The River Run at Arundel - Geocache

Heading over to Arundel to build up some caches again, doing the series that runs round the Arundel. We thought it would be nice to do as it was also the day of  Arundel by Candlelight. So we thought we'd do the series in reverse and end up in the town to see the Christmas market and when returning to the car, retrieve the rest. I shall be posting the caches in the order that we did them to save myself getting confused!

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #9 - Home Run 1

The first cache is located at a bridge running over the river, it's a nice spot to start a walk! I actually keep forgetting to take pictures of the actual place we visit which is pretty silly as it's so nice to visit. 

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #8 - Tributary

We couldn't find this cache at all, the co-ordinates are off and tells you it's in a field that you can't get into. After reading comments people agree they're off and to back track. We searched the whole path and every tree with no luck at all. Quite disappointing! 

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #7 - Sneaky Sluice

This cache is very easy to find, it's so obvious in fact that I have no idea how it's stayed hidden. Just shows people don't really pay attention to their surroundings!

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #6 - Rosy

This cache lays just down the bank a little!

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #5 - Tufty

Lewis openly admitted he likes seeing his face on my blog, how vain is that? ;)

The hint for this cache states that it can be found opposite the red sign on the other side of the river, we definelly, couldn't see a red sign but it was easy enough to find with a huge piece of expanded foam and a pen sticking out. saying "Take this pen"... 

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #4 - Fence Post 2

A nice container that blends in!

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #3 - Fence Post 1

The cache is supposed to be located at a fence post, the fence post is no longer around and the cache is probably too obvious to spot. This could easily be found by passers by...

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #2 - Meander

Unfortunately it appeared this cache has been taken or lost. The location was easy to spot but alas the cache was no where in sight, with other previous people agreeing we moved on and have tagged this cache for maintenance. 

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #1 - Bon Voyage!

A little pot in a little place...

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #10 - Home Run 2

Slightly off the main path but still easy to find, especially sporting that bright yellow colour!

arundel amble halfway shortcut

Although we didn't take the short cut we didn't want to leave one out of the series, this seemed like the most visited log book even though its completely of the course! 

It was a shame that two of the caches couldn't be found as it means we have an incomplete series which bothers me! I don't like looking at the map and seeing an unfinished series of smiley faces! Although there are still more caches to be found around Arundel so we'd be visiting again in the future and hopefully they'll be fixed by then! The series is estimated to take an hour (not sure if that includes the halfway) I didn't track the time as we went into Arundel as well. It definitely a nice walk and an easy series of caches. Hopefully it gets fixed up so that others can enjoy it!

Winkle Walk - Geocache

Me and Lewis decided to do a small series of caches that were recommended to us by Kashpop. The series is found in Southbourne (or Nutbourne I'm not really sure as it's located directly between the two villages but heads into Southbourne!) *note this is Southbourne of Chichester not Dorset. We visited a local pub, The Traveller's Joy, for lunch before which was quite a nice meal. Forgot to take pictures but the portions are great and it's usual pub prices! It was nice to have a warm meal before we headed out into the slight drizzle of British November weather. 

#1 Winkle Walk

The first cache took longer to spot than usual for a magnetic, mainly due to the height of the cache. As you can see the sign is quite high up so it involved stepping back and jumping to see the cache! 

#2 Winkle Walk

 A clever little cache, hidden inside the rock itself! Surprisingly nice and dry.

#3 Winkle Walk

 This cache took us longer to find, looking at the logs you'll see a lot of "DNF" because it's not too easy to find a rock along a shoreline.. especially when it's autumn and all the leaves have fallen and grass grows brown. We had to navigate a bit but found the cache in the end!

#4 Winkle Walk

 Nice and easy cache to see if you're looking for it! 

#5 Winkle Walk

 Quite a nice sized container, surprisingly very dry too. Not well hidden but I don't think any passer by would notice if they were just taking a stroll through the narrow lane. This cache does take you about 30m off course so you do have to back track afterwards. 

#6 Winkle Walk

A nice little camo bag for this cache, there are 2 trees to choose from but it doesn't take long to find the suspicious pile of sticks!

#7 Winkle Walk

 Last but not least, a large container that was hidden under sticks and leaves, in quite a vulnerable spotting sight too. Covered in little slugs, not nice! I tried my best to cover it back up but ducking down under tree in rain is quite difficult.

The series takes in an almost loop, with a short walk back to the lay-by to park. Parking is pretty easy and the walk is quite nice for the view. Haven't posted any of the view purely because it's nice to experience it yourself than through pictures! A lot of dog walkers take this route and it can get quite windy because it follows a shoreline. It didn't take us long to do at all, maybe an hour or so. It's a 2 mile walk so a few caches to gain for a small series!

Chichester Trundle - Geocache

Me and Lewis decided to use our day off together to get some caches under our belt, there's been a series nearby that Lewis has done before with Kashpop that we hadn't done together. So on a nice cold November (also windy) day; we decided to go to the Trundle which happens to be on top of a hill. The Trundle is an Iron Age hill fort which is found right next to Goodwood Racecourse. The Trundle is a great place to go if you like views, especially at night time. The car park is layered so its great for sitting in your car and staring out into the distance. It ranges from Bognor all the way across to Portsmouth. 

Along the series each cache has a letter alongside a number which you need to collect in order to gain coordinates to a bonus cache at the end. If you forget there are two caches at the end which have all the coordinates (spoils the fun a little but still great if you forgot.)

#1 - 7 Points Ramble - The Rubbing House

The first cache is located near the car park, all of the caches in this series are in "obvious" spots; it just requires knowing the existence of the caches. I actually think the caches could easily be found by children exploring or climbing but perhaps because of the area people would only join in and not destroy the caches. 

The first cache may seem like a pile of Ivy but you'd be wrong!

#2 - 7 Points Ramble - Arboretum

 An easy spot, although we did walk past it because we were level with muggles and had to "stop" for a coffee break. We did this three times with the same person, probably made them feel quite uncomfortable but luckily we ended up getting ahead! I think the log book on this cache was quite wet and damp but someone had put some dry paper in there. Will need to tag for maintenance! 

#3 - 7 Points Ramble - Welcome to Westside

 All the caches are of decent size, with a few being big enough for trackables. They all seem to be well maintained and dry, luckily! 

#5 - 7 Points Ramble - Westside 2

#6- 7 Points Ramble - Wall gate

Reaching this cache we started to walk along side some crops, Lewis wasn't sure what they were because they were purple and I told him that carrots before the 17th century were actually purple! It was only until carrots were cultivated by the Dutch (by cross breeding red and yellow carrots) that they were orange. The whole field here on the other hand were purple carrots. 

 This cache was pretty close to a little door, just reminded me of the Secret Garden. Wonder where the door leads too! Probably more mysterious coloured fruit. 

#7 - 7 Points Ramble - Fence post

#8 - 7 Points Ramble - Tractor gate

 The hint for this cache was "This one will have you stumped, old timer!" It just takes a little think of what you're looking for!

#9 - 7 Points Ramble - Sycamore

#10 - 7 Points Ramble - Along the Bottom

#11 - 7 Points Ramble - Trail post

#12 - 7 Points Ramble - Top Gate

 Our walk was quite pleasant up until this point, hardly any wind. That was because you start to realise you're at the bottom of the hill and after this cache you have to get back up to the top. I really struggled getting up the hill with the wind against us and it was pretty cold that my knees were struggling to get me up! This is probably the hardest part of the walk if you struggle with hills; I'd definitely recommend going when it's warmer and less windy. Or you could even do the series backwards as I think coming down the hill earlier was more gradual and therefore might be easier to walk up. 

Although when you get to the top the view makes up for the work.. one man behind us even tried cycling up the hill! 

#13 - 7 Points Ramble - On the way back

#14 - 7 Points Ramble - Almost Home

This cache was covered in snails! I did have to take them off (sorry little snails) as I didn't want to break their shells when trying to take the lid off. They covered the cache so you couldn't get a grip on it! Not great if you don't like little slimey things! 

 These were all the caches in the series, we had collected all the co-ordinates along the way and just double checked them at the end. After we put them into our GPS we made our way to the final bonus cache!

#15 - 7 Points Ramble - Bonus cache

I'm not going to post the co-ordinates here as that just spoils any fun and makes it easier for people to just find the bonus cache. It does take you to the well-known Chalk Pit lane. Chalk Pit lane is one main indicators that this site was an Iron Age fort because of the perfect straight line down the hill to the town. Although it appears to be a straight road going down I believe you aren't allowed to drive down; even if you were to try you'd probably take the bottom of your car off. 

The final cache! 

The series took us 2 hours and 10 minutes including the hill struggle and stops for coffee and tea. We walked roughly 3 miles. Despite the cold you do warm up walking. It's a great series if you want a nice walk and views as well as easy caches. The multi-cache is easy to get so if you don't have many of those in your collection this is great to add another. We sadly found no trackables on this trip! We have another series completed and more caches gained!

London and FarmtagZ 2015 Trackable UPDATE - Geocache

Wobbly Bridge

With some time to spare and trackable to move on, we located a cache we hadn't yet done in London that was big enough. It lays right outside the Tate Modern by the side of the Millennium bridge; on a Saturday it was extremely busy. Upon approaching the cache there was a street performer playing a saw like a violin. It was impressive but I was more concerned he was sitting about 5 meters in front of the cache.. At the same time he was drawing attention he was always creating a crowd that could easily look behind and see me reaching into a hedge!

I used much ninja stealth and hopefully no one really noticed, I retrieved the cache and placed the trackable inside! We have now completed one of the trackables missions in reaching London! Little fact that the cache doesn't tell you about, the bridge is in Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows. At the other end of the bridge is the City of London School which is actually the school Daniel Radcliffe attended. So it's basically a Harry Potter Easter egg!

Squeezed in at the Tate

 Now this cache requires far more stealth, the coordinates are pretty spot on. The cache itself is open access from all angles, you only get coverage from the bin itself. Otherwise anyone walking from either side can see what you're doing. Lewis stood one side while I quickly leaned over to retrieved the cache!

We are slowly adding more London caches to our collection as we travel up there for day travels. Hopefully we'll be able to add a few more soon, we've been unsuccessful with quite a few caches in London previously but luckily we finally got our Italian trackable moved on!