News & New Caches

Just two new caches to report both went live for Lon & Gwyn’s Event:

GC9PPDB Dinas Dinlle, the Disappearing Coastline by 9 Usual Suspects Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GC9PPEA Dinas Dinlle, The Middle by 9 Usual Suspects Traditional D3/T3.5

GC8MAT4 Community Celebration Event – Final Daily Grid

Lon & Gwyn with their 3D printed souvenir

Congratulations Lon and Gwyn from all your Geocaching friends on finally completing your ‘Daily Grid’, a challenge made even greater by Covid 19 lockdowns. To celebrate this momentous occasion they hosted a Community Celebration Event at Dinas Dinlle sea front, unlike previous events along this stretch of coast line the weather was perfect, blue skies and sunshine! Plenty of geochat, cakes and drinks plus 2 new caches going live made for a very enjoyable evening.

A beautiful sunset to finish the event

CITO 14th August 2021

This CITO (Cache in Trash Out) was our first post-covid lockdown official geocaching event since 14 March 2020 and a chance to restore some normality. The weather forecast was iffy so kudos to all who defied the Met Office forecasts and turned out, as on the day, we had only the occasional light shower to contend with. This location was selected because: we have picked here before and know the location, it is fairly child friendly, and above all there was some litter to be picked. It was great to catch up with friends some of whom came from as far as Macklesfield and Oldham. It was also great to see some new faces and junior cachers who made a great contribution. In all 23 assisted with the litter pick including Diapason16 who happened to be in the area looking for a cache, he rolled up his sleeves and mucked in, unlike his daughter, who like a stereotypical teenager rolled her eyes and sat on the wall with her mobile phone :-). We cleared from Penygroes to Groeslon and collected about 12 bags of rubbish from the cycle path. The litter was sorted and taken to Rhwngddwyryd, Garndolbenmaen Recycling Center for disposal.

Many thanks to Inigo Jones Slate Works for letting us use their car park as a base for the CITO

New Caches

We have just five new caches published in our area this week, first four on the list are Premium Members only.

  • GC9A758 Tabor Chapel by ruthiejane D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
  • GC9A4E3 The Holly and the Ivy by ruthiejane  D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
  • GC9A9AJ Old Oak Tree by ruthiejane D1/T1.5 Traditional
  • GC96M6J Anglesey Coastal Path – Official Start by Glaslyn 1 D2.5/T1.5 Traditional
  • GC9A9VK Ty Du Breather by KANDRANDD D1.5/T1.5

Update on Prague Giga Event

Pete and I are probably the only people in the world that are pleased to see this event has been pushed back to May 2022 as this means we will be able to attend after all. We hope to put into place our original plans and are hoping others can join us.

GC7WWWW 20 Years of Geocaching Prague 2020 – Edition 2022
Although we were hoping for better news, the situation is unfortunately not such that it will be possible to carry out a gigaevent in 4 months.
This event will not take place in September 2021 because of health and safety concerns related to COVID-19. It will be rescheduled to 13-15 May 2022.
Hopefully, the situation will be stabilized next year. We believe that it will be possible to organize a grand celebration in a joyful and relaxed spirit, so that both participants and organizers can enjoy it.
Once it is rescheduled, we will post an Announcement and update this page.”

Ann@Birdbrook’s favourite caches

GC4WEDK 147 Snooker Challenge D5/T4 Challenge Cache UK
I like a good challenge and this is certainly one. For this cache all you have to do is find 36 caches in a day, simple, well it’s not quite that easy. Basically, you are playing geocaching snooker, different types of cache count as the different coloured balls as in snooker and you have to score a maximum break of 147! See the cache page for the rules. The idea for this cache is “borrowed” from Just-Us-Two, the original cache being GC4NYHP.
Disappointedly we failed this challenge on our first attempt, too many DNF’s and too long spent looking for parking spots resulted in us running out of time. Having learnt from our mistakes we planned our next attempt like a military operation – even having a dry run to check parking spots. We had a great sense of achievement in signing the logbook of the well-hidden nano.

GC1TG4P Intertidal Footprints D5/T3.5 Earthcache UK
I am not a big fan of earthcaches but this one is very special. Coastal erosion at Formby has revealed the sub-fossil footprints of humans, animals and birds preserved in laminated silt exposures. Due to constant erosion and shifting sand, the coordinates are for the general area. We had tried twice unsuccessfully to find this earthcache so signed up for The National Trust Guided walk. Our guide was excellent, answered all our questions and took us to an area about 500m away from the published coordinates where we immediately found human footprints. At the first location, we found Human, Oyster Catcher and what was probably Aurochs footprints. The best discovery of the day was a trail of footprints left by an adult with a child’s set of prints running alongside. They looked so perfect that they could have been made that morning. At the second location a bit further south, we found Crane and Red Deer, here the laminated deposit was a completely different colour. The guided walk is highly recommended for this one, cost about £5.00 – worth every penny!

A Red Deer hoof print from approx 4,000 years ago.

GCKCJV Ghost Village (Wiltshire) D5/T1.5 Virtual UK
This is one of those places I would never have known about, let alone visited if it had not been for geocaching. The virtual cache is found in Imber, Salisbury Plain, a village taken over by the army in 1943 as a training ground. Originally the residents were told that they would be allowed to return after the war but this was never permitted. As the village finds itself in the centre of a military range danger area it is only open to the public at certain times of the year and with very strict access rules. The whole experience is very surreal, the drive across Salisbury Plain with its abandoned tanks to the perfectly preserved church and graveyard.

A house converted into a training room Imber

GC6K8BF Ogof Clogwyn D5/T5 Letterbox UK
I have not found many letterbox caches mainly because there are very few in our local area. While planning a trip to find the oldest cache in Wales this letterbox caught my attention initially because of its type but also it being a D5/T5. I’m not that good with confined spaces but after studying the cache page and a bit of general research on the internet there didn’t appear to be any tight squeezes or anything too difficult. Ogof Clogwyn is rated as a beginners cave therefore it has plenty of space and head room. This cave really has the WOW factor. The walls are lined with amazing rock formed shelves, so, as with any cave/mine, hard hats are a must. I’m surprised there is not an Earthcache here. The hardest bit was getting into the cave as there was a lot of water tumbling out of the entrance which is quite high. Once in, armed with a laminated copy of the excellent instructions it was easy to find the route to the cache. To be honest it would be very hard to get lost. Be prepared to get wet! Oh and the water is very, very cold.
This is one of those caches that you wish you could give more than one favourite point too.
As the cache pages says ‘its simply a pretty cave in a pretty spot”.

Ogof Clogwyn Cave – Photo published by kind permission of cache owner Stuart (Funk to Funky)

GCM7R6 Northside Pub Crawl D2.5/T1.5 Virtual
GCJJVZ Southside Pub Crawl D3.5/T1 Virtual Ireland
If you are in Dublin and love pubs these two caches are a must. All answers to the clues are on the outside of the buildings but the inside of the pubs are worth a look and you really should sample the quality of their Guinness. These two caches are great to do in a group, we had a fantastic weekend of drinking and caching around the City, only realising a little too much Guinness had been consumed when it came to working out the final calculations! Also after visiting the 20th pub the terrain rating maybe a little on the light side……..

A pint of the black stuff always tastes better in a Dublin Pub

GC3D4F9 Arte de Portas Abertas D2.5/T1 Multi Portugal Madeira
I usually avoid Multi Caches especially if they have lots of stages, they always seem a lot of work for very little. This cache guides you through an area that is best described as an outdoor art gallery. A near derelict street of Funchal was brought back to life by The Art of Open Doors project. Local artists were commissioned, each artist being allocated a space/door to express themselves, with their imagination and a few low-cost resources, the street was transformed. As the tourists began to visit they were quickly followed by shops, cafes and bars. The area is now thriving with very little evidence of its past. The final cache is not great but the artwork makes up for this.

Painted doors in Funchal