Easy Dinton

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Hidden On: 03 Feb 2002
Waypoint (Landmark): N0011E
Open Cache:  Personal use only
Cache type:  Unknown
Cache size:   Unknown

Difficulty:  (easy)
Terrain:  (easy)

Misc:

Comments:

Information given to local Newspapers

No Internet ? No Problem: these words give you what you need to find your first geocache. No GPS ? No Problem: the rather sparce details below should be enough.

Robin and June Lovelock hid this Geocache especially for local newspaper readers to find: in fact maybe you will find it before someone who has the luxury of a GPS to help them :-)

Take something to leave in the geocache to replace what you take. Some foreign coins you forgot to convert to Euro, or a small cuddly toy from the Oxfam shop at 25p ?

Dinton Pastures is on the eastern fringe of Reading, adjacent to the A329M motorway that links Bracknell, Reading and the M4. It is a large area of Nature Reserve with lots of water, rabbits and places for children to play. There is a snack bar near the car park.

To reach the Dinton Pastures car park take the A329M to Reading from M4 junction 10. Leave A329M at Winnersh Triange and get on A329 back towards Winnersh and Wokingham. Look for Texaco Filling station on right and traffic lights. Turn left at lights onto B3030 to Hurst: over railway and A329M. Turn left into Dinton Pastures and park.

To reach the geocache go through the gate, past the big carved wooden snail and kingfisher on left, over the footbridge, then fork left, keeping the childrens play area on your right. Follow the path to the right looking for a bench seat on your right on the grassed area. Follow the line of the bench into the bramble bush within two yards: you should see the geocache - or will find it by poking around. Don't scratch yourself :-)

Try not to let others see you recovering the large plastic box, or putting it back. Sprinkle some grass over it, so it remains hidden. You can then sit down on the bench, looking at the geocache contents and fill in the log book. You are welcome to call Robin on 01344 620775 if you want your visit logged on the Internet in addition to the book. There is an instant camera with flash - for you to take a picture of yourself (at arm's length?) - but please leave it in the cache. Maybe the first few finders will appear in the paper :-)

You DO have a GPS ? Less words: just the lat/lon of N 51° 26.445 W 000° 52.570

You DO have access to the Net ? this page is www.gpss.co.uk/geocache/gced.htm

Don't forget this geocache was placed near a suitable landmark (the bench seat) : others might be under a tree root in the middle of a forest, or a clump of heather in a large common. But no reason why we should not have a few more like this, capable of being found without a GPS or the Internet - if you get your newspaper regularly :-)

More about Dinton Pastures...

The information below is based upon that for another geocache, called "Dinton Pastures" - but for which you" will need a GPS. You will find details on this and many more geocaches planted by Robin and June on the
Lovelock Geocache pages.

Dinton Pastures is a pleasant enough network of nature trail walks around what were flooded gravel pits near the Loddon River on the eastern outskirts of Woodley and Reading. Easiest access is probably from the Winnersh Triangle exit off the A329M, off the M4. This is a great place to take the kids, with several play areas and - for the bigger ones - ropes hanging from trees to dangle from. But watch out - there is plenty of water to fall into.

You have a choice of several routes to the geocache: The obvious one is from Dinton Pastures car park, near the little house that provides a snack bar. The location is N 51° 26.406 W 000° 52.353.
Alternatively, approach from the free car park of the rather too grandly named "Berkshire Aviation Museum" at N 51° 27.035 W 000° 53.009. For those that prefer pubs, the nearest I found was "The Jolly Farmer" at N 51° 26.723 W 000° 51.950 ;-)

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.

the nettles and brambles have grown right up to the bench, my daughter disappeared into the undergrowth behind the bench following a well worn path around to the co-ordinates, she could get within a few feet but could see nothing. either the cache has been muggled or it's just too far into the undergrowth to retrieve.

walk past it first time new to useing gps found it great now hooked on caching

Out with Ecky to walk the dogs. A bit better prepared and with the cache really close to the bench this time it was no problem to find ;-)

Juhu, found it at last. Went with Orti for a walk and a bit caching. The container is slightly broken and could do with a more water-tight replacement. Took a photo of my two delinquent, 4 legged, useless for cache hunting, doggies. TFTC.

I didn't notice the hint about the bench, so used GPS to get close. At first, it all looked a bit daunting but I soon spotted the box, well protected by brambles and other vegetation. Judicious use of a pokey stick managed to extricate the blighter, however, and I replaced it in a discreet but rather more accessible spot.

Tried this one with Orti years back. At the time we were even using a long stick to try and see deep into the brambles. We failed and gave up as the dogwalkers were looking strangely at us. I'm impressed that Heffalump007 & Sandvika actually found the original after all these years. Went back today to have a look but failed again to find it. My two dogs and all the "millions" of other dogs didn't help. I've also missed the hint about follow the line of the bench and looked somewhere totally different. A well, I know it is back and I'm in Dinton frequently with the doggies. Watch this space.

After Sandvika had spotted it he went back to the car for another proding stick, so whiklst he was away I decided to have alot of determination for bushwhacking, the suspicious black thing poked deep - and I mean DEEP - in the bramble patch would have remained there. However I gradually cleaved a way through the brambles to allow retrieval with a walking pole.

Sandvika took photos, attempted to replace cache where it had been, failed, pushed it back as deeply as we could manage and undid the bushwhacking as well as we could manage. OK, it's obvious now there's been visitors, but only a glutton for punishment (read Geocacher) would repeat this exercise!

Signed the Log 12:00 11/11/2007
Thanks for the cache
Heffalump007

Wow Sandvika ! Well Done ! This coming February it will be 6 years ago that we planted this cache, and I'm sure that I looked for it myself a few years ago and failed - on account of those brambles. Now I shall just have to give it another try ! :-)

What can I say but "Thank you Heffalump007". Without his tremendous determination for bushwhacking, the suspicious black thing poked deep - and I mean DEEP - in the bramble patch would have remained there. However, H007 gradually cleaved a way through the brambles to allow retrieval with a walking pole. Took photos, attempted to replace cache where it had been, failed, pushed it back as deeply as we could manage and undid the bushwhacking as well as we could manage. OK, it's obvious now there's been visitors, but only a glutton for punishment (read Geocacher) would repeat this exercise!

SL@12:00 TNLN TFTC, Sandvika. Find #208.

Couldn't find this cache. Has it gone missing or something?

Found in the dark, first Geocache for the two of us. Took a peg and left a note pad, also length of earth sleeving (to be our CacheMark and left at each site we discover). Thanks for setting it up.

Brian & Jerry

13:50 Found it towards the end of my lunch break because I did not read the instructions and parked round the wrong side of the park. Probably need the excercise though. Easy too find. I put in a plastic self adhesive coat hook, took a picture and signed the log.