So a couple of days after the weekend of two Megas it was time to go to Wales for the 2016 UK Mega, there were lots of people camping, I don’t really have the camping equipment to camp for a week, nor really a tent big enough either – and my tent is about as big as you can comfortably erect on your own anyway, so I stayed in a hotel a couple of miles down the road from the campsite for 4 nights.
I had intended to set off early and find some caches on the way down, but things didn’t work out like that and so the Wednesday evening event was the first smiley I got
3rd August 2016 – Medieval Knight – North Wales Mega Wednesday GC6ATPH – cache #4076
This was supposed to be a night caching walk, with people playing characters to give you the clues for the directions. I left the Mega Marquee for the 9:00pm walk up the hill, got to the car park and was told it was cancelled and came back to the Marquee – Not that I was bothered cos it was horrible weather to be up on the hill wet and windy
The next day the organised activity was a trip up Snowdon, the train was all booked out (I know cos I checked) and so that left the option of walking up, or not going… I decided not going was probably the sensible option (and turned out to be the right choice !) so instead of going up Snowdon I went to visit the GPS Maze in Llangollen.
The GPS Maze is an interactive display which tells you all about Geocaching and GPS technology and has it’s own special cache icon on the Geocaching website. It is a rare icon as in Europe there have only been two previous GPS Maze events, one in Czech Republic and one in Germany – so having the GPS Maze at the Mega brought a lot of people in who may otherwise have not attended.
First of all though, as I had gone to the campsite I did the Lab Caches there. These were all basic sideshow games, but they have to appeal to children as well as adults so
4th August 2016 – Lab Cache – All is not Well – cache #4077
Get the ball to the top of the tube by pushing it up with sticks – Ker-plunk in reverse !
Code ‘Penrhyn’
4th August 2016 – Lab Cache – Hidden Staircase -cache #4078
A maze to find your way out of
Code ‘Dolbadarn’
4th August 2016 – Lab Cache – The Noisy Corridor – cache #4079
get the loop across to the other side of the wiggly wire, if the buzzer doesn’t sound the cache opens
Code ‘Caernarvon’
4th August 2016 – Lab Cache – Flying Colours – cache #4080
Flags of many colours… and a code sheet to decode by
Code ‘Criccieth’
4th August 2016 – Lab Cache – The Labyrinth of Passageways – cache #4081
Get the ball to the end of the maze
Code ‘Dolwyddellan’
4th August 2016 – Lab Cache – Under Attack ? – cache #4082
Up Periscope ! to spot the ship on approach, and a chart to work out which ship it is
Code ‘Bangor’
4th August 2016 – Lab Cache – Ramparts View – cache #4083
Spot the letters hidden in particular compass points
Code ‘Holt’
4th August 2016 – Lab Cache – The Dungeon – cache #4084
Instead of a ball pool, a ball tent… not made easier as the rain had rained in making it a pool in the tent !
Code ‘Ewloe’
4th August 2016 – GPS MAZE EUROPE GC66HYC – cache #4085
I went to visit the Maze on Thursday so as to avoid the crowds on Mega day !
The GPS Maze has it’s own set of lab caches
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 1 – cache #4086
Code ‘7’
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 2 – cache #4087
Braille to decode
Code ‘FTF’
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 3 – cache #4088
Code ‘Foxtrot’
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 4 – cache #4089
Code ‘Llangollen’
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 5 – cache #4090
Code ‘Archimedes’
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 6 – cache #4091
Code ‘Ddraig’
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 7 – cache #4092
Code ‘Iron’
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 8 – cache #4093
Code ‘8’
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 9 – cache #4094
Code ‘1352’
4th August 2016 – GPS Maze Lab Cache 10 – cache #4095
Shine your torch in the right hole and the answer is displayed
Code ‘Maze’
After this I walked down into the town to find something to eat and didn’t find GC Church Micro 5780…Llangollen – Methodist several other people were wandering around in the vicinity looking for it, but none of us found it that day
4th August 2016 – LCT:014 GC40CNX – cache #4096
Then I walked back along the canal to where I had parked my car, and did a few of the Llangollen Canal Trail series – nice easy caches along the canal towpath (I’m not bothering with individual details for these caches, bear in mind there are only 4 variations along all the caches I did and they are all 161ft apart… cut and paste caches)
4th August 2016 – LCT:013 GC40CNX – cache #4097
4th August 2016 – LCT:012 GC40CNK – cache #4098
4th August 2016 – LCT:011 GC40CND – cache #4099
4th August 2016 – Horseshoe Pass GC6K21W – cache #4100
A quick drive out of town to find this cache at the viewpoint at the top of the hill – it would have been much easier if there hadn’t been a couple of people (non-cachers) sat in their car right next to the cache – but I managed anyway
4th August 2016 – A Small Travel Bug Hotel GC6P1HW – cache #4101
This was a rather large box outside the admin hut on the campsite – not hard to find at all !
4th August 2016 – Sombreros After Snowdon North Wales Mega Thursday GC6ATF4 – cache #4102
I didn’t go up Snowdon – I had thought of walking but the weather didn’t really look worth it (and judging by the photo’s of the people who did go up it wasn’t worth it – they couldn’t see more than about 10mtrs because of the mist !)
But I did have a good time in the evening in the Marquee – I was in a nearby hotel so driving and so unfortunately no tequila for me
