Month: August 2023

News & New Caches 102

A couple of new caches since our last post:

GCADDJN Mountain View by TeuluOBedwar Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GCAD7W2 St. Iestyn by BobPuffin Traditional D1/T1.5

Event Reminder

GCACYNA 9 Usual Suspects Visit a Wreck by 9 Usual Suspects D1/T5
When: Saturday 2nd September 2023
Where: Wallasey Beach, New Brighton, Wirral
Time: 7.15-7.45pm

For any one who would like to walk out to the wreck as part of a group we’ll be meeting in the corner of the Wallasey beach car park, N 53° 25.888 W 003° 04.748. We will be starting our walk to the wreck around 6.50pm. Let’s hope for a lovely dry evening…….

The Demise of the SS Denham

The SS Denham, a 103-ton survey vessel, had left Liverpool landing stage between 8am and 8.30am on the morning of July 18th 1946 to make a survey in Liverpool Bay. The vessel was heading back to Liverpool after completing its survey between 1pm and 2pm when it struck a German mine that was still hidden in the waters off New Brighton despite the bay having been swept for such devices. The explosion tore the vessel apart, killing eight members of the crew and left only one survivor, FC Whitby, who was thrown unconscious into the water by the force of the blast.

Photo by kind permission of Ian M Hazeldine https://antonymes.pb.photography/

The inquest found the German mine had lain undetected on the bed of the river after being dropped during an air raid. A crater was later found underneath the wrecked vessel containing fragments of the detonated mine.

The inquest heard from a witness who upon hearing the boat had struck a mine, left Liverpool landing stage by motor boat to try and aid the stricken vessel. On arrival he heard Mr Whitby had been rescued, and spotted the SS Denham. It had sunk in 18 feet of water just over a mile from St. Nicholas’s Church. The tide was ebbing and as soon as the wheelhouse was uncovered he boarded the wreck with a diver. After the tide had fallen further and they had removed a considerable amount of wreckage they recovered the body of ship’s master, Kennedy, from the wheelhouse. He was found alongside the wheel. They searched the engine room and found MacDonald. The weather began to deteriorate, and they discontinued the search when all the bodies but those of Campbell, Roscoe, and Haldane had been found. They searched again on July 20, and these last three were found. He added that the SS Denham was so damaged as to be a total loss.

Photo by Jo (73JLS)

Later the wreck’s wheelhouse and funnel were removed so as not to cause a hazard to shipping.

Crew on board SS Denham killed in the explosion

  • CAMPBELL, WALTER JAMES (59), First Engineer Officer, Denham SS, Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities
  • COLLINS, WILLIAM (37), Able Seaman, Denham SS, Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities
  • GIBBONS, GILBERT ERNEST (61), Principal Surveyor, Denham SS, Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities
  • HALDANE, WILLIAM HENRY JAMES (56), Steward, Denham SS, Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities
  • KENNEDY, MALCOLM (43), Master, Denham SS, Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities
  • MACDONALD, ROBERT (37), Fireman, Denham SS, Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities
  • RICHARDSON, JOHN EDWARD (28), Seaman, Denham SS, Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities
  • THOMAS ATKINSON (31), Mate, Denham SS, Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities

New Section of Coastal Path from Aberogwen to Porth Penrhyn

The new section of the Wales Coast Path between the Spinnies Nature Reserve, Aberogwen and Porth Penrhyn, Bangor was opened to the public on the 31 July 2023.

Guidebook to walking the Wales Coast Path | Cicerone Press

Back in May 2021 Gwynedd Council issued a ‘Public Footpath Creation Order’ to establish a public footpath through the Spinnies Nature Reserve and the Penrhyn Estate. After successful negotiations between Gwynedd Council, Penrhyn Estate and North Wales Wildlife Trust the new route was agreed. The new path will be accessed through the Spinnies main gate, then follow the estate wall crossing over Afon Ogwen via the old estate bridge.

The new section follows the coast on the edge of Penrhyn Estate with stunning views of the Menai Straits, Anglesey and Penrhyn Docks. This is the most significant re-alignment project since the opening of the Wales Coast Path in 2012.

The path has been developed sensitively to ensure that the unique intertidal habitat of the Menai Strait is protected. Work have been taken to reduce any negative impact including screening the path from the beach roosting birds, erecting bat and bird boxes to mitigate the effects of creating the new path through a semi ancient woodland.

 Please note, you will not be able to access the Penrhyn Castle from the path.

News & New Caches 101

Sadly, we have no new caches or Ad Labs to report since our last post.

International Geocaching Day Event

International Geocaching Day 2023: Date, History, Activities, Facts

GCAB70R 9US Celebrate International Geocaching Day 2023 by 9 Usual Suspects Event D1/T1.5

This was the 6th wet Saturday in a row, luckily for this years International Geocaching Event we had planned inside activities, an afternoon in the pub. There was a lot of geochat and general catching up, the darts, shut the box and BBQ proved very popular but sadly the dominos and pub quiz never happened. Next time.

Congratulations to darts champion Jonathon and runner up Andy. Now the dart board is up I think there maybe several practicing sessions before the next competition. Big thanks to Ali & Bryan for supplying the dart board, Pete for doing a fine job on the BBQ, Jo for being ‘tea lady’, Jo and Suli for being this events ‘tidy up fairies’, and everyone for attending.

Pete on BBQ Duty

The annual raffle was drawn with all but one winner being present. We would like to thank everyone who over the last year purchased raffle tickets, this is our biggest fund raiser with the proceeds funding our events, refreshments and website. This years raffle made a profit of £120. A very big Thank You to Mike & Gail (Team Marzipan) and Jo (73JLS) for their generous coin donations for the next raffle.

Penrhyn Castle, Treasures on Paper

A day that might be of interest to anyone with connections to the local slate industry and a chance to visit Penrhyn Castle for free.

If you’re a member of the local slate community and have an interest in your family history, Penrhyn Castle extends a warm invitation to a community conservation day on site. There will be an opportunity to talk with experts in the conservation field, to see conservation work in action and to learn how to protect any historical items you might have, such as photographs, diaries, and paper items for future generations. 

Penrhyn Castle played a big part in local history, especially within the slate industry. While we know the dates, the events and some names, we don’t have many stories from those that experienced life in the quarry or the castle. This event will be the start of a project that aspires to hear some oral history and looks to share that history within the castle and in the community through different platforms. The day will be an opportunity to share, discover and record our local history

The event is for free, but you will need to book. There will be no need to pay the castle entry fee, only bring your ticket to the Visitor Centre. Refreshments, lunch, and translation services will be available. All are welcome but on a first come first serve basis!

Unfortunately, this event will be hosted upstairs in the castle so there is no wheelchair access.

When: Saturday 26th August, 2023
Where: Penrhyn Castle, Bangor  LL57 4HT
Time: 10am -3pm
Booking: Online penrhyncastle@nationaltrust.org.uk Or Telephone 01248 353084 or 0344 2491895

Booze Cruise to Dublin

We are planning a day trip to Dublin. The one and only advantage of Brexit is that we can now buy ‘duty free’ on a day trip to Dublin. We plan to leave Holyhead on the Stena 9am ferry, arriving Dublin 12.15pm and return on 8.30pm ferry which arrives in Holyhead around midnight. This gives us approximately 7 hours in Dublin City centre.


Cost depends on which day of the week we travel with Tuesday & Wednesday being the cheapest at £12 per adult/£30 per family of 4 or Thursday to Monday £15 per adult/£37.50 per family of 4.

Nolan Coaches operate a FerryLink Shuttle Service to and from Dublin Port (Route 853). The cost is €3.00 to city centre or €4.50 to Heuston Station each way, payment can be made by card onboard the bus. No Cash will be accepted as the service is strictly Cashless.

Click here to find out how much Duty Free Allowance you can buy.
Click here to find Duty Free Shopping Brochure

Interested? Please either message us through the comments or 9 Usual Suspects geocaching account.

News & New Caches 100

Two new caches since our last post, both Premium Member only, plus several events for your diary:

GCACMY5 A Fine Pair # 1737 ~ Llanfairpwllgwyngyll by Glaslyn1 Multi D3/T1.5
GCACNPA The geocaching bug by seanx90 Traditional D1.5/T1.5

Events
GCACV3K 9 Usual Suspects – Nosh & Natter 60 by 9 Usual Suspects
For this months Nosh & Natter we are back at the Snowdonia Parc, Waunfawr.
When: Wednesday 30th August 2023
Where: Parc Snowdonia, Waunfawr, Caernarfon, Gwynedd LL55 4AQ
Time: 7pm to 9pm or when the last person leaves

Photo by Jo (73JLS)

GCACYNA 9 Usual Suspects Visit a Wreck by 9 Usual Suspects
Another 9US adventure this time to visit the wreck site of the SS Denham…… more details in our next post.
When: Saturday 2nd September 2023
Where: Wallasey Beach, New Brighton, Wirral
Time: 7.15-7.45pm

GCACVFT REALLY SideTracked – Great Orme, Victoria Station by Pink icing
When: Saturday 14th October 2023
Where: King’s Head, Old Rd, Llandudno LL30 2NB
Time: 1.30-2.30pm

GCACRX3 Geocaching Halloween Event at The Bryntirion Inn by martin&lindabryn
Whether you’re looking for tricks or treats, this Halloween bash at The Bryntirion Inn is the place to be. 
When: Saturday 28th October 2023
Where: The Bryntirion Inn, Llandderfel, Bala
Time: 7pm – 11pm

Event Reminder

GCAB70R 9US Celebrate International Geocaching Day 2023 by 9 Usual Suspects Event D1/T1.5
Where: Plas Gwernoer, Nantlle
When: Saturday 19th August, 2023
Time: 2.00pm-6pm (the bar will remain open until the last person leaves!)
Games Start Time: 2.30pm
BBQ: 5pm
Trackable Raffle Draw: 5.30pm
9 Usual Suspects invite you to join them in the beautiful Nantlle Valley to celebrate International Geocaching Day, the theme for this years event is ‘An Afternoon in the Pub’. There will be darts, dominos and a pub quiz, fun for everyone. If intending to be there please log a ‘will attend’ to enable us to plan catering for the day.

By attending this event you will earn a souvenir, International Geocaching Day 2023.

9 Usual Suspects 29 Series

Some of our caches in our 29 series are getting increasingly difficult to maintain so we are giving notice of intention to archive all at the end of October except the 3 Church Micros and the TB hotel. The series has been very popular since its publication on the 29.2.2016.

For everyone that has completed the series Lon has designed a profile badge.

Copy and paste the following text to your profile page:

<a href=”https://imgflip.com/gif/148sl8″><img src=”https://i.imgflip.com/148sl8.gif“/></a>

We hope to place a new series on leap day 2024………..

News & New Caches 99

Five new caches and an event have been published since our last post:

GCACEYB The Tree-O Squad by JSWhitehead21378 Traditional D3/T1.5
GC6RC4B A bridge to nowhere by Gumpay Traditional D2/T2
GC9Z20R Take a seat by Mossfamilymacc Traditional D1.5/T2
GC9Z219 Carreg y Defaid by Mossfamilymacc Traditional D1.5/T1.5

Premium Member Only
GCACNPA The geocaching bug by seanx90 Traditional D1.5/T1.5

Event
GCACR6T Trotting in to Prestatyn by TeeferTheCat Event
When: Saturday 14th October 2023
Where: The William Morgan, 29-31 High Street, Prestatyn LL19 9AH
Time: 6.30-7.30pm

Event Reminder
GCAB70R 9US Celebrate International Geocaching Day 2023 by 9 Usual Suspects Event D1/T1.5
Where: Plas Gwernoer, Nantlle
When: Saturday 19th August, 2023
Time: 2.00pm-6pm (the bar will remain open until the last person leaves!)
Games Start Time: 2.30pm
BBQ: 5pm
Trackable Raffle Draw: 5.30pm
9 Usual Suspects invite you to join them in the beautiful Nantlle Valley to celebrate International Geocaching Day, the theme for this years event is ‘An Afternoon in the Pub’. There will be darts, dominos and a pub quiz, fun for everyone. If intending to be there please log a ‘will attend’ to enable us to plan catering for the day.

Piratemania 15 Pirates Royalists & Roundheads

GCA2BBR Piratemania 15 Pirates Royalists & Roundheads

This years Piratemania was held in the village of Naseby, Northamptonshire. The village is famous for the ‘Battle of Naseby’, fought in open fields on the foggy morning of the 14th June 1645 between the 14,000 strong Parliamentarian New Model Army (Roundheads) and the less than 9,000 Royalist army (Cavaliers) of King Charles I.  After nearly three years of conflict, this was the decisive battle of the Civil War. Only about 4000 Royalists escaped the field, most of whom were either cavalry or senior officers, some seriously wounded. The main royalist field army had been literally destroyed. The King had lost his best officers, seasoned troops and artillery. All that now remained was for the Parliamentarian armies to wipe out the last pockets of Royalist resistance, which it did within the year.

Naseby village hall was a perfect location for this years Piratemania with everything on one site, camping on the large, level, playing field, an excellent children’s playground featuring a pirate ship and plenty of on site parking. The village has a very friendly well stocked shop and we can highly recommend the pub, The Royal Oak, where we had a few P&P stops plus Sunday Lunch. Shame the weather was not a little kinder, I have never seen so many Pirates wearing down jackets!

We all enjoyed the new caches, though one road section was a bit hairy with small children, the adventure labs were fun especially the night ones, but the best bit of ‘pirates’ is to catch up with geocaching friends. This year a record 5 of the original 9 Usual Suspects in attendance, we were also accompanied by more friends and reserves than in previous years.

Sunday nights quiz saw the Usual Suspects Team return a respectable score of 54 out of a possible 64. After the quiz came the geocoin auction to help raise funds for next years Piratemania. We know how hard it is to raise funds to support 9US, it must be a nightmare trying to fund a Mega event. So we had donated one of our slate coins which made £51.00!

News & New Caches 98

First we must apologise for the lack of recent posts so this one maybe a bit longer than normal!

Lets start with the caches that have been published since our last post

GCABP1M watch out for the trolls! by CheesyPasta Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GCABQDY Brambles of Lon las by CheesyPasta Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GCABRND The Wright Box by Brynvj Traditional D1/T1.5
GCAC0DF Bay Books by escapefromwork Multi D3.5/T1
GCAC3VK Bryn Wylfa View by cacheB8S Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GCAC6DN Coastal Cache. The old Lifeboat Station by cacheB8S Traditional D1.5/T2.5
GCACB4E HHH – A Hunt on the Hindlea Headland by cacheB8S Traditional D2/T2
GCAC9PK Portable Magic by escapefromwork Traditional D2/T1

Event Reviews

GCAB60H CITO, A487 South, Quick Pick by 9 Usual Suspects D1/T4

Before………..
After……….

Thank you everyone for attending and for all your hard work in tiding up this lay-by. Again our weather god was on our side, it might have been grey but there was no rain until we had packed up. After the previous days rain we were very surprised on attendance numbers. With many hands making light work we saw the area quickly transformed, 11 bags of rubbish picked from this very small area. In an ideal world there would be no litter as everyone would dispose of their rubbish responsibly.

The hard working team

After a litter pick we always message Gwynedd Council with our results and reporting any concerns we might have, the following is taken from our latest report:

“We think part of the problem here is caused by lack of litter bins. The lay-by is a popular stop off point for visitors travelling to/through our area, a litter infested lay-by is not a good look. Please could the council consider placing a couple of bins in each lay-by.” 

We received the following reply from Norman Hughes:

“Thank you all for your work, clearly a great improvement. Thanks for highlighting this location I have passed on your comments regarding new bins at the location. I have also forwarded your message to our Street Scene Manager. I will update you once I receive an update.
Again many thanks to all volunteers.”

Let’s hope we won’t have to be back here for a long time……..

Nosh & Natter 59

GCAB6AZ 9 Usual Suspects – Nosh & Natter 59 by 9 Usual Suspect D1/T1

What an awful night? Not the weather you expect for the end of July! Again we were amazed at the turnout for an outside event, not just wet but very cold for July. A huge thank you to Cemlyn for coming to our aid and opening up his works canteen, giving us a dry and very comfortable venue for our event.

Wheel of Challenge, Iconic Cacher

What comes next in Wheel of Challenges? – Official Blog

The Wheel of Challenge, Streak Star!, ended on Sunday 6th August. The next challenge, Iconic Cacher, started on Monday 7th August and finishes on Sunday 3rd September. To qualify for the 2 souvenirs, easy and hard, find as many different icons that you can.

Earn the easy souvenir for this challenge by finding and logging these three different cache types:

  • Traditional Cache
  • Adventure Location
  • Event Cache

Earn the hard souvenir for this challenge by finding and logging these eight different cache types:

  • Traditional Cache
  • Adventure Location
  • Event Cache
  • Virtual Cache
  • EarthCache
  • Multi-Cache
  • Mystery Cache
  • Letterbox Hybrid

The next challenge will be announced on August 29th.