Geocaching In The Park | Photo Diary

Hello guys! Today I managed to check something off my summer bucketlist! I went to a lovely big park in my hometown to find a geocache. If you've never heard of this hobby before, you can learn more about it on my 'All About Geocaching?' post. The weather was nice enough to go out for a walk with my camera and I hadn't been to this park in such a long long time, years in fact! It was so much more pretty than I remember it and so I thought I'd share a photo diary with you all. It's a nice way to document my geocache find too! Enjoy! 

The park that I visited today is called Bold Venture Park. I think that's such a cool name for a park! It was established in 1889 so it's a historical landmark for my hometown, which is Darwen in the county of Lancashire. In 1921, a monument was put up at the entrance to the park to pay tribute to the 1,200 soldiers from Darwen who fought and died during World War One & Two. This includes my great grandfather on my mother's side. There are five steps leading up to the monument to symbolise the five years of WW1. The monument has a beautiful angel on top and also a statues of a soldier and other war officials on the side, both made from bronze. It's the first thing you notice when you walk into the park, with a backdrop of trees and the big ornamental pond. So, without any further ado, here are some photographs...

This stunning pond is sometimes filled with ducks, but today I only saw a few hiding in the shade around the sides of the pond. I did see the cutest little Moorhen and its chicks. They were so adorable! There's quite a few ponds in the park, although this is the biggest, since the grounds are located on the Bold Venture Brook, which flows down the valley that Darwen is situated in, through the woods from the moors. There's even a pretty impressive little waterfall hiding in the park, which I'll show you soon! Another feature in the park sits where there was once a lovely aviary housing peacocks amongst other birds, which was gifted to the park at the end of the Victorian Era in 1901. Where the aviary once was is the Hindle Pergola, which is named after Mr & Mrs FG Hindle who gifted the aviary to the park all those years ago. I didn't know the name of those pretty wooden or metal frames covered in climbing flowers but they are apparently called Pergola. There's no flowers growing on the Hindle Pergola at the moment but I'm sure it will look beautiful when there is!

I really wish that I'd taken a tub with me to collect wild blackberries now! It was near this area of the park that my Geocaching app was telling me that I was close to the cache I was looking for. Geocaching is a hobby that is a little like treasure hunting. People hide caches and it's your job to find them. Caches are containers of any size and shape, often filled with little brick-a-brack 'treasures' which are great for children. There are also coins in some and other cool things, but most fun part of this activity is that you never know what to expect! It took me around 10-15 minutes to find the hidden cache, and I thoroughly enjoy climbing over tree trunks and exploring across the leaf-covered terrain to hunt out the cache. I was super happy when I finally found it :)

As you can see, this little cache had a cute pirate eye-patch inside that I know my nephew would like if he was to find this cache! There is usually a log book or sheet inside the container for finders to note when they found it and who they are. There wasn't one in the cache so I popped in a piece of note paper for others to sign. I also brought along this little heart charm that I got in a Christmas Cracker, so I left this little 'treasure' behind. Yay! Another geocache found; I wish there were more close to my house! I'm planning to search for caches next time I go to a city because there are usually lots hidden in such busy urban areas. I think it's pretty amazing that this little hobby goes on under everyone's noses everywhere! The geocachers even call people who don't know about the hobby 'muggles', haha! After finding the cache, I explored some more of the park. My next step was to the old historical drinking fountain that I wish was still in working order, but it was built in 1902 on the coronation day of King Edward. Lastly, I went to see if this waterfall was just as big as I remember it being when I was a kid. Fantasically, it was!

That waterfall is apparently 40 feet high! So, we've come to the end of my very picture heavy post; I hope you all enjoyed reading. I had a lovely day at the park, looking at the flowers and trees and squirrels and butterflies and ALL OF THE MAGPIES! I seriously saw so so many! It was nice to appreciate the history of the park and I started daydreaming about what it would have been like to see families walking around it in their Victorian attire, in the old days when the park was first opened to the public. I can't help but daydream, my imagination is vivid :) Who's the same? I wish that the playground was empty, because I totally wanted to play on it! Oh well, it was an awesome afternoon nonetheless!

Thankyou for reading! 

 ♥

Have you ever been geocaching? 

I also love to hear all about the last park that you visited. 

Here are some related posts:

| Finding My First Geocache | Summer Bucket List | Afternoon at Avenham |  

 

Finding my First Cache | Geocaching Photo Diary

A few days ago, I blogged all about my new hobby, Geocaching (find out what it's all about here). As a quick recap or for those of you that didn't see my recent post, geocaching is a outdoor activity that is a cross between treasure hunting and orienteering. Containers, known as caches, are hidden all over the World by people in this almost underground hobby. They even have a name for people who don't know about the geocaching world, they call them 'muggles' and as a Harry Potter fan, I thought this was awesome! There might even be a geocache or five in your hometown just waiting for you to discover. That's what I set out to do today (and yesterday, but I couldn't find it! haha), look for a geocache in my town. I wanted to show you all the geocache I found, along with some pretty things I saw on my walk. I hope you all enjoy it! 

The view above is of the moors over my town and Darwen Tower, which is also known as the Jubilee Tower. It was built to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. It's been on the hills overlooking my town since 1898! You can see for miles and miles from the top, but it's a tiring trek to get up there. I haven't been for over 10 years now. The next couple of photographs will be showing the geocache that I found, but I can't show you where it was because that's spoiling the game for any local geocachers that might stumble upon my post! :)

Caches can come in all shapes and sizes. This one was listed as an extra small cache, which can be anything from film canisters to pill boxes. Today's find was in a small black official geocaching container with one of those slide on and off lids. Inside each cache, there will either be a log book or if the cache is tiny, a piece of paper. This is for finders to record their names and the date they found it. It would be so cool to go back to a cache you've hidden and see how many people have signed your log book/sheet. My handwriting was so messy because I had to lean the paper against my leg to sign it. It was really nice of the geocache creator to leave a little pencil inside, too. This isn't always the case so geocachers should always make sure they have a pen with them. 

One of the many fun things about this hobby is that geocachers will often leave little trinkets and such inside the caches they find, sometimes for nothing in return and other times to swap for another trinket already in the box. The geocaching app told me that this would be an extra small cache so I brought with me this mini shell and a tiny wooden skull bead to leave behind. The shell was the only thing that would fit. It would be great to go back one day to see if the shell is still there! As you can see, the local spiders have also found this geocache and laid their eggs inside! There was also an Earwig guarding the cache, which my mum wasn't very happy about! haha 

Of course, I had to play Pokemon Go on my travels today, although I only found Pokemon that I'd already caught! I took so many more photographs but I didn't want this post to be more pic heavy than it already is. I had a really fun time searching for this geocaching, although it does drain me, plus the heat today really didn't help. I can't wait to continue with my new found hobby and find some more geocaches. I can tick 'start geocaching' off my summer wishlist now too. 

Thankyou for reading! 

 ♥

Have you ever been geocaching or even heard of it before? 

 Enjoyed this photo diary post, check out some of my others: 

| Sunny Sunday in the Garden |  An Afternoon in the Woods | 

 

 

All About Geocaching

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a lovely today. I went on a walk this morning, took photographs of the local wildlife and caught five pokemon, including an Eevee. Yay! I also saw a massive heron, which was awesome! I spent the rest of the day relaxing in the garden, complaining about the heat :) it was a brilliant day but so hot! Me and hot weather do not go well together. Today's post is going to be all about a new hobby I'm joining in with called Geocaching. I've been wanting to do it now for ages, and so I put it on my summer wishlist and I'm determined to go and find some caches, as a way to get me and about more (along with Pokemon Go). I hope you enjoy reading! 

 What is Geocaching?

I thought I'd tell you all about what geocaching is, because it's one of those hobbies that not many people know about until they meet someone who does it. I first learnt about geocaching on tumblr and I thought it was such an awesome hobby! Geocaching is basically like a cross between orienteering and treasure hunting! All over the World, containers, known as 'caches' to people who enjoy the hobby, are hidden and it's your job to find them using a GPS device. I've wanted to jump on the geocaching bandwagon for years but I've never gotten around to buying a GPS reader/receiver. I studied an animal science subject at university and we were taught how to use one of these readers and well, I was rubbish at it! I thought I'd never be able to geocache and it was pushed to back of my mind. Recently though, me and some of my friends from high school had a little reunion night out and one of my friends excitedly showed us all this new hobby he'd used his phone for. Turns out, it was geocaching! Why I never put two and two together and searched for an app, I don't know! I know that phones have GPS but it just never clicked, silly me! So now, I have finally downloaded the app and can start geocaching. 

How do you find 'caches'?

As I am crap at using GPS readers, I can only tell you how to use the app!  Your geocaching app will show you all of the caches hidden in the surrounding areas of your current location, which are displayed as green circles. Some of these caches can only be viewed by paying members, but there's lots of caches that are available for everyone to find. You can see the name of the road on which the cache is located on your app, then all you have to do is travel to that location and as you walk around, it will tell you how close you are to the cache. It's awesome! The app will also tell you the difficulty of the terrain surrounding the cache and how challenging it will be to find. Additionally, it will include a description from the person who hid the box as well as the size of cache you should be looking for.

What should you expect to find inside a cache? 

Caches can come in all shapes and sizes, some are mini containers and others are big metal boxes. Inside each geocache, there will a log book, or in the mini boxes, a tiny piece of rolled up paper. You need to sign this once you've found the cache. The bigger caches often have 'trinkets' inside which people swap for something of their own. It's nice to have a little keepsake that reminds you of the caches you've found. The kinds of trinkets that you could find inside a cache are keyrings and charms, toys, figures, mini compasses, all sorts really. Some caches contain what is known as a 'travel bug' in the form of a metal dog tag chain. These are special tags that should only be taken from the cache to be moved to another, as the purpose of these is to travel. Some travel bugs have been moved from cache to cache all over the World. I think that's really fascinating! 

What do you need to start geocaching?

Firstly, you will need to download the geocaching app onto your phone and make an account, or if you would prefer to do it the old school way, get yourself a GPS reader. I think you can get a decent one for around £40-£50. Once you are all set up technology-wise, you will need to find some trinkets ready to swap for anything you want to take out of a cache you find. The rule of geocaching is that you must always put something back in the cache if you take something out. For my first cache hunts, I'm going to be taking these two little charms and wrapping them in a little bit of plastic so they don't get ruined if the cache should ever get damaged. An important tip to remember is to always bring a pen to sign the log book. Some of the bigger caches will have pens kindly put inside but most of the time you'll need to make sure you have a pen. 

Some other things that I think are important to carry along with you include, a portable charger as you could be walking in remote areas so you need to stay safe and make sure you can always charge your phone should it run out of battery. I suggest taking water or juice with you as you're going to be walking around and it's important to stay hydrated. Comfortable walking shoes are also great. Take any essentials you may need like medication; I even took some plasters in case my shoes started to rub my feet and some tissues. Pack anything you would usually take on a walk with you. 

Let's go geocaching!

I'm going to do a post all about my first geocache when I find it. I'm interested to see what it will be like. I know that there's one locally and the app tells me it's an extra small cache so I might be searching for ages. I think it's handy that you can view the comments of other people who have found or not found the cache, so you know it's missing or hard to find, etc. Another awesome thing is that geocaching will get me out of the house and exploring in natural surroundings, which always make me feel good especially when it's a nice day and I can take my camera along with me. I'm also looking forward to catching Pokemon along the way! If you'd like to read more about geocaching, take a look on the Geocaching Association of Great Britain's website. 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

Have you ever been geocaching? If not, has my post made you curious to try it out for yourselves? 

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