Following yesterday’s Challenge Robin adventure during which I sent my partner’s brother on an extended treasure trail covering London and
Penzance, we decided to have a more-relaxed day today with a gentle hike to a few geocaches (and with a pub lunch in the middle).
This was the first of the caches we found as we made our way down from the River Valley Caravan Park where we’d been staying and
hacked our way through the damp paths to this GZ. What a remarkable ruin – one of several like it, our subsequent explorations showed, but still quite remarkable how well-concealed and
overgrown it is. A beautiful spot, and well-worth the journey. FP awarded; TFTC
Another quick find, once I’d plotted a route around the numerous thorny bushes between me abs the GZ! Lovely location. Cache a little challenging to extract from its hiding place, but I
got there in the end!
Coordinates weren’t playing ball but the hint quickly set me straight. Cache a little wet but water-resistant logbook (good choice, CO!) holding up nicely. Surprising to find such a
grand church hidden amongst such a warren of winding roads! TFTC.
A quick find while killing time between my duties as a #challengerobin controller. Love this coastline, although the approaching rainclouds are a little intimidating.
Remains of what looks like a hook mechanism are hanging loose above where I found the cache; might have fallen at some point?
What a fabulous location for a cache. Much thanks due to the hotel who allowed it to be placed here! I was just hanging around waiting for a friend
to arrive by train and you gave me a great excuse for a wander, first. TFTC!
After a bit of a hunt and put off by the recent DNFs I was about to give up on this one when a passer by hinted that I should be looking “bayl sbhe fgrcf njnl”. TFTC!
I’ve exchanged messages with Taradoherty and it sounds like their previous log
(suggesting that the cache is missing) was posted in error. I’ve no reason to believe that there’s anything wrong with the cache.
In hindsight, visiting this cache might have been a mistake as a storm was beginning to roll in, but I got there before things got TOO hairy! I was in the vicinity preparing an
adventure-trail thingy along the coast path anyway, and couldn’t miss the opportunity to head for this exciting location. And it was a real treat to see a container like this: I’ve only
ever seen them before when I’ve placed them myself (e.g. GC7QG1Z). Great container, hide, and description: FP awarded. TNLN, TFTC!
Okay, I’m going for it! I’m driving from Oxford to Penzance this morning and having just watched the sun rise over Sedgemoor Services off the M5 I’ve determined that I’m ahead of
schedule by enough that I can justify a diversion, so I’m going to try for this hashpoint as I “pass”. Typing from mobile, apologies for lack of formatting ans any spelling errors; I’ll
fix them later.
Expedition
Driving from Oxford to Penzance in the world’s-smallest-rental-car isn’t a fun adventure. What is fun, though, is hitting up a graticule I’ve never hashed in before to see if I can find
the day’s hashpoint while en-route.
Parking the awfulmobile in a country lane, I followed the road and then a country footpath towards the hashpoint. I say “footpath”, but the public right of way was in dire need of
maintenance and the nettles and hedges were encroaching badly upon it. Which was troublesome, because the other side of the footpath was marked by an electric fence that I
didn’t want to touch, and so I had to shuffle sideways-at-times through the first field. The second field was easier-going, and I got a great view of the distant storm beginning to roll
in which would soak me later, as I hid adventure-game clues atop a cliff near Penzance. The third field
appeared to be where the hashpoint would be, and it was crossed by the public right of way, but I was surprised to find that the electric fence returned and now barred my way. Luckily
its owner had seen fit to put a length of plastic piping around the live wire so it was possible to jump over without burning my crotch, but this seemed a little not-the-done-thing
regardless.
The hashpoint was right in the middle of the field and an easy find. Certainly easier than the short-but-exciting hike there and back.
Photos
The gap between the electric fence and the bushes is allegedly a footpath
Nothing but farmland for miles around – the nearest settlement in the distance
That looks like a safe concession to your electric fence crossing a right of way
Checked-in following recent report of “broken hinge”. Hinge is fine, but this kind of container is designed so that the hinge can be easily detached and the lid removed completely – so
long as you come at it from the right angle it’s pretty easy to put it back together again. All is well at GZ; cache is particularly easy to find now it’s a little more wintery but I
don’t think there’s any increased risk of muggling. Happy hunting!
A challenging find this morning, and not in the good way! After an extended search the cache was eventually found on the other side of some fallen (spiky) bushes from the published
coordinates. From the logs it looks like it was moved some time ago but the coordinates were never updated? Cache contents very damp and log baggie holed – log still usable, but not for
long. Contents need maintenence ASAP, container might survive either year or two if frost doesn’t crack the seal. SL, TFTC.
