Din Lligwy Burial Chamber - GC1G45H

Sarahjones65 and I nipped out from the car leaving the sprogs inside with their ipods whilst we did this one. Today the gate was open and so we could actually sit inside the burial chamber - cool! What a phenomenal feat of engineering it must have been around 3000 years ago to get the huge capstone into its current position - incredible.

Took some pictures and then off to the next Din in the area.

The Signal Summit - GC1A7FX

This was the first of the day whilst out with sarahjones65, RiggyRob and CathyMay on Anglesey. From the road I wasn't looking forward to reaching the summit but it turned out to be a fairly easy climb and the view from the top was worth the effort. The weather was superb, we couldn't have picked a better day.

Cathy found the cache whilst I took some piccies with my new camera and Sarah did the logbook admin. The off to the trig point at the top - Robert was inevitably first to get there. You have a panoramic view over much of Anglesey and some of Snowdonia from the top - fantastic! Took the Spanish Geocoin, left Malta Bus TB and signed the log.

Lowton - Farm Fields - GC1T1CB

This was my third and last find of the day whilst out on a solo mission today. I'd gone out with just my GPSr, having read the clue and logs at home. After wandering about in a field for a while, I suddenly remembered that more than one person had said the co-ordinates were a bit out. As I only had the original ones I ditched the GPSr and started looking for the clue - this was easily found and with it the cache.

Sailor's View - GC1R6FF

After successfuly finding the previous cache along the East Lancs Road in Tyldesley, I jumped in the car and headed for Pennington Flash in Leigh. This cache is located alongside Leigh Sailing Club on the banks of the Flash, hence it's name. I could see quite a few people sailing in the sunshine even from the road.

This is another fairly new cache which wasn't here when I was caching in this area earlier in the year. Being a magnetic nano it was an easy find - there was nothing much magnetic nearby except for a bench and this tied in nicely with the cache name.

I signed the log in the car as it's a bit fiddly to put the paper back in these nanos and I didn't want to drop it in the long grass outside. As I was returning the cache to its rightful place, I saw the flash of a yellow Garmin GPSr around the neck of a passing cyclist - he's a fellow geocacher I thought, and he'll be back when I've gone!

Inspired by... Lolly - GC1TZ29

This was the first of a quick three caches today whilst out in the car on a solo mission. This is a new cache which has recently appeared in my local area and I was a bit miffed not to spot it earlier - still looking for that FTF (First To Find)! I found the general cache location very quickly and after weighing up two possible locations with cacher's eyes, opted for the right one! It was marked by a huge boulder which seemed to be full of fossils, so I'm guessing it was limestone.

The cache container was one of the best I've come across yet - no boring plastic clip lock boxes or Tupperware here: a bright pink set of rubber false teeth instead! Unfortunately it wasn't as watertight as other containers but it was a lot more fun. The log was inside a plastic bag and so only the small bric-a-brac items were a little wet. I signed the log using my stamper but took and left nothing else.

Then on to the next one further down the East Lancs Road at Pennington Flash

Cawrdaf's cache - GC1R0NE

We must have been mad to do this one tonight. Sarahjones65 and I set off at about 8.15pm to do some evening caching at Penmon on Anglesey. By the time we had finished there, the sun had well and truly set and dusk was upon us. However, for some reason we still decided to do this one as it was in the area. After all, it's the height of summer and the night's are lighter, aren't they?

From Penmon we drove to Llangoed and after faffing around driving up an ever narrowing lane, I decided to back out and park in the village car park. I thought we were then going for a quick 5 minute walk to the cache. It turned out to be a 50 minute round trip down narrow country lanes with tall hedges and ever decreasing light. The moon was up and the bats and moths were out in force - all we needed was the howl of a werewolf to make it completely scary.

It was a good job we had a wind-up torch with us, because by the time we got to GZ it was completely dark - we'd never have found the cache without reading the clue and using the torch. Well, find it we did and after taking 'Nancy' the Travel Bug we beat a hasty retreat back to the car - somehow it seemed a lot shorter on the way back.

Puffin Island - GC13RVA

Puffin Island holds an important place in our family's life. In 2000 we bought a caravan at Plas Coch on Anglesey (under the old regime) and this was one of the best things we've ever done. Our family has grown up from toddlers to young adults in this caravan as we have spent every Easter and summer there for the last nine years. It's been a home from home.

Puffin Island marks the spot on the North Wales coast road when we know we are approaching Anglesey and are truly on holiday or having a short break from the daily routine of life. When the children were younger we used to play the game of '1000 points for the first person to spot Puffin Island' and they would strain out of their car seats to see over the roadside barriers to be the first, just before the car disappeared into Penmaenmawr Tunnel.

To us the caravan means swimming and kayaking in the surf on the beautiful beaches, lazy Sunday mornings making pancakes and reading the paper and, more recently, geocaching. We've been around the Island on a boat twice, once on a pleasure trip from Beaumaris Pier and once a fast moving RIB speedboat from Plas Coch. We haven't seen any puffins here, but we have seen seals and various other seabirds. I believe dolphins are also found around here sometimes.

Shame all this is coming to an end this year as our caravan has come to the end of its lifespan. We'll miss it and Puffin Island.

North Wales Beach Berm - GC13RV7

I revisited this familiar beauty spot with sarahjones65 this evening, whilst leaving the sprogs back at the caravan. It's one of my most favourite places in Anglesey but it's often windy or bad weather when we come. This evening the sea was like a millpond and there was a beautiful sunset. Several people were still fishing in the early twilight of dusk and outside a tent one fisherman was even cooking a mackerel that he had just caught.

As we walked down on to the berm, the wonderful woody smell of smoked fish wafted across the dunes and we longed for a bit of supper. The steps in the berm were not as pronounced as they sometimes can be but they still sloped down on the seaward side.

I did miss the wind blowing through what's left of my hair, the sound of the shingle being dragged up and down the shore and the waves crashing over the rocks on the Puffin Island side of Penmon Point, but it was really nice to see this area in a different mood. A wonderful spot for an earthcache.

Bell and Buoy at Black Nose (Trwyn Du) - GCJ6OR

This was the second cache late on a summer's evening whilst out with sarahjones65 after leaving the sprogs back at the caravan. We'd just come from a successful find at Penmon Priory and as time was running out in terms of the light, we decided to drive down the road to Puffin Island instead of doing our usual walk. We could hear the familiar lighthouse bell clanking as soon as we got out of the car.

When we reached Penmon Point, the place was alive with fishermen and a few other visitors. The sun was setting quickly and so I decided to take advantage of the remaining light and take some pictures with my new DSLR camera, whilst Sarah headed off in search of the cache.

When I turned round she'd gone and was nowhere to be seen. I called out a couple of times with no reply, and so just headed off in the vague direction I thought she'd gone. It was not difficult to see how she had disappeared - the path was narrow and wandered up and down though areas where the vegetation was quite high. However, before long I could see her as she had stopped for something.

When I caught up, I found that Sarah had stopped at a rock and was decoding the clue as the GPSr was indicating an excursion into the nearby vegetation. There seemed to be a break in the vegetation and futher investigation revealed some items mentioned in the clue - this was the right spot. After a few minutes looking around I'd found the cache and collected a few nettles stings in the process.

As usual, Sarah did the business of signing the log and this time we took nothing except some photographs and left nothing except the happy memory that we'd found it :) On the way back I was glad I had taken some photos earlier as the sun had now sunk below the horizon and it was getting much darker. With two more earthcaches to do near here, we decided to get a move on.

Dovecote, Devotion and Drownings - GCJ6OT

Due to workload and other commitments I've not been caching for ages, and so this blog entry marks the return to my favourite pastime, along with pictures from a brand-spanking new DSLR camera. Sarah, Robert, Cathy and I went for a weekend at our ramshackle caravan on beautiful island of Anglesey in an attempt to make the best of our remaining months at Plas Coch and before we are unceremoniously booted off the site for having a caravan that is showing it's age.

Tonight, sarahjones65 and I decided to go on a late evening caching expedition, only setting off at about 8.15pm. The weather had cleared up after being overcast and drizzling rain off and on for most of the day. We left RiggyRob and CathyMay watching a DVD in the caravan at Plas Coch as they showed no interest in coming out with us.

After driving the familiar route through Menai Bridge and Beaumaris, we reached Penmon Priory in about 20 minutes. The evening was still quite light at this time and we parked in the usual place. Sarah took charge of the GPSr and soon we were heading through a graveyard and along one side of the priory. As we hadn't read the clue at this point, we weren't sure exactly what we were looking for. After wandering around for a few minutes, it became clear we would need to read it!

As soon as the word 'cliff' appeared in the clue, we knew we were in the wrong place - and then the GPSr batteries died! I headed of back to the car to get some new ones, only to be told by Sarah that they were in the rucksack she was carrying, With fresh batteries loaded, I decided on a different route around the priory which looked more promising for finding a cliff.

Soon we had climbed up some steps crossing a high wall and were shoulder high in amongst the brackens. Now we could see a small cliff and the GPSr was pointing that way, It didn't take long to get there, although Sarah commented that due the the tall and closely packed vegetation she felt like she was avoiding the raptors in Jurassic Park.

When we reached the base of the cliff, the item mentioned in the clue was easy to spot and the cache was discovered quickly. We signed the log and left Whiskas TB before heading off for the next cache of the evening.