Follow the arrow

One of the things we like to do as a family is geocache For those who don't know about it then it is basically a treasure hunt where you find co ordinates online and then using a GPS or smartphone you go and find the container.  Sometimes they are tiny (thumbnail size) and if you get lucky they are huge (ammo can size). The larger containers usually have swaps in them which J loves. Things like keyrings, cracker puzzles, mini pens are usually found and left in them.

The bank holiday weekend was glorious for weather so we set off for another one of our adventures. Wortley was our destination and a series of caches based on the components for an action movie. The first one had us park up by the church and off we went.



The first few caches posed no problem for Team Noom and we were making good time and enjoying some superb views.



However, on every geocaching trip we go on there is always one cache that causes us a problem and means we get lost. This trip was no exception. The arrow on the GPS unit pointed one way and the path went another. We decided to take the path but the distance to the cache was going up. Hmmmmm "It's in the valley" D said. So off we went down the hill, across the road, through some brambles.........The distance was going down slowly but we had hit a problem. Namely a huge drop down to the river!

I suggested we follow the main road for a bit to get our bearings and luckily the GPS sorted itself out taking us down a little path between some houses. And boy am I glad it did because we found the best bit of woodland with a river and real stepping stones!



It was warm now and the only thing to do to cool off was to paddle of course.  All of us, including the D dog enjoyed the freezing river water.

I knew though that having walked all the way down to the river and the valley bottom that the only way back to the car was up. So off we went again following the arrow for the remaining caches in the series. All up hill. It was warm and a hard slog but worth it for more views like this.



We got back to the car 3 hours after we set off with a tired child and a nicely worn out D dog. A perfect trip out.