When they talk over Big Birds they mean airplanes. This is one of the oldest geocaches I found, to be more accurate it is so far my second oldest and at the time it was the first Geocache I found that was hidden in 2001.
|
| The geocache hidden under a brick... |
On this cold day in November before heading to the airport I decided to do some geocaching and at the same time let me also fill some of the missing cells on the hidden month matrix. In case you are not aware of that you can check my stats at Project-gc, scroll down to Finds by hidden month area. That is what I was after on this trip, get one ore two filled in there.
I was also missing most days in November so I also added to that matrix. November in the Netherland and most of Europe is not the best weather to go out and do anything, it is too rainy and windy. I know it should not stop us, but mostly this month is full with activities at home and at work.
|
| Now it is invisible, but it is under that brick... |
When I read in the description to be careful with the muggles in the area I was thinking to myself... come on, it is so windy, cold, why would anyone go out there to watch the airplanes land from below? Then I arrived to the last paved roundabout and exited to the dirt road towards the location. I drove for a few meters when the first car came towards me... it is a single lane dirt road, so which of us should go offroad? Before I could turn my steering wheel the other just moved off the road, he was driving with a high speed on that road, but looks like not the first time he knew what to expect there and just passed by. After a few bumps I started closing on the destination then I spotted multiple car... wow... What are they doing out here? Satuday morning? Then I got closer and I saw how many people were there... Unbelievable... Going forward lesson learned if they say expect muggles, expect them. Lucky for me there were planes landing so everyone was looking at them and making pictures while I parked and walked to towards the geocache.
|
| The geocache hiding under the stone at the foot of a tree... |
For any geocachers it is so trivial where to go to find the geocache, for a muggle it is only a brick. So why all those muggles leave it there when they see so many people come visit that tree? First of all from this angle it is not the best to wath the big bird, then it is over some water.
|
| Muggles over the ditch... |
See some of the muggles on the other side of the water? Ok, it was not some huge excercise to jump over that one, but still it is for sure not a terrain 1.
|
| The airport in the background ... |
As I travel multiple times per year to different countries I always check if there is any geocache at teh airports where I need to change towards my final destination. In some countries I just do not have the time to go outside find a geocache and get back, like in Shanghai, the closest geocache was at least an hour drive from the airport. I had 4 hours, but it took me over one to get my daily permit to be in China and then over another one to find my way to the other terminal on foot. But other airports I was more lucky, like in Detroit, I had 9 hours overlay time... I know it sounds a lot, but you would even say it is too much on that sunny day. I took a bus to the first geocache there and then walked around 10-12 miles and found many geocaches, then I ran out of water so I took a cab back to the airport and went to relax in the lounge.
As you can see the ditch had some water and on a rainy day it could even have some serious water levels. Lucky day for me.
|
| The ditch to the other side... |
On this picture you can see the tree guarding the geocache. At around this time landed the second airplane I missed to take a picture of. No worries I was not there for the big birds but for the geocache named Big Birds.
|
| See the hiding place of the geocache? |
Finally here is another picture with the hiding place on the left of the picture. Autumn is not my favourite season that is for sure, but it has its advantages in geocaching. When you want to have more luck on finding geocaches many that are hidden in vegetation during spring and summer and might be under snow in winter are just out there in autumn. This was one of those.
I'd also like to mention that this geocache was not one of the micros, but a better sized one.
Many thanks to the owner for maintaining this geocache for such a long time.
