Dan Q

Kind: Checkins

Dan Q found GLGJ74TY villaflou

This checkin to GLGJ74TY villaflou reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Je parle un peu le français. Je me excuse pour la rédaction du présent en anglais.

I have been staying in La Tania on a ski holiday with friends and family. This morning, I fell and her my neck, so I thought I’d take a break from skiing and do some geocaching instead. The hike down the valley was hard in the fresh dump of snow, and I wished that I’d brought snowshoes! Or poles! Our even a rope! I routinely found myself wading through knee-high snow, and I’d ocassionally have to traverse drifts that came up to my thigh. I was very glad to reach the convenient break point of La Nouva, where I stopped to chat to a small yappy dog before pressing on.

Villaflou itself is beautiful: I especially love the cute little chapel at its heart. I spent some time investigating the wrong thing, looking for the cache, before eventually working out where it might be. Only the 5th person to find it!

On the way back to La Tania (an even more arduous hike by a different route that I thought would be easier but truly wasn’t) I was distracted by two French ladies calling me over. They were lost, having taken a wrong turn, and – perhaps as a result of them being 4 and 6 months pregnant, respectively – were finding it very hard to push themselves up the mountainside against what was now ocassionally waist-deep snow. Naturally I came to their rescue, using my GPSr to lead them up to the path they sought: a further arduous journey of pushing, pulling, digging, and crawling until we finally reached the outskirts of La Tania and they were assured of their safety.

Four hours of hiking in snow, sometimes up to my waist and rescuing two lost hikers makes this perhaps the hardest I’ve ever worked for a geocache. And I loved it.

FP awarded. SL. MPLC/TFTC!

Dan Q posted a note for GC5H8YX Boundary Brook: The Mouth of the Brook

This checkin to GC5H8YX Boundary Brook: The Mouth of the Brook reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

So pleased to see that this – an extension to my favourite series within the Oxford ring road – exists. Looking forward to an expedition to it as soon as I can manage it. I suspect that my friend lizrosemccarthy might beat me there though: she might even get FTF, as this cache is almost on her doorstep!

Dan Q found GLG6FQ40 Constellations 4-9

This checkin to GLG6FQ40 Constellations 4-9 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

As presquevu continued our adventure around the Constellations series, we got close to this cache… only to find that we were not only in the wrong field, but on the wrong side of the road! We found ourselves a gate (and a great possible hiding place for a cache!) and made our way across the road, where we found a likely-looking footpath to get us to the GZ. But alas, as others have noted, the footpath came to a gradual halt and looks like it’s been out of service for some time.

We made our way back to the road and there found a convenient spot at which there was a gap under the fence. We slid under (unconcerned in our already-muddy state about getting a little extra dirt on us), found our way to the location, and quickly found the cache. Not a bad hiding place, all things considered… but perhaps the description and/or hint need updating to reflect the fact that it’s not so simple to get there, any more!

 

Dan Q found GLG6FQM4 Constellations 9

This checkin to GLG6FQM4 Constellations 9 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

The last stop of presquevu and I’s Constellations adventure, as #10 wasn’t showing on my GPSr (as it was out of service the last time I synchronised this area of the county) and the eleventh, #12, eluded us. Glad we found this one, though: our coordinates were about 14m out but the hint set us right and we soon had the cache in hand. Thanks!

Dan Q found GLG6FMEM Constellations 4

This checkin to GLG6FMEM Constellations 4 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Glad to see the “danger” and “no kids” tags on this one, but presquevu and I were surprised to see that it, like the others in this series, recommend that they’ve visited on a clear night! Being out here at night, on foot, sounds to me like a good way to get hit by one of the many cars and trucks on this busy and dangerous road!

Like some others – according to the logs – we spent some time on the wrong side of the road with this one, and when we eventually opted to take the hint it didn’t help us much until we’d already given up and were about to walk away. Found the cache in the end, but that felt like a lot of effort and a great deal of danger for the payoff!

 

Dan Q found GLG6FNFT Constellations 6

This checkin to GLG6FNFT Constellations 6 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Excellent container: one of the best I’ve seen of its type! The lid for the container had been forced on backwards by a previous finder and way slightly stuck, but we managed to pry it loose (and returned it, of course, reassembled correctly). Despite the fact that it hadn’t rained for a couple of days, presquevu and I had already found ourselves slipping on some of the muddier slopes, but nothing could have prepared us for the muddy deluge at the nearby truck turning spot! We splashed through and found ourselves more than a little mucky, for it, but the walk was worthwhile nonetheless.

 

Dan Q found GLG6FF6C Constellations 3

This checkin to GLG6FF6C Constellations 3 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A tougher find for presquevu and I. At first, my GPSr seemed to imply that the cache might have been on or under the obvious nearby landmark, and once we realised that we were wrong there was a reasonable amount of hacking-through-the-undergrowth required to get to the actual GZ. Nice spot for a geocache – we saw a heron and a rabbit on our walk to this point, among other wildlife.

Dan Q couldn’t find GC1TPQM Constellations 12

This checkin to GC1TPQM Constellations 12 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

presquevu and I spent a while hunting for this, but were interrupted by curious-looking dog walkers and didn’t want to continue to look so suspicious within such close range of a school. So after this DNF, we called it a day and went to find ourselves a nice pub lunch. Thanks for the series (that which we did of it, at least): with the exception of the bit on the scary road, we had a wonderful time.

Dan Q couldn’t find GC1TPH1 Constellations 5

This checkin to GC1TPH1 Constellations 5 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

presquevu and I were glad to get off the main road and back onto these lovely winding footpaths. Unfortunately we weren’t able to find this cache, though: it looks like some work has been done this year to repair some of the damaged fences, and we wonder if this might have affected the cache’s hiding place. :-(