Valwyn, old cars and another medal

Val and Alwyn arrived amazingly early, taking a ridiculous 75 minutes all the way from the airport.  I suppose traffic must have been very light, but the condition of the roads must have had to slow them down a bit. The whole of Tuesday was spent geocaching, first in the village and its environs then a bit further afield in the afternoon.

This photo was taken in the stream valley above the village en route to part 3 of the multicache that I put out about 18 months ago in Ber. They were very clever and found everything very quickly. As this one was not on the geocaching.com site, I  decided that no matter how hard (I've  tried before and failed) it is to get an account on the .com site I'll persevere this time, so they can log their find.

After lunch we drove to within a half mile of this amazingly beautiful lake which was the result of quarrying in the past. Once work stopped the old quarry filled with water, making it a favourite picnic and swimming spot. As you can see the sides of the lake are pretty straight up and Alwyn managed to scramble up on the side you are looking at.  Val and I chose a slightly less hairy route by retracing our steps and climbing up more gently in forest. Alwyn found the cache first, then Val and finally my good self. This one is actually already on the .com site, so we could all log it on our return to base.  The evening  was first spent with some desperate efforts to get registered on the site (successful!!) then trying to put my caches on (unsuccessful!!). Dinner, which was expertly prepared by Roy compensated for our failure and made me even more determined to succeed next time.

On Wednesday morning Alwyn and Roy have taken the bikes to bits and packed them up, while I showed Val about the 'estate'.  While it is the prettiest in the summer, it managed to show its picturesque side this time as well.  With the autumnal hues and its views from the top end in enchanted Val, who thought it was a lot bigger and impressive than expected.

Once the bikes were done Val, Alwyn and I walked up to the andesite outcrop and - of course - the compulsory photo of sitting on the rocks with the 'tits' in the background was taken. Below where they are sitting and behind them is the world famous phenomenon of the bent andesite columns, which they both found unique, as they really are. More worryingly, there is a building being built slap bang in the middle of the forest right at the foot of the columns, which is outrageous and even if it is not private, but a visitors' centre or some such supposedly beneficial development, we all thought it was not exactly in keeping with the atmosphere of the place and endangering its protected status.

They left us around 4.30pm, arrived in plenty of time at the airport and complete with two bikes were at home before too late in the evening. After their departure I had another go at putting my caches on the .com site and succeeded!!! Since then they logged my multi and the quarry lake, but unfortunately couldn't log the one by the andesite columns as that one is not on the site.  Perhaps I might convince its owner to put it on and I might even offer to translate for him/her?

And then we returned to town. I insisted that Roy comes with me to see the 'Oldtimer Show' which is held every year in a big exhibition/sports hall and is jam packed full of veteran, vintage and just old vehicles of all sorts. Initially he was a bit grumbly, because the hall didn't look big enough and the vehicles fancy enough for his liking and especially didn't seem to justify the high entrance tickets.  However, as he got into it he was beginning to love it more and more. If you take the very strict British definition of 'veteran' there were not too many of those, but the special attraction to me was the presence of Eastern Block vintage vehicles of all sorts.  Not only Trabant, but Moskvich, Wartburg, Tchaika, UAZ and many, many others.  There were also a good few static engines (working on compressed air, rather than steam), some of which came a long way.

This one was made in Britain, but the exhibitor got it in Serbia. We saw it work as well and it looked a million dollars.  He was asking if we knew anyone who would want to buy it, but we don't.  Should you know otherwise, let us know! Of course, there were many, many fancy motorcars as well as commercial vehicles on show. I loved the Russian copies of Opels, which you would have only found out on very close inspection.

Which one's the fake? The blue one in the background or the grey one in the foreground?

This bike was one of Roy's favourites of the many there, mostly because of the JAP engine.  Otherwise, the maker was a small outfit called Meray, but the engine had to be British.

And finally, the one I'd really like and not because it is posh, but because of the engineering excellence that Rolls Royce had always menat. And then on Saturday we were off orienteering again.  It was quite a long way off, so we bought a month's motorway pass and pootled down much faster than we normally do. Roy complained about the monotony and I think he has a point.  People often ask why we don't buy motorway passes and it isn't that we don't want to spend the money it is the monotony that we dislike.

With the weather hot enough to be the height of summer I suffered a bit on the soft sand and the heat, but enjoyed it a lot.  This part of the sandy lowlands I have never been to and they turned out to be more technical than I thought they would. I had to run W55 as that was the oldest female class, but managed to beat allcomers on day 1, some of them a lot younger than me, including some Finns. One of the Finnish ladies seemed ever so familiar and only when she came up and said that we met in Scotland at the 6-days in 2011 did I twig.

Day two the course was a bit longer and I, foolishly, didn't hydrate as well as I did the day before.  So I was struggling even more than on Saturday although having made no mistakes it seemed that others were even slower, or perhaps were making mistakes.  I ended up with a nice big book, a certificate and a gold medal. Roy started making hints at requesting me to slow down even further as there is no more space on the stick I hang my medals on.  Ahhhhh! That definitely gave me a chance for a hidden boast! :-)

Currently we are in town and planning to stay until next Monday. Tomorrow I'm going geocaching with Andor and tonight I am going to the Opera for a concert with Robert.  Hopefully one or two visits to the baths can be fitted in later on in the week and then there is some more orienteering at the weekend.