Another first

I've got a couple of friends to thank for this post. The first sent me the cache info in an email to my mobile when it came up as a new cache and I had no internet access, and the second was chatting this morning about caches and blogs - which reminded me I hadn't posted this up.

So there I was, idly lying on the bed as usual flicking through emails and using up too much saldo, when the geocaching newsletter came up with a new cache about 20kms from us. Hey! Could be another first to find.

We left it for a couple of days but decided to go for it on the Sunday. If someone else had found it first, well, no matter. Our fault for hanging around.

The trouble with just getting the info over an email is - you don't get the little map thing or driving directions, so you have to guess how to get there. Especially difficult when there is nothing remotely resembling an OS map in Spain.

But, we had a river as something to aim for, so off we went. It didn't help that there was no GPS signal all the way there. We crossed what look like 'the' river - no name on the bridge - and then couldn't turn right. We ended up doing a merry few miles detour to come back on ourselves.

Once off the main road it wasn't too difficult to keep heading towards the river. GPS still not working. We found a nice dead end street, parked up and got out to see if it would finally find some satellites.

Partner walked to the end of the street and spotted the viaduct. This was one of the other features mentioned that was near the cache. It's a viaduct we regularly travel over that invariably makes me feel nauseous. On bad vertigo days I can't even look out of the window as we go across. It looked even worse from the ground up.



We set off down the track which wasn't particularly impressive as it seemed to be an unofficial council rubbish dump. In fact a council truck came down, reversed round and sat there happily doing nothing. Once past the rubbish we traipsed uphill and came upon a strange building - and - more rubbish.

This is not the sort of place people hide caches. Caches, for the most part are hidden in nice scenic places. And the ones who had hidden this one, had also hidden two extremely other good ones elsewhere in beautiful locations. Not rubbish dumps.

We gazed down at the river, which by now was well below us. I looked at the GPS. 'It's over there.' I said. 'On the other side of the river.' I was NOT scrambling down the sheer river bank which was more like a cliff.

'We'll just walk down the road to where we can get down to the river and then walk up the bed,' he said. Yeah. Right. Heard these bright ideas before. I was busy practicing saying 'You just go and do it yourself darling while I wait in the Landy' when I heard some strange grunts.

He was rolling over and over on the pavement in a little ball, grunting away. While I had been busy walking in the middle of the road (in the shade) looking at the GPS, he had sensibly been walking on the pavement. This is not a regular occurence, it is invariably the other way round. Being unused to pavements he had completely missed a ginormous hole that previously homed a rather large tree. He tripped over the edging, fell down the hole, rolled out and over onto the pavement.

I panicked and thought we should go home. Rubbish dumps and injuries weren't good omens. He got annoyed. 'I've nearly broken an arm and a leg to try and find this cache. We'll find it.'

But we agreed to drive to the other side of the river. A long walk is fine, but not through boring houses and streets. And of course when we arrived, it was a perfect cache spot. Parking, picnic tables, pretty riverside scenery, no rubbish dumps.



We (he) found it pretty quickly. As I took photos up and down the river, I noticed there was a track down from the high bank on the other side. Oh well. It was prettier on the cache side.

And we could never have walked up the river bed - ie never have climbed up the waterfall!!





And a couple of mobile pix - sorry - of a lovely cache up at Alcaidesa. Well worth a trip for anyone who comes down to the Gib area.