Colby

The seaside at Amroth, combined with the woodlands at Colby, has just become one of my favourite places..

Amroth

Freedom of the city

After an animated meeting with TCA at a pub in Waterloo, I cached my back to the hotel down the banks of the Thames, with mixed success. Despite a few DNF (and an increasingly troubling ear infection) I was very pleased with this photo of "From a Swan to the Canary: Custom House".

Event cache!

London Event @ the Royal Oak, Borough


Only my 3rd geocaching event, this was a small one organisaed by "Goldpot", a prolific London cacher (pictured) who was celebrating 1,000 days of geocaching. A very diverse and friendly crowd

Arrrgh! A mouse!

Spotted on the Northern Line @ Borough.

Tottenham Cake

My regular east London treat: a slice of Tottenham Cake from Percy Ingle in Watney Street Market, Shadwell.

QPR 4-1 Reading

As the night drew in, I cut my losses having found 9 caches, and caught the tube from Hangar Lane Gyratory to watch QPR thrash Reading in an entertaining game.

300th Cache!

Found at Alperton, after struggling with a few DNFs.

Canal turn

This barge on the Great Union Canal put me in mind of other canal-based caches in times gone by.

WTF series

Took the tube to Greenford in order to tackle some of the "WTF" (Water to follow) series in northwest London, which takes in the canal network. I worked my way eastwards from Greenford towards Alperton. This was the first cache I found on this late autumn afternoon. The cache actually sticks into the top of the "Public Footpath" sign in the background.

Spotted in Cardiff

County line

Taken after sunset from "Sugar Loaf" near Cynghordy, on the A483 on the Powys / Carmarthenshire boundary, where I have quite a popular cache hide.

Llandrindod

'Dexter's View'



I always enjoy a cache trip to Powys. There aren't many caches around, so there's no point going crazy - you just have to pick one or two and enjoy the walk. This one was set on farmland just above the village of Llanyre, overlooking Llandrindod.

During the day I managed to hide a new multicache as well, in Llandrindod itself.

Cardiff Central from above

Had a meeting in an office block overlooking Cardiff Central. In a funny way I think it's probably one of my best ever pics.

Acers

Another October, another stroll round Bute Park.

Island House

A picture for posterity, as this pub is unlikely to survive future development in Llanelli, despite this petition.

Gotcha!

Cardiff's Bouncy Bridge


This one was on my current list of DNF irritants, having made an attempt earlier in the year. Found it after a sudden flash of 'where would I have hidden it' logic.

Early autumn multi

Cardiff Rivers (Taff): Millennium Stadium


Nice to grab a rare multi cache today whilst on business in Cardiff. The co-ords came from clues based on the mosaics of different nations, which are found on the public walkway next to the stadium (see the Namibia mosaic, below). The cache was a well-disguised container at a pleasant location. It's really difficult to do a good urban cache, this is probably the best I've seen in Cardiff.

Llyn Llech Owain

Llyn Llech Owain


Have put a nice run of caches together in the last couple of weeks, including an unexpected root around at Llyn Llech Owain, photo looking towards Carmel transmitter. Tortoiseshell seems to be gathering momentum again after the GPS blackout earlier this year, and neglect of the blog. 3 years on - who would have thought.

Scout Hut Search


After finding a terrible cache hide in carmarthen (completely visible to muggles, suspiscions of drug-dealing at the site, etc), it was nice to find a decent pasty shop, selling Crantock Pasties. Mine was a bangers and mash pasty.

Back in (one of) the Heartlands

Cardiff Rivers #4 Taff-Ely-Rhymney - City Hall



Great to grab another cache in the old stomping ground last week, near Cardiff City Hall. I went for the Post Office Tower shot - Cache in the foreground, Capitol Tower in the background.

National Benzole

Have seen this truck from afar whilst driving from Cynwil Elfed to Carmarthen. I find it a bit of an eerie truck, it looks like the sort of thing that would explode on an episode of Casualty. Managed to get up close and personal whilst at the Day Out With Thomas recently at the Cwm Gwili Railway. Also did a web search for National Benzole. Mmm...fascinating.

County map update

Several factors have taken theor toll on geocaching recently, most of which come under the heading "real life". Another factor was my Garmin Geko deciding to crash for good a few months ago, and a long interregnum, while I decided whether to pack it all in.

Nevertheless, 2009 has been an interesting caching year, if not a very good one in terms of numbers. In January I captured the unlikely county of Hertfordshire on my map. During the summer I have added Derbyshire (at last!) and Cornwall to the map.

Being me, I have a bit of a fetish for conjoining all the counties on the map, so the 'outposts' of Cumbria and Cornwall in the last year have created new gaps to keep that itch going strong! Part of the mystery is knowing when, and under what circumstances, I will get to cache in each county.

Oh yes - that record haul in one day in August this year means that Gwynedd has turned a healthily dark shade of blue - but unlikely to turn purple (50 caches - like Dyfed) in anywhere near the near future.

Worm's Head!

No cache here, but probably my hardest earned waymark on my GPS. Here the GPS is perched on the end of Worms Head. I didn't realise it would take me the best part of an hour from Rhosilli to the very westward tip.
















Looking back along the ridge towards Gower...

Burry Holm cache!

At last - after 2 years on my hitlist, finally had a chance to do the Burry Holm cache (Burryd Treasure) which is on Burry Holm, the north west tip of Gower. This is a picture of the westerly tip of Burry Holm. I then had the opportunity to make it to Worms Head, a 3-mile run away (and then some).

Most Southerly Cache!

"Wireless Communication"


The cache - my most southerly, thereby beating the Portland Bill cache from 2007, was found in a different place and on a different day to this photo. The cache was a relatively easy micro near Poldhu Cove.

This photo (mine - honest!) is of Asparagus Island, off Kynance. Apparently there is a s*it-hot cache on the island which I hope to come back for, in another life.

First in Derbyshire!!!!

"Wash your woolies"


I've noted on occasion that this blog, and the 'Tortoiseshell' persona was conceived in a pub in Derbyshire back in 2006. Odd then that I had never found a chache in that county until now. Hidden on the outskirts of Bakewell, this odd-shaped cache was found whilst taking a breather on the way home from my brother's stag do in the Peak District.

Dyffryn Clwyd o Foel Mamau

Bear's Eye View


Mushroom Path 6



Moel Famau on the Flintshire / Denbighshire border. Unfortunately logging and a couple of DNFs restricted my haul to 2 on this occasion.

Deliberately understated post

10 x Traditional Caches


Multi cache: "Famous Five: Llyn Trawsfynydd"


Today I broke my record number of caches in one day, driving up from Machynlleth to Gwynedd, but for some reason I can't find the photos that I took from the day.

O'r Ardd (5)

Reigate Priory Park

This was nearly the time and place that I quit geocaching. I was sans GPS, the old Geko having packed in a few weeks ago. I was in reflective mood, wandering round the Priory Park, in Reigate at a running event. I then spotted this orb, which had been waymarked! (See inscription). I thought I would blog this orb, and quit Tortoiseshell - complete with a ready-waymarked point of departure.