Barmill

After a lovely sunny Saturday we decided to head out for dinner and to bag a few caches too. Our plan was to visit some caches to the East of Beith, head to the Torranyard for a curry and then go back up to Beith to have a  try at Amazo's night cache in the Spier's Old School grounds.

On our way to Beith we found ourselves driving through Barrmill and Mrs SC (who was on the GPS) announced that we were about to drive right past a cache so we pulled over and headed off in search of it. This cache wasn't on our list for the evening so we knew nothing about it. We've driven through Barrmill hundreds of times but never knew there was a park.

The cache is located near to the Vale burn, thus the cache title It's Available but despite a good hunt I couldn't find it. Mrs SC had opted to direct the search from above whilst the kids had disappeared into the small playpark. I was ready to give up when the kids finally decided they wanted to come and help and wouldn't you know it they found the cache in 10 seconds flat. This is a nice little park but make sure you visit the hidden valley and follow the lovely nature trail which has been built through it with interesting homemade water features.

At the top of Ginger hill behind the park lay our next cache which again wasn't on the list for the evening. Deid Man's Plantin lies at the far side of a field which looking at the previous logs can get a bit muddy. On our visit however it was fine but it's quite lumpy underfoot due to the field being used for cows. The GZ is at the location a mass grave where 42 Cholera victims were buried in 1829. There's little evidence of this today aside for the trees which were apparently planted at the same time. Super Kid found this one and was pleased as punch.

This was an unplanned visit to this park which we knew nothing about but we really enjoyed it. The nature walk especially is lovely and the kids found it very interesting.

Mothers Day in Dundonald

We've not been out caching much recently for various reasons. There were things on at the weekends, we've all been ill at different times and on top of that we sold the van so I had no transport to get out solo caching on Saturday mornings. All well again and a new car parked outside and we were good to go so at Mrs SC's suggestion (no nagging from me, honest...) we decided to head out for some caching after taking the dreaded mother in law out for lunch ;-)

After a quick scan of the maps Dundonald was picked (mostly at random) and off we set. First up was Back to the 80's.....Walls Come Tumbling Down! which is located just along the road at the Hillhouse Quarry. This was an easy one to find but the road was a bit scary (although the kids seemed oblivious to the danger). One cache down and a stern telling off later and we set off again.

Next came Auld Auchans View (GC239RK) which is located near the impressive ruins of Auchans House. This was another easy find and we decided this would be a great place to release our second travel bug Age of Aquarius. This bug was given to me for my 40th Birthday and is heading South. The "Auld" in the cache title and the "40th" are just a coincidence... I hope.

Back in the car and off we went again. We'll need to make a few more visits to Dundonald as we drove right past a few more caches but we were heading for the castle, the kids love castles (or is that me??). Our next cache was to be the puzzle cache at the castle itself and aptly named Dundonald Castle. This involved solving a number of clues the answers to which are to be found around the outside of the castle itself. Thankfully there were none which required entry to the castle as it is closed to the public until 1st April.

The kids loved this one solving all the puzzles themselves. After plugging the coords into the formula given we went in search of the cache itself. Upon reaching the GZ we had a chuckle as both the kids actually lifted the cache container and put it down again claiming the couldn't find it. Can't give too much more away but we liked the container a lot.

Puzzle cache done, we decided that as it was such a lovely day we'd head into the dark dingy woods to find the Teals Walk trail. This consists of five caches, each of which has part of the coordinates to a final bonus cache. On the way we noticed that we were passing a couple of other caches so we went looking for them too. These were both part of the Never Never Land series. Never Never Land III was first and it was pretty obvious someone was going to have to cross the river. Luckily there were a couple of fallen trees, unluckily it was me who had to cross them.

Never Never Land IV was next which we reached by crossing over a sodden playing field. This one was located at a footbridge and we spent a while looking under rocks, in the undergrowth and I even crawled under the bridge. We were ready to give up when I spotted something in full view and sent the kids to investigate. Sure enough it was the cache.

Teals Walk trail itself was a very well thought out series in a loop around the forest to the West of the castle. All but one of the caches were straightforward and the kids did most of the searching and finding. Along the route we found ourselves back at Auchans House which is at the Western end of the loop. Number four in the series took us a while to find and was only found through sheer perseverance and a bit of luck. The location isn't ideal and I think a fair bit of damage has been done by people turning over rocks in their hunt for the cache and not replacing them. Someone has also vandalised a tree to add an extra hint. This really isn't a good hide and there are loads of places nearby where the cache could have been hidden which would not have resulted in these problems. This is a great series but this stage really lets it down I'm afraid.

Five caches found and we plugged the collected figures together and came up with coordinates for the bonus cache. Oddly this was back the way we had come. After double and triple checking our figures it was decided that I would head back and get it and Mrs SC and the kids would head back to the car and pick me up at Auchans House. Half way back to the coords we'd calculated I had a feeling our figures were wrong and when I got there I found myself in the middle of bracken and hawthorn trees. I had a good look around but quickly came to the conclusion that I wasn't in the right place. So, tired and disappointed I headed back and met the rest of the Super Collectors at our rendevous point.

I'm really not sure how we got the figures wrong but looking at the numbers I think I've now worked out where the cache will be. The annoying thing is that if I'm right Mrs SC and the kids actually walked right past it on the way back to the car.

Teals Walk #1
Teals Walk #2
Teals Walk #3 
Teals Walk #4 
Teals Walk #5 

All in all a great day out with the full SC clan and a grand total of 10 caches found. The failure to find the final cache just means we have an excuse to go back to the Castle which we'll do after it opens for the season on the 1st April. Can't wait!

Troon to Prestwick

Shock gasp horror, I just realised that we never blogged about our last Geocaching adventure. We've not been out for a couple of weeks now as we sold the van and I've not been feeling very well but on the 19th of Feb we all went for a long stroll from Troon to Prestwick and collected 9 caches along the way followed by another later on that day.

The bulk of these were part of a great little series unimaginatively named "Nature Trail", however the reason for the name becomes apparent when you start finding the caches as the containers all take their inspiration from nature.

The kids absolutely loved this series, however some of the coordinates are a little off some were really quite difficult to find. We thought the clues could have been a little more precise and the hiding places more obvious but hey we found them and had fun too.
As well as the "Nature Trail" series we also picked off an couple of other caches along the way and then another outside Pizza Hut in Ayr (after going to KFC for a spot of lunch).

Nature Trail 10
Crosbie Graveyard
Nature Trail 9
Nature Trail 8
Nature Trail 6
Nature Trail 5
Nature Trail 3
Nature Trail 2
John Hartson?
Hut Hut Hut




In case you were wondering, numbers 7, 4 and 1 were all disabled so we'll need to go back and get those another time.

James Watt Street

It was my first day back at work after a few days off and I had a headache so at lunchtime I headed out for a spot of fresh air and went in search of some caches in Glasgow.

My two targets were down near the River Clyde, the first being Polaris. This is a cache placed to remember a fire in the B.Stern & Co. Furniture Warehouse on James Watt Street in 1968. On November 18th fire broke out and engulfed the building taking the lives of 22 people. The death toll was made worse due to the security measures the company had taken to prevent break ins. The windows were all heavily barred and fire escapes padlocked to prevent intruders but these measures also worked in reverse and trapped the factory workers inside the inferno. Despite the efforts of around 70 firefighters and 20 fire engines, only 3 people escaped the blaze. This was and still is the worse fire in the city of Glasgow since the end of WWII.

Today after 44 years the building is still just a front facade held in place by a temporary scaffold. The cache is located on the building itself in a location which is quite pertinent to the story. And is accompanied by an excellent clue and help in selecting the correct location to search.

The next cache A Ride Along The Clyde - The Squiggly Bridge is located in, on or near a rubbish bin at the south end of the Tradeston Bridge over the Clyde. To Glaswegians this is more commonly known as the Squiggly Bridge and should not be confused with the Squinty bridge (the Clyde Arc) which is a road bridge further down the river. This isn't an ideal location for a hide and there were plenty of other places a cache could have been hidden in the area other than a bin. In the end I didn't find the cache anyway but to be honest I didn't really try very hard as the smell from the bin was awful. I'll leave this one until I know it's been found again before revisiting.

Ayr

We were all off on Tuesday so took the kids down to a softplay in Ayr. Afterwards it was Daddy's turn to play so we went in search of a few caches.

First up was the Ayr Shore cache. This is at one of the ramps leading from the promenade down to the beach. Whilst we were sitting having some lunch in the car we spotted a couple of people at the GZ looking extremely suspicious. They were being completely obvious hunting high and low for the cache. After lunch we headed out to help but despite a good search by both them and us we couldn't find the cache.

Next was Clean Beaches which is at the South end of the Promenade. This was a quick cache and dash in the car with Super Girlie doing the honours. The clue was cryptic but pretty easy so we knew what to look for.

Watchful was our next target. This is one we visited before only this time we knew we would have to dig. We also knew that it was probably still there as it had been found recently. Upon reaching the GZ there were muggles all over the place so we sat it out until there was a lull and dashed out for a look. Finding the cache proved really simple but I think we were just lucky to dig in the right place first time. This could potentially take ages to find!

After a short detour (a road on the map didn't exist in reality) we reach the GZ for Cromwells Citadel. The Citadel of Ayr was built in 1654 by Oliver Cromwell's puritans as a fortified garrison from which he controlled trade throughout south west Scotland. The Citadel was demilitarised in 1660 following Cromwell's death and the restoration of Monarchy. Today a section of the outer curtain wall remains at the GZ with a replica canon. This area of Ayr is still known as the Fort and the neighbouring leisure centre has been called the Citadel. The cache itself is located on the replica canon. Again we were lucky as it was hidden in almost the first place I looked.

Our final cache of the day was Chinese Whispers. This was another cache that we'd tried to find previously without success. Since then I'd had a further hint from another cacher but when we got to the GZ it wasn't helping. All four of us hunted for a considerable time and were about to give up when Mrs SC gave a shout! She'd found it but the next problem was reaching it. This was pretty well hidden but you should spot it if you look in the right place. It wasn't in the 'obvious place' and the coordinates are out.

4 out of 5

Mana Mana - Do doo do do doo

The Muppets are back!! We took the kids to Xscape today to see the new Muppet movie (I think we were just as excited though) and afterwards went to find Ferry Nice Park which is located just along the River Clyde from Xscape. This was an easy find in the dark.

Mana mana...

Penrith

On our way home from our weekend away near Penrith we decided to head into Penrith itself for a look around.  On the way we collected a couple of drive-bys, Laithes Bridge and North Cumbria A - Z :- E. In town we looked for Sidetracked Penrith, Cumbria which is located just outside the castle grounds. Unfortunatley we didn't find it despite understanding the cryptic clue and having a really thorough look. After this we decided it was time to head for home.

Keswick

The second day of our long weekend near Penrith and we headed into Keswick for the day.

On our way into Keswick we took a slight detour to look for the Mosedale Bridge cache. As it's name suggests this is located at a bridge but it's nothing that special. The coordinates appeared to be wrong for this one but the kids eventually found it.

Reaching Keswick we stopped at a small shop and petrol station to have a look for Post Haste - Keswick which looked to be just across the road. After going to investigate and finding nothing I heard voices above me and looking up realised that the railway bridge I was under was in fact a footpath. Working out how to get up there we went for a look and we soon had the cache despite a constant stream of muggles.

Next we took the kids to the Pencil Museum. You'd think the kids would be bored at a museum all about pencils but this is a great wee place and the kids loved it. An added bonus was that there's a cache right outside, Cumberland Pencil Museum.

Finally, after a walk around town we wandered up to a church to look for Walpoles Gravestone - The Herries Chronicles which is a puzzle cache. Using details from the gravestone next to the one mentioned in the title (clever!) we worked out the correct coordinates and went in search of the cache. The coordinates seemed a little out, but despite no GPS under the tree cover Mrs SC soon had the cache with the help of the kids.

4 out of 4

Keswick - UTR Series

This weekend we headed down to spend a long weekend in a luxury log cabin just outside Penrith. This is the farthest South we've been Geocaching and we had a great time.

On our first day out we were disappointed by the poor mobile phone reception in the area. When I say poor, I really mean none. As our GPS is in my mobile phone and the mapping relies on a having phone signal we were caching blind for most of the weekend. Time to get a proper GPS I think!

Our first cache was a total fluke. We'd been driving for a while trying to get a signal and eventually pulled up at a junction to get out the 'old fashioned' paper road map to find out where on Earth we were. I also happened to check my phone for caches and although there were no maps I was surprised to find we were right at a cache that I'd stored in my phone a few nights before. In fact the cache C2C Alternative Route was only four metres from the car.

After another stop to find Bolt at Wallthwaite which as it's name suggests was a bolt cache. We went in search of a series called UTR or Under The Rigs which is just South of Keswick. After a few wrong turns (no maps!) we eventually found the starting location, parked and set off. This is a series of 12 caches set out along a 3 mile low level walk. We had the kids (5 and 7) with us and they managed it no problem. It did help that it was cold as some of the muddy bits were frozen solid.

UTR 1 - Skiddaw View
UTR 2 - Five Bar Cache
UTR 3 - Little Rock
UTR 4 - Down the Lane
UTR 5 - Roadside Hide
UTR 6 - Multi Trunk
UTR 7 - Beware of the Dog
UTR 8 - Stick with it
UTR 9 - Horizontal Tree
UTR 10 - Shoulthwaite Gill
UTR 11 - Tubular Water Spout
UTR 12 - In The Forest

This is a great little series and highly recommended. Some are standard tupperware type caches but others are more "creative". I won't go into too much detail for fear of spoilers but this has a number of really great caches one of which is the best we've found to date. We had a really nice walk and bagged 12 caches in the process.

14 out of 14 (our most in a single day so far!)

Historic Irvine

Historic Irvine is a multicache with eight stages around Irvine. At each location you are asked to collect a piece of information and once you have collected all eight apply them to a formula to obtain the final coordinates.

This was very easy and the cache turned out to be exactly where I'd thought it would be from the hint. It's also really close to one of the locations we're thinking about placing a cache ourselves.

I can't really say much more about this one without spoilers so I'll leave it there, but this was really interesting, well worth the effort.