- This topic has 6 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Can you remember your first cache? Did you find it by chance? Or were you introduced to caching by a friend or family member?
My first cache was Grant’s Potty to get this one!!! in october of 2008, i was walking in the area with pearlyhirly and visited the cache site which had been known to us for years as a letterbox site.
We found the cache on the floor at the back. The cache owner left an owner maintenance log after we found it ‘cache replaced today and put back in proper place, not chucked on the floor where i found it’. But that was where we found it so we left it in the same place.
So what was your first cache?We didn’t know it at the time, but the first cache we found was Parliament Rock. We had gone for a short walk from The Cherrybrook to Wistman’s Wood and back via Crockern Tor, when somebody spotted the cache under a rock. It was never very well hidden and could easily been seen when walking uphill. I can’t remember if we opened it or not, but just assumed it was a letterbox and then forgot all about it.
Some time later, a couple of our guests (Punch & Partner) started talking in the bar each evening about what they had been doing during the day, which was geocaching. Having always been interested in maps and walking, and already on my 3rd GPS (which was also a PDA) I was immediately interested and wanted to know all about it. Before they left us I had already signed up and found several caches – the first of which was Parliament Rock, the cache we had already spotted!
I was introduced to and found my first cache whilst still a muggle. I’m not quite sure of the date but it must have been sometime in the early to mid-noughties. I was walking above Saunton Sands with a friend whom I used to fly a microlight with. He had moved on to paragliding and being keen on the latest gadgets had a fancy GPSr which was accurate for altitude and rates of ascent/descent. Somewhat important when it comes to flying!! I had never seen a hand held GPSr before. He set the GPSr and invited me to find GCJ7DP Not a ruined view! ( North Devon).
In 2010 I had my left hip replaced and the surgeon suggested that walking would be the best physiotherapy. Always up for a challenge and remembering the cache at Saunton, I signed up for what turned out to be a marvelous hobby. It has taken me far and wide (for a Devonshire country boy!!) to all sorts of places, excersing both mind and body.
My first cache as a groundspeak member was GC1JCGZ Milling around Beaford No.1 which I found on 29/5/2010. My log read “First Find! TNLN”. Well, I was only a beginner!! I used to fish there with my father in the sixties. For those of you still young at heart it is a very romantic place, especially on a sunny summer’s afternoon.
One of my first Dartmoor caches was Alphabet Challenge L found whilst staying at Lydford. The challenge took me all over and around the moor; thank you Windrush. Dartmoor is a fascinating place and I do enjoy the challenge. GH.I was introduced by my friend and fellow Paramedic Betsys beagles. I was aware of his letterboxing past. But had not heard of Geocaching. We were working together on the Hoe on the day of the Olympic Torch Relay when he mentioned he had just purchased a GPS.
He asked me if I’d heard of geocaching ( I hadn’t) the next day a quick google search and I was hooked after walking 500 metres from my front door and bagging my first cache.
The whole hobby is a joy. I have a 1 year old whippet so the walking possibilities are endless.
My wife and children love it too.I have a genuine love of Dartmoor now. I was in the army from 16-23 and my feeling of Dartmoor for many years was a place I remember being very cold, very tired and Hungry for days on end. Walking the moors at night. Not appreciating the landscape at all.
My whole perception has changed.Thanks Geocaching!
First cache was Dartmoor Dave’s Beardown Man cache on Devil’s Tor last year. Had heard of geocaching and had been using a GPS for a few years when hiking but hadn’t put the two together until then, and found it almost by mistake!
Since then it’s given me many reasons to get out on the open moor, and see places I’d never been off it.
Since my first find i have been up trees, in caves, in water and across a plank all in the name of caching, great fun!
Many cachers say things like ‘Thanks for bringing me to somewhere i would never have visited but for caching’ or ‘Passed here many times and never realised this existed’.
I like to think i know Dartmoor prety well but still come across places i would never have visited but for caching.My first was ” Heart of Dartmoor: … and Lows ” by muddypuddles. Just a film pot, but I already knew this was a hobby I wanted to do. 1,500 caches later and this hobby has taught me a huge amount about the world in which I live, even areas that I thought I knew very well – somebody else always knows something more, a bit of history, an interesting feature, a great view.
Caching has enriched my life and taken me out into places I would never have otherwise gone and made me fitter for it, so I’m quite grateful for that little film put behind a pony, and when muddypuddles gave up his caches I asked to adopt it, and now own the first cache I ever found.
My first cache was with Triarii! It was my first visit to Devon (used to live in Bedfordshire and myself and Tri became friends through work) I was a bit apprehensive about driving all this way to stay in a house where I knew just one person -barely! Tri and his housemate Pete introduced me to geocaching by taking me to one of theirs in Ivybridge! That’s where I met two of ‘the three kings’ and ‘Poppy’. Didn’t think much of it as I wasn’t used to walking far or getting caked in mud, but I had to put on a brave face! Couldn’t go all girly!! I actually assumed that all caches had to be in irritating areas where you have no choice BUT to walk through a cow poop covered field! Just did not like that idea! Around 2 years later and after living in gorgeous Devon for over a year, I went ‘back home’ to visit my friends! Little did I know, my friend Jason, knew about geocaching! I though ‘small world, but there’s not many fields here!’ We took a visit to St Albans and Hitchin, and found some urban caches! People everywhere! Only then did I find it fun! Now I can’t really go anywhere without having a look and seeing if I can get any caches and brilliant views on the way! Love it and wish I knew about it years ago 😀
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
