Finding treasure
My name is Carolyn Wickham. I’m a 40 something, wife to Harvey, Mother to Sam (7) and Jemima (5), Registered Childminder, home maker and family logistics guru! I keep myself very busy indeed, as am one of those kinds of people who just cant say ‘no’! I enjoy helping out with many aspects of school, including fairs and carnival; I like to bake as often as I can; I have run a number if fundraising events and so it goes on. For fun I enjoy attending Book Club; any kind of pampering treat; enjoying a glass of wine with the girls; and best of all, Sunday evening spent with my family in front of an open fire watching Countryfile! My big epic challenge for the year….Trail Walker! 60 miles in 30 hours…I just can’t say no! Carolyn is guest blogging about a trip to Cumbria and Geocahing. Something I had always wanted to have a go at but didn’t quite understand.
Definitely no eye patches, parrots or sea worthy galleons, but stuck on the side of that windy mountain, we were pirates no less! Swapping a compass for our Smart Phone’s GPS, this family of modern day pirates was about to experience geo-caching for the first time.
As a family we love to walk and enjoy the outdoors. We walk most weeks and enjoy an annual walking holiday to Cumbria. We have never needed an incentive to reach our destination, other than a hot chocolate and piece of flap jack, but this time we thought we would have a go at this new phenomena that everyone’s talking about…..geo-caching.
I downloaded the ‘app’ on to my phone and was delighted to see the GPS location of literally thousands of ‘caches’ all over the world. Staying in an extremely isolated part of Cumbria, we couldn’t believe our luck to discover a ‘cache’ had been buried just a few kilometres from our cottage.
Dressed ready for the cold Cumbrian February conditions, this intrepid family took to the mountains, with a spring in our step….we weren’t really sure what to expect. We talked as we walked questioning if we would find anything and if we did, what it would be and then the GPS flashed we were within just 100m of the treasure. We ran this way and that, watching the distance increase, then decrease until we became closer and closer. Then we were within 5m of the target! We all scampered around, looking under rocks, all of us desperate to be the one to find it and then the shout went up from my 7-year old pirate…”I’ve found it!”
Ok, it wasn’t a black wooden chest decorated with gold, in fact it was a a little Tupperware box wrapped in blue polythene, but we were chuffed to have found it. Inside was a little log book where pirates before us had logged their experience and also a few trinkets that people had left behind; toy car, pencils, coins. Desperate to leave something, but being a little unprepared, we could only muster a cough sweet! We completed our log, took the photos and then carefully re-wrapped and hid the cache.
As we walked on, we were on a high. Silly really, as we had nothing to show for it. But we did thoroughly enjoy the search and perhaps more, enjoyed wondering who or when the next pirate would make it to the top of that mountain.
We can’t recommend geo-caching enough, its a great way to get outdoors and get the whole family involved. Give it a go and if you do happen upon a cache containing a a cough sweet, you may well have been the next pirate up our mountain!
Carolyn x
[stextbox id=”tmk-box”]GET YOUR APP download your GeoCahe app here and have a go this weekend! [/stextbox]
