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Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Cache in the City

We love spending time in the woods looking for caches and in more remote locations that can take half the day just to get to. Off the beaten track is probably our preferred destination but there is another side to geocaching which has it's own individual challenges. Caching in the big city.


You've heard all about "Muggles" - the people that don't participate in our hobby. Well, of course the city is full of them and this alone can be a problem. Finding a nano attached to the railings is one thing but retrieving it and signing the log in full view of onlookers is another.

You probably won't be looking for regular boxes as they are hard to conceal and would likely be found unintentionally by passing locals. In towns therefore, the micro reigns supreme and you will no doubt find 35mm film canisters tucked into walls or a sneaky magnetic key-holder at the back of a phone booth. Love them or hate them there are some situations where only a micro will fit.

On the positive side you are likely to find caches closer together so if you're in it for the numbers you could be in for a good day. But for me the best thing about city caching is getting to see the town centre from a new perspective. We recently found a cache in Limoges - one in the new TerraAventura series which took us to parts of our local town we had not yet exlored. We are hoping to visit Clermont-Ferrand in the summer where there are hides a plenty and we've already been to many other towns and cities, large and small. The main thing to remember when hunting in a busy place ... be discreet!

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

EarthCaches

Earth caches give us an opportunity to visit some spectacular places of interest and learn more about our planet. These virtual caches are placed at points of geological significance around the globe and visiting them can be a whole new adventure. There is no physical box to search for so no need to bring a pen. You will however have to answer some questions to verify you were at the spot before logging the cache online. For further information visit the EarthCache homepage.

To date we have found five Earth caches. Our first was the Dolmen de Bouéry by Stapper (pictured right). Since then we have visited many other megaliths in this part of France including the Menhir de Ceinturat also by Stapper. Our third Earth cache on our way back from Spain was Le gouffre de l'oeil doux, an amazing natural occurrence where water flows into a freshwater pool from below the surface of the Earth. More recently we have discovered Les roches calcaires and Bort les Orges and we're looking forward to finding many more.

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

Geocaching France


It's been almost a year for us and Geocaching and I keep meaning to post pictures of where we get to so here we go.

This was a recent trip to Bort les Orges to find the Earth Cache. The place in the photo is Site de Saint Nazaire but I preferred to call it - "I'm Bryan and so's my wife".

I will dig out photos of older trips and post them here over the next few weeks. In the mean time you can find more pictures on our Geocaching profile page