Searching for treasure: the joy of geocaching!

Our first full day in Northumberland began not so well as I had an awful headache which had carried on over a full 24 hours from the previous day. We stayed in bed quite late until WOMOTM  gave me a combo of Codeine and Paracetamol which thankfully did the trick eventually.   I finished up a book that Char sent me, walked through Haltwhistle to the Post Office before meeting up with CBC and his brother WKWTTG to go in search of a Geocache.  A geocache is a bit like a treasure hunt but it’s based on using a GPS signal and some clues to locate a hidden box/item with a log-book and tracking signal and some ‘treasure’ that people who have previously located the geocache have left.   I first heard about these from my brother-in-law at Christmas when we went for a walk along Haltwhistle Burn in search of a Geocache. He had found one and taken a little wooden fellow named Woody almost a year ago and was trying to find a new place to put him. We failed to find the Christmas Cache (there were about a thousand rocks and tree roots to look under).  Today, we headed out towards Allen Banks.  We parked up by the former Staward Station which used to be part of the now-deceased Allendale line (it is now a holiday home) and after one false-start, headed down a very,very overgrown public footpath down towards the Staward Gorge.  I and WKWTTG were wearing shorts so weren’t too fond of this.  As we walked, I thought of adders and broken ankles and had in mind writing this up as one of those Choose your own adventure stories based on which path you take- hey that would be fun- I could create hyperlinks to different blogposts based on what happens next based on your decision. Thankfully for your sake, I am too lazy to do this. If you (reading this),decide to use the idea, please give me acknowledgement.

Using the OS map as guidance, we reached a very, very steep path downwards through woodland. When I get to places like this, I sometimes wonder why I go on these adventurous walks because I really, really hate steep downwards paths, especially through soft, moving matter and if you saw me, you would think I was in my 90’s, not my 30’s.  I grumped and grumped to myself as I descended slowly. CBC burst out laughing when he saw me virtually crawling on my bottom down a path at about 1metre per hour, saying I looked like I needed the loo or had wet myself.  Thanks, kind husband.  Eventually, the path levelled out and became less extreme.  We followed the GPS signal until we reached a stone kiln. A handy-hint from a previous finder of this Geocache had told us we didn't need to climb the kiln.  WKWTTG and I searched the wall carefully as CBC skipped ahead.  CBC triumphantly called out, "Found it!" and produced a Locknlock box.


Inside, we found various weathered items including the Logbook, Geocache instructions and various treasures. WKWTTG logged our finding in the book and we decided to take a Frog-keyring which had come from some Scouts who wanted to be returned to Berkshire which we thought we could do.  Success!  We placed Woody in the box and hid it back where it came from.


Next,we headed down through the woods to the banks of the river Allen.  It was beautiful- stepping stones and fresh flowing water- it was quite shallow due to less rain.  We washed our muddy hands in the river and decided, rather than heading back up again to the footpath, to try and forge our own path along the banks of the Allen.  It was a little precarious with slippy rocks and fallen logs but much more preferable to climbing back up.






We headed onwards, with one or two hilarious- "How am I going to get there?" moments.  One part, we feared we would have to cross the river on some precarious rock stepping stones (not really stepping stones but that's what they'd have to be) due to a massive fallen tree or two on our bank but luckily we managed to clamber through the gaps.

As always, I was bringing up the rear and when I had to clamber  between the two fallen trees, I got stuck by my rucksack to the log above at the same moment as impaling my hand on a thorn with both my feet on the same tiny,slippery foothold. I was in a bit of a panic for the moment as I couldn't move any part of my body without slipping- eventually, standing with feet on top of each other, I climbed out of my rucksack which fell to the ground. I chucked it in front of me and somehow managed to clamber through the gap! Phew!




We reached one point where luck was really on our side. Had it been a wet summer, we would have been totally stuck- rockface on our right- deeper river on the right, but the lack of rain had led to a series of rocky platforms we could walk alongside the gorge rockface.








We came at last to a place where we could climb up to try and reach the path and, according to the GPS, we were near to another Geocache.


Clues and signs including looking for trees that were carved by forestry workers during WW2 about PoWs from the nearby PoW camp and  a tower of sorts. CBC set off further along the path and WKWWTG and I searched all the probable hollows of trees and holes in the stones, natural walls. We searched for a LONG time and frustratingly found nothing.  A ping from the phone told us we were near and a clue told us to look at the base of a yew tree but we weren't sure what that looks like.  I vaguely recalled that Louise told me I was standing by an old Yew tree in a previous blogpost and tried to look for a slightly reddy, spongy tree but apart from that, wasn't sure what to look for.  I saw a sort of conifer-looking  tree which I searched around but to no avail. Finally, CBC returned and we told him the Yew clue.  He headed down below a tree I'd searched around and suddenly called out, "Found it!" and he'd gone right to the base and located another plastic box!  Again, we signed the log book but in this case, as we'd forgotten to bring some alternative treasure to replace, didn't take anything.

It really was time to return to the car so we did just that, via several very grassy fields and slopes.



We noticed that the phone GPS told us that there was another treasure just near where we'd parked the car with the clue, "STOP and enjoy the view"- can you guess where the treasure was hidden?
Once again, WKWTTG and I searched around and then CBC located the treasure. Each Geocache lists its size on the website and this was a 'very tiny' one.  Blimey- yes, it really was that small! I can't believe we found it!!!! There was no treasure but a titchy rolled up log-paper!

It was a relief to get back to the car and go home but what an adventure! We'd had a marvellous time and definitely want to go in search of more Geocaches!

Have you heard of Geocaches? Would you like a go?  It appeals to my inner Famous Five.  Go to www.geocaching.com for more information.  It appears there are LOADS near where I live!!!


xxx