CC8 Groesfaen (RVR8) Mk 2
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This eighth cache of the “Caerphilly Collection” involves a walk of no more than a mile, if you approach from the south, and consists of a small plastic box. As well as walking part of the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway Footpath, you will be shown a good example of how a coal-mining valley can be transformed.
Because of repeated vandalism, this cache had to be relocated in April 2008, using a smaller container. Unfortunately, it is less easy to get to now and may not be retrievable if you are short and not very agile. The Terrain rating has been increased by 1.
The Caerphilly Collection consists of 50 caches, distinguished with a unique CC number. The caches vary in difficulty and type and may well have other “C” word connections – castle, cheese, coal and canal come to mind - or Cryptic Clues for Clever Clogs! The current Caerphilly unitary authority grew out off the former Rhymney Valley and Islwyn Councils and stretches from the outskirts of Cardiff and Newport in the south to the Brecon Beacons, north of Rhymney. Despite a past dominated by coal and heavy industry, it has a diverse history and varied and dramatic scenery. We hope you will enjoy exploring it with us.
Towards the end of the Collection is CC48 The Accumulator, the location of which is given in coded form. The translation details of the code are distributed around the whole Collection, but only about a third of the caches will contain a piece of the code, which is on the back of the Log Book. To do the Accumulator, you will need to keep a note of each piece of code that you find. Unless you are very lucky, you will need to find the majority of the Collection in order to do the Accumulator. The Accumulator cache is hidden in an area of difficult terrain and has a rating of 5, 4½.
CC8 is also the eighth of a subset of the main series around the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway (RVR) Footpath.
In this case, CC could also stand for cleared colliery. As you look northwards up the Darran Valley, it is hard to believe that, forty years ago, you would have seen the headgear, grimy buildings and despoiled environs of the Groesfaen Colliery. At 2160 feet, this was the deepest mine in the valley and, at its peak, employed about 730 men. The shafts were only sunk in the early years of the 20th century and the colliery was in production for 60 years, closing in 1968. Reclamation work in the late 70’s/early 80’s created the much improved landscape up to, and including, the Darran Valley Country Park, although the “too perfect” contouring gives away the location of former spoil tips.
It is possible to park near the road junction on Gelligaer Common at N 51o 41.303 W 003o 14.853 . The tarmaced lane north from here is designated as a public footpath only, so you should resist the temptation to drive along it. Besides, you might miss some splendid sections of drystone wall here (as well as some examples of how not to repair these walls!).
BECAUSE OF FENCES, THE BEE-LINE APPROACH DOES NOT WORK - YOU NEED TO APPROACH FROM THE WEST AND FROM SLIGHTLY BELOW: Waypoint 3R.
While an approach from the south has been indicated, and follows the RVR Footpath, a more interesting route uses the long distance path from the north, from the small car park at N 51o 41.771 W 003o 14.988. The distance involved is a little shorter, but that doesn’t mean less strenuous! We hope that some will link this cache with CC7 and an exploration of Gelligaer Common, involving a 6-7 mile circular walk, which is likely to be very wet and muddy in places. If you can organise transport to both ends, the RVR Footpath from Gelligaer to Groesfaen is about 4 miles with about 350’ of ascent. Because of the way in which the multicache stages work, it would be most logical to do this from south to north.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Guvatf zber hfhnyyl sbhaq ba n gryrtencu cbyr be va n znaubyr jvyy yrnq lbh gurer.