One Creepy Cache in Eartham!

Lewis was browsing for a cache to do quite a few weeks ago until he found "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler ?" It's a mystery cache and usually we avoid them because we can never seem to work out the ridiculous riddles. I wasn't involved in the process of working out where the cache was, Lewis worked that out with Kashpop. Although I don't think it's difficult! We waited a few weeks until everyone was available to go along as we assumed it would be a great group cache (also the cache actually recommends traveling in more than two).

Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler ?

Starting off in the suggested parking place we headed off into the woods, it probably took about 10-15 minutes to locate the correct pile of sticks with a huge hole underneath. It was a group effort between me, Lewis and Matt; Lewis showed us a picture, I recognised the location and Matt found the correct stick pile. 

Looking down the hole was definitely creepy and unsettling, if you didn't do caching and were unaware of this strange hole you'd definitely be creeped out!

Climbing down...

The view from just arriving down the hole, not too spacious but not too small either! Definitely need torches otherwise you wouldn't see anything down there.

Flash on, the view of inside the bunker.

The way in, constructed of boxes piled up and pulling on roots and metal to hoist yourself up and down, not the safest cache which is why it's recommended to do at your own risk. 

When we finally remembered that we we're there to actually find a cache it was easy to locate with a decent log book inside. Did manage to forget a pen though luckily there was a pencil inside the cache! Not much inside the cache a few little swaps that seem to have been placed in bulk (plastic spider rings etc..)

Down the hole you'll find a lot of bones, animals (has been confirmed by Lewis that none are human..) Assumed to be from animals that fell down and couldn't get out. Even this mysterious "bear" paw print?! You can see where the animals claw at the walls to try and escape and luckily they are all quite, well, dead I suppose. Not any down there that we had to save or smelt..

Leaving the hole wasn't too hard, just have to make sure you re-cover the hole otherwise more animals may find a similar fate to those down there. It is really best to travel with as many people as you can, although you can't really get stuck down there it can slippery and dangerous. It has many favourite points and also suggests other similar caches. I would recommend anyone local or travelling near by to try this out for sure!

Trackables UPDATE

A few trackables that we placed have since moved and I thought I'd do a quick blog to show the updated travels. 

Firstly you may remember the Croatia travel bug that was one of our first trackables, we dropped this off alongside the Travelling Troll which were then both picked up by the same people. The Bunculuka trackable has yet to be placed by the couple but they did place the Travelling Troll. 

Sadly and quite annoyingly they bought both trackables back to the UK, not only that but they bought it back to a series we literally just dropped the Ladybird trackable off into. So although we added on some miles and the owner can say it's been to Italy; their actions have probably stopped the trackables travelling to another country for some time as it's difficult to get trackables moving in the UK. 

Sorry for the slight rant but it was an accomplishment helping a trackable travel only to have it literally come all the way back again!

On the other hand the Ladybird (Tallinn GeoToken) we mostly recently dropped off in Bournemouth has traveled to Stretford near Manchester. It travelled 187.96 miles to one cache and was then picked up again and traveled another 25.76 miles to where it now resides in Yorkshire inside the cache Nutclough City Limits! 

The Glenturret 05 - besucht alle Deutschen Bundesländer trackable hasn't moved as far (can't say the exact miles as the owner kept writing every cache he visited before dropping it off making 2 pages full of miles) It's ended up in Ford so roughly traveled 15 miles. 

Geocoinfest 2015 has traveled to lots of different caches since dropping it off! It's been a busy trackable. It was taken from Sopley > London > South Wales > Sailsbury, this cache is a perfect example of what happens to caches in the UK, they bounce from one end to the other! 445.12 miles is the average distance it's traveled, for some reason the person who took it to South Wales didn't drop it off up there but instead bought it back down to Sailsbury which is a bit suspious but also a shame; would have made more sense to drop it off up there! I don't think I had started the blog when we collected this cache but it's still nice to give you an added extra!

Sorry some of these turned into a rant like state (I'm a passionate trackable collector!) Even Lewis got some angry texts from at my utter disappointment and frustration (Sorry Lew)! As of yet our own trackable hasn't been picked up but I shall update as soon as that happens! In the mean time we did do some other caches but they weren't really blog worthy as we did them in passing travels :)

Boxgrove and Our Trackable

I recently bought Lewis his own trackable, it's an imitation of Indian Jones on a silver coin featuring "Cacher Jones". The main quest of the coin is to travel to Rome as that is were we first went on holiday together. I also set a smaller quest for it to just travel to other archaeological sites around the world (mainly the UK). I set these adventures because as some people may know Lewis is an archaeologist and loves anything Roman and Iron Age related. I just got lucky with the coin being Cacher Jones as he was also Lewis' inspiration to become an archaeologist. Our idea for the trackable is to get people more involved with history and perhaps get people to take it to places in which they'd learn something new!

Anyway onto the cache Boxgrove Man!

While heading for the cache we saw this little sight of two mini lops outside in a cage and this border collie just staring at them, the dog didn't take its eyes off of them!

When approching the cache you have to walk through farmers crops but in the distance the start of a small woodland area, the clearing is slightly visable with people walking the grass down. 

Once you have had a fight with nature to get inside the woodland area you can discover the cache!

A large ammo box, which is our first ammo box, with lots of swaps inside and a nice big log! As usual there is some random rubbish in there that annoys me that people seem to think caches are a dumping ground for rubbish or things they couldn't be bothered to carry or dispose off! Nonetheless it has lots of geocachers cards inside!

Lewis chose this cache because of its location and historical meaning, it's a famous stone age human remains site dated at around 480,000 years old. You can read more about the site itself if you find the cache! We put in our trackable with fingers crossed that it makes a successful journey.

We explored around the area to try and find the actual site in which the remains were found. Currently it's a large quarry barricaded all the way around and there are actually signs saying "Keep Out"..but telling an archaeologist to keep out isn't really going to work and seeing as it was a bank holiday we knew we'd be alright!

Lew is gazing upon what he wished he'd discovered.. ;)

Heading back we saw that the little dog was still sitting with the rabbits watching over them! Bless!

So our trackable is off out in the world and hopefully leads a successful adventure, I will continue to write up where it goes and if it goes anywhere of historical interest. The cache itself is easy to find although prepare for nettles and stingers. It's a nice walk and can extend further onto another historical site "Devil's Ditch". 

Bournemouth Caching - Geocache

Took an overnight trip to Bournemouth and decided to pick up some caches along our way while we visited as well as being able to drop off a trackable. We had planned to do some of the Coastal view series but walked along the beach and realised the footpath was at the top of the hill! 

Coastal Views // Alum Chine

We found this one cache as it was right by our hotel and didn't expect it to be hanging on a wire so made it harder to spot at first! It was a pretty nice view and although it was cloudy and forecast to rain it was actually pretty nice weather, not too hot but not too cold. We hadn't been this side of Bournemouth before, we usually stay up the "main hotel" road on the west cliff but found a hotel on the east cliff. The view was really nice and there would have been another 5 caches found if we hadn't gone down to the beach. 

Beauty In Decay #01 - Hole In One

Another cache part of a series but sadly only had time to do the one. We only marked this down because of the fact it was a small and therefore large enough to drop off a trackable. It was one of very few big enough containers (just) to fit the ladybird in! The cache itself can be found in an old crazy golf course that is no longer used. It was quite eerie but cool at the same time. We had fun finding this one and if we ever had our own golf clubs we could come and play for free (although I get a bit competitive..) 

Pictures are taken on my phone again as I didn't take my camera, as you can see a bit of discovering is needed to find this cache. It definitely earned a favourite point from us!

We dropped of the little Ladybug trackable in this cache too, adding on 62.16 miles to its journey! 

Wear The Fox Hat - Geocache

Took another trip with Kashpop today in Patching, Arundel. We've done a few in Arundel before but today we did a few of the Wear the Fox Hat series which has 100 caches. (We didn't do 100..) We also picked up a few of 'The Worlds End' series. 

Village Inns - Angmering #3

The first cache we found on the trip, it's located near The Fox pub which at the time we arrived had a wedding party! Not that we joined in but a few members of the trip were pretty tempted. The first cache I found without the hint and I suppose I spoiled it for everyone else as I just automatically home in on obvious cache locations. It's becoming a repeated phrase in the group of "No..,You did not find it, no.." I try and hold back after a few as it I probably make it boring!

In this cache we found a trackable to add to our collection, little Ladybug! Well I say little he was actually quite big so finding another cache to squeeze him into will be fun.

01 - Wear the Fox Hat

This is a sneaky clever cache hide, it's hidden within a log! Although I'm not really sure why it's hidden among another pile of logs as it makes the area look slightly suspicious. 

02 - Wear the Fox Hat

 This one took a little longer to find because we were searching more clever hides, testing if the bolts were loose etc. Karen asked me to feel inside under the gate as she was scared there'd be a spider. I felt the plastic tie around the case and pulled it out! 

03 - Wear the Fox Hat

 The hint for this cache was that it could be found under a brick at the end of the wall. There were a lot of bricks by the end of the wall.. There was even a big slab that revealed a small hole which would have made a great cache spot. The actual cache wasn't really at the end of the wall but we found it after turning most of the bricks!

04 - Wear the Fox Hat

It suddenly turned dark as we entered the woods, luckily Paul had equipped us with torches. This cache was hard to get out as the wire it was attached too had broken off. Hollie tried to put her hand in to reach it but was worried she'd get her hand stuck. I know I have quite small wrists and thin hands so I tried and luckily reached the cache and got my hand out. It had been placed quite far down inside the pole so I placed it back for easy access.

05 - Wear the Fox Hat

The hint for this cache was a moss covered stump. Finding a moss covered stump in the dark is not particularity easy. It involved staring at the floor and covering ground hoping we'd find a stump. Once found the log was very wet and not writable (despite the nice weather recently.) 

06 - Wear the Fox Hat

 Another cache that was harder in the dark, having to research stumps. Although it was easy to spot the flint in the dark, it had to be hiding something! At this point Hollie started bringing up Slender and I think she even started to scare herself at her surroundings. Seeing odd lights in the distance started to worry some of us and Paul was just getting fed up we were being silly and not looking for the cache, it was all quite funny.

Patching

Another clever cache that was VERY difficult in the dark. It was off co-ordinates and difficult to get too from the field we were in as we had to fight bushes. Luckily I did find it and at the time it had a trackable inside. I didn't take it as we already picked one up but I regret not taking it now as I kind of want to be a trackable hoarder... 

The Worlds End - Oasis

 Circling back down a footpath towards the pub we found The Worlds End series, this cache is called Oasis and ironically it was soaked and full of icky water. The Worlds End series actually loops to the pub nearby called The Worlds End which just reminds me of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's movie. 

The Worlds End - Tree

 Look up! Clever hide, had us searching around the base of the tree until we read the hint. 

There was another Worlds End cache but we couldn't seem to find it, perhaps because it was dark or just the fact it was quite late and we were all tired. Maybe we can go finish the Worlds End series at some point. I'd definetely like to attempt to finish the Wear the Fox Hat series and say that I found a 100 series cache! We walked about 2.1 miles for around 2 hours. It was our first night cache in the woods and was quite fun with the torches!

Bognor Regis Caches - Geocache

An evening quick couple of caches with some members of Kashpop again. Just finding some caches in Bognor that we've yet to clear on our maps with smiley faces. Depending on the time of day both can be high muggle areas so suspicion can be aroused. 

Woodland View #5

This is the 3rd Woodland View in the series that you've found and again it was another lovely container. We were 2nd to find this cache, which is cool because we were also 2nd to find another cache in their series. This cache isn't exactly where the co-ordinates are. The three we've done previously we've always had to venture out from the co-ordinates and they've never been exact which makes it harder if you don't know what you're looking for. Luckily the containers are quite easy to spot in undergrowth if you venture around. 

99 Trees, But A Birch Ain't One!

This isn't part of the Woodland series but it is made by the same family. It's located in a collection of trees. A mixture of types which makes the title confusing because you're unsure whether you're looking for a birch or not.

The cache was located within a birch and hidden under these suspicious twigs! 

 A nice quick couple of caches which add to our collection in our home town. Both nicely kept logs and hopefully they'll be adding more to the woodland series soon for us to find. (Maybe even first!)