Moffat 2024

Post published:2nd May 2024
Reading time:3 mins read
Post category:Trips

Caledonian Cachefest

A trip to visit Moffat over the first May Bank Holiday of 2024. I was visiting the Caledonian Cachefest event. I decided to make a good weekend of it, so I took a Friday and Tuesday off work to make a five-day weekend. In fact, I drove up on Thursday night, so I could get a full day of caching on Friday.

A Place to Stay

Well, two places to stay really. I spent one night on the way up at the Lounge Hotel and Bar in Penrith. Once I got to Scotland, I had four nights at the Balmoral Hotel in central Moffat. Neither of them was spectacular, but both were very well positioned for what I wanted. The Lounge fed me well on the first night. My room at the Balmoral was more of a suite – it had a separate lounge. Moffat has a few nice hotels that are frighteningly expensive. In the town centre, the Balmoral is literally right in the middle of town and was reasonably priced. Plus the breakfasts were great. So five nights of accommodation at very reasonable prices.

Getting There

Evidently I took my car up. That allowed for lots of geocache touring, into bits of the country I’d never before visited, such as the northern coast of Cumbria, and the lower reaches of Scotland.

The Caches

Moffat isn’t massively blessed with caches, so some touring was necessary. That’s why I spent the first and last days in Cumbria. In Scotland, I spent most of the weekend with friends, spending one day in Moffat, one around Sanquhar and Leadhills, and the third in Moffat Dale.

Having said it wasn’t flush with caches, I still managed over 230 finds in the weekend, which I guess is over 45 a day. That’s decent enough. Anyway, it was a fairly gentle-paced weekend by my standards, spent mainly with friends and attending lots of events instead of all-out caching.

Extras

Erm! I’m ashamed to admit most of the “extras” for this weekend came in liquid form. The less said about that, the better. Well, it was “holiday rules” wasn’t it?