Eventually…

We knew we’d get round to doing one. An event, that is.

We’ve been around for years and have quite a bit of geocaching experience of one kind and another but we had never hosted an event. Why not? Well I guess there always seemed to be plenty of events around the U.K., with enough choice for everyone and suitable time slots seemed to fill up quite rapidly. The thought had crossed our minds often but… you know how it is… for one reason or another we just kept on prevaricating…

…until a few months ago when we planned to have a week’s holiday in Penzance, Cornwall - my homeland, the far SW tip of England, Land of Piskies and Pasties, tin mine ruins, craggy granite coastlines, secluded beaches, clotted cream teas. Because it’s such a geographical extremity, not many geocaching events happen there so that was a good reason to organise one and meet some of the local cachers who provide us with caches for our entertainment every time we visit.

I did a lot of humm-ing and haa-ing over a suitable location, trying to decide whether to take a chance on the Cornish June weather (as the peninsular sticks out into the north Atlantic the prevailing south westerlies take great glee in dropping their rain onto Cornwall at any time throughout the year), or play safe and dry indoors. In the end I decided on a bit of both: The initial meet up would be early evening in a local sub-tropical, public garden, close to a convenient bandstand, in case the heavens opened. Then for those interested in extending the evening with more conviviality (otherwise known as food and drink) we planned a 10 minute walk along the promenade to a pub by Penzance harbour. The Dolphin Tavern dates back to the 16^th century: Not only is Sir Walter Raleigh believed to have smoked the first pipe of tobacco in England there but it also has three resident ghosts.  As there’s no “Spooky” attribute on cache pages we didn’t advertise this as an added attraction.

Not having done an event before, and not knowing much about the local caching scene, we weren’t sure how many folk would be interested but the cache page was created, submitted… published. Within an hour the first “Will Attend” was logged… Phew! We wouldn’t be standing around the flower beds, looking like two spare lemons then! Over the next couple of weeks more logs appeared until I felt confident to ask the pub if they could reserve a separate section for 15 people… then it was 22… 27… Hey! Hang on! The room only holds 30…

I organised getting some geocaching items for general sale, for anyone wanting TBs, geocoins, micros, nanos, camo bag. Then we decided to give everyone a free raffle ticket and do a draw for a few gifts… Trackables started to be logged into the event… emails arrived from folks asking for extra info… Were dogs allowed? Could we recommend easy parking spots? What was the menu like?

Our first event day dawned bright and clear, no sign of rain. We made sure we arrived at the appointed spot by the bandstand 15 minutes before the start time and, sure enough, cachers started to appear from all directions, wandering along the garden paths, GPSrs in hand, hailing us with friendly greetings.  For an hour we all chatted and circulated in the warm Cornish sunshine,

With the usual geocaching conversations, putting the names to faces, passing trackables around, exchanging geocaching gossip about local caches -  It was fun! - Why hadn’t we done this before?

Then we headed off to the Dolphin for the second part of the evening: A few late-comers joined us, everyone placed their owner orders for food, as and when they wanted it. The choice and quality was good and included some lovely fresh fish dishes as one would expect from a fishing port. The prizes were drawn – the youngest winner chose a cuddly Signal frog as her prize, another prize went to a cacher whose birthday was that day.

In the end all was successfully completed – folks were full, farewells were said, hugs exchanged, thanks given, promises made to do it all again, maybe next year. Later, as we wandered back to our own holiday accommodation, we agreed – We must do it again sometime!

By MrsB of the Blorenges