Wondering what the best Birthday gift is for a Geocacher? Well… now I know exactly what it is after a surprise and shock I had last week.
I recently converted two friends (Tristan and Louisa) to Geocaching, they are connections I have made through the lockdown and in the world of Clubhouse. We are all self-employed and I shared my love for the hobby and how it helps us escape the workload at home which feels more like escapism for us. Tristan and Louisa have dove straight into Geocaching and got the addiction. They have only been Geocaching 36 days based on their stats and delivered the BEST Geocaching gift ever.
The night before my Birthday, Tristan sent a message with the Geocaching map of our local area, his message read “OMG Did you see this this…??”. To be fair, it was past midnight so I overlooked it thinking they have only just seen the Geocaches in our area and fell asleep.
I received another message early on Saturday morning, my Birthday, it read “Looks like there’s a special cache….”. If you look closely at the screengrab above you can see a cache titled No Time Like The Present (GCJRSRR).
They had gotten my attention and I said to Rob “I didn’t know you could do limited time Geocaches? Did you?” I found it mildly frustrating that they had discovered a new type of Geocache that we had never heard of. We are meant to be the more educated considering we have been caching since 2017. Anyway, I typed in the GZ code on my phone and it didn’t appear with anything, I thought it must have only just been published so I grabbed my laptop and booted it up but still no luck. I messaged in our group conversation to say it doesn’t seem to work and Tristan replied “Good job I screen grabbed 
“. I was sent further screengrabs and was told all the clues are in the images so we can get going with it, it was only available until 12pm.
It was at this point I knew this wasn’t a ‘real’ Geocache, it wasn’t on the app. I noticed the GC code was infact our family initials – GCJRSRR (GCJenRobSophieRileyRobyn) – very clever. Tristan and Louisa had used their amazing photoshopping skills to create all of this, although this didn’t answer any questions as to what I was meant to find. Rob had no idea about any of this either so we both enjoyed figuring out the puzzle.
The first section of the puzzle was quite easy and this was the answer to the tool we needed for the next section. For the first section the answer was a number which then had to be linked to that number of the alphabet. EG, the first question was: 26 – month of Jen’s Birthday = 23 = W. Once we had figured out the answers it read “What 3” and I knew the app they were referring to immediately as we have it on our phone’s in case of emergency whilst out Geocaching= What Three Words.
Now we are cooking on gas but I have to be honest we slowed down at this point, we had to figure out the words to put into the app.
1= Another word for prevents
2= These could be computer / nail / paperwork
3= Like caches when not visible they are ____
We got 2/3 straight away but it was the second one that got us stuck for quite some time. Rob and I were in our PJ’s trying to figure this out and in the end we had to ask for the optional hint which made it nice and easy. However, we spent around 45 minutes on all of this because we didn’t want a hint at all.
Once we had the words, it was time to pop them into the map, I still had no idea what on earth was going on and what we needed to find. The What Three Words app displayed a pin at the Park Street Performing Arts Centre, this offered no answers, Tristan and Louisa reminded us we had until 12pm. It was still early in the morning and Riley had gone onto his virtual dance class with DanceWise Studios, so we didn’t rush to get ready which we regret now.
We were planning on doing some caching for my Birthday so I thought we would be quickly stopping by, I thought perhaps it was a parcel drop-off point and it seemed the most logical answer. We drove straight into the front drive of the place and I tried to go into the building but it was locked, I tried knocking but there was no answer, I retreated back into the car and tried to call the landline of the building and no answer. I gave up again and messaged Tristan and Louisa to ask if I was in the right place, they said yes but to go around the corner, I went the wrong way at this point and ended up going back to the car AGAIN. I felt we were on a wild goose chase and it was around 11.20am, I started to think that perhaps this wasn’t the end. Thankfully Tristan and Louisa messaged us with a clue to say we were in the right place and to check the sign post.
I got back out the car and started to investigate the sign, maybe it was a real cache I thought, I looked in the obvious places but couldn’t see anything there. I made funny faces at Rob and the kids who were watching me and Rob said to keep looking. I then stepped back to look at the sign as a whole and looked around to see if there was anything else around… there were two people holding boxes looking right at me! I have to confess it took a few seconds BUT it was Tristan and Louisa, I couldn’t believe it and shouted “NO WAY”. We’ve never met in person before and this was the last thing I thought of but I have to say I haven’t been this suprised in a while.
A work trip broought them here and how to kill two birds with one stone! I was honestly so shocked and surprised and am still talking about it a week later.
Tristan and Louisa could do this as a Geocaching Birthday/Anniversary/Event experience because it was so much fun and I had no idea, truly talented with photoshop and certainly made it a memorable birthday. Thank you so much.
Tristan is @ImTristanG
Louisa is @ImLouisaMay
What was in the boxes? Well they had both spoilt me…
There was something in there for us all to enjoy and the kids were super excited about opening the boxes and having a rummage around. Louisa had written us a lovely letter which was a really lovely personal touch. We can’t wait to go caching with them on their home turf, hopefully they will have some Geocaches left that they haven’t found.
Jen
