Saturday, and I had the afternoon free for caching, so I planned to go and do a set that involved a bit of walking on a relatively easy path – I’m still in a bit of discomfort at time from the sciatica and haven’t yet risked putting my walking boots on and setting off across inhospitable moorland (though there are a dozen new caches on Ilkley Moor that need finding !)
A suitable set of caches was chosen, and of course, there were a few more to collect on the way
21st May 2011 – Oh Wert Thou In The Cauld Blas…… GC25MY0 – cache #1128
Not many Yorkshire caches are named after a Robert Burns poem, but this is one ! The poem is a love poem which basically says ‘I will be your shelter from the misfortunes of life’
In this case though it refers to a bus shelter which has the first line of the poem on a sign inside !
The cache is a sneaky one, easy to find but hard to open. The clue is in the cache description so you either need to have sorted it out first or have the description with you… which isn’t always the case when you are going for a cache that shows as being an ordinary, not a puzzle cache.
21st May 2011 – Big or Little Brothers (and Sisters) GC1G7RB – cache #1129
A relatively simple puzzle cache, that I had solved before but then I couldn’t find the answers so it was as easy to solve it again as search for the answer !
The cache was hidden in a patch of nettles – a common complaint this time of year – but was relatively easy to get to once the coast was clear of walkers… I did get nettled trying to put the cache back in a hurry as a couple and their dog approached.
21st May 2011 – The Cobbleway GCZ78P – cache #1130
A cache that shows the changing face of the village of Hampsthwaite. The cache is on the original path into the Churchyard (The first church on the site dates back to the 12th Century). However these days the road and main entrance – and indeed the whole village are on the other side of the church and the path now leads out of the village.
21st May 2011 – Go Ahead, Make My Day Punk! GCWFG8 – cache #1131
The walk I had decided to do led me from Ripley Castle to the village of Clint, along a section of the Roman road from Ilkley to Aldborough, this section of the road at Ripley is now known as Hollybank Lane. There are 5 caches on the lane and a 6th in Clint village. Mid afternoon on a Saturday the path was quite busy so I decided to walk all the way to the end and then get the caches on the way back.
The cache at the end is a puzzle cache, which I had solved earlier so had the co-ordinates to hand
The walk form Ripley Castle to here is only about a mile and a half but I am currently so unfit that I was absolutely knackered on reaching the end (I had walked about 3 miles down into Otley and back in the morning doing a bit of shopping)
21st May 2011 – Team Townsend Cache 1 GC1ZQB3 – cache #1132
An easy to find cache hidden behind a field gateway
21st May 2011 – Penny Lane – half penny GC1G052 – cache #1133
There are many possible places to hide a cache on a track through the woods, and no telling how accurate the GPS co-ordinates are, so I was happy to have a clue that although quite cryptic, was one I had seen before and so I knew straight away what it referred to and quickly had cache in hand. Also there was a convenient bench to sit on and have a short rest while signing the log.
21st May 2011 – Penny Lane – 2p GC1G04E – cache #1134
The three caches in the ‘Penny Lane’ series are named after a felled tree which has many coins hammered into the cut end of the trunk and the stump. This cache was hidden nearby in a hole in a tree
21st May 2011 – Penny Lane – 1p GC1G047 – cache #1135
Another cache with a handy place to sit down and sign the log, this time a large boulder under which the cache is hidden
21st May 2011 – Ripley Castle GCH2N9 – cache #1136
The last one of the walk – or the first if you are going the other way is actually two caches, apparently one wnet missing and was replaced – and then later the original one returned. I found the the replacement cache, but while I was signing it I looked round and saw a very suspicious pile of stones where the original cache is hidden !
21st May 2011 – Opposite K GC2DNDG – cache #1137
On my way home I stopped off to grab a final cache. Hidden under a fence in a patch of nettles (as always) though fortunately he previous finder had flattened all the nettles so I had no trouble locating the cache and no trouble retrieving it.
The cache is on a spur of road going over the old bridge taking the Harrogate – Ripon road over the River Nidd and is guarded by a large Muscovy Duck who sits on the bridge parapet.
22nd May 2011 – Navvies’ Rook GC2M46Z – cache #1138
Sunday evening and having been indoors all day I thought I ought to go out and get some fresh air – although I did more driving than walking !
Three weeks ago I failed to find this cache, but someone had been to it in the meantime and logged it, so I knew it was there and from their log I knew it was in the middle of a nettle patch. Using my walking pole I searched around in the nettles until I spotted something red glinting, and a closer look showed it to be the cache. I managed to use the pole to push away all the nettles so the only painful vegetation preventing a trouble free cache retrieval was the thistles !
22nd May 2011 – Belles walk # 4: The field GC2NEDH – cache #1139
The other cache I’d failed to find 3 weeks before was this one, which had gone missing, and had since been replaced. The previous time I’d been here I had played the ‘where would I hide the cache’ game and spotted a place that I would use, so it was no suprise that I found the replaced cache in this spot.
22nd May 2011 – Your not far from Donkey Jackson’s steps GC2MNBR – cache #1140
The final cache was a sneaky one, the clue said hidden under a stone behind a signpost, though there didn’t appear to be any stones it could be under except at the base of the wall – where the description said it definitely wasn’t.
I was just about to give up on it when I spotted something and found the cache exactly where it should be – but in a suprising place !
23rd May 2011 – TBA GC2QPRX – cache #1141
I have to say that when this cache was first published I looked at it, but with the name “TBA” passed it off as a cache page that was just a placeholder published too soon, still waiting for a proper title and description, as all there is on the page is an old photograph and a handful of words about it being on the moor… But then somebody solved the puzzle and found the cache… Obviously the clues were there, so I looked at it a bit more closely… and found absolutely nothing that helped me to decipher any code to find the co-ordinates.
However… the cache setter had put a picture of the view from the cache looking down the valley and a spoiler picture of where the cache was hidden… looking up the valley, so it seemd logical that if I started at the published co-ordinates I wouldn’t be too far away and could triangulate in on the cache using the two photographs… and I went straight to the cache ! I have since emailed the setter explaining how I found the cache and asking him how the puzzle should really be solved (or whether I did it the right way !)
