In The Park
13:06 - Posted by Anne - 0 comments
This week we decided to have a go at finding a couple of geocaches in a park near to our friends house. The first one was a pretty easy find, the GPS took us right there and the clue told us where to look. It was a nice big box full of goodies, but I was disappointed because it should have contained a geocoin from South Africa and I wanted to see it. Someone had been there earlier on in the same day but they reported not seeing the geocoin either, very strange.


The second was a bit of a walk away but what we hadn't realise was it that the walk was uphill. The geokids soon got tired and moany but cheered when we got to the top and discovered a playground. The problem was, we were running out of time because we had to be somewhere else and the geokids wanted to play in the playground not hunt for the cache. Also the GPS started acting a little crazy because of the tree cover so we couldn't pinpoint the exact location. Another problem was the amount of muggles around, it had turned out quite a pleasant day and the park was really busy. So sadly we had to admit defeat on this one, but we hope to have another crack at it sometime soon. (Maybe parking the car at the top of the hill so we don't have to walk up next time)


Here is the cap'n and the geokids in a spot near to where we found the first cache.




Geocaching by the sea
14:07 - Posted by Anne - 0 comments


On Friday we had a day trip to Weston-Super-Mare. Of course I researched some geocaches before we went. There were four altogether but in the end we only managed to look for two.

The first was a really easy one. We'd decided to stop for a coffee and to let the geokids play on the beach. I set up the GPS and there was the first geocache just 16ft away, across the road. I sent Graham over to retrieve it and he bough it back for us to rummage through. I was most disappointed that the travel bug was missing, it was a voodoo doll and I'd really wanted to swap that. Still, I decided it was a good place for our travel bug, Pirate Bob, to start his journey so he got left behind.

Later in the day we visited a part of Weston I'd not been to before in search of another cache. It was a lovely garden park that had been built on the land of the former pavilion. The GPS said we were close but we searched and searched and just couldn't find it. We were a little disappointed but we'd had a lovely day and couldn't feeling pleased that we'd actually ended up in this place.

We didn't bother with the other two. Once would not load on the GPS at all, and the other was a nano in an area we didn't go and didn't think it was worth the diversion. I do wish I'd researched the service stations though because there was one at the station we'd stopped at on the way home.



Going back
14:38 - Posted by Anne - 0 comments
Sometimes when you look for a cache and you don't find it you just have to go back and have another go. This one we'd tried previously in our early days of geocaching, and although we'd found 3 that day the fourth one proved just a little too tricky. http://findingboxes.blogspot.com/2009/08/no-rain-more-gain.html

So we went back taking re-enforcements in the form of Graham's dad and brother. We got really close with the GPS (which we are getting to understand better, for instance we know how to set i on walking now, and how to check were we are by co-ordinates if the map is letting us down.) But still it didn't seem right. This was a tricky find but the place we were all looking was just a bit too easy, so Graham moved further down a little and it wasn't long before he was calling "I found it"

It feels good to find a difficult cache, and even better when you had so much trouble trying to find it before.