A Geocache Adventure!

well intrepid fans, After several weeks of no posts I'm back!

well.. sort of back, i have a lot of things planned... honest...

However i must apologise Again. Frankly i have had a few problems getting the blog flowing again, but I'm back! I promise! ( Also sorry to My Editor for not getting any posts out in a while)

Anyways, a couple weeks ago, after much of not doing things, I decided i needed to get back into the blogging swing and organised a blogging session with my editor and pretty much co-listee ( though she denies this ) Lucy! ( who is very helpful and tidy's up my posts, as you, my readers, will know )

While organising this, we decided that we would try to find some geocaches for number 25 on my list, which is: Find 101 Geocaches.

Now for those of you who don't know, geocaching is basically gps based treasure hunting for little pots of awesomeness. or little pots full of ...rubbish, it's basically rubbish. My editor would like me to point out that by little pots of awesomeness, I in no way am referring, and/or suggesting ... Drugs. No Drugs, gonna make that clear. I Will Not Be Sued! :D

Anyway, we decided to go searching for the dru- I mean " Little Pots Of Awesomeness" as to complete number 25 on my list, i must find 101 of them. which is NOT easy.

Luckily i have an app on my new Iphone ( Thats right i got an Iphone ) that allows me to find said little geocaches.

And so, my editor and i set out on our adventure!

We first tried to find a geocache named "In a Spiral", which, it turned out afterwards, is said to be one of the hardest geocaches to get to. And while i can sort of agree with this, i would say it was much harder to get back. this geo-cache is suspended on a twig-branch that is sticking out of the tree just out of reach, while the tree itself is cocooned by its own branches and surrounded by giant nettles... which hurt. We got the geo-cache down by jumping like crazy people at it, and then spent around twenty minutes using assortment of sticks to get it back on, while all the while people were walking past giving us odd looks.

Next on the proverbial geo-caching agenda, we tried to find a geo-cache called "Dawn Chorus C"... and failed. you, see, it was quite easy to find what we thought to be the geocache, but instead we were told that the actual geocache was 50 metres in one of 4 directions, which we would find by listening to some vbird song on an included ipod shuffle ( in the box) and guessing which bird it was, which would then correspond with a directional picture on the box.

Little Known fact about birdsong... it all sounds alike when you have no fricking idea which bird is which. we even got up youtube to try and help us, but could not figure it out.

Next we trundled off to a geocache called "The Orange Tree". this geocache was quite simple to find, but very sneakily hidden, as someone had carved out a hole in some wood and pushed a small tube inside of it! However, we got yet more weird looks, as i crawled under some branches to reach the said piece of wood, and then took a picture!

This carried on through the day until we eventually came to start looking for a Geocache called "Childhood Haunts" . Now when we came to this geocache we had yet to stumble on a vital piece of information, which was that this certain geocache had broken, and had been replaced in a different case slightly further down the wooded path in which we were searching. We spent a literal hour searching for this geocache, and cam close to rantingg at trees and generally giving up. But then, my awesome editor managed somehow...*cough*ninja*cough* to find it! An amazing, yet slightly inhuman feat of visualness ended us finiding this jar and the final geocache of the day!

A couple of days later we decided to go looking for more geocaches, but brought along my good friend lauren! ( or @SalParadiseSun for twitters) we had already found one Geocache that day, a quick child friendly cache called "Muppets of Markeaton" which contained the usage of slightly creepy Muppet Pez containers...

Anyways, with Lauren in tow we set out to find a single geocache called "Markeaton Meander", which , it turned out, was slightly more complicated than we expected.

We first had to figure a series of number based clues that made up the co-ordinates of the geocache in question. this took us around an hour. we then inputted the co-ordinates, and began our search.

Now i must say, it was a hot day, and i was a little out. That said, it doesn't really make up for what i did... i inputted the co-ordinates wrong, which meant we spent an hour searching in the wrong place. Oh the shame. After a quick dressing down by my co-searchers, we re-inputted and set off, getting extremely close to our destination... Then my Iphone died. We were basically searching blind.

However from memory of some helping hint pictures on the Geocache site, we deduced that it had to be in a certain area, that, while narrowing our search, still gave us a large area to hunt in. And By Geronimo Did We Hunt.(interesting word Geronimo...)

After searching for around 40 minutes, scrambling up and down rocky verges, jumping over pipes, and getting weird stares from nearby old people, we stumbled on what perhaps must be the greatest discovery in mankind.

Under a fallen tree, in the shadow of the forest, at the top of a tall hill, we found... a plastic bag. I know right, Wow! well, in hat plastic bag, our geocache sat. I was so happy, i nearly cried. Honesty right there folks. And with that lovely yet tentative step into my psyche i will finish my post. So once, and finally, again, i bid thee adieu. Thats all folks!