Road Trip '15 and Beacon Park

August is always a bit of an exciting month in the Geocaching calendar ..... if you're a Geocacher that is!


This year to celebrate 15 years of Geocaching there are six new 'virtual' souvenirs up for grabs, by taking part in the Geocaching Road Trip '15.

So far, we have managed to grab 4 ..........

'Fun with Favourites'
Available to all Geocachers completing a Geocache with 10 or more favourite points.

We earned this souvenir by completing a very sneaky little cache, the like of which we've not come across before, just outside The Parlors Hall Hotel in Bridgnorth, when we visited for the weekend with friends.

We were Geocacher 234,564 of 365,176 (so far) to earn this souvenir

'Meet your Road Trip Crew'
Available to all Geocachers attending a Geocaching event.

We earned this souvenir by attending a Geocaching event at a local pub for an evening of catching up with old and new Geocaching friends.

We were Geocacher 39,839 or 51,857 (so far) to earn this souvenir.

'Let's get Extreme'
Available to all Geocachers  finding a T5 or a D5 Geocache.

Whenever a Geocache is hidden it is given a Terrain (T) rating and a Difficulty (D) rating.  The description for a terrain rating of 5 is ......

"Requires specialist equipment such as scuba diving gear, a boat, rock climbing gear etc"

The description for a difficulty rating of 5 is ......

"The most extreme mental challenge.  Requires specialised knowledge, skills or significant effort to find, solve or open"

We managed to find a Geocache, fairly close by that had both a T5 and a D5 rating, so it was going to be tough.

That was a bit close for comfort!

This cache involved working out a number of puzzles beforehand to work out the final co-ordinates of the cache hiding place.  From reading previous logs it seemed that it did most definitely require specialist climbing equipment and there may be cows.

We arrived close to GZ and parked up easily.  We followed a distinct Cachers' trail through the undergrowth and ducked under the hedge and then climbed the fence.  Easy enough so far.  We soon worked out the steps we needed to take and headed back to the car for the specialist equipment and all was looking good.

Specialist equipment in place and ..... Oh no ...... Cows!! Heading this way. Quick, back over the fence, me and mum moved like lightening. Martin soon followed, leaving all equipment behind. I managed to get a couple of decent photos from behind the safety of the fence and Martin managed to shoo the offending animals away.

Martin was the brave one.  He headed back to GZ to make the find, whilst mum and me felt like a right pair of frauds, so, in the end, we did brave the cows, they had moved to a safe distance, and had a quick look at the find, before we all packed up and headed for home.

We were Geocacher 28,683 of 55,555 to earn this souvenir

'High Five for the Earth'
Available to all Geocachers finding an Earth Cache.



This weekend we were on a mission to pick up this souvenir and we picked up Mum and headed over to Lichfield for a visit to Beacon Park, where our closest Earth Cache was located.

Beacon Park is a real treasure.  It's right next to the busy city centre and just across a busy road from the cathedral and Minster Pool, so it is really accessible.

It is a very traditional municipal park.  It's full of things to look at and things to do and it was a real treat to see it so busy, with so many families enjoying pic-nics and children making full use of the open space.




It was a glorious day and we wandered past the cathedral and through the more formal area, with statues and lots of summer bedding.
We went past a more natural area with a stream before coming across a fabulous children's play area with not a witches hat or boring old roundabout in sight. It was packed full of children enjoying burning off some energy in the summer sunshine.
We did what we needed to do to claim our Earth cache, before taking a welcome pitstop in the Bistro, where we sat in the sunshine and watched the world go by.
We then headed back across the stream, where we saw great views of the cathedral and the biggest swans I've ever seen, before heading back to town.
We wandered through more gardens, with herbacaeous borders, packed full of planting and even passed the circus on our way.
Beacon Park also has plenty of wide open areas, a crazy golf course and a pitch and putt course, so more than enough to do to keep you busy for an afternoon.

I'd definitely recommend a visit if you're in the area.

We do love an Earth cache.  They take you to really interesting geological features in the most unexpected places.

We were Geocacher 32,544 of 35,196 to earn this souvenir

We now have just 2 of the 6 souvenirs left to collect.  We have a mystery cache to do, which we will need to complete after 14 August.  The final souvenir is a bonus, for collecting the first 5, so once we have the mystery in the bag, we should get the full set.

Well. it gets us out and about!!