Lion in Wait - GCRDXM

We'd come to this location after popping into Bodnant Garden to see the wonderful Laburnum arch in its full June glory.  We've often missed the flowering season before on trips to our sadly defunct caravan at Plas Coch on Anglesey.  However this time we weren't disappointed and so I've included some pictures here.

After w'ed had our fill at Bodnant, we set off for Anglesey - ah the wonders of being in the National Trust.

Sarah and I found this cache on a short trip to Anglesey for our Wedding Anniversary. This is a cache that we'd been meaning to do for a long time, but had not round to it. We'd been to see the Lions here before and so we knew roughly where GZ was, or so we thought. We spent a long time in the area near to one of the lions before realising that new coordinates had been posted in the logs. After broadening the search, Sarah came up with the goods, which were quite some way from what I expected.

We first saw a pair of the Lions on the opposite side of the Menai Straits (there are four of them) and always thought it was such a shame that they were no longer in view. On this side of the Menai we came across the other pair on a quest to find the last remaining peice of the original Stephenson Britannia Bridge which was burnt down in the 70's. It took us a long time to locate this remnant after first seeing it in one of the 'Coast' programmes on TV. Few local people seemed to know where it was or how to get there when we asked.

Anyway, this is a great place to visit if you've not been before as you get to see the Menai and Britannia Bridge from a different viewpoint.

HMS Conway - GC1VD9M

This was the fourth and last cache of the day whilst out in Bangor with sarahjones65. CathyMay, FirstIrishAngel and Badger. After three previous successes we approached the Botanic Gardens with some confidence, but this was soon to be questioned. Following the GPSr literally we made a bad choice of taking a track into the woods and ended up slipping and sliding through sloping muddy paths before effectively reaching a dead end.

We returned to the road and carried on further towards the Gardens. Soon another more substantial path appeared on the right and so we headed off past a large ancient oak tree into the woods once again. This path looked a lot more promising, but we still walked a little too far down it before having to retrace our steps a little and then venture into the foliage.

It wasn't long now before the old rudder timbers and chains came into view (see above), although some of our party managed to walk past it without realising what it was. A few minutes later the larger rotting timbers of the HMS Conway were found and we set about searching for the cache.
It has to be said that the clue wasn't an awful lot of help to us, but although it was covered in twigs, leaves and annoying branches, the search area wasn't too large. The woods were quite dark by now and so our torches were put into action along with five pairs of eyes and hands. We still hadn't found the cache ten minutes later and thoughts of giving up were crossing our minds as the woods got even darker.

Then I put on my cacher's head and eyes and started to choose a few select areas where I would put a cache - bingo, I found it in the second place I looked. I told Badger (Aunty Sue) where it was so she could be the one to open it. Sarah did the admin and I took a scouting badge with a bird on it in recognition of my newfound hobby of birdwatching.


Suddenly the woods seemed brighter and we happily made our way back to the car after visiting the lovely Botanical Gardens (see the pictures above and below).


We're still wondering why the timbers and rudder stock are up here and not down on the banks of the Menai Straits and will have to do some internet research to see if we can find out why. Another interesting and out of the way place found courtesy of geocaching!

Step UP Over the Menai - GC191NN

This was the third cache of the day whilst out with sarahjones65, CathyMay, FirstIrishAngel and Badger in Bangor. We'd walked down the road from the cache near the Roman fort site and found the car park near the stone circle. After stopping a while by the stones (what a shame some of them have graffti), we headed down the woodland path to the stony beach on the banks of the Menai Straits.

As soon as we saw the painting above on the cliff face I knew were near GZ because I'd seen it in a previous log. We scrambled around the rocks for a few minutes before Adam climbed up a short crevice and found the cache.

Sarah did the admin whilst I took a few (more) photos towards Bangor Pier where we'd been last night. Then we left happily for our fourth and final cache of the day (HMS Conway) at Treborth Botanical gardens, a little further up the Menai.

4KT - GC10XP6

This was the second of four caches whilst out with sarahjones65, CathyMay, FirstIrishAngel and Badger in Bangor today. It was a short walk from College Road where we had parked the car to do the University Gardens cache.

Soon we were heading up a wooded footpath towards the site of the Roman Fort. After wandering around amongst the foliage for a while, CathyMay discovered what must be the biggest cache container we've ever found to date - what a whopper and packed full of goodies! We took the TB to move on to Anglesey but didn't have anything to leave - sorry.

After carefully replacing the huge ammo box in its hiding place, we carried on up to the top of the what was once the site of a Roman fort. Aunty Sue got a phone call from Uncle Bill and she really could't resist telling him how great the panoramic view was from here.

Whilst at the top we decided on our route down to the next cache on the banks of the Menai and, after a couple of false starts, made our way down to a nearby road which headed in the right direction.

A great place to come, caching or not.

University Gardens - GC1KQPT

This was the first of four caches whilst out in Bangor with sarahjones65, CathyMay, FirstIrishAngel and Badger. We parked on College Road to avoid the steep climb up to University Gardens and approached the old University building from the rear.

What a fantastic old building this is - I call it Hogwarts because the Harry Potter films were just becoming popular when I first saw it and it looks quite like it when viewed from the main road down below.

We went down the steps into the gardens and were heading down a second set of steps which climb the steep slopes back up to the university before realising this was the wrong direction. So we retraced our steps (no pun intended) back to the top and along a little path. Soon the proximity alarm on the GPSr sounded and Cathy quickly spotted the cache container hidden close a wall.

After signing the log we all went back up to the terrace in front of the old University building and spent a few minutes enjoying the superb view from this high vantage point towards
Bangor Cathedral and over the town before moving on to the next cache near the Roman Fort.

Conwy Quays - GC185PM

This was to be our fourth and final cache of the day whilst out with our relatives 'The Walshes' to show them the geocaching ropes around Conway. Whilst walking here from our previous find at 'Woggles in the Woods' we realised that Liam would miss his train back to Manchester for a job interview if he continued all the way to this cache. He had to be at Llandudno Junction at 4pm and it was now 3.15pm. So Uncle Bill and Liam headed back to the car and train station whilst Aunty Sue, Adam and my lot (sarahjones65, CathyMay and RiggyRob) continued on the quest.

The walk turned out be much longer than expected but the weather, view and company was great so it wasn't a problem (i.e. no moaning from the sprogs). We didn't realise until we got to the coordinates given that this was a multi-cache and it was lucky that I had the full description on my PDA or else we would have been stumped. Anyway, solving the puzzle was quite easy and after having a quick look at how 'the other half' lives on the Quays, we set off for the final location.

Following a slight detour down the wrong path on to some private land (possibly a sewage works by the smell) and being ushered off it by someone there, we eventuallu found the right footpath alongside the local school's sports pitches. What a fantastic setting for a Sports Day, we thought - bet they do water sports here. Soon we were heading off into a wooded area with lots of recently planted trees supported by stakes. I'm not too keen on places like this as the GPSr signal is often poor and fluctuates and there are loads of places it could be. Thankfully today we were out in force with lots of eyes and hands available for searching.

At the point of almost giving up a little voice cried out from the woods - "Found it". It was CathyMay and when she showed us the cache container we were all gobsmacked. Firstly, how sneaky was the camouflage on it and secondly, how on earth had she found it? When on the ground the container was so well-hidden (the best I've seen yet) that it could definitely not be detected by eyes alone. Cathy had found it accidently by looking at a nearby stone thinking that the cache was underneath and then found the actual cache next to it.

We left a very clever Key (Geddit?) Puzzle TB and took a rabbit cross-stitch kit and cross and chain after signing the log and returned happily to the town centre talking about what a sneaky piece of camoflage that was and what a great cache it was to end on. We'd had a fantastic day out in Conwy and look forward to coming back to do some more caches in this area.