Geocaching in the line of fire!

This summer seems to have been a bumper year for new geocaches. Literally days after the Covid-19 lockdown eased here in the UK, dozens upon dozens of new cache alerts started filling up my email box. 

Lots of local cachers had clearly made the most of their spare time whilst stuck at home, by setting lots of new caches, helping to keep Geocaching fresh and fun. I really should have done the same!

Dozens of new geocache series began appearing on the map, and none more so than around Downham Market in Norfolk. Poshrule, Jane Chick and a few others had definitely been very busy!

As the weather was looking good at the weekend I decided to do one of Poshrule’s new circular walks ‘Wereham Whirligig’. 

I parked up at the recommended spot near the beautiful village green and pond, and set about solving the multis nearby, before heading out of the village to grab the first cache in the series. 

The first part of the walk was along a quiet country road and the caches were all quick easy finds. As I neared the northern edge of the loop I could see I needed to head across country and back down on some footpaths. There was just one hitch...two gunmen shooting in the field that I had to walk around. 

I really hate these in the line of fire moments. I’ve not had it happen to often but when it does, it really stresses me out. 

Firstly, I don’t want to get shot, by accident or not. Secondly, I feel quite awkward, ruining their day by halting proceedings and disturbing all the wildlife they were trying to shoot. And thirdly, and most importantly, because I don’t agree with people going out with guns in the open countryside, and shooting and killing animals. It really isn’t necessary most of the time, it’s purely for their entertainment. And to be quite honest I cannot understand why they are allowed to do it, where their line of fire crosses a footpath - whether it’s rarely used, or not!

Ok rant over! But these were the rather mixed emotions and thoughts racing through my head as I nervously walked towards them and around the path. 

Fortunately, they did stop shooting, until I was pretty much out of sight and heading back towards the village, but I felt I couldn’t stop for one of the caches as I didn’t want to hold them up longer than necessarily, and because I didn’t want to expose its location to any muggles.

Once past them I found a little footbridge to sit on to destress, have a rest and a drink. 

Back on the trail, I found myself weaving my way through a small woodland. It was incredibly pretty and it was nice to see that all the local wildlife hadn’t been killed, when I came across a hare and two squirrels. 

I finished my trip by picking up a couple of multis and the mystery cache ‘Binary Towers’ that I’d solved some time ago with DannyJGB’s help. 

A few nights later I managed to get myself out after work for a local caching trip around Burwell. It was a really warm evening, and I parked up in the centre of the village to gather some of the more recently published caches nearby. 

The Jubilee Reading Room multi was soon solved and the final cache was incredibly clever. A white stone, with two metal spikes so that it was firmly placed in the soil, with the cache set into it. I’d not seen it done before, very clever.

It was nice to pick up three more caches in the ‘History of Burwell’ series. I also picked up a previous DNF ‘Track Log’ which was a clever custom stick that twisted to reveal the log container. And the Fine Pair final cache was just fab, a red phone box. Very appropriate. 

I finished by starting work gathering info for the Earthcache, but didn’t get to the second destination, as it was just getting too dark. But I will return.

A few nights later I set off after work for Fulbourn. A new series of caches had just been published there by Steve4789 along with two cryptic mystery caches. 

Now, these days I don’t tend to spend much time solving puzzles. When I first started caching I wasted hours, days, weeks and even months on some puzzles. Finally, I cracked most in the end. But some are still unsolved!

With so many new caches constantly being published, I’ve realised it’s a bit daft to spend hours trying to get the coordinates for just one cache. Plus I’ve got a lot still sitting on the solved & not found list...so it’s probably better to get on with finding them.

However, the two new puzzles in Fulbourn particularly appealed because I’d clocked very quickly the method for solving them. I just needed to work out what the word was for each photo. I mistakenly thought, ‘great, this will be easy’, ha..ha...argh!!

The first puzzle proved to be no problem. Solved within 10 minutes. Hence when the second was published I started work on it. But nothing was working. I just couldn’t match each image with the correct word. 

Hours and hours, and several nights later, having tried what I thought was every combination of words, still the co-ordinates would not pop up. 

In the end, I asked for help from the CO, something I rarely do. But I was desperate! He very helpfully came back straight away, but still I failed to get the correct words. 

A day later he enquired as to how I was doing, and I had to admit I hadn’t got far, so he gave me another, more helpful hint. After another two hours inputting various combinations, the penny dropped! I had now come up with the right missing word, but had made a mistake on one of the other images!  Oh dear!

Finally, the checker said yes and I made a quick find of both at their various GZs. 

The new loop of caches around Fulbourn was also great. Some really innovative containers including a battery, which unscrewed to reveal the log book. Plus a cleverly hidden fake rock. 

As the weather was still looking fairly good at the weekend, I arranged a caching trip with DannyJGB to Thetford Forest. The little ones - 3ft & 4ft - had reignited their interest in Geocaching and we’re keen to come out on a walk.

We decided to head to Thetford forest near Shadwell to do some more of the West Harling Walk set by Rilks, as I knew the youngsters would enjoy finding some of the more unusual customs there. 

One of the first caches uncovered was a brilliant tin hidden in a long piece of pipe buried into a pile of soil and logs. The youngsters loved it as it had lots of nice swaps.

A bit further up the track we found a great custom log cache and a nicely hidden cache in an old tyre. 

After a bit of lunch and some Pokémon hunting, we set off back up the other side of the track grabbing one cache after another. An intriguing hint had us baffled until we arrived at GZ to find a metal dog tag on a post, which slid across the reveal the cache in the post. Very clever. 

I took the youngsters a bit further along to see two of the caches I’d picked up previously as they were so good, and then we took a slightly more overgrown walk back to the car, grabbing two recently set filler caches by Happy Girlie.

Both were clever. The first a huge spider, which my sister wasn’t too keen on. The second, a combination lock high up in a tree...thank goodness one member of our team today was tall enough to reach it. 

It was a great afternoon and the rain held off. I did however get them all a bit lost on the way back to the car. ‘I was sure there was a path here’, I kept saying as we battled our way through some chest high undergrowth. Thank goodness they’re all now very used to me getting everyone lost, off the beaten track at some point on our walks! 

I finish this week’s blog with some exciting news...I’ve adopted 4 geocaches. Never done that before, but when French Boy contacted me and asked if I’d like to take on three of his local church micros and the cache at the beautiful Pack Horse Bridge in Moulton, how could I refuse. 

I was very pleased to adopt all four and will be heading out to check on them all soon. 

I’ve also got some plans for some brand new caches, more on that next time. Happy caching :-)