On Monday 5th August armed with a fully charged Iphone and the geochache app installed, my family and I headed out in the rain in pursuit of our first geocache find. I had high hopes of geochaching, having heard many good things about it and eagerly looked forward to hunting out some treasure. We had decided to start easy for our first adventure and headed to the local woods at Slindon parking in the Dukes road car park. Advice from the website said it is best to start with easy ones. At home it, my app showed that there were several caches in this location so thought this would give us a good start. However, on arrival to the woods by GPS signal failed and it took me at least 5 minutes, in the rain, to load the app and select the first cache to navigate to. Eventually I found a pocket of signal amongst the tree coverage and we used the mapping tool to navigate to the hidden cache. We tried to work out the coordinates and use the compass however it all seemed tricky and we couldn't do it (and I am supposed to be a geographer! Give me a real map any day!) We found the first one using the description and the hint, slightly cheating, and discovered a cache full of small toys and treasures. We signed the log book and I left a slip of paper with my blog address on. Our first geochache found relatively easily, hmm surely there was something more to this?
I tried to log that we had found the cache and leave a message however my lack of GPS meant this failed after a few minutes of freezing my screen. Then again I had to wait until I hit pockets of GPS signal to be able to navigate to the next cache, however again we found this one relatively easily as well.
The third cache proved very tricky to find and we spend a good well waded through the undergrowth and bushes hunting for the right tree. At one point I even thought I had found a hidden door in a tree, but it was not to be! Now this is what I thought geocache was all about, getting off the beaten track and trudging through brambles, getting cuts and scratches. Eventually my mum found it hidden amongst the leaves at the base of an oak tree. This time we had found a microcache which was a camera roll with a scroll log book in it. We duly signed it and returned the cache. One of the rules of geocaching is always ensure you return the cache to the place where it is found and sign the log book.
The next cache we found was a delightful cache full of toys that had been hidden by a junior cacher. It was great seeing all the bits and pieces people were leaving behind from marbles, bouncy balls, keyrings to fir cones. All pieces treasure in someone's eyes.
The next cache proved to be a tricky find and we ending up searching the wrong area over tree stumps! Eventually I found this one and thus ended our final one in the woods.
Our next destination was to be a hike up the hill towards Slindon folly. Despite the trek it was worth it for the amazing view at the top. You could see out as far as the Isle of Wight and it was beautifully peaceful up there. The folly we discovered was a gateway to nowhere, a monument built because they could, quite literally a folly. I had always found the folly a creepy landmark however today, with the sun shining and the peaceful stillness, it was a beautiful, calming sight. We easily found the cache up there and spent some time going through the treasures it held. This was by far the best cache so far. It held items such as a pair of sunglasses, nail files, pencils and toys and the log book held messages from people all over the world who had come to find this cache. It really was extraordinary to know that people had travelled far to walk up the hill to this folly and leave a message. We decided to do a treasure swap so left a keyring of Cleopatra for a small 'Little Miss Naughty' car sticker thing.
Now I must say that we have been caching for a few hours now and the battery on my phone was now drained to under half. I did not have much hope it would last much longer. The app really drains your power and the lack of GPS really hampered the speed of us finding each cache. I really wan't expecting it to be so difficult to work but it was and left a real disappointment to the experience. I knew I probably had enough battery for a few more so we headed off into Slindon village where several were hidden in close proximity to each other. we quickly found the micro one hidden at the church before heading down towards the pond where we located another micro one. 
Slindon is really a beautiful little village and is really a must visit destination. However it was at the pond where my phone died and thus ended our geocaching for today. I knew there were other sites in the village however it would have been looking for a needle in a haystack. So we decided to call it a day. So what did I learn today? Geocaching can be fun when you have GPS navigation and it is not raining. That it is great to see who has found the cache before you and where they have come from as well as looking at the treasures left behind. It also have me a desire to want to go out and find harder caches in places I had never been before. I realised this would be a great way to explore the countryside, the beautiful English countryside, because it is just that and we really need to take time to appreciate it and explore it. I spent most of my childhood roaming the countryside and today was a reminder that just because you get older doesn't mean you should stop being a child at heart.
This challenge is only partially complete - I have achieved the seek part, the next step is to hide a cache. Well I have to climb a mountain so maybe that's a good place to hide one! :-)
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