We have 16 new caches this week, of which two are on Anglesey to ruin Gwyns map!
GC9FB3E Pont Ffatri Cymunod Bryngwran by TegwenEdwards Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GC9FB4H Water Pump Bryngwran by TegwenEdwards Traditional D1.5/T1.5

This series is an extension to the Slate Trail and guides you around the old slate workings at Aberllefenni.
GC9F3VH Miners’ Trail 1 by Oldquincepie Traditional D2.5/T1.5
GC9F3T4 Miners’ Trail 2 by Oldquincepie Traditional D2.5/T1.5
GC9F3TC Miners’ Trail 3 by Oldquincepie Traditional D2/T1.5
GC9F3TG Miners’ Trail 4 by Oldquincepie Traditional D2/T1.5
GC9F3TN Miners’ Trail 5 by Oldquincepie Traditional D3/T1.5
GC9F3TQ Miners’ Trail 6 by Oldquincepie Traditional D2/T1.5
GC9F3TV Miners’ Trail 7 by Oldquincepie Traditional D2/T1.5
GC9F3TZ Miners’ Trail 8 by Oldquinciepie Traditional D2/T1.5
GC9F3V0 Miners’ Trail 9 by Oldquinciepie Traditional D3/T1.5
GC9FDG6 Miners’ Trail 10 by Oldquinciepie Traditional D2/T1.5
GC9F3V4 Miners’ Trail 11 by Oldquinciepie Traditional D2/T1.5
GC9FDGA Miners’ Trail 12 by Oldquinciepie Traditional D3/T1.5
GC9F3TC Miners’ Trail 13 by Oldquinciepie Traditional D2/T1.5
GC9F3VB Miners’ Trail 14 by Oldquinciepie Traditional D2/T1.5

Nosh & Natter Reminder

GC9EXTX 9 Usual Suspect – Nosh & Natter 40

When: Tuesday 31st August
Where: Anglesey Arms, Harbour Front, Caernarfon LL55 1SG
Time: 7pm to 9pm or when the last person leaves

Our first N&N since February 2020! Let’s hope for a nice evening so that we can sit outside and watch the sunset while enjoying a beer or two. Please could the first ones to arrive ‘grab’ some tables as the pub does not take bookings on outside tables. All Welcome.

Five new caches this week, two of which are Premium Member Only.

GC9EZHE Holyhead View Bryngwran by TegwenEdwards Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GC9F3XC Penrhiw Bryngwran by TegwenEdwards Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GC9F5J2 Boys Treasure by noacairhys Traditional D2/T1.5

Premium Member Only
GC9F7N0 Sun, sand, sea and a lot of wind… by seanx90 Traditional D3/T1
GC9F3WP Mighty Moderators by TaffyLewis Traditional D2/T1.5

Reminder for Saturday

GC8QABW Let’s Celebrate International Geocaching Day by 9 Usual Suspects 21st August 2pm – 6pm Julie & Ray’s (Bess’s Friends), Caergeiliog.

A great way to spend a summers Saturday afternoon, with games, a BBQ and plenty of geochat. All we ask is that someone could bring the sunshine…….. but just in case the tents will be up!

By attending this event you will receive the International Geocaching Day 2021 souvenir, 2020 Community Celebration souvenir and Community Celebration icon.

Just one new cache this week:

GC9EZF5 A55 Bryngwran by TegwenEdwards Traditional T1.5/D1.5

Events

This month sees the return of local events

GC9DYQ6 CITO Season 1 by 9 Usual Suspects 14th August 11am – 1pm Inigo Jones, Groeslon.
9 Usual Suspects first event since 14.3.2020! By attending this event your efforts will be rewarded with CITO Season 1 2021 Souvenir.

GC8QABW Let’s Celebrate International Geocaching Day by 9 Usual Suspects 21st August 2pm – 6pm Julie & Ray’s (Bess’s Friends), Caergeiliog.
A great way to spend a Saturday afternoon with games, a BBQ and plenty of geochat. We will be drawing the long standing Geocoin/TB raffle and launching our new TB Race. To enter the TB Race either post your trackable number in the comments on the race page or fill the entry form in at the event.
To enable us to plan the day please say in your ‘will attend’ logs number of attendees and any contributions to the BBQ you intend to bring.
By attending this event you will receive the International Geocaching Day 2021 souvenir, 2020 Community Celebration souvenir and Community Celebration icon.

GC9EXTX 9 Usual Suspects – Nosh & Natter 40 31st August 7-9pm, Anglesey Arms, Caernarfon.

Next Years UK Mega

We are very excited to announce that next year’s Mega will be held at UTTOXETER RACECOURSE.

“GC9D1HX West Midlands UK Mega 2022 Saturday 6th August, 10am – 4pm.
There will be access to the Racecourse Grandstand Exhibition Hall, where there will be stalls of various vendors, trade stands and other Geocaching related activities.
Camping is being made available at the racecourse from Monday 1st August until Monday 8th August, the whole racecourse will be at our disposal, and our sole use. On site food vendors will be open during the week for anyone not wishing to cook.

Pitches will be available with or without electrical hook up, depending on your requirements. There will be plenty of toilet, washing and shower facilities for all campers who stay with us.”

Only one new cache this week in the local area:

GC9EFMP Felin Plas Bryngwran by TegwenEdwards Traditional D1.5/T1.5

Postcard from Piratemania

4 of the 9 Usual Suspects sallied forth to plunder and party at Piratemainina 13 which this year was set in the wilds of Linconshire. The elements were kind with just an occasional thunderstorm to liven up the proceedings, but on the whole the weather was clement. The county of Lincolnshire is uncannily flat with not a hill or mountain in sight, but we soon overcame our initial agoraphobia under the big skies. Quality grog was readily available on site with the local ale being surprisingly quaffable. There was the usual fun and games that is Piratemainia’s hall mark and the team retired on Sunday night tired but happy after increasing their cache numbers significantly especially with some ‘easy’ high terrain caches in their treasure chests.

We are looking for Balsam Bashing volunteers to join us on Sunday 25th July at 10.30am at Hafod y Llyn Isaf, Nantmor, Beddgelert. This is not a geocaching event. We will be working in conjunction with the Snowdonia National Park’s Celtic Rainforest project.

Please register your interest in the comments and we will be in touch with further details.

Just two new caches this week and Ecobake has already got the FTF on one!

GC9D712 St Patrick’s Time & Tide 🔔 Cemaes Bay, Anglesey by Team Marzipan Traditional D1/T1.5
GC9DH5M This grass doesn’t grow…. by hayleycox Traditional D2.5/T1.5

Future Events

As Sully pointed out I have gone completely mad as there is no Monday 31st in July this year! It looks as though Covid restrictions are going to be with us for a while longer here in Wales which makes all geocaching events and N&N’s impossible. So we will carry on arranging unofficial events until the rules change, at least this allows us all a chance to meet up and do something nearly ‘normal’. The next scheduled event will be August 21st International Geocaching Day.

So how did you discover geocaching? A question I have been asked many times by fellow geocachers. I had never heard of Geocaching until I received a phone call from a very good friend, the conversation went like this:
“Have you heard of Geocaching?” 
“No.”
“Well Google it. I think you and Pete will love it”
My friend was walking her dogs on their daily walk through the churchyard when one returned with a small Tupperware box in his mouth labeled “Official Geocache, Do Not Remove”. Having no idea what it was she cautiously opened the box to find a seal easy bag, inside a piece of paper with dates and strange names, plus a marble and a couple of plastic toys. Not sure what to do with the box she took it home and did an internet search, this lead her to the Geocaching site, which in turn revealed that the box was a church micro geocache. From the pictures of the tree and the hint she was able to return the cache to its rightful obvious hiding place.

We did as we were told and did ‘Google it’. We were surprised to find that there was a cache placed on one of our regular dog walks hidden under a little bridge that we had crossed hundreds of times unaware of its existence.

Our first geocache.
GC20FZM Stambourne troll replacement by Foxfords 17.1.2010

Friday night in our local pub we met up with Sian whose first question was “I didn’t realise you were geocachers”. It turns out that she was the owner of our first find. Small world.

And the rest, as they say, is history – we were hooked!

July 4th BBQ

Just a week to go before our American themed unofficial geocaching event on the 4th July. We will be lighting the BBQ at 3pm and partying until the last person leaves. To give us an idea of numbers please log a ‘will attend’ in the comments.
For anyone that has not been to an event at our house the coord’s are N53 02.994 W004 14.177
Parking will be in the field at N 53° 02.988 W 004° 14.295 (Hopefully we will have mown the grass!)
Very close by is GC8CCV6 Under Ann@Birdbrook and Naturesbyte’s nose.

Firstly I must thank everyone for all their hard work, what a difference we made to this area, in just 2 hours we picked over 30 bags of rubbish and removed a fallen tree.

On Saturday afternoon 3 Usual Suspects and geocaching friends met up for an unofficial CITO litter pick around the Tesco area of Caernarfon. Even though in Wales 30 people can now meet up outside UK Geocaching is continuing its ban on all events. It was the first time we had all met up since March 2020. Once again the weather was on our side, after two days of dreadful wind and rain, with us nearly calling off the event, Saturday afternoon was dry and the sun shone. The area picked was not as bad as the previous clean ups, but we still managed to collect 30 bags! Mostly consisting of clothes thrown over the wall from the recycling bins in Tescos car park.

Dave did a fantastic job in removing the fallen tree that has been blocking the footpath for at least the last 3 years. We had reported the tree to the council on numerous occasions but nothing was ever done.

With all the bags placed at the collection points ready for Gwynedd Council to pick up it was time for a well deserved pint……… or was it two!