Geocaching - FTF

A new geocache had been placed in our valley, and Ed and I had the chance to go and find it and hopefully be the FTF - First To Find.

We drove to a village nearby, and then found our way through the village to the bottom of the mountain where the cache was lcoated. We still had 500 meters to go, but that seemed ok. We parked up and then followed a pathway. After a short time, this was obviously the wrong direction, so we simply climed up the side of the hill.

Simply? Those Romans and their terraces! Every 3 meters, we had a wall to climb. Unfortunately, in between each wall was an overgrown raggle of weeds and pricky bushes. We ploughed on (literally, sometimes) for ages. Afer a while, Ed asked how we were doing. I checked the GPS - 300 meters to go. What?! It was a nightmare. Every 10 meters felt as though it took 1/2 hour. At one point, I thought about going back, but, the car looked so very far away, and we would have to climb back through the undergrowth, I was certain it would be better to carry on.

Eventually, we cleared the shrubbery and managed to make better progress. By now hough, we were both exhausted. This game is not meant for people of our age! Finally, the way got much easier, even though it was still quite steep. Then, we were near the ridge at the top - at last. The wind here was very strong, as there was another valley on the other side, and this eas acting like a funnel. Then we found the proper path to the very top! No big suprise really, but it would have been nice to have found it 2 hours earlier!

Then Ed said, "I've found it", as he spotted the cache. It was a container hidden under a small overhang of rocks. To be honest, we were both too tired to enjoy the view, and Ed was also concerned about some dark clouds moving in. This time, we folloed the path back down, but it still took us 50 minutes on the correct path, to reach the car.

A few days later, I was thrilled to find an email from the cache hiders, asking about it, and how easy or difficult it was. I admitted that we got there the hard way, but it was a good find. The best part was - we could see l'Olleria in the distance!