Becoming a Social Butterfly

6 Degrees - Mystery Cache
Don't put the Cart before the Horses - Traditional Cache
BBH #81 - Event

When I discovered Geocaching a few months ago, I would never have considered going to an event. I wouldn't know anybody and that was quite scary for me. Being a member of the BBH Facebook group has been a huge help in taking that first step to getting out there and meeting new people. So thank you guys and girls; you're an awesome bunch!

The morning of the BBH event, I had a look online for some nearby caches to grab whilst I was there. I didn't want to spend too much time caching so I picked out two of the nearest; a traditional and a mystery. I went into work early and sat on the laptop puzzling over 6 Degrees before I had to start work.

I managed to figure out all but one of the films so I tried a different tactic; working out the actors from the 'outside in' and using the names to find the common title and actors for the one in the middle. I soon had some coordinates and put them into Geochecker.com only to find that they were incorrect. I rechecked the numbers and remembered that I don't do mornings and that I really should use my fingers to count! I now had the correct coordinates and I'd heard through the Facebook grapevine that this was a particularly fine cache so I was looking forward to this.

Fast forward to the evening. It was getting dark as we got near to the pub, and that's when the satnav failed us and took us to somebody's driveway. We spotted a few people walking along the road and wondered if they were cachers heading to the event. Nigel pulled up alongside them and wound the window down.

"Are you by any chance geocachers?" asked Nige. I face-palmed knowing what the likely answer to that question would be and I was right:

"We might be..." one guy said with an uncontainable smile and furtive glances towards his colleagues.

(For the benefit of any non-geocaching readers, or muggles as we like to call you, stealth is of the utmost importance when caching which results in some rather cryptic conversations when you meet a stranger in the field. Odd behaviour is also a common occurrence!)

After some help we found the pub. The car park was rammed but we managed to find a spot near the entrance. I turned my GPSr on only to find we had parked pretty much on top of this cache! There were already a couple of guys there signing the log so we thought we'd leave this one for now and head off for the mystery cache. The only problem was, I had forgotten to note down the final coordinates.

"Don't worry," I insisted, "I made a personal note on the cache page."

Now, Nigel likes everything to be methodically planned out with no room for error, whereas my days are by and large ad-libbed. So there are times when he can get a little frustrated with me and my lackadaisical approach to forward planning. This was one of those times. After five minutes of doing the Funky Gibbon to try and get a phone signal, I suddenly realised that I had actually saved the coordinates as a waypoint on my GPSr earlier in the day. That's when Nigel gave me that stare that says 'You're walking home tonight my love.'

Finally, we set off to locate the cache. We found the footpath without any fuss and made our way through the darkness towards GZ. I have never been out caching after the sun has set before so I was becoming increasingly excited as we got nearer.

The terrain was a doddle even in the dark and it wasn't long before I heard the Garmin beep on our arrival at the cache site. Armed with our torches we began our search and using the hint on the cache page found a possible hiding spot. Something wasn't right though. How could a small container be hidden there? I got in close and had a good look with my torch and that's when I spotted that which shouldn't be there.

"Nige... Come quick and look... This is amazing!" I said as I paused to appreciate what I was seeing. After signing the log and carefully replacing the cache we headed back to the car park to find the first cache.

On our return, GZ was clear of cachers so we got to work. As we knew that most of the people coming to the pub were here from the same reason, we were not concerned about being stealthy. We could see where the cache should be but it didn't appear to be there. Thinking it may have fallen somewhere else we scoured the ground with our torches. We weren't confident in that assumption though as we knew it had recently been found. We were soon joined by another couple; surely with four torches we could find a D1/T1.5 cache! (Note to muggle readers: D/T means the difficulty and terrain rating. So this cache should be easier than a two piece jigsaw puzzle!) We eventually found the cache, right where it should have been. After signing the cache we headed into the pub for a well deserved drink.

To any geocachers that have never been to an event before because nerves get the better of them, please take that first step because you are missing out on such a fun part of the world of geocaching. This is only my second event and both times I was nervous about going. I am not very good in social situations and mostly try to avoid them. I am glad I did go though as everyone there was so friendly and welcoming. I had such a great evening meeting new people and conversation flowed easily for me for a change (that may have been down to the beer though!) My only regret is that I didn't get to talk to more people.

In case you're wondering, Nigel decided that I didn't have to walk home, which was a good thing because I forgot to go to the toilet before we left the pub.