Another years caching over... 2012 in review

What a year 2012 has been for caching! Unlike 2011, it hasn't really had any major downs - apart from not finding much caches in the second half - but instead has seen a rise in the quality of caches, and I've surprisingly managed to break ALL my previously set records. You're in the right place as I'll be reviewing my years caching in detail, looking back to the past, and the future as another years caching begins tomorrow. It's surprising how quickly time does fly, and this year was no exception!

The year kicked off with some ABFTN caches, which were very clever. We then embarked on several trails in Wiltshire, before Wrighty invited me to an event with him on January 15th - never before would I have imagined the local caching celebrity, Wrighty, to invite me caching - it was an honour! We went caching in the area beforehand, and generally had a great day.

I went with him again in February where we completed the QBS series, before summiting White Horse Hill and going onto the Cold War Cache, which I can announce is my cache of the year! This was where my new rule of quality over quantity began taking play - one simple cache could represent hundreds!

This month was also the start of a long and fun journey, as I attended the CacheWalker Butcher Bash event, having helped out with some of the activities. I launched a new forum as admin for CacheWalker on February, and introduced all sorts of new ideas such as Weekly Polls. The forum was the start of a journey for me with CacheWalker, as I ended up co-organising the next two CacheWalker events after that, which was an honour to play such a part in a caching groups of what was originally my local caching celebrities!

March and April saw me break whole new records. In March I finally logged my 1000th find, Topofthehill, after a super day - it was my main goal of the year, and it was already achieved on a very worthy cache. April saw me break an even bigger record, which wasn't even a goal, originally! I found 156 caches throughout the month, which I felt was a huge achievement. Plus, by this time, my series 'Snowshill Scramble' was receiving very positive reviews, and I enjoyed checking over it on my first maintenance run. I also checked over my resoundingly popular (somehow) Westcote Wander and got each and every cache back into tip-top condition.

The summer truly was a festival for Geocaching, as the Geolympix branded it as. After a quieter month in June having missed out on the CacheWalker climb up Snowdon, July brought more records and highlights for the year. I attended the Geolympix Mega event, on the very day that I managed to bag 11 icons in 11 hours. Then two days later, I broke my record for most in one day, with the Geolympix Mega Ring, bagging 65 caches in a day! The summer continued with some caching Spanish-style, and then in September it ended with a rather wet CacheWalker picnic event!

In October, I remembered I had set myself another goal to find 100 more Geocaches by my fave cache hider Wrighty. So, we set off to do one of his most talked about series' "Many Steps" which was wonderful, and one of my highlights. Caching then took a slow down until Twixmas, as things got busy elsewhere in life (in other words... 'taxi's' were booked! Haha!)

And, of course, the years caching concluded in true CacheWalker style yesterday at the Twixmas Bash.  A perfect end to a good years caching.

So how did I do? Well I didn't find 100 more Wrighty caches, so that's one for next year! But I did beat my best in 1 year, one of my original goals, hitting 510 caches for the year. I also managed to reach my last original goal - to find my 1000th cache. So overall a successful year of caching for me, the best yet.

What does 2013 hold? Will I spur on to 2000 finds? Will I find 200 more caches by Wrighty? No goals set yet, just going to go with the flow and enjoy whatever the caching world has in store for me next year.

Happy new Year to all!

Griff Grof