Last weekend we had a weekend of Geocaching and as part of our hobby we have placed our own caches. In fact Sophie and Riley have their own caches that they made.
When you have a cache you have a responsibility to look after the cache and check on it. If anyone marks the cache as a DNF (Did Not Find) then that’s certainly time to check on straight away.
On Saturday we did Cache Maintenance on our Travel Bug B&B which is proving to be a popular cache. Travel bugs travel from cache to cache and can go around the world. Our B&B is a great container to house more than 5 and hence the name really.
For Cache Maintenance:
Check the cache is in the right location
Check the cache isn’t damaged
Check there is enough swag in it
Check the log book
Our Travel Bug B&B is on a nature walk and do we love to walk through this area when we come to check up on the cache.
It was a wet day but it was still a lovely walk. Isn’t this moth beautiful?
Someone had even put there own stick person up along the walk.
You can find out Travel Bug B&B at GC797W7 if you want to have a look or if your passing by stop for a visit.
That’s right! We are certainly back in the game now.
This weekend was the best weekend we have had in a long time and that’s because we spent three days Geocaching.
On Friday, Rob and I went to do a few caches that were odd ones out on our map. Usually ones we didn’t reach with the kids on a day Geocaching because they are just a little further out. We found 4/5 caches and it was so nice to spend some quality time together doing what we love.
These photos are from one of the caches we found which was just at the side from a busy road in Hull. We have been past it so many times and had never noticed this old train station and it’s platform.
Isn’t it just beautiful?
This is cache- Permanently Sidetracked GC6KZ76
We would have never of seen this if it wasn’t for Geocaching.
I have to admit we had missed this so much. After having my slipped disc it has impacted our family so much. I am still quite in pain with it and on high painkillers but we are doing shorter walks for an hour rather then the all day 8 mile hunt. It has put the gage back up on everyone’s happiness levels, you would be surprised at how much.
We both had a well earned coffee at the end of our caching morning whilst the kids were at school.
We can now share this cache with you because it looks like it has been muggled. Muggles are those who don’t Geocache and whilst you are Geocaching you try not to get caught. We are so sad that this one has gone missing because it was one of our favourite makes and everyone was enjoying it, you can see it at GC7FKH4. We plan to replace it with another cache but we may have to alter the location slightly to avoid another muggle invasion.
At the weekend we celebrated New Years over at our relatives in Cheshire it was a perfect opportunity to consider getting back in the game of Geocaching.
I then received an email to alert us that we would get a special souvenir badge for our profile if we found a cache on New Years Eve and another for New Years Day. Admittedly it encouraged us.
On New Years Eve we found a cache and a dash close to Nan’s nursing home, we were chuffed as it had been a while since we had cached.
This is the badge we received.
On New Years Day there were a couple in walking distance from Mums home, she had already told us as a converted Geocacher herself (2000SamJack).
We walked confidently to the near by caches and the kids were all excited. We couldn’t find the first which was expected as we noticed there was a few DNF’s (Did Not Find) before us. Never mind we thought going on our way to the next cache. Amongst the ivy it said, we hunted for 15 minutes and no luck, we decided ivy is one of our worst enemies.
Heads down we plodding back for lunch and unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to gain the badge as we had no time to do more caching.
Are we back in the game? Or not? That’s the question!
It’s been a while since we have posted on our family blog. Unfortunately we have had a lot of ill health but we hope that we will be making a return as we have really missed it. In fact… the kids asked when we were going as well. It’s good to know that our new(ish) hobby has really taken off for all of our family members.
It lead to me introducing my brother to Geocaching… at last. Lee (user: LeeJarratt) is perfect for Geocaching with his love for this type of game. So whilst our dad was in hospital, I had to go with him on an adventure around the grounds.
Here we are with one. Had to say it killed about an hour of the time we waited so that was delightful and encouraging. I think the kids were a tad jealous that we didn’t go with them but I’m sure we will enjoy some summer adventures in 2018 and will look forward to them.
We also did some local Geocaching, myself and Rob have certainly gotten into doing this with muggles around. In fact the other weekend we ended up creating a loop with a couple of caches and ending with a Christmas market we wanted to go to down Humber Street in Hull. Here we are, this was just at the front next to The Deep. We not only enjoyed the Christmas market but we also found out about a community art project in which you make a paper crane and pop a wish in it, Sophie and Riley joined in with this and enjoyed it.
We wouldn’t have discovered or ventured out and found this if we hadn’t have gone Geocaching so it’s thanks to the fun of Geocaching once again.
Having the right ‘gear’ and the correct tools of the trade has become more and more apparent to us over the few months we have been Geocaching. Nanny (2000SamJack) couldn’t resist helping in this department. Judy had given the children some binoculars that she had in her home collecting dust and had bought Sophie, Riley and Robyn these funky head torches. Over the first weeks we realised we would need to have a swag bag which is basically a bag full of little treasures for our swappables. This may seem like jargon so let me explain, in some cache’s you can get these swappables and they are little trinkets (keyrings, pocket money toys, stickers, pencils, bouncy balls, figures etc) the idea is that if you come across a cache with swappables in it then you swap it with something of the same value or higher and you don’t just take it. Its great for getting rid of toys that you no longer want and these small things you collect over time. We feel a little more prepared when we go on our Geocaching days out and love doing our loop walks.
Of course mummy and daddy had wish we had binoculars and head torches like the children so we occasionally have to borrow them.
Last weekend we went for a lovely walk in Willerby which was on the border of Cottingham, it was in fact the other half of the character loop we hadn’t finished in one day. We only had 8 caches to get and was determined to get them although we were wondering how long we would be out as the previous week we felt like we were walking miles. I have to say that the loop was pleasant and the weather held out for us and it was just the right amount of walking for us that day. In fact the children’s head torches came into some use as one of the caches was placed right under a tree which we had to crawl under to get to the base, nothing like a bit of adventure. Here is the cache, we won’t post the GZ code as we don’t want to spoil it too much for everyone.
It was a cute little farm and the cache was in the cow shed, the children requested it was given a favourite point and so we awarded it with one.
We also had another ‘first’ for us, we had passed a man with a walking stick and we instantly thought he must be Geocaching; if you see the children then it would be pretty obvious what we are doing to other Geocachers with all their gear (how we laugh at this). Going over to the next Geocache hidden in a bush and whilst we are looking on one side, this man popped over looking through it at the other side and confirmation was made that he was Geocaching. Sophie was thrilled and even informed Team-Chocolate that he is the first ever Geocacher we have bumped into whilst Geocaching ourselves. In the end we worked together to find this tricky cache, which wasn’t so tricky if we were in the right place. A lovely conversation as we walked down the road to our next cache and we were all delighted to have shared stories, we are now looking at Team-Chocolate’s cache’s to go and find.
Robyn enjoys Geocaching but sometimes it is hard work and a power nap is needed.
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Last week Rob and I deployed our first Travel Bug themed cache. As a family we already had 4 cache’s out there hidden.
Our first one was from pure excitement of the fact that people would find our caches and is near our home, you can find it under the free membership at GC75E4W.
Our second hide was a micro because we do love a micro find, micro’s are super tiny caches that look like a little nut and can only hold a log book scroll. Ours again is close to home and placed near a derelict building which I always admire as I walk past, you can find it under the free membership at GC76FJV.
Sophie and Riley then wanted to join in our excitement so they helped make their own caches and chose the hiding spots. Sophie and Riley’s caches are a small size and have room for swappable’s and trackable’s in so we decided to make these premium only caches. You can find them at GC76NBM (Sophie’s) and GC76GTC (Riley’s).
Our Travel Bug B&B idea came from seeing a few posts and ideas on the Travel Bug Hotel’s people have made for caches. Rob and I decided we wanted to do something similar as we hadn’t seen anything here in East Yorkshire, UK on our caching adventures yet. It had to be a little different and it is, here’s an image and the description below.
“You will have to come off the path to find this Travel Bug B&B. Once found you will need to find the entrance, the penthouse is permanent residence to creepy crawlies so no need to root through here.
Come and check your travel bugs in the lodge. Please rehide as found to keep this B&B on the Geocaching Secret Escapes for travel bugs. “
We won’t give the GC location for this one as it could be a spoiler for some. Those who have found it so far have loved the hide though. Treetop1974 was the first to find our cache and logged:
“{FTF} This one went live while I was still at work and I figured it would have been found by the time I got home (I live within a mile or so of this cache) so I didn’t rush. I went for a takeaway on my way home and played some Pokemon…. then thought I might as well come for a walk, as it’s a lovely evening, and still no logs of anyone having found it. I haven’t been down here since last May when I found the other cache that is here, “Harvey’s Cache #2”, and such a lot has changed since then. It’s lovely to see the progress. I got a lovely surprise when I found this cache. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all, and the blurb on the cache listing started to make perfect sense. This one is getting a well deserved FP. I love homemade caches, and this one is very fitting for this location. I did feel bad taking the only TB in residence – normally I would leave one if I take one, or I would in a TB specific cache, but we are going to Cheddar Gorge next weekend and can take it down there. I will call in at some point and put one in, in the next few weeks, hopefully one brought back from PirateMania! A TB hotel (or B&B in this case) should always have a resident or two! Thank you for a creative, well made cache! Hopefully the first of many more?! #2183″
For those that don’t know what a travel bug is a trackable tag that you attach to an item. This allows you to track your item on Geocaching.com. The item becomes a hitchhiker that is carried from cache to cache (or person to person) in the real world and you can follow its progress online.
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Of course it means that our competitive streak has come out to play!
This week 17-23rd July our crew (Geocaching friends) and us had to collect 30 coins to gain a piece of the lost treasure map. To get 30 points each cache found this week would be 5 coins unless it has more than 10 favourite points it would be 10 coins, or attend an event and gain 10 coins. Don’t worry this was going to be easy for us as we planned to go on a trail.
Today we went to do a Character loop which was created by ‘Adventurers5’, their caches are very creative and fun to find with the children. We only did half of the loop as we expected rainy weather and to be cold but it ended up rather hot and we all overheated a little. It was a fab 3 hour walk and we must have walked around 5 miles! Today we took a family friend with us and introduced her to Geocaching, Daisy who is in high school thoroughly enjoyed it and asked if we would take her again (yes is the answer).
I have to admit that the first couple of caches took the longest to find and we just couldn’t see it, Daisy remarked at how frustrating it was when they were right in front of our faces. Sophie and Riley loved showing her the ropes. Can you spot Rob in these bushes? We did laugh when a cache wasn’t quite in this location. Lovely views we had as well.
We got to walk through this corn field and it was something Rob and I hadn’t done before but the public footpath had run through it, it was pretty amazing.
Here’s one of the cache’s on the Character trail, Nellie the Elephant, isn’t it just beautiful to find cache’s that are handmade and someone has really thought about what the cacher’s will find.
I admit we were tired out by the end but we had a lovely time and it gave us a lot of coins which I am sure we will temporarily be in 1st place as ‘Treetop1974’ is rather competitive and is in fact the person who introduced us to Geocaching, thank you Di!
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Here we are, this was just at the front next to The Deep. We not only enjoyed the Christmas market but we also found out about a community art project in which you make a paper crane and pop a wish in it, Sophie and Riley joined in with this and enjoyed it. 
Robyn enjoys Geocaching but sometimes it is hard work and a power nap is needed.
