Virtually Great

Last Sunday afternoon, having completed my usual activities for the day, I set off to drive to Wales. I had a list of geocaches to find, one of the first of which was a Virtual cache set up by a fellow Naturist here on TN (surfski - a name he uses on geocaching.com as well as here). It is rare to be allowed to set up a virtual cache and is a privilege only occasionally awarded to geocachers as a reward for other fine caches that they have hidden, of which surfski has many fine examples (I have found some of them in the past, but sadly not the one he first showed me on Dyffryn Naturist beach all those years ago, before I became a geocacher myself as that had been washed away by the Winter storms too often!) The idea of a Virtual cache is not to hide a container, but to bring the cacher to an item of interest and tell them a bit about it, so it is all about the location. This one (GC88Z9R Moel Y Golfa Virtual Reward 2.0.) is all about a Gypsy Monument on top of a 403m steep sided hill just over the border inside Wales.

Having set out mid afternoon, I had decided to go no further than half way to the coast before parking up to sleep and the suggested parking for this virtual cache seemed ideal for that purpose. So it was early morning that I set off up the steep climb to the monument at the top. Even though it was only 6am, in the hot weather we have been having recently, I had only gone a few yards from the car when I stripped off. This had always been my intention, but proved to be the most sensible option on the day! The only thing that made me doubt my wisdom was that someone had pulled up in the parking area just before I set off, and set off on a walk with his dog! Luckily they had headed in a different direction, that would not take them up the hill I was climbing, but it just made me wonder if there were any more locals in the habit of walking their dogs up there so early in the morning!

After a pleasant, if tiring, walk to the top through lovely trees that thankfully provided some shade from the growing heat of the sun I eventually reached the top where there was no missing the massive monument, erected, the plaque said, in memory of a Gypsy fellow who must have been quite a guy, given what was said about him and the fact that they erected this massive thing in his memory! Part of claiming a find on a virtual cache is normally to take a picture of yourself or something that could identify you, by the subject of the virtual cache as proof you visited. I suspect geocaching.com might not welcome naked pictures, so I did put some clothes on to take that picture, although in the event I posted a head and shoulders selfie off my mobile, so I probably would have got away with it. I then stripped off again, admired the incredible view, took a few more pictures and set off back down, enjoying the naked walk again with it being a bit easier in this direction. A great start to the day.

Three attempts at a selfie, that geocaching.com probably wouldn't appreciate:

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