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.

Gailes Marshes

After a failed attempt to find the cache hidden at the Fullerton Arches (aka the Bailey Bridge) in Irvine I headed down to the Gailes Marshes. There are two caches located there and I was one a mission to find them.

First up was Explore Gailes Marsh – Golfer’s Meadow and I parked next to a level crossing which leads to Western Gailes Golf Course clubhouse. The Gailes railway station used to be located here until 1967 but today there is little trace of it. The crossing made the headlines in 2007 when a Ford Transit van was hit by a commuter train killing the driver.

To get to the cache from here, involved crossing the golf course. Luckily there was no one around today so there  was no-one to annoy. I soon reached the cache location and when the GPS told me I was there I looked around and spotted the hiding place right way.

The second cache Explore Gailes Marsh – Not Expensive, it’s Deer is located at the other end of the marshes. My first attempt to get to it was thwarted by mud (well it is a marsh after all) so I took an alternative route and was soon back on track. Picking my way around muddy lagoons and frozen puddles I reached the place my GPS was showning and again after a quick look around I found the cache without difficulty.

At the turn off which leads down to the marshes, there is an old derelict farm house. It looks like this was once quite a prosperous farm and there are a large range of other farm buildings around it. Today it's totally empty and quite spooky.

Just across from the farmhouse I met some new friends. The marshes are currently home to some beautiful horses and when I went over to take some photos they all came over to say hello. I'm not the best with horses, in fact I'm usually terrified of them, but today I actually managed to give one of them a pat on the nose.

Drukken Steps

Robert Burns lived and worked in Irvine in 1781-1782. During this time he worked in a Heckling Shop on the Glasgow Vennel (in Irvine Town centre) dressing flax. This involved removing the straw from the fibres, with heckling being the final and most important stage in the process where the fibres would be pulled through heckle combs to split and polish them. Burns lived at number 4 on the Glasgow Vennel and in his time in Irvine formed a friendship with a Captain Richard Brown. Burns and Brown would go walking in Eglinton Woods and on one occasion, which is famously recorded in a letter from Burns to Brown, Brown suggested that Burns should send some of his work to a magazine. This was the spark of encouragement which led Burns to become a Poet and the rest as they say, is history.

The Drukken Steps were stepping stones across the Red Burn in the old Eglinton Woods (behind the Knadgerhill Cemetery in Irvine) where Burns and Brown once walked. The steps are no longer there but a modern bridge crossing the burn is close to the original location. Their name is said to come from the way those crossing appeared when negotiating the steps, drunken!

The cache aptly named Drukken Steps is close to the modern bridge and lies in the old woods just off the path. The clue given was really clear and the coordinates bang on target, however this still took me a while to find. In the end it was exactly where I'd been, I'd just not looked hard enough. Cache found, I stamped the log (yes stamped! I was given a Super Collectors stamp on my 40th birthday!) and left a Burns Geocoin which we've had for quite a while now. This cache seemed like an appropriate place to drop it off.

Sourlie Hill

At the South East end of Eglinton Park are some standing stones. On Thursday night I saw that a new cache had been published near them, however it wasn't until this morning that I had a chance to get over there despite the fact I can almost see them from my front door.

The standing stones are well known in the area and lie to the side of a path with (on a nice day) great views over The Park, Irvine and Arran. Today the view wasn't so good as it was wet, cold and overcast. It's a common belief in the area that this is a genuine prehistoric monument, however this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact the stones were placed as recently as the late 1980's as part of the reclamation of the area which had been an opencast mine.

To many the hill is known as Cairnmount which is understandable as Cairnmount Road runs past them to meet the Lochlibo Road. In fact Cairnmount is the hill which rises from the Eastern end of Cairnmount Road and on which the Cairnmount Plantation was/is situated (also where the View Over Holehouse Farm is located). The standing stones are actually located on an a hill which was artificially created to replace Sourlie Hill which was in the location of the mine. The stones themselves were found during the reclamation works and were placed as a folly on the top.

This cache Cairnmount Stones is just off the top of Sourlie Hill and was an easy find despite the poor conditions.