The lockdown and happiness lift us geocachers desperately needed

With many of the pandemic lockdown restrictions lifted in the UK in recent weeks, it has meant we can finally get out and find caches much further afield.

Not only did a return to more normal life lift our spirits, at the end of March, but being able to travel to find caches in places we hadn’t been able to see for over 6 months, was an even bigger boost. And we have certainly made the most of it.

This week also saw more opportunities to grab some new HQ souvenirs. The first was quite literally out of this world, the Mars Perseverance Rover souvenir. 

The probe launched by NASA was actually trackable and once it had landed on the red planet its WATSON camera captured a picture of the tracking code on the probe, and sent it back to earth. It is the first ever interplanetary trackable and once logged as discovered, you are awarded the brilliant, interplanetary souvenir on your profile. It was great to earn this very special souvenir.

The second souvenir challenge was part two of last year’s ‘Wonders of the World’ challenge. This year there were two new sets of seven wonders to collect – Natural Wonders and Solar System Wonders. 

Once again, different wonders were placed randomly in different caches, and when you had found caches with all seven Natural wonders in them, you could then start finding caches with the seven Solar System wonders. Upon finding all 14 wonders you were awarded the Ultimate Explorer souvenir.

The challenge actually started before lockdown had lifted in the UK, so I didn’t finish it as quickly as I might have done during normal times, but I did manage to make a start quite early on by collecting some of the Natural Wonders in a few geocaches close to home.

My first opportunity this week to grab some more wonders was on a trip to Histon and Waterbeach just outside of Cambridge. 

My main target of the day was to pick up a very long solved mystery cache called ‘Virtual Caching’. It was a particularly unique puzzle and I had not seen one like it before. A link on the cache page takes you to a pretty animated scene of a wood, and hidden within the wood are a number of caches. As you begin to open them to you start to get some amusing messages and eventually when you hit on the correct one you are rewarded with the co-ordinates.

I solved it not long after starting my caching career, and I have no idea why it has taken so long to go and collect it. 

On the walk to collect the cache, I was able to collect a few others, which hadn’t been found for a while, and it was really nice to get a bit of exercise as well. 

Afterwards I went on an enjoyable walk around the village green in Histon collecting the new lab caches there and another unfound traditional cache. The lab caches took me to some really interesting historical spots, although I had seen many of them before when I completed a multi stage cache in the village a few years ago.

A couple of caches and dashing in Cottenham were next followed by a trip to Waterbeach, where again I had a nice wander around the village green, where I got to see the old village pump up close, and went on a walk beside the railway line, picking up traditional caches as I went.

I finished the afternoon off by collecting another mystery cache ‘Olympic Regatta’. I’d solved this one recently - during the last lockdown.  It was one of those puzzles I’d opened in the past and been horrified at even attempting to solve it, but a few years on I felt much more confident. 

However, it was still a rather tricky puzzle, hence the difficulty 4 rating, based on the sport of sailing. Several times I thought I’d solved it, only for the checker to say no! After reading more deeply into the intricate rules of the sport, and a bit of trial and error of what to include in my results and what to dismiss, I finally got that very happy eureka moment! Finding the cache at a very appropriate GZ, was fortunately much, much quicker.   

A few days later, I was hitting the trails again in search of more wonders, this time in Shimpling, Suffolk. Creative cachers Campan51 had set a trail of 33 caches from Shimpling Church to Bridge Street.

Once again, they had been hard at work making an array of creative custom caches and they were set along some beautiful country tracks and quiet roads. All were fairly quick finds thanks to the good hints and accurate co-ordinates and not a single dnf! 

My favourites included a big cache in the ground with a lid covered in fake ivy that blended in so well, I almost missed it. The snake head wedged into a whole in a concrete wall was just great, and the dragon on a stick in a tube was very unique.

The container filled with kinder egg shells (the plastic toy containers inside the egg, not the chocolate itself) was also a great idea. Of course, I had to open up quite a few of them before I found the log. And the hide at the brick post box was particularly sneaky and clever. 

It was also lovely to see such a huge number of daffodils along the roadside on one part of the walk – it was certainly very lucky that I picked this particular time of year to do this series. And lovely to meet a farmer along the way, who apparently rescued one of the caches when he put a new gatepost in and has an occasional look at the log book to see how many more people have found it recently. 

I highly recommend this series to anyone else looking for a shorter walk with inventive caches and hides.

Wrapping up the series also finished off my bid to complete the wonders challenge, with two new souvenirs popping up on my profile – ‘Solar system wonders of the world’ and ‘Ultimate explorer’! 

A few nights later I went on a very nice walk after work, from Burrough Green to Dullingham Ley. A small series of caches had been placed along the pleasant country lanes around the studs. 

It was a lovely walk and most of the caches were found without too much trouble. The only exception was ‘Bramble Bridge’ which had me stumped for quite some time, until I moved away from the bridge and checked the nearby hedgerow, where I spotted the decent sized container straight away.

I finished the walk picking up a previous dnf, Burrough Green’s Village Sign cache. Located above the door in the old red telephone box – now a book library – it was too high for me to reach on my first visit. I returned some months later with my handy grabber tool, but it was nowhere to be seen.  Luckily it was back in place on this visit and made quick work of retrieving it and signing the log.

Next time we’ll be clocking up our mystery cache find count, hunting for Game Birds in Norfolk and celebrating a rather snowy birthday. Until then take care, stay safe.