This summer, to celebrate 15 years of Geocaching a challenge has been set to complete a series of geocaching quests. The challenge to find different types of caches which showcase the diversity of this hobby. 

Complete each quest and you are rewarded with, 

Drumroll please

A virtual souvenir!

Woo! 

(That’s a sarcastic woo if you are wondering.) 😉

The challenge started easily. To find a cache with 10 or more Favorite Points. So easily in fact I earned my badge without noticing. This was back in June.

The next quest to attend an event. I managed this one just last weekend. 

A local event to meet local cachers. 

I’ve met a few people before but for wallflowers like me these things are hard. A real challenge. 

A room full of people you have very little in common with apart from a slightly strange compulsion to rummage for Tupperware in bushes. 

Everybody is of course very lovely and within minutes of meeting another cacher I’d been offered to meet him for a ride in his boat. Yikes! 

Turns out he wanted something in return…😳….the answer to a puzzle I’ve been working on! 

That leads us to the next quest. Find a T5 or D5 geocache.

Each cache is given a rating for terrain. 1 being accessible to all, up to 5 which is probably up a very tall tree which you need gear to climb. Simples 😉

Also a cache will have a difficulty rating from 1, easy peasy lemon squeezy up to 5, which will be very well hidden or you need to solve a tricky puzzle before you can find it.

I peaked a bit too soon here. Having solved a new D5 puzzle cache. The trouble is nobody else had yet found it and I’m quite obsessed partial to finding caches first. I’m also impatient. The quest never stood a chance.

As the Twitter geocaching world were busy claiming their souvenirs and telling me all about it, I still didn’t have the foggiest what to do. 

A tree climb? Ha, we all know I’m rubbish at that. Do I want to die for the sake of a virtual badge when it’s not even sparkly?

A boat cache? Erm I don’t much like boats and oh yeah…I don’t have one! Let’s not mention boat man….

Living in East Anglia we are short of hills and mountains so no options there either. 

Looking for a D5 it was then. 

The Cambridge puzzles are exactly that. Cambridge puzzles. Cambridge not famed for being stupid. Not happening. 

Finally I spotted an option. A puzzle box. 

The log contained within a special box that you have to figure out how to get in. Surely I could do that? 

Failing that I’d take a hammer along. (Yes, sarcasm. Again)

Discussing with my friend she was up for a trip to attempt it. Sometime. 

However tonight we found ourselves in the unfortunate position of having both forgotten to book a place at the gym. 

Should we do it?

The last minute hastily made plan to head off on our D5 adventure.

Luckily after a day of downpours the sun came out for our jolly.
 

A pleasant walk across a common in Cambridge . Momentarily distracted by the nearby festivities of the folk festival. 

By festivities I mean tea drinking. Boy do those guys know how to party. 😉 

Not looking where I’m going, up to my usual tricks…whoosh…I slide through a flipping cow pat. 

Hopefully my friend didn’t notice. 

Oh crap she did. 

It’s alright. I meant to do that! 😉

Without further incident we made it to the area the cache was hidden, on the perimeter of the local football ground. 

Earlier in the day I’d been warned by another cacher that it was difficult to get to. We could see a bridge. Over the other side a tree. A good hiding tree. A miserable, stinking ditch of water before it. Hmm

I took the top of the bridge. The nearby PA system blaring out Queen – Don’t stop me now.

 I might have been having a little dance whilst I considered jumping the fence to the tree. 

Suddenly the music dies. The PA sytem crackles into life. Damn!

Can somebody see me?

Thankfully it’s just An announcement that QPR are terribly sorry, they are stuck in traffic and will be late. 

Who cares? Give me some tunes! 

Suddenly my friend waves some Tupperware at me. 

Oh! Not vaulting the fence then. Never listen to other cachers! 

I’m surprised by how tiny the box is.

 

 The box within even smaller. My friend announces she has one at home. Awesome. This should be a doddle.

You know how to open it right? 

Nope. Back and forth we pass it. Why didn’t I bring that hammer?

I notice I have 4G. Time for a little help, although admittedly it doesn’t help us much.

More fiddling. Eventually a eureka moment and oh so simply it slides open. Coincidentally just as Bat out of Hell blasts out behind us. The universe knows!

 

With the log signed we hide and replace. The smug satisfaction of another quest completed. The walk back to the car well worthy of the D5 rating. The footpath surrounded by cows.  

I hate cows! 

 

The next quest. Find an earthcache.

*Sigh* 

I like earth caches as much as I like cows.