MC Lake Cache - GC2DWKF



Yachts on Hollingworth Lake

 We found this cache whilst out doing a spot of twitching for the rare Pied-billed Grebe which was on Hollingworth Lake this week. After spending an hour so looking at the bird and taking photographs at the nature reserve pond, Sarah and I moved on to look for this cache a little further round the lake.



View across the lake

 It was a straightforward find and I've often thought about leaving a camera in one of my caches, I just haven't got a spare one.



Autumn colours

 Unfortunately the one here is either full of photos or the batteries need changing, as it kept switching off every time I took a shot. If you want to see the Pied-billed Grebe have a look on my birding blog.


A little geocaching gnome



Burnden Park - GC1F3WR

This was to be the last cache of the day for Sarah and me, but the one that took the longest to find. We knew what we were looking for, we knew approximately where it would be, we just had to find the little bu**er! After ten minutes we still hadn't got it and so Sarah decided to pop into Asda and get some catfood whilst I continued to look like a prat hunting for the cache on the car park.

Fortunately, although it was busy, very few muggles paid me any attention - perhaps they see this ritual every Sunday! So I just kept on looking, going over the same area until eventually I did find it - hooray! I hate ending a day's caching on a DNF - it's as if you haven't found anything at all that day, even if you have.

A sneaky little hide!

P.S. Bolton 4 Spurs 2 today :)

Oscar's Prowl - GCG1VB

Sarah and I continued to this one after finding the previous cache, 'This one's for Fred' a little further upstream. It was a very pleasant walk in the autumn sunshine until we realised we were going to have get down a steepish, leaf-covered bank to river level. We saw the item mentioned in the hint but decided to walk past it until a suitable place for getting down appeared.

Eventually we did find a place and then had to walk back to GZ along the leafy river bank. Once there Sarah found the cache container fairly quicky and she did the admin whilst I took a few photos. Then it was back up the short but steep and slippy bank to the footpath at the top. Although I didn't actually fall, being of portly shape and size, it took me a couple of tries before I found a successful route back up.

On the way back to the car Sarah wondered how the cache owner knew that Oscar honed his hunting skills down here - it seems so far from any houses. Anyway, a good little place - we enjoyed it in spite of being in a cemetery!

This One's for Fred - GC11Y9D

Fred Dibnah's House in Bolton

This cache is all about a famous son of Bolton, Fred Dibnah, who sadly died in 2004. As I knew where Fred used to live, Sarah and I decided to go straight to his house from the previous cache. After looking around all the familiar places in his garden that we've seen on TV, we realised that the cache wasn't actually here but down the steep sided valley at the back of the house and across the narrow river.
 

Fred's Workyard

We remembered that Fred used a bow to fire an arrow carrying a line into the trees and down into this valley, but we can't for the life of us remember what for - was it something to do with erecting his pit head and coal mine? We'll have to checkout the DVD.

Cemetery Gates

Anyway, after taking a few pictures of the house we got back in the car and drove round to the cemetery on the other side of the river where Fred is buried in view of his beloved house and workshop.  We parked just outside the gates and walked across the cemetery towards GZ.  I wasn't sure at first that this was the way we were supposed to go - however, by doing this we had actually made a bee-line straight for the cache location.

Can you see it yet?

Using the hint I quickly found the cache container, but it was very well-camouflaged and could easily be missed by the casual glance. In it was a splendid Matchbox BattleKings Hovercraft that I just had to take, in spite of not having anything worthy to leave in its place, sorry. I'll need to come back later and leave something in exchange.

On the the edge of the cache location

This was a great place to visit although it was tinged with more than a little sadness now that Fred is no longer with us. A great bloke who is greatly missed.

Memorial plaque outside Fred's house

Steam Hammer - GC1F3W4

This was the first cache find of the day on quick spot of geocaching in Bolton with sarahjones65. Being a Sunday it was nice and quiet with no students to wonder at what we were doing. We parked in the student car park on the other side of the road and could see the steam hammer from quite a way off.

Shortly after we crossed the road Sarah had found the cache container, although getting it out was a little more difficult. Before leaving I took a few pictures of this massive machine - I wouldn't have liked to get my hand stuck under that one. A great place!