My partner Ruth and I are staying at the Meliá hotel down in the city, from which amazingly I was able to get a WiFi connection despite the
considerable distance!
As others have observed, the hint is misleading for this cache. Substitute the word “right” in place of the word “left” and the hint makes more sense!
Ruth and I made several attempts today without success: a muggle was sat nearby in such a way that access to the GZ was obstructed. We took a
walk to the nearby Anglican church – whose architecture, if you ignore the volcanic rock, is uncannily like that of Anglican churches in the UK – but then we returned the muggle had
very much set up camp and was going nowhere. We attempted to find a way to the cache from the opposite side without luck, and eventually had to give up. 😔
After solving the riddle yesterday, my partner Ruth and I came up from the seafront to find this cache today. What a delightful spot to hide
the cache, and what a wonderful puzzle (and spot of local literary history) with which to bring us here.
SL, FP awarded. Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK. TFTC!
My partner Ruth and I were disappointed not to be able to hike any of the trails up here today – they’re all closed – but enjoyed finding both
the nearby Virtual and this Earthcache geocaches. The evidence of lava flows (that remain to this day!) are really quite impressive.
Last time I was caching up this neck of the woods was December 2018 (GLXJJWGN, GLXJJX7P). And despite the fact that I was staying in different accommodation, in a different month of the year, I was still in
the vicinity for the exact same reason: attending the Christmas party of my nonprofit.
By longstanding tradition, I get up early in the morning at these kinds of events – well before sunrise, at this point in the year! – for a quick walk to a nearby geocache, which today
meant this one! To make my hunt in the dark easier I scoped the GZ on Google Street View first and caught sight of a likely hiding spot which later turned it to be exactly right!
Upon reaching the area I soon saw that the road ahead was closed (for HS2 works, I suppose!), but this was no impediment to the cache.
It was soon found – the coordinates aren’t great but the hint sent me right to the object I’d scouted earlier – but extraction was challenging – I needed to manufacture a tool from
nearby dead wood with which to pry it from its hiding place!
I was in these woods anyway, seeking GC10N80 (which, incidentally, is one of
the best geocaches I’ve ever logged and well worth the attention of anybody ‘caching in this part if the world) and figured I’d come hunt for this cache too.
A quick find; my geosense spotted a candidate hiding place right from the main path, and I turned out to be right.
Cache contents are in somewhat poor condition: logbook has soaked and dried again into a slab of papier-mache and was challenging to sign!
I’m on a family holiday, staying over in Catbrook, and I have a holiday tradition of getting up early (before the kids are up!) to come out on geocaching jaunts.
I very nearly didn’t consider this at all. It’s fake location, nestled amongst challenge caches (which I have no interest in whatsoever), made me initially suspect it would be another
of the same. It’s only a lucky coincidence I clicked on it at all!
(Maybe that’s why this cache had no finds in 2025? Such a shame!)
But I’m glad I did. I puzzled over the riddle for a little while before the “odd line out” made me think of something. So confident was I in the resulting coordinates that I didn’t even
visit the special web page to double-check, which meant I missed out on the object hint until I was in the field and needed one! This, in turn, was pretty satisfying!
I saved this cache for my second morning’s outing: free one on which I didn’t bring the dog (for whose little legs this hike might have been too intense). This was the right choice. I
had to ford a flooded and frozen path by moonlight near Cleddon before a visit to the waterfalls (and the associated
cache) then pressed on up into the woods to uncover this cache, which has sat alone and undisturbed for, what… 20 months?
The view from near the GZ is fantastic.
It’s in fine condition and in an absolutely postcard-perfect spot. The sun was at long last creating the hills on the far side of the valley as I signed my name and returned the box to
its hiding spot. I really regret that this cache doesn’t see more footfall, and I hope that this effusive log (and the accompanying Favourite Point) might go some way to helping rectify
that situation!
TFTC. It’s one of the best I’ve ever found. If I could award it two FPs I would!
Hiked over from Catbrook on the way to a cache up Pen Y Fan and stopped by these beautiful waterfalls on the way. So glad I did! I’d originally planned to seek this cache on my return
journey but I’ve got to say: it looked extra spectacular by the light of the full supermoon.
And as a bonus(?) I spent long enough hunting for the cache that I got to see it in daylight too!
The primary problem came from the fact that the path that the cache is nearest… is closed! Apparently a tree has fallen somewhere and rendered it unsafe, though that’s probably a long
way from where the cache is hidden.
The secondary problem was that I didn’t read the sign. I just saw the fence, assumed that what I was looking at wasn’t the (closed) path but something completely out of bounds, and
focused my search exclusively elsewhere. My GPSr had been fritzy all morning, so being “out” by 10-15m didn’t seem like a big deal.
It was only when I was considering returning during daylight hours that I stopped to read the sign and realised where the hinted path was: it’d been right in front of me the whole time!
I quickly skirted the blockade and found the cache, then took the time – having already bypassed the fence – to snap a happy selfie by the falls in the early light.
The geohound and I walked over from Catbrook this morning “the long way” – over the hill and woods, finding a couple of caches along the way – to this cache.
From both the cache type and my GPSr’s map data I fully expected to find a post box here alongside the (decrepit) red phone box, but it’s nowhere to be seen! Has it perhaps been
removed?
The dog and I spent a little while looking for the promised postbox, without success.
In any case, the hint reassured me that I was in the right place and my geosense told me where to look. A disappointingly tiny cache container (where a larger one could have probably
been placed) was soon found, caked in mud, and replaced as-found.
The geopup and I absolutely chose the right time to come up here on this wintery morning. The sun’s ascent over the valley whenever we escape the cover of the woods is absolutely
spectacular.
Happy New Year! The geopup and I, on holiday from West Oxfordshire and staying nearby, came out for a morning walk in the ice and snow today.
Our little Frenchie’s tiny legs made the work of climbing the stiles on this path a little challenging, but with persistence we were treated to a wonderful view of the sun broaching the
horizon over the valley at the North end of School Wood.
Soon the cairn was in sight, and what a brilliant spot for a cache! Signed log, and dropped a travel bug that’s come
all the way from Texas to continue its journey. FP awarded for bringing us out this way.
A quick and damp scramble from the footpath above brought my right to the cache. SL, TFTC. Container seal has perished and logbook pretty wet; signable, but only barely.
Came out for a walk with my Ruth and the kids. While Ruth sat on a rock and the kids went with their uncle up to explore a small cave above, I
broke from the path to find this cache. QEF in the second host I looked at.
Took travel bug to move along, signed log, then went to retrieve the kids. TFTC.