Sunday, May 19, 2013

Geocaching

A month or so ago, a friend took me geocaching with her family. Since then I have found 14 caches, all so far within a few kilometres of home. Last weekend I found my first 'trackable', placed by someone from Ontario, and now my mind is turning to where I might hide some new geocaches myself. It's fun, relaxing, good exercise, and a great way to combine my love for walking and photography at the same time.

This morning I went back to have another look for a cache along the Bridle Track here in Palmy, one of a series of 7. Last weekend I cycled along the route and found the first three, and tried for the fourth. I was pretty certain I was looking in the right spot, but couldn't retrieve it immediately; and being Mother's Day the place was swarming with 'muggles'.

I returned this morning to look for it, despite the fact it was a bit 'grey' out and looked like it might rain any moment. First off though I took a wander in the vicinity, down by the river.

The stones on the 'beach' on the other side of the river from 'Anzac Cliffs' made me think of my class, who have just indulged themselves in some fascination with rocks of various kinds.

The cache itself was 'near' this somewhat drowned flax, with a clear view of the cliffs and the slips that have fallen along them. Even though the sun wasn't shining out from the clouds much, you could still see these beautiful reflections in the puddles. I nearly hadn't even taken my camera because of the grey skies, but there were beautiful sights all around. And I had to get slightly wet feet retrieving the cache, but I was glad to find it!

Some deciduous trees are quite bare now. The month of May is nearly two-thirds through, and soon enough we will be in 'winter'.

Raindrops on some pine trees were shining forth...

Despite the greyness, and the relatively early hour for a Sunday morning, there were lots of people (and their dogs) out along the Bridle Track- walking, running, cycling. And at this hour, everyone seems to be very friendly, and 'good mornings' are very genuine and widespread.

It may have been 'grey', but it was a great way to start the day.

6 comments:

  1. One of these days I will convince Jean-Claude to geocache, maybe to keep him busy next winter when we are not in Florida! Great shoots kiwi Nomad!

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    1. Next winter I think that all the geocaches will be well buried under your Quebec snow- you will need to go to Florida again to find some!

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  2. Just this last Monday I was telling a colleague that I was interested in geocaching, and asking him if he knew anything about it. This post has made me more interested still - I WILL do sometning about finding out what to do.
    I'm glad you took your camera!

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    1. There are some 'how to' videos on this site http://www.geocaching.com/ and it's easy to sign up. (You can't see all the details of the caches etc unless you do sign up.) It was very helpful going with friends the first time though- not sure I would have found anything by myself.
      We were organising a cross country run for school the other day, and I was quietly laughing to myself, as I knew exactly how close we were basing ourselves to a geocache we won't notice!

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    2. Thanks for the link. I have registered - I will read and absorb :)

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    3. If you can find a friend/colleague who does it, it is much easier to go out the first time with someone who knows what they are trying to do... Sorry about the moderation- I think it's on any post more than two weeks old- got rid of word verification as I find it too hard to read myself, but find spammers are often targeting the older posts.

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