toy Story series whilst a couple were extras.

St. James, Tytherington - opposite the first Church Micro of the day.

We were soon out on the trail; the footpaths were incredibly muddy and the ground was generally waterlogged, which meant that walking was difficult to begin with. However, we soon got used to it and some stretches were better than others. Luckily, we had good boots and gaters on - essential if you too decide to complete this series during the winter!

What I loved about it was the thought that went into the caches. There were hardly any Micros, and the Small/Regular caches were very well stocked. In fact, some were extremely generous in size whilst others were ingenious, with GC5ERP1 particularly coming to mind - it was one of those caches where you instantly decide they're deserving of a favourite point!

Everything was going well until #17, where the cache was quickly spotted at the base of an oak prior to a swarm of bees, or even wasps, emerging from the tree hollow. I was surprised that no one had mentioned the fact that there is a nest in any of the previous logs, so we reckon the cacher ahead of us must have unintentionally disturbed them earlier. I'm sure that you'll agree that it is odd to see bees/wasps at this time of year!

There were various Multi's to complete throughout the walk and none of these were too difficult, which was a relief. We were soon walking along some pleasant tracks and country lanes finding more caches before it was time to calculate the coordinates for the Bonus. We had missed a value in one of the caches and we tried our best but the coords we came up with weren't logical. After tweaking them we thought we had a more likely location, and the cache was found - it was huge, and the twist within was a great surprise!

Nice views on the way back to Tytherington

It was then back to Tytherington, concluding a pleasant walk through some quiet countryside, finding some good caches along the way. Overall, a nice series which was made even more fun by its theme. We reckon that a lot of the fields will be filled with livestock in the summer, but we only encountered one field, with sheep, today. Looking forward to doing more long walks this year; in fact, I've already got the next one planned.

Unfortunately, life continues to get in the way of Geocaching, so it might be a case of finding a couple of special caches closer to home over the next couple of weeks - which is just as good!

Griff Grof