Bodorgan Mill - GC1Q79X

Today we'd decided to go to the beach following a day of family geocaching in the warm sunshine yesterday. We set off quite late for Porth Noble just past Cable Bay (Porth Trecastell) after a lazy morning at the caravan. The car was loaded with two sit-on canoes, paddles, life-jackets, wetsuits and all the normal gear that you take for a day out at the beach.

On the journey there we'd noticed the mist at the base of the Snowdonia mountain range on the far side of the Menai Straits - the mountains seemed to be on fire. Little did we realise that the mist would be covering most of the sea and the coastline on this side of the island.

When we arrived at Porth Noble, Sarah and I went for a look to see what the conditions were like for canoeing. By now there was quite a cold sea-breeze blowing and the blue sky had turned a little grey - it wasn't looking good. But Cathy was adamant that she wanted to go in the sea and so we decided to try the Newborough beach a little further down the coast.

When I suggested that we did a quick cache on the way to Newborough I was quite surprised that Sarah agreed - I'd seen a cache called Bodorgan Mill on the map which seemed to be just off the road back to Newborough. We took a slight detour off the main road and parked the car in a lane. Then Sarah and I set off for the cache on foot, leaving the two screenagers in the car. Bodorgan railway station seemed to appear out of nowhere as we walked down the lane.

Then we got the main problem - the lane dipped down under a railway bridge and the hollow left by farm vehicles driving under it was completely filled with muddy water. Moreover, the very thin strip of muddy ground along each side of the lane was lined with an array of tall nettles. As I was wearing beach gear (open sandals and shorts), I decided there was no way I could squeeze past without serious stinging or getting wet muddy feet. Sarah, formerly having a sylph-like figure decided she'd go for it and trod the precarious path alongside the mud. She made it, and went of to do the cache some 400 feet further down the lane.

About ten minutes later Sarah returned with a smile on her face - she'd found the cache and seen the runined buildings of Bodorgan Mill. Moreover, she signed the log book and NOT put me on it! Can you believe it? I was quite annoyed as it was only my clothes that had stopped me finding this cache - I vowed to take my revenge.

When we got back the kids were hungry and so we had lunch in a car park on the edge of Newborough Forest whilst we made our final decision about the beach. After a lot of persuasion, Cathy finally agreed to go for a swim with Sarah in the new pool back at the caravan site and so we headed for home.

(Don't tell anyone, but as I hadn't got to find this cache, I'd already decided to do the Nelson's Statue cache to get my own back whilst the family were otherwise engaged).