Geocaching is something I tend to only do in the cooler months, because trampling through bushland in summer while kids are also out and about on their school holidays is a nightmare. That being said, I've been incredibly slack this month and it's been a hot minute since I went! so! today I had a rare weekday off work, so I'd decided to swing by some caches on my way to my errands for the day. I have some trinkets and trackables I've been meaning to drop off for a while now, so I was specifically looking for a larger cache to drop them off into. it has been raining real hard this week and flood warnings are in effect, so i had to find something that wasn't too close to a river or somewhere that would be coated in mud. the mosquitoes were horrendous, also.

the first one I found was a new cache, quite literally only a 5min drive from my house! it was in a little patch of bushland where an old farm used to be, hidden under an old trough. The cache was big enough to leave some items and trackables, so I dropped off some stuff I'd collected over time and left one of my trackabkes behind for the next person. it was a bit of a tricky one, since it was right next to a house with a very open and see-through fence, and the owners were home and in the garden with their dog. sneaking around was a little difficult, but i managed to get the cache and return it unnoticed. very pretty little area with a lovely creek! and spotted some very cool mushrooms, and a sweet little bearded dragon friend basking on the gravel path back to my car!

second stop for the day gave me a little more trouble. it was an easier find, just by a playground. i knew i'd have a good chance of getting it through the week here, as that place is swarming with families on weekends, so i went to give it a go today. it was hidden underneath a metal electrical box on the side of a relatively quiet road. first roadblock: council workers riiiight on the side of the road that i had to wait for. after about 15min of loitering, they packed up and left, so i went to start looking around the area. second roadblock: dog walkers immediately came round the corner and i had to stop until they also passed by the area. and third roadblock: couldn't find it! it was so wet and muddy under there that i just could not feel anything but mud and damp leaves, and i wasn't super keen on shoving my hand into unknown dark spaces here in australia. dangerous activity. ended up having to mark as DNF - but planning on going back next week for it!