Geocaching in... The Netherlands!

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

On a trip to The Netherlands I certainly wanted to earn my Dutch souvenir, and here it is:

Met STIP op de kaart... Liempde

I started off quite enthusiasticly with my new GPS, but unfortunately choose a small multicache with a waypoint.  I had to find an old farmhouse and from the description I had to calculate a new waypoint.

The farmhouse

Details on the description needed for the waypoint

I found the farmhouse alright, had no difficulties calculating the distance and degrees for the waypoint, but after that I was stuck.  I contacted the owner of the cache who very kindly confirmed that my calculations were correct and also helped me to enter the data in my GPS.  Now I will have to go back and find the actual cache, but I want to use my GPS first on a more straightforward cache to see if I am doing all the right things...

Watermeter (Earth cache*)

In the meantime I had to make a trip to 's-Hertogenbosch to visit relatives and I figured that I might as well try and find a cache. The first one on my list was the Watermeter.  Funny enough I didn't need my GPS (which I had very cleverly left at home!), because I knew exactly where the water meter was to be found.  When Frank and I were visiting in 2011 we discovered this meter on a walk, not even knowing that it happened to be part of geocaching (which we weren't even familiar with at the time).  So, I drove straight toward it, noted the depth of the groundwater level (which such a water meter is about) and had my picture taken by a friendly passer-by.  Et voila, I could log my first Dutch cache!

The Watermeter

Hurry up with that picture!  I'm freezing in this cold wind...

* When looking for an earth cache you're not really looking for a container, but something that is stipulated in the description.  Sometimes you have to take a picture as proof that you've found it.  Sometimes you have to answer questions.  Either way, it often is an interesting cache and you always learn something new.