California in England

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Hidden On: 05 May 2002
Waypoint (Landmark): N0022E
Open Cache:  Personal use only
Cache type:  Multi-Part
Cache size:   Normal

Difficulty:  (moderate)
Terrain:  (easy)

Misc:

Comments:

Planting this cache was a bit of a "nostalgia trip" for me: fifty years ago these woods were part of our back garden. We lived in a small, rented bungalow on the Nine-Mile-Ride at 45, "Flowerbrook". Houses have been built in front, but the old derilict bungalow is still there. In the early 1950s the large lake - originating from a clay quarrey, I believe - was an extremely popular day trip location. The lake was used for swimming, paddle boats and even a pleasure steamer. On a sunny weekend the car park would be full of coaches, bringing day-trippers from afar. The picture on the right is from about 1960, and reproduced here courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection on www.francisfrith.co.uk and can be found in the book, "Wokingham & Bracknell" by Trevor Ottlewski ISBN1-85937-329-1. Of the buildings, it seems that only the old bandstand, centre, remains. Compare it with the picture above.
I remember a small zoo with a gorilla, numerous slot machines and a fairground, complete with "big wheel". I'm told by my old mum that there was also a large, popular dance hall. The old narrow guage railway track, used for the earlier brick-making (?) industry, had been put into service as a train to give rides out through "the everglades" as they were known. You may see fragments of this rail track on your walks. I also remember a big, cinder speed-way riding track, and being able to hear the bikes at home near the Nine-Mile-Ride. I must have been 3 or 4 when Roy Gates, the boy next door and of similar age, and I, took a stroll down the garden to explore. I remember being told not to go beyond the sheds where we kept pigs (yes they are still there, unused of course) and into the woods. I believe the properties still extend down to the heath, which at that time I remember as a deeply furrowed ploughed field. From this spot we were alongside the big wheel, perhaps one or two hundred yards away. The woods had a lone old oak tree (yes, that's also still there), where my dad would wait for rabbits with his air pistol - but I don't think he ever got one. When we toddled back we were surprised to find lots of people searching for us. The old circular paddling pool is still there, at the end of the lake, but now it's a pond with weeds and trees. This is where my little sister Sally got wet when her push chair rolled down the bank. In later years "California in England" became less popular as a resort, but is still a nice place to take a walk round. There is a modern paddling pool and children's play area. It's all a "bit run down" at present - but perhaps that adds a little to its charm :-)




I did not see a copyright statement on this rather nice map of the park, seen on the wall near the toilets. I will be glad to give proper credit or remove it, as the author wishes. Thanks for drawing it :-)

You will find more Lovelock caches on
www.gpss.co.uk/geocache

If you wish to contact Robin and want a reply, please email him direct on gpss@compuserve.com

If you do this through a geocaching web site, please make sure you include your email address. Robin regrets that he may not reply to those who seek to hide who they are. Please include at least your name and email address.

A most excellent cache and setting I parked up about .5mile on a housing estate near to wear I used to lodge with a friend, I made my way quite quickly to the first part and found very quickly then it was onto the next part which was found after having to wait for some muggles to go past. I found the cache without doing a Sandvika and falling into mud galore (smelly). The cache box was had some water in it so I emptied it out also took out some soap and two very small cans of drinks as well I informed the owner over the phone. Thanks for a great little walk and then finding a huge box. TFTC

This was a maintenance visit, armed by a new log book, smaller cache box - neither of which were needed - and most important of all, Sandvika (Mudvika) 's amusing log below printed on either side of an A4 sheet encapsulated to protect it from damp. I could not resist it :-) Then we had to leave, because gates shut at 6pm, but we managed to visit the "eye level" cache before we left. This is on geocaching.com of course. I scraped away some mud to make more room for the big cache box and found something suitable to place in front of it.

What a great log entry Sandvika - or should it be Mudvika ? My tears of laughter have dried, as have those of June, and as you know, I sent you a longer, direct email. Many Thanks for sharing your enjoyment of this cache with others :-)

I can hardly believe that it was over a year ago that I last found one of Robin's caches. Back in May TheHoomer had been camping at California Country Park and I'd suggested that they might care to find this cache. I'd had it on my "todo" list ever since finding Robin's excellent cache at Black Park and hoped this was similar.

Well, today, after finding some new caches in Wokingham, I set off for this cache. I had the place almost to myself, encountering just 2 dog walkers. However, this cache is going to be etched on my mind forever as it was highly memorable.....

Getting from the car park to GZ for the first clue was moderately challenging because there was a wire fence in the way, however, there was a straightforward way round and when I got to GZ I spotted one clue ticket. As I was figuring out how to get to it, I spotted a second in a more accessible position, so that's the one I used. The clue on the ticket gave me some idea of what to expect and at GZ for the second clue, it all made sense. I only saw the one ticket at the second waypoint, however, the clue again gave me some idea what to expect.

The clues were quite clear asking cachers to keep to the main paths. But what to do when the direction of the third clue was away from any path? Well, I should have stuck to the path and only have myself to blame for deviating.

Suffice to say that the path I was following got less and less well defined until it pretty much disappeared into a swamp. Having got this far, I was not about to let a little swamp come between me and the cache. So, I crossed the swamp carefully and managed to avoid getting water into my boots. Then came greater trouble. A very ferric water course. Now Iron III Oxide is of course rust, and suffice to say the stream I encountered was completely lined with rust. I should have taken a photo of it with my phone but did not.

The stream was only a few inches deep. but about 6 feet across, so I could not jump it. I found a tree trunk that had fallen across the stream and decided to walk across it. Unsure of my balance, I took a long stick to steady my left side and held on to an adjacent tree on the right side. The fallen trunk was slimy as hell, but having got this far, I was not about to let a little stream come between me and the cache.

So I crossed the stream via the trunk. I let go of the tree, using the stick to help me balance. One more step and I'm there. One little step off the tree onto the safety of the bank. Just one little step.

My right foot did make it onto the bank, briefly. However, before I'd been able to transfer any weight to it, my left boot slipped backwards on the slimy trunk and gravity did the rest.

At this point I discovered that the ferric water in the stream was indeed about 3 inches deep. What I also discovered was that beneath the 3 inches of water was at least 3 feet of liquid mud and as my fall was not broken by the trunk, I continued my gravitationally assisted immersion until the seat of my pants increased the landing surface area. The slimy trunk then became the means by which I extracted myself from the stinking mire into which I had fallen. The ferric residues immediately contaminated all my clothing. I hauled myself onto the bank I was heading towards.

Then, damn it, I noticed that in my fall I had dropped the cache listing and it had of course landed back on the opposite bank. I flirted briefly with the idea of leaving it there, then realised it would be a pretty poor show, so I traversed the slimy trunk again to retrieve it...and did not fall again...and traversed the slimy trunk yet again to get back to the side I needed to be on...and did not fall in again. I was almost disappointed not to fall a second time, it would somehow have seemed better if my failure had been a hopeless case rather than a marginal misfortune.

So, ferric stream behind me, I squelched off for the third clue and promptly came across a lovely path. To those who follow: do not ignore the clue ticket advice to stick to the main paths! Then came the insult to add to my injury. The path had a sign on it, facing away from me. I went past the sign to read it: "Danger, deep mud. Keep to main paths."
What a shame I'd not passed one on the way to where my path petered out!

Fortunately, though soaked to the skin, I was dressed warmly and despite there having been a hard frost the night before, the freezing water somehow did not bother me. So when I had squelched to the location of the third clue, where the hint on the second ticket again made sense, I was not concerned by the very soggy environs and soon had the third clue in hand.

Oh the delicious irony of the clue on the third ticket. Of course I won't elaborate to spoil the plot, however, I'm sure Robin will have a good laugh about it when he reads this. Getting to GZ for the cache was not trivial but I squelched there soon enough and of course the clue made perfect sense again. This was just as well, as anyone of sound mind would have gone home if faced with what was before me. That is, they would not enter another swamp to retrieve the cache, had they not already suffered a fate such as mine and could hardly get any wetter.

The cache was located easily enough, but being close on 2 years since Robin had paid a maintenance visit, extracting it was quite tricky but accomplished after a couple of minutes of pushing and pulling of the cache container. Unfortunately, though well protected, the container had water inside it and the swaps were not really terribly swappable any more. Some cans of drink grabbed my attention since this escapade had been quite thirsty work, however, their best before date was so far gone that I decided they were best left untouched.

I wrote triumphantly in the log book, which was thankfully dry, took photos with the cache camera and my phone, showing the incredibly muddy state of my clothing, replaced the cache and squelched back to my car. The beauty of an estate is that you can undress in the back, then crawl to the driver's seat and so it was, muddy layers removed, that I drove home barefooted and sodden with a triumphant grin on my face.

My winter outerwear now looks OKish after a pre-wash and 2 main wash cycles, the sweat shirt I was wearing underneath had a wonderful band of bright ferric deposits around my waistband. These are fading after 3 full wash cycles, the 4th is currently underway!

So thank you Robin, it was fabulous to find a cache that had last been found almost 5 years ago and I remain highly enthusiastic about your clue ticket approach. I've now found over 650 caches and nobody else has used your excellent technique. Perhaps I will :)

Sandvika. TFTC, Sandvika NC#14, Total#661

Thought it was about time I checked out this cache, and chose to start with the cache itself, then work back, checking the waypoints holding clue tickets. I went prepared with a new box, logbook, etc - incase the old cache had gone. I'll be careful what I say here, to avoid giving away anything too useful - let's try and keep this one as difficult as it's always been :-) Anyway, I got to where the old cache was hidden and was dismayed to see two inches of water where I remember standing when I planted the cache. I even started to prepare a spot for the replacement - but then I saw the original ! It was exactly as it should be, complete with log book and goodies. I took nothing, but wrote in the log book and added a google earth picture. I then worked my way back to the earlier waypoint - all the original clue tickets were there - but I added two more - just in case. The next waypoint back revealed that the "woodwork" had been replaced - so I planted several new clue tickets there. Finally I got back to where most people will start: at the lat/lon on the top of the page. Yes - there were old clue tickets here as well ! But I added several more - you can't have too many if there is room. It means one or two going "missing" don't spoil things. There had once been a minicache here, but I found no sign of it, and when I got home, I updated the cache page to remove mention of it. I think there is enough in the final, big cache, to keep everyone happy. Enjoy your walks: I did :-)

Found it with Seeker_101

Found it on our fourth attempt

Many Thanks

Happy Cacheing

Parcan

email me direct on gpss@compuserve.com with sufficient
detail on how far you got, and where you were looking.
I'll then give you more information privately or visit.
Robin

we found the second clue - when to the third (cache location, but no luck - there has been signs of work being done there, can anybody check if it is in the correct place, and pass on a couple of clue to us !!!!

Got your email today, then June and I went out - nice sunny day :-) You were right - all copies of 2nd clue ticket were gone, but now they are replaced. 3rd clue tickets are all still there, as is the large cache box itself. Thanks for reporting this problem - now fixed.

Found the first Clue, fine - but the second appreare not to be there! - is this the case ?? looked for about 3 hours.

If it is there then please can somebody reply and i will try looking harder (9:-)

Thank You
Parcan - Jeremy

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