niknrich

A post from the 'I Love the Lakes' Facebook group: Urgent Warning, please read this... I want to let you all know that we had a very suspicious encounter today. We walked from White Moss along the shore of Rydal Water and turned upwards at the end towards the caves. We were overtaken at speed by two men who didnt say anything to us. We passed them as we now believe they were pretending to look at the lower caves as we passed to go in to the higher cave. We thought nothing more at the time and walked up and over to Grasmere via the terrace with our three dogs. We stopped on the beach at Grasmere and without warning these two men appeared at speed again, not on a path, but jumping over the terraces to be behind us. Then they slowed down to our slower speed. My husband was alerted and told me to stop. at this point i was unaware that we were probably being followed but because of the urgency in his voice i stopped. There was no one else around. The two men stopped about 4 feet away from us and did not pass us, they didnt say anything. I became scared and didnt know what we should do. Out of the woods at the opposite end of the beach came two cyclists that none of us had seen. At this point i said to my husband turn around and walk the way that we had come and we did. The two men stood and watched us and the cyclists came the same we we had turned to. We were watched as we scarpered as fast as we could. Why did they stop? why did they not speak? We decided it was serious enough to tell the police so drove to Ambleside but it was closed and then to Windermere that was also closed. We called 101 and gave all the info we had to a woman that was just not interested as all she could say that a crime had not been committed... it may well have not been but our concern was that there seemed to be an intent and the next people may not be so lucky... descriptions of the two men are.... 1 - man about 40, slim build, 5"8", very scruffy unkempt shoulder lengthy brown hair, dark olive skin, wearing a brown camouflage top and walking boots... not sure what he was wearing on his legs. 2- younger man about 25-30, very pale, a couple of inches taller, wearing a woolly hat with various coloured stripes on it, dark jacket and walking boots.. they looked like they may have been travellers etc to us. I am very concerned that they may have been trying to steal our dogs, or mug us. We are relatively young and strong and someone else may not be so lucky. If anyone knows a friendly bobby in Keswick please pass this on. My husband is 6"2" tall and an ex rugby player and was anxious... please be safe and spread this.... One of the replies suggested they may have been geocachers but I pointed out it didn't sound like it, but thought I'd check and see if anyone was up there today. There are a few caches nearby but their behaviour doesn't sound like cachers to me. Either way, please be aware if you're in this area.

Hi, we've re-posted your message on the EMcache and GeM Facebook pages in case someone can help. Hope you find it!

We did the caches along the Brampton Valley Way in September, which was a lovely ride along an old railway. Take good lights if you do it though - there are two long unlit tunnels which are very dark! We can also recommend the campsite and lovely cafe at Waterloo Farm - we stayed there and loved it.

Some great ideas there, agree with lots of them but thought I'd add another... we recently had a few days in Lincoln caching and cycling. There are some good series along the Water Rail Way east of the city, and the old railway path going west. The Odder & Around series to the NW is also nice. Great cycling country if you like it flat too! And the city itself is lovely, though not blessed with large numbers of caches. Cambridge is also really nice and has some brain-hurty puzzles!

If you have time, visit Brownsea Island, it's lovely and there are several nice caches there.

Hi, we're in Loughborough! You may be interested in joining the EMcache FB group - it's a closed group but if you PM us with your real names we can add you to the group. We have lots of events and there's usually a group going out most weekends that I'm sure you'd be welcome to join for hints and tips. If you like camping then EMcamp 2013 in July might be of interest!

EMcamp 2013... http://coord.info/GC45TP9 EMcamp 2013 is moving to Derbyshire! Friday 5th - Sunday 7th July, Bank House Farm, Hulme End, Derbyshire. Please log your Will Attends on the cache page and we will keep a running list on the cache page. Please book direct with the site via their website at http://bankhousefarmcamping.co.uk/, prices are on the site. Arrival is from Friday lunchtime, departure by 12.00 on the Sunday. There are eight electric hook-up points so please book early if you would like one of these. We have reserved the whole of the main site so please do book as soon as you can. The campsite owner has asked us to point out that day visitors are not permitted. We are looking at something away from the campsite for those who wish to come along and do the walk on the Saturday. More details on this in due course.

<Content removed by moderator> If you wish to sell/promote multiple items like this please work with Groundspeak to secure permission to do so. This forum is intended for the use of selling single pieces of equipment and gear, but not to promote an ongoing sale/store/site/item sale. Thank you.

I was going to reply last night but ran out of time! I was also going to recommend fellsmanhiker's Coniston Fells caches, there are some crackers there and good fellwalking. Although they're not a series, you can do the Peak a Boo caches up to the Old Man then return via Dow Crag and Brown Pike and back down the Walna Scar bridleway. There are also some great ones in Tilberthwaite (including the Cathedral Cavern cache mentioned above) which is a lovely place to walk if the cloud is down low. There aren't any power trails as such, but there are nice trails in the Langstrath Valley, Ennerdale, and Borrowdale. If you're planning a few days' walking then you're sure to find plenty of caches along most of the main footpaths and bridleways as well as on the summits of a lot of the Wainwrights. Hope this helps! (and enjoy your trip!)

As a founder EMcache member I would say we're more NW Leics and the Notts/Derbys borders-centric, but *all* cachers from, or visiting, the East Mids are welcome to our events! They tend to be in this area only because the cachers who organise them live there. You would be most welcome to host an event near Hinckley if you like. There's a camping event near Hinckley in 2 weeks' time ;-) There is a Notts group as well, who also have regular events (e.g. The Dragonlady Invites...), and they are equally welcoming. Nik

You can always organise one you know! ;-)

It would be interesting to find out how the authors/publishers of walking books/magazines get round this issue. If I'm following a walking route from a book and slip and injure myself, do I have the right to sue the author/publisher, even if they had written a disclaimer in the book about tricky terrain, suitable clothing etc? If it's a case of being responsible for your own actions and looking where you're going, and no I couldn't sue, then surely the same principle should apply to geocaching...? There is legal precedent for the 'look where you're going' stance: you can't sue your local council if you trip over an uneven paving stone and hurt yourself, because no council can ever ensure that 100% of all the paving stones in its area are completely level, 100% of the time. In H&S legislation you are responsible for your own safety, first and foremost.

I was getting worried there: that's when we go to the Lakes! Just checked the map here though and it's way up North of the national park.

Hi, we've had an adoption offer from Angellica but it seems we can't just have the pages transferred to a new owner, they have to be re-written by them We're happy to give her the descriptions to copy & paste but if she doesn't have the time to re-submit them all we'll post again (it's a fair bit of work). Thanks for the offers though. Oh, and yes the names can be changed from "EMcamp 2011..." etc!

After we moved the EMcamp event at short notice earlier this year, we have 12 cache locations in the Sherwood Forest area which we've not used. The pages are written, complete with historical research, and all required permissions have been obtained. All that's missing are the caches as they were never placed! It would be a shame to waste all the work we put in, and it makes a nice 8 mile walk/cycle ride. Before we archive the listings, is anyone interested in adopting them from us? PM us if you're interested, we'll archive them at the end of September if no-one wants them.

I've just started making these: I might also sell them at camping events if anyone is interested.

Glad our cache stood up to the scrutiny!

Happy Xmas everyone, no caching for us today but hoping to get out tomorrow. Santa (Rich) brought me a nice new geocoin!

We've been testing out a 62st for a website Rich writes for, and we're pretty impressed - you can read his review here

Yay! We need no excuse to go to the Lakes, so we'll definitely be there!

I seem to be building up a collection of Buffs as I now have three, but my current favourite is my pink n purple one. They're good for lasses like me with long hair that means a hat keeps slipping off your head - just pull your hair through the top and a Buff stays on!

Walking poles. You may already use them, but if not I highly recommend them. Buy a pair as using just one means one leg gets more 'help' than the other rather than spreading the benefit over both legs. You may feel a bit silly at first but they really do make a difference to the speed and length of your walks. You can also use them to test the depth of boggy bits, fend off over-inquisitive dogs or cattle and even as a Pokey Stick for finding and retrieving caches!

Starting to uncover the cache and discovering it's covered in mud/slime/other grot which then covers your hands and you have nowhere to wipe them except your trouser legs Then having to get even more dirty re-hiding it

I have a Horses Around the World (Quarter Horse) coin, won in a raffle (unactivated) that I would be interested in trading for any Australian coins or Celtic themed designs. Please PM me with photos of your coins.

I was going to suggest that. Signed log, took dormouse!