Cooties! were in Wales!

[+Cooties!]

A couple of weeks ago, I started gathering information for our vacation to Wales in August 2006. I'd like to start by thanking all of the friendly people on this UK forum for all of your suggestions and tips.

So, THANKS! You were all "spot on", and really made our vacation fun!

 

My thoughts after returning:

My girlfriend and I have only been geocaching for a few months, and knew that we wanted to incorporate it into our vacation. I did some research but not nearly enough, it turns out. As someone warned me, "the spirit may be willing"... but my plans were overly ambitious. It seems I missed the part about the INCREDIBLE footpaths and walks in Wales taking so much time. (Here in California, there are WAY too many "drive-bys" and micros.)

For those of you who know the series, I even thought we might be able to finish the "Complex Collection" by Write and Mane near Caerphilly. HAHAHAHA. Again, I failed to read the "2 mile walk", "4 mile hike", etc... part of their caches

Anyways, we did manage to complete a number of caches. We also picked up and dropped off a few TBs and geocoins, including a coveted Green Jeep.

 

Here's a list of the caches we had time for (in about 12 days), including touristy-things:

• Mew View
  
  
• All Fall Down
  
  
• Burryd Treasure
  
  
• St. David's Head
  
  
• A Pilgrim's Rest
  
  
• Pembroke Ferry TB Hotel
  
  
• Harlech Hilltop
  
  
• Folly Foot Castle
  
  
• Castle Lake
  
  
• Caerphilly Pictorial
  (attempted, but not found)
  
  
• Cardiff Pictorial
  
  
• CC2 Cefn Onn Quarry (RVR2)
  
  
• CC1 Cefncarnau (RVR1)
  
  
• Miners Cross Here
  
  
• Snowdon View micros 1-6 plus the
  Bonus!
  
  
• Top and bottom of it Part 1
  
  

There were MANY more on the "want to do" list, but we never got to. Even the puzzle caches I had solved in advance went un-tried. We even brought flashlights and planned to attempt "Hold Your Nerve", but I failed to notice that part 1 was closed on Sundays/Mondays.

 

If/when we go back, there are a couple of things we'll be sure to remember (tourists take note!):

1. The exchange rate is painful!

2. Pick up a book about basic driving rules. We eventually figured out the essential rules, but this should be required reading for all tourists.

3. Walking trails and footpaths are lovely! Use them to your advantage, and buy maps! We only had the OS maps for North and South Wales, which were good for driving, but too general to be helpful when geocaching. Pre-planning routes to the "harder" caches is a must. Simply using your GPS to guide you towards a cache is the hard-way to do it!

4. Stay in places with an internet connection. We had to "wardrive" and hi-jack random networks to get our connection. Not efficient!

5. Don't pack liquids or gels

 

Overall, we LOVED Wales (and the 2 days we spent in England)! The country is incredibly scenic and beautiful. We are envious of your footpaths and countryside code. It's a geocacher's paradise. As expected, geocaching took us to amazing places we would have NEVER visited as a regular "tourist".

Thanks, again, to everyone who emailed and posted your advice and well-wishes.

 

P.S. Other highlights of our trip... Sheepdog trials including a sheep-shearing contest, bunnies at the Museum of Mechanical Magic, the National Botanic Garden

[+Write and Mane]

Heartiest CONGRATULATIONS on your Caching trip and holiday in WALES (and a bit of England)

 

We'd love to say "We told you so 'Cooties'" as the people who said 'the spirit may be willing but . . . ), but we won't

 

Were your expectations and plans overly ambitious - DEFINITELY, but far better to have to many caches to challenge, than that you returned home wishing you had brought information for caches.

 

If your visit eft you hungry for more of this lovely beautiful country, all we can say is:-

 

COME BACK SOON, we don't even mind if you come JEEPLESS

[+uk flying pigs]

Glad you enjoyed it Cooties... We picked up one of your cions and look to drop it off next week somewhere.... ( work is getting in the way).

 

You are right about maps... The OS 50000 series are great as are the 25000. I really miss this quality of map when we are overseas.....

 

We are off to Boulder City NV, Las Vegas and New York next month and hope to be getting some caches in.... I hope I have prepared enough... but doubt it....

 

Cya

 

bob

[+The Blorenges]

Glad you enjoyed your visit, Cooties, and thanks for bringing over a Green Jeep for us to play with.

MrsB

[eagleeyes53]

Well done Cooties!! You certainly got around. Glad you enjoyed your trip.

 

the Red Kite

[+Cooties!]

Well done Cooties!! You certainly got around. Glad you enjoyed your trip.

 

the Red Kite

 

Yes, we added 1480 miles to our rental car

[+mollyjak]

Glad you enjoyed your visit