Geocaching, What's It All About?

Geocaching is something that I have heard of, I've seen many of my friends mentioning it on their social media profiles but it wasn't until last weekend that my husband looked up exactly what it was :

Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a GPS receiver or mobile device to hide and seek containers which are called geocaches or caches, these can be found all around the world.

In simple terms it is like a real life treasure hunt.

Where to start?

First of all sign yourself up to geocaching.com. Here you can log your finds, let people know if maintenance is needed on a certain geocache and chat with other community members.

Which app should I use?

There are quite few apps available to help you on your geocaching quest. We used c:geo for android purely because it was free but there are other apps available such as CacheSense and the official app Geocaching.

What are we looking for??

A typical geocache is a waterproof container which typically contains a logbook. Not all geocaches are the same, some are small, some are large. Some geocachers like to leave other things in the containers for trading such as small toys or trinkets.

Exploring Dover Castle

We are very lucky to have Dover Castle literally 5 minutes away from our home. We are also members of the English Heritage so after paying the initial membership, it means we can visit as many times as we like and it doesn't cost us a penny. It is one of those places that we just love exploring.

Our go to place whenever we take a trip up there is to the Medieval tunnels, the girls love sitting on the cannons whilst Daddy Hazelden tries to scare them as we walk further into the dark.

I See Blue Skies

It feels like such a long time since I have been able to get outside of the house with the girls without getting drenched by pouring rain or blown away by the strong winds which keep coming back. Finally when looking out of the window yesterday, I happened to see blue skies all around, something that we just had to take advantage of!!

We decided to take a walk up to our local park and take the time to explore a little.

Looking for hidden treasures

So whilst I was away on my jolly holidays, the second task for all us lovely Maxi-Cosi reporters was set.

This one was a tad trickier than the first task. We were asked to "rediscover" our own cities that we live in and find three places that we hadn't visited before. Coming back from holiday and not having any sleep, I was left looking at the task and drawing a big blank because I have lived in Dover for a long long time, so you would think that there would be nothing left to discover!!

This task actually came at a good time because Daddy Hazelden was off work, so he was able to come on our little adventure with us. We decided to jump in the car and have a drive around to see what we could uncover. This is where the compact fold of the Loola really worked well because with 6 of us in a car, it leaves very little boot space but the Loola slotted in nicely, no trying to fit it in like a puzzle piece.

We came across a lovely farm shop just on the outskirts of town. Somewhere that I had heard of but never actually visited.

We managed to pick up some lovely fresh cakes for the girls, I must admit I made them wait until we got home to eat them because I didn't want my shiny new pushchair covered in cake crumbs and cream. We also bought a little tipple of cider for mummy and daddy whilst we were there because it is nice to treat everyone in the family isn't it.

The whole place was easy to push the Loola around because it was all on flat ground and even though you had to step down to get into the shops, we didn't have a huge problem moving the pushchair up and down the steps, although I did find the Loola a little heavy when pushing down on the handle bar to bump it back up the steps.

Next stop on our tour of Dover was Dover castle.

I know what your thinking, you live in Dover and you have never visited the castle, well yes I have visited the castle but normally we just walk around the inside of the castle.

This time we decided to walk around the outside because this meant less steps to try and get up and down with the Loola.

It is quite a step hill walking up to the castle itself but the adjustable handle made it easier to push the pushchair up it.

It was surprising how well the wheels of the Loola coped on the cobbles around the grounds, a bit of a wobbly ride for Layla but she never complained and we still managed to steer in the right direction!!

Our last stop was the Western Heights, this is somewhere the kids have been with Daddy Hazelden before but mummy normally stays at home and lets them explore.

As you can see from the photo to the left, you get amazing views of the Dover port below.

There are quite a few paths that are fairly rocky so Daddy Hazelden actually carried the Loola over some parts, making use of his muscles but he did say that even with Layla seated in it, it wasn't too heavy, although he wouldn't want to be doing it on a daily basis!!

The hood came in handy with the sun beating down on us and also protected from the winds that were getting stronger the higher up we were going.

This task turned out to be a great one as it meant we got to spent time as a family and managed to discover a few things together and these are all places that we would definitely revisit at a later date, especially with another 5 weeks of Summer holidays to go!! Think we may explore further to see what other treasures we can find!!

xxxx

Disclaimer : We were sent the Loola free of charge for reviewing purposes as part of being a Maxi-Cosi reporter, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.