Hello guys! Today I managed to check something off my summer bucketlist! I went to a lovely big park in my hometown to find a geocache. If you've never heard of this hobby before, you can learn more about it on my 'All About Geocaching?' post. The weather was nice enough to go out for a walk with my camera and I hadn't been to this park in such a long long time, years in fact! It was so much more pretty than I remember it and so I thought I'd share a photo diary with you all. It's a nice way to document my geocache find too! Enjoy!
The park that I visited today is called Bold Venture Park. I think that's such a cool name for a park! It was established in 1889 so it's a historical landmark for my hometown, which is Darwen in the county of Lancashire. In 1921, a monument was put up at the entrance to the park to pay tribute to the 1,200 soldiers from Darwen who fought and died during World War One & Two. This includes my great grandfather on my mother's side. There are five steps leading up to the monument to symbolise the five years of WW1. The monument has a beautiful angel on top and also a statues of a soldier and other war officials on the side, both made from bronze. It's the first thing you notice when you walk into the park, with a backdrop of trees and the big ornamental pond. So, without any further ado, here are some photographs...
This stunning pond is sometimes filled with ducks, but today I only saw a few hiding in the shade around the sides of the pond. I did see the cutest little Moorhen and its chicks. They were so adorable! There's quite a few ponds in the park, although this is the biggest, since the grounds are located on the Bold Venture Brook, which flows down the valley that Darwen is situated in, through the woods from the moors. There's even a pretty impressive little waterfall hiding in the park, which I'll show you soon! Another feature in the park sits where there was once a lovely aviary housing peacocks amongst other birds, which was gifted to the park at the end of the Victorian Era in 1901. Where the aviary once was is the Hindle Pergola, which is named after Mr & Mrs FG Hindle who gifted the aviary to the park all those years ago. I didn't know the name of those pretty wooden or metal frames covered in climbing flowers but they are apparently called Pergola. There's no flowers growing on the Hindle Pergola at the moment but I'm sure it will look beautiful when there is!
I really wish that I'd taken a tub with me to collect wild blackberries now! It was near this area of the park that my Geocaching app was telling me that I was close to the cache I was looking for. Geocaching is a hobby that is a little like treasure hunting. People hide caches and it's your job to find them. Caches are containers of any size and shape, often filled with little brick-a-brack 'treasures' which are great for children. There are also coins in some and other cool things, but most fun part of this activity is that you never know what to expect! It took me around 10-15 minutes to find the hidden cache, and I thoroughly enjoy climbing over tree trunks and exploring across the leaf-covered terrain to hunt out the cache. I was super happy when I finally found it :)
As you can see, this little cache had a cute pirate eye-patch inside that I know my nephew would like if he was to find this cache! There is usually a log book or sheet inside the container for finders to note when they found it and who they are. There wasn't one in the cache so I popped in a piece of note paper for others to sign. I also brought along this little heart charm that I got in a Christmas Cracker, so I left this little 'treasure' behind. Yay! Another geocache found; I wish there were more close to my house! I'm planning to search for caches next time I go to a city because there are usually lots hidden in such busy urban areas. I think it's pretty amazing that this little hobby goes on under everyone's noses everywhere! The geocachers even call people who don't know about the hobby 'muggles', haha! After finding the cache, I explored some more of the park. My next step was to the old historical drinking fountain that I wish was still in working order, but it was built in 1902 on the coronation day of King Edward. Lastly, I went to see if this waterfall was just as big as I remember it being when I was a kid. Fantasically, it was!
That waterfall is apparently 40 feet high! So, we've come to the end of my very picture heavy post; I hope you all enjoyed reading. I had a lovely day at the park, looking at the flowers and trees and squirrels and butterflies and ALL OF THE MAGPIES! I seriously saw so so many! It was nice to appreciate the history of the park and I started daydreaming about what it would have been like to see families walking around it in their Victorian attire, in the old days when the park was first opened to the public. I can't help but daydream, my imagination is vivid :) Who's the same? I wish that the playground was empty, because I totally wanted to play on it! Oh well, it was an awesome afternoon nonetheless!
Thankyou for reading!
♥
Have you ever been geocaching?
I also love to hear all about the last park that you visited.
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