NWCaching Stickers

My NWCaching cache and car window stickers from Dave of TheMarsBars fame arrived earlier this week and so I hope to place my first geocache soon. I'll probably put it somewhere near where my son Robert (affectionately known as Boggart by our family) plays football on Saturday morning and I'll be interested to see how quickly it's found.

Geocaching Stats

Whoopee - I just found out how to do this:



Now I'll use it underneath my avatar at the top right of this blog.

The Canal Duke's Legacy

This was to be a quick cache and dash for my fourth and last mission of the day with sarahjones65. After leaving Drywood Avenue, we drove down Worsley Road and parked outside Owen Knox's Estate Agent's shop for the rich and expensive houses.

This cache had only appeared during the last week - it wasn't here when we were exactly in this location last week and I was quite disappointed not to have been the first to log it. I need to get my new cache notification system working as soon as possible now I've done a few caches.

Earthcaches are not caches at all - they are simply areas of interest geologically or geographically. The cacher has to visit the location, get some information from it to answer some questions and take a picture of the area and then e-mail or log these for the cache owner to verify that the cache has been visited.

This particular cache has question about coal and the geology of the area. Unfortunately, not all the answers are on the information board at the location but I thought I could answer the questions from my own geological knowledge - smartarse! Gee, I hope I get them right after setting myself up like that!

Anyway, we read the board, took the picture and jumped back in the car to get back home for bacon butties with the kids who must have got up by now! Another pleasant morning spent caching with my lovely wife - shame we've both got work tomorrow.

TFTC

Sleeping Station

This was the third cache I visited today with sarahjones65 on our short walk around Worsley. We approached the location after walking across the boggy fields from the previous cache at Duke's Drive. Sarah did her swamp dance as she got sucked into the boggy ground and nearly fell over. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to catch it on camera.

We had notice the disused railway embankment along the edge of the fields and soon we could see a short tunnel / bridge which used to carry the railway line over a stream. At first we though the cache was around this area, but we soon realised that the railway line was above us, and so the old station must be there too.

We climbed up to the top of the embankment and could see the 'Sleeping Station', which must have been at least partially cleared and restored. Who'd have thought there'd be a station here? This caching lark is really opening our eyes to the landscape around us and the industrial landscape in particular. We've found several disused railway lines which have been turned into walkways recently.

Knowing roughly where GZ was we set about looking for it as soon as we found the station. Within a few minutes we'd found it (I let Sarah get this one!) and we took it to one side to avoid muggles whilst Sarah wrote in the logbook. We took a small football boot and left the red mouse we'd picked up on our first cache today. Then we had a quick look at the map to find out how best to get back to the car.

After replacing the cache we walked along the disused railway line towards a short tunnel which carried the main road over the line. After passing through the tunnel we scrambled up a bank and on to the main road. Then a short walk past Bridgewater School, formerly Drywood Hall according to the cache description, and happily back to the car having managed to turn our last two caches into a very pleasant circular route.

TFTC SL

Duke's Drive

Second today with sarahjones65. We parked in Drywood Avenue and walked round to the lovely thatched cottage (currently for sale if you're interested) which marks the start of Duke's Drive. The path was fine at first and then became muddy with large potholes and puddles for a while (as noted by a previous cacher) - but we survived! Actually, one of my boots must be leaking because my foot got wet.

Once again I can't believe I've not been down here as a kid when I used to cycle to Worsley quite often from my home in Salford. The area opens out into fields and boggy areas with a private fishing pond in the middle, Worsley Golf course is on one side and the Bridgewater Canal on the other, I tried to photograph a large heron on the ground which suddenly took off as we approached.

Just before approaching GZ a few muggles were out walking their dogs and so we got the map out and pretended to be doing other things. We had a quick walk up a bank to the canal and I commented to Sarah on how shallow and clear the water was.
After the muggles had left, Sarah went to off to find the cache. Because I had found the last one,

I had to let her look for this one! She rummaged around in the undergrowth for a while but in the end it was me who suggested where it might be after I'd noticed some branches in a cache-hiding repose. And sure enough, there it was. Sarah got it out and logged it and we took a nice piece of rock and two postcards.

Then we decided to check where the next cache (Sleeping Station) was in relation to our current position. As it was close by we decided to go for it from here, which involved following the footpath across the boggy fields and a couple of small bridges, past the fishing pond, and towards the golf course and the disused railway line.

TFTC SL

Bluebell Woods

First of the day with sarahjones65. We'd been meaning to do this one for a while as we had a rough idea of where the woods were and we pass them fairly often. We parked in a nearby new housing estate and Sarah was very surprised to find the pub she thought was here had been knocked down. First blow of the day! We could see the woods (and the trees) from here but had to walk back to the main road to find the entrance to them.

This location reminds me of Lee Hall Bank Park in Westhoughton which I'd done a DNF at recently, as part of the road was in fact a bridge over a stream or culvert and the path dropped down into the woods.

We were soon walking along the path and enjoying the morning sunshine - the weather had taken a turn for the better today. We could see a gate and fence at the end of the path and headed for that. We always read the clues by default (it just saves time later) and so we knew what we were looking for. After a few likely suspects, we realised we hadn't gone far enough and so carried on a little further after consulting the GPSr.

A few minutes later and I'd found it, quite well hidden, but in an obvious way for a cacher's eyes. After waiting for a dog walking muggle to pass by, I grabbed it and Sarah did the logging business.

We took a red mouse (looked like a cat's toy) to move on today and left Anton the ducky TB. After replacing the cache we had a pleasant walk back to the car.

TFTC SL Left TB

Down in the Dumps

As I was on holiday today, I got up quite early and decided I'd try to do three caches around where I work in Westhoughton. The schoolkids round here were on half-term holiday and so most of them would be still in bed whilst I was lurking about and I didn't want to meet any of the local muggles who might know me and wonder what on earth I was doing. I got all my stuff together and set off with high hopes of three or four quick, clean cache and dashes. It didn't work out that way ...

As I drove to Westhoughton the mist got thicker and thicker and visibility was down to a few hundred metres. The first cache I went to was the Water Tower, high on the hill outside the main town. I found GZ (ground zero) without much trouble along a footpath at the end of the road. And I found the numbers mentioned in the clue, but could I find the cache?

After ten minutes of feeling around in the vegetation and wondering how many dogs (or people) had relieved themselves on it, I gave up quite disgruntled. It should have so obvious and easy - maybe it's been muggled I thought as I stropped back to the car with surprisingly filthy hands. When I got back top the car I read the logs of previous visitors - oh dear, it's not been found on the last two occasions. I should have spotted that before I set off, because I make a point of checking a cache has been found fairly recently before attempting it myself.

Not a good start. Nevermind, on to the next cache a little further down the same road. Before setting off I read the logs this time - oh no, its a muddy one and I hate muddy ones! I took a look at the start of the path which was up a few steps. Yes, and then it started to get muddy. A lady was walking her dogs in the area I needed to go and she was already looking at me rather strangely. 'Perhaps I'll not bother with this one today' I thought as I sloped off back to the car.

The last cache I attempted was on a main road, in full view of all the passing traffic at Hall Lee Bank Park in Westhoughton. I hate being watched as I root around for a cache and this one was going to be like being in an aquarium. I parked in a layby area across the road and just as I had pulled up, another car stopped on the main road just a few metres away from the cache. 'What an idiot parking there' I thought - 'Some people are just too lazy to walk any distance and park in a reasonable place'.

The car was parked in a dip in a particularly narrow spot on the main road, and would cause the traffic problems. I know, because I come this way to work every day. And sure enough, not long after the car had been parked, when a lorry had to stop to get round it, and the traffic built up behind him.

By now I had got out of the car and crossed the road, and was walking past the other car. 'Why doesn't he move it' I thought - but he didn't. He seemed oblivious to the problem it had/would cause. It made me remember being fined by the police for parking at Lymm Dam just on the edge of the double yellow lines on the main road past the dam. I wasn't parked illegally, but the copper said I was parked in an inconvenient place for other road users. 'So why don't the double yellow lines go along the whole road then' I enquired - no answer was forthcoming. I felt I had fallen victim to the police parking quota system - got to get so many in a day etc. Anyway, this bloke deserved to get fined 100 times more than I did. The road I was on wasn't even busy.


I walked up to GZ at the entrance gates to the park and turned back to look at the car. A bloke got out with a young lad, presumably his son. Around his neck he had an expensive looking camera and maybe something else. Was it a GPS I thought - I wonder if he's here for the same reason as me? If he was, he'd be the first fellow cacher I'd have met on a mission. I walked on past the cache and up the road trying to be nonchalent. The bloke took a few photos from the road and then walked into the entrance to Hall Lee Bank Park. He didn't seem to pay GZ any attention - either he was a very good geocacher with lots of experience, or he wasn't one at all.

The latter seems more likely now as off they went into the park taking photographs and not looking back at all. I made a mental note to check the geocaching.com website later to see if anyone recorded a visit here today. When they had more or less disappeared from sight, I approached GZ and rooted around in the vegetation. I went up to two metres from where someone had said the cache was, but I couldn't find it. By now I wondering about dogs again.

I was well and truly down in the dumps - three DNF's one after another. 'I'm going home for a nice warm shower and a cup of tea' I thought. There were two other caches I could have tried today whilst I was in this area - but I just could not be bothered and so I went home grumpy and grubby. 'And I'm not going to record this expedition in the logs' I decided.

DNF DNF DNF !!!

P.S. No-one recorded a visit at Hall Lee Bank today either.

When All This Were Just Fields

This was my sixth and final cache of the day and the third with sarahjones65 today. Well this was a bit of a momentous occasion for us - we had finally got to the end of the excellent Nostalgia Trip series by Muttoneer. The Nostalgia Series was where Geocaching all started for us with A Nice Cup Of Tea in the grounds of the former Astley Hospital, near our home in Tyldesley.

Earlier today we had redone the ZX81 cache which had needed to be replaced due to muggles having removed it. And then we had all the numbers we needed to work out where the final cache was - exciting stuff!

We parked near Lane Head and took the public footpath off the main road. The railway was very well hidden in a cutting and we couldn't see it until we were virtually on top of it. We could see a gate in the fence though and so we headed for that across the field.

After checking the GPS and looking around, we found TWO very large deep holes (one on each side of the fence) that could be a problem for children. Please be warned about this and be very careful around here - I can also confirm that you don't need to go down the steps or anywhere near the railway line.

Sarah found the cache fairly quickly after using the clue and we took a small hedgehog. We were going to leave a cuddly travel bug, but the box contents were a little damp and we didn't have a bag to seal it in - so we left nothing here, sorry. We learn somthing new at each cache - like to always bring some sealable plastic bags with us.

Thanks Mike for a very enjoyable series, you've put a lot of thought into them and we've really enjoyed completing our first cache 'series'. You've given us plenty of ideas for how to go about designing our own cache scenarios. We look forward to meeting you sometime at a NWCaching event and to doing more of your caches in the area. Cheers mate!

Check out this cache here: Nostalgia Trip: When All This Were Just Fields at Geocaching.com

Park and Hide

This was my fifth cache today and second with sarahjones65. We'd just revisted ZX81 and as this was in the same area, we carried on further down the railway line to visit it. We never fail to be surprised by the landscapes we see whilst geocaching and today was no exception.

The area was partly wooded and partly peaty swamp land like much of the land on this side of the East Lancs Road. I can only describe some of the birch woodland areas as looking like a battlefield after the troops had gone.

Many of the trees are rotten and broken and lie in all sorts of positions and seem to me as if they have been the scene of a battle. The swampy areas in between contain brown peaty water and there is evidence of a lot of trees being planted in groups with protective plastic tubing at their bases.

The path meanders through these swampy areas and plantation groups alongside the railway line. Before long we had found the item mentioned in the hint but couldn't approach it due to a muggle loitering with a dog and stick.

After waiting for him to slowly wander off (by discussing some of the trees being planted here) we approached GZ and had found the cache fairly quickly.

We took a lanyard and a wooden geocoin and left a small action figure. Then we replaced it and went off happy to our last cache of the day.

TFTC SL

Check out this cache here: Park and Hide at Geocaching.com

ZX81 Revisited

After a successful morning solo caching, this afternoon I went out with sarahjones65 to complete some unfinished business - namely, Muttoneer's ZX81 in his Nostalgia Trip series.

We needed to revisit this cache because of an unsucessful trip last month due to muggles having removed it. Although Muttoneer had kindly e-mailed us the answer we were looking for from this cache, we decided to go back to this site on the way to the 'Park and Hide' cache a little further up the railway line.

Thanks go out to Muttoneer who has been back to the location and replaced the missing cache. We had been looking in the right place and so managed to go straight to it without using the GPS. We confirmed the number that Muttoneer had already given us and signed the logbook. This allowed us to complete the Nostalgia Series later today.

TFTC SL TNLN

Check out this cache here: Nostalgia Trip - ZX81 at Geocaching.com

Here Be Dragons! Dragon's View

Third cache along this road on my solo mission today. I found it quite easily. Took ManU badge but had run out of things to leave, sorry. It looked a little exposed so I tried to cover it up a little more with some grass and a rock, whilst staying true to the hint.

I can imagine that the view from the benches is lovely on a good clear day. It was OK today, but a bit cloudy.

TFTC SL

Check out this cache here: Here Be Dragons: Dragons View at Geocaching.com

Farm Lane

Second solo mission of the day. A quick drive down Farm Lane and I'd found this one without much trouble.

Check out this cache here: Farm Lane at Geocaching.com

Plodder Lane

Another solo mission today as the missus was having her hair done. This one took much longer than it should have done because I put the wrong co-ordinates into my GPS. In the style of Eric Morcambe I had all the right numbers but not necesarilly in the right order (you'll have to be of a certain age to get that one).

Strangely, I was on the right road but in the wrong place by about a quarter of a mile, and there was also an item mentioned in the clue near here too! There was even a public footpath nearby which is common to many caches. It's funny how you can talk yourself into believing that you're in the right area! Anyway I wasn't, good job I brought a printout of the web page with me - I checked the co-ords, re-entered them into the GPS and then drove down the road a little further. After driving a little too far I backed up and parked in a layby.

I found the item mentioned in the clue and finding the cache was easy from there on. But damn, the previous geocacher had beat me to the TB after all that - nevermind, it was a nice view from the road.

TNLN SL TFTC

Check out this cache here: Plodder Lane at Geocaching.com

Dog Kennel

This was my second cache today having done Dam Cache a little further downstream earlier. Everything was going to plan until I found the Police Dog signs. My GPS pointed somewhere in the middle of the field, but I knew it couldn't be there.

The only places that seemed to be likely for hiding something were all on the other side of the barbed wire fence. As the signs were a good three metres inside this fence, and bearing in mind what they were warning about as well the gun targets I could see, I decided (very wisely in my opinion) not to climb the fence and venture inside.

I decided the cache must be in some evergreen vegetation overhanging the fence in a couple of places and so I concentrated all my efforts in rooting around in there. No luck!

I went back to the signs and tried to look down on the ground in line with the sign. There were some rotting logs just inside the fence and I did my best to search them, getting scratched and prickled numerous times in the process. Still no luck and it was getting late.

After a quick look round the nearby stile area and another hedge nearby, I gave up and set off for home, disappointed as I must have been pretty close. I may return on another day.

Check out this cache here: Dog Kennel at Geocaching.com

Dam Cache

Got itchy feet after having done no caches yesterday, and so late today I decided to do this one - I set off at 3:50pm on a dull February afternoon. I used my GPS to navigate to a suitable parking place in a very well-to-do residential area on the edge of the Hulton Estate. Some lovely houses here.

As I was crossing the stile to get on the footpath shown on my map, I noticed a sign stating that the public had no access rights to this private land. This worried me a bit as I abide by the law to the letter. I looked for someone to ask if the public could use the path, but no-one was about. "Oh what the heck" I thought and went for it!

I'm really glad I did as this turned out to be one of the nicest cache areas I've been in so far in the Greater Manchester area. Lovely woodland, with steep banks covered in the remnants of autumn leaves leading down to a winding stream and the dam lake itself.

Within a few minutes I was walking down some steps in a woody area and the view opened up to show the dam - it was quite picturesque. I crossed the small bridge (the original now lying in the bushes seems to have been replaced with an ugly but functional one) and within a few minutes my GPS indicated I was in the right area.

As I decode all clues by default, I had an idea that I was looking for a number somewhere and so when I found one I thought I'd located the cache. I rooted around the base of a large tree which was growing out of a very steep bank on the edge of the dam.
A few seconds later I was grabbing at branches for my life as I slipped down the muddy slope towards the water. Several broke off in my hand, and if it wasn't for one thicker branch that I managed to get hold of by luck, I would have ended up in the drink - and who knows how cold or deep it was?

After regaining my composure while holding on to this branch for dear life, I scrambled back up the bank and got my breath back. This couldn't be the place, could it? I took out the web page printout and re-read the clue - yes there was a number to look out for, but it wasn't this one!

I carried on down the path a little further and soon found what I was looking for. After a minute or two of rooting around, I found the cache - I opened the container and took out the Diabetes TB and logbook but couldn't sign it - I must have dropped my pen in my earlier fall, and I wasn't going to look for it! Sorry about that, I might return sometime to sign it.

Now on to the next cache (Dog Kennel) further up the same path ...

TFTC DNSL but took TB and left a Barbie Badge

Check out this cache here: Dam Cache at Geocaching.com

Saint or Sinner? St. Mark

3rd and last today with sarahjones65. I drive past St Mark's Church regularly but have only been inside it once. All the churchgoers we saw earlier had gone and the church doors were locked.

We read the clue and so we knew what we were looking for. We found the cache without any trouble, signed the log book and then went for a walk round the grounds. There is a memorial garden in the woods for cremated remains which is very pretty and a very interesting collection of large broken gravestones at the back of the church which date back to 1869.

Not sure that we'll do many in this series, especially there has been talk of archiving them by the owner. Anyway, a pleasant end to a nice day out. Off home now to watch Manchester United destroy Derby County in the FA Cup.

Check out this cache here: Saint or Sinner? St Mark at Geocaching.com

Worsley Walkabout

2nd cache today with sarahjones65. After a pleasant walk along the Bridgewater canal from the previous cache site, we passed the Packet House, crossed over the little humpbacked bridge and walked into Worsley Green.

We walked up to the main road, crossed over and started up the hill where the sign pointed to Worsley Woods before quickly realising this wasn't the correct path - no problem, we hadn't gone far. We turned around and strolled towards the delph, where the Bridgewater canal goes underground. The leafy stepped woodland path was just to the right of this area. We quickly found the broken wall mentioned in the clue, and started to hunt around it.

After fifteen minutes we still hadn't found the cache and thoughts of giving up entered our minds. I had definitely had enough when I thought I'd found the cache in a little black bag amongst the rocks, only to realise it was some pooperscooper's doggy bag which had been thrown over the wall - thanks mate!

Then Sarah put on her cacher's head and eyes, and started to look a little further afield. Within a few minutes she had found it, although I have to say the clue wasn't particularly accurate or much help. We signed the logbook, dropped off a small skull and took a small action figure, before Sarah relocated the cache where she had found it.

Check out this cache here: Worsley Walkabout at Geocaching.com

Williams Canalside Cache

1st cache visited today with sarahjones65 in this our mega-caching weekend. We parked at the suggested place as this was central for the three caches we had planned to do in Worsley today.

After checking we were on the right side of the canal, we went past the canalside crane (used for lifting the wooden board used to drain the canal?) and the under the two motorway bridges.

After a pleasant walk along the towpath, we found the cache area fairly quickly but spent a good 20 minutes rooting around trying to find the cache. It was worth the wait because the cache is a wonderful largish ammo box with perfectly dry contents inside. What a good seal it must have!

Be careful though - avoid any plastic bags in this area because some pooper-scooper has dropped one off near the cache. It's tempting to look inside when looking for the cache - DON'T!

Took Anton Duck Travel Bug and left Pingu the Walking Penguin.

Check out this cache here: Williams Canalside Cache at Geocaching.com

GeekTeacher's photos on Flickr

Why not have a look at my Flickr slideshow here.

These photos have all been tagged 'geocaching' and are a random collection of views, interesting bits and caches being logged. The best one from each location has already been included in these blogs.

Postscript:

Because Blogger integrates seamlessly with Google Picassa (they are both owned by Google) I have decided to discontinue my Flickr photo albums and use Picassa instead.

You'll Be Stumped

5th and last cache visited today with sarahjones65. We parked just off the road at the entrance to the public footpath. At the start of the path there is a quite spectacular treehouse in a garden on the right of the path. The path leads on through a gate and along the hedge boundary of a field. The going is very muddy and slippy underfoot in February - my least favourite terrain.

A quick look at the GPS and we realised we needed to turn left at the next hedge. So on we went across a little brook and up to the gate. After going through the gate we were faced with a crossroads (well cross trails really). Sarah quickly spotted the three short tree stumps and we felt we were in the right area.

But where was the cache? Someone had previously logged that they had never seen one attached like that before. Was it another magnetic cache? Or was it tied to something unusual? After looking around the stumps Sarah eventually saw a peice of string and on tugging it found the small green metallic cache.

On unscrewing the lid we found the contents to be a very wet logbook and nothing else. We did manage to sign it with a biro, but I'm not sure how long this one will last. Nevertheless we were pleased to have ended a good day's caching with five successes and went home happy to watch the rugby union internationals.

Checkout this cache here: You'll Be Stumped at Geocaching.com

Meg's Mansion

4th cache visted today with sarahjones65. This one was just round the corner from the last, but the road traffic was awful due to local football matches, so it took longer to get there that we'd hoped.

We pulled into a small side street and saw the house immediately - it sort of stood out. There's a nameplate over the door announcing the house as 'Pennijar Cottage' and a travel bug number in the window tells those who know that it's a trackable item! We don't think it will clock up many miles though, unless some American with too much money decides to move it brick by brick!

We could hear the dogs barking inside the house but saw no sign of them or the owner, unless it was him in the car that pulled off shortly after we arrived. We tried to look inconspicuous as our eyes searched the garden for the cache which it said could be reached without entering. By now there were others in the street watching us - they must know about this by now we thought.

There was an old traffic cone inside some vegetation near the wall, and so I leant over and lifted it up to hopefully find the cache underneath - nope, too obvious! Sarah had previously spotted a rock on a piece of slate in the other corner of the garden, but she couldn't reach it. I leant over to move the rock and look under the slate and find the cache - not here either!

So I put the slate back first and then the rock and was just going to look somewhere else when I thought - hang on a minute, that rock was a bit light! Ahh - there's the cache. Another very crafty one!

We moved away from the house to sign the log book on a nearby wall and we swapped a small rubber skull for a Paul Robinson footballing coin. And then, when the coast was clear, I replaced the cache and hurried back to the car, hoping not to cause to much of a stir.

Checkout this cache here: Meg's Mansion at Geocaching.com

REALLY Sidetracked: West Leigh

3rd cache visited today with sarahjones65. On the site of a former railway station (now a college building), this cache proved to be one of most interesting we've found to date. We parked in the Retail Park and hopped across the road to where the GPS was indicating. We couldn't see anywhere obvious to hide something.

A quick look at the clue and I knew we were in the right place, but we still couldn't see anywhere to hide something. Sarah started moving further and further away from where the clue suggested it was, but I was convinced of where it should be. Then I had a brainwave - try feeling for it in places I couldn't easily see. The moment I did this I virtually put my fingers on it straightaway. It was very small (apparently a nanocache) and magnetic - how crafty!

Our fingers fumbled at opening the small screw container to reveal the log book which was tightly coiled and surprisingly dry. We signed it and replaced it whilst dodging muggles and funny looks. Then on to the next cache ...

Checkout this cache here: REALLY Sidetracked: West Leigh at Geocaching.com

Coal Not Dole

This was the second cache visited today with sarahjones65. This was a quick return trip just to sign the logbook and swap some stuff, as we hadn't come prepared last time. We parked right at the end of the path as we knew where we going and wouldn't be long.

We refound the cache, signed the log, took a little ray of sunshine keyring and left a fork lift truck lapel pin badge. Took a few photos and then went back to the car.

Se returned home temporarily to take the Boggart to football and then carried on into Leigh for the next cache.

Checkout this site here: Nostalgia Trip - Coal Not Dole at Geocaching.com

Astley Moss Cache

1st cache visited today with sarahjones65. We parked at the signalman's cottage, went through the level crossing and off down the lane for a pleasant walk.

The instructions were good, and soon the lane turned into a peaty path lined by birch trees. Found the cache without too much trouble and noticed it seemed to have been nibbled quite a lot by some small creature. The cache contents were damp and so we took nothing and left nothing.

We did sign the log book and have a quick read about the Chat Moss area.

Checkout this cache here: Astley Moss Cache at Geocaching.com

Here There Be A Swamp

This was definitely not one I was looking forward to, but as it's the second closest to my home I just had to do it. Only one previous person has found this cache and I probably know why, the terrain is awful.

It took three visits and a couple of e-mails to find this cache.

Check out this cache here: Here There Be A Swamp at geocaching.com

Hazelhurst Woods (Wardley)

A quick cache and dash before badminton on a Sunday afternoon saw us find this one relatively quickly. Nice location, another one of those place I've driven past countless times and never knew was there. A little woody oasis just off the East Lancs Road.

Check out this cache here: Hazelhurst Woods (Wardley) at geocaching.com

Hibernaculum

Pennington Flash is one of my favourite places in the Leigh area and so I was really looking forward to another one of Muttoneer's interesting caches. I set off for this one on my own as Sarah was otherwise engaged with a visiting friend. It was a cold, frosty but sunny February morning as you can see from the pictures.

I parked in my usual place in the free car park and walked down familiar paths until the Flash came into view. It was partially frozen and the ducks, swans and seagulls were standing on the ice in many places. It didn't take long to find the cache, a small airtight container in a drawstring cammoflage bag, and the coordinates were almost spot on on my GPS.

I took the cache back to a small bird-watching hide a short distance from it's location and wrote in the log book. I took a Blackpool Tower geocoin and left a small fluffy orange and purple gonk. After returning the cache to it rightful place, I carried on for a short circular walk back to the car, taking pictures on the way.

Happy that I'd found another cache I went off to the retail park in Leigh to buy some airtight containers for a couple of caches I plan to hide in the near future.

Check out this cache here: Hibernaculum at geocaching.com

Borderline Cache

It was a beautifully cold but sunny night and so I phoned Sarah at work and told her if she came home quickly we could do a cache and dash tonight. After a quick look at the geocaching.com website we decided that this one was the nearest one we hadn't done and so we went for it.

Parked close by, crossed the road and found the trail. Walked along the stream and wall and walked straight past the cache without realising it. After checking our bearings we backed up the trail and found the cache in a nice little hidey hole. I put my hand in without looking and got stung by a nettle - that'll teach me! I left Sarah to get it out and write in the log. Took an orange and purple fluffy thing.

Check out this cache here: Borderline Cache at geocaching.com

The Holly & The Ivy

A quick cache and dash on the way home from work enabled me to find this one with relative ease. After reading the description on http://www.geocaching.com/ I almost didn't need to use the GPS to find this cache.

In it I found my first Travel Bug - Purdy the Golden Eagle which has come all the way from Illinois in the US of A. I also took a Jame Bond ID card and a thick guitar plectrum and so will have to return to put something back sometime soon.

Check out this cache here: The Holly & The Ivy at geocaching.com.

The Adventure Game

We solved the clue to the co-ordinates at home using the internet for help before setting off. I like the Nostalgia Trip series by Muttoneer because he has put a lot of thought into making them interesting. When we hide some of our own caches we will probably make them something like these.

We set off with the coordinates enetered into the GPSr and used it as a SatNav to get us to the pub, where we parked in the car park as suggested. Within fifteen minutes we had found our way to the footpath and discovered the cache. It was in a drawstring cammoflage bag which was well guarded by slugs!

We decided to make a longer walk out of it and carried on to the Culcheth Linear Park which is a path along an old disused railway cutting on the edge of Leigh Golf Club. We couldn't see how to make a circular walk out of it without going a very long way round, so we decided to come back the same way.

A very pleasant trip in an area we haven't visited before.

Check out this cache here: Nostalgia Trip - The Adventure Game at Geocaching.com.