14 Mar 2011

A Quick Trip To Bristol

Amazing I hear you cry, he is actually updating the blog within a week!

We were supposed to be going to Yarmouth for my birthday but had to cancel for one reason and another. Saturday came and we were just beginning to plan what to do for my birthday instead. Then the phone rang and someone wanted to book us in for a remap on their Smart car down in Bristol.
We decided to pack the van up and go down on the Saturday evening and then do the car on Sunday. We planned to park up somewhere in Bristol for the night. However as ever, our plans are always pretty fluid. We ended up stopping off for some chips at a nice chippy we know in Tewkesbury. Then plans changed again and we parked up at the car park just near Tewkesbury Abbey. We stayed there overnight and then in the morning headed off to complete the journey. As we arrived earlier than expected we decided to do a bit of caching. The first cache wasn't anything that special but gave me a chance to offload some trackables that I had had for far too long. The cache was called One Too Many? http://coord.info/GC1XFE2 and was at the site of an old home for innebriates.

Still having a bit of time left we found a virtual cache to do. Blaise Hamlet http://coord.info/GCF143 is an old established virtual and has been up and running since 2003. This one soon earned a favourite point. I can't really describe the place, I don't know whether we entered a fairy tale village or something from the hobbit. The pictures below really don't do it justice and all I can say is that if you are ever in the Bristol area, do go and visit this one.

























The houses are still lived in and I have to say that it takes a lot for me to say I'd like to live somewhere, but I could quite easily live here.

The final cache of the day was on the way home. This has been on my watch list for a while and on the GPS for just as long, Bunker R http://coord.info/GC2HRAP I can't for the life of me think why it was on my watch list or why I had been so determined to do it at some point.  I picked up a trackable here, not one that I have seen before, called My Trackable Two Cents, attached to a bee which was probably a sign as at the moment we are on a bee keeping course. We hope to get some bees within the next couple of months.

That's it then, a bit of caching that wasn't planned but turned out to be good fun.

I am now 4 off my 700th, wonder if I will have it by the time I add to the blog next week?

10 Mar 2011

A Winter's & Summer's End

I am sorry to say that for a lot of reasons over the last few weeks I haven't been caching. Not for the want of trying, it is just that other things took over.

Even this weekend, we were supposed to be going to Great Yarmouth for my birthday, the hotel was booked, the GPS loaded with caches, but circumstances have again taken over, so yet again, it is a birthday at home.

On a brighter note we held the Winter's End Flash Mob last Sunday, and what a brilliant day it was. The sun was shining, the car park of the shopping area absolutely full so all was set for us to see some bemused faces..............and boy did we!

At the stroke of 12.00 people gathered at the designated area and milled around, having a natter to each other and the at 12.10 the whistle blew and most people donned christmas hats, or tinsel, or both and started singing Jingle Bells. Once the song was finished people began to drift away, or stayed to have a natter.
There were certainly some strange looks from members of the public who didn't have a clue what was going on. Northking very kindly set some new caches for the event as well.

The turnout couldn't have been better, and I am genuinely thrilled with how many people turned up to support such a daft event. The photos below of the Flash Mob have kindly been given to me by the marriot hunters who emailed me to them a couple of days ago.
There have been some very funny logs that have been enjoyable to read as well, if you want to look you can find them here http://coord.info/GC2MWZC



A great way to say goodbye to winter



If you get a chance to either run or attend a Flash Mob, I thoroughly recommend it, and needless to say, I am already thinking of what to do for the next one.

Summer's End Camping Event 2011

Following on from the Winter's End, it was time to go about getting this year's Summer's End Camping Event published. It is again being held in the Peak District, but at a different campsite, this time one with hot water!!!!
For anyone interested, the details can be found here http://coord.info/GC2PYFR
If it is half as much fun as last years we should have a good time. The site is a lot smaller this year, so anyone wanting to attend will have to get it booked up pretty quickly.

Well that's it, short but sweet. Hopefully next time I will actually be able to tell you about some caching that we have done, it has been quite a while now and annoyingly I have been so close to getting my 700th cache for what seems like forever.

Happy caching.