Yapton Walk - Geocaches

As the day was such a nice day I asked Kashpop if they'd join me, Lewis, my mum and brother on another joined geocaching trip. It was my birthday so I wanted to spend some time with family and do something fun. We decided on a series in Yapton that involves 19 tradtional caches. There's also other single caches along the way that aren't part of the series but we picked a couple up. Although by time we got to doing some caching the weather turned for the worst and you wouldn't have guessed it was blue sky and warm sunshine earlier. That's the UK weather for you I suppose.

Yapton Walk #1 TB Hotel

A nice and big cache! Holds lots and lots of pens for those who have forgotten to bring one along, the idea is you can borrow a pen and when you loop back round you put the pen back. It's also a trackable hotel for those to do swaps or drop offs. I do have two trackables but have bigger plans for those. 

 It's located behind a trough which could be easily seen by muggles but I guess they'd assume it belongs to a local farmer or something along those lines.

Yapton Walk #2

My brother's first geocaching trip and find! 

Yapton Walk #3

This cache was easy to guess where it was hidden from a distance, although Lewis didn't seem to go to the right thing, my mum ended up finding this one. 

Canal Caper

Not part of the series but still a find along the way, it was very easy to spot. I think Lewis spotted it first and held me back from getting it even though I had also spotted it. We let Karen have the "find"!

Yapton Walk #4

I started to learn that the King family are rather competitive, soon my family were the ones who wanted to find the cache first and even started to run. I took this photo of my mum not really racing anyone but still running at a easily spotted cache in the distance. I unintentionally captured Lewis' sad face at the disappointment he wouldn't reach the cache first. 

 Although Lewis was the one who actually retrieved the cache because it was surrounded by nettles. 

Yapton Walk #5

Another hidden bridge cache, no troll in this one though!

A very cold mum and brother, as you can see we were dressed for slightly warmer weather..

Yapton Walk #6

The clue for this cache was in the short wooden post, this was the only post we could see but no cache. Until you looked closer...nicely hidden cache!

Yapton Walk #7

 A few of these caches were located at the bottom of finger posts, they are quite easy to see but I suppose it makes them quick caches to find!

Yapton Walk #8

A cache with a wig, maybe a Donald Trump cache? 

Yapton Walk #9 - Worshipping the Sun Gods

This is a clever cache and the first one I've seen like this. I've always thought about pull string caches and how you'd actually go about making one. I think this one worked by an extendable jack to jack cable I've seen. You pull one side and it unravels, when you let go it goes back short again!

Yapton Walk #10

 A slightly bigger container for more exciting swaps, again a very easy find! 

Yapton Walk #11 - a MAG nificent Cache!

Another unique cache on this trip, you had to pull the blue twine under the bridge that pulls up this cache. It's a big torch that unscrews to hold the log, very smart. I assume when it rains the river fills up and the cache goes under water; hence having to be pulled out. The only negative thing about this cache is that it looks like rubbish and doesn't look like a cache but hopefully it's left alone and not removed!

Yapton Walk #12 - Who is Ben Collins?

Wasn't expecting this guy when I removed the bark! I suppose if you read the cache title you'd expect something along the lines of The Stig. Quite clever! For those that don't get the reference Ben Collins is a stunt race car driver and has done students for the James Bond movies. He was also one of the possible identities of The Stig on the show Top Gear. 

Chrispy's Unbirthday Cache

This cache seemed quite fitting for my Birthday! Although not part of the series, it is still created by those who own the series. Nothing birthday related inside though unlike an earlier Happy Birthday Gruffalo badge we found! I think the weather was taking a turn for the worst but it was too late to turn back because it would be the same distance to finish the caches!

 Nicely stowed away!

Yapton Walk #13

Another good old finger post, very easy to see from any eye! Started raining and made everyone colder but we soldiered on!

Yapton Walk #14

 The clue was under concrete slap, under some trees so a bit of shelter from the light rain. 

Yapton Walk #15

Another finger post, except this finger post had fallen over! So the cache was hidden in the hole it once stood.

Yapton Walk #16

 Under some plastic, easy to spot if you're looking for caches.

Yapton Walk #17

Pretending to be a branch, a cache that wouldn't be spotted by a passer by, requires the caching eye to be seen. 

If it hadn't been raining I would have definitely had a swing.. although I may have turned 22 I still like a good child's toy!

Yapton Walk #18

 Hidden in some undergrowth, it was easy to spot but you'd have to look back to see it as passer by. 

Yapton Walk #19

 Another branch cameleon, hidden in a large bush so it isn't easy to spot straight away. The last cache in the series and luckily looped back to the start right near the lay-by in which we parked. 

We walked a total of 3.6 miles although I hadn't reset my GPS trip counter. My brother said we were walking for about 3 hours but I think it may have been 2 and half. The rain probably made the journey slower as everyone started to loose momentum being cold. The series has some unique caches and all are very well kept, dry and great variety in sizes. It's great for the amount in the series, you can get about 23 caches if you include those not part of it. There is also a church micro nearby if you have time! Shame the weather turned a bit pants but a great birthday trek nonetheless! 

Bognorama

We decided to do a big co-ordinates cache today that was estimated to take about two hours, so this post will be about just one geocache (plus one extra along the way.) This cache takes you on a walk around Bognor Regis and Felpham, collecting clues and writing the numbers to each clue for one letter of the final co-ordinates. 

We first had to head towards the Town Hall and collect some numbers from a date of birth to death that belonged to Major General Sir Christopher Charles Teesdale. Christopher Teesdale was buried in South Bersted, Bognor in his family tomb. To read more about Christopher Teesdale click here. (During Junior school I happened to be in the house of Teesdale!) 

The next set of co-ordinates took us along the promenade, although it was a very cloudy day it wasn't cold! The walk headed towards Felpham and we had to pick up several clues in the gap between Bognor and reaching Felpham. 

Bognor is home to one of the UK's popular holiday/tourist attractions 'Butlins'. Whenever you need to explain to someone where Bognor is, you always say "You know, where Butlins is!" Or you can just pretend you live in Chichester and that you'd never step foot in the lands of Bognor Regis. 

Reaching Felpham beach has a completely different feel, I can't even place my finger on what's so different about it but if you live local you know when you've "crossed the border". 

We picked up another cache from here "Lobsters For Lunch (Second course)". This is a premium member cache so if you aren't a member you won't be able to see this cache! (Sorry!) It's a sneaky find and quite well hidden, it's a very high muggle area in the summer so luckily today there weren't as many people about. It's also out of the way of the local restaurant so you're just out of sight. 

We had a stop off here for some lunch and attracted the attention of my favourite British bird, The Robin. They're such friendly birds compared to any other in the UK and they'll come up very close if you have something to offer. Although when claiming territory they aren't very nice to their own kind.. 

We ventured in from the coast and visited this house of a famous resistant. This house belonged to the poet, writer, painter and print maker William Blake. It's quite a sweet and cosey house! He did only live here for three years though...

I did slack on pictures from here on I'm afraid, there wasn't really much to photograph. Once we ended up in Hotham park, belonging to Sir Richard Hotham (another famous resistant) we worked out all of the placings of clues and made the final co-ordinates. We got two wrong, we still aren't really sure how but after some guess work we figured out the final location. This part of the cache did annoy me because we'd worked out all of the clues and yet the final co-ordinates weren't even the final location we had to guess 50ft and then find the right "shrub" it was describing. It also annoyed me because the cache co-ordinates on the map are pretty much the final co-ordinates location. I don't know why it annoyed me, it felt like we'd read all these clues (some of which were actually hard to understand what it meant) to find a location that "wasn't the co-ordinates" but then turned out to be the co-ordinates!

Lewis put up with me moaning but I did enjoy the walk! It's a nice walk but I just felt some of the clues were like a puzzle to work out when they weren't supposed to be and if you got one wrong it messed up your whole final outcome. We ended up walking for 1 hour and 23 minutes with a stop time of 56 minutes (including lunch and a slight detour we took). We walked 5.2km - 3.2 miles. 

Various Caches, Burpham - Geocaches

We traveled to Burpham, Arundel along with my mum and partners dad and step-mum. My partner's family introduced us to Geocaching so we've done a few treks with them! They go by the name Kashpop so this would be our first time writing down two names in the logs. Kashpop planned the caches and I took a trackable along in hopes to get rid and move on. (Unsuccessful as the caches were too small.) The caches are a variety of shapes and included co-ordinate caches and traditional, there are some part of a series and some random one offs. The caches we did travel along different types of terrain including some steep, gradual and flat terrain. 

Burpham - Jacobs Ladder

This cache was an easy find, if you looked under the right post. It was quite easy to see from the footpath. The log in this cache was inside an old film pot which was then inside a slightly larger container, making it extra dry! 

Walking along the footpath we discovered at the top of the cliff/hill there was what appeared to be, a cave! Running up was the only way but half way up you needed to grab on to the fallen tree otherwise you'd loose momentum and fall back down!

 Lewis was hoping there'd be something he could take from the cave like a skull or some bones.. sadly for him, there wasn't. Little Poppy made the climb of the hill look like a breeze as she didn't struggle to chase after us. 

Lewis on the other hand made sure to take all of the safe ways down.. very slowly. Whereas I just slid down! On to the next cache!

Burpham - Fateful Farrier

 Another cache that took finding the right tree and post to find the cache. 

Burpham Link - Toxic

This cache could be seen from a distance, you could see the pile of rocks that were suspiciously stacked for the trained Geocachers eye's. 

 It suddenly became a race between Bumble Bean and Kashpop..

Which didn't really matter who won because I had the pen!

 This cache was described as a joke of being in a series of Sewage farms, although stated it was a joke I was not convinced as it smelt bad. I had to take the cache away from the smell, anyone who knows me well knows I'm not good at handling bad strong smells. Ironically the cache is called Toxic and the container is an old Toxic Waste sweet pot. I'm really not convinced the sewage farm was a joke. 

Despite the cave being an unsuccessful bone find for Lewis, this cache was not. Almost as if it was carefully placed next to the cache for Lewis to find was a bird skull. We think it's a crow but Lewis is going to take it into his University to be identified for collections. 

Burpham Link - Help! My House Is Falling Down

A very interestingly placed cache, I'm unsure of the history of the fallen down house but you can clearly see where a fireplace once was and even the beams are still holding up. The cache isn't inside the house but you can't resist going in!

My mother was pretty determined to find the cache as she has yet to find one while out with us, we were all struggling to look for it until she dug her hand into a tree covered in ivy and pulled out the cache with a very proud look on her face. The cache was nicely hidden and slightly tougher to find as you didn't expect it to be strapped to the tree.

Burpham Link - A Salt Near Peppering Farm

An easy spot at the end of a footpath, the metal looked too suspicious to me! An interesting container for the log to be hidden inside. Wonder where the pepper pot is? Hope it isn't missing it's salt companion too much. 

Church Micro 4282…Burpham

A co-ordinates cache that required working out some answers after locating the correct headstone. The co-ordinates lead you out of the church yard and to some telegraph poles, the cache is quite hard to spot as you'd assume it was part of the wire. It was also, for some reason, open to wind and rain, there didn't seem to be a lid or container to screw the pot into so the log was slightly delicate. 

Burpham – School’s Out

Placed on a red telephone box, a very hard to spot cache. I couldn't even see it and was convinced it wasn't there as I assumed that what I was looking at was a bolt or part of the box. Very cleverly camouflaged! Of course I went inside, it's very hard not too even if I am British.  

A Fine Pair # 14 ~ Burpham 

Last cache we did today, a co-ordinates cache that lead us back along the path we just came. Sitting behind a sign was a little pot. Nice and easy! 

We ended up walking 2.7 miles which isn't as much as previous cache hunts but the change in terrain made the pace slower. Kashpop's GPS didn't tell us how long we'd been walking for but it was around 2 and a half hours. It was a nice walk and we did complete one series among random caches. Me and Lewis will possibly head back one day to complete some other series that we started or maybe even start a new one!