PS I wouldn�t recommend geocaching for anyone that is unfit. I consider myself fairly fit but after walking that distance I was ready to drop. On the plus side, I saw loads of interesting stuff, well, interesting to me anyway; an old quarry, stone circles, huge waterfalls, drainage pipes you could crawl in, twisted and collapsed trees in the middle of nowhere, tunnels carved into bushes, stones overlooking whole villages.
The first stop was supposed to be the Hell Bank cache but we went the wrong way. After spotting a sign for Beeley we were back on track, I realised we were approaching hell bank from the back, and recognising a bad bend in the road from the O/S map id studied the night before I pulled over. Was I right? Yup, we�d just passed the cache, about 200m behind us. I looked up the reference and switched the GPS to that cache. We locked the car, walked down to the river, hopped over the wall and easily spotted the cache tucked against the wall. It was in a black ammo box. Ryan wanted the Bart Simpson figure for his desk at work. I filled in the logbook and donated a (new) golf ball to the cache.
Quite chuffed as this was our first find we headed off to Hell Bank.
We parked on the corner, changed shoes etc and headed off. This time we didn�t need to follow the GPS. We came here last week looking for this cache but went away empty handed and extremely tired.
We also had a photo of the waterfall with the exact location marked. Last time we had left it in the car. To think, I was standing within 2 feet of the box, in fact I probably walked on the stone it was under. This time I went straight to it. Again Ryan was impressed by finding a computer game so he took that, me I took nothing but signed the waterlogged logbook and left another new golf ball. (We only planned on finding one cache so Id brought 2 x golf balls and skateboard keyring.)
After finding this one we didn�t want head home just yet so headed for the Alien Hideaway cache. This one was a couple of miles away, so back to the car (its still there thank god), a quick check of the O/S map, alteration to GPS and we�re off. A few miles down the road and a steep hill and we park in a muddy layby, apparently 500m from the cache site. Forgetting to change my shoes we head off. The land around here is covered in rocks and ferns and footing is unsteady. There are a few of what look to be old quarries around here, with lots of walls under the ferns. We follow the most direct route, following the GPS arrow and end up in a quarry bottom. Finding the path, I see a tree about 100m away; �I bet its there�, I check the GPS and it looks to be the right one. We have no photo of this site but the tree stands out a mile. It�s the only one with leaves. It is the right place and soon im signing the logbook. Its my turn for something out of the cache and I spot a nice looking pair of cufflinks and matching tie pin. In goes our only remaining item, the skateboard keyring. I gotta bring more stuff next time. And note to Ryan. Don�t eat things from caches again, you don�t know how long they�ve been there.
The last and final cache was pretty difficult. After going to Matlock when we should have gone to Bakewell � my fault I should have turned left, not right, and the GPS had lost its signal � we drove to within 300m from the cache. We literally dumped the car on a verge by the side of the road and followed the GPS arrow across the field. After the field is a small wood and a clearing in the middle. After that is another small wood and another clearing. In this clearing is a tree, obviously struck by lightening and of course a rope swing. The GPS arrow is playing funny buggers so we head towards the bushes at the back. After crashing our way through the bushes we come to a near cliff face. Now I know why this one is called Don�t go at midnight. We turn around and read the hint from the geocaching website. It says about a tunnel so we look around and find a tunnel carved through the bushes on the far side, squatting down we crawled through this until 50m later you appear at a large rock and a view of the valley below. Ryan reads the hint again, �under a grindstone�. We both look for a round grindstone and 5 mins later cant see one �Read that again Ry� I shout.
�Under a gritstone�
�gritstone now?�, we trek back to the huge stone we first saw, apparently its some local folklore stone. Ryan looks around the top while I search under it with a stick. I unearth it a minute later. I sign the logbook and leave a pound because I have nothing else. Ryan takes a bouncy ball that he throws at everything on the way back to the car.
All in all a quality day, nice weather, lots of stuff seen and over 70 miles clocked up on the Peugeot. I�ve already filled a bag with stuff to swop next time, and downloaded the nearest 25 caches to home. Hopefully this weekend will be another trip out. |
