The First in Wales — Geocache of the Week
- Traditional
- GC2BA
- by The Gecko’s
- Location:
- South Wales, United Kingdom
- N 51° 48.265 W 003° 03.285
Do you ever feel like you are searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack? You know the geocache is just right there and yet you have no logbook to show for your efforts. So close to giving up, you make one final search and there it is! The elusive geocache and logbook are found. Our Geocache of the Week, The First in Wales (GC2BA), presents this challenge to cachers who journey to the moorlands of Wales to find this historic cache.
Placed in February of 2001, GC2BA was the very first geocache in Wales and is currently one of the oldest active geocaches in the world. Although the cache was originally placed by Glyndwyr, The Gecko’s have since taken over ownership.
According to The Gecko’s, geocaching was very different back in 2001, “Due to the lack of caches at that time people were prepared to travel a long way just to find one cache and so at that time caches were generally placed in outstanding locations that required a considerable walk to get to them. The First In Wales is no exception, it is in an isolated location far away from civilisation and requires quite a hike across open moorland to reach it. The weather here can be quite changeable and if you read the logs you will find several people who have left their parking space in good weather only to find it snowing by the time they reach the cache!”
While the weather can change quickly over the moorland, on clear days cachers will be treated to extensive panoramic views of the surrounding moorlands as they walk to GZ (ground zero). The coordinates lead cachers to an area of many rocks scattered across the landscape, creating nooks and crannies to search through in order to find the cache container: A large brown ammo can. It can blend in well against the rocks, and it may require moving several stones to find the geocache.
The Gecko’s recommend bringing spoiler photos with you to help pinpoint this needle in a haystack hide. Even then, GC2BA can prove to be a tricky geocache to find in a sea of rocks! According to cacher pr2105 in their log, “When I got to GZ the task looked bigger than I thought but set about searching while trying to line up rocks – after 20 mins and on the point of giving up, I read one log and moved a bit lower where I found the lovely old box almost straight away. Thanks for this awesome cache.”
The Gecko’s add, “The cache has recently had its 1000th find and it has been around for nearly 20 years so it is not found that often. However more recently it has had an increase in visitors with people planning holidays around finding this cache just to help fill their Jasmer grid!”
While finding the geocache can take patience, cachers who persevere are rewarded with a geocache hidden in 2001 that is still delighting cachers almost 20 years later. As cacher Moody von trapps wrote in their log, “This cache would have got a favourite point just for the fantastic views from here, but throw in an ammo box and the fact it is the first in Wales and still going strong, makes a FP certain.”
Continue to explore some of the most amazing geocaches around the world. Check out all of the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching blog. If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, fill out this form.
