Cold and Hungry, Cold and Wet

Another good but tiring weekend with nothing on the To Do list ticked.

Caching around Loughborough and food at the Noodle Bar with the Linnet Birds on Friday night, after my last Friday session with Jamie. Was sensible by the railway and through the Crem and in Shelly. Got a bit silly going through posh school land.

This was the TB they'd got given at the SWFB. Jealous? Me?

 Saturday.. 15km run on the treadmill while watching SW 3. Managed to get some jobs done, including taking the mountain of ironing back to Bex (and collecting more :-(  ) Watched the FA Cup and the Ladykillers.

Sunday.. car boot, then the Windsurfing club open day. Cold and rainy, but a few girls turned up in T4s.. so hopefully they will join. Got warmed up with a shower and tea and biccies. Finally got the Gruffalo and Snowman/dog onto DVD, so I could download Game of Thrones to put that on DVD for Mandy. Made Dave the laptop table and attempted to sort out my diary for the summer. Too many clashes. Boo Hiss.

Monday... went to see Matt and Indigo Steady perform at the acoustic gig at Costa Coffee (set up by the Well church I think). They were amazing. Indigo's voice does not match her age. Her version of Skyfall was fantastic. Ran home just in time to see Norwich win the Youth FA Cup Final 4-2 overall against Chelsea. Brilliant night. 

Stoney middleton

Up and out in time to play Popmaster in the car. Better than we managed several days in Cornwall. Gave ourselves a limited time visit to Decathlon..

...which proved very useful later on.. and Ikea

.. which hopefully will prove useful soon (although already used the vacuum bags after I discovered why it's not a good idea to be lazy and chuck them out of the loft hatch).

Ikea milkshakes are yummy. More so than the hotdogs, but I'm still glad I had one as it was ages to the picnic. Got stuck in a Bank Holiday jam just after Chesterfield. Through the old haunts of Belper and Calver and then found a spot to abandon the car in Stoney Middleton. We'd chosen to do the shortest cache series I could find. 4ish miles. I failed, however, to mention any height gain that may occur during the walk.

So, off on the Stoney Stroll. Should be 9 caches, but 2 were unavailable. First was nice and easy at the Roman Baths in Stoney, then off up the hill to get the second and look for a suitable picnic spot on the way.

Lovely view of Calver (with the seemingly permanent tent display at Outside)

Stopped at the top of the hill, with lovely views of Froggatt Edge for lunch, having found the cache at the farm first. Chalkie was showing off his zoom and getting pictures of climbers. I was losing a fight with the map. They are a tad difficult to completely unfold and refold in windy conditions on top of a hill.

Back down the other side of the hill..

Pretty reflection in the River Derwent and Baby Cows!!!

Third cache supposed to be by Froggatt Bridge. We used the OS map to get there, and then off up the hill to cache 4. Ma not happy when saw the hill she'd have to climb. So big they were paragliding over it..

Cache 4 was in a wall. I was extremely happy to find not only a cute TB inside, but also a LEGO model (one from a City advent calendar). So happy that I left behind a care bear!!

Carried on up the hill, and up the hill some more, and into the woods and.. up the hill. Ma sat on a rock near GZ. Unfortunately not the one it was hidden under. Last little bit of the hill, then down to Riley's Graves for the Multicache.

Number 6 just a bit further down the track. Soggy an understatement. Poured the water out of the cache. On into Eyam. Got distracted by Pops offering ice cream, then noticing the shop had shut 10 mins earlier. Also confused by his car being there. Minor backtrack required.

Up another hill back into the fields. Got number seven. Saw a baby lamb being fed.

 
Ever wonder what an adult male sheep sounds like? Wonder no more...


Number 8 the last one for today. Real shame this series isn't maintained, and 2 were missing. Ah well. This one was by the boundary stone. Look that one up on Wikipedia. Downhill all the way into Stoney. All happy to find the car. Family tired out. Revived somewhat by McDs back in Lufbra, then they had to rush off. I failed to motivate myself to tackle the pile of ironing.

Put the route into OS Getamap this week.. for a bunch of Norfolkians we did a fair bit of climbing..

Bradgate Park Caching

Confused as it feels like Saturday. Not too late up and out. In hindsight we would have had ages to go to the car boot.. we should have initiated Chalkie. Went to Bradgate Park, as Chalkie had never been there either.

Had done my research so there were 4 normal caches and one multi loaded into the phone to get here. Headed out of the Newton Linford car park for the obligatory loo stop, then turned left off the main path straight away to follow the boundary of the park. Much, much quieter out this way. Thought the first cache was going to be simple.. GZ really obvious. However, 3 seperate searchers could find nothing in the hole. Failed right at the start. Always depressing. Later checks on the log however prove that this one is really missing, not us being useless.

The second one, Lady Gray's, was in a fab location, a kind of mini valley. Ma found this one, and while she was reading out the essay that some nutter had written in the log, some lady shouts down from above "hey I found that one last week, I wrote the really long log". I hope she didn't hear me about 3 seconds earlier as I was being just slightly critical and mocking! Very happy with the treasure in this one.. a red Team GB band. Amazed Ma didn't want it.

Next cache was in the perimeter wall, or so I thought. Brief look, then engaged brain and took more notice of distance to cache. Ran down the hill to the gate Chalkie had seen, then back up the hill, got the cache under a tree by a path that runs the other side of the wall outside the park. Laughed when I saw it was an old Cadbury Options jar, then laughed some more when I found the Linnetbirds had left their calling card. Best bit was the awesome treasure inside...

Another failure on the fourth cache, Dear oh deer. Found what we think must have been GZ, but no sign of the Tupperware. Quick check of the log while writing this (Wed) reveals it's been temporarily disabled.. it's gone! 

Nice view from here though!

Next to tackle the multicache. Down the hill, nearly commented 'should I lie down to make it easier?' when Chalkie said we'd have to 'jump the dykes'. Back up the other side to the woods. Still getting used to new iPhone map. I thought we were almost there, but turns out the massive walled area of trees was not even on the map and we would have to go to the even bigger walled area of trees behind it that I hadn't been able to see. Went striding off to find the plaque, family slowing further behind. Found the plaque on a bench. Worked out the co-ordinates from the clues.. and discovered we would have to back up the hill to where we had just come from. Family given two options. Come and get the clue, or stay on the bench and I would go get it on my own.

They chose option one.

To be fair, Pops came with me. So we hiked back up the hill to the bench we had just walked past. Worked out the co-ordinates, and discovered we would have to go past the cache we had just failed to find, right back halfway across the park. I fear there is a lesson here about multis!! Phoned Ma and Chalkie and told them where to meet us and how to get there. Still, nice views to keep us going..

 
 We made it to GZ and I was having fears that it wouldn't be found after all this effort, but luckily there was a decent hint, and I braved the smell of wee and dug it out.

Dad was doing his best C&A advert posing..

So I thought I'd have a go too!

This is my normal caching pose.. sitting like JJ investigating the toys on offer..

Another good haul..

The Linnetbirds had got there first again!

Timed our arrival at the RV point quite nicely.. Ma had just got the tea and cake in!

Revived us just enough to manage the considerably shorter, but considerably more crowded walk back by the river. Only the thought of the ice cream shop at the end saw us through! This did not bode well for the Peaks on the morrow! Delicious choccy ice cream in Newton. Who needs an actual lunch!

Home v early, so tried to book somewhere for a carvery. Failed, so went to Forest Gate and hoped. Very nice, and the cleanest my plate has been in a while. Home not too late so watched the Jerez MotoGP. Well, Chalkie and Pops watched GP, I researched caches for Monday in the Peak District and Ma fell asleep.

The Dark Side Rules

May the Fourth started with watching the rest of Episode One on the treadmill (10k) as I had cheated and started early when I got back from the Ark Friday night. Managed to half watch another two Wars whilst sleeping, eating and tidying and faffing. And costume making. Completely failed to even start the massive pile of ironing. Oh well. Hopped on Gladis and off to Market Harborough.. late as usual... for the World Wide Flash Mob X Geocaching Event.

Got to the car park in MH no problems, then managed to ride straight past the Linnet Birds car. D'Oh! Starting to panic about time as I set off on another tour on foot. I have rarely seen anything more amusing looking through a car window.. ingenious use of karate gis and outrageous hairdressing skills had transformed Becky and Sarah into Princess Leia and Obi Wan.

Scrambled to get ready in time, then had 5 minutes to spare trying to look inconspicuous outside Tescos on the corner of the town square. Failed miserably. Especially when joined by some woman who looked like she had got lost on her way to Hogwarts! Tried to blag it when some lady came out of Tesco and asked if anything was going on.. she didn't believe that I was in motorbike kit and they were just on their way home from karate training.

 As the bell tolled 6 two brave souls broke out their lightsabres and began the fight.. we rushed into the melee and fought with light and dark siders, brandishing everything from 'proper' lightsabres and bubble swords to a mop and several baguettes. My favourite moment of the battle was when one of the dogs participating (not the one with a cardboard Yoda on his head) managed to get hold of someone's bread based lightsabre and started eating it!

 All friends again after the fight..

ish..

 Not too much carnage left after the fight...

Had the draw for first to find (not me), then some bloke was passing on a Millenium Falcon TB (not to me) and then the prize for the best costume... MEEEEEEEEEEE!  Is it wrong to be 35 and that pleased to be congratulated for wearing bike boots, your Mum's old Mac, and a mask made a rice krispies box?

Made our way over to the town hall (?) to sign the log and avail ourselves of the tea and biscuits. Before we could refresh ourselves, further skirmishes broke out. All was going well with the three small kids and two big ones until I made a boy cry. Oops. In the words of Becky, that I shall emply in my defence... "well he did run onto the end of your lightsabre"!

Market Harborough is a lovely town, so very glad that I'd arranged earlier to meet up with Ma, Pa and Chalkie there for food. Dad seems to have developed a special skill.. he can sniff out a Wetherspoons at 500 paces. I am more interested in investigating the shop in MH that sells the t shirts sported by the event organiser. I also must remind Becky what she said about Christmas presents at the appropriate time.  Loved the Town Hall on stilts, with the bible verses on the side..