Cache – GilmourFamily Geocaching Blog

20 years of Geocaching

May 11, 2020Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged 2020, Blue Switch Day 2020, Cache, caching, corona, coronavirus, countryside, Geocache, Geocachers, Geocaching, Lockdown, lockdown activity, lockdown fun, mental health, The Gilmours, walkLeave a comment

On Saturday we went out for the first time in seven weeks as a family and most importantly doing what we love the most… Geocaching. We needed to see something other than the four walls of our home, inside our car or the shops.

We didn’t realise there was a souvenir to grab in aid of Blue Switch Day 2020 which is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Geocaching. It made it even more special for our time out of the house during lockdown.

The kids have only been out twice since lockdown commenced, of course there’s the backgarden. Rob and I only go out once a week and are both careful as explained I have two auto-immune diseases and other health problems, I am not on the vulnerable list but am susceptible to getting things so we have made sure to be extra safe.

We loved to see the green in the trees and the grass growing as well as spotting the wild flowers, bugs and birds. My eyes felt refreshed and pleased, such an odd feeling.

We found five caches and only came across a handful of people, we used hand sanitiser after every cache was handled just to be safe. On our first cache we gained the souvenir badge and we were all delighted especially as we miss Geocaching so much.

I have to be honest with you and say that for me personally it helps my mental health, I can get away from the reality of life and get soaked into the game whilst walking and discovering new areas around us.

We all want to send you our best wishes and hope you are keeping safe during the coronavirus outbreak.

Jen & co.

Goodbye 2019 Hello 2020

January 1, 2020Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged 2019, 2020, back in the game, blogging, Cache, caches, caching, East Yorkshire, family, Family day out, Family fun, fun, Geocache, Geocachers, Geocaching, Geocaching HQ, GilmourFamily, Jennifer Gilmour, life, New Year, New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Riley, Robyn, sophie, souvenirs, The Gilmours, walk, walking, YorkshireLeave a comment

When we found out there were souvenirs to be claimed on the last day of 2019 and the first day of 2020; we couldn’t avoid the urge.

Souvenirs in the Geocaching world are like digital badges on your profile and throughout your Geocaching adventures, sometimes there will be a challenge set to achieve them and sometimes it will because you found a cache in a different country.

To claim the individual souvenirs we had to find one cache on each day and I am glad to say that we DIT IT! We actually did it in 2018 as well but in 2017 we only managed to claim one as we were away.

New Year’s Eve and we managed to find a Geocache very local to us, we like to keep a few for emergency caching. Thankfully we can find micro’s nice and easy now. Our last cache of 2019 was Priory Road Cache and Dash (GC676GF).

Our caching year totals so far:

2017- 191

2018- 134

2019- 102

Despite the decline in finds we absolutely love Geocaching and 2020 we are going to aim to increase our finds. Things are a little different as we are now a family that works from home full time. We are looking forward to 2020.

2020 arrived and Rob is going to remind us all of this moment, the first find of the new year. A quick magnetic find and not that far from us, we were near Riplingham. 100 yards (GC6RKAD).

We didn’t stop there, we went on to find three more and had a lovely fresh New Years Day walk. We would have done more but it was a bitter cold despite the sun shining bright on us.

You can see they were all excited to be back out caching again but it can get competitive. Your dog will like this one (GC6RK9R).

Two new badges and an exciting caching year ahead planned.

The Gilmours

The Hull Hub and Geocaching

December 22, 2019Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged app, blog, blogging, Cache, East Yorkshire, family, Geocache, Geocaching, Hull City, Jennifer Gilmour, Kingston Upon Hull, magazine, newspaper, Paperzine, The Gilmours, The Hull Hub, travel, treasure hunt, YorkshireLeave a comment

We have been meaning to share this with you for a little while but we have been in The Hull Hub for our love of Geocaching.

Here it is:

Here is what we wrote about Geocaching in Hull…

Back in May 2017 my family and I discovered the world of Geocaching and the five of us embraced it, it has been something we have taken with us on holidays and has saved us a lot of money as a family. The photo of us was taken on our first ever trail.

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor adventure that is happening all the time, all around the world. To play, participants use the Geocaching app or a GPS device to navigate to cleverly hidden containers called geocaches. There are millions of Geocaches in the world waiting to be found.

Some are as tiny as a thimble and some as large as a caravan, there are clues on what to look out for or how to open it, using your problem solving skills. Once you open it you simply sign the log with the date and your username. If a Geocache is large enough you may find some ‘swag’ which are small toys/items, the idea behind this is that you swap an item for something of the same value or greater.

For us Geocaching has helped us discover different places and seen things we wouldn’t have seen without it. Some cache hiders like to give historical information and place their cache at a location linked to this.

City Centre caches are more urban and hard to discover because you are not meant to be caught finding them by muggles, which in the context of Geocaching are people who don’t know about the hobby.

What Geocaches are in Hull?

Here are a few with the GC codes if you want to find them on the app and discover them for yourself. There are 2,191 Geocaches around Hull.

We have some fantastic caches in Hull and if we take the City Centre alone there is a Hull Culture Cache Trail (GC7035W) placed in 2017 for Capital of Culture. Theres also a Historic Hull Trail (GC71D5) which is a short multi cache trail in which you have to answer questions at certain locations to gain the information to find the cache’s location. Another multi-cache in the City Centre is A Trip Around Town (GC2FNJX) which took us the best part of a day to complete as you walk a quite a bit but we enjoyed it and it cost us nothing extra to do.

How do you start Geocaching?

You can get a Geocaching account for FREE and if you want to go the extra mile then you can get the premium membership for £25 a year which unlocks the whole of the Geocaching world. It has saved us money as a family, it’s our go to weekend or holiday activity. No longer are we scraping our heads on what to do without spending a fortune.

Simply download the app and away you go.

Final thoughts

Geocaching has provided our family to rediscover places we loved and has helped us with our own mindset, giving our walks purpose and giving us an adventure. I haven’t pin pointed where the photo’s are taken in and around Hull, but you can see some of the caches and get an initial feel for what it could be like. Rob (my husband) and I will go out on our own at times and we enjoy it just as much with the kids. Robyn (my youngest) found her first cache late last year and now has the competitive streak to find it first when we hit the next Geocache location.

You can also read it in Issue 8 at www.thehullhub.co.uk

The Gilmours

Geocaching Appreciation Week 2019 – #IHeartGCHQ

January 27, 2019Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged Cache, caches, daughter, East Yorkshire, family, family cachers, fun, Geocache, Geocachers, Geocaching, Geocaching Appreciation Week, Geocaching HQ, GilmourFamily, healthy, hobby, Jennifer Gilmour, kids, life, love, Riley, Robyn, sophie, The Gilmours, therapy, trail, travel, walking, weekend, youtube2 Comments

This blog was prompted by The Geocaching Vlogger, his video on declaration of an appreciation week for Geocaching HQ. We wanted to join in somehow and so the least we can do is write a blog post. In fact it’s the first one of 2019, we need to get back in on it. The Gilmour’s have done plenty of New Year Caching after all.

I’m going to try and not be so sentimental but I think it’s unavoidable. Here’s my message to Geocaching HQ…

Thank you doesn’t cut it for us because Geocaching has brought a lot to our lives. We have been caching for almost 2 years, in fact as soon as we discovered it we went out to cache. At first we enjoyed it, we couldn’t believe this was across the world and around us and then after time went by we realised what a difference it’s made to us. The time we went out caching was a way of escaping the reality of our lives at times, a way to get healthy and a way to spent time working as a team in our family unit. I used to laugh at those shirts that said ‘Geocaching is my therapy’ and then I came to realise that we could even relate to this. Escapism from my reality was important and still is at times, still recovering from an abusive relationship from some years ago. I do love nature and used to go walking a lot but it became difficult as it ended up thinking over situations etc all the time. Geocaching gives you a focus. Not many people know about my connection with Geocaching like this, so it’s quite personal. Thank you again HQ.

Our three children growing up with caching, this photo was from a couple of weeks ago.

This was a first family photo on our first Geocaching trail back in 2017.

Find out more about the Geocaching Appreciation week from Joshua himself…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQhzVhEfefg&w=560&h=315]

We have some blog posts ready to share so watch out for those coming out soon. Subscribe if you haven’t already so you don’t miss them.

Jen and the rest of the Gilmour’s

Our new Geocaching tool…

June 30, 2018Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged Cache, caches, family, fun, Geocaching, GilmourFamily, hubby, life, love, NE Geocaching Supplies, Riley, Robyn, sophie, stamp, tool, trail, walkingLeave a comment

A couple of weekends ago we were super excited to try out our new tool for Geocaching. We had ordered it back in May and it had arrived in all of its glory a week or so ago and we have been itching to give it a go!

Our very own stamp with our Geocaching username in place. It’s actually for a letterbox hybrid Geocache.

Geocaches have different types as follows:

You can find out more about the different types of Geocaches here.

We didn’t go and find a letterbox hybrid this weekend though but that didn’t stop us from using it. We went on a small section of a larger trail and decided to log our finds with it.

This is the loop we did without the multi as it wasn’t part of the trail. Multi’s we have to plan when we have the children especially if there are a lot of stages to go and find clues so we will have to come back for that one.

We had a lovely time and the kids enjoyed it. The stamp came out to play and it is going to be well used in the future. Thank you to NE Geocaching Supplies.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otVUqZfv3-w&w=560&h=315]

The walk we did we had to take it in turns to use the stamp and I think the excitement was over our family name all over it.

One of the Geocaches we found Sophie wanted to be filmed finding and opening it. We couldn’t refuse of course. So here’s the video…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy35RJCTY6M&w=560&h=315]

Our aluminium coins are always complimented on and we leave our calling card in all Geocaches that they fit into. You can buy them here ETSY.

Right we need to get ready for our next adventure and will update you soon!

From us all

Plan plan and plan…

June 10, 2018Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged Cache, caches, daughter, family, fun, Geocachers, Geocaching, hubby, life, love, map, organisation, plan, Rigby, Riley, Robyn, sophie, trail, walking, weatherLeave a comment

Sometimes Geocaching comes with planning and funnily enough the planning comes down to me, which I enjoy!

Yesterday we had planned to go on a trail that a fellow Geocacher we had met had created. We’ve been meaning to do it for a while but it was obvious with three children we weren’t going to be able to do it all in one go as the whole trail is around 7.5 miles long. Walking along could take us around 3-4 hours (considering Robyn’s tiny legs at times), if we were caching this could potentially double it.

For this outing I printed out the map so I could decipher what the cacher was explaining on his description at the first GC. If you read the description you can see what I mean.

See the first cache at GC4Z0J0 if you want to check it out.

This time I had informed my mum in law (2000SamJack) of our whereabouts in case for any reason we are in an emergency situation. Sometimes you can be out in the countryside without anyone else to see. I’m sure other walkers do this and so we have now implemented it into our caching days out. We also now have a travel first aid kit in our caching bag.

We decided to do the 3 mile segment as the weather wasn’t sunny and wasn’t raining and we could decide if it was going to rain. We also thought it would be a good amount for the children. We had set out at 10.30am and didn’t get home until 2pm so we did spend a while caching. Some were sneaky, we didn’t find them all- but that’s ok as we will return.

When approaching a cache I always sound out ‘100 meter warning’ so everyone knows we are getting close, followed by the hint for that cache we are approaching. If we can’t find it straight away I will re read the hint and on struggling caches we will go through the activity feed to see if a previous cacher has left another clue. I seem to manage and the rest find although sometimes I like to pretend it’s somewhere else and run to the correct location to be a first to find between us, nothing like a little competition.

We had a lovely walk and bumped into a few other walkers (not cachers) along the way. We often giggle because I’m sure people passing us are surprised we are out for a walk as a modern family and often stop and chat to us.

The kids even wore their Geocaching name badges, I love how they are so into our hobby.

Hope you have had a lovely weekend.

Jennifer

When in London…

May 16, 2018Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged alone, Cache, caches, David, Geocaching, Jennifer Gilmour, life, London, meeting, Micheal Angelo, museum, Paddington, public speaking, riddle, statue, Train Station, travel, V&A, virtual, virtual cacheLeave a comment

Hey everyone!

Jennifer here.

When in London… do a smidge if Geocaching!

I was in London for a speaking gig and couldn’t resist a sneaky bit of caching. I didn’t plan it, I just thought to myself if I have some time I will have a look and see what is around.

I had the opportunity to find two virtual caches.

First cache

I happened to have met a fellow writer in South Kensington for a coffee and I had a couple of hours spare and could see the V&A Museum was very close and had a virtual. I must admit I spent over an hour on it as it had a riddle BUT I got there in the end and wasn’t expecting to see this! I was so delighted that Geocaching brought me to visit the statue of David. It was in a side room I would have never had looked out for as it came from a dark corridor.

Once the riddle was solved I still had to find information from the back of the statue on a plaque. Managing to log it in the end and a lovely wonder around I enjoyed some time in the beautiful museum.

Second cache

I made my way to Paddington train station with good time, this is where I was meeting the event organisers for my speaking gig the next day.

I sat and read for a bit and then decided to have a quick look for caches to see if there was a cache in the station. I had already taken a must needed photo in Paddington underground to show the kids…

A quick look on the app and I could see there was a virtual cache nearby. I knew it had to be something to do with Paddington. A short walk a way and I find the statue I needed to. I had to answer the cache request and inform the cache owner of what was written on the suitcase. A nice and easy find with a photo opportunity.

It was nice to enjoy some light Geocaching in London.

Jennifer

Sometimes it doesn’t work out…

May 6, 2018Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged Brocklesby, Cache, caches, car, daughter, DNF, Easter, egg rolling, family, flute, fun, Geocaching, hubby, life, love, lunch, oops, pied piper, Riley, Robyn, sophie, sun, SWAG, trail, walking, weatherLeave a comment

Yesterday we planned to spend the bank holiday Geocaching (of course)! The sun is out and it’s perfect weather for some caching fun.

However it just didn’t work out for us on the Saturday. We went out to the Brocklesby Estate and planned to get a good amount of caches since we had been there last year and had realised just how big the trail was! In fact you may recognise the name because we came here for the egg rolling event as well. It’s simply beautiful.

You can find number 1 of the trail at GC3KAC7.

We didn’t start at cache 1 but in fact at cache 10, in quick form our caching day looked like this: We found the first one easy, in fact it was Sophie who found it. The second we had no look. The third we bumped into a whole team of cachers who had set out to do the full 56 in one day! They found the cache for us and we signed the log 😉

We then sat and had some lunch as Robyn was a bit grizzly – to be honest she was very tired. The fourth cache we had no luck, it was more the inability to spend time on it with the three kids getting stung by nettles and shouting they had found it when they hadn’t. We just didn’t feel it and had spent a good few hours having a slow paced day.

Don’t get me wrong we had fun and it was the first time we didn’t mind not caching more, no frustration, we simply enjoyed the glorious sun.

And Robyn was way too interested in all of the mole hills, there were hundreds and she insisted in stopping at each one to investigate.

I better share this video of Rob who was trying to be the pied piper on the way back. The flute was some swag from a previous cache we had found.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aypB7kFe-ao&w=560&h=315]

So… if you ever aren’t ‘feeling’ it… it’s ok… embrace it.

Jennifer

Cache and dash

April 29, 2018Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged Cache, Cache and dash, caches, car, family, Geocaching, hubby, muggled, mugglesLeave a comment

A few weeks ago we decided to set out for the afternoon but Robyn (our youngest at 2) fell asleep as we drove over the Humber Bridge.

Funnily enough we found plenty of caches that were all around 500feet away from each other and a perfect opportunity for cache and dash! Basically meaning you can drive up, park and find the cache quick.

Sophie and I found the first cache nice and fast – perfect for the cache and dash theme.

The second cache we had come to was a bit of a puzzle as Daddy (Rob) and Riley went out to find this tricky cache. To be honest it was because they were looking in the wrong place- sssshhhhh don’t tell them I told you. Found eventually as Mummy directed them (of course). On we went.

We managed to get six before Robyn woke up but she only woke due to the excitement from Sophie and Riley as we found and took in turns to go hunting.

Beautiful views and a lovely mild spring day (at last). It was nice to be able to just have a drive out a break the indoor TV days.

You can see where we started caching at GC58RKE (Fred’s No1 The Start). These are premium but membership is affordable at just £25 a year – another reason we love caching.

Jennifer

Webcam Cache in Leeds

April 22, 2018Posted in Geocaching AdventuresTagged back in the game, BGT, Britain’s got talent, Cache, concert, fun, Geocaching, hubby, Leeds, life, love, Tokio Myers, webcam, webcam cacheLeave a comment

Tuesday 17th the hubby and I were about to enjoy our first night out away from children in Leeds. We had planned to see Tokio Myers who we had personally dedicated ourselves to when seeing him on BGT last year, his first audition struck us and we had said how we would support him as an indie artist if he wasn’t going to make it. We had no idea that he was going to win BGT!

Right outside the venue was a webcam cache and it was our FIRST ever cache of this type so we had decided to go and get it! It was rather humorous been able to see ourselves on the webcam page as we were stood looking at our phones and trying to work out if it was us or not. We moved apart from each other and refreshed the page and then we saw it on our screen – confirmation!

All you had to do was post a screenshot of the image with you on it as well as the date/time etc.

An easy cache that will be remembered for an eventful evening.

A few pics from the concert.

Happy Caching

Jennifer