The Colours of the Rainbow - GC1BZ4Y

This was to be the eighth and last cache of a very successful day whilst out with sarahjones65, RiggyRob and CathyMay on our quest to find all the caches on Anglesey before the end of 2009. However, it nearly didn't turn out that way - we'd just done Gruftymilo's earthcache here and thought this one would be a piece of cake, being only 82ft away. We searched high (literally, up a small ridge) and low as our GPSr kept changing it's mind about where GZ was - I even wondered if the magnetism of the rocks here was affecting the signal in some way.

After a good fifteen minutes of searching, re-reading the hint and using our 'cacher's eyes' we had still not found it and so the kids, who were pretty fed up by now, went back to the car. Sarah and I continued for another ten minutes and then gave up - had we got the coordinates wrong or had the cache gone missing? Back at the car we checked the coordinates with our PDA and read the logs for when it was last found. Everything was as it should be - so why had we not found it?

Thinking that we wouldn't be back this way again anytime soon, I decided to go and have another look on my own. I travelled light with only the GPSr and a pen and as soon as the proximity alarm went off on the GPSr I started looking. Guess what? This time I found it almost right away. This was a great relief as I really didn't want to end the day on a DNF. After signing the log and taking the geocoin (to prove to the others that I'd found it), I skipped happily back to the car in the evening sunshine having successfully completed eight caches today.

Parys Mountain - GC1FXNQ

This was the seventh cache of the day whilst out on our continuing mission to do all the Anglesey caches before the end of 2009. We were getting a bit tired and grumpy by now as we hadn't managed to find anywhere selling sandwiches for lunch and for once we hadn't brought our own. We parked in the main car park, bought a 20p trail guide and headed off towards the mine. We'd noted that most people say this place looks better when the rocks are wet after the rain, but even though it was a beautifully sunny day, the colours were still quite impressive right from the start of the trail. I thought the most unsual were the purple colours and I also marvelled at how some vegetation has managed to colonise the spoil heaps.

On reaching the main viewpoint the enormity of this hole in the ground became apparent. Some will see it as an eyesore and evidence of how man has plundered and changed the natural environment, but it does have a wierd beauty all of its own, especially when combined with pools of water in some places. You can easily see why this place has been chosen to film Dr. Who episodes here, it's quite an alien looking environment for most of us.

We stood at the main viewing point and I took pictures whilst Sarah did the estimations required for logging this cache. We'd have continued to do the full round trip if we weren't so tired and hungry - there was also another cache to do nearby. A great place for an earthcache, we'll be back sometime to do the full trail, perhaps after it has been raining.

Victorian Weightlifter! - GCQ7FN

This was the sixth cache of the day whilst out with sarahjones65, RiggyRob and CathyMay on our continuing quest to do the whole of Anglesey before the end of 2009. We parked rather precariously alongside some other cars on a slope just off the road and in front of the gates to the footpath.

The path wound it's way along a wall through fields lined with gorse and blackberry hedges, every now and then giving some glimpses of the shoreline and the bay below. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the heather was a blaze of purple in places. A couple of yachts had moored in the bay and some people were kayaking - the water looked beautiful.

Soon the brickworks chimneys came into view and we could see the small rather inacessible beach at one end of the bay. We carried on walking up the hill in the direction of a radio mast before turning left for the last section.

Then the Victorian Weightlifter came into view - ah, that's what it is! I'd been envisioning a circus performer with a pointy horizontal moustache and wearing a striped bathing suit all the time I was walking to the cache. Cathy found the cache inadvertently by sitting down on a large rock right next to it and Sarah extracted it from its hiding place. After doing the admin we explored the area a little further before returning happily to the car.

Now this is what all caches should be like - it's not about the numbers, it's about beautiful and interesting out of the way places that we wouldn't normally visit, isn't it?

Nothing to Sea Here - GC1RP27

This was the fifth cache of the day on our continuing quest to do all the Anglesey caches before the end of 2009. The weather suddenly turned sunny at Bull Bay as we headed out along the Anglesey Coastal Footpath. This is a lovely stretch of coastline and we enjoyed the short walk along it to the cache location. The cache container itself is also quite interesting, we've not seen one like this before.

After doing the admin we headed back down to the beautiful Bull Bay harbour for a quick look round. CathyMay popped into the local lifeboat fundraising 'shop' and bought a leather and knotted string bracelet whilst I took some photos of the shoreline. A great place to which we'll no doubt return some day.

The Ancient Station - GC1YQFE

Another nice and easy find along the A5025 on the eastern side of Anglesey. There was some nicely coloured ivy on the layby wall but we couldn't see where the Ancient Station used to be though. We're now off to Bull Bay on our quest to complete all the caches on the island by the end of 2009.

'Please Share My Umbrella' - GC1YQFJ

Bus Stop extract by The Hollies

Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella

All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella, we employed it
By August, she was mine .....

The relevance of the title only clicked on the way back to the car, and I think the second verse must surely be about Geocaching! This was the third of the day whilst out wth sarahjones65, RiggyRob and CathyMay. A nice quick and easy find although it took a little stretching to reach the cache container.

3 Camps Conundrum - GC1V4QZ

The second of the day whilst out with sarahjones65, RiggyRob and CathyMay. We'd looked for this cache in it's original location and like everyone else had been unsuccessful, despite being pretty sure we were in the right place. This one was much easier to find and less overlooked than the first location. A quick drive-by and we'd done it. On, on ....

Beach Bonanza - GC1VPX6

This was the first of the day whilst out on a mission with sarahjones65. RiggyRob and CathyMay. We'd been watching this one for a while and waiting for it to be found after the spate of DNF's. So today we set off to find it as part of our quest to do find all the caches on Anglesey before the end of 2009.

We parked in the sandy car park at the bottom of the lane and I quickly spotted a white little egret on the salt marshes. So off I went to take some piccies whilst the others walked back over the small bridge and up the hill to find the cache. When I got there they were standing close to the stones that had apparrently fallen out of the wall. After a quick search of the area nearby we were very surprised to come up with two cache containers!

Sarah signed the log and as we had run out of geocaching stuff, we took nothing and left nothing. This is a great place for birdwatching and I plan to return once we've found all the Anglesey caches.