I was looking through all the photos from my trip and thinking about which adventures to write about, and truth be known, it started to feel somewhat overwhelming at best! I have no idea where to start or how to put the fun into words.
So I have decided that I just simply going to start writing and posting and if it makes sense, hurray for me! If not, well, are we all really shocked?? Most of you have been around me and know I tend to be all over the place (hello...where do you think I got the chipmunk name from) when I am talking and excited.
While on my trip, I was able to visit many interesting and captivating places, not just the Mega Event in Northampton.
One such place that I would like to share with you was the Mining Tunnels in Box, about half an hour outside of Bath. I had no idea places like this existed and that anyone would be creative enough to hide a cache there, nor anyone else insane enough to go and look for it!!
What makes these finds so unusually difficult and deserving of the 5/5 ratings they have, is that they are all underground where you can get no satellite or phone signal to know if you are going in the right way! You must rely on your wits and, in my own case, a new friend who is an awesome cave explorer with a fantastic grasp of history and geology!!
To me, the absolute best part of geocaching is two fold...new friends and new sights! This adventure was filled with the best of both of those worlds!
Here are some photos from this most grand of adventures in what felt like a completely different world! We ended up being 4 miles under the surface of the earth with just a head lamp to find out way...I felt like Indiana Jones or Laura Croft!!
Know what you are looking at here? It is the 3 foot by 3 foot opening to the tunnels!! Just to get inside, we had to do the military crawl on our stomachs, using our elbows to move forward...like being a snake on your belly! hahaha!
A real tight squeeze in some places!
Rats were a problem down here, so one man brought his ferret down and this was his "ferret cage" for the little guy. It had taken up a new resident, as you can see ;)
Some of the writings on the wall were well over a hundred years old, some were closer to 200 years! It was surreal to connect those writings with the reality of their belonging to real people who drew them there.
A mason's mark from when the tunnels were mined for their rock, before they became WWII bunkers.
Lots of rocks to climb over!
Feeling claustrophobic or spooked yet? Just wait!
A tin of sardines and a key left over by a soldier from WWII, very cool to see!
Nifty calcified rock!
Some geocachers will just not leave till they find that cache!! ;)
Photos inside "The Devil's Cavern" where ritualistic sacrifices were supposed to have taken place. I could not get a good shot in the dark of the giant pentagram drawn on the ground or the altar there. But this painting above glows in the dark, so that was pretty cool to see.
The Devil's prayer written on the wall of that cavern. I was more fascinated by all of it than frightened. I don't have enough common sense to be frightened of such places!
AHA!! One of the caches finally in hand!! It was creatively made into a WWII bomb! This has to be the coolest cache I have ever found!
3 hours later, we emerged muddy and triumphant! We headed to the local pub to celebrate an adventure well done! This has to be one of my fondest geocaching memories yet!
I hope you enjoyed these pictures of my little adventure. What do you think? Is this the kind of geocache you would ever think of yourself as going after? :D You should!
