Quiet days and 'geocaching' explained

Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 October

As the weather does not tempt us to go out we spend the day quietly at home on Tuesday.  It’s raining and it is not letting up!  So, we finally get our pencil drawing gear out and the books on this particular subject that we have bought here and keep ourselves pleasantly occupied for a few hours. Of course, a game or so of Wordfeud doesn’t go astray and I do some (miniature) knitting.  Only four rows at the time, because of the stress on my eyes with this fine work.  

A christening gown being knitted in 12th scale

After dinner we skype with friend Leonie and with Kevin and are up to date again with what is going on at home.  As Frank has finished an interesting book I want to read it too, so I go to bed early to do some quiet reading.

When I wake up the next morning the weather has only marginally improved, so I read some more before I get up.  Just in case it will clear up some more I search for some more geocaches in the area before lunch time.  After lunch it is quite pleasant outside.  It is a foggy autumn afternoon, but not cold at all, so we decide to get some exercise and pick up some geocaches and groceries while we’re at it.

Now, I have discovered that not everyone knows what I am talking about when I mention geocaching.  Let me try and explain it briefly.  For extensive information you can google it.  Geocaching is a kind of outdoor game/activity for which you use a GPS (Global Positioning System).  People (geocachers) all over the world hide waterproof containers (caches) of different sizes and list them on a dedicated website with the coordinates.  Others, like us, take the coordinates from the listing and go out to try and find a cache with the use of a navigating system.  The listing has a brief description and sometimes a hint. When you find a cache you write your (user)name in a log and return the cache correctly to its original hiding place.  Your 'found', or ‘did not find’ is then logged on the members’ website.  There is a whole lot more to it, but that’s for you to find out if you are interested. ;-)  As I said before, it’s good fun, and it gets you to places where you otherwise wouldn’t go.  For more information go to: http://www.geocaching.com/ and choose your own language down near the bottom of the page.

So, back to Wednesday afternoon.  I have listed seven caches and we’re going to do them in some kind of order so that we don’t have to drive all over the place.  We’re off to a bad start, because we can’t find number one. After having thoroughly combed the place we call the search off and head for the next one.  From then on it’s plain sailing.  We find all of them without too much difficulty.  One of them is near a coffee shop, Tim Horton’s, and since I have free wi-fi at Tim Horton’s and we are (over)due for a cuppa, we decide to have a moment’s rest.  While sipping a delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte Supreme (!) I quickly look up the coordinates for one of the caches that I know is nearby, but forgot to download the coordinates of.  That done, and our drinks finished we set off to do the few last ones and head home for dinner.  We meet our next-door-neighbour and he tells us that tomorrow it’s going to be a warm sunny day, so in preparation for the occasion I download a few more coordinates, and we log the finds for the day, after which I take my book to bed and finish it before I fall asleep.

Near one of the hiding places

The Geocache app and the map for back-up

A small size cache found

Another small one

The log inside

Frank signing the log of yet another one