Noob Cachers Muggled

Dr Squirrel and I have stumbled upon a geeky new hobby to share.

It's called geocaching, and it mostly involves wandering around with a handheld gidget looking like complete pricks, if not terrorists, until you find a hidden waterproof box left by another sad-arse trekkie and tamper with it.

Seriously, it's that sad. If you don't believe me, google it.

Well, the two chubby cache virgins set out this evening for local beauty spot Watergate Park. We are pretty sure that we found the location (it was not too challenging), but despite some extensive scrabbling about, no tupperware container. It was very disappointing, although on the upside, we were good global citizens and removed some beer cans that were lying about (thus following the responsible geocacher's creed of Cache In Trash Out). Either we're such outrageous amateurs that we somehow managed to miss the goodies, or this cache has been discovered and then misplaced by someone who has no idea about geocaching, alternatively known as a muggle.

Given the beer cans in the vicinity, this does not seem an unlikely scenario.

So, a small disappointment there (particularly after scrabbling over rocks and grazing my elbow), but the good news is that Dr Squirrel and I are no longer Geocaching Virgins.

Also, you feel like an away team from Star Trek when you're on the hunt in the vicinity of a cache. Although it would also fit with various Indiana Jones fantasies. Excellent material for the inveterate Walter Mitties amongst us.