By Georgina Lockham, Geoscience Assistant
In our May edition of the Merlin Newsletter, our Business Administration Manager Fiona Lawrance wrote an article on Geocaching (well worth a read if you missed it – see the link below), and a few weeks ago she organised a circular walk around Colwall for the Merlin team. It was a 5km long walk with 17 geocaches to find along the way. The weather was perfect, we took a picnic tea to eat en route, and the view of the setting sun was beautiful. I can think of far worse ways to spend a Thursday evening!
This was my first proper experience of geocaching, and it was great! Being a lover of a long walk to start with, adding in the fun of stopping to find geocaches along the way brought out a childlike excitement in me, reminding me of Easter egg hunts in the garden but on a much larger scale. What surprised me most about the geocaches was how small and sneaky they can be! Throughout the evening we found ourselves scrambling around in tree roots, looking on fence posts and gates, and even climbing trees. Fiona, being our resident geocaching expert, was excellent at finding the hidden boxes and bison tubes, whereas I found it a bit more difficult to start with, not quite knowing what I was looking for. However, towards the end of the evening, we were all getting the hang of it, and the joy of being the first to find a geocache was great! A little bit of competition never hurt anyone! Overall, we managed to locate 16 out of the 17 geocaches and the one that evaded us I am sure we will go back and find another day!
When you stop and think about it, it is remarkable how something so simple can be so much fun, and it is amazing to think of all the hidden caches all over the world that people walk past every day, not even knowing they are there. It is a great social activity and was a great way to get out of the office after work and into the fresh air. I would certainly recommend it to anyone.
To read the geocaching article in the May Newsletter, click here.
