What better way of spending an extra Bank Holiday afternoon than tramping over the moors ? I had been thinking that I was a little fed up of walking on footpaths and across relatively flat cultivated fields, so when I had a dry Bank Holiday I thought I’d get out onto the moors and do a series of caches that I’d been leaving for just such a day. One reason I’d been leaving it was that the first cache of the series was just a mile away from the car parking spot – so not a drive by cache-and-dash !
5th June 2012 – Return of the Brass Castle GC3D8A0 – cache #1749
Fortunately there is a cache to find only half a mile from the parking spot, being on the moor it is under a big rock (aren’t they all ?)
5th June 2012 – Finding Eeyore’s Tail 1 GC126D7 – cache #1750
Eventually I got to the first Eeyore’s tail cache, under a large rock, and inside were the co-ordinates for the second cache and a clue for the final cache, which I plotted on the map and then had to work out my way to them avoiding a large bog between where I was and where I was going
5th June 2012 – Finding Eeyore’s Tail 2 GC126E0 – cache #1751
The hint said this large rock has been here a long time… well I could see a huge rock, the size of a car, which I searched all around for several minutes before finding the cache. Again it had a clue for the final cache and the co-ordinates for the next cahe which when plotted on the map seemed a long way away. I decided to go straight at it as the crow flies, which seemed to be the right thing to do as there is a wire fence across the moor which was broken down at the point I got to it
5th June 2012 – Finding Eeyore’s Tail 3 GC126E5 – cache #1752
I spent ages searching rocks on the moor when I got to the co-ords as there were many possible places for the cache to be… so ,uch so that I considered giving up, but then thought that I would just check again and eventually I found the right rock. This time the co-ords for the next cache were only a short distance away
5th June 2012 – Finding Eeyore’s Tail 4 GC126EE – cache #1753
This cache was easier to find as it was hidden at head height on a rock face. The last clue for the final cache was in this one and when I plotted them on the map I had to check my working out twice as the final cache appeared to be over a mile and a half away from where I was, and not on the moor at all but in a small wooded valley in some farmland lower down the hill
5th June 2012 – Finding Eeyore’s Tail – The Final! GC127FJ – cache #1754
The second recalculation of the clues still led me to the same co-ordinates, so half an hours walking later I got into the woods where the cache was supposed to be. It took me a while to fight my way through the undergrowth to the GZ and search all the possible places – GPS lock was not very good and the hint said hawthorn roots and there were several possible trees, none of which were easy to get to !, but I got there in the end
5th June 2012 – Welcome to the Hellmouth (West Yorkshire) GCMG53 – cache #1755
I decided then that instead of walking back to the car the way I came I would carry on through the woods and pick up another couple of local caches on the way. So I walked on through the woods to a small reservoir at the end of the valley. Geocaching at it’s best takes you to some great places that you wouldn’t have ever got to otherwise, this cache is one that does just that – what a great little spot it is, just me and a Heron watching the water this afternoon
5th June 2012 – SUNNYDALE SAUNTER 2 GC2005H – cache #1756
On the path away from the reservoir I was walking towards a pile of rocks where the cache was and round the corner came a horde of people, two chaps out walking their dogs and a family out for a walk… I stopped to tie my boot lace and that delayed things enough to let most of them pass by, but one chap started throwing a ball for his dog right by the cache… I had to go past and hide peeking back round the corner until he’d gone away and the coast was clear to go back and search the rocks for the cache
