International Earth Cache Day

The 2nd Sunday in October is an important date on the Geocaching calendar.

It's what's known as International Earth Cache Day,

It's a day when a virtual souvenir badge is available to all cachers completing an Earth Cache.


Last year we headed out with mum and dad and completed an Earth cache on Cannock Chase.


This year we had to go a little bit further afield, to find an Earth cache that we hadn't completed, and we were off to Barr Beacon, a local beauty spot and war memorial, with amazing views over Birmingham.





I have to confess that I did used to come here when a lot younger and not for Geocaching!!

It was a really lovely bright day but the wind nearly took us off our feet when we got out of the car.

We were greeted by an amazing and huge kite flying above us.  It seemed to be either a giant squid or octopus, not sure which.









We had a really good walk, taking in the war memorial and finding the information that we needed to be able to complete the Earth cache, before completing a few other caches that were also in the park.

Out of the wind, it was actually quite warm.

We felt quite virtuous, having completed our bracing walk, but soon headed for home to claim our souvenir.

Guernsey - Coming Home

Well ... this is it ... my last Guernsey holiday post!

Whilst we were on Guernsey we did manage to pull in a good few museum visits, as well as our coastal tour.

We were really keen to visit a number of the WW2 museums and managed to fit in trips to the Signals Museum, the Underground Museum and the Occupation Museum.

All were really well worth the visit.  The Occupation Museum especially, had lots of personal stories and mementos of what happened to individual people in the war and it was absolutely fascinating.

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head for home.
We managed to pull in a quick breakfast by the bathing pools, with the tide in, before a, thankfully, uneventful boarding of The Liberation to begin our onward journey back to Poole and then home.

Although it was a nice easy boarding, it was just a little rough o the way back and I was as sick as a dog.  I think it will be a long time before I travel with Condor again.

In spite of our travel shenanigans we loved our holiday on Guernsey and would most definitely recommend a visit if you get the chance.

Guernsey - The Little Chapel

Whilst we did spend the majority of our time on Guernsey exploring the coast, we did manage to fit in a few more bits of sightseeing throughout the course of our time on the island.

When we were greeted at Rose Cottage by our lovely host, he told us that visiting Guernsey and not seeing The Little Chapel, is like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower.

It was definitely added, as a priority, to our list of places to visit whilst we were here.

We weren't disappointed.  It's only a tiny little place, but it is breathtaking.

The day we visited it was a beautiful bright sunny day and it was really hard to get our photographs to do justice to the mosaics, as the glare from the sun was causing us a few problems.

We persevered and ended up being there ages, whilst trying to get some decent pictures.  I hope you like what we've ended up with.

We did manage to also visit a few other places whilst on Guernsey and we would definitely recommend the Underground Museum, the Occupation Museum and the German Naval Signals HQ.

All really tell the story of Guernsey during the occupation and tell lots of poignant stories about people's lives on the island during this time.  Most definitely food for thought.

I have just one more post to publish about our holiday on Guernsey, just in time for us to be heading off on our travels again.  This time we won't be going far, but hopefully it will be just as lovely.

Guernsey - The Last of our Coastal Tour

It was the penultimate full day of our holiday and we really wanted to finish off our tour around the coast of the North East tip of the island which we hadn't yet seen, before heading out back to the west coast to take in a sunset and to grab some fish and chips.

We started out at Fort Pembroke and the most beautiful beach we've ever seen.  We wandered past our first Martello tower of the day and up to the fort, where it was quite breezy, to say the least, but just beautiful all the same.
This was followed by lunch with one hell of a view.  L'Ancresse Bay just stretches as far as you can see in both directions.  
After lunch we walked up to the nearest Martello tower and the views looking back over the bay were amazing.  The whole bay is is just surrounded on the coast side with a ring of Martello towers.  You can see them for as far as the eye can see.
It was then further around the North East tip to Fort Doyle, ending up at Beaucette Marina, to end off our pretty much full island coastal tour.
It was back to Rose Cottage for a quick pitstop, before heading back out to Fort Grey for our sunset. And what a sunset it was, we took loads of photos and I've tried to just pick out the best to share with you. We were very surprised to see two groups of people taking an evening dip .... it was pretty chilly.
 
We followed off the sunset with fish and chips from the chippy, ate sat in the car, watching the sea ... lovely.