Tywford Woods (Photo Heavy)

EveryonesMum and I are up in North Lincolnshire for a few days on a mainly-Geocaching holiday. We're so excited!

We headed up North today and stopped off at a cache I've been waiting to do... GCVMXJ Grantham Scouts - The Explorer. This stretch of wood has fascinated me since before I became a Geocacher, and today I finally had a chance to visit, and with a beautiful multi which promises a good walk, and a recently obtained Travelbug who wants to visit army locations, we were all set.

The woods are truly beautiful, and without the background knowledge and guidance of the Geocache, you might miss some of the most important details. We were fascinated by the random brick wall at GZ1, and even more interested once we learned it was a loading dock.

The old loading dock... Now, where is the cache?!

The runways were strange and eerie; others have stated in their logs that they don't see it as a huge leap to be able to imagine the planes coming and going here and I can totally understand what they mean. The whole place seemed so unreal and it's definitely somewhere that I will come back and visit again.

Looking down one of the runways.

It's eerie to see how there are some areas that haven't grown.

The roadways are almost as strange as the runways. 

Everything has an almost post-apocalyptic feel to it.

Disappointingly, the walk didn't seem to take us near the derelict control tower that I had read about, but I'm sure that I will manage to find it on a return visit. We did manage to spot a watch tower, and I had to control my urge to climb it, given the firm warnings attached to the side!

With a small goggle at the final GZ to reveal the meaning of the hint item, I had the cache in hand but a very sore feet - in a silly move (and yet one I have chosen to make in the past - experience should have taught me!) I hadn't changed out of my flip-flops and so my feet were scratched, poked and stung all the way to and from GZ - and silly me hadn't taken anything with me to sign it! Overall, not my finest hour there.

1337 ELITE and I finally got our cache!

It was a gorgeous little multi, a seriously fantastic location and a trip I plan on repeating!

A Day Out with the Geokid

School has broken up for summer, which means we all have a lot more time for caching! With me being a teacher and Pip_squeek still a student, the countdown to summer has been on for us and we're so glad it's finally here.

It also gives me a lot more chances to 'cache with the Geokids. The Big, who is 7, enjoys the idea of Geocaching but bores easily, The Little at (only just) 4 loves the idea but can't walk too far, which leaves The Middle, 6, who is really finding his Geocaching feet - he loves the thrill of finding the boxes, and is beginning to appreciate the areas that we visit to Geocache.

Today, we banded together to form a team between the three of us and set off. We started our day in Thorney, picking up the CM that Pip_Squeek and I had (somehow!) DNF'd on a previous visit. We attempted the Thorney Treasure, but even though we feel like we were in the right place, we failed to secure a find (despite Middle's keen eye!)

Nope... Can't see it!

We moved on to the main attraction for the Middle Geokid, which was the tower in Thorney, which is actually part of Bedford Hall. A quick Goggle suggests the tower itself was used for water storage, which for such an elaborate structure seems very odd! Middle enjoyed walking around it and a volunteer kindly let us explore the usually-closed-on-weekends Heritage Museum while she did some work. 

After our exploration, we picked up our picnic lunch and headed to the lovely We Love Caching event, which was timed beautifully with the church's beerfest. We sat in the ground and ate our picnic while cachers came and went - without any planning, we managed to situate ourselves right near the church micro here, so we got to watch a pair of cachers (I'm really sorry, we didn't catch your names!) on the hunt, which enticed Middle to take part in the least stealthiest cache hunt in the world, as neither Pip_Squeek or I could be bothered to move, so shouted instructions to him and eventually, he triumphantly held up a box and screamed back "Is this it?!" ... Sorry for the lack of stealth, folks!

Yum yum yum! Also, check out my Geowheels!

Fully fuelled, and after checking in with Lucie and signing her wonderfully ingenious log, we set off. We had previously clear a lot of Sutton, and so that only left us five to find today - Oh no! We thought this was the case, but I've just checked the map to find a rouge cache and a small drive-by series! How silly of us not to notice these! :(. We headed off with the intention of picking up the Really Sidetracked, but got a little lost along the way so collected The Paddocks first, then moved on and eventually found our way. If this did indeed used to be a station - and why would I doubt the validity of this claim? - it's very much abandoned now, with just a few pieces of brickwork left which could be described as anything. Middle liked the swaps in the box and we changed a few bits, before heading back out into the scorching sun to find A Seat for Sarah - a unique little cache that is worth a visit just for the container type alone!

Heading back onto the road, we passed one of Middle's favourite things... A tractor!

With Middle happy that we were on solid ground again, we swept around for High Quality and Le lampadaire - the latter being a highly recommended cache (of which I have a very similar hide waiting for an ideal location at home) and found them both easily. In the heat, and with a BBQ at home, it was time to head home - but not before swinging by the ever-beautiful Ely and showing Middle a drive-by of the frankly glorious cathedral.

-RFF

-Finds Today: 6 each + the event cache

-Finds Total: RFF: 520; PS: 336

Such a long time since caching!

It's been such a long time since any of us did any significant amounts of caching. We've all done bits and bobs, and I've set a new trail between West Deeping and Market Deeping, but other than that we've been fairly dry so today's trip was long overdue.

Pip_Squeek was only 5 caches away from the 300 milestone, and I was only 18 from mine, so we started the day manipulating numbers. We had GC4PQH0 Red Rum in mind for our Milestone cache, so we headed out to Werrington. Together, we left Pip_Squeek in the car (with the window cracked, we promise! Heheh!) and El-Woodio and i headed out to pick up a quick 12 caches that we will return to later, while meandering over to Serpentine Green for some food. Now we're even, it's time to get down to the serious caching!

We loitered around Hampton for a while and picked up some the caches that we didn't already have. There's a new church being built here, with a CM already in place, so that couldn't easily be resisted! It's a very modern building, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm a bit of a traditionalist, I guess! We began to move back towards Whittlesey, having great fun collecting Red Rum (we had read the cache page and come prepared!). Definitely a unique cache and one worth noting in the area. Pip_Squeek takes the opportunity to pick up some of the ones she was veto'd out of while we make our way around again, she doesn't want to miss those numbers!

There are a lot of On The Level caches around here, but aiming to be in and out of the car we don't attempt many of them - they appear to be mainly along footpaths! However, we did find this little gem of a Level Crossing - I've seen many manual crossings, but all rely on the sensibility of he human species or a manned crossing, this one at GC38X29 On the Level - Long and Low is a little different!

In an attempt (a very poor attempt, I may add) to find some caches around Fletton, we also turned into children who could not resist the climbing equipment at Fletton Lakes!

One of the most exciting aspects of the day, however, was taking part in our first Wherigo! Pip_Squeek had a flash of inspiration that we could have a go at our first while out today, and quickly she had GC463VE Foxy Forays ready to go. I have to admit, I had never been to this area of town before and it was truly beautiful. The pub is clearly very popular, and I'm going to have to remember to return!

After a little false start understanding the Wherigo program, we were off and I'm sure we gave the locals a giggle running back and forth (which El-Woodio watched from the bridge.. also laughing!). It was great fun through, and once we had the co-ordinates we set off, collecting a few other local caches along the way.

We decide to break for dinner and at this point, we admit that El-Woodio is a broken man! Pip_Squeek and I decide to take him home after dinner, but not before one final thing.. Both of us are very close to finishing different routes across our Bingo/Blockbuster Challenge grids, and she needs 4 different cache types in one day (so that's why she was keen do a Wherigo!) while means we still need an unknown cache. She has a small list of solved puzzles, and one crosses our path home, so we agree to give it a go.

Unfortunately, by the time we reach it we are loosing some serious light and the rain has started. We weren't kitted for the night and in the end, we had to quit. I'm sure we were in the right place, but we just couldn't get our hands on it. :( We need a new plan.

One that results in this;

It's 10:30 at night, and equipped with a lantern, head torch, GPS and mobile phones, we find ourselves in the midst of the Fenlands just outside Peterborough, trying to hunt down GC33M8M HH:MM. Thankfully, we did find it, but attempting a few others all resulted in DNF's! 

I don't think I'm really equipped for night caching!!!

-RFF

-Finds Today: RFF; 29, PS; 30, EW; 28

-Finds Total: RFF; 512, PS; 314, EW; 143