Team Balders' Geo-Blog

Arran Industries

As the week on Arran draws to a close, Team Balders has dealt a devestating blow to the island's tourist industry. Today, I found the last cache of the series so there is no need for anyone to come to Arran (actually there are lots of other, less important reasons to come.)

The Arran Industries series by Jango & Bobba Fett, is a series of twelve caches dotted around the island at sites of past or present industries. The full list includes, Whisky, Fishing, Coal, Slate, Bobbins, Barytes, Limestone, Sand, Iron, Cloth and Cheese. Those who can do adding up may be saying "Eh, that's only 11!" and how right they would be. In each cache is a number and in two, special instructions for calculating the co-ordinates of the missing "Quarry".

Of the eleven, there is one cache inside a cave, one in a very long hedge (not quite an ICT) and one which involves a three hour walk (which I had to do twice). Just to add to the fun, two of the caches are not listed on Geocaching.com (apparently, there are two other listing sites, Terracaching and Navicache.)

The series was placed in 2007 and I have been picking at it on our regular breaks to the island. This time around, I was determined to finish the series and through Geocaching.com, I made the aquaintance of JackieC who also likes to visit Arran and had the same plan but arriving a week later. We compared notes and although, I think, she was a little niffed, wished me well and was also myArranach PAF.

Earlier in the week I tried the Terracache listed Coal . This cache is a multi but I couldn't find two of the numbers (although one was easy to guess) so resigned myself to not finishing the series this time around. I then decided to mop up a few of the island's other hides including an FTF on Blue Lagoon.

Although not actively trying to finish the series, I found the rest leaving just coal and the final. After talking to Jackie, I was persuaded to give coal another go, which I did this morning. This time I spotted the missing number and made my way to the cache which was soon found. Inside, I found the last piece of the jigsaw, in this case, a big formula to plug in all the numbers so far collected.

Just in case the bonus, Quarry, was placed nearby because I'd hate to have to do this walk yet again, I sat down on the beach and plugged in the numbers. Horror of horrors, the numbers didn't add up. In my notes, from an earlier trip, I had put a question mark by one of the numbers; I substituted other values and came up with three possible solutions.

Back at the car, an hour and a bit later, I set off for the three possibles (all within a few hundred metres of each other). I had to bushwhack my way up to the first but after a search I couldn't find anything that matched the clue so battled my way through a gale to option two. After a short hunt, I came up with the goods. I opened the ammo box to find a blank logbook (now wouldn't that be a bummer if someone had beaten me to it?), and a bottle of Arran Milestone beer. On the label it states that it's bottle conditioned. It is also now ammo-can conditioned - it must have been frozen up there over two winters. I have yet to open it but I shall keep you all posted.

The descent was marred by sinking up to my nether regions in a peat bog but, hey, I'd completed the series!

So as the holiday draws to it's conclusion, I am a very happy bunny and what a great way to end. I've had a week of caching (well, mainly, caching early and then family stuff later) in some brilliant terrain. I've had a variety of cache types and two FTFs. Best of all, not a single 35mm film pot in an ivy covered tree.