Geocaching

Frosty finds

I love this time of year, cold crisp days making mud much easier to deal with, whilst that hazy winter sun adds an almost ethereal glow to the landscape.

In short a muddy, non descript farm track becomes something quite beautiful.

With a weekend blessed with fine weather and Mr Muddy having a rare day off I convinced him that a geocaching trail would be a great idea. Happy to be outdoors he obliged and we were off to complete the first caching trail I’ve undertaken in quite a while.

The trail called ‘A not so fishy trail.’ is a four mile circular walk taking in the rural villages of Tuddenham and Herringswell, navigating through the Suffolk countryside. With 23 caches to find hopefully providing the incentive for little legs to keep going.

With Jack Frost having worked his magic we were in for a picturesque walk and some frosty fun.

Like many families I suspect, one of our biggest hurdles to getting outdoors regularly is the children’s mindset. People often comment that my children always seem so easy to get outdoors. Not so. Given the choice they would choose 90% of the time to fester in their Jammies, playing minecraft. They are normal children.

In fact one of my children has such adverse reactions to going outdoors. They insist that they may even be allergic to outdoor fun, such is the strong reaction it provokes. In fact even declarations of ‘I’m going to die if I have to walk.’ Serious stuff indeed. 😉

However they have other traits also inherited from their mother, sticking an electronic device in their hands proves an effective antidote. Admittedly with twitchy palms my GPS is handed over, but sometimes anything for a quiet life right?

So with a keen navigator leading the way we were off, our first caches quickly found, nothing really out of the ordinary  but I maintain that for me caching really is all about the experience, not so much what we find.

The frozen track which would normally be pretty tough going with lashings of mud and deep puddles to navigate, becoming so much more fun.

Despite finding the caches quickly, taking an age to travel between them because obviously frozen puddles rock (and someone didn’t quite have the hang of the Garmin. 😉).

The usual Mud and Nettles trespassing exploring, those gaps in the hedgerows so often the gateway to fabulous places,

Secret spots to explore, trees to climb…

Or make like a sloth. The world is your oyster baby.

*Shrugs.*

Then further down the track some big, badass puddles.

Kind of like a poor mans Fen Skating, but just as fun.

Even the biggest child getting in on the act, with all that finesse. Or possibly doing Kung Fu. Who can really be sure.

Approximately four years later we were ready to move on, with only one mud covered coat, two pairs of wet trousers and just the five boots filled with water. The usual state of affairs really.

Finally having run out of ice rinks puddles it was now up to finding caches to provide the entertainment, and invariably the accompanying arguments over exactly whose turn it is to find the cache. (And that’s not just me and my husband…😉

Once through the village of Herringswell the majority of the route being on a unpaved roadside, the road however is pretty quiet so didn’t cause us any issues.

A variety of cache containers kept things fun for the children as they started to realise that

1) four miles is quite a long way, and

2) Mum has left the rice cakes in the car. Bad mummy.

Don’t think I’ve ever found a cache like this before.

With caches evenly spaced along our return route the miles were quickly covered and with minimal moaning too. Result!

Even better, we found all of the caches, one tricky cache giving us a few problems but perseverance paid off.

A great morning back out on the caching trail.
A not so fishy trail

21 thoughts on “Frosty finds”

  1. Some great photos there. You’re right, 4 miles is a long way to a kid. My two are insisting that they want to do the Yorkshire 3 peaks with me, but I keep putting them off. I have visions of 4 miles of interest followed by 20 miles of whining….. increasing in intensity with each mile! I’ve never tried the geo caching thing before. Have to be honest, I only found out what it actually was about a week ago after reading your blog!

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    1. Ha, I hear you. The most these guys have managed is 13 miles in one walk. It was hard going and required drip feeding them biscuits the whole way, and a pub stop. The youngest is seven so still steals the odd ride on our shoulders when it gets too much.
      Maybe one day check geocaching out, great way to break up a long walk with a little distraction – especially useful if the kids are bored. I’m a huge fan of extreme caching, abandoned mines, old bunkers, and climbing broken old weirs – terrifying but ace.

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  3. I love a good geocaching trail. I’m currently working through “tippers time trail” wit the kids -in sections as they are still fairly young and it’s quite far. The trail is all about the unique containers – so far we have found the Pompeii volcano, a cauldron from Macbeth , a model of the solar system by Aristachus- looking forward to the rest of them.
    Sounds like you all had a lovely time

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    1. Oh wow! That sounds brilliant, sounds like a good idea to do sections and savour such fun caches. Tired, grumpy children never makes for a great caching experience does it…

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  5. If it wasn’t for the woolly hats some of the pics could get away with being quite summery! Frozen puddle sliding does look as much fun as Fen skating though – especially from the comfort of a cosy sofa 😉

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  6. Lovely photo’s, looks wonderful. A reminder to me of what blue sky looks like, we’ve seen the sun one day out of the last 9 days.

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  7. Kung fu? Maybe. Looks like something between ‘flying dragon’ and ‘oh crap!’. Me…I’ll pass on the ice. OK, who am I kidding? I’d probably be on it with everybody else, hoping to stay vertical…

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  9. I loved the great frost last week, too. I made Dan stop the car on the way to work so I could get out and crunch it underfoot. I’m very envious of your puddles icy enough to skate on!

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  10. We can’t get up the gumption to go out for a hike in the woods, and we’ve got 20 degrees in the middle of the day. (Oh but much much colder in the evening, which puts us tropical babes off a little bit…..)

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    1. Sometimes you’ve just got to hibernate right? The woods will still be there when the weather warms up a bit. I’m the opposite as soon as it gets hotter I go scuttling indoors (and eat all the ice cream.). 😀

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  11. I have never been geocachingg before and I find myself googling it. Looks fun though! Well done for getting the kiddies outdoor, I’m sure in 20 years time they will thank you and be doing the same to their little ones.

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    1. Geocaching is my little geeky obsession, but my goodness – the amount of proper adventures we’ve had because of it.
      I hope I have nurtured a love of the outdoors in them but then my parents aren’t remotely outdoorsy so I guess time will tell. (Crossing my fingers though.)

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