Fumbling Around in the Dark!

It's a long time since I last fumbled around in the dark I can tell you - I tend to know where I'm going these days ;-) but anyway - here we are on a Sunday night fumbling...

So how did I end up here? Well it could be a long story but I'll try to be concise cos I know you're all dying to get to the juicy bits!!!

Well, I got a text from Lisa first thing this morning (Sunday) saying ...'how do you fancy doing a geo cache this afternoon?'. Well I didn't know what one was and not being one to accept an invitation without having at least an inkling what I was letting myself in for I thought I'd better find out!

So, Geocaching is a series of 'treasure' boxes hidden around the country. The idea is that you follow directions and find the treasure box, taking something from it and leaving something of your own in its place! Completely free and great fun!

We first did one on Skipwith Common which was a good introduction as Gary, Lisa and the boys had done it before so we knew what to do and where to look. The second one we went for was near Elvington Airfield and was entitled 'Bombs Away' - it was a bit tricky but we found it in the end!

We decided to do one last geocache on the way home and picked another close to our last location. The trouble was that it wasn't as easy as it seemed! We spent ages looking and in the end we had to split into two cars and Lisa took Emily, Isaac and her youngest boy home and Gary and Aaron came with John & I in our car and we continued looking...

Time was getting on and it was 5.30pm by the time we parked up as close as we could get. We had picked up a Travel Bug from the last cache and needed to stash it safely...

A travel bug is a token of varying description (they are all different) which carry a 'dog tag' with a registration number for you to track on the geocache website as to its travels. Many have come from foreign parts (geocache is a worldwide phenomenon) and many have already travelled around the world! The travel bug we left at Fulford came originally from Switzerland, the one we had found earlier in the day had started its journey in Ohio!

The bugs are registered on the website and you can track where they started and where they've stayed and where they are now, even who has handled them and helped them along their way :-)

Well, anyway, this walk was a bendy one and took us along unlit paths and towards Fulford Golf Course, what a route! It kept on getting darker and we found ourselves walking along an unlit footpath through a wooded area with pheasants or grouse or something flying overhead as we startled them from their roosting place!

We went over a field and passed by a huge electricity pylon... along the side of a field and onto the open golf course... we saw a shape of a man out on the course - he shouted something to us but we couldn't understand him so kept heads down, changed direction and kept walking...!

We carried on over fields and past bunkers, treading in puddles and squishing through mud until Gary's GPS device eventually had us within a few feet of the hidden cache...!

Well, all credit to Gary cos we would have given up ages ago - he was determined to find it! We read and re-read the clues and eventually decided that there was only one real location - Gary took his mobile phone in hand and used it's light to search the area!

It was pitch black and the only noise was from the nearby A64 - close enough to hear but completely useless if we had needed help!!!!!

Eventually he found it - I sha'n't say where cos it will take away the fun of anyone looking for it another time who happens across this blog as a clue!

Anyway, we filled in the log book (a record of who has visited the cache, when and what their thoughts were), left the travel bug along with a gift of our own and started back... the journey back was more straightforward (good job really - I was needing the loo and couldn't just nip behind a bush like the boys did!!).

...and so this is how I came to be fumbling around in the dark on Fulford Golf Course - with my main man and a buddy ... and his young son who was almost wishing he had never been brave enough to join us!

When was the last time you fumbled around in the dark?