Many Steps Through Old Times

Many Steps Through Old Times, 5 caches, 8 miles, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire 

Hello!

It's been a while! Got a bit bored of caching, so took a break, and now knowing that I won't be able to go again until just before Christmas, I decided to spend this crisp, cold sunny day on one of the best walks I've ever done. Quality ALWAYS surpasses quantity, and this super Wrighty series is a fine example.

The series gets it's name for reason - on the walk you pass a castle, the ruins of a watermill, the old Cotswold way, and best of all the remains of a roman villa! Not only that, but along the way there were stunning views! The whole loop is spread out over a variation of terrain; from fields, to tracks, to woodland, to lanes - it has it all! I highly recommend the series, and below I am going to take you through it in more detail!

The walk begins in the ancient Cotswold market town of Winchcombe. We set off with the sun beaming, along the old Cotswold Way - paths were quite boggy/muddy, but we managed to walk along them alright. Cache #1 took us up a slight slope, giving us lovely views over the valley and across to the hills beyond. Amazing, and just like all Wrighty caches, this one was a well-stocked, dry one!

There was a gap of just under a mile to #2. The path took us further up hill, revealing absolutely amazing views! We took advantage of this by taking plenty of photos, before walking even further up, along, and then back down at a left turn. It was amazing walking down into the views around is - these were REAL 180 degree views! 

As we arrived at the second cache, we were greeted by the sound of trickling water. It was a right turn into some woodland where we discovered an old water hatch, and the remains of old cottages! We loved how Wrighty took advantage of these to hide the cache - very clever - and it was here that the deducted this as one of the best days caching ever! Loved the water hatch, seeming to be doing okay. Took more photos, then it was back out and onto the path to #3! 

It was along a byway, then up a lane to the next cache! Once we reached the top of the gently sloping hill we were yet again rewarded with cracking views - we could see where we were earlier from here! I promptly found the cache, and was reminded that where we were going next was the most special cache of all - the one everyone talks about "at the ruins of an abandoned Roman villa". It was onwards, and downwards to this cache, awaiting to see what these ruins would be like. 

After slipping and sliding down the muddy path through the woods, we arrived at GZ. There, we spotted a little roof cover over a part of the floor. The floor was covered, with a black sheet of plastic, with stones on top (to stop the wind blowing it away). We carefully removed the cover, and were amazed to discover the mosaic! Amazing, brilliant - one of those "We'd never have come here if it wasn't for caching" moments! 

The cache was found quickly after gently replacing the cover on it. We took a look around the rest of the ruins after, too, very interesting!! By now we'd both decided that we must come back and do this walk with other family members, it being so wonderful and interesting at the same time! 

It was then off to the fifth and final cache, to our disappointment - one of those ones you never want to end! The paths as we left the villa ruins were still just as slippery as they were as the walked down into the woods. Must be all that wet weather, I have to say we were very lucky with the weather today! 

As we approached #5, I recognised the tree the GPS was pointing to. In fact, for those of you who don't know, this was the inaugural CacheWalker group walk - it was on this walk that Wrighty himself, Mrs Wrighty, JimJinks, bikermel76 and Schnarff came up with the concept of CacheWalker! I had seen photos of them all sitting at the base of the oak, which does remarkably form a bench as it meets the ground, and so I sat down on it and had my photo taken to recreate the photo from the day it all started. 

It was finding the cache that was the next problem, though! So many places to look, but after having a break to have our lunch, we unearthed the nice, big, well-stoked final cache, entering us into the "Hall of Fame"! Sad to have finished all the caches, but still had to walk back to Winchcombe! 

As we began to do so, more and more walkers seemed to appear from the blue, as we were approaching a castle - yes, a castle - Sudely Castle! With the views on our left, and the striking castle on our right, it was the perfect end to a perfect walk! 

As I said before, the entire series is a little gem! It is truly wonderful, each cache is at an interesting/fascinating location, there are jaw-dropping views, variation in terrain - EVERYTHING! To sum the series up in two words? Simply Superb! A worthy walk for my first since September! 

Griff Grof

Happy fifth birthday, CacheWalker!!

Hello,

Today was CacheWalker day - and my first event (with help from the rest of the CacheWalker group). Overall, I would say the day was a success, despite the horrendous weather! It was organised to celebrate our CacheWalker group turning five years old! Five years ago (next Sunday) the first group walk took place, and here we are five years later celebrating CacheWalker's success with cachers old and new, from near and far. The idea of holding an event to celebrate came about in February, and if we had gone with our original plan, today would have been very different. But I'm glad we decided to hold the event up on Dovers Hill instead, and I think it's fair to say that everyone would agree.

Arrived a little earlier to set everything up, to the most horrible rain - it was bitter, cold and windy. Set up the event GZ under a large chestnut tree, within a cluster of trees for shelter. Loads of cachers arrived throughout the two hours (yep, we cut the event short due to the weather) there must have been 35 people in total! I had thought most people wouldn't even turn up having seen the horrid weather when they woke up. I had fun talking to everyone, and collecting presents for the "Secret birthday presents" handing out at the end. I had made a wonderful A3 Birthday card for CacheWalker as the logbook, but by the end of the event it had sadly become soggy mush.

We had hidden five new caches over five icons (to celebrate five years) and so I set off with walktall to find some of them (that I didn't hide), by tarmacjohn. Fab caches in fab spots, I have to come back on a clearer day, but they were fab (though micro, which disappointed a bit!) Got back to the event to find nearly everyone had left, but Wrighty soon informed us that everyone had returned to the car park to have their picnics in the shelter of their cars, and to draw the raffle. We all made our way over there, drew the raffle, handed out the secret birthday presents and said our final farewells. We all also laughed at how this was the first CacheWalker event where it had rained, I guess these spells break after five years!

Overall, despite the worst weather in months, and the fact that we were all wet within 10 minutes, I still think the event was a huge success - nearly 40 people turned up, laughed, smiled and joined in the birthday fun and celebrations - just the fact that all those people still arrived shows how much people cared enough to come and give CacheWalker a happy fifth birthday!! I had a great day, and I think everyone else did too! Thank you all for coming - next up is Twixmas - back to the (dry) pub events with pre-event group walks, 30th December, location TBA.

Happy Fifth Birthday CacheWalker, and here's to the next five years! I'm honoured to have organised an event to celebrate this, and honoured to be a part of CacheWalker for the last two years!

 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

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 

Geolympix Mega 2012 and part of GMS series

On Sunday 22nd of July, 1000 Geocachers from all over the world came together in Oxford town hall, for the first ever Geolympix Mega, and the start of a summer festival of caching - after two years of waiting, the big day had come, and my moment to make my grand return to caching after my little break. It was fantastic!  I also had a go at the Marathon cache-a-thon series on Monday, the day after, so read even further for my review on that! 

22nd July - 11 cache types in 11 hours challenge, and attending the Mega

As the Geolympix is all about breaking your own records, and being "Outstanding in the field", the challenge set by the team of finding 11 different cache types in 11 hours really stood out to me. This would involve the day being even longer, but I knew it would all be worth it. I had been looking at the map for weeks, trying to work out which caches I would choose - I needed an Earthcache, Traditional, Multi, Puzzle, Wherigo, Virtual, Webcam, Letterbox, plus an event, CITO event and the Mega itself to get the 11 - all to be found within just 11 hours!

Event Icon. 10 to go. Found @ 08:00:
The Geolympix team had organised a flash mob event (1 icon down) in Banbury, at front of Banbury Cross Webcam, starting at 08:00, with the group Webcam shot at 08:15. When we arrived, we were shocked to see nearly 200 cachers all gathered at GZ - we knew we wouldn't be the only ones having a go at 11 in 11!! Saw some friends from back home, and ones I've met at previous events, and had a good catch up, before queuing for the log book, and gathering for....

Webcam Icon. 9 to go. Found @ 08:15
Once the event was coming to a close, Simply Paul, one of the Geolympix organisers, rounded us all up into a group, so we'd be in view of Banbury Cross Webcam. He snapped the photo, and with two icons already done in just fifteen minutes, it was off to do the rest...

Traditional Icon. 8 to go. Found @ 09:05 
From Banbury, we went onto the M40, for a 30 minute drive down the motorway until our stop at J6. Here, we parked in a parking area for several trails, and I went down a little path to bag another icon, fairly easily - there wasn't anywhere else it could be!

Multi Icon. 7 to go. Found @ 10:12 
As we walked back up from the traditional, we bumped into walktall and his friend Lone Hunter, who were just arriving. As we're friends from back home, we knew each other well, and we all decided to set off together to bag the rest of the icons in the area. We programmed in the nearby Wherigo, and while it was running, we set off on the start of a long circular walk of around 7 miles in the area, and the first cache we passed was a Multi, so it was a quick solve of the puzzle before finding the cache. Still no sign of where the Wherigo was leading us!

Earthcache Icon. 6 to go. Found @ 10:52
On from the Multi, and a bit of walking along the roads, walktall and Lone Hunter lead us to an Earthcache, which wasn't the one we were initially planning (but we did all find that one on the way back to the car too) but it was still the coveted icon that we needed. You had to examine the cutting of stone eitherside side of the  M40, from the footbridge crossing it! I was a little concerned about dropping something, possibly the highest footbridge I'd been on, and one of the busiest motorways! I learnt a lot about the cutting though, from my dad walktall and Lone Hunter, so it was all made worthwhile!

Wherigo Icon. 5 to go. Found @ 12:17 
There was still no sign of the Wherigo, in all that time, and we had reached the bottom of a steep hill when the cartridge read "Up 2". It was sending us back up the hill we came down. So, it was up again where it then read "Down 1". Then when we arrived "Down 2". A little later "Down 3". It had led us in a big circle, the irrating part was having to go up some of the paths we had already walked down! However, the area is truly stunning, views were to die for, lots of flora and wildlife to be seen, so we all enjoyed the route - it was beautiful, one of the most lovely parts of the Chiltern Hills I'd been in. Once at the bottom, the cache was finally found very near to another Earthcache (which we then logged) and the icon was finally seen. It took us a while, but thankfully we found it (after starting the cartridge first thing) without any further problems, and enjoyed the route it took us on very much.

Letterbox Hybrid Icon. 4 to go. Found @ 13:51
Once we had bid farewell to walktall and Lone Hunter (thank you both for your pleasant company, which my dad and I both highly enjoyed) we drove a few miles south to Northend, to bag the last icon we needed in this area, and before setting off to Oxford to attend the main Mega event. It was a nice walk through some rich meadows and into the woodland at the top of the hill; we were really in the heart of the Chiltern Hills. The cache was a very quick find, in the only place it could be, and I was over the moon that we had already done seven icons, and there was only four to go!

Mega Event Icon. 3 to go. Found @ 15:01 
The big moment had come. Once we walked into the town hall, and registered, we had another icon bagged, and though most people had left, we still saw even more familiar faces from home, and I had a good time walking around the various stands and purchasing some items. A little sad actually on how empty the place was, but it was still very enjoyable, and I got to meet and thank Simply Paul for all his hard work. My second Mega, and what a superb one it was! Excellent!

Unknown Icon. 2 to go. Found @ 15:12
While I was looking at the GAGB stand, I found the Cuckoo cache, a rare moving cache, and I logged it to claim the icon - that one was easy! Was good to find it at last, and knew I was saving finding it for some reason!

Virtual Icon. Just 1 to go! Found @ 16:38
We left Oxford Town Hall, and the main Mega event, for a walk around Oxford, taking in the lovely sights, and we bagged a Virtual along the way, meaning we only had the CITO event a little later to complete the 11 icon challenge. A very interesting virtual, and after finding it we went onto another, before setting off to have something to eat as we waited for the CITO event to start.

CITO event Icon. Challenge complete!! Found @ 18:43
And that was it! Arrived at the CITO start point, and signed the logbook, meaning we had completed the 11 icon challenge!! But we also saw walktall again, who had done 14 (adding on some types from another listing site) and later on CacheWalker confirmed that he had managed to find all 7 cache sizes too! So a special well done to walktall! But I was happy enough with our 11, and spent the next 30 minutes giving something back, and picking up litter all over the place, before I found a 5/3.5 cache, of which I had to hang off a bridge over a canal! Great fun, and a good way to finish the day (Glad to say I wasn't passed the logbook to sign, I retrieved the cache the hard way myself for a fair and honest find!)

So, that was that! The Mega event attended, the 11 icons in 11 hours challenge completed (with time to spare!) One of the best caching days I've had, and congratulations to Simply Paul and the rest of the committee for a very successful event!!

23rd July - Geolympix Marathon cache-a-thon (GMS) Rings B, A and E 
GMS Series, up to 26.2 miles, Turville, Buckinghamshire 

The next day, we were off to M40 J6 again, but this time to the village of Turville - the main filming location used for "The Vicar of  Dibley" and various other famous films and television shows. The GMS series is set over five rings, A,B,C,D and E,  totaling in around 110 caches. You cross the place you are parked at the end of each ring, so opportunity to stop at any time after any ring. We set off with flyhiy, initially planning to do all five rings, but with B as our starter, we realised how wonderful, beautiful and tranquil the area was, and so we decided not to rush it for numbers, and to take our time to enjoy it, doing as much as we can, and not pushing it with the excessive heat.

B was the first ring we decided to do. And it ended up being my favorite. Started at 06:45, and the sun was just rising, making the dew sparkle beneath us. The hill on our left had a windmill on top, the very one used in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", which was now the only building in sight. We then tackled the first of many big hills. As we rose up the Chiltern Hills, we became surrounded by the most magnificent woodland, and the views from it were amazing.

All the caches were easy finds on B, A and E, with sensible hints , and one thing I liked about the series was the fact that they weren't too close together, so you could enjoy the walk at the same time. 

As I said, on B there was plenty of flora, and lots of orchids - we also saw several red kites - amazing! 

One of the things that made ring B my favorite of the three we did, was the fact that it had such a wide variation in terrain - though most of it was woodland on the hill tops, you descended into open grassland valleys, walked through farmland (several herds of cattle, but they were all too lazy to move under the now scorching sun), but yet there was always some sort of view. And, with the caches being so easy, we could move on quickly and not feel let down by any DNFs. 

As Ring B only consisted of 17 caches, we managed to walk pack to the village finding C18, C19 and C20, totaling in 5 miles so far. The marathon was going great so far, and at the car we stopped to enjoy some cold drinks (though the pub was still closed!) and then we set of for A, which promised to be good, having accumulated the most fave points out of all the rings. 

Ring A was the longest, 6 miles, but we were doing well for time. By now, the heat was unbearable, so we had sun cream and sun hats on! Again, a lovely uphill start, which was proving to be a trend, and then into further woodland to cool us down. One of the things I loved about the day was the fact that there were so many cachers out and about, met Dobunnies on this ring, but whenever we got back to the car, we could see other cars with TB stickers on them - it was just great knowing that these rings have brought so many people from all over the world (saw several people from Norway and USA) to this stunning area. It was good to know that we were almost sharing the fun with them. 

By the time we had finished A, we were starting to feel a little bit tired, only having walked 11 miles throughout the day, but the 30c temperatures were really slowing us down and adding to the tiredness, we arrived in the pub and I enjoyed a cold lemonade. There was two hours to go to the BBQ at "Geolympix 2012 Post-marathon Meet", so flyhiy and I decided to push on to complete one more ring, while my dad stayed in the shade of the pub garden waiting for the event, and chatting to other cachers who had already given in under the heat. 

We set off to do Ring E. We wanted to do D, passing the windmill, but E was the shortest, and therefore most logical as we had to be back in time for the BBQ in two hours. E was just as nice, again going through some more woodland, and it was here that I was certain this is one of my favorite series' overall - just a shame we couldn't do D and C - but it is another reason to come back! While on E, flyhiy and I met another cacher, and the three of us completed E, and we walked back to the pub. 

The GMS series was, well, fantastic! One of the best I've done! As I said, not doing C and D is good in a way, because we didn't rush it (got to enjoy the walk more) and it's a good reason to come back to this stunning area! Highly recommend this series, B was the best out of the three of five we did today, but several other cachers at the BBQ event said D was their personal favorite. But who knows, maybe I'll change my mind when I've done all of the rings? All in all a great area, and up there in the top three days of caching that I've ever done - along with the Geolympix Mega 11 in 11 the day before! 

The BBQ was also the perfect way to end the day, thank you to the Geolympix team for making the Sunday possible with the Mega, and for the brilliant marathon cache-a-thon; lots of work went into it all, which you can clearly see! That's it for now folks, and I might (not 100% sure) be attending the Geolympix closing ceremony on Coombe Hill, if not that ends the Geolympix story for me, if so I might see you there! 

Griff Grof

Griff is back

Hello!!!!

Well, it's been a while hasn't it? Today I found my first cache since April - Church Micro 1176 - Church Westcote - yes, I was there maintaining my Westcote Wander series !

Nice walk round, and good to find a cache before making my proper grand return at GEOLYMPIX 2012 - I'm so excited, will I see you there? I will be attending the Banbury Cross Webcam Flash Flash Mob, the Mega itself, and the CITO - Giving something back - plus the Post-Marathon meet the next day! That marathon is perfect timing to get my stats back up! 2000 by December? Never say never! May there be 100s more to come throughout the rest of 2012! 

See you all at the Geolympix Hopefully, and until next week, this is Griff signing out!!

Griff Grof 

PS - Westcote is a nice series, isn't it: