A sweet day for caching.

  We’re not really “numbers people” but we do try and make each hundredth milestone an interesting cache so, as we realised we were in the 580’s, we started thinking about where we might get our 600^th. 

  The prospect for the next weekend was looking great and we decided that we just had to go and find it… but where? MrB came up with the obvious answer – “Let’s do Sugar Loaf.” The Sugar Loaf is a well-known high hill near the town of Abergavenny. There are several peaks around the world with this same name and it refers to the shape being similar to the solid lumps of sugar that were sold before sugar was packaged as we know it today. There are a couple of caches at the top, the oldest being “Sweet Mountain” GCGQBN, placed in 2003. It’s been on our “to do” list for ages but for various reasons we’d just never got round to it – This was the perfect opportunity.

  So Sunday, May 24^{th ‘}09, 9:30am found us and two geocaching friends, Alibags and Alice Band, in the car park at the bottom of the hill ready for the walk. It was a lovely morning, warm and clear with the temperature about 18*C (64*F) and set to rise steadily, just as we hoped to do also! The summit is 1937ft and we approached it at a comfortable pace - We were in no hurry, no list of 40+ caches for us, just a pleasant Sunday morning walk, a total of 4 miles. As we climbed, the views of the green Welsh valleys expanded before us, patchwork fields dotted with sheep lower down, then bands of deciduous woodlands, the trees displaying their various shades of fresh foliage.

  The footpaths to the top of Sugar Loaf are mostly springy moorland turf which makes the walking easy and there were plenty of excuses to pause on the way up. Apart from the view, we enjoyed watching the wheatears flitting from whinberry bush to heather to grass clumps, no doubt trying to distract us from their nests at ground level. Meadow pipits pipitted, skylarks soared and sang as they ascended, becoming small specks in the blue sky above us, buzzards circled lazily, enjoying the currents of warm air and surveying all with their keen eyes.

  As we hit a steeper stretch about half way up we stopped again, this time to peer at the path where a dor beetle (type of dung beetle) was having his own mid morning snack on a deposit dropped by some passing sheep. While we took a few snaps of him about his business we were passed by a group of scouts: they forged on up the hill, backpacks bobbing, at a sprightlier pace than us! 

  We finally reached the top at about 10:45 and started the cache hunt procedures. The Sweet Mountain cache co-ordinates have always been out by about 30 – 60 feet (according to whichever logs you choose believe) but that’s part of the charm of it. Using the numbers suggested by previous finders, it was quickly located and we pulled a very well-filled clip lock box from its hiding place under a bit of overhanging rock. The usual swapping and exchanging and logging were done and we added our Blorenge Orange signature item specially marked “TFTC – The Blorenges 600^th.” Then claiming our patch of turf not far from the sprawled band of scouts, we unpacked our own Tupperware containing fruit cake, and shared a flask of coffee – we really needed it! – whilst enjoying the wonderful view northwards. The binoculars were passed around for viewing a pair of ravens circling and swooping over the valley and croaking their throaty ‘song’ for our pleasure.  

  A second cache (Merlin’s cache 6, GC15AMV) lurked only 530ft away on the other side of the crest so that was our next stop which provided us with a whole new vista and more opportunities to twist an ankle if we didn’t pay attention to where we placed our feet! The location was about 30ft below the summit and by this time more muggles had gathered at this popular viewpoint so we searched as surreptitiously as possible (we were interested in the flora, weren’t we?) until MrB indicated that he’d found a good place to sit down for a while and more caching business ensued.

   By this time the temperature was rising as we were just after midday. We were pleased to have accomplished our goal and headed off back downhill towards the car park, in the opposite direction to the main flow of people, as by now many groups were out on the high ground taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Once back at the car and refreshed with much slurping of water we decided it was far too nice to go home and so we meandered off to a Pub located on a nearby hillside for Sunday roast lunch. An enjoyable geocaching day, spent in good company – roll on the next milestone!

By MrsB of the Blorenges

Comments(2):

1. Great article

   What a fun story, thanks for sharing it!

   Monday, June 08, 2009 Ed

2. Well done Mrs. B. Loved the story and the photos. Thank you for sharing a beautiful part of your country. It makes me want to visit someday soon. Cheers!

   Monday, June 08, 2009 Danean