Hidden Yorkshire through Geocaching & walks

It has been so long!

2011-12-31T01:09:00.000Z

Long time no update! well around 13 months :) Geocaching and walking took a backseat for a good chunk of time due to arrivals of babies and dodgey knee's.

Sophie came in May. 2011

Making it two little ones.

Add this to another knee op to sort out my wonky knee post ACL op, walking was the last thing on the agenda.

Over the past month or so though we have managed to venture beyond the local parks to explore, seek and enjoy the countryside. This included a geocache! which was obviously was a church, located near Harewood.

We have some cracking photo's of these walks, ruined castles, churches and hidden tunnels.

Lotherton Hall Birdies!

2010-10-05T08:17:00.002+01:00

Ohh thats what it's like to walk!

2010-07-22T00:05:00.000+01:00

It's been a real long time since I last went for a really decent walk. After which I have felt really tired and ready to drop. But thankfully I managed to do this recently. Now my ACL ops are out of the way the long road to rehab and a fully working knee is all infront. I am now walking without sticks and building up the muscles around the knee.

I walked down to Eccup and found some really hidden paths through the woods that were higher up from the offical paths. Now going through thick woods in my condition is not the smartest thing in the world but I went really slow and not once did I risk turning my knee or falling. Walking in the woods brought back some good memories, the smell of fresh air, tree's in the wind and the unexpected new paths.

The only problem I had from the walk was the downhill bits, its hell on a tender knee. I managed to uncover a little waterfall and there was a few caches around the woods that I had yet to find! Not a great start when the navigator software I used on my blackberry for GPS stuff had run out and so me actually finding the caches in the woods was not going to happen. I forgot how poor your phones reception is in woods and outside the city! I really couldnt get any sort of signal.

There are so many places just outside Leeds where you can find peace and quiet! It has been over a year and a half since I have been seriously geocaching so I took a peek on the geocaching.com site and looked for new caches around Leeds and North Yorkshire, wowzers. Some places have got a huge increase in cache placements. There does not seem to be a village or path now where a cache series is not located. Lots is Scoles, Aberford, Linton now have great ones to start/complete. The only catch is they usually involve a decent length walk and dodgey terrain. Not ideal but good for caching.

Lots of new geocaches to find!

2010-06-16T11:35:00.000+01:00

So its been a few years since we have been geocaching on a decent scale. The odd cache here or there does not really count.

I logged into Yorkshire Geocaching for the first time in ages to see if there was any news or events, it does seem alot of things in the caching community dont change! a few different names but pretty much the same stuff.

I then logged into geocaching.com and check out to see if there were any new caches around North Leeds etc. Wow thats all I can say! it does seem alot of people have been busy places caching that are close to us. Around the villages of North Leeds, linton, collingham, thorner have cracking new cache series that I cannot wait to try. Right now 2-3mile walks are a little out of my capacity but it shouldnt be too long.

Where as before I checked out the caching map around me it was filled with finds now it is sprinkled with no find caches. I must do some research into the easy ones that are on decent paths for me and the family.

Geocaching stats!

2010-04-13T11:27:00.000+01:00

Well I might not be actually geocaching myself these days until after my knee is 100% but that does not mean my caches around Leeds are not being found!

Park Square cache - 126 found, officially only 52 DNF's lol. Always a tough cache to find, busy, nano and annoying! Not a bad amount of people look for this as it is located in the centre of leeds in a nice park around where all the law firms are. I get the odd email asking for help and I really don't mind offering some advice or clue.

The weather is now perking up around Yorkshire, flowers coming out and lots of sunshine. This is great, nothing better then going out in the countryside with the wife and baby. Feeding ducks, watching the lambs play, late sunny nights!

Nothing to report.

2010-04-04T23:59:00.000+01:00

Walking and more importantly geocaching has taken a break! due to the fact I kinda snapped my knee, well the cartlige and ACL anyway. Crutches, op and op, rehab means no walkies for me and the family. Shuffle around on sticks and pretend I am in some forest looking for hidden caches. Maybe in 2-3 months I be back to walking unaided and caching again, one can hope.

Joined Harwood house near Leeds, the card seems good value if you go a few times. Lots of wildlife and things to do without too much walking. Bonus of it being 5mins drive away too.

Some brief things of interest, studying a OU Degree, watched avatar, Emily turned one and is as cute as ever.

Hopefully my next blog entry will be after my final operation and walking in the countryside again.

Bit of a year: Baby and walking.

2010-02-11T22:51:00.001Z

Well looking back at the last year it was kind of a big one for the family. Our first baby arrived :) Emily and so our lives changed forever. We could not wish for a better baby, full of joy and always looking to play with everyone. I am suprised when I see other babys crying all the time, I guess we got lucky, looks and temperament of an angel.

Time has flown by and Emily will be soon a year old! Taja has a big party arranged and it will be a blast. Obviously with the new addtion to the family our day trips out walking have not been as frequent but my favorite day out was to Ripon.

The cathedral is huge and worth a few hours to explore. The countryside around Ripon is amazing, fountains Abbey 20mins away and only 30mins from Harrogate. There is a huge amount of caches around Ripon town center and closeby.

With a baby on my back walking on flat decent paths was a must, often the local reservoirs offered such paths. Thurcross is a long walk but we just did a quarter of it and walked back on ourselves.

It has some fantastic views, as the water was placed over a flooded old village some of the houses can still be seen around the edges. There are some geocaches around and very close to the water's edge!

Hopefully we will be able to go on so much longer walks now a can carry Emily on my backpack (once I have my knee op :) and thats settled down. A holiday this year would also be something to look forward to.

I was trying to think about my browsing patterns this time last year, not much changed I am afraid. You Tube I follow alot more, one or two of the people on their make some cracking blogs and its a nice way to spend 20 odd mins at dinner. I have virtually stopped playing poker, I dont have the patience or time to play where it is worth it now. Small things like 70:30 beats would send me on tilt.

I am planning on major declutter and ebaying alot of my old gadgets, cd's, dvd's, books, or anything I can flog for a few quid. I might try setup some ecommerce website if I can decide on what to offer/sell.

The Great white Christmas

2010-02-02T20:58:00.002Z

Every year we used to talk about Winters of the past. "Ohh when we was kids it used to snow huge drifts". Well for once in my life that I can remember it really was a bad winter. The snow started a week before Christmas and did not go away until well in the new year, around 3 weeks.

Just when you thought it was going another 5-6 inches topped it up. Add the cold snap (yeah i know it sounds crazy, but extra cold) the ice made the roads some days undriveable on.

The above picture is of Roundhay park on 24th Dec 09. It really is hard to see whats happening as the fog/mist was so strong you could not see the hundreds of people sledging on the famous park slopes. You could hear a huge buzz of voices and kids playing but only see them within 200 yards. The snow at this point was about 10 inches deep, pretty hard to walk about in.

The lake at Roundhay was for the first time I can recall almost frozen solid, a layer of snow covering its top. Not sure how thick the ice was under the snow. Really beautiful scene's and it was good for baby Emily to experiance.

The above picture is a walk around Eccup Leeds, running along side Sandmoor golf course. Not one single person playing golf today! thats a suprise. This was taken about the 18th Dec 09, the first couple of days we had snow. I had taken the day off work and went for a 8mile walk. Tiring but fun.

The only problem with walking on fresh snow is that it covers up the really deep puddles covered with ice. So a good job a had a friend with wellys test the ground in front of me on the walk.

England for the two weeks after Christmas pretty much went to a standstill. There were days when going out was not an option, people starting panic buying provissions from shops! (lol always makes me giggle). The most annoying aspect of the bad weather for me was the absolute fasination with every news station about gritting the roads and running out of salt. Leave the small roads and grit when icey, case closed.

So the last snow we had was two weeks ago and it seemed a distent memory for us, until today. More snow has laid and the weather is unpredicatble for the next week or two. Let the games begin!

Let is snow and snow and snow.

2009-12-23T22:55:00.001Z

I don't think I can recall such weather in Yorkshire at this time pre Christmas where we had so much snow. Normally it is for half a day then vanishes from memory. This time its been around a week already. As off today its now blizzard storm outside and the roads that were cleared are now covered again.

Unable to go away due to the weather I decided to pop around the local waters, otherwise known as Eccup. The sky way blue but it was bitterly cold. Walking across Sandmoor golf course was spooky not one golfer out braving the cold with coloured golf balls.

Being a friday the ususal busy walking routes were really quiet. Over the day walking around the water and the woods past Emmerdale set we passed 3 people!

Caching while in the snow seemed a great idea until we found one but realised our hands were numb after! not ideal searching in snow for small containers! we stopped at one find and just enjoyed the walk. Even with the Sun out it was still below freezing.

The problem with this walk was all the deep puddles were iced over and covered in snow, so you didn't know where they were! lucky for us wheelies worked a treat :) It was a little longer walk than intended. 3 1/2 hrs and about 8miles. Really tired and ready for some hot drinks and food at home.

WoW, Runescape and blogging

2009-12-08T00:08:00.000Z

I have played online games since around '96. It started with a game called Subspace, it was free and like a massive asteroids game with bells and whistles on it. Thousands played it and it was a fun experiance, chatting to similar people and giving grief to noobs from across the world, what else do you want? I played over 200 days on this game over 6 years of playing the game, I ended up pretty good and captaining the Uk against other countries, but found EQ and my time with subspace was done. My degree soon took me away from the huge time sync of EQ but it was filled with DAOC and various other MMORPG's until World of Warcraft came along.

World of Warcraft was like everything the others games had rolled into one, in 2005 i settled into a leading guild on a server and raiding 4-5times a week. Burning out and sick of the politics that so called l33t people always seemed to have i created a small guild with some RL friends and continued to play the game until recently in a very casual game. It's strange that I love online gaming but prefer to solo most stuff and come and go as I please. At least a with a friendly guild you can chat away.

Having a break from WoW until after Xmass and decided to try Runescape out, all I can say is lol. It's like going back into the late 80's remember a Amiga game called the Hobbit? lol its so bad, clunky and tiresome, I cannot even be bothered to give it a huge go.

This blog is kinda moving direction until I can pick up the Geocaching m'larky. It's not like it matters to be honest, but I do plan on going back to the topic eventually! I try and find interesting blogs but it seems many are left for dead after the initial burst of posts by keen bloggers. Poker blogs follow this well trodden path, post post, downturn in poker fortunes and no blog to be read for months. I did like someone's poker blog called Mick McCool, sadly is never updated anymore.

Last topic, I hate the fact I can never finish books. I don't read at home, why should I? I have Sky TV and a laptop, no my reading time is strictly left for bus rides too and from work. I have the latest Dan Brown book to read :) its been delivered from amazon for over two months now! please motivate me to get started.

Finding time to explore Alan Bennett

2009-12-05T22:51:00.003Z

I do find it fustrating that factors mean I can't go out exploring for caches, walking in woods and generally looking for new places to get some fresh air in. What with work, family and keeping things ticking over it leaves little or no time on a night to do anything.

I think England has it all wrong, work work work is so Thatcherite, or so it seems used to be an exclusive trait of the conservatives. New Labour over the last 10 years have created a flexible workforce as to attract industry here but at what cost? when times are hard people are forced to work even longer hours (the uk has one of the longest working hours in Europe), it also means it is really easy to make people redundant. More and more people move jobs every few years. No wonder work has become peoples number one priority in life.

So we put out 35-40hrs at work each week, eat a few hours a day, travel to and from work and we left with not much time for good all fashioned us time. Weekend you shop for some grub and catch up on the TV you sky+ during the week, rinse, repeat.

At least today we went to a Xmass fair at the local hospice. It really is fantastic the work they do. Must make it a priority next year to help them out.

Then off to York for one or two items. I was really suprised at the flooding there, Tadcaster and just past the race course still has vast amounts of land flooded! I am not just talking one or two farmer jiles fields it was flooded for as far as the eye could see from the road. Ohh to live in York.

Emily really enjoyed the day and again went to sleep really quickly. I watched a documentry on Alan Bennett, a famous English writer, some of his plays are so funny. He is from Leeds and alot of his observations, plays are based around Leeds and North Yorkshire. One of his favorite places is Fountains Abbey. The history boys and a few other plays have visits to this old Abbey near Ripon. Listening to someone like Alan makes you realise how little you know.

Random Thoughts & Inglorious bastards

2009-12-04T11:44:00.000Z

The calm before Christmas, only 3 weeks now, not too fussed about the whole thing, but it should be nice food and good TV. Heard a quote on a show I was watching the other day that made me laugh, “Just because something ain’t wrong, don’t mean everything is right.”

Finally managed to watch Inglorious bastard’s movie. It started off so well and then it seemed to fade away, way too long and totally lost the plot. Really gruesome violence in it but unfortunately that does not make a movie great.

The weather in Yorkshire seems to have really closed in on us, last week it never stopped raining and now it’s dry but very cold. I do hope we can get some decent snow soon, so we can take Emily out for walks in it.

Lack of Geocaching, Roundhay Park

2009-11-29T22:50:00.000Z

It's now officially winter and it feels like it! Wind, rain, dark nights, sleet, all we need now is some snow. Walking and specifically geocaching has took a backburner in the last few weeks, Emily was ill and we were tired, she is going through some sleep training methods which will hopefully result in her sleeping all the way through the night without cuddles in our bed!

We did manage to have a fantastic walk around Roundhay park. The lakeside cafe is great, we had cooked breakfast and tea to warm us up for the walk around the lakes.

Roundhay park is huge, two lakes, vast woods, lots of open fields, walled gardens, tropical world (the 9th most visited attraction in the UK), hidden walkways, golf courses, pretty much anything you want to do is here. It does occasionally hold large concerts, I remember U2 here, robbie williams and queen no less.

A word of warning if you do visit tropical world at roundhay park, dont wear too many layers its absolutly boiling in there!

Ripon Cathedral & old Salt mines

2009-11-05T19:59:00.001Z

One of the last days of Sun so headed off into North Yorkshire. About 30mins past Ripon to the west is a old salt mine. Park up at a caraven site and walk up the valley to the old mine. It was a good 40min walk and all uphill, to get across the stream is a old creaky bridge.

Loads of piles of rubble and deep holes, along with a few crumbled building foundations. The was a cache on the walk up and another geocache up the top of the mines.

Once at the top the cache was in an old shaft site and well hidden, found it after a good search. We too a well needed break and admired the views. It was pretty important to stay on the main paths or you could easily slip on the loose debris.

We headed back to the car, all downhill thankfully but still managed to get stuck in some woods with loads of big birds flapping around :( very surreal. Made our way to Ripon for some refreshments and a look around the Cathedral.

This place is huge, i bet you could fit thousands of people in it. The light from the Sun coming through the amazing windows gave this place a special glow. We have been here when the choir is in full voice and it echoes all around.

There are some 100 ft plus windows around the side of the Cathedral, they all seem in so good condition. I wonder if they are the originals from centuries gone by?

After walking around and enjoying the sights and sounds we headed back home after a long morning walking, exploring and caching. Ripon is a fantastic small town, the market place and shops have a typical village feal, you even have a race course squeezed in to the south east of the main centre. There are lots of geocaches in Ripon town centre itself but be warned many require a little homework before you get there, not the normal cash and dash ones.

Out and About after illness

2009-10-03T19:07:00.001+01:00

Seems a while since we went out caching or walking in the countryside. A bug swept the family and 3 weeks of sore throats, colds and tonsillitis left us tired and house bound. We managed a short walk around a small village near Harwood called Kirkby Overflow, lots of really nice paths and hidden walks around this place. If you park up at the pub and head to the church you can go through the grounds and at the back is this Narnia lamp. Not sure Emily was overly impressed. Shame we couldn't have some drinks in the pub after!

Golden Acre park was once a huge magnet for the people of Leeds at the weekends to enjoy country walks and family activities. It has a lake surrounded by lots of wildlife. We went to get some fresh air and feed the birds the stale bread we didn't manage to it! A little steam train used to go up and down the park in the 30's & 40's.

Below is a Aerial view of Golden Acre Park, taken in the mid 1930s shortly after it opened in March 1932. The boating lake is busy with many boats. A miniature railway runs around the edge of the lake and the Galleon Cafe can be seen. The Leeds - Otley Road heads from the direction of Otley, bottom left, towards Leeds. Towards the centre of the left edge there is Black Hill Well Farm, and beyond the trees belong to the Black Hill Plantation. Leeds City Council bought the site of Golden Acre Park in 1945.

Strange places to geocache

2009-09-16T21:55:00.001+01:00

We have been to plently of strange locations searching for geocaches. One of the first we did was a under a really old concealed bridge near Harrogate, near the army college / penny pot lane. You have to park about 1/4 mile up the road and walk down under the road. Very hard to detect from the road is the small tunnel and path that leads under it. The cache is hidden in the side of the wall and took us a good 20mins to find. Funny searching for hidden caches so close to traffic but out of sight.

Filey is another place in Yorkshire on the coast that has some really clever and interesting caches to find. Not all can be gathered if the tide is in! The picture below is off a deep cove about 500 yards from the famous lighthouse. About 60 steps take you down the cliffs onto the beach where you enter various small caves and tunnels to get to the final location. Stunning location and not too busy.

Malton is a small town in North Yorkshire, famous for horse racing and camp Eden! Camp Eden used to be a POW camp in WW2 and is now a interactive museum in the original building where the prisonars where kept. It has over 30 buildings to explore and ofcourse a very close cache to find! I couldn't resist taking the picture below and it summed up the camp :)

It's easy to find out what geocaching is, normally with the aid of a GPS device you find small containers in remote locations. Hoever some caches are just the first part of puzzles of chains of caches. The picture below shows a cache in Harrogate that had us stumped! It was to be decoded to provide a clue or location to another cache closeby in the woods.

It is safe to say we failed, tired after a long walk, we didn't waste too much time on this! I still have no idea how to solve it. Any idea's?

Strange things you see while out geocaching

2009-09-12T23:10:00.001+01:00

So there we are looking for a cache in a village up in North Yorkshire about 5miles to the west of York. I think it was Monk fryston? well the village is pretty interesting, very old church hidden down a tree covered path. Someone couldn't resit playing the organ! Also lots of fields close to this with some very friendly horses. But as we homed in on the geocache located we walked down the biggest hedge I have seen in my life. As you can see its quite a size! I went on for about 50 yards on the edge of a huge county house that looked like it was once a school house or a place where church people stayed/lived.

A local resident was walking there cat down the side of the hedge as we walked along it, lol it really was a bizzare thing, a cat following its owner albiet at a slow pace, smelling the grass and exploring at as it went. We talked to the lady and she often took the cat out for afternoon walks along the house and grounds to the river. It just so happened we were the wrong side of the river to get the cache but I dont think we were too bothered.

Thruscross reservoir is a huge body of water in North Yorkshire near fewston and swinsty. It takes about 45mins from Leeds and can be a testing walk as it has hills and some rough terrain. Apparently the reservoir was created over an old village, some of the old paths lead into the water and you can see one or two buildings popping out.

I cache very close to this in the woods and just after, it can get very muddy but the views or worth it.

About 4miles south of Leyburn, Masham we were out caching and found a really strange site. It looked like old druid circles or a mini stone henge. We only found it as we passed it on a walk through some woods to a cache, loads of rock formations scattered the woods and opened up into this huge structure alot of it in very good condition.

The woods are really lovely to walk through semi pine needly floor, very soft and smells devine. God knows what used to happen at these rocks, rituals, meetings. It really must be miles from a farm or house.

The weather around North Yorkshire is very mixed, one week its great the next rainy. We went to a cache recently and found it was in some sort of island or atleast over a small stream that you had to pass over a bridge to get to. Well apparently the floor was a little soaked and the recent rain had taken its toll on the bridge.

Erm, would you try wade across or jump onto the semi working bridge to get to the geocache? Me thinks not. I like to find caches but not enough to get cold or yet. It was really weird becasue 400 yards down the path there was a old ruined house and a sulpha spring from 100's of years ago. You could smell the water and sulpha, it had a stone structure still in place to access the spring.

The Perils of Geocaching

2009-09-09T14:17:00.009+01:00

Geocaching is fun; you get to explore fun places. But you have to be fully aware there are some downsides to the hobby.

Muggles :There is nothing worse than looking for a cache in the middle of nowhere when some stranger decides to walk by just as you are searching a bunker, tree or in a hole. It looks really strange and can sometimes be awkward for both parties, often we have had to tell strangers that we are looking for caches before they called the police. Geocachers call people like this ‘Muggles’ and in cache descriptions it will often mention how many ‘muggles’ tend to be around the given cache location.

I personally dislike caches that are in very busy places so it’s virtually impossible to find without lots of people seeing you. My ideal cache is in the middle of no where, beautiful location and no muggles to stress me out
.

The Community :There are numerous forums and WebPages dedicated to geocaching. For example Yorkshire has This! a nice small website for the local cacher that offers advice and resources. The main forums on Geocaching.com is pretty active, but dear me there do seem to be some right individuals on there.

Not a week goes by on the Uk section of the forums where people aren’t slagging off micro/nano’s (very small geocaches that only contain a log and tend to be harder to find) or are having a go at geocaching that is not exactly how they vision it should be.

‘How dare new people cache unprepared”,

“Micro caches are killing the hobby”.

These whiners need to realise the hobby is shaped by the people that do it not by them. Geocaching will end up how it will end up. It’s like they want geocaching to remain a hidden hobby that is closed to new people. Let’s encourage new cachers and make a variety of different caches that make it more appealing to all ages.

I don’t think it’s helped with lots of job worth’s trying to somehow protect geocaching and being over sensitive on rules and regulations.

Private Members Only caches :Lets get it straight people do not go to geocaching.com to search for listings of local caches with the sole purpose to go out and trash or remove them. So the notion that having a cache ‘protected’ by only being visible to people who are premium members of geocaching.com is absurd. It’s a growing habit that people will only list their caches this way, a great way to help geocaching grow folks!

The basics of Geocaching

2009-09-08T16:20:00.006+01:00

Geocaching is essentially a hobby where you use a GPS device to find hidden containers.

These containers come in various shapes and sizes; generally they are hidden in attractive locations around the countryside.

A cache can often be very hard to find and using clues, puzzles and you’re GPS to solve the cache!

The main website where you find all the caches is at Geocaching.com its easy to register for free and locate the caches local to you.

Having found over 400 caches and placed a few of my own its fair to say I like geocaching, it’s a great way to explore new areas with the family and keep fit at the same time.

It can often feel like you are treasure hunting across old castle ruins, underground tunnels and hidden gardens.

Stainburn forest reservoir North Yorkshire

2009-08-22T22:46:00.005+01:00

Nice little reservoir near Stainburn forest. Not as popular as Swinsty or Fewston that around only 2miles away but still a pleasent walk and beautiful waters.

The walk starts on a country road that runs along the forest, walk down to the water is about 3/4 mile. There must have been 100's of sheep around the path, have they not got anywhere to go?

Interesting stuff are the 60's University buildings you pass, most of them look like they have not been touched for years. Atleast the sheep enjoy the shade. Reminded us of Lost!

You can walk around most of the water, nice bridge and wildlife all around. Very quiet, not really a busy walk for locals. The path goes past the reservoir and upto penny pot lane where the new windmills are.

Had to have a little rest in the grass once we got to the water. The sun was out and the wind was refreshing. Emily was not having it though so only a short stop! and back up the hill to the car.

In the distance you can see the golf balls that are huge. The American base and golf balls have been there for years. It's a shame there are no geocaches at this spot, its ideal for a small series of caches down to the water and around the accessible bits.

Beningbrough Hall and Gardens

2009-08-19T11:24:00.007+01:00

Beningbrough Hall and Gardens is located near York a National Trust house and gardens. The journey there from Leeds was interesting, down country lanes and toll bridges! The long winding road to the house is beautiful lots of wildlife and farm animals.

Ample parking for a few hundred cars but we decided to park right in front of the house and walked to the main entrance which had a number of small shops and a cafe. The walks around the house was pleasant and lots of different types of gardens to explore. A great kids area with swings and climbing castle hidden in the woods.

You can store your baby buggy inside the house and walk around. Some really old pictures and rooms defiantly worth a visit again. The place was really busy and good mix of foreign visitors and local people.

Some national trust sites can be very expensive but you can see they really look after their properties. Everything was perfect for the family and baby friendly. If only this place had a nice maze to walk around it would have been perfect.

The countryside walks also had level paths and nice to take baby on. Quick way home on the main roads to avoid the toll bridge!

Embsay Steam Railway

2009-08-17T13:15:00.008+01:00

Popped over to Embsay steam railway.

The weather was pretty bad in the morning, the first picture is from the Valley gardens in Harrogate. Pity it does not show how much its raining! But I guess the people with the brolly's in the background gives you a clue. Valley gardens has just had a huge face lift the play area has new climbing castles, swings and some amazing facilities from kids. Along with the crazy golf, min gold, skate park, tennis courts and tea room the park *on a sunny day* is worth a visit.

Embsay is pretty cool its a small village near Skipton about 1 hour from Leeds. They operate a steam train service between Embsay and Bolton Abbey (well within a mile and a half from it). There are lots of you tube videos with the trains in action.

We got on the 10:45 train to Abbey, it was running late :) its run by loads of very enthusiastic volunteers and it was surprisingly busy! Here's a pic taken outside the train leaving the station.

Not many sharp turns so it was hard to catch the steam coming out of the train! It was about 8 carriages long and inside seemed rather swanky, a refreshments cafe and some private bays.

The track goes along a valley through some nice countryside and wildlife.

As you can see it was rather dark inside and cold! The heating was a knob above the seats powered by steam. Safe to say this did not work, but Emily was well wrapped up and spoilt the whole train journey.

This was not one of the stately trains that also run during peak days. Although we passed one it seemed a lot older and more authentic, but not as comfy to sit in.

The Engine attaching to the carriages. It was a real jolt the 1st connection. Most of the visitors seemed to be elderly people, we later found out they were from a Dales tour.

The station also had a few shops, great cafe at Bolton Abbey and lots to look around and see.

Jervaulx Abbey North Yorkshire

2009-08-14T11:55:00.007+01:00

The weather has been a little mixed lately and what with the swine flu and various visitors our trips to places around Yorkshire has been null!

The weekend was beautiful weather so we headed north for a nice walk around Masham and Jervaulx Abbey. As you can see we were greeted by some hungry birds with strange squawks!

The cows seems to be all lined up waiting for something, what quite were are not 100 sure yet. Emily was not too impressed with the cows, they did not rattle or make noises to entertain her so we moved on rather quickly.

Jervaulx Abbey is a delightful place, great little tea room across the road which has a great selection of cakes and different tea's :) of course we had to have a little break before walking around the ruins. The Abbey has an honesty box at the entrance, very rare you see such things these days. After paying our honesty fee we had a pleasant walk in the sun around the Abbey. It is strange that people used to live here, its so isolated even today.

Not as impressive as the close by fountains abbey it still is a bit of a hidden gem in my opinion. Close to Leyburn and Masham and about 1 hours drive from North Leeds.

I was a little surprised when I saw nests of spiders around. I mean did people know that spiders are hatched or produced by the hundreds and stay together like this?

We didn't bother to do any geocaching on the day out. It was really too hot to be poking around hidden area's or long walks, maybe next time.

Summertime and the weather is...

2009-06-16T15:32:00.003+01:00

Starting to get hot! Managed to head off to fewston and have a picnic. A few of the locals were more than a little interested in our lunch :)

Emily was oblivious to those intruders :) happy sucking on her dum dum.

They did like to pose and nose around

Baby spiders nest, lol imagine all those over your face.

Up and About

2009-05-27T12:18:00.006+01:00

Managed to start getting out now Emily is used to being out of the house and enjoying walks.

She is fine sleeping away!

Pity she was not a lucky mascot for Leeds :(

Mini GeoCacher arrives!

2009-03-27T19:55:00.006Z

Well she arrived and she was the main reason geo-caching took a backsit for 4-5months. 8.4lbs baby Emmy came 13th March 09. Mummy and Babby doing well. Obv. The cats like the fact the baby has arrived due to their new seating arrangments in and around the house. LGI was nice and not too imposing, nurses took great care of us :)

Snow, snow and more North of England bad weather.

2009-02-09T11:18:00.000Z

It’s been a quiet month or two. Not much walking due to a few things but mainly the poor weather. At least the cats seem happy in a warm house.

Finished the nursery, all sorted. Nothing else needed to buy for the expected baby, only 3ish weeks left until she is due.

Walking has been restricted to short local walks, went to Harewood house on Saturday, the snow from the previous week still left on the grounds. Welly time and had a nice hour walk across the grounds.

They put all the sheep and ducks/geese in 4-5 large fields. I guess to keep them well fed and together in these harsh conditions. The view of the house and grounds is really amazing in the snow.

This photo shows a picture of the garden with the blizzard coming down and the cat chasing the snow. Find it hard to capture pictures of falling snow on a mobile phone camera!

Getting to work was a real pain last week; very few roads of the main ones were treated. Virtually no cars were used for 2-3 days in the local area. But at least the kids had fun with the schools closed.

Yeah its fun this snow, me trying to get to the bus stop in a blizzard was horrendous. I could hardly breath.

Winter in geocaching land

2008-12-05T12:28:00.000Z

Geocaching has officially stopped until the winter weather settles down. For some unknown reason winter has arrived early in Yorkshire. This week we had cold cold snaps along with 3-4 days of snow resulting in everything grinding to a halt.The clue to me not being able to get a bus was that harrogate road was empty at rush hour! erm..not a good sign.

Local streets got a good covering of snow

Tree's outside house

Caching near baildon Leeds, Yorkshire

2008-11-11T16:24:00.000Z

Nice new series of caches near baildon so we popped out for the 3hr walk through woods, water, fields, mud baths!

View from one of the caches, the walk took us down into the woods and up the valley.

Lots of hills and rocks and as usual we ended up at the wrong end of the cliff to where the cache normally was.

Not a bad day, a little sun and no rain so we were warm at least. I guess it was a sign that we didn't see many other walkers on our route, maybe they knew about the mud.Glad we got all 11 caches, took us 3hrs and a bit of mud but very pleasurable. Our first time caching in a fair few weeks but this has definatly ignited our enthusiasm again. Baildon is a nice part of Leeds, right on the west edge in the countryside. Definatly come back to this area to complete some more caches.

Scar House Reservoir North Yorkshire

2008-11-03T16:00:00.001Z

Scar house reservoir is about 1hrs drive from Leeds in North Yorkshire, a good 30mins drive from anything that. classes as civilisation. A really isolated place

The place is huge, with exposed sections making it really cold and windy.

Ofcourse there are a few caches around this area but you really have to work to find them. We managed to first to find a cache that had been here over 2 weeks, so it just shows you how far this place is from an cachers!

It had rained heavy the day before so most of the low paths around the water were soggy and hard to walk on.

The actual ends of the reservoir were amazing, like turrets from castles. Looking over 200ft drops into woodland, it really was not for the faint hearted.

No I didnt walk on the edge I kept my head down and raced across the high bits.

To say this place is isolated there sure was a fair number of walkers, we passed around 20 others on our 6mile walk. We certainly felt the walk and were really tired after halfway.

This place was built in the early 1900's and took around 20 years to make. There was a community made were the some 1500 people lived. Cinema, shops, houses, church etc. Today all you can see of this village is the old foundations.

Workers that broke the rules or didnt work hard enough were exiled to the nearest village, I believe Patley bridge. It was considered less comfortable surroundings to live there and acted as a deterent.

Heading up to the reservoir and carpark was lots of woods and sheep along a deep valley that seemed to go on for ages. The odd farm sprinkled across the place.

From the carpark you could see the end of the valley with the water and structure/dam.

A great spot to walk and explore, lots of paths and one side of the reservoir is flat and dry so ideal for kids. The dam's are huge and for people who don't mind heights it really is a good view from up top.

Lumley Reservoir North Yorks

2008-09-22T11:43:00.000+01:00

Nice day for once so decided to brush off the cobwebs and go caching. Looking for a suitable spot and not to tiring we headed to Lumley Reservoir just west of Ripon. Very secluded and a little way from a main road so seemed ideal. On the way we did a cache that was near this huge tree below. Not seen so many large tree's in the country before. It was massive!

Next stop the Reservoir, a little half a mile walk to the actual place across some fields. Nice location very quiet and pretty.

Only other person was this man below fishing in the water.

Of course the local wildlife fell for the ohh we have food trick! The geese/swans didn't seem impressed with our leaves thrown in the water trick.

Walked about 4 miles in all, in really Sunny weather. A lovely walk around a small reservoir and very quiet. Bagged 3 caches and a bonus one around the water.

A whole Month of updates

2008-07-10T10:56:00.000+01:00

As I have been away for a while this update will be a big one. Visited a few places and found lots of caches in some interesting spots. Above is weird church and surrounding in a small village to the west of York. Funny to see a lady walking her cat around the grounds! not often you see that.

The field below was right next to the coast, about 1 miles away. We were trying to find a cache and the gps was playing up, I mean how can the gps not get a decent signal in the middle of a field on a clear day?

Parked up at filey, right on the coast and explored some church and grounds that had local cache.

Nice and sunny, we had to walk out about half a mile from this spot to find a virtual. Only accessible if the tide was out. How do we get down there?

Well this was the way down, shame the picture does not really show how steep and high up this was. It now has got a sign telling people its not a safe and go down at there own risk! yikes I was really nervous on this one.

Once down the tide was out so we walked right to the end where the waves were huggggge. What views, not been to filey for a good 15 years.

Dalby forest, North Yorkshire. This place is awesome miles and miles of forest, deep woods, bike tracks, concert venue's, places to eat. We went there to try out one of the bike paths through the north part of the forest. The easy family path was a good 8 miles! lol ahh well off we went.

Nice and gentle through some woods and well developed paths.

Taja looking great, averaging about 15miles an hour through the route and around the woods. After the ride we were both really hot and bothered and glad to have a rest and enjoy the views in the car.

Found this waterfall just past Ketterwell North Yorkshire, cache in nearby carepark. We walked under and around the water.

Obilgitory photo of me almost falling in to the fall. Man it was pretty cold under that.

Just past these falls was a place called castle bolton. Not really heard of this before but it was a interesting location. The views and gardens were breathtaking. We didn't venture into the castle as we wanted some lunch after a long drive. Masham pub called where we enjoyed the local chefs food!

Lake Windermere, nice spot but boy'o'boy is it busy. Ambleside must have 3000 walking shops and numerous people rushing around. Least the location was quiet, next to the water.

Tadcaster, not exactly a beauty spot but the river on a hot day is nice to walk down. Shame the smell of malt from the local breweries spoilt it!

Sawley near Ripon and just north of Harrogate. A small village nearby but this lake can be found off a not well known bridleway though some woods. Its really quiet down here, swans on the lake and lots of wildlife, shame we didn't get the FTF on the cache!

North Yorkshire Moors & Derbyshire

2008-06-09T15:53:00.000+01:00

Two weeks of walks all rolled into one blog entry, oh the joy. Sunday was a really hot one, therefor not the greatest idea in the world to go walking up near the Cow and Calf (Ilkley way) without water. Huge huge hill and a few caches on the route. Managed to somehow bag a first to find on one. Then needed a good 20mins rest at the top, what the hell the views were stunning and the weather was to die for, literally.

Last week we ventured up to the North Yorkshire Moors and another First to find cache! I mean what the heck 2 in a week. This place is about 10miles North west of Ripon in a quiet place.

Then for the real long trek across the Moors. Not a single person to be seen, which was nice. But these are the hardest walking conditions, long hard plants, damp boggy bits, uneven ground. It felt like we walked 25miles not 6.

The following day we took a 'rare' trip outside Yorkshire caching. This time to Derbyshire. Wow nice countryside, only 20mins south of Sheffield. The circular walk took us to about 13 caches, most of them pretty easy but fun to find nevertheless. Below was one of the final slogs, a huge hill that was a ball breaker.

Of course there was much fun to be had. The weather last weekend was pretty mixed. Raining heavy overnight and in the early morning. By the time was got walking it was nearly finished but the ground had to be respected for the deep slushy boggy type stuff! Not all went to plan, advise to walk around the innocent looking muddy path I took the plunge and walked over it, bad move within a millisecond I was a foot deep in bog and dashed out before i continued sinking. Great was a twonk i look.

We could see the car park, the end was near! what a relief. Nice little waterfall went under the road and we were back in the warm car where I could atleast change my soggy clothes.

Sutton Bank, Swinsty & Fewston North Yorkshire

2008-05-28T10:37:00.000+01:00

Now summer is here? there was no excuse to not get out and about on a night after work. A new series of caches placed around Swinsty (Near fewston) reservoir. Got all 6 caches, but the problem was the amount of dam flys and midges about. You could hardly walk without 100's of them getting into you face. Well I guess you have to expect this near the water.

The views on this clear night were amazing, the water was calm and you could hear the birds singing. It was still rather busy, we spotted about 10 people on our walk around the water. One of the caches involved going up these stairs below? Not sure what it was normally used for, maybe an overflow into the reservoir. The last cache was the real problem, took us 30mins to find and by the time we got back to the car with was 9:30, just getting dark. I would not want to do this caches during the busy days, high risk of being seen.

With the good weather continuing into the weekend we decided to go North via York Monks cross (Starbucks coffee Of course) to Sutton bank. Thirkley is a small village 5 miles south of Sutton bank. A cache was placed near the church here, so we had chance to look around and enjoy the area.

The walkway along to the church was stunning, lots of local wildlife about and not a person to be seen anywhere.

Lucky for us the church was open to look around and explore. It was so tempting not to pull the bell ropes below. We wouldn't want to wake up the locals now would we?

After we got the cache and finished looking around the church we headed to Sutton bank. The steep road goes up to the top and you know it must be steep and Caravans are not allowed up it! Once at the top there is a visitors centre and large car park. A short walk across the road and you have the money shot over the vale of York.

About a 2 mile walk and a few caches done we finally get a chance to sit down and relax with the views. We managed to find a really quiet spot just away from the white stone horse that covers a huge part of the hillside and seems to attract alot of visitors. Although it was windy up there is was nice and warm and great to just walk around.

On the Sunday we did a nice cache series in Denby dale, or just near Bretton sculpture park. 13 caches in under 2hours not a bad morning. Watch the Leeds game in the afternoon, no comment.
Monday was warm if not a little windy. Skipton sounded a good idea and so we headed off for a little walk around this pleasant little town. Didn't realise it had a canal and boats here, well you learn something new everyday. Not much here apart from a small castle and the usual shops.

Chatsworth Hall & Knaresborough, North Yorkshire

2008-05-20T11:06:00.000+01:00

After a busy Saturday morning we popped down to Chatsworth Hall. Rule 1 never go via Sheffield. We should have just passed the dam place and cut across around Chesterfield! Lesson learned we found ourselves driving up to this fantastic hall and grounds. The place looked amazing, just like a country estate with path leading the way to the grand house with sheep along the road and huge trees.

We got here mid afternoon so most of the visitors had passed through the house. We toured the house and it was really special, grand rooms lavished with expensive looking items. One really nice thing we noticed was the smell in the house, wood burning fires could be smelt as soon as you entered the main entrance.

The tour of the house lasted about 45mins, we tend not to spend great amounts of time in these places. The house reminded us of Temple Newsam but slightly bigger. The staff working in the house were very polite and were on hand to answer questions.

Once we exited the house we decided to walk the gardens, the views were stunning. No wonder so many famous films have been shot in and around the grounds.

Amongst the features of the gardens was this waterfall feature, we couldn't face walking all the way up! as it already had been a long day.

This is a weird tunnel that runs about 100 yards in the gardens. It was originally used to carry coal from the edge of the grounds to the house. It was a tiny tunnel, dimly lit and a little damp.

We was looking forward to exploring the maze in the gardens. On approach it didn't seem too difficult but it was immaculately kept and not too many people seemed to be about.

We ended up in the middle! but it took us a while, we must have gone in virtually every dead end and wrong turning you could. It is either very well designed or we are plain stupid!

The trip was enjoyable, I had really wanted to visit Chatsworth for a long time but never got around to actually getting there. Its a pity the weather was not like the previous weekend, when it was tropical like temperature. Of course we did a few local caches on the way there and back :)

Sunday and a trip to Knaresborough North Yorkshire. I think the thing its famous for is the historic castle on the top of the big hill!

The views from the castle are interesting. The bridge with the train going over it in the background, leading into the small station.

Another view from the castle, the river running around the huge island where Mother Shiptons cave is located. It's a long way down, no wonder the castle was built here, there is no way anyone would be able to climb up there!

Had a nice walk around the waterfront and castle and then did one or two caches in the parks. Tempted to play pitch and putt but the weather started to change so we decided to head back to Weatherby for some shopping.

Flamborough & Grassington in the Heat

2008-05-12T11:41:00.000+01:00

Possibly the Sunniest weather I have seen in early May for years, time to get out of the house and enjoy the weather. Bit of Geocaching on the way to the coast, somewhere not packed with lemming tourists so we decided to head to Flamborough

On the way to the coast we past such villages as WetWang, FirdayThorpe, we did a few caches one being an old temple in the middle of a field 12miles from Bridlington.

Continued our journey to the coast, off the main road which seemed to be toe to tail of traffic moving slower then ever. Took us about 1hr 20mins driving time to get to Flamborough, but the views were defiantly worth it.

Parked up and walked down the steep steps to the cove/beach. It was handy that the tide was out so we could have a good explore around the place.

Loads of cool caves to look around. Wonder if it was true about the pirates storing the booty here years ago?

Wish I had brought my rubber dingy now, so we could have go to a lot of caves just out of reach from us.

Of course everyone knows that Flamborough has the Uk’s oldest lighthouse! Its really huge and has been recently restored.

500 yards further inland is an even older version, not sure if it is an old lighthouse or just a watch tower for pirates.

We did a few caches in high muggle areas and went on to the North part where the lifeboat was. Weird I have not been to this spot for about 20 years; I remember it well as I came here with family friends for a small holiday. Got sick on a boat trip and sliced my leg on a sharp rock; I still have the scare to prove it. We found a quiet spot in the sun and relaxed reading the papers eating out picnic.

After getting back home on Saturday we was jiggered (is that a word?) so stayed in and recovered. Sunday headed to Grassington North Yorkshire, there was a long cache trail that took you around the place and tourist spots. Again the Sun was out and the weather was ideal for walking.

Ok so it was realllllllly hot and we were getting tired already. Must have drunk 2litres of juice already. But the walk through the town was really interesting. Do not think I have ever been here before. Again it was a little busy but that was to be expected.

Home time. We both got some colour due to two days of walking out in the sun. Tired and glad to be back.

Eden Camp / Fountains Abbey and a bit of golf

2008-05-09T10:08:00.001+01:00

Headed up to Eden Camp near Malton. Never heard too much about this place and the website does not really do the place justice. £5 entry this place is huge, 28 old POW structures each with a different bit of war history.

I was really impressed with the camp. Not only were the staff friendly, the price for food, gifts and entry very low but the actual museum/huts were incredibly interesting. It took us 2hrs to get around and we tend to rush through these things.

Below is a picture of one of the huts that was made out to be a POW structure of around WW2. The conditions the prisoners had to endure and the type of things they did to entertain themselves were all outlined here.

Along with the huts there were quite a few old war vehicles around the camp. The day we visited happened to coincide with a POW event for prisoners that managed to escape from camps during the war. Lots of press and vets were in attendance with a marching band.

Next stop fountains Abbey. It's unreal this place not only is it a great place to visit and walk around but it always rains when we get there! luckily it was really warm though.

The gardens are vast and look great. It takes about 40mins to walk around them, with many small structures, caves, tunnels and buildings scattered around them.

Cue obligatory pose in front of nice looking building. Shame you cannot go into some of these, even to just get out of the rain. I did notice that even in the rain this place was rather busy. A steady stream of visitors all adding to the National trusts coffers :)

The old Abbey is really Huuuuuge. You can see it from miles away. I imagine in its day it was spectacular to see and go around. Around the time when the Abbey was not in use, the took alot of the bricks off the structure to use for buildings across North Yorkshire.

Final leg of our tour around North Yorkshire was a stop off at the Golf course. Standard that I lose to my other half, who seemed to take great pleasure in holing really long puts when it mattered! Rematch!

Facebook Video

2008-05-02T11:49:00.000+01:00

Well I found it funny.

Druid circles and Bridges!

2008-04-23T14:20:00.001+01:00

About an hour from Leeds in North Yorkshire around Swinton Park. We drove their via Harrogate/Ripley/Sawley/Kirby Malzeard. Some crazy views here and the buildings are worth a visit. The roads close the park were very narrow and one had a really thin bridge over it, where a virtual cache was located.

After climbing up the side of the bridge here a decent view of it. It was very steep, slippy and a long way down.

After this we headed further past the Swinton Park grounds towards some thick woods where apparently some Druids circle were located and another cache to be found. A few hazardous parts of the road, any more rain and the crossing below might have been a little tricky. We went through this pretty fast as it was downhill.

Once at the woods it was a nice walk through them to get to the various stone arrangements. Surprisingly for the middle of nowhere (well ok 3miles from masham) it was busy, 3-4 other people about!

Wonder what they actually did here? I mean did they just sings songs and pray or something more exciting? :P Anywhere it seems along way to come to do it.

The actual cache was a little further down into the woods and views overlooking a nearby reservoir. Shame it wasn't nice and sunny or we could have sat down and enjoyed the views a little longer.

Caching!

2008-04-14T11:11:00.000+01:00

Managed to grab some caches in the last few weeks. I like the idea that once you have found a cache that you need to complete a puzzle to be able to log your find. Although they can be a little difficult its defiantly a nice idea.

And another one in Maxkim's series:

Also visited a nice small reservoir near stainburn forest North Yorkshire. Snow, wind, rain and finally Sun made it quite a fun walk.

On the way back we encountered exposed conditions, heavy snow falling on us. We passed 3-4 wooden buildings that looked abandoned and in the middle of no where. I could make out old radio's, kettle, papers etc inside, really wanted to get in but everything was locked. Funny though when I went around to the front of the building I saw this:

Can't get away from the place! I wonder what type of stuff they did here :)

Another cache we visited was one near Allerton Park

Huge castle, sadly private now and a cracking little church. Here we found some old statues on the floor, apparently some Sir from 1400's was buried here and his family's tomb was in the church. It amazing to me finding these churches dotted around the country that are in a fantastic condition. Most of which do not have regular services so the only regular visitors are tourists like me.

Mix & Match

2008-04-02T10:23:00.001+01:00

Walshaw Dean reservoirs are just north of Hebden Bridge. Its about a 6 miles walk around 3 reservoirs. We went there on a really overcast day and damp day.

Luckily there was 6 caches around this place so the walk was broken up with some nice scenery and searching. The paths on one side were fine, the other not so good.

Once we had found all the normal caches the 1.75miles walk back to the car was a bit of a killer, I was feeling run down and oddly very tired. The next few days it was to become apparent why! the curse of the man flu.

So no walking for a week to recover from feeling ill. But the weather around easter was kinda freaky. Sunny, then snow, sunny then snow. As you can see in the pic below it was rather heavy and deep for a while. The cats got a bit freaked out with it all but it soon left us for some nice weather.

Popped into a place called salts mill not far from Leeds, weird place that used to be a mill but has now been converted into Galleries and shops. It was ok but my knee was clicking all the time so I wanted to sit down. We popped for a meal at a restaurant after so it was not too bad.

Final place we visited in the last couple of weeks since the last update was Lotherton Hall Shame is was so so cold, with the snow just about gone, but a bitter chill lingered in the air. The gardens were ok, and the bird gardens interesting we didn't stay too long. The place was getting really busy as we left. Hopefully we can go further a field next week now my knee ain't clicking.

Grimwith Reservoir - North Yorkshire

2008-03-04T10:17:00.001Z

Another windy weekend. So nothing better then to head out to a isolated, exposed reservoir. Destination Grimwith Reservoir located between Grassington and Pateley Bridge. Had been to this reservoir before and knew the area as Stumps cross caverns was only 5mins away.

Normally this reservoir is busy with people sailing. Not today! it was so windy and hazardous conditions not a single person was out on a boat. Surprisingly there was a few cars parked up people mingling around. We decided to have some tea before setting off on the 5+ mile walk.

Thankfully the start of the walk was a nice dryish path and lovely views across the reservoir. The water was really choppy and the waves were often really huge and blowing over the edge near the path. Found some form of shelter against the wind about 1mile in. A beautiful thatched building, pity is was locked.

Walking with the wind on your back wasn't too difficult, unfortunately this would soon change with us walking straight into gale force winds and water blowing over the reservoir edge. Not only did it make walking alot slower but the bitter cold on your face and ears was testing. The path was also getting less defined, more muddy and now resembled a climb! Scattered around were small wooden bridges, when I say bridges I mean planks of wood with 20 foot drops below.

A few miles left to walk and the wind was now blowing across us. We had only passed a few other walkers who dared brave the weather. At the corner of the reservoir is a strange building where all the top water goes down the valley. Wonder if it has a TV and living room in?

Nearly at the car park and we could not wait for the comforts of a warm car and cup of tea. The legs held up and we really had fantastic walk around a beautiful part of the country. I am happy there are alot of reservoirs around North Yorkshire, there are always places to go and visit especially in the off peak season when so many estates and places of interest do not open until mid-march. Home via Waitrose for food shopping.

Yorkshire dales National Park

2008-02-19T10:41:00.001Z

Sunday, another cold one with frost on the ground. Headed to a place near Cowling to do a few caches. The idea was to see some stunning views over the Pennine hills and visit a few local landmarks. There was a really small car park off the country lane so it was really handy and convenient for out caches.

It was weird because the place smelt of a nettles! This walk is normally really boggy but thankfully due to the cold conditions the ground was still frozen solid. It was only about 1/3 of a mile from parking to the first cache, an easy find in the middle of no where under some stones. Job done 1 down 5 to go.

The next part of the walk was along some normally safe cliffs. But what with the ice and slippy conditions I tried to stay away from the edges, even 20ft was too close for me. Surprisingly alot of families out here with young kids, better watch out for those big drops!

A cool cache we found was near 'Yorkshires Biggest boulder'. Strange that, what makes something a boulder and not a rock? 1000 tonnes in weight and rather large I managed to climb to the top of it where I found this frozen pool of water. It was not so easy to climb down from!

This final picture is taken from Wainman's Pinnacle you can see the silhouette of one of the "Salt and Pepper pots" on the top of the cliffs. Seems strange they made those things, I guess some people had too much money and spare time on their hands :P

Total walk was about 1hr 30mins, in total 6 caches founds, 2 cold people in need of hot food. Not a bad morning out.

Brimham Rocks - North Yorkshire

2008-02-11T10:31:00.001Z

Headed off to Brimham rocks at the weekend. It was really gorgeous today Sun shinning and dry conditions underfoot. We have been to Brimham rocks a fair few times before but we needed some fresh air and wanted to finish off one or two geo-caches around the rocks. Notice the blue sky in all the pictures!

It took us 45mins to drive there, one good thing about getting up early is that you miss alot of the traffic. This place can get really busy, when we left the car parks were full of people waiting to get it. So back to the task in hand, after 20 mins trying to find some rocks for the cache we decided to head to the shop/museum for some clues.

Not only did this give us some amazing views but the chance to find out where various names rock formations were! we needed to find one that looked like a dancing bear, a druids writing desk and finally an idol.

Still no luck finding the specific rocks we needed, it didn't make sense I am sure we had walked around the whole place? Erm whats behind the shop. Low and behold there was a whole range of rocks and walks on the far side we never knew were there before. Now we were on a roll, Dancing bear:

Druids writing desk:

And finally an idol! which is a huge rock with that seems a really tiny base holding the whole thing up.

Hot, getting tired and happy to have found the rocks needed to complete the cache. We headed back to the car for some refreshments and drove home in time for the football.

A Windy day walking in North Yorkshire

2008-01-28T09:31:00.001Z

Nice Sunny day, so headed off to North Yorkshire for a walk and one or two geocaches. First stop was a cache near Knabs ridge wind farm just outside Harrogate. The Wind turbines are 300ft tall and look awesome there are 6 of them completed, not sure how many more are going to be constructed but what with the oil prices going up seems a good move!

Next stop was just past Menwith Hill North Yorks, an open moors location with large rocks scattered along a semi decent footpath. The good thing was that there had been no rain the last 3-4 days so the footpaths were drying out and not too difficult to navigate.

Once we got to the location of the cache near some huge rocks we took shelter from the wind, which by now was almost gale force and hard to stand against. The views were almost 360 degree's and you could see for miles in the clear sky.

Not sure it is the best idea to climb on the boulders and huge rock formations with the wind so strong but it was fun. You could literally lean forward and not fall over, but also you could hardly breath!

As you can see from the picture below I could barely walk or keep my hat on, is it really a 25ft drop of this rock?!? lol. We found the caches pretty easily and headed home for some hot food and tea.

Scammonden reservoir, geocaching/walk

2008-01-14T11:26:00.000Z

Scammonden reservoir is the big pool of water you pass on the M62 about halfway between Leeds and Manchester. There are a number of caches around it, including a new series based on the Harry potter books. So we decided to take a trip there on Sunday

This was a view from the car park, one of the caches was down this steep hill. Not great when its slippy and raining. Once we got down to the water is was surprisingly calm and not that windy, it seems the local ducks were out in force and making loud noises, maybe they were hungry?

As the cache series was new we expected some other cachers today and we duly bumped into some at the start. We decided to try and get ahead of them, so we increased the walking pace and got a good lead. The path was ok underfoot mixed with wooden walkways and normal grassy/muddy paths

Almost fell a few times and twisted my knee, thankfully my recent knee op didn't give me any pain but from now I was being cautious around the steep muddy paths that were on the far side of the water.

The caches were all micro's leading up to a final normal sized cache. The micro's all had questions about Harry Potter in them, answering them correctly provided you with the final co-cords. We love doing these type of series, a few finds not too difficult in a pleasant walk.

After completing the series we headed back to the car, along the edge of the by now very choppy water. It was raining and we were rather tired from our 6mile walk (a mile or two added from our detour for the final cache). This was our first proper cache run for a long time, now we have the appetite and the fit bodies back we will be doing it alot more often in the coming weeks.

A little snow

2008-01-07T00:27:00.001Z

This week was cold, wet and even a bit of snow came our way. Woke up Thursday wishing I could stay in bed all day. It lasted most of the day and night, atlest the cats seemed to be slightly interested in it. I see its also forcast for more snow on Monday, ohh the joy.

Our planned trip out walking this weekend was cancelled. Not much fun in this weather when your not feeling 100%. Maybe next weekend it will improve and we can go somewhere new for a blog post.

Thruscross reservoir - North Yorkshire. Walk and Geocache

2008-01-01T23:29:00.001Z

What else is there to do on New Years day but to go walking in the rain around a reservoir!?

We arrived at the reservoir around midday with the rain still coming down and the paths rather muddy. We had planned to grab a cache alone the way, but it was a fair old walk. Not sure we were up to this after the holiday indulgence's!

One thing we noticed right away was the whole misty/fog presence around the water. You could hardly see beyond 20 ft. The water level was very high what with all the recent rain, it seemed the reservoir was full.

The paths were really difficulty to walk on, so it was a relief when we walked from the edge of the water into the thick woods that were scattered around.

The woods also covered you from the constant rain that somehow still manages to get through your waterproofs. I was surprised we passed a number of walkers today, normally there are older couples heads down wont say boo to a goose let alone an hello as you pass them.

Tried to get the gps working as we approached the site of the cache, not only was it overcast, raining but being near tree's makes it almost impossible to get a decent reading.

We got it to work about .78 miles from the cache so our spirits were raised.

As we approached the cache we could see lots of old buildings in the reservoir, normal walls going into the water with the odd old house or farm building. Not sure exactly when the reservoir was constructed, maybe 1930's?

The path around the reservoir split, one went into the woods downhill, the other stayed along the edge of the woods.

We decided to stay out of the woods so the gps could get a decent reading. The picture of the great view is where the gps took us, 500ft down that hill is the cache and the head of the reservoir. We got down and found the cache fairly easily, the bonus cache was a bit of a pain, back up the hill and over the braken for 500 yards. So we were tired and wishing the car was close by, but we had to complete our walk and get home. Another 3 miles across rough, wet, harsh countryside and we made it.

Not a bad day out. 2hrs 30mins walking, 7miles walked, 2 caches found.

Woods near Fewston

2007-11-30T11:11:00.001Z

Well its been a while since my last post, blame a knee op and sitting in bed for 2 weeks on that!

We went off to a cache in some woods just past Fewston North Yorkshire. As you can see the woods were rather dense and if you strayed off the path it was impossible to get anywhere. The weather held out for us and we enjoyed the walk through the woods, although it was a bit of a maze with the gps coverage being poor at best.

We eventually found out the cache was past the woods so once we navigated through them and walked up to the summit of a hill to our final location. The clouds seemed to be getting darker and darker so we upped the pace and tried to beat the downpour.

We got to the cache site just before the incoming storm. The views were amazing and you could see for miles, Fewston, the golf balls, Stainburn forest.

We had 2mins to sit and rest before dashing off to avoid getting soaked. I guess winter is here and this will be a typical days weather for the coming months.

Jervaulx Abbey

2007-11-07T00:09:00.001Z

A quick trip to North Yorkshire, our destination was Richmond via Jervaulx (Cistercian Abbey).

The site was quite large and open, the ruins were really interesting to explore (of course there was a cache to find!).

There was an honesty box upon entering the site with a number of postcards and leaflets outlining the history of the Abbey and local area.

After spending around an hour here we decided to move on to Richmond some 10 miles north. A tough 5 mile walk along the river followed which resulted in several cache finds.

Ripon

2007-11-05T00:20:00.001Z

Decided to go to Ripley Castle this Sunday. Nice and sunny so we were looking forward to visiting the castle and gardens. As we entered Ripley we saw huge crowds gathered around the village, there was some sort of race going on so we decided to head to Ripon, 7 1/2 North for hopefully in less busy surroundings.

A walk around Ripon centre and a quick drink and breakfast at Nero's to refresh us. We then walked to the Cathedral only five minutes away.

As we entered the huge Cathedral we could smell the incense burning and here the sound of a choir singing towards the other end.

At the back section of the church a service was taking place, a choir of 10-15 people and around 30-40 locals in attendance. The choir was simply breathtaking to hear, the sounds echoed around the high ceiling and we were left wanting to hear more and more.

There was much to see around this beautiful place of worship. The organ must be the largest I have ever seen! or heard! It was high in the middle of the Cathedral and it would have be fun to walk around it.

Reading the history and seeing this fantastic place gives us the inspiration to come back in the near future, hopefully to listen to the choir in full voice again. This Cathedral has been here since 620's and must have dwarfed the small village at the time.

Offical Website