St Arnaud Meet and Greet geocaching event – 18/10/2015

My neighbours Bob and Brian first introduced me to geocaching just after we moved here almost 3 years ago. I had never heard of it and didn’t get actively involved until about a year later when they invited me along on a geocaching day with them and from then on, I was hooked. 🙂 For the last couple of years, there is an annual Meet and Greet held in St Arnaud, which is about 45kms from Wedderburn and I hitch a ride with Bob and Brian which is great as the family isn’t really into all-day geocaching. The day usually involves searching for the new caches put out specifically for the event; a meet-up for lunch with BBQ and competitions and raffles; out for more geocaching in the afternoon; a meet-up for dinner at a local restaurant with more raffles and then most people head out en masse to do the night cache. This year was no exception.

You don’t really have much to work with regarding cache placement in a bush environment…a cairn of rocks here, a tree stump there, a fallen down log hole here but you can make the cache containers interesting which is exactly what happened this year. They were very cleverly crafted with most made of metal and weighing a ton!  A lot of time and effort was put into them which makes it a pleasure to find! I have a feeling that quite a few of the St Arnaud Bush Meander series will be nominated for “Cache of the Year” when January rolls around.

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It’s always nice to catch up with everyone, some of which I usually only see twice a year at the St Arnaud and Wedderburn annual events, and I was especially surprised when Daff came up to me and said she had a gift for me. She knows of my butterfly obsession and had bought me a lovely pink metal butterfly pendant. She also put a chain on it for me to wear as a necklace. I intend on wearing it to geocaching events and to make it a trackable so people can log it. So many cachers had trackable hats, shirts, vehicles, jewellery etc. so I think that I will join in on the fun too. Daff had also gifted me a smaller butterfly brooch which is just so cute which will be put on my geocaching bag. I was really quite touched that she had thought of me and goes to show what a great bunch of folks geocachers are. 🙂

My pink butterfly necklace from Daff

It was a long, tiring, but fun day and I look forward to seeing what Simon, Flo and Wayne have for us next year!