I would like to tell you a story. I am not particularly good at telling stories, so you’ll have to bear with me. Oh, and don’t be surprised if it goes off on completely random tangents…I do that sometimes.
One day, my friend and I decided to go out geocaching. It was the summer holidays, we’re both teachers and we needed to take her kids out to let them burn off some energy. The kids were new to geocaching at that point, one boy and one girl, different ages, but both quite keen on the idea of caching as long as there was something decent to find…and of course, some decent swag.
We set off and it was a beautiful summer’s day, the 23rd July, right at the beginning of the holiday. The dog was with us, with his log a dog tag (as yet still undiscovered) and once we reached our destination, we were able to let him off the lead at which point he went haring off through the bright green grass. He’s about 8 months old so still a mad spaniel puppy. We couldn’t help ourselves, it was such a beautiful day that we ended up singing as we walked along….
“Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day….” We sang loudly, until we saw 4 or 5 people coming over the horizon and we decided that it was probably best not to unleash our voices on poor strangers. As they walked past us a few minutes later they grinned at us….oh dear, oh dear, it seems our ‘attempts’ at singing may well have been overheard even from that distance!! I’m sure a couple of them snorted with laughter once they were past us.
We headed off into the woods, heading in the direction where I knew there would be a suitable cache for the children to find. Even though I’d already found it and logged it, they have their own account and it’s always wise, seeing as the little boy is five, to ensure there’s something nice for him to find! We want to cultivate a future cacher after all. Oh, and have you ever cached with a five-year-old who doesn’t want to be out? Trust me, just don’t ever want to do that…
Thankfully, the other one is a little bit older at 10 and so finds it easier to deal with if the caches are a bit standard. Still, she prefers some ingenuity and I knew she’d love this particular cache too.
I started giving information from the cache page as we got closer to the GZ. They are starting to ask really good questions which makes me really happy, but pretty much every time we’re guaranteed to get and ‘oh oh, I can see it’ from the 5 year old before we’re even within the likely radius. But then, when you’re five, it’s all about the FTF ;) (I’m 31 and it’s still all about the FTF!! I’m always banging on about trying to get one!)
‘Oh, Oh!’ was cried out again, this time from the other one, who 9 times out of 10, will actually spot something worthwhile. Luckily, she’s a great big sister and the little one gets to join in and feel like it’s his find too. She had managed to find a length of rope attached in a very unusual fashion, to a tree branch. Definitely something out of place – what I had been teaching them to look out for.
They were ecstatic to have found something so clever, and had great fun releasing the rope, working together and letting down the cache from its dizzy heights. “Oh please can we make one like this? I love it!!” and “This is the best geocache I’ve ever found, this is the best day ever” were uttered that day, and so this is why it’s worthy of telling you such a story. But I can’t tell you any more of course, because the story is true (mostly) and the cache is most definitely real and active! I couldn’t go any further and of course, you should know that you don’t need me to…
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.