Caching al estilo español

Siempre me encanta buscar Geocaches en España, porque - no, don't worry, I won't write this post in Spanish - I may well disengage you all if I did!

So, let's start this again: I love going caching in Spain; since I started caching, we've found at least one  every time we've gone. Back then, in 2010, there were hardly any around! Just goes to show how much the times have changed... there must now be hundreds and hundreds within a two-mile radius of where we stay - and only three years have been and gone!

We always enjoy cycling up the various local paths, and so we welcomed the fact that a new linear series of caches had been published, covering a five mile stretch. Of course, we wouldn't be stupid enough to do all the caches on our doorstep in one go - so we only did a few (probably passing several    of the others) in order to save the rest until next time. If you're a real cacheaholic, then you must be thinking I'm crazy passing caches and not looking for them - what if they're archived come next year? Good point, I'll just have to hope that they're not! In all seriousness, though, perhaps the main reason for not doing them all in one go was the heat - the area was going through a particularly warm patch, and so we concluded that it wouldn't be wise to push ourselves too far.

Caches feel so much more rugged in Spain, if you know what I mean. It's as if they haven't caught up with the containers we tend to use here, for there are hardly any film canisters in sight, and most caches seem to be of a larger size. Of the four we found along this stretch of the route, there was one sneaky hide (which we chuckled at!) and the rest were generous regulars! Plus, you won't see a lizard if you turn over a rock here in the UK either - in Spain, we did see a couple in this scenario, makes caching feel a bit more exotic!

~

Our next caching trip, an early morning stroll along the beach, wasn't quite as successful and enjoyable. Gosh, there are some REALLY HARD caches in Spain!!! Of the eleven we attempted, we found one. Yes, ONE. Possibly the most unsuccessful day caching ever, for anyone, let alone for someone with nearly 1500 finds. In my defence, the caches were in a very high-muggle area. There were people all over the beach, even this early in the morning and there were people sat outside the restaurants and hotels which back on to the beach... as you can guess, it was, therefore, very stressful trying to find caches in between all this, the only possibility for their placement were palm trees, but their trunks were smooth-as-paper each time, no hidey-holes to be found. I've no idea where all these caches were or if they had been muggled, perhaps they were all archived after I loaded the PQ: but then why did we find one of them? It's all a mystery, and not the caching I enjoy, so next year I'll make sure to hit the trail each time, rather than the beach, when it comes to caching!

Hasta el año que viene,
Griff Grof

Geolympix Cyclerama

Geolympix Cyclerama , 27 caches, 13 miles, Thame, Oxfordshire

Hello,

Well - today was interesting! Or should I say pathetic? 31 caches attempted and more than 10 DNFs! The temperature was 30 degrees c, and we had a long way to ride (6.5 miles each way, it's a Linear series) and, being far from home again, we concluded that we didn't have much time to dilly dally. And we gave up on many; the whole trail was packed with muggles - and we looked silly starting and stopping every 500 metres! The thing that most annoys me is that for the Bonus, when we arrived at GZ I dismissed it, and moved on. Now looking at the pictures in the gallery, I found out we were indeed in the right place. I dismissed it because the listing said "In a forest" - there were four or five trees, in one line!

I didn't bother with #25 and #1 - what in the world is a "blue WO"???? That wasn't a good start to the series, then at #2 another DNF - I moved on quickly after seeing all the litter - I didn't really want to bother searching within litter and who knows what else! This happened a few more times in the series - I skipped about four others due to large amounts of litter. After #2 things got better and we were out of Thame and into the countryside. But there were many more DNFs to follow due to muggles. They were all over the place.

There were some nice spots on the route; with good views over to the Chiltern Hills; reminding us of the rest of our Geolympix glory a few weeks back; accomplishing 11 icons in 11 hours and most of the marathon series. We were glad to be able to complete (in distance, not caches ;) ) the cycle series too - so now we feel we've had a bit of everything the Geolympix had to offer.

Caches were, to be honest, quite boring. Micro after micro. I think you could have fitted a couple of smalls and maybe regulars on there; I do see the bonus and bonus bonus are of that size - but it would have been nice to have more - and more sneaky containers to keep you on your toes.

The  route itself was enjoyable and there were some interesting sculptures and seats to have a rest on. We decided not to bother trying again with the DNFs on the return route; and to just enjoy the ride. Overall a good route, in a lovely area, but not sure the quality of the caches were as high as they should be. We still enjoyed it a lot though, and recommend it for a family day out for caching. 

Of course this was my replacement for not being able to make the Mega tomorrow - instead I might be able to grab a few caches in Devon, then we're off to Spain on holiday where I might be able to bag a couple more. 

I'll post back as soon as I think I have enough to tell you about. 

Griff Grof