Grafton Loop

Grafton Loop, 5 miles, 27 caches. First cache: GC48326

Saw this series pop up last night: I was firstly intrigued by the number of caches, (there usually aren't that many on any series in this area!) but secondly by the CO, unowho67, and the location... I'm sure, as cachers, we all have a place, where we found caches moons ago, which brings a smile back to our faces upon reminiscence. For me, Himbleton is such a place; my first proper cache series was Himbleton Hide, by unowho67 themselves. So it was a no-brainer deciding which series to do this weekend: no, it wasn't the best series I've done, but I couldn't wait to trek up the footpaths we strolled along three years ago - it was sure to bring back pleasant caching memories!

We arrived at the church car-park at 14:00 - I was shocked to see so many cars parked, several of which were housing familiar faces enjoying their lunches. They told us that it was a surprisingly good series compared to Himbleton, and so my expectations were raised!

A brilliant hide to start with, just a couple of metres from where we parked, and then we were off!
Of course, with a generous quantity of caches, not all of them could be like this - most of the norm followed, i.e lock 'n' lock boxes and film canisters. Nevertheless, the walk remained enjoyable - we soon passed through a field home to some lambs - the first we've seen this year; none in the Cotswolds (that we know of!) at this point in the year...

Unlike Himbleton, there were a few (very gentle) inclines, but these offered rewarding views for the little effort we had to put in: it made the walk all the more pleasant! 

For us, the highlight of the walk had to be the part of the series which took us through Grafton Wood - the sun was out by this point, and we could only imagine how stunning the wood would be with the bluebells, and further in to the warmer months. We met a fellow cacher at this point, Spunky Spider, who was completing the remainder of the series in reverse (he had grabbed some of the caches as FTFs last night!). 

Overall, this series was a welcome surprise: whilst reminding me why I enjoyed Himbleton so much - sound containers which were quick and easy to find - it exceeded my expectations in being a more pleasant walk, with some views along the way, and a real gem-of-a-wood... we must return to see it in full bloom! 

A must-do if looking to cache in the area. We were back at the car door within just over 2 hours. 

Griff Grof

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