How staying local resulted in me finding two of the best geocaches I’ve ever seen!

Much of the world is still in the firm grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, over a year on from those first cases in China. As different waves hit different countries, each is going in and out of lockdown stopping many of our usual hobbies and pursuits. However, it doesn’t have to stop you enjoying some of the great aspects of geocaching and with some careful planning you can still get out geocaching.

 

The first thing to do is to get organised! By accepting another lockdown might be around the corner, you can plan for it. 

Here in the UK, we have been very lucky that we have still been allowed to exercise outdoors during all of the national and regional lockdowns imposed upon us. The only tiny hitch is we have all had to ‘stay local’. Those two tiny words can make finding geocaches a challenge, especially if you have been doing it for several years and have no doubt turned all the ‘local’ ones into smilies!

 

But with so many geocachers stuck at home, many have used their time to set new geocaches and over the past year hundreds have been appearing on our maps. Suddenly you haven’t found all those ‘local’ caches and by leaving them unfound, you can get out and grab them in the next lockdown.

 

This is exactly what I did, and as a result I have had several brilliant trips out geocaching during the last UK lockdown, even finding two of the best geocaches I have ever discovered.   

 

My first local caching trip was a brief one, on the way back from the supermarket. A new Village Sign cache had been published at Higham towards the end of last year, just a few miles from home. Armed with antibac – the new essential tool in my geocaching toolkit – I came off the dual carriageway from Bury St Edmunds, parked up in a small layby and zipped across the road to get it. It was a lovely quick find on a signpost for Higham, and I soon had my name on the log.

 

The next caching trip was a weekend or so later. The other half and I were rather bored and the weather was good, so we decided to get out of the house for a few hours. 

Again, towards the end of 2020 a new series of caches were published in the forest just up the road. Called ‘The Warren and his Coney’s’ it had been set by TheRolphsUk around what is known locally as ‘The Warren’.

 

It was a brilliant trail and a lovely walk. There were so many creative and well thought out caches and hides and just the right amount of exercise. I won’t list all of the great caches here, as I don’t want to spoil the trail for other, but amongst my favourites were the toadstools, which you really couldn’t miss once in the right spot. There was several smaller toadstools surrounded by a much bigger one in the centre. A gentle turn of the lid and the cleverly hidden log container was revealed.

 

There was also a snake hidden in a hole in a tree, and a spider cleverly attached to a fallen log.  

The multi cache was brilliant. It required a bit of clever thinking to find the co-ordinates to the final stage. Any experienced cacher would know where to look, but I noticed in the logs that it had duped a few newer cachers, who hadn’t spotted the clever hide and had logged some did not finds (dnfs). 

Once at the final GZ, we uncovered a large box decorated to look like a giant battery. It was a joy to find something so large and so creative.

 

A few weeks later, when the other half’s birthday arrived, he really didn’t know what to do to mark the occasion and make the most of a day off. So I suggested a little trip out to Dalham and Gazeley up the road, to find some creative caches that had been published there recently.

 

It was a nice length walk between the two villages through a tiny wood and across some fields side paths. I’d estimated it would only take us a couple of hours. How wrong was I?!

 

It turned out to be much muddier than expected so we slipped and slid our way around, and tried to avoid the huge muddy puddles as much as possible, but it was so worth it. We found some of the most unique and inventive caches I have ever seen. Each was a joy to find.

 

The first one was cleverly hidden inside a signpost and inside the container were some brilliantly designed metal flip tags. The tags each had a question on them, which once answered correctly – with the help of some googling - gave us a set of ‘on’ and ‘off’ instructions for the second cache in the series.  

I was curious as to what on earth could be in the second cache and excited to see, but unfortunately I hadn’t realised the second cache was out of action.  We will definitely be returning another day to see it, it sounds like a good one.

Minutes later we were heading into a small woodland to hunt for the next cache.  It was a cleverly made field puzzle in the shape of a book, again it was a very unique cache. 

Unfortunately, we found the mechanism for getting into it was broken, so getting the log out didn’t require any puzzle solving, but it looked like it would have been fun, and the CO was very quick to disable it after our visit to get it back up to good working order for the next cachers.

 

Further along the track we found the next cache called ‘Simon Says’ and it was huge! Pulling it out from behind an old decaying tree, we opened the huge camo bag with great excitement. Inside was a giant custom made wooden box with a big door. Opening it, we discovered one heck of a field puzzle - it was just brilliant.

 

There were lots of coloured buttons and a bag of batteries which needed to be inserted into the battery back. Pressing the on button it began to play a tune and the various coloured lights began to flash at us. 

Dazzled by such a cleverly made and interesting cache it took us a few minutes to work out what to do. When I did cotton on that I was supposed to repeat the light and sound sequence, I got almost to the end twice, before going wrong. In the end, it was the more coordinated other half who completed the sequence without any errors first time and we were soon permitted entry to the log container. 

This is absolutely, one of the best caches I have ever found and I highly recommend it to  other geocachers.

 

Next up was a cache called ‘face me’ and very appropriately, it was a beautiful gold mask, definitely custom made. It was probably one of the prettiest caches I have ever found. Signing the log and replacing it in the tree, we were off to the next. 

Named the Cube, it was another big one and even better than Simon Says –again, definitely one of the best caches we have ever found.

 

This cache had a special way of getting into the first part and once in, a number of glowing white lights were revealed. It was just superb. However, try as we might, we couldn’t quite work out what to do and this was only the first stage of the puzzle…there was at least another one or two. Hence, as it was the other half’s birthday and he was keen to keep warm and move on, we decided to leave it and return another day. 

Having thought about it since, I now think I know what to do, so I’m looking forward to returning soon and having another go!

 

Our next cache was luckily slightly simpler, although I hasten to add I completely missed it. It was another nice custom container, and was spotted by the other half. Inside were some questions, which would help us find the next cache, so we did the observations, a bit of calculation and were then off to find it. 

Unfortunately, we never found it. After about 20 minutes hunting in and out of the hedgerow we admitted defeat and had to log a DNF. Sadly, the one after this had also gone, but we will return for these, number 2 and the ‘Cube’ very soon.     

 

My final trip out right at the end of lockdown came as a result of a trip to Addenbrookes. I had about 4 hours to wait, so rather than sit in the car park, I headed to Duxford just up the road and did a small loop of Munsterrr’s fantastic mega power trail, the ‘EHB series’.  

It was a lovely walk, longer than I have been doing recently and  along very small quiet roads. It was also a part of the Cambridgeshire countryside that I hadn’t walked before and all of the caches, with the exception of the odd DNF, were all very quick to find. I’m planning to return soon for more in this mega series.

 

Next week we’re out and about a lot more, as the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions means we can now travel a bit further. And I complete my first caching trip with a friend.