Gopsall Temple Geocache

Quite often whilst out Geocaching we are taken to a real gem of a place that we (and most other people) didn’t know existed. Whether it is a circular walk in the countryside or to a place of special interest, Geocaching has given us the opportunity to visit some very special places, brought to us by the owners of the caches. We were out and about geocaching back in June when I spotted a cache located in small woodland located between Twycross and Congerstone in Leicestershire. I quickly read some of the previous logs and it quickly came apparent that this was going to be one of the special places.

Geocaching at Gopsall Temple

We parked the car nearby and had a short walk across fields to the woodland which was beautiful. The Rhododendrons were in flower and the whole woodland had a beautiful untouched feel about it. Not surprising really because it was off the beaten track and people would need to make that little bit of extra effort to visit it.

Gopsall Temple Woodland

We continued our walk towards GZ and as we approached I couldn’t believe what I saw. Bearing in mind this place was not sign posted and not really marked on the map. Gopsall Temple is a Grade II listed building and it is said that George Frederick Handel closeted himself within the temple for 3 weeks during August/September 1741 to write his masterpiece “The Messiah”.

Gopsall Temple

Gopsall Temple is a place of historical importance, set within a beautiful woodland and a place that we probably would not have visited if it wasn’t for Geocaching.

Mick

Public right of way?

It amazes me sometimes whilst we are going on our Geocaching walks as to how often the footpaths are often blocked by the actions of farmers. The majority are fine, and it is the minority but it does sometimes make experiencing the delights of the countryside very difficult. Other examples of not just blocking the public right of way, but making things difficult include planting crops over the footpath, increasing the height of stiles and even blocking or preventing dogs from passing through stiles.

We were recently Geocaching around the village of Twycross (which is famous for its zoo) in Warwickshire when we came across this:

Geocaching around Twycross - Electric fence blocking the path

It is a little difficult to tell from the photo but the footpath had an electric fence passing across it. There was no way of walking to the other side of the field (as indicated by the waymarker). We had to either straddle over the electric fence (ouch) or crawl under it (which we did).

The other side of the field we were presented with a locked gate. A sign on the other side of the road points towards the gate indicating a public footpath, so we knew it was the correct way through. But has it been maintained as a public right of way. NO! We had to climb over the gate to get to the other side!

Geocaching around Twycross - Locked gate preventing footpath access

This Geocaching hobby certainly gives us a workout! As well as the miles of walking, there is the climbing, straddling, ducking and sometimes diving (especially when the bovine residents are approaching at speed)!

Mick

Pixar Movie Geocaches

Whilst looking for possible Geocaching routes last weekend I noticed a new series of caches had been published around the village of Ashby Parva. There had been thirteen caches hidden in a circular route through the fields surrounding the town. The series of caches were all based upon the Pixar movies; so being a fan of their movies we thought it would be quite fun to do.

Geocaching around Ashby Parva

So we set off with our picnic packed and parked the car in the centre of Ashby Parva. A short walk through a couple of fields led us to the first of the caches then we were greeted by these beautiful animals, not sure whether they are Llamas or Alpacas, but they are so cute!

Llamas at Ashby Parva

We continued our walk and through the fields surrounding Ashby Parva and met lots and lots of sheep and new-born lambs. There were lots of ‘baa’ sounds coming from us as we marched across the fields.

Sheep at Ashby Parva

Pixar Movie Cache Containers

As mentioned before, the Geocaching route was based upon the great Pixar movies and many of the cache containers were also Pixar movie characters. So we had the Alien for Toy Story turned into a cache container:

Toy Story Alien cache container

A Mr Potato Head from Toy Story cache container:

Toy Story Mr Potato Head cache container

The character Emile from the movie Ratatouille Geocache container:

Ratatouille 'Emile' cache container

The awesome Nemo from the movie Finding Nemo cache container:

Finding Nemo cache container

...and finally a small bird house representing the movie ‘Up’ cache container:

Birdhouse cache container

We also had cache containers disguised as characters from the movie Cars and even WALL-E. We had such a great time Geocaching around Ashby Parva and it was great to be reminded of such great films. To date Pixar have produced the following films:

Toy Story
A Bug's Life
Toy Story 2
Monsters, Inc.
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Cars
Ratatouille
WALL-E
Up
Toy Story 3
Cars 2
Brave

It is difficult to pick a favourite but if I had to I would have to say WALL-E, who is such a loveable character, a great story and the message regarding mass consumerism and littering our planet is priceless!

What is your favourite Pixar movie?

Mick

Geocaching at Coombe Abbey Country Park

Coombe Abbey Country Park is located near Coventry and is a very popular destination for families and dog walkers. The country park offers over 500 acres of woodland walks, picnic areas, gardens, lakes and bird watching. I have been visiting the park for a number of years with my children and often visited the park when I was young.

Coombe Abbey Country Park Lake

We decided to visit Coombe Abbey this weekend and whilst we were I had a look at what Geocaches were in the area. There are actually two Geocaches located in the park itself; not very impressive really due to the size of the park and how popular it is. We set off looking for the first one and I decided to take a more direct route to its location. I led my family off the beaten path and through the trees only to find that we soon having to jump over water filled ditches as my GPS signal bounced all over the place. We got there in the end though and laughed because if we had only followed the path around it would have led us straight to it. But still, we had lots of fun. The cache is located somewhere in this picture (thankfully it was not in one of those trees that have been chopped down).

Geocaching at Coombe Abbey Country Park

We have taken many photographs within Coombe Abbey County Park over the years and today I decided to take a few of the trees within the park. This photograph is of our favourite tree; just look at that lovely face on the tree trunk!

A tree with a face

And here is the same tree after we had given it some arms...

A tree with a face and arms

As with most Geocaching trips, the second cache led us to a part of the park that we haven’t really visited before; the cache was located near to these lovely tree stumps with butterflies carved onto the stumps.

Butterfly carving on a tree stump

And also this tree stump that was covered with fungi...

Tree stump fungi

So that was our Geocaching trip to Coombe Abbey Country Park; a good day out within the park but it is probably in need of a few more caches to keep us busy.

Mick

Geocaching around the village of Baddesley Ensor

Wasn’t it a gorgeous weekend with a lovely Spring-like feel to it! On Saturday we decided to head for the village of Baddesley Ensor, near Grendon in Warwickshire for a spot of Geocaching. We parked up in the village and headed for the first of six rambles in the area.

Geocaching aound Baddesley Ensor

Ok, firstly for the negatives. There was an awful lot of dog mess about and all of it was right in the middle of the footpaths too, what is it with people? We were forever warning our son to be careful which made the walk a lot less enjoyable than it could have been. Also quite a lot of rubbish too, what should have been a lovely area was spoilt really and I had the impression that the walks were not very well maintained. Once upon a time the view from the area would have been wonderful but now a huge industrial park (Birch Coppice) has taken over and is a real blight on the landscape.

Footpaths around Baddesley Ensor

Quickly onto the positives! The owner of the Geocaches had made the effort to detail the history of the area. That is something I really love about Geocaching; most caches that are placed are in areas that mean something to the owners and in this case the owners had lived in the area of Baddesley Ensor and wanted to share the history. If you ignored the stain of Birch Coppice industrial park, there are some nice views; this one looking over a freshly ploughed field particularly got my attention (this is looking in the opposite direction to the Industrial park.

Baddesley Ensor - Near to Birch Coppice industrial park

We came across some unusual sights on our walk; we have seen this one quite often whilst Geocaching and that is a pointless stile (i.e. the hedge or fence has been removed leaving the stile all on its own). Every time we come across something like this we are always tempted to still climb over it!

Pointless country stile

Then there was this Graveyard, but no church and in the middle of nowhere (surrounded by fields). I bet this place is a bit creepy at night!

Baddesley Ensor graveyard

So that was our ramble around Baddesley Ensor, there was nothing really to show you regarding the caches themselves but we will be back to finish the other walks in the area at some point.

Mick

Geocaching in the snow at Hartshill Hayes

I took our children Geocaching this week to a country park that we have often visited over the years. It is Hartsill Hayes Coutry Park located in Warwickshire, about 15 minutes from our home. We often visit the park since it has some great walks, a children’s play area for the kids and lovely views over the Leicestershire countryside.

Geocaching at Hartshill Hayes Country Park

Our aim was to get two Geocaches to take our tally up to 99 caches; we are saving the 100th cache for a special place that I will hopefully blog about in a few days time. We arrived at the park to find it covered in snow! It had all melted back home so I was a little shocked to find so much of it and hoped that the caches were not too hidden.

Hartshill Hayes Commemorative Wood

The two caches were hidden in a part of the park that we seldom visit, not for any particular reason other than we have our usual favourite walk that we usually repeat each time we come. This happens so often with Geocaching though, the caches are often placed in areas that allow you to experience something new. The first cache was located a few minutes’ walk from the car and then down lots of steps!

Hartshill Hayes Steps!

We scrabbled around in the snow for a little while and then spotted the cache peaking out next to a tree. I don’t think the snow hampered our search but probably helped a little by providing a contrast to the cache.

Geocache in the snow

The next cache was quite a walk through muddy footpaths, waterlogged fields and across streams away from the country park to an area we hadn’t visited before. The cache itself was quickly found and we took in the views across the countryside and a nearby quarry.

Hartshill Hayes quarry view

We made our way back to the car and had an enjoyable visit again to Hartshill Hayes Country Park. Although we have now finished the Geocaching around the park, I am sure we will be back again during the summer months to enjoy the lovely walks.

Geocaching at Hartshill Hayes Country Park

Mick

Geocaching around Claybrooke Parva

I must say Geocaching started well this weekend; my wife did the shopping at the local Asda supermarket and I went looking for a cache that was hidden in the car-park. It was part of a “Off yer Trolley” series of caches, all of which have been hidden around local supermarkets. This one had proved quite a challenge for me and was actually the fourth time looking for it. The challenge being that there were always lots of shoppers about and it was hidden behind the recycling facility; not a nice place to be hanging around at all! This time I went straight to it and it couldn’t have been easier hidden under a rock. I think it must have been hidden under leaves before; well that is my excuse anyway!

Saturday afternoon we decided to go Geocaching since it looked like it was going to be a nice day. We decided to go and finish the series of caches around the High Cross area and targeted a series of caches hidden around Claybrooke Parva; a lovely looking village close to the High Cross on the A5.

Geocaching aound Claybrooke Parva

It turned out to be very cold with a biting wind hitting us across the fields and we set off looking for the last of the Geocaches we needed to get in this area. Thankfully the footpaths were not too muddy but the writing of the log books got progressively harder as we went on due to the cold air.

The Claybrooke Parva set of Geocaches took us on a circular walk through the countryside and we did see some nice unusual caches on our tour. This first one was located next to a fence and for the first time in a long time our GPS signal was a little out. It did look obvious though and I am surprised it has lasted so long without being stolen by a passing dog.

Geocache disguised as a stick

This next cache was interesting. The title of the cache was ‘Bugaboo’ and the hint ‘Could this be a bug's life?’ had me expecting that this cache was disguised as a spider or something. Then I spotted this amongst the trees...

Geocache bug house

I lifted the lid and expected a creature to jump out but there was the log neatly inserted into one of the holes.

Bug home for a cache

I think this is some kind of bug home and if you could let me know what it is intended for that would be appreciated. We completed the last of the Geocaches aound Claybrooke Parva with a slight detour to a Leicester Round cache. It looked quite straightforward looking at the map but as always it is never easy when you are faced with fields is it.

A nice place to hide a cache - Hole in a tree

So that completes a nice day out around Claybrook Parva. Rather cold but we returned to the car with happy faces having found eight caches.

Mick

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is a worldwide treasure hunt game that is free to play and I am addicted! Geocachers all over the world hide containers called caches and submit the GPS coordinates and information to a global database located at www.geocaching.com. Other Geocachers can then try to find the treasures using either a GPS device or smart phone. The treasures are actually small trinkets that can be removed if swapped with something of equal worth. My children love this as quite a lot of the time they contain small toys! All caches contain a log book that you sign to prove that you have found it.

Geocaching - Avoiding the mud!

After Geocaching for a few months now I find it a great way to get out into the fresh air and explore areas that normally I wouldn’t visit. Most of the time the caches are placed on lovely walks that the owner of the caches wants to share and quite often the details of each cache have lovely write-ups about the area. I am so looking forward to playing this on holiday as I it is likely to take me to beautiful places that otherwise I may not visit.

Geocaching - Another muddy walk

You will find there are probably hundreds of Caches hidden in your local area, some you may pass by every day. Here is a sample of an area near to where I live. Take a look at the website and see if there are any Geocaches near to you.

Geocaching map

I use a mobile phone App called CacheSense when out and about tracking the actual caches. This app provides a map of all the caches in the area. You can then select a cache and view the details and even a clue to its location. You can then switch to compass or radar view when you are getting close. Once found a cache changes to a smiley face on your phone app so that you can keep track of those you have found.

Unusual Geocaches

The caches themselves vary in difficulty and also in size. Some of the caches are tiny and contain nothing but a log book. Here is an example of one that was disguised as a bolt on a park bench:

Geocache disguised as a bolt

Other caches can be quite big and contain lots of goodies that my children eagerly wade through:

Large Geocache

Geocaches can also be very well disguised. Can you spot the one hidden in this photograph?

Cache disguised as a rock

It was actually a hollowed out fake rock. This next Geocache was one of our favourites. It was located next to a stream and to extract the Geocache we had to fill a tube with water (the tube had holes in it that we had to block with our fingers). The Geocache then rose to the surface which we grabbed before our daughter got very wet legs.

Fill the tube with water cache

So that is my introduction to Geocaching. If you get chance give it a go; it is free to play, keeps you fit and is very entertaining, but be warned it is very addictive!

Mick