July's up

[Pervigilo]

Delamere forest ISIS... FAIL
Moel Famau ISIS... FAIL
Dragon's Den ISIS... FAIL
April 1 of 2 ISIS... FAIL (ish - it is still out there)
Porth Cychod ISIS... SUCCESS

I have it. I've had to drive back 20 odd miles to get reception to post this

I'll put the full story with pictures up tonight once I've got home. I think I'll treat myself to an ice cream now...[/img]

[evilkeen]

Congratulations! Is that the shortest lived free search on record?

Ah well, at least it stops me agonising over whether to go searching at great expense tomorrow! Perhaps I'll go pyramid hunting in Birmingham instead.

[Batkaz]

quote [just found this photo could it be the the place]

Front of the photo I found ?

Well Done, excellent find

I have been in hospital for the last two weeks, wont be able to ride my bike for another week

ps (can someone check out St David) !!!
Galaxy is a clue - Galaxy could be chocolate- hand made chocolate shop in St David.

[steve]

Well done, that was quick

[Driver]

Well done there Pervigilo, I bet SW thought this one would last a bit longer than it did. Looking forward to the full story.

[Pervigilo]

Here we are again. Two posts - first one on my solution and the second on the finding.

As soon as I saw this clue, I thought it had to be the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales. I also deduced it would be a fisherman's cove because of the winch in the picture, and what at the time I thought was a small tractor wheel to the left.

So what I did was to start to work around an OS map of the peninsula looking for likely coves. It soon became apparent there were a lot of them... Porth this, Porth that, but only a few of them looked like they would need winch gear to move the boats out of the water. Using Google Earth combined with my map, I started to preview some of the candidates and then Google any promising ones to see if I could get some ground level shots.

My number one candidate after an hour or so was Porth Ferin. It fitted the clue well, as a short way inland were the ruins of St. Menin's Church - that would be the old chapel. And googling Porth Ferin led me to this page:

http://www.cimwch.com/taith_gogledd-llyn/taith_Gogledd_Llyn.htm

It even included a picture of a fishing boat at Porth Ferin with pulley blocks and a stationary engine, although not the one in the clue picture:



One engine could mean more, so it was a good candidate.

Going back to the page I found however, I decided to check all the other coves on the page. Which is when I found the Porth Cychod photo eventually posted by colin@tina this morning. I knew as soon as I saw it I had a new candidate.

Google Earth showed this:



And a close up of Porth Cychod looked good - plenty of boats and what looked like walls:



But what was missing was the old chapel. Nothing on the map near there. More searching using Porth Ysgaden (the second cove there) found this

http://www.gwynedd.gov.uk/upload/public/attachments/845/intro1.pdf

which mentions a lime kiln ruin there. Hence my post earlier today - I wondered if that had been confused with an old chapel?

However if you look on the Google Earth pic, you'll see this:



Could that be the ruin? The shadow shape looked good for a chapel end. And going back to the Coves of the North Lleyn page, the Porth Ysgaden photo here:



shows the same profile on the top of the headland.

Getting better.

Then one thing clicked. I don't know why I think it, and I may be completely wrong, but I recall Puzz being into diving. And one thing that searches on Porth Ysgaden threw up quite a bit were things related to diving. Another link. Perhaps he's placed it there on a diving trip.

I had my number one destination, and my first guess as a backup. And I was heading to Porthmadog on Thursday. Sorted.

Until this morning. When Batkaz found the flickr photo (which I had never found) I knew the game was up. I had to change plans and go today.

Quickly...

[Pervigilo]

So off I went. About 2 hours from where I am, and you've got to love that holiday traffic. Not.

As I get to the headland I found the car park nearly full. Had I been beaten here by hordes of ISIS hunters? And as I walked to the cove, I was passed by a couple of groups of people coming back. Is that the hint of smugness in his eye? Well, on we go.

As I came over the back of the cove, I was initially disappointed - it didn't look as if it had that winch from the clue picture in. But I kept going up the edge of the cove until I was rewarded with this view back:



It was then I knew I was in the right place - you can just see the winch poking out from the walled enclosure, and what turned out to be the wheel of a boat trailer (obvious when you think of it).

Nobody around too. Good. I'd had enough of being hassled by fishermen (albeit lakeside ones) at the Dragon's Den ISIS hunt.

Down the hill. Does this look familiar?



Now. Will it be in the winch? Or how about the wall behind? Let's go for the wall, plenty of hiding places there...



Break out the trusty maglite (yes, I came prepared) and this was the third place I tried:



Ta da! Good job nobody else was there, as I literally shouted out...



I then spent 30 minutes or so calming down (I was actually shaking) having my sandwiches in the bay. I also left a note, just in case anyone was following me. Returning to the car, I paused to take this shot of the chapel ruin:



It turned out the lime kiln ruin was something else on the other side of Porth Ysgaden. I'm not sure it is a chapel, but hey, it looks a bit like one.

A lack of mobile signal prevented me reporting the find right away, so I drove back to Criccieth, posted up my find and had an ice cream. I also checked out the castle there - you can cross that off the April 1 of 2 list. Nothing remotely close, and the stone packing was wrong anyway.

I shall be phoning SW tomorrow. I hope I get to keep the coin too!

I can't say how made up I am with this. I've been following this hunt literally since going for the Delamere forest ISIS a couple of days after the ISIS featured on the Jonathan Ross show. This hunt has got me into geocaching, which is a great thing to do with the family, and now I can look forward to terrorising the family into chasing Pyramids across the UK instead of hidden ISIS caches.

Thank you very much Puzz.

See you in the 5% forums!

[adamwest]

great story!!! glad to hear that you have your very own ISIS now or at least the promise of one congrats!!!!!
adam

[Batkaz]

Well done

I had to put the flickr photo and name of site because I couldn't wait a whole week knowing somebody could find this location.

Great story wish is was me

[evilkeen]

Well done again!

You were right to go today! After Batkaz posted that picture yesterday it wasn't long before I had found everything else you had, including the picture that colin@tina posted, except the photo with the chapel in it, but I knew it had to be there, and was seriously thinking of going tomorrow, but already thinking that might be too late (so thanks for the prompt posting)!

I'm just getting into the geocaching as well - looking forward to some fun with my sons in August!

[colin@tina]

well done shame you didnot find the other isis in wales

[steve]

Exellent story, and all the photos are good.

[erin-rae]

Wow, well done you!
I completely missed this one, what a quickie!
Looks like a nice spot, so glad you have had a fruitful hunt at last, its been a long journey for you!
Congrats and good luck with the next stages

[haggis]

Excellent, well done.
Great photos too. Its injected a bit of life into the forum too.

Haggis

[bluesign2k]

That's a great story with some great photos!
Well done! Especially to find it so fast!
Good luck with the rest of the adventure (though with the speed you found that coin perhaps you don't need any extra luck )

Again, well done!

Chris