Great Mell Fell

Andy and I have been inflicted with summer colds so we decided to take it easy yesterday and take a wander up Great Mell Fell. Our walk to the top was fine, although as we climbed, I was aware of the strong bracken smell on the wind. That really should have been a warning but on our descent, in search of a geocache, we took leave of our senses and headed off into the head-high, fly-ridden, ankle-twisting, pungent vegetation, getting hotter, stickier and in my case, more breathless by the minute. It was simply horrendous. We should have known better!

Gorge-ous!

I’m not averse to a spot of pot-holing in the interests of finding a cache, which is just as well , as yesterday I was to be found grubbing about in a hole in a gorge near Sanquhar.  As Mr B had other things to do, the dogs and I undertook our little speleological adventure unaccompanied. I knew Molly would be fine but I wasn’t too sure how Monty would respond but I worried unnecessarily. Both dogs were straight into the little cave and “assisted” me as I rummaged. It wasn’t long before I had the prized cache in hand! 

Angle Tarn Pikes

Needing to use up some holiday this week, I decided to do something I enjoy and head to the hills for a spot of geocaching.  Because of the micro-climate that the Lake District enjoys, when I arrived in Patterdale on Thursday, I changed my plans and made my way up to Angle Tarn with Molly and Monty. The views from the Angle Tarn Pikes are always stunning and although there were grey clouds over Helvellyn and Red Screes, it was still a glorious walk. After we’d finished, we headed back for Patterdale and enjoyed an icecream at the village shop!

Middlesbrough!

On Tuesday, after shivering on a Newcastle Station platform for over 2 hours during a conference call, it was a relief to crawl onto a warm train and head off to York via a detour to Middlesbrough.  Middlesbrough? Why on earth was I visiting that neglected, former mighty, industrial town sited on the Tees? Inevitably, it was because I had an opportunity to fulfil a specific geocaching mission, but actually, it was a mystical view of the transporter bridge in the misty gloom that really made the detour worthwhile. What a wonderful, albeit sad, legacy of a great industrial past!

"Leaping" into a culvert!

Work plans meant I’d to be in Yorkshire on 29^th February so I was unable to attend a leap day event organised in Cumbria. But, one was organised close to a location I would be visiting. And, it was just yards away from a cache that had been on my watchlist for some time.  Not wanting to venture in the watery culvert alone, I put out the call for other cachers who might be interested and happily, FlapjackJules signed up! So I spent part of my extra day grubbing about in a tunnel looking for plastic! It takes all sorts.

Finally!

After 9 years we’ve FINALLY completed our geocaching D/T grid! Caching has never been (and still isn’t) about the numbers for us but as the total and variety of caches we’ve found has grown, so has the auto-completion of the grid. And then a few years ago, when there were just a few blank squares left, completing it became a real possibility so we decided to work and finish it. But in true Bradbury style, we didn’t set a timescale or make any specific caching trips which is why it’s taken so long to reach this happy state of affairs

London...

I had a meeting in London last week involving a horribly early start. But by early afternoon I was finished, a little bit sooner than anticipated. As I had several hours to wait before my low-cost ticket train departed, I decided to take a couple of hours off and complete a multi-stage geocache I had started some years earlier (yes, really). I love walking round London as there is so much to see (and lots of caches to find en- route) so it took me a while to reach my final destination. Happily, I enjoyed success at the final stage!

Night Geocaching!

Last week I stayed overnight in York, one of my favourite cities. Travelling after work and meeting colleagues for dinner meant I’d a limited window to find any  geocaches. But throwing caution to the wind after I’d said farewell to my colleagues, I decided to re-visit a cache in a residential area that had given me some grief in the past. With hostile residents behind closed curtains, I furtled about in several wrong places for a short time before following the GPS and finding the cache in a very obvious but public place. Despite my denials, I am obviously addicted!

Night caching!

Undiscovered London

I feel slightly cheated if I visit London and come away empty-handed in terms of interesting places seen. Often, I stay overnight, which makes it easy to find some little historical gem, but day trips present a greater challenge. I thought I knew Westminster pretty well, thanks to geocaching, where informative caching pages have directed me to previously unknown locations but  today, a new cache showed me two more! A delightful mosaic tucked away in a side street which, in true geocaching style, led me to the entrance of the former Westminster House of Correction. If it weren’t for caching……..

The Southern Uplands!

The weather gods were moderately kind in response to my request for fine weather this weekend. Although the sun didn’t shine for long, the rain kept away, allowing us to endure (whoops, enjoy) a windy hike upto the ridge below Hall Fell near Moffat.  The undulating Southern Upland scenery was stunning as we made our way from the Devil’s Beef Tub along the Annandale Way to the cairn, before climbing upto Whitehope Heights where a geocache awaited us.  We’d decided against a circular walk, so after a spot of lunch, returned the way we’d come, feeling invigorated with our efforts

Our former industrial heritage

I usually experience a degree of pathos when visiting old industrial sites, for despite often being dirty, unsafe and noisy, they provided employment and represented a British industrial heritage that is lost for ever.  Recent visits to the riverside walk at Newburn on the old Stella Power Station site and the nature reserve created from the former Weetslade Colliery spoil-heap, reminded me of just how much heavy industry has vanished from Northern England, with inevitable socio-economic consequences.  Although the areas now provide wildlife habitats, ghostly echoes of a different time when coal was king and life was hard, still linger.

Stella Power Station 1991 by Aidan Doyle

Weetslade Colliery

The Stella Site 2015

The former Weetslade Colliery site

Caching Comforts

With Mr Glis working away AGAIN, the busy schedule I adopted some weeks ago continues! With extra early starts to take Molly for her morning constitutional and drives across to Newcastle office several times a week to work long days, there have been times when I’ve felt exhausted.  However, every cloud has a silver lining as on my way home, I’ve tried to find a geocache in some of the delightful villages along the Military Road.  Stopping the car, taking a short walk and finding a cache may only take ten minutes but is hugely therapeutic and lightens the day!

Geocaching Lightweights

As Mr Glis and our long suffering caching friends Robin and Cathryn know, I enjoy solving the odd puzzle cache.  So why did we merely feel relief instead of an enormous sense of collective exhilaration today when, 50 months after starting out on a particular quest, we finally found “gold”?  Quite simply, over-engineering of the puzzle meant that it lost its appeal months ago and although we were determined to conclude the unfinished caching business, the glitter became tarnished. Too many elements detracted from the experience. So are we caching lightweights in not sharing the enthusiasm of most other finders?

Grimaldi Park

Childhood visits to Blackpool Tower Circus have left me with an uneasy feeling about clowns. I know I’m not alone in being disturbed by the exaggerated makeup, masks and unpredictable tragic-comedic behaviours but that didn’t prevent me visiting the Grimaldi Park in Islington last week. I was actually on an (unsuccessful) geocache hunt but the park itself, a former graveyard, was interesting in its own right. The “original” clown, Joseph Grimaldi is buried there, his grave adorned with theatrical masks but additionally, there are two sunken “caskets” of bronze tiles, designed to play musical notes when walked or danced on.

The Last Horsemen

Yesterday the sound of curlews and skylarks filled the air as I looked for a geocache on a farm that still uses heavy horses. Seeing the hand-ploughed field, I was reminded that years ago, we visited friends who used to live nearby. Reared on James Herriot and the delightful story of two elderly carthorses that enjoyed a long and happy retirement, I asked the farmer what happened to his horses when they were too old to work.  I was shocked and crushed on hearing that they ended up on a French dinner plate or a in a dog food tin!

England's Oldest Surviving Geocache

When we were in Chesham at the weekend, we took the opportunity to visit England’s oldest geocache. There was a delightful irony in visiting a cache called “A view from Coombe Hill” when visibility was down to 50 yards but despite that, the pleasure of discovering such an old cache wasn’t diminished. Placed in January 2001, it has become a place of caching pilgrimage, visited over 1000 times, with many of those visits in more recent years as the cache has aged and geocaching challenges that involve finding and logging elderly caches have been introduced. I’m glad we found it!

Snow in the South

Although we'd enjoyed a snowy walk up Skiddaw last weekend, we didn't expect to be walking in icy conditions on our visit to Coombe Hill in Buckinghamshire, yesterday. We were trialling the route directions for a circular walk that Richard has devised for inclusion in a walking book celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Chiltern Society later this year. We set off from Little Hampden and before long were above the snow line! By the time we reached the high point at Coombe Hill Monument, the mist was down and conditions underfoot were treacherous. Luckily, they improved along the  Ridgeway!

Cockersand Abbey

The red sandstone remains of Cockersand Abbey sit on a windswept, coastal site overlooking Cockerham Sands. I hadn’t visited the tiny, resilient chapel for many years but a year ago, I re-discovered it on a stormy day as part of my desire to celebrate beautiful and interesting places close to home. Being in the area again on Saturday, I returned. It’s bleak place, even on a sunny day, but the ruins retain a haunting charm and it isn’t difficult to hear whispers of plainsong on the wind, a lasting legacy of the monks offering their devotions over 900 years ago.

Birmingham's secrets

I've belatedly discovered that Birmingham is a city of delightful surprises. Having never visited, I’d always imagined a concrete jungle made infamous by the “Bull Ring”. And then rail travel arrangements between Carlisle and Reading changed, requiring a break of journey at New Street Station.  Spending a large proportion of my working life on teleconference meetings, the city centre has become a convenient place to undertake calls free of “the train leaving platform 5a…” type announcements. On my search for quiet locations among the concrete, the city has revealed its secrets of canals and monuments, factories, galleries, libraries and churches