Sun mud trees trail, run jump climb and sign

The day off: Im climbing me some trees

Friday I found four different kinds of geocaches.

Okay not a very sexy start to this post. How about: “I spent six hours running around the woods of Germany, soaking up the sunshine, climbing trees and getting good and muddy”?

By lucky coincidence, I had the whole day off while at the same time Mr Sun, Mr Golden Sun showed up for work for the first time in ages. There was no question I was spending the day outside.

I took the dog and went for a couple hour run through Oberbusch, a woods to the north of Ratingen, a small village outside Düsseldorf.

Lasti and I know these woods pretty good having run/ cached here a lot in the past. There were a couple new caches however. An easy “Puzzle” cache and a tree-climbing “Multi”.

“Huh?” I can hear you asking, “I didnt even know there were different kinds of geocaches.”

A gorgeous sunny winter day in the woods of Germany

According to geocaching.com there are eleven official types and four “grandfathered” types.

The easiest to describe is the Tradi or traditional cache. The coordinates posted online lead you directly to the cache. (Dont confuse type with container size; cache containers come in all shapes and sizes.) Tradis are the most common, especially in Canada.

Here in Germany, they tend to favour Multis and Puzzles.

To find a Puzzle cache, you have to “figure out” the coordinates. My first cache today was an easy one, based on that super famous Cambridge study:

It dsnoet maettr waht oderr we put the leertts in as lnog as the fisrt and lsat leettrs are in the rhigt sopt.

I just had to unscramble the coordinates as below (but in German, eh)

fvie one ttwney trhee ponit fuor stxiy seevn

and then find the cache.

Up into the hills above Kupferdeh

The real attraction to Oberbusch though was the new Multi; a type of cache where you have to find a series of stations (and usually clues) leading to the Final. For this cache, I had to climb six trees and look around in the branches for the clues. Too much fun.

The woods paths were mostly soft

and leafy and great for running on; the swampiest muddiest spots were thankfully just frozen enough that I didnt get wet. Strangely there was no one in the woods and we could run and jump and climb and hoot as much as much as we wanted.

Found the final and headed home for lunch. If you’re counting, thats two cache types and three hours of sunshine before lunch.

After lunch I headed down river to Kupferdreh and then up into the hills. My first find was a Tradi called Quicky in a town park. It did only take about 5 seconds to find, 30 seconds to sign and rehide. Most Tradi’s are quick which is why Germans dont like them. They prefer the thrill of the hunt, a long search leading up to a big climax.

There was no "treasure" at this Earth Cache, just the imprint left by 320 million year old trees.

I spent another three hours up in the hills. The low warm winter light was gorgeous in the beech woods, casting long shadows on the blanket of rusty brown leaves. All that time I was on the trail of a Multi which I never did find. Which is whay Canadians dont like Multis: you spend all kinds of time and energy trying to get one, buy her a few drinks and then go home empty handed. Oh, I mixed my metaphor there. But you get the point.

I did however log an Earth Cache. For these caches you dont actually have to “find” anything, but you visit sites of geological interest, learn about the geology there and send answers and fotos by email asking for logging permission.

This Earth Cache is a former sandstone quarry where you can see the imprint of trees that fell into a swamp 320 million years ago. Hard to get my mind around that number.

What does it mean? It means the trees were here a really long time ago.

What does it mean that I found four types of geocaches? Not much really. Just means I was pretty busy Friday and saw a lot of country.

Foto sets from Friday on Flickr

Trees of Ratingen

Kupferdreh’s Gorgeous Churches

Caching round Kupferdreh