Birthday Geocaching

Sean wanted to go for a little walk when the rain stopped on his birthday so we included geocaching and found a couple of local caches.

We found a quaint little foot bridge over a stream besides a ford for cars- not that anything other than a determined four wheel drive car could get down the steep and rubbley track to the stream.

 Me on a bridge I didn't mind!

We also walked to a cache high in the East Woods, which also go down towards the Camel Trail.






Until next time
Gillian

Geocaching in Wadebridge

Todays Royal Wedding Bank Holiday has given us the chance to take another day out geocaching. We went to Wadebridge with a list of 15 nearby caches and the thought that we would do a few and see where it took us.

The Old Bridge at Wadebridge

We first looked on two bridges, one a road bridge, one a very bouncy footbridge. Both were pretty busy so we weren't able to do a proper search so we decided to move on to quieter locations and come back to these two when it is quieter, perhaps earlier in the day.




The Old Bridge is stunning. It was built in the 1460's by a local and is said to be built on wool. This supposedly actually means built on the profits on wool, but it is a nice story.  I read that Wadebridge was called Wade before the bridge was built because prior to the building of the bridge people had to wade across the river.

View down river from the bridge

View upriver from the bridge

The day was mostly overcast so the photos don't have the brightness I like, but they are very atmospheric.

Challenge Bridge- built by the TV program Challenge Anneka

Further along the Camel Trail, as we walked upriver east towards Bodmin, we had some beautiful views of Egloshayle (which means church by the  estuary in Cornish) and the church in the village which was built in around 1490 (though there were previous churches on the site dating back to the Norman Conquest in 1066, parts of which can still be found in the church today).

Along the Camel Trail we had to stop by this amazing tree...

Our own little wood sprites hiding against a tree!

                                     and spotted this huge fungi...

 ...and saw several beautifully elegant swans.

We found six geocaches today, including one called Box, where we got to the geocache easily enough, but had to solve a particularly challenging puzzle in order to access the logbook (http://coord.info/GC2AMEY) - it is definitely the most interesting one to date...


The beauty of the Camel Trail is that the scenery changes all along its length. Walking along the part that moves into the Camel Estuary has a completely different feel to it than walking along by Poley's Bridge where the river was still very much a large stream. It also changes with the seasons so will walk it again later in the year...


Until next time
Gillian

Geocaching at Bodmin Beacon

A short walk from home to Bodmin Beacon is a monument to Walter Raleigh Gilbert. General Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert was born in Bodmin in 1785 and was a descendant of the Elizabethan seaman Sir Humphry Gilbert (who was step brother to Sir Walter Raleigh the explorer and seaman). At 15 he became a cadet in the Bengal Infantry where he rose to the rank of major-general and became a national hero. Upon his death this memorial obelisk was built.


We completed the geocache at the Beacon quickly and then had a good look around.






In 19 years of living in Bodmin we have never walked to the Beacon before. The whole site is a nature reserve and  is a beautiful area for walking and enjoying panoramic views of Bodmin and the surrounding area.

Until next time
Gillian

Geocaching Anniversary Card

Its our wedding anniversary today and here is the front of my card from John...

... the inside makes it make sense but that is just for me...

Hope this isn't our next geocache location!!!!

Until next time
Gillian

Easter geocaching and walks

On Saturday we walked around the Lanhydrock estate which gave Sean a chance to go to one of his favourite playgrounds. It's a very natural looking play area in the woods and is just right for his age group. 












It's also pretty good for grownups too!

Today we went on a random route visiting three geocaches, the best of which was at Roche Rock. It is a hermitage high on a granite rock outcropping built over 600 years ago.
















John decided to climb to the top, but Sean and I kept our feet on the ground.








How did they build it 600 years ago? A mystery apparently...

John and Sean

Out jumps the troll!

We also walked on Goss Moor. The photo of Sean is by a bridge over the Fal when it is still just a stream.














Until next time
Gillian

Earth Day

Earth Day is the day we are supposed to appreciate the Earth's natural environment. We spent it geocaching around Bishops Wood, near Grogley, Cornwall today. We walked in three different directions in a lovely walk and saw so much beauty in nature...

And off he goes...

When we arrived Sean got the GPS first...












 Near the first cache site we saw this...

The insciption

The bat cave!

 Bishops Wood is next to the River Camel

We explored a nature path along the river edge. Yet again we found a plank bridge. This one was even worse than most. One plank had already fallen in and another was too wobbly too stand on.  I still managed to cross it twice...

Me on another dodgy bridge!

All along the river was the strong scent of wild garlic.

Wild garlic- very fragrant!

We took another side walk to walk amongst the bluebells... The path wound through the woods and was quite steep in places.

Bluebells carpeted the woods near Wadebridge

We picnicked at Grogley Halt on the Camel Trail, sitting by the river.

Sean and John having a well deserved rest

 














We climbed 2 steep hills, walked 5 miles and found 5 geocaches along the way. A good walk on a gorgeous spring day in an amazing environment.


Until next time
Gillian

Spring is definitely here!

We went shopping in Truro today.


We had a picnic in Victoria Park at lunchtime. What an amazing place. Surprisingly it is really quiet.

This tree is right at the entrance. I wonder how it became so warped.














The park looks quite different from just a few weeks ago. The spring blossom and new leaves give a sense of newness.

There were even some ducks in the fountain.

Sean with his new 'explorer' hat

We love this park, just 5 minutes walk from the town centre but it feels like it's one of those 'best kept secrets'...


Leaving the park we took a little detour back to the shops and found a quick geocache- we are definitely hooked aren't we?  We had a quick look at a couple of locations we think have caches but there were so many people around we couldn't really search- we did bump into another group of geocachers who were looking in the same place, but we all agreed we would have to come back when it was quieter, maybe early on a Sunday or late at night...


Until next time
Gillian

Quiet places exist in our busy world!

We went for another walk along the Camel Trail yesterday. Sean's friend came with us and we found a beautiful quiet spot to have a picnic on the edge of the river. Proof that you can find quiet places even when the trail is busy.

Peace and quiet...

... and then we arrived!

Stone skimming again

The road bridge by the Borough Arms,
 near Bodmin 

 We timed our walk back to where we parked so we could see the train come into Boscarne Junction. The train was great but I was especially thrilled to see a small lizard run across the path.

The steam train at Boscarne Junction

On the walk we even managed one geocache find. Actually finding it was straightforward. Getting to write in it was another matter as a bunch of cyclists stopped for a drink right next to us and we had to wait for them to move on before we could open the cache box.


Until next time
Gillian

The Magnificent Seven!

Legacy of the railway

We set out yesterday with the aim of finding 7 geocaches from Poley's Bridge towards Bodmin along the Camel Trail. We knew it was a big ask of Sean as he is still just 8 years old and the GPS said it was a 6.4 mile round trip. We were prepared to do half and then call it a day if we needed to.


We didn't need to. We did the whole route and it actually turned out to be 8.1 miles by the time we had walked a little more searching for caches and exploring... Sean was a star and was the only one still able to skip at the end!!!

By Poley's Bridge

Poley's Bridge was fabulous. We spent almost an hour looking for a multicache here. It was made difficult by a poor GPS reading and the arrival of many cyclists in the carpark...


When we found the geocache it was a moment of exhilleration- taking us to somewhere we were never have gone to otherwise...


Sean  loved the place and was really pleased to find a little beach where he could practise stone skimming.

Sean trotted ahead happily in charge of the GPS
- our navigator for the day

The River Camel

A bend in the river

Shell Woods- where we stopped for a picnic.

View from Helland Bridge

Helland Bridge

John on Helland Bridge

Super fit Sean

I've posted a few other photos from this walk on my other blog Creative Serendipity (http://creativeserendipity-gmg.blogspot.com/2011/04/life-is-in-details.html ).


...And finally - we found every single geocache we set out to find- Wow! A magnificent seven!


It was a glorious day, blazing sunshine and a very warm wind. We hope summer ends up as nice as this...


Until next time
Gillian