Thanks to ELLF4 for the alert that something was amiss with Stage 1. I checked today and the host (not very big) has indeed been completely removed at some stage since the previous find. The geochecker has been updated with some new instructions.

We have only recently found out about the open cache site and have been using it to seek out more abanazar caches! This is only our second open cache, with the first one being an accidental find! The puzzle was relatively straight forward but we did need a small amount of trial and error!

It has to be said that this is a really beautiful area and with it being a sunny day it was such a lovely place to be. In the field we did have some difficulties when we arrived at the first stage as I think it is missing (well we didn't find it anyway nor did we find a tree!). We got our exercise in my walking up and down the hill there to get phone signal to check coords and message the CO. After searching more we decided the top of the hill would be a nice location for lunch so we trekked up it again. Anyway after giving up on stage 1 we decided to walk around a longer way back to the car as it was such a nice area, with half a thought that we might be able to spot some likely looking trees to get us back on track. Anyway we did manage to get back on track in this way! At final GZ Lev went up with a couple of handy long slings to use as footholds along the way.

It is usually the cache, puzzle and theme that are the highlights of abanazar caches, but on this occasion it was the location and a really nice picnic spot - thanks for bringing us to such a lovely area as well as the adventure.

I think this is my 4th visit to this fine specimen, after getting up it on my third trip.  Like then, I came in the company of antpeng and our mission was to log the well-deserved "Top Cache" coin.  It seems that my own Amberel "Top Log" coin was fashioned from the same trunk as the "I Can See For Miles" coin.

After making our discovery we headed off to meet BradLad and attempt to climb the Laputan giant.

It was a lovely day today as I paid a visit to the final stage (all the way up for a change using some new but still novice skills). All was well the cache and the resident coin, and it did feel like I could see for miles. En route I encountered a couple of other people (as is often the case) who have discovered this lovely valley.

My first open cache,all the way to the il nono squeeze earlier in the day....too big.

a great day with RockSniffer,CornishGazza and Minadequate.worked our way through the stages and it's yours truely who gets to make the climb to the final.

 

thanks for a great open cache,what a great one to start with.

Having solved this months ago I jumped at the chance of a little help with some of the ascents. With Rocksniffer, Yukonhuskies & CornishGazzer I have to admit I found this without doing much climbing at all. Although using CornishG's system it is acceptable to log a tree climb if you believe you would have been able to climb to climb it yourself. The final ascent would have had me a little shaky but I assessed it looked similar to that of Scooby Do so will log this as a find, though I may be back with insertcure to give this a more energetic effort. A great cache as always.

After a marginally successful morning in Box Southern, Yukonhuskies, CornishGazza, Minadequate and I embarked on this little adventure.  A minor disagreement occurred at one stage where Yukonhuskies insisted it was, in fact, a bush and not a tree but I digress. 

All stages located quickly and easily but the last stage had us wishing that we'd brought along something a bit longer than a 2.5m lanyard.

If I could recommend this cache I would but it's only my first opencache (having failed miserably in the morning and I still need to lose a little more mass for a trip to Il Nono).

TFTC  :)

This was an experience that we had been hoping to undertake for a few 
months now and today, for the first time, both free time and clement 
weather happened to coincide.

The entire family - Paulicus, the Uxor, Filius, Minimus and little Minima - 
followed the evolutionary trail from tree to tree amidst the most attractive 
'green and pleasant' scenery imaginable.  In fact, the whole escapade
could be described as 'approaching geocaching perfection' with just two
small caveats -

1.  Poo!  Lots and lots of this, not always small but almost always sticky and
apparently irresistibly attractive to the boots (and trousers) of young children.

2.  Length!  We'd greedily expected/hoped for lots and lots of tree climbs and the
final took us by surprise; just before the final climb, Minimus had complained that
he was hungry and wanted to know when we would have the first snack stop and 
we told him  'when we reach the next tree!' - of course, in the event, he didn't have 
to wait long ... 


The tree was climbed and the cache contents brought 
down to earth so the log could be signed and the geocoin admired whilst 
the promised snack was consumed and then everything was returned to its lofty
home complete with the addition of a small plastic dinosaur - this, sadly, 
represented our final level of attainment on the evolutionary scale when 
taking into account the overall loud, uncultured and somewhat unruly 
behaviour of the younger family members!  All great stuff in a beautifully 
tranquil location (at least, it was tranquil until we appeared...).

The container has kept the contents bone dry despite the 
extended time since the last visit and this is one of those caches that 
deserves far more frequent visitors than it has had to date.  As this was 
an Abanazar cache, we had expected a great experience and this certainly 
lived up to expectations!

If my maths is right, it is 2.5 years since this cache was Found (as opposed to Noted). So it must be the cache ownership variant of Sod’s Law that just 4 days after disabling it (and, if I’m honest, wondering whether ever to re-enable it) that someone pipes up that they are ready to find it. A quick look through my geo-stores revealed that I had the resources to fix Stage 1, so I took advantage of a glorious morning to reinstate it. My recommendation is to save the visit for a nice Spring/Summer’s day, like today, and take along a picnic to enjoy afterwards.

We have this one ready to go and would like to attempt it 'in the next few weeks'!

Please do not forget to re-enable it at some point as we are eager to experience both 'the best of Abanazarshire' and the opportunity to climb up a rung on the evolutionary ladder as we have a very long way to go.

When the weather is this nice, one maintenance walk always comes to my mind: The Ascent of Man, one of my favourite valleys in the whole of Abanazarshire. Today’s walk was to be a purely visual check, so I took my binoculars just in case. All was fine EXCEPT Stage 1. I found the anchor, but no clue container. This is not a very muggly area, so I’m wondering if Caesar the Chimpanzee has taken it, or perhaps a determined squirrel. I seriously doubt anyone is imminently about to seek this cache, but if they let me know then I’ll prioritise a replacement; otherwise, I’ll get round to it in the next few weeks. Today’s caching maintenance highlight matched yesterday’s: another hare - two sighted in two days!

Solved the puzzle despite me being sure my 4 was a 9 so subjective or just me! Now all thats required is for me to train a monkey to do some climbing for me as baking bad may have been the limits of what I feel safe doing solo. (I'm only short) 

It's clear to me that I just don't have the nerve for this free climb so it looks as if I'll be begging to be helped up this tree again so that I can log the sibling coin of my Top Log coin. 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=4263290

 

 

Today was such a beautiful day that I installed the new residential geocoin (see main listing), plus checked the other stages.

I was passing today and decided to make a visit so that the "Top Log" coin could visit another "Top Cache".   I can report that I made the stage one climb and it is safe and sound.  I believe that the Top Cache coin for this cache was whittled from the same source as the Top Log coin.

http://www.amberel.com/topcache_rest.htm

A ps for my log (I keep having trouble with logs or edits being submitted)

I was (but shouldn't have been) surprised to hear BradLad call down that there was a "donation" for a friend.  Very generous and perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel for our friend.

Our friend

Revisited this cache today with pljg and Bradlad. I arrived early at the final and scrambled up to place the rope a metre or two above the cache. Got everything rigged up and then made an ascent with my grigri and ascender and had just reached the ground when pljg and Bradlad arrived. A quick tutorial and Bradlad was on his way - he signed the log and returned safely to earth. I quickly demonstrated my original method for the climb and then pljg ascended the rope and retrieved a donation as well as signing the log. Once he was down I went up again with kit and then demonstrated how prusiks work and we all ascended part way using them, before packing up and heading off - All slightly more enlightened and evolved than we were before. 

Thanks for choosing such a great tree for the final. It was a pleasure to climb. 

After two failures (possibly classed as “bottling it”), I decided to try the highly evolved, high technology route.  antpeng agreed to show us the ropes and BradLad and I arrived at this fine specimen to find him all set up.  It was only slightly embarrassing that he had freeclimbed up to position the rope. 

I think that I had pictured that my climb would resemble being winched up by a crane.  It sounded straightforward enough and, frankly, I wondered whether BradLad, going first, had made a bit of a meal of it.  Then it was my turn.  I have to admit to letting go of the odd expletive in everyday life but who knows how many “f***s” slipped out during my 20 min (or was it hours) climb?  I seem to have a reduced power to weight ratio and, now I think about it, I was never very good at climbing the ropes at school. 

Still, I got there in the end and I hope that the next finder isn’t too disturbed by my bloody signature.  BradLad had admitted to being slightly unnerved by the descent mechanism but I was so knackered that I was just happy to relax and enjoy the ride.

It was interesting to then have a go at the more low tech approach and huge thanks go to antpeng for his patience.  It says it all that I was always confident that we weren’t going to plummet to the ground.  Thanks too to abanazar for another great, if sexist, cache and I still can’t believe the staticman1 solo method. 

I thought that a car sticker that I bought for my sibling recently was an appropriate image to go with this cache and its original occupant.  Then I found another related image that raised a smile.  Finally, I spotted another that finished things off.

This was our second attempted ascent.  We had a visitor coming from Kent and had decided to do the walk as a picnic trip on the way back from the station.  I made the stage one ascent just for fun but then we headed directly for the final.  I thought that it would be best to make the attempt before rather than after a glass of bubbly so I got straight to it. 

mspljg and her friend of many years, D, managed to help me up into the tree and I got up to my highest point from the first try (not very high).  I had no problem with the next couple of branches but then stopped and had a think.  Last time I was sporting a recently sprained ankle and I couldn't see the cache either.  I thought that this time things wouldn't be so worrying as my ankle is almost better and this time I managed to spot the cache from my higher vantage point.  However, I still just didn't fancy the rest of the climb.  The route is obvious and it was descending rather than ascending that was my concern.  I'm sure it would be ok but I think that this one is not for me.  I'm not sure if it was good or bad that I had my better half looking on.  She wasn't happy with me carrying on (she hasn't been there to witness some higher but less exposed climbs) but maybe it was good to have an extra voice of reason.

Anyway, I like to walk away from a more extreme cache every now and then to reassure myself and others that I'm not overly brave/foolhardy.  I still can't believe the staticman1 route.

Hopefully I'll be back on  more equipped trip if someone is willing to show me the ropes.

Thanks for the fun anyway.  It's a great walk and other finders shouldn't be put off by my refusal as it was a very marginal one.

Out for the day with the intention of adding a few abanazar caches to the total. After a spot of detective work in the morning, we set out to investigate this one - no pun intended, but it was a case of checking out the difficulty levels, before committing ourselves.

As we neared the first WP, a fox sat staring at us from behind a bush - great to see nature up so close. As the first to reach it, I was up like a shot, only to fail to spot what was needed - starting to feel a bit of a fool, and there it was. Now to reach that little higher to get it.

The next WP proved a little trickier, and I went up the hard way, only to realise an alternative route was required. We all struggled to identify anything significant, but then with Andy in the tree, it was spotted.

Plenty of sheep to keep us company as we neared the next, and what a shocker it is. As it was an exploratiry visit, all kit was still in the car. To be honest, the hardest part (in hindsight) was getting started, and my Army Cadet assault course training came in very useful in launching Andy up the tree. Once up, the rest of us had great fun in ribbing him to climb higher & higher - we even considered nipping off for a cup of tea at one point.

My turn, and what appeared easy from below proved harder in practice. It was all in the technique, which I just about worked out as I neared the bottom again.

A huge challenge and a very rewarding cache. Cheers.

I had my eye on this one since it was published, but with my well known fear of heights it was one I was reluctant to tackle alone - not because I wanted someone else to do the "ape" work for me, but just to be there in case of problems. Today there were four of us on an "abanazar day", and the others were kind enough to humour me by adding this one to the day's itinerary.

We had agreed that, for reasons of time, not all of us would climb every tree, but as things just happened to work out I did scale them all myself, which fits well with my own internal "guidelines" and makes me feel very comfortable with logging the cache. But I relied heavily on Paul's eyes to identify the targets - I'm sure he must have some eagle DNA mixed in with the more usual stuff . My acrophobia means I don't climb well, and I get stuck very easily unless I have a very specific target to aim at. On the final stage I had already decided I could go no higher until Paul's keen gaze identified the hiding place, and that knowledge was enough to spur me onwards and upwards.

There was a lovely little casket in the cache box, with FTF written on it, but I left it there because 1) I wasn't FTF, and 2) I had nothing up there with me to replace it with, and I certainly wasn't going up twice!

Getting down wasn't easy, partly because of the shaking limbs (mine, not the tree), but even more so because of the sweat streaming down my face and into my eyes, but eventually I reached the lowest limb. As with going up, I needed some assistance at this stage, and I don't think I could have done it without a leg up and down - extra credit to those who managed it.

While the cache may not have been RIGHT at the top of the tree, it was undoubtedy another TOP CACHE. And not just for the climbing - on a day involving several walks in lovely countryside, the rolling contours of the green valleys made this the most beautiful of them all.

Four abanazar caches today, and all totally different in character. Thanks for this one too.

Rgds, Andy

I did climb the first (all four of us did) and reckon that the second wouldn't have been a problem - but to free climb that final.... no thanks ;)

Andy bravely retrieved the logbook and Paul kindly replaced it - but I'm not claiming the find as despite signing the logbook, I was staying on terra firma.  As the driver for today's sorte, I couldn't risk leaving everyone stranded so far from home if anything happened

 

All that careful crafting and I forgot to mention one of the things that first caught my eye with the cache. The quote after the title was very familiar but slightly different to the pastiche I'm used to which goes: You maniacs! You burned it up! Darn you! Darn you all to heck! - I did think for a moment that the cache would be based around 4 loveable cartoon characters - or some comical penguins!

 

 

 

Some may infer from my prominent brow and grazed knuckles that I am somewhat less evolved than others but I assure you that it’s just that i’m a balding tradesman.
When I first saw this cache page I said "Ooook" and scratched myself somewhere, then after bashing the keyboard for a while I said to my other half “Oooook oook ooooook”. She said: “Yes, alright and we can go on to Dyrham Park afterwards." "Ok" (a short form of "Ook" - which means "Yes, Dear)
We set out and soon were standing (or squatting, in my case) under a tree. I slapped the trunk a few times and then swung myself up into the canopy. I had a quick scratch. I spotted something odd. I used my opposable digits to open it. I looked at it and thought "Ooook" (which is short for "Aaah, I see) and I swung down from the tree more enlightened than before. 
This pattern was repeated until I stood below the final tree. I said "Hmmmm". My arms were shorter than when we set out so my usual method of swinging myself up was not an option, but my prefrontal cortex was definitely bigger and more developed so I grabbed a nearby object to use as a tool and was soon up into the lower reaches of the majestic broadleaf. I clambered up and up and up and soon discovered the final treasure. I signed the log using my recently refined motor skills and alphabet recognition and returned to earth (attempting to do so as nonchalantly as possible so as not to worry my mate, sorry, wife). 
We then returned home (via the actually quite disappointing Dryham Park), sporting a fine sense of achievement. What a fantastic adventure. 
It's at this point in my personal evolution that I feel I can make a smart alec observation about Abanazar's post about a van der Graaf Generator and the fact that van der Graaf Generator are a prog rock band who's founding member lives just up the road from me. Although some may also point out that prog rock is an evolutionary step backwards. 
I must also admit that I had an unfair advantage on this cache as I've spent my sabbatical from Groundspeak caches climbing trees to place caches but you'll have to wait a while to see the fruits of my labours.
Anyway, thanks very much for another excellent cache. That final climb was really epic (although all climbs were managed without kit and without incident).

Commiserations to pljg and team. However, he may take some comfort that he didn't drive to a village 1 hour away, walk for over 4 hours collecting (n-1) stages, only to DNF the final nth stage! (And then drive 1 hour back home again of course!) But enough of my adventures, I'm sure I'll get over it in time … (what's the number for CacheCounsellors again?)

I should say a couple of things here.

1) I didn't intend to keep the number of stages secret on the cache page, as this cache leans more towards cute riverbank animals than Danish detectives on the spectrum of my hides. I filled in the waypoints and ticked the "Show all details except the coordinates" option. However, I think there may be a bug somewhere as this information doesn't appear (or perhaps I've done something wrong, but I can't see what). I left it at that for the time being though, partly wondering if the listing functionality would suddenly start working, and partly wondering if seekers would cope without.

2) I wouldn't be influenced too much by staticman1's sighting of the cache from below. He does adopt a superhero-like tag after all, and probably has evolved an internal Van de Graaf generator to power some sort of laser vision accessory. I haven't spotted the cache from the ground, although I just can discern an attachment mechanism if I know exactly where to look (a dangerous activity in itself, as looking up normally results in treading in sheep poo).

3) The final is I think in the most likely (and most handsome) candidate, assuming the coordinates have been correctly deduced. Height-wise, an approximate limit has been provided in some hint or other. However, this was measured in the field with a dangly thing and came up shorter than it felt!

4) I'm not sure I'd attempt this with a sore ankle, but I have done much sillier things.

Hopefully pljg or his associates will return sometime; I've mentioned often enough a lovely animal I keep seeing here (and those are genuine sightings!).

Clearly none of us have evolved fully and we returned home empty handed.  A failure with BradLad, Rollergirl and assorted minors.
We had a great time on the early stages and, having returned, we think we know what the problem was.  Staticman1 made a good job of not giving away the number of stages and we were kept unsure about whether we were looking for
the largish final or a micro stage.  Coordinates pointed to a likely candidate but we couldn't see anything from the ground.  BradLad proved strong enough to help me up and I had an unsuccessful look in the obvious spot.
The problem now was that we hadn't checked other less likely candidates.  I hung about for a while but then descended to help out.
After failing to find anything elsewhere we eventually gave up.
In hindsight, it seems obvious that I should have had a go at ascending a little higher up the obvious candidate.  (I think we were slightly misled by both abanazar and staticman1 downplaying their climbing abilities!)  The problem was that I'm sporting a mostly but not totally healed sprained ankle.
It didn't hamper me too much but I think it had an added psychological effect and I just wasn't confident enough to take the extra risk.  I think that I probably made the right decision today but we will be back.
Thanks to abanazar for some trackable posts advertising this cache but we were already well on the case after solving the good looking puzzle during the week.
In keeping with one theme of the cache, I will share my favourite (and only) evolutionary theory-based joke which is also educational.

Two backpackers out on safari are being stalked by an angry and hungry looking lion.
One reaches into his rucksack, pulls out a pair of trainers and starts putting them on.
The second says, "what's the point of that?  You'll never outrun a lion".
With his trainers now on, the first replies, "I don't have to outrun the lion, I just have to outrun you".

As a warning to others let me start off by saying I returned from this adventure avoiding the more hazardous mishaps but I did manage to mess up a dismount and do a backwards roll through some nettles. Which, whilst not life threatening it is quite painful and irritating so be warned.

I saw this cache discussed in a Facebook group, only frequenting OC sporadically, and being not too far away and having had lots of fun with the COs previous caches I couldn’t resist having a look and the FTF was just an added bonus although I wasn’t expecting to complete the cache today attempting it alone and not having any specialist climbing equipment. I’m not one for heights either but any  tree climbing cache over 6 ft gets my adrenaline going so my love/hate relationship has resulted in me completing a few of these now.

I used my Dr Zaius like skills to get through the code and soon had the co-ords for where I was going the next day. Not been to this area before but it is a brilliantly picturesque with a many an interesting feature probably more than one cache could fit in. It was more ‘Planet of the Sheep’ today but there is no chance of this especially timid variety taking over the world. Anyone watching from afar today would have been convinced I was sheep herding. Quickly made my way to Stage one and the theme for this cache, in case there was any doubt, was quickly confirmed.

It is always tough to discuss a cache without giving away the number of stages but there were a few tricky and interesting climbs. There were plenty of annoying branches I felt like just snapping off but then remembering it was probably against any sort of geocaching or countryside etiquette. Some great containers and some I needed to climb up to before spotting them. Always a fun climb as well, which, if I have any critiscism of some tree climbing caches, is that a high/challenging/dangerous climb does not always equate to a fun climb; athough I’m certain there are many for whom these terms interchangeable.  Even though the cache has the proviso ‘GPS coordinates to wander a little in this valley’ my GPS was always spot on but if future finders are in doubt if it looks right it almost certainly is right.

I finally made my way to the final stage.  I spotted the cache from the ground and could see I wasn’t going to get up passed the first stage and was ready to walk away and come back better prepared. I couldn’t fashion a ladder without causing damage to the lower part of the tree and I wasn’t going to get to the climbing bit without some help up. It was at this point I spotted something manmade  I could climb and transfer across via a long thick branch. Tricky but doable alone, equipmentless and without damage to the tree. This was a bad point to notice my lace was undone but it was not hard at all to settle in the lower parts and do it up. A fun climb and not too challenging but take your time as this type of tree has quite brittle bark and can be slippy although you pretty much always have multiple points of contact.

Got to the box; as is customary when I’m signing logbooks in trees my handwriting is twice as big and my message half the usual length. Took the FTF prize (not sure if I was meant to leave the chest or not but I did) and Darwin TB and left a mechanical toy snail. Thanks for the prize, brilliant again and in perfect keeping with the theme of the cache. Did some photography (on Darwin TB page linked in previous log) before making my way down rather ungracefully for the last part deciding on the straight down rather than the traverse approach this time.

A brillliant cache in a brilliant location. Recommended to all especially those terrain junkies with limited/no equipment. As always looking forward to the next one.

When this cache was published, it contained Darwin TB. He cannot be properly logged in this opencache, so the first Finder who picks him up will have to ‘grab’ him from me. He can of course be taken to Groundspeak caches; please help him on his mission. This cache also contains an appropriate gift for FTF, if they wish to claim it.