We were on a roll with our Geocaching, spring is here and the Goecaching season has begun for us. We decided that we would go out on two consecutive days after a couple of weekends of dedicating just the Saturday to our hobby. The plan was to go on a short walk just for an hour or two and I had located what I thought was a little loop.
The walk was titled Circular Walk and so it seemed perfect, I could see it was part of a larger loop but thought I could see that we could cut through the middle and do a smaller section. We usually do this on larger trails with the three kids because it does tire them out. We started at Geocad17 – Circular Walk 7 (GC5KTEG) and we spent some time trying to find it but with no luck, usually when this happens we have a feeling on how the rest of the day is going to go. The funny thing is, I did ponder on which way to start the walk, should we go left or right? We decided on going right because it was such a lovely eye pleasing little walk. We walked next to a stream and passed quite a few other walkers.
We carried on our merry way and was enjoying our loop after finally finding Geocaches at Geocad22- Circular Walk 6, Geocad21 – Circular Walk 5, Geocad20 – Circular Walk 4, Geocad19 – Circular Walk 3, Geocad18- Circular Walk 2. By this point we had bumped into a couple of people on horses which weren’t pleased to see it, so we hurried past quietly. I took a photo (funnily enough) of where it went wrong and I took this picture because of the name, my maiden name is Jarratt and you don’t often see it spelt this way. I had planned this to show my dad as our ancestors owned some land.
This is the point where we turned right which appeared to be a signposted footpath but when we got part way things didn’t feel right. I couldn’t see how we were going to make our way across to the car, we could see the bridge near where we parked but not the path through. I changed my view on my phone to see if I could see the trails on the Geocaching app, Rob and I were both looking at this point and I convinced him that we must need to give it a wide birth. This is when the promise of McDonalds came for the kids as it was just past 12pm and we had already been out way longer than expected.
We carried on walking and mole hills seemed to appear but I was convinced it was going to meet round. I can safely say now, it didn’t! We ended up by the side of the A63 next to the Pulse & Cocktails adult store! Oh my word, what were we going to do? We were pretty tired and Rob had said he wanted to get back for the LFC match at 2pm. Do we turn back and walk 3/4 miles?
Ring ring… ring ring… My dad picked up the phone, he agreed to come and rescue us and take us back to the car. We knew it was going to be a good half an hour wait and was thankful that there was a garage to buy some snacks for the kids. Yes, the guy at the garage did ask me “Is that your children out there?” and I did try to explain but what were we meant to do?
The kids were so well behaved and really enjoyed looking out for Grandad whilst all the drivers going past were wondering why there was a family of five at the adult store. I imagined headlines in the local news paper and we did all have a giggle. The kids didn’t ask much about where we were but we had instilled that we were stuck on the A63. Eventually it turned cold and we were waiting for my dad to save the day.
Grandad arrived and rescued us, the kids cheered with joy! We were all so very happy to see him and get warm in his car.
It’s the first time we have ever gone wrong on our Geocaching adventures but we know to trust our instinct and we will look back and giggle with this story. The kids enjoyed telling their friends at school what had happened and the blame firmly lay with me.
I guess the question is, where did the walk meet up? Did it meet up at all? I’m sure we will find out when we go back to discover the caches we haven’t found.
Have you ever gotten lost? Or taken a wrong turn? We can’t be the only ones.
Jen & co.