Tuesday 19 July 2011

Now for the geocaching

Now, geocaching is really just a cheats way of making exercise and nature seem like something completely different. Having said that, we usually only manage to persuade the boys to come with us. The girls even stay in the car when we do a drive-by cache, there’s no fooling them, although Ciara will join us occasionally.

We discovered there was a short walk that neatly included three tourist bits and a couple of caches, so off we went.

SG102793 The Standing Stones of Stenness

This was the start of the walk, then on to Barnhouse

SG102805 Barnhouse

The first cache was by the road, near a single standing stone

SG102822Aedan’s first find

There were views of Hoy and wildflower meadows set aside for corncrakes en route for the Ring of Brodgar

SG102833  The hills of Hoy in the clouds

SG102834Lots of wildflowers

SG102874 The Ring of Brodgar

If you’ve ever seen Billy Connolly’s World Tour of Scotland, this is where he danced in and out of the standing stones. Naked.

SG102859David and Aedan, doing a poor impression

SG102855

SG102861

SG102862

Moments of arty farty stuff

I apparently forgot to photograph the second cache

SG103030Third cache

This one was so close to the house we just walked down the road a mile to find it. It was also the day I took the dreadful photographs of the owl.

SG103121  Fourth cache

This one was a tricky drive-by after a ‘short’ walk at Mull Head.

I managed to forget to photograph the next two caches. I’d had a hard day.

SG103188Seventh cache

I’ll come back to this one. It was the first of a group of three on a short walk along the coast which included a little archeology too.

SDC12161

The Orkneyinga Saga Heritage Centre

SDC12155Earl’s Bu and church

SG103191  Eighth cache

SG103192Ninth and final cache, phew!

Geocaching seemed like such a good idea, to give the younger members of our group something to do to keep them interested whilst we get to do a bit of walking. It also gives them some experience using the GPS, which might come in useful one day. However, I find it incredibly frustrating, the seventh cache in particular.

The GPS gets you within a few metres of the hidden cache, just as you’d expect. You are given clues or hints to help you find the exact spot. The clue for this one, ‘under stone’. Very useful when the entire area is covered in grass and weeds over two feet tall! Ha blooming ha. It took us half_an_hour and I would have given up if it wasn’t for the fact that I knew I’d be furious with myself if we did. When we got home and I logged in to record our finds, I read the comments for this cache. We were not the only ones to have had difficulty, it turned out, so I left a rather pithy comment myself.

Still, keeps them occupied.

   

 

2 comments:

-maria- said...

I've been thinking of exactly the same: that geocaching might be a good way to cheat the kids into walking. It was nice to read about your experiences!

Louise said...

It does work, the boys get really involved. I enjoy the walking in between and grit my teeth through the caching bit, but patience has never been my strong point. Give it a go!