Just under 4 hours from setting off and the group (Bob Adams, Goldfish58, Mel&Freddie17 and myself) had done the first circuit, we had found 51 caches with no DNF’s.
A quick stop to grab some sustenance out of our cars and we were off again – onto the Beswick Basic Batch
16th December 2012 – #02 Beswick Basic Batch GC422XE – cache #2306
It took us almost exactly 4 hours to get the few hundred yards from cache #01 to cache #02 – but we did do the whole of the Big Bang series in between !
An easy roadside find
16th December 2012 – #03 Beswick Basic Batch GC422YY – cache #2307
This one is either going to be much harder to find in the summer, or much easier – when the undergrowth and vegetation has grown again you will either need a machete to get to the cache, or you will just be able to follow the cachers trail !
My GPS seemed to be leading me to one hint item, but after a look I widened my search and found the cache at the adjacent hint item
16th December 2012 – #04 Beswick Basic Batch GC423CV – cache #2308
Whilst I was signing the log at #03 the rest of my group abandoned me and went on to the next one, by the time I replaced the cache and caught them up Goldfish58 had already found and signed the cache
16th December 2012 – #05 Beswick Basic Batch GC423EG – cache #2309
I think Bob was getting a bit bothered as he hadn’t been the one to actually find the cache for the last half dozen or so and so he was determined to be first to this one and strode out ahead of the rest of us… he was indeed the one to find it !
16th December 2012 – #06 Beswick Basic Batch GC423EV – cache #2310
Mel was intrigued by the hint for this cache, and rushed ahead to find out what it refered to, so she had the cache found as the rest of us strode up
16th December 2012 – #07 Beswick Basic Batch GC423F0 – cache #2311
My GPS was indicating the co-ordinates to be about 5 feet into the newly ploughed field at the side of the path, so I feared the worst, but we continued to search the top of the stream bank (between the edge of the ploughing and the steam there wasn’t really much path) Eventually Bob spotted the only hint item in the vicinity and discovered the cache
16th December 2012 – #08 Beswick Basic Batch GC423F6 – cache #2312
Freddie found this cache, and got asked by the farmer from the house just down the road what he was doing, the ‘on a Treasure Hunt’ answer seemed to be satisfactory !
16th December 2012 – #09 Beswick Basic Batch GC4242M – cache #2313
As we approached we decided we knew where the cache would be and ended up going past the co-ordinates and searching further up the road, then we realised our error and retraced our steps to find the cache (okay I admit it was my fault, I decided it would be on one of the Level Crossing signs and everyone else went along with me)
16th December 2012 – #10 Beswick Basic Batch GC4242Q – cache #2314
Bob was the first to get to this cache, an easy find as there was only one of the hint items anywhere near the co-ordinates, and nothing much else you could hide a cache with unless you just dropped it in the hedge bottom !
16th December 2012 – #11 Beswick Basic Batch *BLB’s 6000th* GC4242Y – cache #2315
Mel found this cache easily enough, but couldn’t get the log out as it had become wedged sideways in the container… it took a bit of manipulating with my tweezers before the log could be got out for signing
16th December 2012 – #12 Beswick Basic Batch GC42432 – cache #2316
The path here is on a bridleway that is well used by horses, and horses seem to carve up the ground pretty well and turn it to mud, not particularly nice to slog your way through. Bob came up with the cache at this one
16th December 2012 – #13 Beswick Basic Batch GC42439 – cache #2317
Mel and Goldfish58 seemed to be taking the long way round to this one… or maybe they were going somewhere else entirely, Bob and I did our best to follow the arrows straight through the trees, he went round one side of a couple and I went the other and we arrived at the same place – the place where the cache was
16th December 2012 – #14 Beswick Basic Batch GC4243G – cache #2318
Goldfish58 went straight to this cache, I think because she was more blase about paddling through the mud than the rest of us who tried to find firmer footing among the bushes at the side of the path
16th December 2012 – #15 Beswick Basic Batch GC4243J – cache #2319
Freddie found this one, his cachers eye quickly zooming in on previous cachers tracks
16th December 2012 – #16 Beswick Basic Batch GC4244W – cache #2320
A sign post at each side of the road, I went for one, Bob went for the other… Bob was on the right side for the cache
16th December 2012 – #17 Beswick Basic Batch GC4245A – cache #2321
We discussed the hint as we approached this cache and decided correctly exactly what sort of cache container it would be… down to the specifics of size and colour… and yet it still took us a few minutes to find the blighter – Bob was the one who got it in the end
16th December 2012 – #18 Beswick Basic Batch GC4245K – cache #2322
Third muggling of the day at this cache, Bob had found, signed and was replacing the cache, as the rest of us moved away a 4×4 stopped and a couple got out and asked him what we were doing on ‘their’ lane – Apparently they use the road regularly and we weren’t the first people they had seen acting suspiciouly in the bushes at that location recently, and were just checking that we weren’t all using it as a drug drop
16th December 2012 – #19 Beswick Basic Batch GC4245M – cache #2323
Mel and Goldfish58 had again gone on ahead, but under the trees had got no accurate GPS log and had gone too far up the path for the cache, I went by the hint rather than rely on the GPS – as logged by previous cachers, and soon found the hint item, but Goldfish58 pulled out the cache before I had found how to get to it
16th December 2012 – #20 Beswick Basic Batch GC4245R – cache #2324
After struggling a little with the last few caches it was nice to have a nice easy one, Mel was ahead of the rest and quickly found the cache
16th December 2012 – #21 Beswick Basic Batch GC4245Y – cache #2325
Several of the hint items in the vicinity, as Goldfish58 and I looked at the wrong ones Bob came along and spotted the cache instantly
16th December 2012 – #22 Beswick Basic Batch GC42464 – cache #2326
The women must have been gossiping again as they walked straight past this cache without a pause, Bob was on the phone to Nottins who was after a PAF for a cache he couldn’t find and was telling him that to his recollection the cache was a particular object hidden in a hedge, just at that moment i bent down and pulled out an object exactly like he was telling Nottins to look for – obviously a popular type of cache hide !
16th December 2012 – #23 Beswick Basic Batch GC4246F – cache #2327
Freddie was the first to this cache and then it was a bit of a scramble to climb the steep banking back up to the road
16th December 2012 – #24 Beswick Basic Batch GC4246J – cache #2328
Another quick find by Freddie, and he stands slightly taller than a hobbit, though as they are described as averaging 3ft 6in tall the cache was slightly above hobbit height as well
16th December 2012 – #25 Beswick Basic Batch GC4246V – cache #2329
I felt a bit conspicuous here fiddling about in the hedge outside someones house, especially as it took a while to locate the cache, a task not made easier by it being a very prickly hedge, Fortunately even though it was Sunday no-one was about at the Church next door… The others just watched on as I stabbed myself repeatedly on thorns while I undertook a fingertip search
16th December 2012 – *JumpStart the Basic Batch BONUS* GC42ECP – cache #2330
Although we still had 18 more caches to do on the circuit we had already found the co-ordinates for the bonus cache so we diverted off the route to grab it.
Freddie seemed to be the only one who had put the co-ordinates into his GPS so I followed him and looked further along the banking from where he was looking, and found the cache.
Freddie took away the TB that was in the cache and I dropped the BonaldStoneHunter TB that had been with me for far too long
16th December 2012 – #26 Beswick Basic Batch GC4246Z – cache #2331
Another one where the cache was overlooked by houses and again the others moved off to a safe distance and left me to get the cache. A prescriptive hint made this an easy find, but as we had been muggled 3 times already I did feel a little consicuous while retrieving, signing and replacing this cache
16th December 2012 – #27 Beswick Basic Batch GC42474 – cache #2332
A sneaky hiding place, one we had seen before but a black cache and a strand of spider web covering it made it difficult to see but Goldfish58 spotted it and then has to resort to her Leatherman type multitool to pull the cache out of it’s hide and then my tweezers to get the log out of the cache !
16th December 2012 – #28 Beswick Basic Batch GC4247D – cache #2333
We didn’t need the hint for this one, as we came along the road we saw an obvious cache hide where the cache was supposed to be and there found the cache
16th December 2012 – #29 Beswick Basic Batch GC4247H – cache #2334
This time we did need the hint as after looking at the nearby gate and gateposts and finding nothing we resorted to it to direct us to the right place to find the cache
16th December 2012 – #30 Beswick Basic Batch GC4247K – cache #2335
A hint item big enough for several of us to search at once, though it was Bob who found the cache
16th December 2012 – #31 Beswick Basic Batch GC4247P – cache #2336
Mel was first to push through the prickly hedge to the other side to find the place where the cache was hidden
16th December 2012 – #32 Beswick Basic Batch GC4248C – cache #2337
This time although Mel was first through the hedge again it was Freddie who found the right spot, unwilling to brave the thorns again I stayed on the field side of the hedge !
16th December 2012 – #33 Beswick Basic Batch GC4248V – cache #2338
I have the 1:25K OS maps on my GPS so could see that the next few caches were all on the other side of the hedge to the path, so when a suitable gap in the hedge appeared I went through and walked through the trees to the next cache, though Goldfish58 still got there first and pulled out something larger than I would like to find anywhere outside a nightmare
16th December 2012 – #34 Beswick Basic Batch GC42490 – cache #2339
Again I carried on walking through the woods rather than keep going through the hedge, but the walking was slower in the trees and so Mel was the first to this cache
16th December 2012 – #35 Beswick Basic Batch GC42495 – cache #2340
From looking at the hint there were several possibilities of where this cache was going to be, Bob got the right one
16th December 2012 – #36 Beswick Basic Batch GC42498 – cache #2341
Bob had got left behind a little as he replaced the last cache and the rest of us were walking along the path deep in conversation when we heard a voice behind shout “It’s okay, I’ll get this one” or words to that effect, we had walked right past the cache – a sign of weariness perhaps ? By the time I got back to assist in the search Bob had found it
16th December 2012 – #37 Beswick Basic Batch GC4249E – cache #2342
This cache took some finding, the GPS’s were putting us a few feet away from the hedge where we knew the cache to be, so they weren’t much help and neither was the hint. We were all searching along the hedge, I found a way through to the other side, but that didn’t help us either. In the end Goldfish58 who had been prodding away at the same place for a few minutes looked up and around and straight at the cache which was within inches of where she had been concentrating on
16th December 2012 – #38 Beswick Basic Batch GC4249K – cache #2343
The 4th muggling today, just as Goldfish 58 was standing in the field putting the cache back by the gatepost a landrover pulled into the gateway and a farmer got out, the ‘Treasure Hunt’ conversation was repeated again which seemed to satisfy the farmer who moved away far enough to allow Goldfish58 to finish replacing the cache
16th December 2012 – #39 Beswick Basic Batch GC4249N – cache #2344
A rather overgrown and redundant hint object as there obviously hasn’t been a gate across this track for many years, still it leaves a good place to hide a geocache, a hide that Bob quickly found
16th December 2012 – #40 Beswick Basic Batch GC4249T – cache #2345
In the trees the GPS signal was putting us several yards away from the obvious hint item, and so after a search of the obvious we all fanned out to search further afield, but found nothing… the Bob went back to the obvious and looked in a different direction (which given the terrain rating should have been the obvious one) – and spotted the cache. following our by now normal caching style of letting the girls do all the paddling and climbing, we let Mel go for this one though having the shortest arms between all of us she struggled a bit and found retrieving rather easier that replacing the cache
16th December 2012 – #41 Beswick Basic Batch GC4249X – cache #2346
There was an obvious way out through the hedge from #40 that some of us took, but the girls seemed to make it difficult and the description of looking like you had been dragged through a hedge backwards became particularly applicable to Goldfish58 as she had been !
Meanwhile the rest of us went on ahead and Bob found this cache easily before the girls caught us up
16th December 2012 – #42 Beswick Basic Batch GC424AK – cache #2347
We were definitely well into the home stretch now, only a couple more caches to find, but back to walking across waterlogged fields, just to get our boots muddy again before we got back to the cars. A clear hint made this an easy find for Bob
16th December 2012 – #43 Beswick Basic Batch GC424AN – cache #2348
And so we reached the last cache of the Jump Start the Basic Batch twin circuit at 2:30pm, 94 out of 94 caches found in a time of six and three quarter hours… Which meant we had at least 80 minutes more daylight, so I could have stayed in bed until a much more reasonable hour than 5:00am, started the walk in daylight rather than darkness and still got round the circuit before the sun went down !
Just for information it was Freddie who found the last cache making the final scores Bob Adams 22 finds, Goldfish58 18 finds, Mel&Freddie17 22 & 11 finds and myself, FOX 661L, 21 finds – All in all a good team effort
16th December 2012 – Hutton Tennis Courts GC3V60J – cache #2349
After completing the nearby Jump Start the Basic Batch twin series we headed for the White Horse in Hutton Cranswick for a couple of well earned drinks, then as it was getting dark we decided on just one more cache, the nearest one to where we were which turned out to be this one. While Mel and Freddie parked on the roadside Bob, Goldfish58 and I parked in the Sports Centre car park and approached the cache from the opposite side. Freddie was first out with his torch and so first to find the cache – our 95th of the day (though Bob had grabbed a FTF on his outward journey so it was his 96th)
We had intended to get a few more caches to make a 100 cache day, but we had spent too long in the pub and apart from our weariness it was now dark and getting cold, so Goldfish58 called it a day and headed for home
