Lucca and Toscana, Italy - Geocache

Me and Lewis went on another holiday to Italy with his parents in Tuscany. We were in a villa that was practically in the middle of nowhere so our hopes for local caching was ruined! We ended up having a day trip to Lucca with intentions to drop off the latest trackable we had. All of the caches were just a bit too small to fit the trackable inside so sadly that has come back home with us. 

Lucca is known for its Renaissance walls which still stand in great condition as well as it's historic city center. It has history dating back from the Roman age as well as Medieval and Renaissance architecture. 

Il Labirinto

The first cache we found was located near St Martin's Cathedral, it was founded in the 6th century and build up over the years with the final renovations happening in the 14th and 15th centuries. After seeing some impressive Renaissance architecture in Florence I was surprised at how this building had small tier pillars with such fine details and not noting seeing anything like that before in Florence. The outside was very beautiful and decorated in the usual Renaissance marble. 

The cache hint was "You'll see a mouth" and along the floor was a small lion with an open mouth, although the cache was actually inside it was just slightly to the left in a gap on the wall. It was nice and small but the log was very full with old receipts and scraps of paper being used. 

 La vecchia Manifattura

This cache was hard to spot if you're not the size of a basketball player. I had to use my camera to take a picture on top of the pillar to see if anything was up there.

We found one trackable inside and have taken with us! The trackable is called FarmtagZ (wasn't named anything) and it's mission is to Pass by Washington DC, Hawaii, Paris and London by taking a photo at least every time. Easy for us to actually achieve on of these!  

 You have to try out this Gelato ice cream shop, Gelatarium. You build your own ice cream and pay by weight (kind of expensive..) there are several ice creams to choose from and lots of toppings! I went for chocolate and strawberry with milk and white chocolate sauce; topped with cookie pieces. Lewis went for strawberry, milk and melon. Mine came out at 4 euros and Lewis' at 3ish. It works out a lot but it's super fun and yummy!

Sotto l'antica porta della città

This cache was located near a water fountain and we only found the cache with the help of a spoiler picture. The cache container is actually really easy to spot so I'm not sure how it hasn't been spotted! Lewis filled up our bottle at the fountain too!

There were several other caches in Lucca we attempted but had no luck in finding. One particular cache seemed interested but we think we may have been sabotaged but someone claimed to have found it after us. If you're ever around Lucca try out Torre Guinigi and let me know if you find it! It is a premium cache.

Villa Conti

The last cache found was located is Toscany, it's hidden in a hole along a wall. You just have to stick your hand in and hope for the best! 

So we have a new trackable under our belt in which we need to move on towards London. As well as moving on the older trackable we still have. Lucca is definitely a place worth visiting and it's fun to find the caches along the way!

The Return, Chichester PART 2 - Geocache

Video of the cache.
Me and Lewis finally got around to finishing the last half of the series in Dell Quay-Chichester! The original plan was to eat lunch at the pub, Crown and Anchor, and then cache afterwards. How it actually turned out was we ate lunch outside and then literally as we started to walk the heavens opened and it chucked it down. So we did the caches to following day (without lunch). As far as the pub goes for food, it's great. It is a little costly compared to other pub lunches but you are paying for the location too. I had the fish and chips (costing £14) and the fish was cooked to perfection although I didn't enjoy the mushy peas mixed with mint. Lewis ordered a burger with cheese and bacon coming in at £12. The menu isn't massive (around 6 mains) but it's very nice to sit in the sun and enjoy a lunch. 

Our view eating lunch!

Back to geocaching! 

The Return 10

This cache took longer to find than it should have because the hint had some confusing extra info "Right hand side of path in 'V' of tree head height. ICT opposite "path" to defences edge ('X' marks the spot although not buried)." The cache was just simply in a tree but I still have no idea what the rest of the hint meant and we spent some time trying to figure out what ICT means in Caching slang..

The Return 11

Upon arriving at GZ we had a brief explore for this cache but were soon cut short after a couple came and literally sat about 30 meters away from the location. We didn't want to look too suspicious so carried on and found this one on the way back!

The Return 12

A simple find if you know what part of the edge to look over, I'd say it's relatively obvious from past people pushing back the plants! 

The Return 13

Lewis went down off of the path to find this one, although it's not as low down as you'd first assume. Sometimes I think we over complicate caches..

The Return 14

This cache is very well blended in, we spent a couple of minutes looking all around two posts. We assumed it would be at the base but the cache is actually hidden within ivy along the top!

Inside we found a trackable! FarmtagZ 2015 hasn't been traveling for very long but it started in Bretagne, France. It's only been in 4 caches and was exchanged at a meet and greet, quite a lucky trackable to get from France and England so quickly!

Number 15 in this series is a church mirco and after a previous attempt at a church micro between 11-12 we decided to just skip it out and come back another time to do both church mircos in one.

What Ammo Box

I found this cache without Lewis telling me when we were there, the entrance to the cache is obvious, too obvious that it makes me wonder how exploring kids and such haven't found this! It has a lot of swaps inside and now counts as our second ammo box! 

The Return 16

I'm not really sure why the series ran through the countryside and left the last one in a public place. It does return you back into Chichester but it's located at quite a high muggle area and if you're lurking around the tree you look awfully suspicious! The tree itself is right next to the Tesco Extra walkway so many people shopping walk past here. Luckily it was a Sunday and close to closing time so their weren't too many people passing by. We stopped for some refreshments to take on our journey back!

Big Green Ugly Thing

This last cache was so close by it wasn't worth leaving! It's found by the overpass to the train tracks and although I haven't got a picture of the big green ugly thing, it is in the video if you want to see it. This cache was a feely job rather than a seeing but it didn't take too long! Just have to be careful for muggles as they walk past to get over the tracks. 

The journey itself took us around 3.5 hours to walk there and back (forgot to reset GPS so just estimating) the total distance we walked (including off track of the series to get a church micro) was 3.84 miles - 6.1 km. We arrived about half 1 and got back home at half 5. It didn't seem like a long walk but it was quite warm! I guess we can't say we've finished this series as we have the church micro to do but for now we've done 99%! All the caches part of the series were small so easily fit trackables in and luckily enough for us we bagged another trackable!

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".