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. 

Mugdock Park - A Great Day's Caching

Friday 16th July

Mr.Biff's official last day of his summer holiday, can't count Saturday and Sunday. So we decided to visit Mugdock Country Park near Milngavie (pronounced Mull Guy, but never by Mr.Biff). We'd been eyeing up Mugdock park for caching since we climbed Conic Hill in January with Dotscot but when I fell on ice and ended up needing casualty that killed that plan. In hindsight I'm really glad we didn't head to Mugdock Park at that time as the nasty, narrow, twisty roads leading to the park in EVERY direction would have had me in tears as it would have been horrifically icy... makes me shudder!

So off we trotted, a handsome packed lunch and geohounds in tow, up the M77 and through the Clyde Tunnel. Mugdock Park isn't far at all and we were there within an hour and a half. The weather was dry with the sun trying to break through despite poor weather reports, which in truth have been wrong all summer.

I've been to the park before but I'd never have remembered it's name, we visited it one day the girls and I with Geraldine and Lindsay after one of our wigwam trips. I vividly recall Lindsay playing on the assault course. It's a lovely place, well maintained and dripping in geocaches.

First of the day was the first part of the multi-cache  Dogmuck Park!?! (not really)   this required lots of mental arithmetic, oh we love that us Biffos... NOT! Mr.Biff has a way of 'checking' my calculations and this winds me up no end! Really, it makes me want to punch him. Thing is, you have to count the swings, easy there are 2, however there is a big gap where 2 other swings have been....mmmmmm quandary. So I proceed to calculate with two figures 2 & 4. This wouldn't be so bad if there weren't quite so many 'sums' to do! In the end we had 4 potential co-ordinates, well we never do things by halves!

Next cache  Milngavie Zoo (Taggart- Knife Edge) dead easy. Can see how it has high muggle potential and indeed the two TBs listed were absent. After that we picked up  Jenny Springers "Up The Khyber" a nice little hide that scarily involved sticking one's hand into a hollowed out tree EEK not really my thing! The sun was out now and we were making good progress and enjoying the park very much.  Mugdock Gunrange. came next. This was a fascinating place and we listed this cache site a favourite.

Anti-Aircraft base during WW2. This is where the gun would rotate firing rounds at enemy war planes.
The views over Glasgow are fantastic and it is easy to tell why this site was used to protect the city.

There are about 8 in all sunk down into the earth for further protection.
I can't begin to imagine how loud the noise must have been and how
vulnerable the men must have felt living and working in these concrete vaults.

The cache itself was unremarkable but this is why we love geocaching; it brings us to the most interesting or beautiful places. This one had both incredible history and endless views. A really excellent cache site.


As we walked on to the next cache our co-ordinates showed that we were nearing the potential destination of the multi cache. First though we found  Mugdock Castle (Taggart- Hostile Witness) this was situated at the freakiest tree! It is corkscrewed round about multiple times the top branches are like little girls ringlets.

If anyone knows how this happens please let me know because I've never seen such a twisted tree! The other great thing about the Mugdock caches is the 'Taggart' theme, the cache owner has create a series of them with great information about the episodes filmed.

Corkscrew twists!

Perhaps it comes alive at night and eats Geocachers!

 Next cache co-ordinates (our multiple, multi cache ones) brought us to Mugdock Castle, again WOW for location, the park is SO worth a visit geocacher or not! The really nice thing was that we felt like we had it to ourselves, the main carpark area where the kids playpark etc. had been busy but the rest of park was really quite, there I go being anti-social again......

Drummer and Hannah enjoying the castle

Now to find the multi cache   Dogmuck Park!?! (not really). The last cachers had posted a DNF so this is always worrying...this means that we also will spend 40 minutes before Mr.Biff will concede defeat and spend the rest of the day in a bit of a sulk, he'll say he's fine but the signs are there his brows go down, he gets really quiet, he has a desire to kick things, he picks mundane fights....oh yes the signs are there.... 

Mrs.Biffo at Mugdock Castle

The multi cache co-ordinates took us beyond the walls of the castle and down to a beautiful lake where nasty swans and their cygnets frolicked in the water safe in the knowledge that nobody would go near them, as though they know they have royal protection. They have been known to want to eat Baby Biff, but then what animal hasn't tried to eat her?

Here the co-ords were giving us some problems as they kept taking us into an unlikely spot under some low hanging Rhoddy Doddies (or Rhododendrons to most folks). The other geo-type spot was the two large tree trucks lying in the middle of the path and indeed the clue did mention tree trunk. The problem here was the multitude of tiny frogs jumping about the grass, the real diddy ones so we didn't want to go stomping about in there. So it began the forty minute or so hunt.... in truth its always more like 10 when I  give up, which I did on this occasion, we had lots more to do and the last people hadn't found it, one of the tree trunks was burnt out and there was evidence of alcopop activity, oh the young scamps! chances were the tupperware had been found, investigated, geocoin stolen, box peed in before being thrown at haughty swans......that was my Sherlock thoughts on it all. 

Does he give up? See my reasoning? Does he hell! 

Bloody frogs everywhere I am freaking out, I am no killer of God's creatures, no matter how useless they are...I mean really what is a frog's purpose in life?

1. Eat flies
2. Be played with by children; unbeknownst to them the acid in their fingers (kids not frogs) is burning the little amphibians to death
3. Be eaten by the French

I mean I'm not anti-frog, and we do teach the life cycle of frogs in school. I'm just not sure if a pupil were to say to me 'So what?' that I wouldn't say 'Y'know you're right.....let's talk instead about the journey of a sausage roll in Greggs', they'd all sit up and listen about that....oh yes they would! Anyway I digress, the only worse thing for Mr.Biff when we have been searching for a long time than not finding the cache, is when I find the cache... Ah! What can I say I have the gift, the gift for glancing here and there looking for the most appropriate thing to throw myself off when I spy something not quite right, something 'arranged', something out of kilter with the setting, on further inspection and I know it's going to be there, I find the cache... talk about a face like a skelpt arse. He's trying to be pleased we've found it but WE haven't found it, I'VE found it!

Mrs.B signing the logbook. Smug? Oh yes, I'll say.......

I realise at this point while writing my blog that it's getting really long but the thing is it's really my diary entry so there's really nothing else for it. So the next cache or the next couple as they were less remarkable.  Field Trip, Missing Tower this cache was close to one of the small car parks but we were enjoying the circuit walk. The wild flowers in the meadow were lovely reminding me that I must dig out a childrens' book  on wild flowers that I have and start identifying species.

Hannah & Drummer stomping through the delicate meadow flora & fauna

My Beautiful Boy 

The next cache  Mugdock Quarry (Taggart- Funeral Rites) was another 'Taggart' cache I vaguely remember this one, but from where we were walking we couldn't really see the quarry and paid heed to the signs to not go beyond the safe area. A TB in this one yeah! So many of the caches had TBs listed but so few with them missing. Finally back to the car, the fore mentioned caches took us a good circuit of Mugdock Park but the place is massive so we jumped in the car and headed to a car park further down the park to pick up a couple more. The first of these was  Field Trip, Missing house. the companion cache to the earlier Field Trip cache. This involved many zig zag zig zag zig zag zig zag zig zag zig zags down the valley through massive ferns! Then on to  Jenny-Springers "The Moors" there were many paths in this part of the Park Lord knows if we were heading in the right direction, we simply follow our arrow! This was our 9th cache of the day and the weather was starting to turn. We decided to press on as there was  Woodland Wander to be found only a bit further on. As we found it the rain came on in ernest, y'know the stuff that makes you feel as though you've entered some kind of 'new age' woodland power shower... unheated. It was relentless! The poor dogs now resembling an advert for Pet Rescue, y'know, sad animals, growling owners, weeping dog noises, soppy voice

"Drummer and Hannah loved their owner but she was a heartless geocaching witch who dragged them through the rain looking for tupperware boxes. Can you spare £3 a month to make sure Drummer and Hannah never have to go caching again. Here at 'Save Yer Dug' we never put a good dog down".... A good dog? Nae luck Drummer.

We eventually got back to the car 'DROOKIT' now there's a guid Scots word that my husband now truly knows the meaning of.

"I'm a bloody pedigree y'know!"

On returning to the car I remembered that I had a bag of the kids old clothes in the boot to be deposited at the first charity shop. Never underestimate the stretch of elastic in Tesco's age 7-8 pyjama trousers. This as you can see is proof! They aren't even tight and I have decided to keep them as a spare pair of 'shorties' as they are really comfy!

Mugdock Park is a great place, we didn't even get all our intended caches done as rain stopped play, but we will return. We highly recommend the park for geocachers and non-geocachers alike. It's a brilliant place, just look out for frogs.... and the quarry!

Losing Mr.Biff up Ben Lomond and Flashing with Friends

Friday 3rd June

The hottest day of the year so far; stunningly beautiful and topping 23 degrees. This is a rare and special occurrence in Scotland. I am on the fabulous island of Arran and it's been years since I've visited. Goatfell is cloud free and glorious. Oh to climb that ever so special Corbett! It's winking at me...come on Mrs.Biff, you know you want to! And I DO want to! Ever so much! But I am not alone on Arran, oh no, I have with me 41 children high on sugar drinks and freedom. Come on Mrs. Biff you know you want to! I'd have wanted to if it were a gale force wind and Arctic snow blizzard conditions, ah well another day..........


Saturday 4th June

The hottest day of the year so far; EH NAW! That day has gone ........ it was yesterday. If you're not fast in Scotland, CARPE DIEM! Seize the day and all that, well if you don't, you've had it. So the weather had judged us as a nation, we hadn't appreciated the sunshine the day before so we were punished with cloud. Cloud and hill fog. As we arrived at the start of the path to Ben Lomond I questioned whether 'hill fog' was merely another way of saying 'swarm of hungry midgies', oh these guys are really vicious! Perhaps they are on some kind of commission from the tourist board:

'Ok lads get them up the mountains as fast as possible and you get your own Englishman tied to a tree for supper'

Well we didn't hang around to be midge breakfast and made haste through the woodland track to escape the blood sucking armies.    Please Enjoy The Midgie Song!    
For Further Information on the Terror of Scotland

Does a Bear Cache in the Woods? No but Mr.Biff does.

The first cache on the track  Up The Ben  we left till the way back down because of the midges, yes seriously that bad! So our first cache find of the day was  Does a Bear Cache In The Woods?  we found this cache really easily and it gave us an excuse to stop and take some layers off.

So off we trotted huffing and puffing as we do on the first steep rises Dotscot has explained this in 'medical terminology' that seems very feasible when she explains it but it is far too complicated for me to try to on here...so ask her! Anyway I huff and puff because my body should (thanks for making me feel better Dotscot and not just a right unfitty!).

We thought Ben Nevis was busy, well Ben Lomond holds it's own for popularity! Lots of people and doggies. Now there are two downsides to this.

1) Drummer wants to play with them ALL...and they don't want to play with him, they are clearly professional mountain walking dogs and have no time for a girlie looking dog bouncing about them and trying to sniff...well y'know.....

2) As much as Drummer loves other dogs, Hannah hates their owners and howls like the Hound of the Baskervilles when anyone is within five feet of her. This is embarrassing, especially since people think they are beautiful dogs and exclaim so, only to have Hannah howl like a rabid wolf. It needs to stop or she's getting a muzzle... but that makes me think of Lady and the Tramp and I couldn't make my Lady sad.

Hannah - Hound of the Baskervilles

Starting to leave Loch Lomond behind

Just a bit of a climb ahead......and the rest!

The day is overcast but dry. We can see that the hill fog is obscuring the mountain peaks all around, 'obscured by clouds' mmmm wonder if Pink Floyd climbed Munros. Well apparently not: 

'The 7th album was created as a sound track to the French film La Vallee by Barbet Schroeder.' 

There you go, a little piece of trivia for the pub quiz. Don't say this blog isn't educational! Onwards and upwards we pass the little Ben Lomond sign, well with us you never can tell that we are actually on the right mountain.

"Yep we're heading in the right direction"

The going is good and we are really enjoying our walk we know that the next cache is just up ahead on an S shape bend in the path. The problem is, there are lots of muggles (non geocachers) and there is a bit of a hold up. The reason for this hold up is quite incredible. Slowly, step by painstaking step, an elderly, blind man is being guided up the mountain by three women who are describing each rocky step he is taking. I felt a real surge of warmth for this strange party of four and commend their patience and resilience. We met the party on the way back down the mountain still on their arduous journey. What an amazing challenge I thought to myself only to have Mr.Biff suggest that they should just say they've arrived as he'd 'never know the difference'. I was shocked beyond belief at this statement and Mr Biff got a slap for the suggestion. He is a practical man of solutions, what can I say.......

Ahhh ahh we fade to grey.........'Visage 1981'

It wasn't long before we lost the green and headed into the grey. Lots of grey; grey path, grey air, grey view....GREY.

Still we were very upbeat and really enjoying our walk, our clothing and doggies were getting damper by the minute but our spirits weren't. We'd been itching to get out and do a proper good hike since we climbed Ben Nevis back in April. The weather had just been so dire, and children so demanding with their activities that we'd been grounded so we were really enjoying the freedom.

After two hours we were nearing the summit and it became much wilder, windy and very cold. Cursing myself for forgetting my gloves and pitying the folks in shorts with red, skelpit legs and yes the wee teenage girls in t-shirts and dolly shoes. I have a theory that while we are bagging in the name of the great Sir Hugh T. Munro, they are tottering in the name of the late Marilyn Monroe.

Drummer got a bit of a scare at this point, there are a few bigger rocks that require a bit of clambering, with the howling wind and the scary visions of people coming out of the mist he was for none of it and decided it was time he left the mountain. So my headstrong boy turned tail and legged it back the way he'd came with Mr.Biff bolting after him. As I stood in the fog with Hannah crying by my side minutes later Mr.Biff appeared with Drummer under his arm. I really wish I had a picture of this as it was very funny....Drummer, although he thinks he is, is not a Chihuahua! Time to pop both dogs on leads and rapidly get to the top so we could get back down again....why do we do this again?

The Trig - Ben Lomond

Now the plan is always to find some caches out on our walks, but for me climbing a mountain is about climbing a mountain, it is not about seeking tupperware. The cache is just the bonus. Now, this is not the case for Mr.Biff, for him if he hasn't written his name in a log book well his day is incomplete, his mountain not truly bagged. His has to be bagged and signed and bloody gift wrapped. I swear because at this point we are being blown about, visibility is pants, the dogs are unhappy with the sound of the wind in their wee ears when Mr.Biff says 'only 300ft! Be back in five' and disappears out of view towhat appears to be a sheer drop from the mountain.

I then stand with two very upset hounds, who, as Collies, need to keep the pack together and want to herd their dad back to the pack and down the mountain. Now I'm with the dogs on this but cannot let them go, for obvious reasons. Lots of people that we'd passed on the way up walking past my now giving me funny looks.

 'Ha!' I laugh 'Oops, lost my husband' a foolish thing to say I know, an over zealous boy scout may have sent up a flare at this point and we'd have been on the next viewing of 'Highland Emergency'. It seemed like an eternity but it must have just been minutes when he appears out of the swirling mist, making me think of myself as Sigourney Weaver in Gorillas in the Mist ( well with less googily eyes). To say Mr.Biff got an ear bashing is an understatement, however to have our first argument at 3196ft is a first. Mr.Biff is happy he has found and claimed  Ideas above our station. 

Now for the descent, the plan was the Ptarmigan route, but given the visibility and having read previously that it was steeper we felt for the dog's sake that it was best to retrace our steps. Funny how you can practically skip down a mountain when you have struggled up it! We made really good time and managed to collect the cache we'd had to pass on, on the way up

  Kit Kat thanks to Paul and Yvonne (tonic & gin, strange name for kids) for the co-ordinates on this one as they were well out. The cache was soaked through and it appears no-one is maintaining it. 

I just bagged my first Munro! Woof Woof!

'This is how we dry our face, dry our face, dry our face, this is how we dry our face when we come off a mountain!

Finally we break free of the hill fog and we can see the loch and it's many little islands in the distance. The black shapes are a herd of Highland Coos with   calves, this gives Mr.Biff tremors as he has a Coo phobia.

Ben Lomond obscured by cloud in the distance.

We are practically back at the car when Mr.Biff picks up the cache at the beginning of the track  Up The Ben the midges are still in feeding frenzy so we do this one speedily and then back to the car.

Happy Doggies!

Earlier I said quite flippantly 'why do we do this?.....' Well we do it because we love it, it makes us feel vital in our bodies and more alive than we do at any other given time. It clears our head and allows us to think with clarity. Stress is removed and in its place peace reigns. That is why we do it........that and getting away from the kids for a few hours. 

So we speed back down to Ayr just in time for a quick shower and off to Wellington Square for our very first 'Flash Mob' event.....and of course it's a geocaching event. Dotscot has put this one together and we promptly ignore her as we walk into the square ( well we are incognito). In the square there are other familiar faces Rose & Thistle, The Norfolk, Fly Fisherman Bob, IMMH and McBee walk past us giggling. Other people that I don't know hover around trying to look inconspicuous and failing miserably. Then at 6pm on the Dotscot we all start walking together blowing whistles and scaring some little ladies with shopping bags. Dotscot assembled us all and made us jump in the air...how humiliating! All names went in a tub and Ayrport was pulled out first to claim First to Find. Off then to Wellingtons Bar to whet our whistles and met some old faces and get to know some new ones. 

WWFM VIII Event

A terrific end to a terrific day.