Tuesday 27 May 2014

Ooooppppsss geocaching gone wrong.

We have been doing this hobby of caching for a couple of months now, with varied success, some we find and some we don't, but such is the hobby.
When we had been out recently on one of our caching expeditions OH had spotted a tree that he wanted to photograph once the grass had grown in the field and when the sky was blue so we set off to do just that.

the photograph he took 


While we were out we could do some caching as there was one on that path we could not find the last time and a few more on along the path. So we drove to the start point, got our back packs on, phones in pocket, GPS round the neck and camera strap attached to the wrist.

There had been a lot of rain the day before, not only did this cause the river to run very brown

the brown river

it must have brought the downfall of large chunks of rock. Not a lot is left holding up the trees and bushes above.

collapsed rocks


Our first stop was the style, one we could not find the other week. I had climbed over it, lay down under it, grovelled round about it, felt for it and all to no avail. Another couple out walking looked as well. We tried in the trees and the fence posts but after about twenty five minutes we gave up and moved on. It describes itself as
We have debated long and hard about the difficulty and terrain ratings. We have chosen NOT to publish the cache size which ups the difficulty and the terrain? Well the fisherman’s path is tricky and can flood out in winter. The alternative route is along the River Ayr Walk along to ‘The Dark Oswald’ before looping down and around to GZ. This path can also be muddy before during and after rain....Its the very nature of it.

The coordinates are accurate to about 12 feet under tree cover but really, look at the name.

The cache? ‘p’ and particularly ‘t’ put a lot of time and effort into this one. Its a wee bit different. Oh no, we hear you gasp, but we hope it draws some positive comment.

So this time when we came across it I was all the more determined that it would not beat me, it had been found in the previous week so I knew it was still there. This time I laid down and took various pictures of the underneath hoping I could see it but nothing was visible. I dont want to spoil it for others who are going to look but after about ten minutes in the area we did manage to find it. Very clever it was too, no wonder I didn't find it first time

under the style


From here we carried on up the stairs

up away from river level


and were admiring the scenery as we walked.

great scenery through to the river


and eventually we came to the spot we had been aiming for, the spot to take the photograph from.

oh taking his photo

As it was such a nice day and we had plenty of time we decided to carry on and get some more of the cache on the route.


This one took a bit of spotting as it could have been in more than one place by the instructiosn

nearly concealed


and it really made us laugh time we got to the middle to sign the log book, think Russian dolls.

a Russian doll cache


From here we followed the path and the next marked cache was on a nice look out point. Well fenced off, totally safe

out to the edge

with a magnificent view, down to the drop of the river

down to the river


and a great view down stream

the view upstream


again we spent time her, shoving our hands into the base of trees, into gaps, looking round holes in fence posts, looking for magnetic ones on the original metal fencing but to no avail.

So we moved on crossed the style. I thought we should have been going up to the right, but the path didn't go up there, and it could have been that we would go round a corner further up that would point us back into the right direction.

But we walked and walked a bit more, along a muddy path. At this point the GPS seemed to be pointing us towards one that we knew was at the bridge where we had left the car. So we carried on to the end of the river path and on up to the road. But....it was the wrong road, we did not come out where we expected to be. We had effectively walked round in a horseshoe.  We should have veered right at the style instead of carrying on the way we had.

map my walk

It was now 6km back to where we started by the river walk, or slightly more by road. Not a nice road to walk on, a very narrow country road.  So I took the easy option out and phoned Daughter No1 to come and rescue us. I knew exactly where we were, approx a ten minute drive away from the village.

Bob thought this was hilarious, rescuing Grandma and Grandad who were "lost".

Thought I would share this story with you to give you a laugh but it certainly has not put us off pursuing the hobby.


fun as a gran

3 comments:

  1. Oops ! Glad you had fun all the same ! :)

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  2. A lovely story and a great adventure. Glad you found the allusive first cache too. Amazing what a sunny day does to keep inspiring you on for the next one! Lovely photos too

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  3. I so miss Geocaching, just looking at your photos reminds me of how lovely it can be...really though, how can you get lost..you have GPS?? lol

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