Caching Tales

I love a good murder mystery and the joy of trying to find out ‘whodunit?’. Over the years I have enjoyed reading famous sleuthing books by authors like Agatha Christie and PD James; watching TV ‘whodunit?’ dramas; going to murder mystery dinners; and playing games of Cluedo with friends whenever the opportunity arises.     Trying to unravel a series of breadcrumb clues, wean out the red herrings and decipher who committed murder, is great fun and more often than not, I get it completely wrong.   With the recent advent of virtual murder mystery games around town centres, it gave me an idea for a set of lab caches. And when I found out I had been awarded an adventure lab credit to build a series of adventure labs, I was overjoyed and began thinking my idea through a little more.   There were however two stumbling blocks that I had to overcome. The first was I could only have five locations with a strict word count on each location page. It seemed there was barely enou...

Every time I’ve opened the adventure lab app recently on my phone there seem to be more and more green balloons popping up on the local map. Just over a year ago there were just a handful of adventure labs in the East of England, today there are dozens, as creative cachers everywhere clamber to get the opportunity to create one.   Traditionally, lab caches were mostly only available at Mega events. Last autumn, after more than four years of geocaching, I still hadn’t found a single lab cache, but suddenly had the opportunity at the EU Geocoin mega event in Manchester. There were 30 to be found, and some were incredibly innovative, testing new tech, whilst others were a tour of the city or general knowledge quiz questions.   Since the arrival of the dedicated Adventure Lab App, more and more lab cache creator credits have been dished out. Consequently, just a year later I have now found more than 128 lab caches.     What’s interesting about this fast growi...

This week I was keen to get out on some after work walks and pick up a few more adventure labs if I could. I’d spotted a new series of labs in Ely and a few other intriguing mysteries and multi geocaches, so decided to set off across the Fen roads to the historic city.   I started with the new adventure labs called ‘Take your Pic!’, set by Shadyone44. It was a lovely series - a nice length, guided walking tour of the city. They took in some of Ely’s most famous historical landmarks and green spaces, including the cathedral, Jubilee Gardens, the old monastery and the beautiful Cherry Hill Park.   Each location page had a nice description, full of interesting facts and history, making you feel like you had a tour guide alongside telling you all the interesting things about each place. I really enjoyed this set of labs and learnt some new things, and there was even a bonus physical cache to collect at the end, which was great as an additional find.     After...