Another caching expedition organised by the Yorkshire Geocaching facebook group. The plan was to do a series called “Palma’s Surprise” which was apparently put out by a cacher called Palma Violet… Any similarity between this series and the now archived series called ‘Oakwell Re-cycled’ by a cacher called Hunky Hamster is of course totally coincidental, though as they are the same caches in the same places the coincidences are rather glaring !
Anyway, we met in the car park at Oakwell Hall Country Park one Saturday morning, at the start there were Nine (and a half) cachers and 3 dogs… Mel&Freddie17 (2 cachers, one dog), RichardandJack (one of each), Printerfixerman (one of each), Richlay (one and a half cachers… look at the photo’s you’ll see what I mean), Zoolook (3 cachers) and myself. As the series has no bonus cache it didn’t matter where we started… so we started at #22

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #22, Raiders Of The Lost Park GC4K0K4 – cache #2773
Due to the number of people and the fact that I was wearing dark glasses in a gloomy spot under the trees I stayed out of the way and let the others look for it… as usual when all else fails rely on Freddie (Derek really) to find the cache, a tiny vial hidden in a hole.

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #23, Stick Insects GC4K0BY – cache #2774
By our second cache the group had grown to ten (and a half) cachers and 5 dogs as DesertfoxUK and his two dogs had joined us… again where we all failed to find anything it took Freddie to come up with the cache… though the cache does seem to have migrated 10 yards up the road from the coordinates

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #24, 2-4-6-8 Motorway GC4K0BZ – cache #2775
We had to fight each other to get up the banking to look for this cache… can’t get everyone up to the top at once !

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #25, Jack and Jill GC4K0C0 – cache #2776
I managed to get to the front of the group, so I got to find the cache !

1st September 2013 – That’s an Andy Cache – The Stealth Games GC425D6 – cache #2777
A cache in a quiet residential street, which ahs a high difficulty rating due to the stealth needed to get it without being questioned as to your purpose by the locals… However with a crowd of ten (and a half) cachers and 5 dogs you don’t need much stealth

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #1, The wrong trousers GC4JZA9 – cache #2778
This was an easy find for the first of the group there it was lying on the floor behind the footpath sign

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #2, Make it So GC4K092 – cache #2779
As with other caches in the series when all else fails rely on Derek (Freddie) to find it

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #3, A chip off the old block GC4K097 – cache #2780
This time it was the ones at the back of the party who got the cache as the leaders were looking in the wrong place !

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #4, Fenced Off GC4K09A – cache #2781
We soon had the container in hand but getting the cache out was more difficult… I managed to prise it out before Printerfixerman could Printerfixerman was just about to attack it with one of the implements on his multi-tool

After this our party split up, I went with Mel&Freddie17, Richlay and RichardandJack (five and a half cachers and two dogs) to finish the route while the other went back to the car park

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #5, Lilly the Pink GC4K09F – cache #2782
Definitely one of the better hidden caches on the walk… I do have a copy of the single at home from my childhood so quickly understood where we should be looking even though the coordinates on my GPS said the cache was under the westbound carriageway of the M62

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #6, Totally Nuts GC4K09X – cache #2783
This was a team effort… I found the cache, Freddie worked out where it was and Richlay worked out how to get it out – probably my favourite of all the caches on the walk and deserving of a favourite point

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #7, Split Decision GC4K0A0 – cache #2784
Another clever hide that Freddie had more trouble opening than finding !

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #8, A thorn In My Side GC4K0A5 – cache #2785
With a name like that I was happy to stand back and let Mel go in for the cache

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #9, Out of the Blue GC4K0A9 – cache #2786
I was looking around in vain for an Electric Light to go with the cache title, but Richlay went straight to the cache

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #10, I Saw The Signs GC4K0AH – cache #2787
An upside down version of a common hide, none of us had problems spotting this one !

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #11, A Prickly Situation ? GC4K0AP – cache #2788
Again with a title like this I was happy to stand back and let Mel go into the bushes… but then I saw something that looked out of place and picked up the cache

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #12, Don’t Let It Be A Barrier GC4K0AT – cache #2789
This didn’t fool Mel for a minute, she had it in her hands before I had got a break in the traffic to cross the road

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #13, Not a ‘Shakin’ one ! GC4K0B0 – cache #2790
I was looking for an old house… I was on the right lines but not quite correct… However others in the group were more clued in to one of Shaky’s other hit singles ‘Green Door’ !

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #14, Lifes A Gas GC4K0B2 – cache #2791
No problem with this one, we all knew what we would find at the coordinates long before we got there

1st September 2013 – All Around Drig: Has Anyone Seen Ivor The Engine? GC2Z401 – cache #2792
We were passing within a few yards of this cache just across a bit of rough ground so I popped across to find it, not sure whether the All Around Drig cache names have any relevance to where they are but this one was near the Railway Pub

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #15, A Bird in the Hand ………. GC4K0BD – cache #2793
Another cache in a hedge so again we let Mel go in for it…

1st September 2013 – The 3 boxes GC4ET4Q – cache #2794
Our party had grown again to seven (and a half) cachers plus two dogs (with the addition of one of the Gingernutters and nlspencer91)… though by now the half cacher was getting a little sleepy… those who arrived first had co-ordinates but didn’t read the cache title, those of us behind had the cache title and found the cache first as it’s pretty obvious where exactly to look !

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #16, A Bridge Too Far GC4K0BA – cache #2795
A few places to look to find this cache, Gingernutters quickly had it in hand

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #17, Delicately Hinged GC4K0BF – cache #2796
Another cache where those at the head of the party had found it before we all caught up

After this we didn’t find GC4K0BJ Palma’s Suprise #18, Don’t Croak It ! – Well it was in the middle of a field and would have been a target for a dog walker – or their dog

1st September 2013 – #2 Railway bridge GC2N22N – cache #2797
As we were passing Mel clambered down behind the wall to pull this one out of it’s hole

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #19, Making An Entrance GC4K0BN – cache #2798
A cache hidden in such a way that you couldn’t reach it by hand, Richlay had a tool in his pocket that retrieved the cache nicely, though there did seem to be suitable twigs around that could have been used to retrieve it

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #20, The Long and Winding Road GC4K0BQ – cache #2799
It’s easy finding this cache when one of the group has found it before in a previous incarnation.. would be a hard one to find otherwise with so many places to look… as Windinurhair and The Middletons were obviously finding as they struggled to spot it as we walked down the road towards them

1st September 2013 – Palma’s Suprise #21, Super Nova GC4K0BV – cache #2800
I quickly spotted something that didn’t look quite right and retrieved the cache… bringing to an end our walk round Palma’s Suprise
Five (and a half) cachers and two dogs did the full walk (though the half cacher was asleep by the end) and we were joined at various points by a further 7 cachers and 3 dogs
All in all a nice way to spend a Sunday – And this cache was my 2,800th cache find !

1st September 2013 – An Andy Oakwell Trail GC2JRZ5 – cache #2801
I’m not going to say we did the trail here to find this multi-cache, we had in our party someone who had the final co-ordinates so we just plugged them into the GPS’s and off we went… Despite getting to the coordinates first it was not Freddie who found this cache… he looked in the right place but didn’t spot it, leaving me to pull the cache out of it’s hidey hole while the others were still working out which side of the fence they should be on

1st September 2013 – Gomersal Colliery GC32HXD – cache #2802
After doing the Palma’s Suprise series from the Car Park of the park I thought it would be silly not to have a wander round to do the Earthcache.
My Mothers side of the family were all Coal Miners in the South Yorkshire area so I do feel the resonance of a connection to the industrial heritage of coal mining and I was a lot more impressed with the Mining sculpture than “Fiddlehead and Fernblades” (see headline picture)
I found lots of rocks in the park… yellow sandstone pebbles newly laid on the paths, Granite ballast from the old railway line, mixed crushed hardcore in the carpark, a piece of slate that probably is demolition residue from a roof tile… in the end I even found some coal !

1st September 2013 – All Around Drig: Has Anyone Seen Marconi? GC2Z40C – cache #2803
I’d walked all around this cache doing the Palma’s Suprise series so it only seemed fitting to stop off on the way home and find this one… as it was a Sunday there was no problem parking outside the warehouse at the top of the path and walking over the footbridge to it. I had to wander further down the path to find a stick to retrieve the cache as it was too far in for me to reach.
As there is a Radio mast quite near, I guess the All About Drig series cache names are relevant to the locations !