More addictive than heroin...

After weeks of thinking about it, and some significant investment in kit (and wellies, and little toys), and many many hours spent in preparation, Connor and I finally bit the bullet
and went geocaching today.

And wow, we had an even better time than I thought we would (and I was expecting it to be fun!) - we are totally hooked after one go!! Can't wait to go out again tomorrow.

We were pretty rubbish at it to start with, to be honest, I had no idea how to work the GPS (and no, I hadn't read the manual, and yes, that might have helped, and yes, I've read it now :))

We walked about 4 times as far as we needed to, because I couldn't work out which way it was telling me to walk. Still, it was great exercise :D

The GPS keeps a record of the route you have taken on screen, like a little trail of breadcrumbs, and ours was hilarious, lots of wandering around in confused circles and retracing of steps.

But we got there in the end :)

Having said that, getting to the co-ordinates was one thing, finding the (bloody huge) box was another.

I walked RIGHT PAST IT at least 4 times, how I managed to not spot it, I have no idea.

I almost gave up at one point, but the knowledge that 170 people had found it before me (without a single DNF - did not find - get me and all the lingo :D) kept me going :)

Now I know what I'm doing, I'm pretty sure the next one will be easier :)

The good thing about making such a bloody pig's ear of finding the cache, was the pure elation once it was spotted :) I don't think I'd have been anywhere near that excited if we had found it more easily.

Connor took this pic of me emerging with the cache, totally unstaged, that's pure joy, that is :)



And then Connor had the fun of rooting through the box and choosing which little toys to take (there was tons of stuff in there, he chose a little Macdonalds teddy bear and one of those plastic frogs that jumps when you flick the tab on its bottom), and deciding what from our own swagbag to leave (a tub of bubbles, a parachute man and a spinning top :))

I can thoroughly recommend this hobby for anyone who struggles to motivate either themselves or their children to get out and about for a walk just for the sake of walking. The whole treasure hunt element is just so exciting, but you also get to see some lovely parts of the outdoors that you might never have come across otherwise - we didn't even know about the section of Coate Water that this cache was hidden in, despite having been to the park a hundred times.

And if you do take it up, and you ever see this in a log book:

That's us!! :)

The Chaos Crew, otherwise known as me and Cons, and anyone else who fancies tagging along at the time :D