Going into Stealthmode
I think you will spend 86 seconds reading this post
Just after my eldest son was born, back in 2016, I spent a futile half hour trying to find a Geocache at the end of my street. I couldn’t find it, and not wanting to trespass into a garden promptly gave up. A couple more abortive attempts at geocaching at another site, and I decided “Meh!” that I’d consign the app to the darkest recesses of my phone.
Fast forward to today, the Leap Day. I got a reminder from the app about a challenge to get a cache on this Leap Day, and as I knew that there was a cache hidden near our local Billa supermarket, I thought, maybe this time I find it. And so as I was off shopping decided to see if I could find it. I followed the hint and lo and behold, I found the cache, a small film canister. I signed the log (a small piece of paper) and put it back in the cache and returned the film canister to its hiding place.
Doubtless I looked silly or at best very suspicious as I rummaged around in broad daylight. But the joys of finding a 35mm film canister were worth it. I can see how this can get addictive and is a simple pleasure (low costs and also a good way of getting exercise since many caches are hidden in locations accessible on foot but not by car). There are some geocaches near my office. They’ll be next on my list. It might be a good interest to get my son into when he is a bit older.
NB: stealthmode in geocacher parlance means being discrete. This is necessary when there are lots of people around (muggles).
I noticed this past weekend that the telephone box that housed the cache that I found on Leap Day in February 2020 has been removed. The cache itself disappeared towards the tail-end of 2020. Its disappearance allowed me to hide a cache in my “home zone”.