Driffield Ring geocaching series

We had a free afternoon one weekend earlier this month and thought we'd do a local geocaching series.

This was a circular series about twenty minutes from home. This is a quick summary in case it's helpful for anyone else considering the series.

Name: Driffield Ring
First cache in series: GC2DCHB
Number of caches: 11
Distance: Approximately 3 miles
Location: Starts from Driffield, Gloucestershire
 

We parked on the main street next to the church and headed back up the street to start the series.

Driffield is off the beaten track, but really pretty with lots of Cotswold stone.

The going was good underfoot!

We headed up a track to pick up the first cache, then instead of carrying on up the track, we backtracked and took a different path behind the nearby houses for the next cache.

Barney did some sightseeing whilst we looked for the next geocache

The next geocache took ages to find, but we eventually managed to narrow it down to the right tree stump. It gave Barney plenty of opportunity to explore the woodland.

The face of a puppy who has discovered every sticky bud in the woodland

We struggled to find a direct route to the next cache, and had to take a detour out into the neighbouring field to avoid a fallen tree. When we eventually found it, we dropped off a travel bug which we'd picked up on holiday in Dorset.

The wood cover made the GPS ping around a bit but we eventually located the next geocache in the next wooded area.

Beautifully planted trees

The next cache took a while to find, avoiding the spikes on the hawthorn and brambles. From here we headed across a wheat field to the next.

Hurry up, guys!

We picked up the cache on the other side of the field and then the cache on an offshoot which was part of the Little Bridges series. From there we made our way back across the field and skirted past a farm. Our luck ran out with the next cache. The clue didn't make sense and with the light fading we failed to find the cache in an overgrown area next to a ford. It wasn't a complete waste though, as Barney waded so far out into the ford, he'd have been swimming if he went any further.

We only suggested he might like to dip his beard for a drink...

We headed down the path to the final cache, which we found fairly easily, although we did almost lose Barney down a hidden ditch.
From here we headed across a field and back to the village.

Barney winding his way home

We popped out of the field next to the church where we'd parked.

So, compared with our plan at the start of the day, this is what we did:

Number of caches: 10

Distance: Approximately 3.2 miles. The map below from my GPS shows our route

Time: 3.25 hours, this shows that some of the caches were a bit of a pig to find, and includes Barney's wade across the ford

Terrain: Fairly flat. A combination of farmers tracks, paths and roads. Dry when we walked it in August, but I'd imagine it could be muddy in parts.

Wildlife: There were sheep in one neighbouring field but no need to enter the field. 

Facilities: None

I'd definitely recommend this series if you're in the area.

Isle of Wight travel blog

I have to start by saying that we nearly didn't go to the Isle of Wight. We were looking at taking a trip to the New Forest, I asked if we could do a day trip to the Isle of Wight and the rest is history. 

We'd had a bit of a rough start to the year and just needed a chance to get away, put our feet up and do some walking and sightseeing. If that's what you're looking for, book your ferry crossing now, as the Isle of Wight will be perfect for you.

We drove down to Lymington and then got the ferry across, which only took forty minutes or so. From there it was a quick trip to our home for the week, which looked a little like this. I'm feeling relaxed already, although my slightly taller husband did spend much of the week swearing after banging his head on low doorways. Oops.

Our first trip out was to Carisbrooke Castle, I'm lucky enough to have an English Heritage travel trade pass so admission was free. I love a bargain, and what a bargain it was. The castle was a really good example, with ramparts that you could walk all the way around and plenty of areas to explore. It even had the most important thing a historic castle could have, a good place to stop for lunch.  
We took one look at the forecast and decided the next day should be a walking day. We wanted to do some geocaches whilst we were away, and with it being April, I was overdue a visit to some bluebell fields, so I was hoping we'd manage to do both. Starting from Mottistone, a two and a half mile walk later through stunning scenery and we'd succeeded. Thirteen caches and bluebells as far as the eye could see. 

Another day, another sight to take in. This time we headed to Osborne, if it's good enough for Queen Victoria, it's good enough for us and another chance to use my trade pass. Initially I was really impressed with Osborne, there were plenty of information boards to make you understand how important the house was to Queen Victoria and how it was used, and access was given to numerous rooms. If anything it just seemed a bit much, and there always seemed to be someone standing in front of the information board you wanted to read. We also missed part of the estate as there were no free maps available on the day of our visit and we just forgot about it. It's probably the one place visitors flock to above all other attractions on the island, so I'm glad we saw it. Oh, and there are some bluebells here in a field next to the Swiss Cottage, makes it worth the walk!
We took a bit of a detour on the way back to our cottage. I love a miniature village, I've been to the one in Bourton-on-the-Water several times, and so had to see the one in Godshill. Honestly, I can't recommend it enough. The buildings were in great condition, but the one thing that set it apart from Bourton, was the tiny residents. They gave the place a bit of extra character and humour. If you can't tell, I loved it!

It was Andrew's birthday the next day, so I'd tried to come up with Andrew-type things to do. He loves steam trains, so we started with a trip on the Steam Railway. We started at Wootton and travelled down to the other end of the line at Smallbrook before returning to Havenstreet to look around the displays there. It wasn't as long a line as others we've been on, but the trains and carriages are beautifully restored. It was just a shame about the weather, I wasn't expecting snow in April!

Afterwards we took a trip out to Bembridge Windmill, this time making use of our National Trust membership. It was only a quick stop to have a look around and hear about how windmills worked, but interesting nonetheless.

This is all sounding a bit full on, this was actually quite a relaxing holiday for us! Nowhere is far away on the Isle of Wight, so we could get up late, or head home early and still have had a good day out. Anyway, next up was St Catherine's Lighthouse. As we were out of season we had a guide to ourselves, he was excellent, very knowledgeable and made the tour interesting. It's a bit of a walk down from the local village, but I'd definitely recommend it if you're in the area.
For our last full day we took ourselves out for a proper walk, walking poles and all. We started from the High Down Chalk Pit car park, hiked up to the cliff top (and then halfway back down again before returning, the curse of solving a puzzle geocache), before walking along to the Needles and the Old Battery, over to the New Battery and Alum Bay and then back across the fields. It was just over six miles in total, but such a good walk. 

And that was that, the journey home was smooth, in fact we were home in just over three hours.

If like me you're looking for somewhere in the UK for a trip and consider the Isle of Wight, don't overthink it, just book it. You won't be disappointed.

A week in Skye

We love Scotland, heck, we even got married there. So when we were given a holiday voucher I wasn't too surprised when we ended up browsing locations in Scotland. We spotted a renovated crofter's shed in Skye and booked it without a second thought. 

Fast forward to a couple of weeks before our holiday in October, I finally realised just how far away Skye is. I ignored my husband's protests that we'd be fine to do the journey in one day and booked a hotel near Carlisle so we could break the journey. With hindsight it was a good job we did. The motorways were a nightmare, we seemed to crawl most of the way to Carlisle. We continued our journey the next day and made much better progress. As the weather was fine, we decided to take the scenic route, the Road to the Isles, from Fort William to Mallaig. The views were spectacular and we managed to spot the Glenfinnan Viaduct (known from the Harry Potter films) in the distance. 

When we eventually arrived at our home for the week it was worth the trip. It was on the middle of nowhere with only sheep and rabbits passing our front door.  

The next day we got up and headed to Portree, the main town on Skye, partly to see the harbour but mainly to get some food in for the week. We had lunch and grabbed a couple of geocaches whilst we were there. We struck lucky that one of the geocaches gave us a great view of the harbour.

To make the most of the dry weather, we took a walk out to Neist Point on the other side of the island towards the end of the day, to see the lighthouse. It was a round walk of about a mile and a half, relatively easy going to get there, but a hard slog back up the steps on the way back. The lighthouse is less impressive close up as it's fallen to ruin, it looks much better from a distance. 

The next day the weather was still dry, if cloudy, so we headed out for a longer walk. We drove to the parking area near the Storr and headed up to the Old Man. Although it was only about three miles, this was a much tougher climb, the gradient was relentless, the weather deteriorated as we gained height and as we approached the Old Man itself, we were literally scrambling up on all fours. By the time we reached the top it was so windy that I just sat on a rock and took a quick panorama hoping I wouldn't be blown away! I was very glad to get back to lower ground. It was certainly an achievement though!

Our next trip, a couple of days later, was to Dunvegan Castle. I'd managed to get free tickets through work, so we felt we should go, even if it was their last open day of the year. It was clear when we got there that it was end of season, with stocktaking underway. The Castle itself was a little underwhelming but the grounds were interesting and varied, even in October. We had a good walk around and found the best views of the castle weren't necessarily from the front.

 

After our walk around the castle and gardens, we headed up the coast for a walk out to Coral Beach. Despite its name, the beach isn't actually made of coral, but dessicated and sun bleached algae. Its sandy appearance is unusual for Skye. It was a walk of about three miles, including a climb up the hill you can see in the distance. We were there on a bit of a gloomy day, but it would be beautiful there in the summer. 

On our last day we ventured back to where we'd first entered the island to see Armadale Castle Gardens. Again, we'd got free entry and so felt we should make the most of it. The castle (actually a ruined country house) was a bit of a disappointment, just the frontage remained, and the gardens were past their best given the time of year. It's a shame the castle wasn't rescued after it was abandoned by the family before it fell into such disrepair.

We did a couple of geocaches before heading to Fairy Pools. We walked the mile and a half route fairly briskly as the light was starting to fade. It was worth the walk to see the waterfalls and the sunset on the way back made me glad we left it until late in the day. 

 

Our journey home the following day took twelve hours from door to door, with a couple of stops for fuel and one for food. Luckily the traffic was much clearer on the way back. I guess Skye's not that far after all!

Geocaching - what it's all about

 Until last Christmas I'd heard of geocaching, but didn't know anything about it. That changed when Andrew's aunt started looking for local caches when we were both at his parents. She explained the basics, that there's a site that lists all of the caches and it's basically a treasure hunt. I really couldn't see the point or overall aim, but accepted it. Being a bit of a Googleaholic, I decided to look into it and ended up at the http://www.geocaching.com/ website. I entered my postcode and was suprised to find there were a number of caches within a mile of our house. My interest was piqued at that point. 

The following day we were at my parents and needed to get away from the roaring wood burner and out for some air. Again, I looked at the website and was surprised to find some caches in the nearby town. We printed out the relevant pages from the website and off we went. We were plagued by two problems; we used our iPhones as GPS devices, which we struggled with due to patchy 3G reception in the countryside, and were relying on torches on our phones and street lights to be able to see. We'd picked a multi-cache for our first cache and visited various points around the town, such as historical plaques and gravestones, picking up digits which we then used to come up with the location of the actual cache. As luck would have it, this was out of town and we were thwarted by both lack of 3G reception and light. We decided that stumbling around a field at night wasn't the smartest idea and gave up for the night. We returned the following morning on our way home. Due to the patchy 3G reception and inexperience, we struggled a bit to find the final location, but did so after half an hour or so. After digging around in undergrowth we found the box we'd been searching for and signed the log book. We were hooked.

We did a few more caches in the same way, before deciding we were sold on the idea enough to get a GPS unit. After much research, we got a Garmin Oregon 450 which came with UK Ordnance Survey maps. It also came with a month's complementary premium membership for the Geocaching website. This meant we could effortlessly export all caches meeting certain criteria to the unit. No more need for bits of paper.

I know initially I really didn't understand the point. With hindsight, the best thing is that it's a great excuse to get outside. We've been to Iceland, Jersey and Norfolk this year and visited places that we'd never have been to, if it hadn't been for the fact that there were caches hidden there. I was always a bit of a reluctant walker, but tell me there are caches on a footpath and I'll be pulling my walking boots on. As people ask me what it's all about, I thought I'd do a blog about a series of caches we did when we were in Norfolk recently.

We picked a set of sixteen caches about 15 miles away from where we were staying and headed over to the recommended parking spot. As all the caches were already on the GPS unit, it was a simple case of turning it on and seeing which way to head.

The blue pin in the last photograph shows the location of the first cache, and the arrow the direction of the GPS unit is pointing in, so it's usually a case of heading the way the unit tells you to go, as long as that means you're keeping to roads and footpaths. The route took us past the castle and out to a hedgerow, where we found the cache tucked away. All cache containers have a log of some description which you need to sign to show you've been there. The bigger containers contain swaps, and you'll sometimes find a trackable. This is a travel bug or geocoin. They all have tracking number and the aim is for them to move from cache to cache, picking up mileage along the way, and hopefully meet their overall aim. This first cache container housed a travel bug which wanted to get back to Germany, we picked it up and took it with us to help it on its way.

The route to the next cache look us along a country road and over to a field entrance where we found the next cache tucked in a tree. Again, this contained a travel bug, so we picked it up to take it across the country with us.

  We followed the road down past a stream and over to a ford which overlooked the fields, church and priory ruins. There was a bench next to the ford which a local resident was sitting on, enjoying the view with his dog. As Geocaching terminology would put it, you shouldn't give anything away to 'muggles' so we exchanged pleasantries with him, before using taking photos as cover for investigating the wall behind him where the cache was hidden. We found the spot quickly and extracted the cache and signed the log book.

We headed across a muddy field towards the priory. The next cache was a small canister, which had been hung from a hook set into the tree. It took us a while to locate, but then we signed the log and moved on.

We carried on around the priory and back onto the road. The next cache was right next to where a group of workmen had parked up in their van. We waited until they'd got to work, clearing the roof of a nearby building and then darted into the tree which the GPS suggested the cache was hidden in. Luckily we found it quickly, without them wondering what we were up to! The container again contained a travel bug which we picked up and took with us.

The walk then took us up past the church, the cache was well hidden, tucked into a road sign but we found it, signed the log and returned it to its hidey hole. I couldn't find my pen at this point, so Andrew patiently went back to find where I'd dropped it whilst I signed the log with a pencil I was carrying.

The route took us around the town and out towards the outskirts, where the next cache was also tucked in a sign. Unfortunately the log was so wet that we couldn't unroll it, let alone sign it. Hopefully the cache holder will be able to replace it soon.

The route headed out down a footpath passing fields, and surrounded by trees displaying Autumn colours. We found the next cache tucked in a stack of sticks.

We carried on up the path enjoying the countryside and headed out onto the road at the end. The next cache was again tucked into a sign, but in a more original manner. The batteries in our GPS had been complaining for some time, so we took the opportunity to put new ones in and recalibrate the compass before heading on our way again.

We continued up the road before branching off onto the footpath. The next cache was hidden in the hedgerow, tucked into a tree, and was difficult to get to through the undergrowth, which is why Andrew's crouching in a hedgerow!

From this cache, we headed across a tree plantation and crossed a road before heading up a path which skirted a piggery. The next cache was again tucked in a tree.

We walked two sides of the pig farm before reaching the next cache location. We found the cache holder, an ornamental mushroom, tucked into a tree but unfortunatley the log was nowhere to be found.

We headed out of the footpath and would have walked down the farm track but it was flooded and very muddy. Our walking boots weren't up to it, so we skirted the neighbouring field instead. The next cache was hidden against a tree and was a quick find.

We headed down the track and out onto the road. We were relieved to be off the muddy track, but after a sunny day, the evening mist seemed to be rolling in, so we quickened our pace. The cache was just outside the church yard, we searched for about quarter of an hour before finding it tucked into an ivy covered tree.

The route took us along a main road and then headed back down to the village. Unfortunately the penultimate cache in the series defeated us. We knew what we were looking for, but couldn't find it anywhere. We looked for about twenty minutes before giving up as the light was fading and we didn't want to have to drive back in the dark, given the misty weather. We continued up the road and across a footpath. The final cache was tucked away in a tree stump. We also found a final travel bug to take home with us.

From this point we carried on down the footpath and found ourselves back at the car after a good 6 mile walk around the area.

The final part of the process is to log all of our visits and finds onto the Geocaching website when we got home, which again is a fairly straight forward process. We've now found 159 caches which isn't bad seeing as 12 months ago I had no idea what geocaching was all about!