From the archives: Geocaching

Since many people may not be having a holiday this year, I wondered if you have tried Geocaching?  It's great fun and a good way to explore somewhere.
Here, I'm linking to a blog post from 2014 here, where I allowed my readers to join me on a Geocaching adventure in Northumberland!
Enjoy!

Searching for treasure: the joy of geocaching!

Our first full day in Northumberland began not so well as I had an awful headache which had carried on over a full 24 hours from the previous day. We stayed in bed quite late until WOMOTM  gave me a combo of Codeine and Paracetamol which thankfully did the trick eventually.   I finished up a book that Char sent me, walked through Haltwhistle to the Post Office before meeting up with CBC and his brother WKWTTG to go in search of a Geocache.  A geocache is a bit like a treasure hunt but it’s based on using a GPS signal and some clues to locate a hidden box/item with a log-book and tracking signal and some ‘treasure’ that people who have previously located the geocache have left.   I first heard about these from my brother-in-law at Christmas when we went for a walk along Haltwhistle Burn in search of a Geocache. He had found one and taken a little wooden fellow named Woody almost a year ago and was trying to find a new place to put him. We failed to find the Christmas Cache (there were about a thousand rocks and tree roots to look under).  Today, we headed out towards Allen Banks.  We parked up by the former Staward Station which used to be part of the now-deceased Allendale line (it is now a holiday home) and after one false-start, headed down a very,very overgrown public footpath down towards the Staward Gorge.  I and WKWTTG were wearing shorts so weren’t too fond of this.  As we walked, I thought of adders and broken ankles and had in mind writing this up as one of those Choose your own adventure stories based on which path you take- hey that would be fun- I could create hyperlinks to different blogposts based on what happens next based on your decision. Thankfully for your sake, I am too lazy to do this. If you (reading this),decide to use the idea, please give me acknowledgement.

Using the OS map as guidance, we reached a very, very steep path downwards through woodland. When I get to places like this, I sometimes wonder why I go on these adventurous walks because I really, really hate steep downwards paths, especially through soft, moving matter and if you saw me, you would think I was in my 90’s, not my 30’s.  I grumped and grumped to myself as I descended slowly. CBC burst out laughing when he saw me virtually crawling on my bottom down a path at about 1metre per hour, saying I looked like I needed the loo or had wet myself.  Thanks, kind husband.  Eventually, the path levelled out and became less extreme.  We followed the GPS signal until we reached a stone kiln. A handy-hint from a previous finder of this Geocache had told us we didn't need to climb the kiln.  WKWTTG and I searched the wall carefully as CBC skipped ahead.  CBC triumphantly called out, "Found it!" and produced a Locknlock box.


Inside, we found various weathered items including the Logbook, Geocache instructions and various treasures. WKWTTG logged our finding in the book and we decided to take a Frog-keyring which had come from some Scouts who wanted to be returned to Berkshire which we thought we could do.  Success!  We placed Woody in the box and hid it back where it came from.


Next,we headed down through the woods to the banks of the river Allen.  It was beautiful- stepping stones and fresh flowing water- it was quite shallow due to less rain.  We washed our muddy hands in the river and decided, rather than heading back up again to the footpath, to try and forge our own path along the banks of the Allen.  It was a little precarious with slippy rocks and fallen logs but much more preferable to climbing back up.






We headed onwards, with one or two hilarious- "How am I going to get there?" moments.  One part, we feared we would have to cross the river on some precarious rock stepping stones (not really stepping stones but that's what they'd have to be) due to a massive fallen tree or two on our bank but luckily we managed to clamber through the gaps.

As always, I was bringing up the rear and when I had to clamber  between the two fallen trees, I got stuck by my rucksack to the log above at the same moment as impaling my hand on a thorn with both my feet on the same tiny,slippery foothold. I was in a bit of a panic for the moment as I couldn't move any part of my body without slipping- eventually, standing with feet on top of each other, I climbed out of my rucksack which fell to the ground. I chucked it in front of me and somehow managed to clamber through the gap! Phew!




We reached one point where luck was really on our side. Had it been a wet summer, we would have been totally stuck- rockface on our right- deeper river on the right, but the lack of rain had led to a series of rocky platforms we could walk alongside the gorge rockface.








We came at last to a place where we could climb up to try and reach the path and, according to the GPS, we were near to another Geocache.


Clues and signs including looking for trees that were carved by forestry workers during WW2 about PoWs from the nearby PoW camp and  a tower of sorts. CBC set off further along the path and WKWWTG and I searched all the probable hollows of trees and holes in the stones, natural walls. We searched for a LONG time and frustratingly found nothing.  A ping from the phone told us we were near and a clue told us to look at the base of a yew tree but we weren't sure what that looks like.  I vaguely recalled that Louise told me I was standing by an old Yew tree in a previous blogpost and tried to look for a slightly reddy, spongy tree but apart from that, wasn't sure what to look for.  I saw a sort of conifer-looking  tree which I searched around but to no avail. Finally, CBC returned and we told him the Yew clue.  He headed down below a tree I'd searched around and suddenly called out, "Found it!" and he'd gone right to the base and located another plastic box!  Again, we signed the log book but in this case, as we'd forgotten to bring some alternative treasure to replace, didn't take anything.

It really was time to return to the car so we did just that, via several very grassy fields and slopes.



We noticed that the phone GPS told us that there was another treasure just near where we'd parked the car with the clue, "STOP and enjoy the view"- can you guess where the treasure was hidden?
Once again, WKWTTG and I searched around and then CBC located the treasure. Each Geocache lists its size on the website and this was a 'very tiny' one.  Blimey- yes, it really was that small! I can't believe we found it!!!! There was no treasure but a titchy rolled up log-paper!

It was a relief to get back to the car and go home but what an adventure! We'd had a marvellous time and definitely want to go in search of more Geocaches!

Have you heard of Geocaches? Would you like a go?  It appeals to my inner Famous Five.  Go to www.geocaching.com for more information.  It appears there are LOADS near where I live!!!


xxx

The Broomway

On Saturday night, CBC and I went out for a late cycle.  We left home at 7pm. We were going to do the Barling Loop- Barling is a village near Southend which has beautiful Christmas lights and CBC wanted to show me the cycle. It was beautiful and cool but then CBC decided to extend our ride.  However, when we got there, he decided to extend our cycle to Shoeburyness.  As we were going, we saw a sign to Foulness Island, so we decided to follow the signs and go and see if we could go to the edge of the water to see the start of the Broomway at the Wakering Stairs.

The Broomway is dubbed as "the most perilous byway in England"  It has gained this notoriety by how disorientated those who walk it can get especially if the conditions are poor and the fact that you are pretty much sure to drown if you are still out on the sands when the tide comes in.  Over 100 people die a year on it.

To reach it, we had to enter MoD land and ask to go through a barrier to reach the Wakering Stairs.  The roads leading to here beyond the barrier were totally empty and it was really surreal.

When you reach the Wakering Stairs, you find the start of the Broomway.  It's situated on the Maplin Sands and in theory all traffic can use it.  It was the only foot access to MoD-owned Foulness island until a road bridge was built in 1922 over the Havengore Creek.

The Broomway is 6 miles long and goes through the Maplin sands 400m from the shoreline.  Both the river Roach and Crouch meet here causing dangerous whirlpools when the tide comes in. Here's a BBC article about it here.

You can read more of the history of it here and I've linked to Googlemaps here so you can see how the causeway really does go out to sea, as it were.

When we reached the steps, the tide was completely out and it really did feel like we were in a nuclear wasteland! It was so utterly quiet and still.

This is the beginning of the path out- I walked on it for about 15metres and then got scared when the sands got swampy and walked back!

It was really exciting to have finally come to see it at last after scrutinizing it on the map before and all the more so, because we weren't expecting to do this!

We had to continue on our journey as it was getting darker and we needed to get home.  We headed towards Shoebury East Beach as CBC wanted to see what East Beach was like.  Unfortunately, this was a silly decision as I managed to get a puncture. Usually this would not be a problem, CBC could change my inner-tube but for three things:

1.  When we went to Norfolk, he just discovered that when they did his adjustments, they didn't replace his little tool bag that sits under his saddle which has Allen keys, spare inner-tubes and tyre lever.

2.  The spare inner-tube in my bag had a puncture in it.

3.  I had forgotten to pick up my rucksack as we left so I had absolutely nothing with me!

At Gunners park entrance, CBC decided to cycle home to go and pick up the car and to come and collect me. As I didn't have a phone, he told me to just keep walking along the seafront but stop when I reached the Kursaal.  

I did that, wheeling along my bike with a very sloshy back tyre. It was about 3miles from there to the Kursaal and it took quite a long time.  I saw lots of people and enjoyed hearing the sounds of the sea but I was sad not to be able to complete my cycle ride.  As time went on, I became worried in my head as it had got dark almost immediately after CBC left me and I was fretting about him having absolutely no lights and having to take the back roads back home which are used as a ratrun and have no lights. I prayed fervently, as I walked, that CBC would be ok.  It seemed such a long time and I was worried.  Amazingly enough, about 4 minutes after I reached the Kursaal, he pulled up in his car!  

Here's a photo from Gunners Park.

It was an adventure, definitely!  Perhaps, a bit more forward-planning might have been better for this but I certainly enjoyed visiting these places I've never seen before!

I found a video of people walking the Broomway here:

Have you ever walked along a causeway or a dangerous path?

x

Circumnavigating the UK- Lost at sea!

In my haste to write up my cruise, I totally forgot to mention what happened after we left the Orkney islands and headed straight to write about our adventures in Belfast.

But, the eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that I mentioned in the Orkney post, that we were due to head to Portree on the Isle of Skye BUT that there was a storm headed for the Scottish waters.

Well, when I returned from Kirkwall,the announcement came through from the ship's crew that because the weathers and seas were due to be so treacherous in the North sea etc, that it would be too dangerous to anchor outside of the Isle of Skye. It is one of those stops where the harbour is so shallow for a Cruise ship so they anchor and then Tenders (I don't get this name- they are BOATS to me!)  would ship passengers to shore.   Given that the majority of the passengers were past retirement age, this seemed rather sensible but terribly disappointing.  Instead, they arranged for an anchorage on Mainland Scotland for a place called Ullapool.

But... this was also an Anchorage and the waters were so choppy that they made the decision that we would have to spend the day at sea heading for Belfast. I was so disappointed, as were most people.

The next morning, knowing that we wouldn't be able to stop, we would have to find things to occupy ourselves with.

I am going to give you extracts from my diary.

"Sunday the 7th August:
The sea was extremely choppy all night and so we experienced crashes and bangs and constant waking up. I heard things go 'clonk' next to me. Really, I couldn't believe the fact that I was awake at 6.50am despite not setting an alarm at all! Mum and I both lay in our bed with Breakfast News  telling of Olympic feats from Day 1 and drank tea.  My bed was a total mess as I'd tossed and turned all night. It's very nice the way they make our beds each night, but I like a messy, loose bed, not hospital corners!

Soon after,we ate breakfast in the Kensington Restaurant rather than the Raffles Bistro which was very civilised.  As we ate, sadly, we heard the announcement that we were not going to stop at Ullapool due to the extreme weather conditions making anchoring dangerous so we'd be at sea with stormy weather conditions.  Yay.

We read our book in the Quiz lounge.  I guessed whoddunit it in The Queen's Head and then went to the Craft workshop where I made an attractive butterfly heart with Billie.  You had to pay £3 for the canvas and materials.
It was so fun sitting there sitting sticking tiny butterflies whilst around me, others did the same.  It was rather sweet because an elderly gentleman at the end of the table sat colouring in a colouring page.

After this, I spent a while searching for the lovely Irish lady Miriam, who we'd met when receiving a tour of the Bridge. She'd asked to borrow our adaptor but I failed to find her. I caught Mum heading up to Lunch. Mmmm, I much enjoyed Aubergine soup and Chicken Satay.

She toddled off to watch The Lady with the Van which was being shown in the Show lounge and I opted to head to the wonderful Spa where I opted for a blissful Eastern Head Massage which was extremely pleasant- massaged shoulders and essentially someone scratching your scalp for ages!

After this, it was time for the Sunday church service in the Show Lounge.  Unfortunately, as we arrived, it seemed we had hit the major part of the storm and the ship was lurching uncontrollably and making movement and general existence very uncomfortable.  The Church service had to be shortened due to the erratic movement and most of the congregation feeling sick.  The Reverend  Andrew McLellan was very light-heated and made jokes about the motion. It had definitely stepped up a notch with high winds, extreme rocking and constant dizziness-inducing movements. Dave Bilbrough couldn't play guitar and lead the worship due to being sick and his wife Pat bravely played on with the keyboard but even she had to go off to be ill in the middle.

Subsequently, I made my way to the 7th floor where I sat on the floor by the lift waiting for Miriam with the charger, to no avail. It did mean, however, that I was able to help an older couple who wanted Sickness tablets from Reception but one of the lifts wasn't working and they were very unfirm on their feet.  I skipped down the 3 flights of stairs (skipping seemed the best way to get down without swaying from side to side) and got them and took them to her room.  I spoke in German to her and she automatically answered in German, not realising I was speaking her language.
After this, I skipped back to my cabin in good spirits and read on the bed but my stomach was doing better somersaults than I have ever managed physically and so I decided to head upwards to open deck on deck 10, the swimming pool area which is enclosed by glass walls so it is the only open area that was open due to safety.

It was SO much better up here though after sitting and writing this diary and catching up on the last 3 days,that my hands are utterly chilled. I've been here for 2 hours now and as you can tell from my increasingly deteriorating handwriting, my hands are numb.  I've chatted to a waiter and a seasick man and a younger couple.  Glancing out, the waves were huge! All afternoon I've heard bangs, crashes, smashes and things going astray which surprises me for a cruise ship- you'd expect they'd have all that covered?   Apparently they've closed the Raffles Bistro as a screen smashed in there and they've cancelled the Stevie Wonder entertainment because of safety for the dangers. I might fetch a cup of tea to warm these hands, Ciao for now!

So... after that, we went to dinner in the Kensington restaurant.  I wore the cute new fish necklace I had bought from a local designer's boutique in Kirkwall and my lovely Laura Ashley dress. 

It was really empty in there as many folks had decided to forgo dinner.  We sat with Fran and Mike only and had a jolly time. The food was tasty but I decided to have less courses than usual and no dessert.

For safety reasons, they gave us plastic cups as a whole table of glasses had smashed before we arrived.  Mike sat there holding his red wine in plastic cup due to its being unstable until we built it a condiment prison to enclose it and keep it upright!

After dinner, since the show was cancelled, they showed another film.  Mum and I decided it wasn't our cup of tea and headed back to the room but I started to feel a bit unwell. I wasn't going to BE sick but I felt most queasy.  She went to watch it and I had a shower and went to bed by 9.  I dislike my solid pillow so I tried to make myself a flatter pillow by stuffing the second pillowecase with a towel.

I didn't hear Mum come back so I was grateful for a better night's sleep than others, particularly when we arrived at Belfast about 1am and were stationary for the rest of the night."

 So, we never made it to Portree which was really disappointing as this was my top 3rd destination I wanted to visit on this cruise and has been on my travel wishlist for at least 16 years.

In conclusion, a day at sea during a storm was not enjoyable but it was certainly an experience if nothing else!

xx

Mr Badger embraces his inner-musician

I am extremely honoured to be hosting an esteemed guest! Mr Badger, from Wind in the Willows, is currently residing with me in sunnny Essex as part of his world tour visiting bloggers. He originates from my dear blogging friends Pom-Pom and Mags  at Fraise.  Part of his mission is to promote and share 'hygge' wiht those he visits.  Hygge is a Danish word with a rough translation of 'Cosiness, creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people.

Before me, he was staying with Cheryl at Sweet Briar Dreams and had an amazing visit to Highclere Castle, the home of Downton Abbey!

It was wonderful to come home on Monday to a parcel which was a patchwork of different address labels.  Inside, I found Mr Badger, along with a beautiful copy of Wind in the Willows.

In addition, he has a passport which every host is invited to stamp and write in and there is an increasing-sized pile of postcards which each host includes. It was a delight to read through the passport and the postcards.

Really surprisingly and delightfully, Cheryl had bought me a gift and postcard at Highclere castle which was lovely!

I look forward to actually reading Wind in the Willows which I haven't done since I was a young child (and then I suspect I was read to).

I discovered Pom-pom's lovely annotations and others inside the book! This book has a great deal of heart and joy in it!

On Mr Badger's adventures.  In some ways, I am sad that he wasn't with me for holiday times, but he is a grateful old gent and will appreciate the Hygge in whatever form it comes!

 On Mr Badger's first day, Tuesday, he accompanied me to school to feel young again whilst surrounded by friendly young musicians.  Since we were learning the recorder, Mr Badger also needed his own instrument so we found him a suitably-sized recorder which he could tootle down.

 Through the lesson, I asked the most-well behaved table to host him and he sat on their table as they took part in their first recorder lesson and tried his hand at the recorder too although we noticed that he was holding his recorder in his right-hand rather than the correct left but as he is an esteemed old gentleman, we allowed it!

Later that evening, Mr Badger travelled up to London to listen to a rehearsal of Hadyn and Ligeti. He particularly enjoyed the slow movement of the Hadyn and could be heard snoozing in the middle of the flute section! We just pretended it was an out of tune bassoon!

On Wednesday, Mr Badger felt rather tired so he stayed at home for some rest and a chance to catch up on his sleep.

On Thursday, he hinted that he'd rather like to spend some time with the children again, so he came to school again and sat keeping time on the snare drum for a very well-behaved year 2 class who enjoyed his company very much.

I wonder what Mr Badger will get up to next? Hopefully,he will have some gentle fun and enjoyment at the weekend!

xxx

The maize-maze at Millet's farm- It's a little corny!

Last week, CBC and I travelled to Oxfordshire to stay with CBC's Mum in CBC's sister's house. It's a little -complicated!   We'd been there for 4 days and on the 4th day, driving to Wallingford to see my uni friend, I noticed we were driving past Miller's farm which had a Maize-maze which I have in my 'Amazing Maze' book (yes, I have one of those-I'm planning future holidays based on it! Anyone live near Dobbie's maze world?)  Ridiculously excited, I decreed that we MUST go there in the morning and SMSd KKWTTG (Bruv in law) who immediately texted back lots of corny maze jokes!)

The next morning, we set off there and swiftly the three of us near ran to the Maze section. If you have kids and are going on holiday in Oxfordshire in the summer months, I cannot say how much I recommend you take them there (or if you just like mazes like us).  We paid £6.50 each and were given a 'Ration book' and pencil which were places to record your maze findings.  You can see some past Maize-mazes in the photo below.  They have had one every year for 17 years. This year's theme was 70 years since the end of WW2.

There's a range of activities. We were, er- expecting to be done in about an hour, but 3.5 hours later and we were still in the maze section, never mind the rest of the garden centre, picky your own, koi carp or craft section of Millet's farm.

We headed in. There are 3 main maze:

The mini, the midi and the main mazes.

You head through some maize to reach the entrances to the maze.

We started with the Midi- Maize.

I thought I'd share the moment we entered this maze with you. You can hear what an idiot I am with the daft commentary!

The thing that takes the time is, you have things to hunt for in the maze.
In the Midi, you were searching for the 8 ration stations which had multiple choice questions about food during WW2.

 Aha! CBC has found one!

 We swiftly found the first 5 without any trouble.  There was some contention over answers, so we all answered differently.

I should mention,for those of you that panicked when I wrote about the maze in my Scavenger Hunt, that you are supplied with a tall flag, should you need help!

 There was a platform to go over with the Millet's farm signs.

 The corn was quite tall and stretched for long way.

 ....

.....

 You aren't supposed to touch the maize or go off the paths but I suppose if you were really desperate to leave, you could squeeze through some gaps!

We loved the differing hair colours of the cobs!

 When we'd answered question 5, we found question 8 and ourselves at the end of the maze! Ahrgh, where were questions 7 and 6?

 Back into the maze, we became separated!!!  It took ages to find the last one!

When we checked our answers at the end, I was a Field Marshal (highest rank) and CBC and bruv were Brigadiers!

That was only the midi-Maze.

The main maze was even more fiendish with red herrings galore!! 

I should say that the ration books provide you with a picture of the mazes but for directionally-challenged moi, this was no help!

In here,we  were searching for the letters and numbers on poppies but there were extra ones! There were four colour zones of the maze to search in!

 Right-o chaps!

NOOOOOOO, a red herring!

 CBC separated and left me and WKWTTG together as he didn't have the ration book! We noticed the corn was taller in here!

The bridges were good for helping orientate yourselves but we wandered for ages without finding any correct poppies!!

Meeting up with CBC again, he found a few in the red zone but the yellow zone was proving impossible!

 We separated off again and WKWTTG and I had some luck once we found the bridge- we found several green zone clues!!!

Eventually, we found ALL the poppies and the codebreaker and I worked out the answer!

Next, we entered the woods which functioned like a simple maze for the Aces High challenge. Outside the maze, was a picture of sillhouettes of enemy, servillian and Allied planes.

Upon finding them in the woods, you had to sketch them and then name the models!

 Great fun for little-uns!

Next, we entered the Mini-maze, for little ones and the corn was suitably shorter! Plus, a slide!!

Ridiculously, as a teacher, I always tell kids to read the question carefully.

We walked around and around the maze trying to find all the pictures and wondered why the mini-maze was so hard. Doh! The book said find FOUR of these pictures,not all!

At this point, our phones rang, J, CBC's Mum wondered where we were. We sheepishly explained we were still in the maze. 

It was time to go, there was plenty more to do, but we had to drive back to Essex.

Before we went, we went to have a look at this friendly tank!

If you are ever south of Oxford, I heartily recommend Millet's farm! It is enormously fun, there's something for all ages and there was plenty more to do.

Here's the website to find out more.

If you aren't near Oxford but fancy finding a maize-maze, may I suggest this Maize-maze website, so you can search for one near you: http://www.maize-maze.com/contact.php.

Hazel, fancy going to the Southwold one?!

xx

Over to you, have you been to one!?