Not enough time...

We had already planned to pop down to 'Go Outdoors' last night to pick up a ticket for the new Geocaching competition and to also genuinely look at a new GPSr device. I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to an Oregon 450 for the paperless caching features.

As we'd be in that area we had also planned a quick 6 caches at Meersbrook Park but just as we were leaving work an email notification of a new cache came through and coincidentally it was only a couple of miles from where we were headed.

We went home, got changed and set off for the new cache. By the time we arrived, blindly following the GPS in road mode in an area I'd never been, it was raining steadily but after a short walk we successfully got another First-To-Find (FTF) only about 70 minutes after it was published.

We signed the log, turned around and then we saw a gentleman and two children approaching, all looking just as suspicious as we did. A quick chat and it turned out they were just a couple of minutes late for what would have been their very first FTF. For some reason I do love my FTFs but I felt bad that the kids hadn't got one. I'm really sorry. Good luck next time!

We went to 'Go Outdoors' as planned and spent some money on a decent backpack that's bigger, lighter, more ventilated and generally better on my back. I also got some more walking trousers and a water bag.

Yet more money - who would think walking would be so expensive!!

Going back to the title of today's blog, time... with other events coming up, and the nights drawing in, it really looks like the caching is going to take a hit and I'm not happy about it. It also looks like I'm going to have to bribe the kids again so I can do longer walks at the weekends...

Back home...

Once back from our break we started to get out and about in earnest.

I had moved to the beautiful village I live in about 11 years previously, but had made no real effort to explore the surrounding countryside or towns. I was amazed. We were finding little woodlands, hidden paths and secret walks only moments away from roads we'd regularly drive on. It was such an eye-opener connecting places to other places, and realising that point A was only a field away from point B - something you'd never connected in your head as it was normally a two mile drive or a round-the-houses trip.

I've a dozen or more stories to tell about the caches I've already found but, for now at least, I'll have to leave them in my own head and I shall cut this intro short.

In summary over the last six weeks we've bought a proper GPS device (Garmin Vista eTrex HCx that's fabulous.) We've both also upgraded to the iPhone 4 which is also phenominally better than the 3G for GPS performance. We've tracked (using the Garmin) over 70 miles of walking, both passed our first 100 finds, hidden our first cache and then also a small series of three.

I've also spent a small fortune on rucksacks, water bottles, water-proofs, hiking boots, cache containers, log books, pencils, cache logs, nano-caches, paint (to disguise my hides), cache swaps and "furtling" sticks. It's been worth every penny. My legs are 100% fitter, I feel 100% fitter and I've lost 5lbs.

Now to shift the beer belly... oh, and to hit the 1000 finds mark!