Length
|
Estimated Duration
|
Difficulty
|
7.5
|
6
|
5
|
Max Elevation
|
Terrain Types
|
Smiley Rate (Caches/Distance)
|
1250
|
Cliffs, Lime Quarry,Paths,Fields
|
0.6
|
It’s been a busy week this week. The Good Wench decided we should pick up a few local caches around Tockholes on Tuesday (ones that annoy us on our map) so that’s what we did. On paper they looked like drive bys but the roads are terrible so we ended up walking. The Captain headed out on his own one day to complete the Reelers Trail. This is part of the LEGEND series of caches that are placed along the 32 mile Witton Weavers Way. This section is 11 miles of the most unforgiving terrain. Coupled with recent local floods it made this walk a real calf punisher. At one point a bridge spanning a river had been washed away so The Captain had to wade across carrying the geohound –think St Francis and you get the picture. All this though was just practice for the weekend’s big event.
Our caching buddies The Tennants planned to land their 1000thcache on Sunday and we had already arranged that ourselves, stevebm, Rishes10 and The Tennants would gang up (again) and have a go at Khoomfays Blue Lagoon Bonanza series in Buxton.
The Good Wench packed the car up the night before and The Captain dropped stevebm a text with the pickup time. Sunday arrived and we head out – drizzle –doesn’t bode well. The drive down to Buxton is pretty quiet and as we approached our destination the Captain remembers he’s loaded some local caches into the Sat Nav and they are starting to show up. Hmm ten minutes to spare so we pull in to a pub car park and nab a sneaky one to start the day off (GC3MZD7).
20 minutes later and we’ve arrived at what we thought was the suggested parking spot for the first cache of the day. We put a call into The Tennents who were only 5 minutes away. Mrs T was still giddy from the night before after seeing Starlight Express at the theatre (don’t you know). ‘Brill’, thinks the Captain, bloody showtunes all day!
With the arrival of the remainder of our group we saddled up and began our search. We were right outside the security office for the HSL (Health & Safety Labs) and we started to draw the attention of the guards. Curiosity got the better of one of the High-Vis patrol and out he came to check on us. Happily though the he knew what we were (nutters) and kindly pointed out where the entrance to the public footpath was. We paid him absolutely no attention stuck to following the arrow around and continued searching on ‘high’ground. We didn’t seem to be getting anywhere until The Captain leant over the bridge and realised that there was something below us…. Er guys! We made our way down to the public footpath (the one the guard had told us about). The chaps arrived first and started the search. The Captain had a poke about with a stick, stevebm cleaned his glasses of rain and The Good Wench popped a squat in some bushes… typical days caching for us lot really. Mrs T has come the long way round but eventually joins the party and within 2 minutes she has the cache in hand. She witters something about ‘bloody men’ and ‘can’t see for looking’ but in the end we have number 1 bagged. 
From number one we walked as a group down the path and read some of the signs and clocked some of the strange buildings along the way. People’s imaginations were working overtime about what weird government experiments take place here and we began to wonder if we would be smuggled into a blacked out van and carted off to become the victims of some mad science experiment. Before we knew it though we landed at the gz and soon had the cache located. The rain was blowing sideways and it was starting to become a real struggle to sign anything. The log was already disintegrated so we constructed a new one out of some scrap paper.
At this point we all looked like drowned rats. The walk from number 2 was on easy ground but the rain wouldn’t let up. Stevebm was constantly having to wipe his glasses and was considering installing wiper blades if it carried on like this. We found a tree to huddle under and while we are all dallying around the youngest crew mate found the cache… nice n low down where he can reach best. The tromp through the fields had started to pull on the legs a bit and The Captain was reminded of the 11 miles done the other day around the Reelers Trail… but he’s not one to complain! We reached the gz and looked at the hint…then looked at the ground…back at the hint… and again at the ground… then someone said what we are all thinking… “you’ve got to be kidding”. Needle in a haystack anyone! When the hint says ‘under a rock’ in a monumental pile of rocks it doesn’t help much. We began the search of the area and stevebm and The Captain kept diving out from under the tree cover to get a better gps reading… nope still points there. We were close to a dnf so Mr T started to drop the CO a text for a clue when hey presto young Rishes10 realised he’s been stood on it (well he said he ‘found’ it but I’m not so sure). Wow – how did we miss that. At this point stevebm has one of those moments where you say something you know to be daft but it’s too late the words are out there and EVERYONE heard them. Quote, “I’ve never seen a white ammo can that colour before”…yes it was white. If nothing else stevebm provided the entertainment for the day and we didn’t let him forget his senior moment all day! Great cache and one off our DT grid as well so double bonus.
The Captain was late arriving to the gz for the next cache as he had been taking some photos now that the rain had eased. The rest of the group were already scowering the rocky outcrop and Rishes10 was perched on a rock face shoving his hand in all the holes. That lad is like a limpet when it comes to scaling any trees or cliffs. The group was getting frustrated after a while as this cache wasn’t rated too high and we seemed to be missing it. The Captain started to take a look around and the first obvious place he looked he found the cache! Mrs T blurted out that she had already blinkin’ looked there… The Captain made a mental note of this comment. Now at this stage you need to go back to the top of the page and re-read the comment Mrs T made when she found the first cache. Having already given the boys a telling off because she had found a cache where others (men folk) had supposedly looked. Now The Captain is renowned for not being petty and is not about to turn the tables….but it is my blog so I will…Thought you had looked there Mrs T!! 
We decided at this point to pitch camp and have a spot of lunch. The youngest crew members were installed under a makeshift shelter whilst the rest of the group sat amongst the sheep brownies. Like some unstoppable runaway train the conversation turned to last nights performance of Starlight Express and within seconds The Good Wench and Mrs T are quoting lines of the play to each other and then, without any warning (and given we are on Health & Safety land it warranted one) they broke out into song (but not the dictionary definition of ‘song’ you realise). Suitably refreshed and with ears bleeding we started the walk to the next gz. Along the way we pulled up the hint and straight away The Good Wench had it cracked. We landed at the GZ the clue made perfect sense and we started to narrow our options down to just one particular area. A fingertip search commenced and with all hands on the pump stevebm came up trumps. With the sky clearing and the sound of distant motor cross bikers we signed the log and headed off for GC2H9WN. We then realised we couldn’t get to it from this point so changed plan and headed for GC2G2X5. As we rounded the bend the lagoon came into view and it took all our breathes away. Simply stunning. 
The motor cross riders were fearless and were descending and ascending trails at the other side of the lagoon that would have made a mountain goat think twice. The group set up camp at the side of the lagoon and the real men (Mr T decided to raid the larder and stayed on the ground filling up on E numbers) made plans to scale the quarry side to the gz high above us.It’s was a precarious climb up the loose muddy siding, made worse by the recent heavy rains.We had rope with us but we managed without it, just.From the top the view was even better.Rishes10 soon located the cache (something familiar looking about this!). Stevebm broke out the big camera and we took loads of photos.Rishes10 was leaning over the side and was calmly suggesting, how only a teenager can, that Mr T had better not eat all the grub before we got down.With a last look the men folk headed back down to join the rest of the group.Brill, superb, par excellence.This cache should be on everyone’s list to do one day. 
Still with visions of the Lagoon in our minds we navigated round to the gz for the next cache (having realised we needed to be on lower ground). It’s the first stage of a fantastic multi, in the field, puzzle. We found stage 1 and soon worked out what needed to be done. The Captain spent a moment thinking about how to speed up the process and came up with an idea. Still required some methodical work but not as much as you might think at first glance. Don’t want to spoil it too much but it involves getting something to light up with the right combination in place. Stevebm and The Captain are hidden under a coat trying to solve the puzzle…if anyone was watching they must have wondered what on earth we were up to under there. Just as doubts were creeping in we hit the jackpot and set about working on the second part of the puzzle. Mrs T decided to give this a go and with a lot of squinting she started to read numbers out to us. 
We had everything we needed for the final so we keyed in the co-ords (of which we had 2 sets because we didn’t know if the number sequence started at 0 or 1) and set off. As we walked through the quarry again we passed numerous burnt out rotten old cars and started to play the ‘guess what car it was game’ and a discussion about the transverse verses the in-line layout of engines ensues between The Captain and Mrs T. As we neared the gz we realised we are using the wrong set of co-ords and quickly loaded in our second set. Yep more like it and again Rishes10 was clinging to the rocks like a fly on flypaper. Nice ammo can for our troubles. We now had the co-ords for the final and with the course logged into the GPS we headed off for our final of the day and the tenants 1000th.
The co-ords put this one off the beaten track and the group spent a few moments working out how best to get to the cache site. In the end we decided to continue walking through the quarry and traverse a slope to our right in order to get on higher ground. As we reached the summit we realised we needed to be heading directly through a farmer’s field (not marked on any of our maps). We go for it and with no one looking we hopped across the field and made our way to the gate at the other end.
As we arrived we were approached by three other walkers who were also a bit lost. We exchanged banter and they headed off back on themselves – ignoring our advice to go the way we suggested in order to witness the Blue Lagoon (their loss)! As we got closer to the gz we realised (not for the first time today) that we are at the top of a cliff and we needed to be at the bottom! 29 feet away but a 50 foot drop to negotiate!!. To rub salt into the wound if we had walked back on ourselves, instead of climbing up and going through the field, we would have been no more than 0.2 miles from the gz with no risky climbing involved – hindsight eh! Having looked around we saw a small narrow ledge leading down at a 45 degree angle to the base of the cliff – but with no protection from the drop on one side. The men folk took the ledge whilst the women and children found a less dangerous but longer route. As the men arrived at the GZ Mr T did the honours and uncovered the cache – their 1000th! Well Done All. Mrs T soon arrived and seems somewhat surprised at Mr T’s discovery…comments on the lines of, “well it’s taken you until a 1000 to finally find one!” etc. We signed the log and posed for photos and Mrs T started to get a twinkle in her eye as she caresses the cache (see photo to see why). Great caches, great series, great day and most of all great company.
Length
|
Estimated Duration
|
Difficulty
|
7.5
|
6
|
5
|
Max Elevation
|
Terrain Types
|
Smiley Rate (Caches/Distance)
|
1250
|
Cliffs, Lime Quarry,Paths,Fields
|
0.6
|
It’s been a busy week this week. The Good Wench decided we should pick up a few local caches around Tockholes on Tuesday (ones that annoy us on our map) so that’s what we did. On paper they looked like drive bys but the roads are terrible so we ended up walking. The Captain headed out on his own one day to complete the Reelers Trail. This is part of the LEGEND series of caches that are placed along the 32 mile Witton Weavers Way. This section is 11 miles of the most unforgiving terrain. Coupled with recent local floods it made this walk a real calf punisher. At one point a bridge spanning a river had been washed away so The Captain had to wade across carrying the geohound –think St Francis and you get the picture. All this though was just practice for the weekend’s big event.
Our caching buddies The Tennants planned to land their 1000thcache on Sunday and we had already arranged that ourselves, stevebm, Rishes10 and The Tennants would gang up (again) and have a go at Khoomfays Blue Lagoon Bonanza series in Buxton.
The Good Wench packed the car up the night before and The Captain dropped stevebm a text with the pickup time. Sunday arrived and we head out – drizzle –doesn’t bode well. The drive down to Buxton is pretty quiet and as we approached our destination the Captain remembers he’s loaded some local caches into the Sat Nav and they are starting to show up. Hmm ten minutes to spare so we pull in to a pub car park and nab a sneaky one to start the day off (GC3MZD7).
20 minutes later and we’ve arrived at what we thought was the suggested parking spot for the first cache of the day. We put a call into The Tennents who were only 5 minutes away. Mrs T was still giddy from the night before after seeing Starlight Express at the theatre (don’t you know). ‘Brill’, thinks the Captain, bloody showtunes all day!
With the arrival of the remainder of our group we saddled up and began our search. We were right outside the security office for the HSL (Health & Safety Labs) and we started to draw the attention of the guards. Curiosity got the better of one of the High-Vis patrol and out he came to check on us. Happily though the he knew what we were (nutters) and kindly pointed out where the entrance to the public footpath was. We paid him absolutely no attention stuck to following the arrow around and continued searching on ‘high’ground. We didn’t seem to be getting anywhere until The Captain leant over the bridge and realised that there was something below us…. Er guys! We made our way down to the public footpath (the one the guard had told us about). The chaps arrived first and started the search. The Captain had a poke about with a stick, stevebm cleaned his glasses of rain and The Good Wench popped a squat in some bushes… typical days caching for us lot really. Mrs T has come the long way round but eventually joins the party and within 2 minutes she has the cache in hand. She witters something about ‘bloody men’ and ‘can’t see for looking’ but in the end we have number 1 bagged.
From number one we walked as a group down the path and read some of the signs and clocked some of the strange buildings along the way. People’s imaginations were working overtime about what weird government experiments take place here and we began to wonder if we would be smuggled into a blacked out van and carted off to become the victims of some mad science experiment. Before we knew it though we landed at the gz and soon had the cache located. The rain was blowing sideways and it was starting to become a real struggle to sign anything. The log was already disintegrated so we constructed a new one out of some scrap paper.
At this point we all looked like drowned rats. The walk from number 2 was on easy ground but the rain wouldn’t let up. Stevebm was constantly having to wipe his glasses and was considering installing wiper blades if it carried on like this. We found a tree to huddle under and while we are all dallying around the youngest crew mate found the cache… nice n low down where he can reach best. The tromp through the fields had started to pull on the legs a bit and The Captain was reminded of the 11 miles done the other day around the Reelers Trail… but he’s not one to complain! We reached the gz and looked at the hint…then looked at the ground…back at the hint… and again at the ground… then someone said what we are all thinking… “you’ve got to be kidding”. Needle in a haystack anyone! When the hint says ‘under a rock’ in a monumental pile of rocks it doesn’t help much. We began the search of the area and stevebm and The Captain kept diving out from under the tree cover to get a better gps reading… nope still points there. We were close to a dnf so Mr T started to drop the CO a text for a clue when hey presto young Rishes10 realised he’s been stood on it (well he said he ‘found’ it but I’m not so sure). Wow – how did we miss that. At this point stevebm has one of those moments where you say something you know to be daft but it’s too late the words are out there and EVERYONE heard them. Quote, “I’ve never seen a white ammo can that colour before”…yes it was white. If nothing else stevebm provided the entertainment for the day and we didn’t let him forget his senior moment all day! Great cache and one off our DT grid as well so double bonus.
The Captain was late arriving to the gz for the next cache as he had been taking some photos now that the rain had eased. The rest of the group were already scowering the rocky outcrop and Rishes10 was perched on a rock face shoving his hand in all the holes. That lad is like a limpet when it comes to scaling any trees or cliffs. The group was getting frustrated after a while as this cache wasn’t rated too high and we seemed to be missing it. The Captain started to take a look around and the first obvious place he looked he found the cache! Mrs T blurted out that she had already blinkin’ looked there… The Captain made a mental note of this comment. Now at this stage you need to go back to the top of the page and re-read the comment Mrs T made when she found the first cache. Having already given the boys a telling off because she had found a cache where others (men folk) had supposedly looked. Now The Captain is renowned for not being petty and is not about to turn the tables….but it is my blog so I will…Thought you had looked there Mrs T!! We decided at this point to pitch camp and have a spot of lunch. The youngest crew members were installed under a makeshift shelter whilst the rest of the group sat amongst the sheep brownies. Like some unstoppable runaway train the conversation turned to last nights performance of Starlight Express and within seconds The Good Wench and Mrs T are quoting lines of the play to each other and then, without any warning (and given we are on Health & Safety land it warranted one) they broke out into song (but not the dictionary definition of ‘song’ you realise). Suitably refreshed and with ears bleeding we started the walk to the next gz. Along the way we pulled up the hint and straight away The Good Wench had it cracked. We landed at the GZ the clue made perfect sense and we started to narrow our options down to just one particular area. A fingertip search commenced and with all hands on the pump stevebm came up trumps. With the sky clearing and the sound of distant motor cross bikers we signed the log and headed off for GC2H9WN. We then realised we couldn’t get to it from this point so changed plan and headed for GC2G2X5. As we rounded the bend the lagoon came into view and it took all our breathes away. Simply stunning. The motor cross riders were fearless and were descending and ascending trails at the other side of the lagoon that would have made a mountain goat think twice. The group set up camp at the side of the lagoon and the real men (Mr T decided to raid the larder and stayed on the ground filling up on E numbers) made plans to scale the quarry side to the gz high above us.It’s was a precarious climb up the loose muddy siding, made worse by the recent heavy rains.We had rope with us but we managed without it, just.From the top the view was even better.Rishes10 soon located the cache (something familiar looking about this!). Stevebm broke out the big camera and we took loads of photos.Rishes10 was leaning over the side and was calmly suggesting, how only a teenager can, that Mr T had better not eat all the grub before we got down.With a last look the men folk headed back down to join the rest of the group.Brill, superb, par excellence.This cache should be on everyone’s list to do one day. Still with visions of the Lagoon in our minds we navigated round to the gz for the next cache (having realised we needed to be on lower ground). It’s the first stage of a fantastic multi, in the field, puzzle. We found stage 1 and soon worked out what needed to be done. The Captain spent a moment thinking about how to speed up the process and came up with an idea. Still required some methodical work but not as much as you might think at first glance. Don’t want to spoil it too much but it involves getting something to light up with the right combination in place. Stevebm and The Captain are hidden under a coat trying to solve the puzzle…if anyone was watching they must have wondered what on earth we were up to under there. Just as doubts were creeping in we hit the jackpot and set about working on the second part of the puzzle. Mrs T decided to give this a go and with a lot of squinting she started to read numbers out to us. We had everything we needed for the final so we keyed in the co-ords (of which we had 2 sets because we didn’t know if the number sequence started at 0 or 1) and set off. As we walked through the quarry again we passed numerous burnt out rotten old cars and started to play the ‘guess what car it was game’ and a discussion about the transverse verses the in-line layout of engines ensues between The Captain and Mrs T. As we neared the gz we realised we are using the wrong set of co-ords and quickly loaded in our second set. Yep more like it and again Rishes10 was clinging to the rocks like a fly on flypaper. Nice ammo can for our troubles. We now had the co-ords for the final and with the course logged into the GPS we headed off for our final of the day and the tenants 1000th.
The co-ords put this one off the beaten track and the group spent a few moments working out how best to get to the cache site. In the end we decided to continue walking through the quarry and traverse a slope to our right in order to get on higher ground. As we reached the summit we realised we needed to be heading directly through a farmer’s field (not marked on any of our maps). We go for it and with no one looking we hopped across the field and made our way to the gate at the other end.
As we arrived we were approached by three other walkers who were also a bit lost. We exchanged banter and they headed off back on themselves – ignoring our advice to go the way we suggested in order to witness the Blue Lagoon (their loss)! As we got closer to the gz we realised (not for the first time today) that we are at the top of a cliff and we needed to be at the bottom! 29 feet away but a 50 foot drop to negotiate!!. To rub salt into the wound if we had walked back on ourselves, instead of climbing up and going through the field, we would have been no more than 0.2 miles from the gz with no risky climbing involved – hindsight eh! Having looked around we saw a small narrow ledge leading down at a 45 degree angle to the base of the cliff – but with no protection from the drop on one side. The men folk took the ledge whilst the women and children found a less dangerous but longer route. As the men arrived at the GZ Mr T did the honours and uncovered the cache – their 1000th! Well Done All. Mrs T soon arrived and seems somewhat surprised at Mr T’s discovery…comments on the lines of, “well it’s taken you until a 1000 to finally find one!” etc. We signed the log and posed for photos and Mrs T started to get a twinkle in her eye as she caresses the cache (see photo to see why). Great caches, great series, great day and most of all great company.
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