Galston BIG Wood Caching...a Lovely Woodland Walk Ruined by the Aljos.

Sunday 14th August

It's been a long time since we've been out caching. What with falling down stairs, getting concussion, not being able to afford petrol, having no job and getting flu the past few weeks had been a barrel of laughs........ no not really. We'd picked up a few TBs at Mugdock Park and really needed to move them on.

There are plenty of caches for us still to do along the Galston, Newmilns (and beyond) area. This ALJO country. Now what have we learned about ALJO caches in our time as cachers.

1. They are often in interesting locations.
2. They are often historical.
3. They are often complex.
4. They often make sane men run around country lanes with their t-shirt over their heads (ok maybe not so sane).
5. They make you swear.
6. They make you question the parentage of the ALJOs, indeed Mr.ALJO's mother often is remarked upon also.
7. They will make you want to hurt something / someone.............. but you don't know where the ALJOs live.

The parking is great, I  like this, I get freaked out when I can't park, so a nice big layby is ideal. We skip the first cache as there are muggles sitting in a car so we decide to get it enroute home. Up the path go our very excited geohounds. The GPS is not happy and keeps losing satellite reception, Mr.Biff is armed with his iphone app so it's a bit of a battle of the TECH. We are fools, we honestly expected them to be fairly straight forward... when will we learn?  Loudoun Gowf Club, Stomping through 4ft nettles we go OUCH OUCH OUCH. Through muddy puddles SQUELCH SQUELCH SQUELCH. It can't be up here... can it? Nobody has been up here, this untrodden pathway, for years. Has Mr. ALJO been dropping from helicopters to place his caches? Mr.Biff found this one, easy once we'd reached GZ. This was early in our caching day by number 6.... well I'll get to that.

Heading off for cache No.2   The Hidden Bridge I discover some interesting fungi. This is a growing interest and although clearly this specimen is one that nobody would think of taking home to saute. I really wish I was confident to pick the edible ones. We have a good rummage around the area, the GPS is no good at all, not gathering any satellites, so nothing left but to rummage.

Where the trolls live

The dogs get really excited as we go back and forward, under the bridge, over the bridge. I am routing around under the bridge when Mr.Biff shouts "Hey a frog" and as I look up the said frog takes a leaping kamakazi jump off the bridge in my direction. Now I'm not afraid of frogs. As per previous log I have analyzed the purpose of frogs but I have no issue with the swamp-loving little creatures.


MySpace Codes!

I do not however want them jumping on my face in a frenzied attempt to escape the hulking giant of Mr.Biff. Did I scream? Well yes I did. To make matters worse 5 mins later Mr.Biff found cache No.2 grrrrrrr

                                                        Mr.Biff    2-0   Mrs.Biff 

Where was he looking? The very spot I'd just left....of course!

Onwards and upwards, there are 2 off to the left over the burn but we head straight ahead for  The Red Farm. We bypass   Arclowdun, this cache we did last year with Dotscot who was a real newbie at the time and now is a fanatical junkie like the rest of us.

Mrs.Biffo, Rachel, Darcy Doodle, Dotscot, Rosie & Mr.Biffo

Funny how time flies this, our visit up the BIG WOOD was like yesterday and we really enjoyed it then, I'm sure a couple of caches that were on then have now been taken off as I can't imagine we walked up for just the one.

   The Red Farm cache did actually bring me to tears. No, no it wasn't the fact that I lost out No.3 to Mr.Biff and his bloody iphone. GPS just dead with the tree cover. I cried because I was still fighting the flu that HE gave me, I'd just got my boots REALLY muddy and I am technically unemployed and struggling with the realization of it .... and the frog trauma...well I was still recovering.

MySpace Codes!

    Mr.Biff    3-0   Mrs.Biff (curses!)

Now I'm pissed. Time to head back the way we came.   Fallen Giant comes next, now we know its over the water and we feel smug when we find a proper road that leads to the top of Loudoun Castle Theme Park (now no longer operational). Yet, still not quite the right direction. Now the ALJOs do say that one must wander through woodland and that there is no pathway this should have been a bigger warning than it was. Alarm bells should have rung. I'm not sure how we managed but we end up back on the other side of the river...... we search for places to cross and there low and behold is a tree, just like the one in Dirty Dancing, but we don't dance on it... Mr.Biff is no dancer and hell he's certainly no Patrick Swayze! Over we go and then we coax the geohounds over. Drummer got a little stuck on the way up the bank and Hannah went mental barking him on... brave geohounds risking tooth and tail for tupperware. 

Cairnsmore of Carsphairn - Dragging Baby Biff up a Mountain

Saturday 2nd July

Cairnsmore of Carsphairn is highly recognizable from the roadside and a frequent visitor to beautiful Dumfries & Galloway I always viewed it as a marker that I was on my way, leaving Ayrshire behind and chances were Connie would throw up in about 10 minutes time and the deep hope that nobody had fed her Wotsits (honestly, the same layby every time).  Guess what? There's a cache up there!
  Cairnsmore of Carsphairn Summit

The weather had been good so we decided that it was high time we claimed the Cairnsmore cache. We also  decided that we were fed up of being viewed as lepers in the family and insisted Connie come with us....this she did grudgingly.

Ninja Biff - Armed and Dangerous

As always we consulted WalkHighlands, the cache description gave us a different route which also picked 'Donkey Pump' up enroute but after using a good few map routes of Walk Highlands we decided to stick with what we trust .....don't know if this was the best idea this time! Well it would have been if we'd followed it correctly.

En Garde Monsieur Biff!

  We parked at the Green Well of Scotland where there is ample parking and already occupied with many cars, that said we only encountered a few other walkers on our hike. Not wishing to appear anti-social, we like a lonely walk, many of the walks we have done have been really busy; Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis were like Sauchiehall Street on sale day. 

Connie with Willieanna (yes that's the hills name!) behind.

The walk starts off up a landrover track and follows the side of Polsue Burn till the track slowly and gently ascends. Baby Biff started 'gurning' about 15 minutes into the walk y'know the stuff 'Are we nearly there yet?' 'Which hill is it?' 'Can we stop for chocolate?' and ultimate mutiny 'I'm not moving till I get chocolate!'. It was slow going to say the least.

Baby Biff's mutiny (one of many) and wild wolves (geohounds).

In her defense it was very warm and muggy but oh she was murder to listen to!

Mr & Mrs.Biff.....and ominous, black, thunder clouds..Eek!

We followed the Landrover track, skirting round the lesser hills of WillieAnna and Dunool, till it ended and there was nothing for it but to cross the burn and take on the final steep ascent to the summit of Cairnsmore of Fleet.

Corserine & The Rhinns of Kells in the distance

A rare moment of positivity!

Mr.Biff wore the war wounds of this walk for a week, the midgies were hellish and appear to love his hot Southern blood, they have a bite at me but don't feast, I reckon my blood is far too chilly for them. I think it was Dotscot (Queen of Medical trivia) who told me that they are attracted by the Carbon Dioxide   that we exhale when we breathe. Now just how do we know this? What sad git has studied the habits of midgies, that's what I want to know! I imagine a wee, grizzly man sitting in a laboratory coughing into petri dishes full of midgies ..."Oh aye they like that!".

So I did my research:

What attracts mosquitoes and other biting insects to us?

Our breathing! The combination of carbon dioxide (CO2), moisture, and heat that results from exhaling attracts the female mosquitoes.

What is octenol?

Octenol (1-octen-3-ol) is a naturally occurring by-product that comes from plants and some animals, such as cows, that ingest large amounts of vegetable matter. It is irresistible to midges who can detect minute fluctuations of CO2 and Octenol in their environment from 100 yards away.

http://www.midgetech.co.uk/how-it-works/faq.asp#q8

Dotscot (Queen of Medical trivia), full of this stuff, bloody full of it, she'd be top class in a pub quiz.

We hiked up the hill and it was a richt guid lung buster! We stopped halfway for a drink and a bit of sustenance but the midgie attach was just too intense!

How do we defeat the midgies?!!!!!! We don't...we just keep walking!

The views were sensational, the Galloway hills are really special. Running parallel as we ascended was the long ridge of the Black Shoulder which is the alternative ascent to the summit of Cairnsmore of Carsphairn. We had seen people on this earlier and they passed us on the way down as we were still ploughing up hill. Baby Biff got her mountain goat legs at this point as she could see the end in sight and is after all a geocacher at heart and had to find it before Mr.Biff did.

Finally the hill plateaued and a flatter surface of rocky boulders led the way to the trig point and thankfully no more midgies! The views were amazing from here, panoramic views down over Galloway, over to Arran and the west, North with it's sea of wind turbines ( I've never really minded them, but I truly don't want to see anymore on Scotland's landscape).

PLANKING! 

Standing on Mr.Biff?

First things first we find the cache...well baby Biff did, her highest cache yet! The trig has a nice shelter so we had lunch and signed the logbook. This is another seldom visited caches which is a shame because they are class.

Team Biffo at the Summit of Cairnsmore of Carsphairn

We descended along the Black Shoulder which was a quick jaunt, the up over Dunool, this led to a very steep descent (screaming knees) to a steep ascent over Willieanna.

The Roman's couldn't have built it straighter, the white dots are sheep, this hill is bigger than it looks.

 Heading down Willieanna we could see the Landrover track and the path back to the car. It was a fair old walk all in all, a good four and a half hours but we did have a protesting 13 year old in tow. Cairnsmore of Carsphairn is no walk in the park, at 797m it is a fine Corbett and worthy of the effort. The walk is very straightforward and the views on a clear day, like we had, were awesome. Sadly Baby Biff has decided it is her first and last walk up a mountain so it will be her highest geocache. I have a suspicion that she will be a bit like her mum and have an urge to climb things once she gets older.

Hanging up her walking sticks

Ben More and More and More and More Mutant Black Slugs ... and Stob Binnein

Saturday 25th June

It has been the worst week...well the worst week in a long, long time for both Dotscot and myself for different but upsetting reasons. So what does one do when faced with upset and trauma? Well we climbed a mountain... or two, now that'll make you forget anything!

We'd planned to do the event for a while. There were two good events on this day and team Biffo decided that Mr.Biff and Baby Biff would take Rose & Thistle's
AYRSHIRE MEET 2011 
and Mrs.Biff would hoof it up the mountain with Dotscot for Simply Paul's 
(Ben) More? I'm Spoiling You!  .
The added bonus of course for the Ben More event is claiming
Scotland's First en route. So a busy day planned for all.

All ready for the off.

Wild Bean coffee to kick start the day.

Us girls headed off at 6am, this is truly an unGodly hour for Mrs.B, I really don't do mornings. Still we were in fine fettle and looking forward to the walk  ( I use this word lightly). The roads were clear and we reached our destination just east of Crianlarich at 8.05am. Here we met Scotsbob (Bobby) becoming slightly concerned that he was the only walker.
We shot the breeze and at 8.20 Simply Paul (our host as it were) came striding up the road from the official carpark. Paul had been partaking of a marathon of events in Scotland and Ben More was to be his last before heading down to Birmingham, his main goal was the cache rather than the event and we all agreed that we'd see how the weather held for the summit.

Mrs.Biffo, Dotscot, Scotsbob & SimplyPaul the intrepid explorers of Scotland's First Geocache!

So rucksacks on backs and myself with my new trusty poles (can't imagine how I managed walking without them) off we set. It makes me laugh to think of how gingerly I stepped over the wee seuch so as not to get my boots wet  HA! Off up the farm track we went a happy wee bunch, we discussed some Scots words and had a richt guid blether. Before long Scotsbob initiated the way up the mountain, there is no arrow to guide you and we followed his lead as he had attempted Scotland's First in the winter but had been unable to dig it out of the snow and ice. Dotscot had downloaded the waypoints into her gps from WalkHighlands but this wasn't the route to the cache only the summit and on to Stob Binnein.

Click here for WalkHighlands map of Ben More & Stob Binnein

I had read up on Ben More and had voiced concerns about the steepness of terrain, I find it tough going. After only 10mins walking Dotscot felt that her lungs were going to explode and I thought I was going to pass out or throw up or high chance of both! We knew Paul had a strict time restraint and we didn't want to hold them up so we told them to go on ahead.

The group divides on the initial steep ascent

I think they thought we would be turning back the state we were in! Off they disappeared into the mist. Dotscot and myself sat on a rock for 5mins, had some water and waited for the shock to subside! As always Dotscot gives me the medical terminology for what is happening to my body. I love this, she is very clever. But I will tell you what was happening to my body in layman's terms ...... it was buggered. Too much, too soon and it wanted to heave the contents of it's stomach because then I would have to stop, the dizziness? Well it was just trying to locate my brain for climbing up this bloody mountain. As I said Dotscot describes it 'Grey's Anatomy' style.

We were on our own now but feeling that if we just took things at our own pace we'd do okay and so that's what we did. Somehow we had managed to come off the ridge and were following the arrow to the cache, the hill fog was so thick we couldn't see much in front of us and thankfully very little behind us. If we had I doubt very much that we would have gone on!

I do not jest about the steepness. She's only got wee legs bless her.

It was STEEP baby! 45 degree angle for the majority of the way on slippy grass and moss, our boots were soaked through very early on despite waterproofing the night before. Suddenly a shriek from behind! Oh God no! Dotscot has fallen down the hill!

"Are you ok?!!!!!" I shout with alarm.

"It's the slugs!!!! The BIG, BLACK SLUGS!!!!!!" she cries fearfully "I don't want them to get me!!!!!!!!!"

 Now, I don't like them either and in truth they were fairly mutant, they probably dine on the rubber of hiking boots ... glad I didn't suggest that to Dotscot at the time! So I left her to worry about the slugs rather than alert her to the fact that we were much more at risk of falling back down the steep incline to our death. Future shrieks and cries I knew were of more slug sightings.

The Silky Black Terror that lurks in the moss......or just a slug to most folks.

At 10.30am, 2 hours into our walk, we found the cache. We had wandered far east of location but the gps had been bouncing about a bit.

Scotland's First ever Geocache and we found it!

Dotscot signing the log of Scotland's First ever cache.

We were exhilarated and had a celebratory coffee and chunk of chocolate, oh yes we are girls who know how to live it up! Bizarrely this is when my mother-in-law phoned me for a chat. I was screaming down the phone that I was half way up a mountain but she blethered on regardless. Don't think she understands my accent yet (or ever will!).

Ok perhaps a little too exuberant!

Sadly not our 800th cache as Mr.Biff back in Ayrshire failed to get the numbers needed to make Scotland's First a milestone, I think it comes in at 789.

Dotscot's log for Scotland's First.

It was at this point that we read the previous entry in the log by Simply Paul and Scotsbob stating that they were heading back down to look for us. Fortunately Dotscot had Paul's mobile number and called him. He seemed really surprised that we were at the cache and had seemingly reached it just a short time after they had headed back down. We assured them that we were feeling fit and fab we had just needed to find our mountain goat legs. We hate to think that they really went back down looking for us, this would have been like finding a needle in a haystack or perhaps an Aljo cache at Loudon Kirk. Perhaps it was their conscience that took them back down but we are inclined to think that we were an excuse for not heading to the top. Whatever reason the boys had headed back down. Scotsbob left a really nice note on my windscreen saying he'd waited till 2.15 before heading home ..... we were still 1165m high at that time.

Now we had two options.
1) Cross the burn and head to the distant ridge that we could see bodies walking up.
2) Keep going north from our current location.

We had a look at our map and figured that we would head due north as the contour lines looked packed together whatever way we headed! This, in hindsight, was perhaps the wrong choice........ oh isn't it always!

'Take great care to avoid veering into the hanging valley of Sloc Curraidh, scattered rock and grass on a high gradient make it exceptionally dangerous and in winter it is a well known avalanche blackspot.' 

http://www.walkingbritain.co.uk/walks/walks/walk_b/1406/

Guess where we were....................................

There's no going back down on Sloc Curraidh.

Singing on Ben More

I do remember singing at this point and receiving a look from Dotscot that told me in no uncertain terms that if I didn't shut up she would harpoon me with her walking sticks, Ha! Yeah! You try digging them out of the mountain bud! Coz they are the only thing holding you on to it!

We think this is the skeletal remains of a mountain bike. We hate to think what it's owner looked like...slugs probably got him.

At 12.20 we reached a final rocky wasteland and just through a gap in the rocks I let up a cry, 'a man made rock!'. I was sure it was the trig. As it disappeared from view I made a last valiant push (unaware that this totally freaked Dotscot out as I disappeared from her view) and there it was the summit. We'd made it half an hour late for the hostless event and up the hard way! Three lads were approaching the trig as our heads popped up from the Corrie route and they looked astounded at the way we had come....well no bloody wonder!

The best view of the day... sorry Mr.Biff ;)

Again, the feeling of accomplishment at reaching the summit and feeling on top of the world is immense.

Mrs.Biffo at the summit of Ben More

I'd had a really awful week and it didn't matter anymore, because I am awesome, I can climb mountains (note: I don't really feel like that once I'm back in front of the telly, my ego isn't that robust). Yet when you are up among the clouds, and I've yet to see a view from a Munro, it just makes me feel so alive and vital and special. It gives me perspective of all the crap that I allow to bog me down day to day. Actually I should just live up a mountain ... well Heidi did it and look at the Von Trapp family fleeing from Nazi persecution, still singing bloody Edelweiss as they ran through the Swiss Alps. Julie Andrews, what a woman!

I digress somewhat.........

Dotscot at the summit of Ben More

Team Dotscot & Mrs.Biffo still smiling!

Yes back to the event, or lack of it! Only to be expected that the event went a little awry, the weather was poor, folks had all headed off at different times, we had broke company and I later read logs to say that one family's seven year old was struggling (no kidding!) and they had to head back down. Ben More is no place for children in my opinion, some Munros yes, but not this evil pyramid of deadly slug habitation. Still we had made it and still felt enthusiastic to take on it's sister Stob Binnein.

A nice descent to a very exposed Bealach- eader-dha Bheinn with a huge rock to mark what would be our final descent after Stob Binnein. The wind really picked up here, we'd obviously been really sheltered before and it felt now as though we could be blown off the mountain. The great swirls of mist pushing up and over the saddle was something we could have watched for ages, it was so dramatic.

Dotscot with Bealach-eader-dha Bheinn below.

Stob Binnein has a really obvious path, which meanders its way to the top. Still steep it was easier going than our ascent to Ben More. We met the three boys from earlier as they descended Stob Binnein, they were very encouraging and I think were surprised at our resilience... in truth so was I and I think Dotscot was simply in a state of shock; she will have a full medical explanation for what her body was experiencing, but I'll just call it feckin' knackered.

Stob Binnein has a rock cluster cairn at the summit and we reached it without any trouble at 2.30pm, an hour and a half since we'd left Ben More, yet it seemed quicker, which is no bad thing. It's a pity there isn't a cache up here but c'est la vie. We didn't linger for long at the top, we found a little sheltered spot and had some more coffee and a Melton Mowbray pork pie, oh yes! Dotscot had a fully stocked Tesco Express in her rucksack.

Mrs.Biffo at the summit of Stob Binnein

Dotscot at the summit of Stob Binnein

I really thought we'd skip down the mountain in about ten minutes because the going is at a much faster pace however it took us nearly three hours to return to the car. The terrain under foot was just so so boggy, we'd had wet feet now for 7 hours YUCK!!!!!!!! Gaiters wouldn't even have kept the wet out and we questioned whether our toes would in fact be webbed once we took our boots off. Eventually we picked up the track I was singing 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road' by the Munchkins but Dotscot thought the mood more 'Long and Winding Road' by The Beatles. And after a while, she won out with this one.

Even the Garra Rufa fish would take this on...nasty!

We got back to the car a little after 5pm. Exhausted and soggy we positively stripped off at the side of the road, we really couldn't care less at this point who saw us! You have no idea the luxury of experiencing fresh socks and a fresh cosy fleece. Health spas be damned!

Trainers back on, oh the relief!

We had a fabulous day, just what we both needed. Decision made however never to climb Ben More again. Well done to Dotscot claiming her first and second Munro in one day! Okay bud where to next?



If only Dotscot had looked a little closer at the slugs she would have seen their encouragement!