East Yorkshire – GilmourFamily Geocaching Blog

Litter Picking by Sophie Gilmour

June 9, 2020June 13, 2020Posted in UncategorizedTagged 2020, activity, adventure, animals, bike, cows, East Yorkshire, family, Hedon, hot chocolate, Hull, June, just for fun, litter, litter picking, nature, rubbish, saturday, saving the planet, sophie, Sophie Gilmour, suitable for bikes, Train Station, trash, UKLeave a comment

Last Saturday, we went out litter picking and it was raining but that didn’t stop us. We collected all sorts of rubbish including bottles, wipes, doggy bags and the biggest thing was a bikes mud guard. It was fun using the litter pickers but the things we collected were very gross. It was a nice in Hedon but the train station was old and of course it was run down but still safe. We saw cows and one was very close to me.

At the end we had three whole bags of rubbish and we were not looking hard it was really fun to do. It was very quite and peaceful, we think the path is suitable for bikes because we saw a couple. When we got home from the cold Riley, Robyn and I had a hot chocolate. I think I would like to go there again to see the cows and do some more litter picking.

Have you been litter picking?

From Sophie xx

Goodbye 2019 Hello 2020

January 1, 2020Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged 2019, 2020, back in the game, blogging, Cache, caches, caching, East Yorkshire, family, Family day out, Family fun, fun, Geocache, Geocachers, Geocaching, Geocaching HQ, GilmourFamily, Jennifer Gilmour, life, New Year, New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Riley, Robyn, sophie, souvenirs, The Gilmours, walk, walking, YorkshireLeave a comment

When we found out there were souvenirs to be claimed on the last day of 2019 and the first day of 2020; we couldn’t avoid the urge.

Souvenirs in the Geocaching world are like digital badges on your profile and throughout your Geocaching adventures, sometimes there will be a challenge set to achieve them and sometimes it will because you found a cache in a different country.

To claim the individual souvenirs we had to find one cache on each day and I am glad to say that we DIT IT! We actually did it in 2018 as well but in 2017 we only managed to claim one as we were away.

New Year’s Eve and we managed to find a Geocache very local to us, we like to keep a few for emergency caching. Thankfully we can find micro’s nice and easy now. Our last cache of 2019 was Priory Road Cache and Dash (GC676GF).

Our caching year totals so far:

2017- 191

2018- 134

2019- 102

Despite the decline in finds we absolutely love Geocaching and 2020 we are going to aim to increase our finds. Things are a little different as we are now a family that works from home full time. We are looking forward to 2020.

2020 arrived and Rob is going to remind us all of this moment, the first find of the new year. A quick magnetic find and not that far from us, we were near Riplingham. 100 yards (GC6RKAD).

We didn’t stop there, we went on to find three more and had a lovely fresh New Years Day walk. We would have done more but it was a bitter cold despite the sun shining bright on us.

You can see they were all excited to be back out caching again but it can get competitive. Your dog will like this one (GC6RK9R).

Two new badges and an exciting caching year ahead planned.

The Gilmours

The Hull Hub and Geocaching

December 22, 2019Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged app, blog, blogging, Cache, East Yorkshire, family, Geocache, Geocaching, Hull City, Jennifer Gilmour, Kingston Upon Hull, magazine, newspaper, Paperzine, The Gilmours, The Hull Hub, travel, treasure hunt, YorkshireLeave a comment

We have been meaning to share this with you for a little while but we have been in The Hull Hub for our love of Geocaching.

Here it is:

Here is what we wrote about Geocaching in Hull…

Back in May 2017 my family and I discovered the world of Geocaching and the five of us embraced it, it has been something we have taken with us on holidays and has saved us a lot of money as a family. The photo of us was taken on our first ever trail.

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor adventure that is happening all the time, all around the world. To play, participants use the Geocaching app or a GPS device to navigate to cleverly hidden containers called geocaches. There are millions of Geocaches in the world waiting to be found.

Some are as tiny as a thimble and some as large as a caravan, there are clues on what to look out for or how to open it, using your problem solving skills. Once you open it you simply sign the log with the date and your username. If a Geocache is large enough you may find some ‘swag’ which are small toys/items, the idea behind this is that you swap an item for something of the same value or greater.

For us Geocaching has helped us discover different places and seen things we wouldn’t have seen without it. Some cache hiders like to give historical information and place their cache at a location linked to this.

City Centre caches are more urban and hard to discover because you are not meant to be caught finding them by muggles, which in the context of Geocaching are people who don’t know about the hobby.

What Geocaches are in Hull?

Here are a few with the GC codes if you want to find them on the app and discover them for yourself. There are 2,191 Geocaches around Hull.

We have some fantastic caches in Hull and if we take the City Centre alone there is a Hull Culture Cache Trail (GC7035W) placed in 2017 for Capital of Culture. Theres also a Historic Hull Trail (GC71D5) which is a short multi cache trail in which you have to answer questions at certain locations to gain the information to find the cache’s location. Another multi-cache in the City Centre is A Trip Around Town (GC2FNJX) which took us the best part of a day to complete as you walk a quite a bit but we enjoyed it and it cost us nothing extra to do.

How do you start Geocaching?

You can get a Geocaching account for FREE and if you want to go the extra mile then you can get the premium membership for £25 a year which unlocks the whole of the Geocaching world. It has saved us money as a family, it’s our go to weekend or holiday activity. No longer are we scraping our heads on what to do without spending a fortune.

Simply download the app and away you go.

Final thoughts

Geocaching has provided our family to rediscover places we loved and has helped us with our own mindset, giving our walks purpose and giving us an adventure. I haven’t pin pointed where the photo’s are taken in and around Hull, but you can see some of the caches and get an initial feel for what it could be like. Rob (my husband) and I will go out on our own at times and we enjoy it just as much with the kids. Robyn (my youngest) found her first cache late last year and now has the competitive streak to find it first when we hit the next Geocache location.

You can also read it in Issue 8 at www.thehullhub.co.uk

The Gilmours

Our Caches

July 21, 2019Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged blog, blogging, Cache statistics, caching, East Yorkshire, family, Geocache, Geocachers, Geocaching, hides, Hull, Hull City, Jennifer Gilmour, Kingston Upon Hull, life, Riley, Robin Gilmour, Robyn, sophie, statistics, The GilmoursLeave a comment

The other week we received an email providing us some statistics on the caches we have hidden.

I have to admit I was impressed with the total amount of times our caches have been found. We love reading the logs and finding out what others think of our hides.

If you haven’t found any of our cache’s yet here is a list of them available in East Yorkshire. We have plans for more and we hope to build a trail in the future.

View our caches here:

Board Schools (GC75E4W)

Carlton Micro (GC76FJV)

Sophie’s Cache (GC7NXCB)

Riley’s Cache (GC76GTC)

Robyn’s Cache (GC7MQDM)

Travel Bug B&B (GC797W7)

Amy Johnson (GC81XMQ)

Treasure for Bugs (GC89FWT)

Travel Bug B&B is our most favourited cache, we did love placing this one out there to be found. All of them are child friendly, Carlton Micro and Amy Johnson are micro caches but the rest are big enough for some swag.

Happy Caching.

The Gilmour’s

Fun Science Workshop

May 27, 2019Posted in Family AdventuresTagged blogging, Competition, East Yorkshire, events, experiment, family, fun, Giveaway, half term, Hull City, kids science, life, rockets, Science, science hull, Science Workshop, spectacular-u-lab, The Gilmours, video, winner, workshop, YorkshireLeave a comment

In the last half term the three little Gilmour’s went to try out their first Spectac-u-lab workshop. We had in fact won a giveaway for one of their places and it was something we had seen online but hadn’t had the chance to try it out. We paid for the other two spaces so all three children could go and enjoy the workshop together.

We had selected the rocket workshop and was excited to find out what this would entail. Not only would they create the rockets but they would find out the science behind them. Katy is the owner of Spectac-u-lab and she is creative with the science. The children could understand why the reaction would create the result.

Table’s prepped, rockets selected, stickers at the ready. Oh wait and…

…Well equipped.

I have to say it was a huge success and all three kids enjoyed it, they continued to explode their rockets and create at home.

If we were closer to the venue we would certainly go to the Spectac-u-lab CREST Award, it’s perfect for my eldest.

The workshops are affordable, fun, creative, interesting and educational. Thank you Katy for a memorable morning.

Workshops are usually priced at £5 per child per workshop, each workshop is an hour.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhLActZe0tw&w=560&h=315]

This half term:

28th May: Bath Bombs – Winterton

29th May: Egg Parachutes – Beverley

We plan to go to the Egg Parachute workshop and this time bringing Daddy with us to enjoy the fun.

Cherry View Milk

March 9, 2019Posted in Family AdventuresTagged Beverley, blog, blogging, Cherry View Milk, coins, East Riding of Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, family, Family fun, Free, fun, kids, life, Milk Vending Machine, something to do, video, weekendLeave a comment

What a perfect add on when you are visiting Beverley in East Yorkshire. Cherry View Milk has its own MILK VENDING MACHINE!

Rob was told about this from someone at his work and so we thought we would check it out whilst out Geoaching nearby. We had to share with you our adventures, at first we captured on our Instagram profiles but then we decided to grab some footage to make a clip. Keep on reading to watch.

We visited a couple of weeks ago and were lucky to have some nice weather.

Cherry View Milk is open daily 7am-7pm, you just pull up and park on the drive. At first we weren’t sure what to expect or where we could go and where we couldn’t go. Other families were visiting at the same time and that encouraged us to visit the cows and explore.

You purchase a milk bottle from one vending machine if you don’t have one already £1.50. You can keep this for future use and the machine has a sterilising feature.

Fresh milk: 1 litre= £1 / 2 litre= £2

The milk was delicious and certainly fresh, I think you can gather that from Rob’s tasting on our clip. We will say no more, except this, if you have a chance to go then it is a must to visit.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WifOXRxNA6g&w=560&h=315]

We have kept out glass milk bottle so that we can make a trip whenever we pass nearby.

Find out more about Cherry View on their website here.

The Gilmour’s

Snowday Funday

February 10, 2019Posted in Family AdventuresTagged blogging, daughter, East Yorkshire, family, Frozen, fun, GilmourFamily, hubby, Hull, Jennifer Gilmour, kids, life, love, montage, Riley, Robyn, sledge, sledging, snow, snowball fight, snowballs, snowday, snowing, snowman, sophie, The Gilmours, weather, weekend, youtubeLeave a comment

Last weekend we had so much fun in the little snow that came to us in Hull, East Yorkshire. Grabbing the sledges out of the shed that we had bought on offer last year it was time to finally use them… and what fun we had!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utL3dvYAue0&w=560&h=315]

The Gilmour’s

Geocaching Appreciation Week 2019 – #IHeartGCHQ

January 27, 2019Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged Cache, caches, daughter, East Yorkshire, family, family cachers, fun, Geocache, Geocachers, Geocaching, Geocaching Appreciation Week, Geocaching HQ, GilmourFamily, healthy, hobby, Jennifer Gilmour, kids, life, love, Riley, Robyn, sophie, The Gilmours, therapy, trail, travel, walking, weekend, youtube2 Comments

This blog was prompted by The Geocaching Vlogger, his video on declaration of an appreciation week for Geocaching HQ. We wanted to join in somehow and so the least we can do is write a blog post. In fact it’s the first one of 2019, we need to get back in on it. The Gilmour’s have done plenty of New Year Caching after all.

I’m going to try and not be so sentimental but I think it’s unavoidable. Here’s my message to Geocaching HQ…

Thank you doesn’t cut it for us because Geocaching has brought a lot to our lives. We have been caching for almost 2 years, in fact as soon as we discovered it we went out to cache. At first we enjoyed it, we couldn’t believe this was across the world and around us and then after time went by we realised what a difference it’s made to us. The time we went out caching was a way of escaping the reality of our lives at times, a way to get healthy and a way to spent time working as a team in our family unit. I used to laugh at those shirts that said ‘Geocaching is my therapy’ and then I came to realise that we could even relate to this. Escapism from my reality was important and still is at times, still recovering from an abusive relationship from some years ago. I do love nature and used to go walking a lot but it became difficult as it ended up thinking over situations etc all the time. Geocaching gives you a focus. Not many people know about my connection with Geocaching like this, so it’s quite personal. Thank you again HQ.

Our three children growing up with caching, this photo was from a couple of weeks ago.

This was a first family photo on our first Geocaching trail back in 2017.

Find out more about the Geocaching Appreciation week from Joshua himself…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQhzVhEfefg&w=560&h=315]

We have some blog posts ready to share so watch out for those coming out soon. Subscribe if you haven’t already so you don’t miss them.

Jen and the rest of the Gilmour’s

Beverley Minster: Christmas Tree Festival

December 8, 2018Posted in Family Adventures, Geocaching AdventuresTagged Abbies Fund, Beverley, Beverley Minster, Christmas, Christmas Tree, Christmas Tree Festival, Church Micro, Competition, East Yorkshire, events, family, fun, Geocache, Giveaway, Harrison, in memory, Jennifer Gilmour, kids, life, Minster, Riley, Robyn, sophie, The Gilmours, travel, Vote, weekendLeave a comment

Today we visited the Beverley Minster and because Abbie’s Fund led us there.

Four years ago on Christmas Eve we went along to our scan hoping to find out if we were having a boy or girl- to share the news on Christmas Day. We did find out we were having a boy but he had passed a couple of weeks before. Words cannot describe the pain and upset. Katy Cowell was by my side virtually as I went through the process, all the way of Christmas and late into the night, she showed her passion to help others.

Harrison James Gilmour was born on the 28th December 2014.

You can see Harrison’s bauble on display on the top left of the tree. Here is our rainbow baby – Robyn Laura.

The Christmas Tree festival was beautiful with over 85 trees decorated by local organisations, charities, businesses, community groups, schools and more. Theres not long left until it finishes but we highly recommend going to have a look if you have some time. £3 entry for adults and children are free, there’s also a competition for the children to enter and you can vote for your favourite tree.

One of our other favourite trees here:

Here are the times for you:

We also couldn’t refuse finding a nearby Geocache- Church Micro 8380.. Beverley- Minster (GC63G9D) Daddy found this one without looking at the clues and it was no effort at all. A quick cache find and a picture of the beautiful architect.

At the Flemingate Shopping Centre there were lots of festivities including these oh so cute donkeys, Sophie and Riley loved to give them a stroke but Robyn wasn’t so sure.

Hope you are having a great Saturday and are enjoying the festivities as we approach Christmas.

Jennifer and Co.

The Print Shop

August 27, 2018Posted in Family AdventuresTagged adventure, East Yorkshire, family, Freedom Festival, Hull, Hull City Centre, life, Rise Up, Slogan, The Print Shop5 Comments

Today we went along to The Print Shop in Hull City Centre, a part of the Freedom Festival which begins on Thursday 30th August.

More about the print shop:

PRINT YOUR SLOGAN T-SHIRT

RISE (up) and express yourself at Freedom Festival 2018 with your own personally designed slogan t-shirt created at ‘The Print Shop’ in Whitefriargate

Opening on the 25 August – 2 September

Ahead of Freedom Festival 2018 and in readiness for presenting RISE! we are launching a temporary pop up art studio, The Print Shop, to encourage a collective expression of Freedom.

The Print Shop is equipped with print technology, placards, banners, t-shirts and all sorts of crafty and creative materials providing you with a fully accessible expression centre to develop your voice and make it heard.

Taken from Freedom Festivals website, find out more here.

Here’s inside The Print Shop and other people’s slogans. The gentleman who helped us was very friendly and walked us through everything we needed to do. We spent quite a lot of time finding our slogan and started with words that meant a lot to us. I will explain our slogans below, in the order we are photographed.

Rob (AKA Daddy): ‘HOPE~~LESS~~‘ Rob has reminded me of one of his favourite quotes in the years I have known him ‘Even the word hopeless has the word hope in it’. It really does make a difference to our thinking and its an important one to share, you may not see very well on his shirt but LESS is set in red.

Riley: ‘HELP PEOPLE OUT’ Last year Riley was a school councillor at his primary school and he took his role very seriously, his school also introduced the school buddy system and they are other pupils that help others out in times of need. Riley’s slogan has come from this thought process and he is proud to wear his shirt.

Sophie: ‘CLEAN WORLD FOR ALL’ Sophie is very passionate about the world she lives in and has certainly learnt a lot through her achievement of Senior Wilderness Explorer. It started with recycling, animals, environment and resulted in her four worded slogan.

Jenny/me (AKA Mummy): ‘TOGETHER WE ARE LOUDER’ I have cheated a little as I had formed this slogan a month or so ago with the help of my street team and linking to what I do with my work. Together we are louder meaning one voice can be heard but a group of people saying the same thing will be listened to and potentially resulting in actioning the message.

Robyn: LOVE/CHANGE Believe it or not, this came from the words Frozen and Pink. It formed into ‘Change is possible with love’ but this was a bit long for a small shirt and with the volunteers help we formed the two words. If you think of the Disney movie Frozen its quite a message that has come from a movie.

The next step was to hunt for the letters in the tubs and put our shirts together to go to print. The children found this very exciting and couldn’t wait to put them on and show off.

They even got to peel the paper, to reveal their final piece of work.

This is a free activity but I believe they accept donations.

We will be wearing our shirts around the Freedom Festival this year, to be a part of the art. The main time to wear these is for the Rise Up Friday night event and we can’t wait to read everyone else’s shirts and be a part of the community in a visual way.

What will your slogan be?