The cache has been archived.

Note: The cache is there and available to search as was found today and logged on TerraCaching.com

 Hmmm. Big thanks to the CO and Andy for getting back to me so quickly. When I said in my log there was no obvious hide for a camo micro I neglected to mention the very first place I looked. I didnt bring it up as well, it kinda doesnt exist anymore. Where my geosense first brought me and now I have had confirmed as GZ has been 'maintained' out of existance by the council gardeners  :( Only a few inches of it remains, closely cropped. I did poke around a little there but perhaps not as thoughoughly as possible. If I pass that way again I will have another peek but the chances of it having survived are slim. If it was more then 6 inches off the ground it is definately gone. 

Again, great cache/walk, and had GZ been intact the Co-Ords checker to 100ft was fine and no hint would have been needed. But I still think a bigger box will fit close byhehe Cheers from Australia!

This is a great cache bar one thing... I didnt find itWas over in Drayton collecting some furniture and happened to spot this open cache, which I always try to do when in shot of. Some quick research and the co-ords checker gave me the green light to within 100ft. That was a worry... but I was thinking if it was a camo micro it would have to be somewhere logical at GZ. Found a park about half a mile from the cache and had a great wander along the towpath in the warm early evening. Only got passed by one stray cat and a lone cyclist. 

When I reached GZ my heart sank. No obvious hide and thorns, nettles and dense growth everywhereA no-clue camo micro in that with a 30m search radius?! Dissapointing. I gave it a go but honestly brambles + nettles plus long unfound camo mirco in fading light is not a recipe for a good time. I am a firm believer of hiding the largest possible cache for a given location and a regular could easily be consealed here... no need for a tricky micro that is going to get you all cut up... or at well directed clue to narrow the hunt. If this cache is only going to get a single visit or two are year surely you want them to be smileys and not dissapointing DNFshaha

I dont know if I will get the chance to return here again, and I wouldnt without confirmation it is there or a explicit hint as its a pain to get to. However, the puzzle was original, the walk there great and the walk back even better in the setting sun so definately not a wasted trip! 

Cheers from Australia! (Where Open Caches Rock... ) www.geocaching.com.au :D

---(2010-11-10 14:36:00---(Find 5871)---
Third time lucky . Caches are just so much easier to find when they're actually there . We had trouble extracting and replacing the log - with two finds in two years the size of the log seems a tad optimistic .

Thanks for the cache.

Replaced cache (that was indeed missing) in the pouring rain and got wet feet as the towpath had turned into a scale model of the canal itself!  I was however rewarded with the largest tastiest blackberries I've found in a long while at GZ. I was not too greedy - plenty left for anyone who seeks the cache.

Transit of Mars and Winding Hole will get a special visit very soon

---(2010-08-05, 12:22:05)---(DNF)---
After our DNF in May we returned to try again. This time, with the benefit of some advice from sandvika and Amberel, we had a much smaller area and a definite object to search. The object has changed since May and would have been much easier to search then . We had a good look but if the cache is still there then we can't find it. As it hasn't been found for almost two years perhaps it needs checking and/or replacing?

---(2010-05-05, 10:19:16)---(DNF)---
Our first DNF on Opencaching .

The puzzle itself was straightforward: after some research our first attempt on GeoChecker gave success to within 100ft and trial and error then narrowed this down to the exact coords.

We enjoyed a pleasant stroll along the canal - a good place to come if you like watching herons: we saw four (or possibly the same one four times ). From information on the cache page it seemed obvious where the cache would be but a long search failed to reveal it. We can't see the TC page so we don't know when - or even if - it was last found. Perhaps it's worth checking out to make sure it's still there?

Logging in June 2010, having found the cache as a TerraCache on 7th December 2008. In view of the recent DNF, this log should not be taken to show that the cache remains in its place. However, it's quite possible it is still there, because it was remarkably well hidden.

In 1980 I maintained the BA flight booking computers. My boss had restored an old wooden narrowboat ice-breaker, but regretfully I wasn't interested in boats then, and I never went to see it.

Today, just as I reached the cache, I heard loud cracking and screeching noises approaching from the other direction. It was a narrowboat ice-breaker. OK, not a real ice-breaker, just an ordinary narrowboat struggling through 1/2 inch thick ice on the canal!

But I'm ahead of myself - first I should deal with how I got here. I had it easy - so easy that I feel I had an almost unfair advantage. All I did was reach up to my bookshelf for the appropriate Nicholson Guide to the Waterways and turn to page 26. OK, I fell into Roderick's little trap (I'm sure he would have been disappointed if I hadn't  ) but I quickly climbed out of it and verified the location.

So on this cold but sunny morning I parked my motor-bike and set off along the deserted canal. The footpath was frozen, and so was the water. Nothing moved. Until the narrowboat ice-breaker appeared just as I got to the cache location. Bother. I walked on past the cache, and chatted to the boaters as they slowly and noisily passed. Then I turned round to go back to the cache and - oh no - they were just preparing to wind in the winding hole, right opposite the cache!

And to be a bit blunt, they didn't make the best job of it. As they turned into the winding hole, the ice lay continuously on their port beam. When they were going forwards their bows cut through it, but sideways on the ice wasn’t moving. They shuffled to and fro with much revving of the engine, but because they couldn't get the stern to move to port, they couldn't get the bows to move to starboard. What they REALLY needed was a bow thruster .

By this time I was back with them, and suggested they pass me the bow warp; it would have taken only a few moments to pull the bow round. But for some reason they were reluctant to do this and for 15 more minutes, as they faffed about going nowhere, I was unable to look for the cache.

When eventually they departed the way they had come, I started looking. And looked, and looked, and looked. It was hard. But I did find it, at the expense of both hands deeply scratched and bleeding.

And to top it all, afterwards I rode a few miles up the Grand Union Canal to do some more caches, and just as I reached the first one, who should appear? Yes, you guessed.

Many thanks for the cache,

Rgds, Andy