{"id":16149,"date":"2014-04-25T10:59:23","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T09:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=16149"},"modified":"2014-04-24T11:07:52","modified_gmt":"2014-04-24T10:07:52","slug":"elan-valley-geocaches-dam-open-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/04\/elan-valley-geocaches-dam-open-day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Elan Valley Geocaches and Dam Open Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Easter holidays continue and we were all of work and school on Wednesday. Morgan had a friend coming to stay for a sleepover and we had an afternoon out planned so I started the morning with some work followed by a quick run.<\/p>\n

Anna was still in bed when I got back but I soon roused the troops and it wasn’t long before we were heading off in the car to collect Cameron, pop into the Co-op to buy supplies for a picnic and then start the drive out towards the Elan Valley.\u00a0It’s quite a bit further away than you think from Ynyslas and the twisty windy roads up to Devil’s Bridge, out through Hafod and then all the way along Cwmystwyth don’t help. Morgan and Cameron were getting restless by the time we turned off the mountain road and headed into the Elan Valley so we stopped here for a picnic. It’s a nice spot, right where the River Elan first opens out into the Craig Goch Reservoir.<\/p>\n

Elan Valley Geocaches<\/h1>\n

The weather was grey, overcast and a little drizzly, with a cold wind keeping things chilly so we ate in the car. I had loaded up the phone with various geocaches in the area though and guessed there would be one here . Sure enough there was, so Morgan, Cameron and I jumped out of the car and went in search of it. It didn’t take long to find so we had soon logged ‘No Dam in Sight’<\/a>\u00a0cache number eight of the the ‘Dam it Drive through’ series.<\/p>\n

Cameron had never done any geocaching before so we had to explain how it worked to him and the fact that there were plastic boxes all over the world just waiting to be found. He seemed to be enjoying it though and was soon asking ‘ how far until the next one?’ as we drove along the shores of the Elan Valley Reservoirs. Luckily for Cameron there are actually quite a few geocaches along here. not only from the Dam it Drive Through series, but others as well so we were stopping fairly regularly to find them.<\/p>\n

Our actual destination was the\u00a0Penygarreg Dam which was open today, but it was open from 1pm-4pm so we had plenty of time to stop for geocaches on the way there.<\/p>\n

The next geocache was called ‘Dam Sheep’, also from the Dam it Drive Through series and this was followed by one called\u00a0Calming Craig Goch<\/a>\u00a0which wasn’t par of the series but provided some nice views over the Craig Goch Dam. It was raining quite a bit by now though so time to don the waterproofs. Although the two boys didn’t bother as they scrambled over the wet grass looking for the cache.<\/p>\n

\"Craig<\/a>

Craig Goch Dam<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Geocaching\"<\/a>

Geocaching<\/p><\/div>\n

So far, so good, three geocaches already and some nice Welsh scenery too. We had to post a DNF on number 6 in the series though. There had been quite a few DNF’s in the logs recently though so maybe it is gone missing? There were some nice views over the Penygarreg Reservoir from here though. The reservoir has a lovely island in it that looks ripe for exploring – if only you were allowed on the water in a canoe!<\/p>\n

\"Elan<\/a>

Elan Valley Island<\/p><\/div>\n

Dam Open Day<\/h1>\n

The next in the series was right by Penygarreg Dam, our destination for the day. The dam was open today allowing an exclusive opportunity to enter into the dam and up into the central tower. It only costs \u00a31 each and all proceeds go to the WaterAid charity so it seemed like quite an excitin thing to do. We parked on the roadside and walked up through the woodland to the dam entrance. There was a ranger here taking your money, but there was also a geocache here too. Unfortunately with the Ranger there and lots of other people we had to miss this one out, but we were soon into the dark, narrow passageway under the dam.<\/p>\n\n\t\t