Today Connor and I tried our very first Geocaching hunt. If you don't know what Geocaching is - it is
'a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.'
Sometimes there are puzzles to do beforehand to help you with the search. Connor had to do a word puzzle that gave us additional clues as to where to find the geocache. You can search for closest geocaches at www. geocaching.com. For this one we had to bike about 2 miles (each way), walk along a beach and then through a brushy path to the tip of a small point of land. It was tricky, and we had to wade in waist height water... but we eventually found the stash of goodies.
And, to add to the drama, as we were removing the stones to unveil the geocache, we were swarmed with small red ants. After a brief dance and swatting at ants, we uncovered our very first geocache. In the large black plastic bottle there were instructions about geocaching and a number of small trinkets that were left by other geocachers. We ended up leaving a couple small trinkets and taking a 'travel bug'. This was exciting. A travel bug is a small tag attached to an item that has a number on it and is traceable. People can purchase these tags and then monitor them as it goes from Geocache to Geocache. We will then take it to another geocache (on another outing) and leave it there. The owner with the tag can follow it online to see where it has been. It's quite fun. We had a blast trying to find it. There are a few more Geocaches on some of the islands that we will visit next. We will definitely do this again!
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| a view from the top of the hill that we climbed to find this Geocache |
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| We finally made our very own Conch Horn. The reason we have one is at sundown you blow on it to say 'goodbye' to the sun. You cut/chisel off the top of the shell and then blow into it like a trumpet. Ours is smaller and has a higher pitch. You can even change notes by sliding your hand in and out of the shell. I can now play ''mary had a little lamb!' |
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