Saturday, 6 February 2016

Sunday Earth Mud and Failing Devices

Hello all and welcome to my next insert, about my mission here on Earth to get everyone Geocaching. I can admit to not much Caching the middle part of this week due to the lovely thing I believe you call "Earth Weather", however the adventure that me and Miss Foxy helper had last Sunday; is more than enough to share with you all!

Last Sunday the weather seemed calm and so we decided to take an afternoon out to search for Caches in a less familiar place than the ones we had already discovered. You know how this can be, when you see a Cache location and know that you already kind of know the Earth area it is located in,  just by looking at the map. Not as much fun I believe some may say?

Miss Foxy and I decided to head somewhere completely new and hunt for Caches. Target location, in a small place you call a village. An area of Earth called "Lower Almondsbury" so we headed there. When we arrived we found the first trail way head was near a garden centre. As I understand it, Garden centres are where you create all of your Earth plants and a place where elderly Muggles can be found on a Sunday afternoon. Seeing as it was actually Sunday, Miss Foxy and I knew we would have to be extra careful. More so by the brightness of the boots Miss Foxy had chose to wear.

We did notice at the start of our Sunday adventure our Caching device was at 50% power and also we were in an area we didn't actually know. A slight concern but nothing to worry about, especially with how quick we were both were at locating Caches big or small. First target was a Cache called "Green Fingers" I guess this had something to do with this Garden Centre. We were lead up a big hill and based our hunt on a hint of "Evergreen" I'm sure you can all work that one out? We arrived within 30 metres, that moment when you device blips and you know you are near. We knew we would have to go through some undergrowth and our battle with some brambles began. Unfortunately we found that we were still 10 metres away but there was no way on earth of getting through. Well I could of zapped my way through, but I have been told that destroying the environment is certainly not allowed.

Miss Foxy had the idea of coming back out of the undergrowth and walking up around the hill to try and locate another way in. She is clever, is Miss Foxy! So we did this until we were now heading down the hill but on the other side. There we saw what looked like a small hole in the bush, just big enough to crawl through, but where other people or Cachers may have been before. In we went, crawling through until we reached an area under a tree and we could stand back up in. A real secret looking world under an Ever Green tree. A peaceful place and there, we did locate the Cache in a very clever way. I wont share with you how in case you ever search for it, but we did agree the difficulty rating maybe should be higher, as some have said. Not for Super cache and Miss Foxy of course!

Next target Cache was GO14 Church Micro 605, located at Almondsbury Parish Church. This was a lovely place and somewhere I understand you Earth people can find happiness and a calming state of mind. Also it is a place where you Earth people can get married! Now that sounds a scarey thing, after Miss Foxy explained to me what it was. Speaking of which, we located the Cache very easily but had to walk past some things, where previous Earth people were now resting. Some with dates on from the 1800s! That is a long Earth time ago. We had a lot of respect for these people, reading some of the stories and we wondered if they Geocached too? Before we left, we took a look inside the Church building and would suggest you do too!

Now at this stage we had two more on our list for that Sunday in Lower Almondsbury Earth village. Next being called Ivy Hole. Slight concern as our search device had dropped to 25% power. Again we weren't too worried as looking at the map, the next two Caches didn't look that far apart. We headed off down what I understand is called a lane. A roadway that was fenced off and we had to climb over a step in a fence to get to it. Now I could of flown over but Miss Foxy told me there was no fun in that and I would never learn the "Country Way" whatever that was? I could see where the weeks of previous Earth rain had taken its toll, by the hundreds of puddles on this lane, and the constant flow of water down the lane. It looked like a small stream on both sides and the grass in the middle looked a more sensible option to walk on. But when we tried this, we just sank and things began to look tricky! We did find the Cache half way down this lane, cleverly hid within and under a tree. The hint spot on.

But this Cache wasn't that easy to actually get your hands on. We noticed others before had mentioned a mud slide. We discovered this frustrating, yet amusing thing too. Cache log eventually signed!

Now we had one more to go, but the dilemma of an ever decreasing power cell in our search device. We looked left and right. Left to head back and leave the fourth Cache or right to continue and find the Cache "Lower Almondsbury Brimble". Power cell at 20% and we had a decision to make. I suggested to Miss Foxy that we flew as it would be quicker, and she just looked at me as if to say
 "no remember I hate it?" So off we went, walking down this lane for a distance that seemed the same as what we had already done.

After what seemed like quite a while and round a left turn bend, we were lead off of the lane and through another gate. We went over another one of these wooden step things again. The trail looked easier now and we would get there quicker. After all the grass looked very green on the other side. What I never expected was how soft your earth grass could be or rather the mud underneath it and the water that actually can splash out of grass. Every step was very hard as we sank and we could see this field was at least a mile in length. Looking at our search device we were still no where near the Cache. The 15% power cell caught my eye too.

When we did eventually get to the end of this field we discovered another gate with some sort of Muggle defence weapon on it! Miss Foxy told me it was called barbed wire. I though this seemed pretty silly to try and defend this gate with this barbed wire, seeing as we opened it by simply unhooking a bit of rope from its supporting post. What the rope lacked in defence, the puddles and mud on the other side of this gate made up for. A field even worse than the first, every step a splash and it seemed the Earth mud below wanted to trap you with every step. I looked down at our device, we were 200 meters away! But a now flashing 10% warning warning warning message had appeared and the afternoon had turned into a real race against time! If we didn't hurry, we would of travelled this great distance across waterlogged fields, in the middle of Lower Almondsbury for nothing.

We had a general idea of where the Cache was as we now had a straight search Geo arrow on our device screen. The distance was decreasing all of the time, and it looked like we could go no further at the other end of this field. Just keep heading straight!!!! I decided to look at as many peoples logs and images as we could whilst we were squelching across this field. Also the hint again too. I had no doubt our device would fail before we got there. Miss Foxy would not have been impressed if this journey had been for nothing, what with how far we had travelled. I did tell her we could of flown, but again the look was enough! At last the device blipped and we were near.

I began searching but still not able to locate the Cache, then a real strange moment. I stepped in the most watery soft Earth mud I had ever seen to try and get to a certain area. But I found that I could no longer lift my legs and I was sinking. The Earth mud had got me. I had read someone had
mentioned about, how they found this area of Earth mud funny.............. I didn't. What with the fact our power cell was now at 3% and we still hadn't found the Cache, we had no time for fun. I did eventually manage to use my Super Cache Powers and escaped. Miss Foxy and I then stood and looked at the area once more and remembered the hint. Just re-grouping and then it made sense and we found the Cache. Very lucky as I looked down at our device just after we put the Cache back, and our device was dead!  Miss Foxy took an image of something to help future finders of this Cache and sent it to me later on, a certain view from the Cache location to help
.

Miss Foxy and I were relieved on the four Caches we had found but disappointed we could do no more as we had to recharge our device back at our base. We knew there was other Caches near by we could of found. But then again, with it getting ever darker and suddenly remembering we now had to go back the way we had come, I don't think Miss Foxy would of coped, even if our search device was still working!

If Super Cache had learned anything last Sunday. It would be.
It is always further to walk than what it appears on the map and also. Always ensure your search device is at 100% before you set off!

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