Until Everyone Understands
I once heard, "If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” Truer words could not have been spoken.
During the beginning of lockdown, our family was worried, anxious and terrified to think that our son wouldn’t have a place to go…to explore….to be safe. The playgrounds all shut. Soft plays and trampoline parks shut for an undefined amount of time. Our autistic boy wasn’t used to going to or exploring new places, but we needed to think and think fast.
Our journey (and eventually deep love) with Catton Park started last year, at the start of Covid-19. Luckily, the moment our lovely boy walked in, he never looked back.
The bountiful safe land and space to explore. Secret, winding paths inside dark evergreen forest and wooded areas. A safe, fenced area with a small hill fit for any Prince (or Princess). Large spaces to enjoy a picnic with friends or to fly a kite.
For our boy it was the tall, majestic Sequoia/ Redwood trees dotted around Catton Park. He saw one in the distance and since that day last year, life changed for us all. He fell in love with it’s beautiful, thick branches sweeping down. Their pine-like foliage he nicknamed “pipes”, which we thought was very fitting. (Our son was mainly nonverbal at this point so for him to name an object was in and of itself extraordinary). And most importantly, the fact that he could run around and around 'his' tree, helping to self regulate should he need it. Since that beautiful day we formed our relationship with Catton Park, and visiting our “pipes” tree is always in order.
If you are a frequenter of Catton Park and you see us about (family of 3), just mention “pipes” as we’d love to say hello to our fellow Geocachers.
Notes:
* * This is the first Geocache we’ve ever hidden and we hope the joy and adventure of this story helps you see the world a little differently, and with a bit of luck, in the eyes of our beautiful son. 🧩
* Use care when logging the cache as it's a bit delicate.
* Tweezers may be needed to get to the log.
* This is a high-muggle area.
* Please use discretion so the cache can remain hidden and unseen to others.
* The coordinates to this cache are in DDM format and will get you to Catton Park. Solving the puzzle will help you.
Congratulations to Globetrotter.uk for FTF and for helping us to embed the puzzle in our first cache!
For Jigidi puzzle Click here
