An Animal Puzzle Walk
It was the last day of the school holidays for Morgan today and a chance to beat our ‘consecutive days geocaching’ record so Morgan was quite motivated to get out and find at least one cache.
We left the house fairly early this morning and drove to Tan y Coed for a little walk in the woods where there were two caches to find. Despite driving past this woodland many times I’d never stopped here before and was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that there was nice car park, several way marked walking loops and some toilets. One of the walking routes was a short loop with an ‘Animal Puzzle’ to do on the way around. It looked to me as though it would also pass the two geocaches so we picked up the puzzle leaflet and set off.
The leaflet had 14 clues on it, the answer to each of these was a woodland creature and at each location there was a little wooden carving of the animal. Not only did we have clues to work out on our way around and two geocaches to search for but we also had to find the little animals as well. Morgan worked out pretty much all of the animals from the clues and we were soon on our way walking through the woods on the trail. The signposts said it would take an hour.
The weather was mild for January, cloudy and still a little damp, but again it was dry. I’m glad I wore my wellies though as it was a little muddy underfoot in places. We were a little too enthusiastic at first and had to double back a couple of times to find animals that we had missed – We were walking too fast and skipping some by accident but we found them all without too much trouble. The first of the geocaches was easily found as well.
The path took us up through the woods and then down to the little river of Nant Cwmcadian which tumbles down the hillsaide, cascading over a few waterfalls. We were stopping every 100 yards or so to take photos of the animals, and we took a few others at points of interest too. Morgan liked the little rock passage as he thought it looked like the way into Erindale in the Hobbit. The second cache was a nice easy find as well. That was two down already today and we had now found geocaches on 6 consecutive days, a new record for us!
It was a really nice walk in a nice quiet woodland with plenty to look out for. It took as about 45 minutes even with the doubling back, all the photo stops and stopping to find the two geocaches.
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- Robin
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- Rabbit
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- Squirrel
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- Owl
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- Fox
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- Woodpecker
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- Ant
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- Mouse
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- Butterfly
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- Buzzard
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- Bat
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- Tan y Coed
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- Path to Erindale!
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- Frog
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- Badger
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- Mole
Back at the car and we made a quick drive north to Corris where we did a few more geocaches. First was ‘Confusing Directions‘, a geocache we had been looking forward too as it had been given lots of favourite points and almost all the logs had spoken favourably of it. We weren’t disappointed. It’s in an OK location although a little close to the main road to be really nice, but it was easy to find, in a good container and actually getting it out was fun. I won’t say any more for fear of giving it away.
We then went to the Corris Craft Centre and walked a little way down the road to the A.W.H Memorial geocache. I’ve driven along this road hundreds of times and have passed the memorial each time but I’d never stopped at it or visited it so until today didn’t know what it was for. Now I do as the geocache details contain a small biography of Alfred William Hughes for whom the memorial stands.
HUGHES , ALFRED WILLIAM ( 1861 – 1900 ), surgeon and professor ; b. 31 July 1861 at Aberllefenni, Mer. , youngest son of Robert Hughes , quarry manager . He was educated at the National School , Corris , and Dolgelley grammar school . He was apprenticed to a draper at Dolgelley , but returned to work in the slate quarries at Aberllefenni . He started his medical career with Dr. J. Jones at Corris , and later became a student at Edinburgh University where ( 1884 ) he was appointed demonstrator in anatomy and physiology . Subsequently he studied at Leipzig and in London . He graduated in 1885 , and in 1889 became F.R.C.S. (Edin.) , and two years later F.R.C.S. (Eng.) . He commenced a private practice at Flint ( 1887 ) but returned to Edinburgh to resume his teaching in the School of Medicine . In 1893 he was appointed professor of anatomy at the Medical School of the University College , Cardiff , and in 1897 professor of anatomy at King’s College , London . At this time he made numerous and important contributions to the study of anatomy . During the Boer War , Hughes was the originator and organizer of the movement for equipping and supporting the Welsh hospital in South Africa . On the death of several members of the staff he undertook the duty of chief superintendent . While on his way home he developed enteric fever ; he d. 3 Nov. 1900 and was buried at Corris . A Conservative in politics he unsuccessfully contested one of the Caernarvonshire divisions in the Unionist interest.
The Memorial also provides a nice view of Corris Village below which can be reached from here via the locally known ZigZag path.
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- Corris
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- Memorial
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- Zigzag Path
It was then back to Corris Craft Centre where unfortunately the cafè was closed for a final cache of the day called ‘Here be Dragons‘. This one was a little tricker to find but after a short search we soon had it. The final cache of the school holidays taking us up to a total cache find of 315.
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sounds and looks like a lovely day out.I wonder if Morgan knows how lucky he is.