Today was CacheWalker day - and my first event (with help from the rest of the CacheWalker group). Overall, I would say the day was a success, despite the horrendous weather! It was organised to celebrate our CacheWalker group turning five years old! Five years ago (next Sunday) the first group walk took place, and here we are five years later celebrating CacheWalker's success with cachers old and new, from near and far. The idea of holding an event to celebrate came about in February, and if we had gone with our original plan, today would have been very different. But I'm glad we decided to hold the event up on Dovers Hill instead, and I think it's fair to say that everyone would agree.
Arrived a little earlier to set everything up, to the most horrible rain - it was bitter, cold and windy. Set up the event GZ under a large chestnut tree, within a cluster of trees for shelter. Loads of cachers arrived throughout the two hours (yep, we cut the event short due to the weather) there must have been 35 people in total! I had thought most people wouldn't even turn up having seen the horrid weather when they woke up. I had fun talking to everyone, and collecting presents for the "Secret birthday presents" handing out at the end. I had made a wonderful A3 Birthday card for CacheWalker as the logbook, but by the end of the event it had sadly become soggy mush.
We had hidden five new caches over five icons (to celebrate five years) and so I set off with walktall to find some of them (that I didn't hide), by tarmacjohn. Fab caches in fab spots, I have to come back on a clearer day, but they were fab (though micro, which disappointed a bit!) Got back to the event to find nearly everyone had left, but Wrighty soon informed us that everyone had returned to the car park to have their picnics in the shelter of their cars, and to draw the raffle. We all made our way over there, drew the raffle, handed out the secret birthday presents and said our final farewells. We all also laughed at how this was the first CacheWalker event where it had rained, I guess these spells break after five years!
Overall, despite the worst weather in months, and the fact that we were all wet within 10 minutes, I still think the event was a huge success - nearly 40 people turned up, laughed, smiled and joined in the birthday fun and celebrations - just the fact that all those people still arrived shows how much people cared enough to come and give CacheWalker a happy fifth birthday!! I had a great day, and I think everyone else did too! Thank you all for coming - next up is Twixmas - back to the (dry) pub events with pre-event group walks, 30th December, location TBA.
Happy Fifth Birthday CacheWalker, and here's to the next five years! I'm honoured to have organised an event to celebrate this, and honoured to be a part of CacheWalker for the last two years!
Griff Grof
