My friends said it couldn’t be done – “You’ll never find anywhere to park”, “You won’t be able to get places” so of course I wanted to prove them wrong. Of course I could go geocaching in my motorhome and so off I went to prove it!

I belong to the Camping and Caravanning Club so I went to Ravenglass to give geocaching from my ‘van’ a try and we did 4 caches but that, apparently didn’t count as we were using the campsite as a base. So, I set off from north Lancashire at the beginning of half term, on my own, to see if it could be done in the North Pennines.

My first stop, on a beautiful Friday evening in late May was Kirkby Stephen. I had planned to do all 4 caches on the River Eden and I did – it was beautiful. I discovered the Eden Gorge which I remembered reading about years ago but never following up on, walked the newish cycle track on the old railway line, over 3 viaducts and had a first to find (well, the first in a new log!) with Kissing Gate Bridge. All in all a great start.

Being as this was supposed to be a cheap and cheerful holiday, I drove through Brough (didn’t have time to do the multicache there) and found a wonderful flat spot halfway up the fell towards Middleton where I cooked a late supper and sorted out the following days caches. I have discovered the beauty of being a premium member of geocaching.com; downloading routes to EasyGPS and then all caches on the route straight onto your GPS. I suppose I should explain to those who don’t know that geocaching is like a treasure hunt. You put coordinates from the geocaching website into your GPS and go search for the cache at that spot. Once there, you sign a log book (often damp or so tiny you wonder how they cut strips of paper that small), maybe trade an item or two, often children’s toy figures or other oddments, then record your find when you get home on the website. If you are lucky, there may be a travel bug or a geocoin in the cache. Take it home and log it (it has a unique number) and drop it off when you visit your next cache. We only discovered geocaching this year, although it is 10 years old. It’s a mystery why we didn’t learn about it earlier as both my sister and I read outdoor magazines and surf the net, a lot!

I woke up next morning to rain; I had a lie in (the bed is way too comfortable over my cab) and read. A police car drew up as I was cooking a bacon butty but was only warning people about leaving sat navs in their vehicles. I use one cos I like to see where I am going so it was there, on view, but I hide it if I leave the van.

It still hadn’t stopped raining by 11 but I set off anyway and spent most of the day getting wet but I found 8 geocaches and went to places I would never have dreamt of stopping along that route. My first was an easy find in the car park of Grassholme reservoir, followed by a walk to an old quarry. I then drove through Middleton-in-Teesdale and discovered a wonderful area north of the town along the Hudeshope Beck where there were lime kilns and an old quarry to investigate. I found a cache along a draughty valley where I got wet feet and I parked beside a stream and followed it for half a mile or so to a sheepfold where I found “She’s fallen in the water” cache, so named as someone fell in the stream when setting up this stash. I also had a lovely stroll along Billshope Beck, not somewhere I would have thought of walking before.

However, the biggest find of the day came when I did the EarthCache at Harehope. Just east of Frosterley is an old quarry where Frosterley Marble (which is really a limestone) used to be retrieved. An EarthCache usually involves one looking at the surrounding in a Geographical, Geological or Environmental way. There is a wonderful “Geology Garden” here with information and hands on rock investigation, along with a lovely walk along part of the Weardale Way to view the Frosterley Marble in situ in the most fantastic little gorge below a bridge. Now, without geocaching, I would never have found this. I would also never have found out about the Harehope Quarry Project which hosts educational and community events and has turned the whole area into a nature reserve and is developing an organic smallholding; what a fantastic way to make use of an old quarry.

By now I was pretty damp and I made my last cache of the day much later than planned; it was a drive by but precarious retrieval – the cache was in the hollow of a tree but up a steep, stony slope. I made my way back onto the fells for another comfy night pleased with what I had done but disappointed in that I hadn’t even made a start on the caches in Stanhope which had been my intention for the afternoon!

Well, the Stanhope caches took me most of Sunday! I was definitely over optimistic there! But what a great walk! I started down by the River Wear on a blowy, clear day (which later spat on me a bit), investigating the Weardale railway along with several caches on the Stanhope Saunter. I then hit the Stanhope Ramble and that was great. Just be wary at cache #2 – I ended up head downhill, leg wrapped round a hawthorn bush at one point and I’m still not quite sure how I got myself out of it (let alone in that position!). I went way above Stanhope where I could see the evidence of both its agricultural and industrial heritage; there’s evidence that goes right back to Roman times round here!

I eventually was back in town, eating an ice cream by the stepping stones, then back to my ‘van’ after 7½ miles. I then discovered I could get on the net with my cell!! It’s a new Hero and it has been so useful this holiday – I was able to log all the previous caches and those in Stanhope.

I left late afternoon, driving through Rookhope and to a good spot of the road above Allenheads (where I could also use my cell for logging caches). I did 6 caches on the way so I settled down to cook chicken curry, enjoy a glass of Chardonnay and plan the trip towards Hadrian’s Wall for Monday.

I was up and away Monday morning, doing three caches down Allendale then I veered off to Haltwhistle CCC site. It was a beautiful day but I needed water, to carry out my least favourite job of owning a motorhome (no handy guy to do it for me!) and I decided to have a lazy afternoon reading and logging caches by the river. It was my rest day!

Tuesday dawned nice and ….wet! So it was some retail therapy (aka buying supplies in Tescos in Hexham) followed by working my way to Hadrian’s Wall via caches on the Tyne and on top of an interesting Iron Age settlement above the originally named Wall (no offense intended). There is evidence of round houses atop this hill which was a short but steep and, in some places, muddy climb. It was also one of those caches where I really wished the cache owner was a little bit more specific than ‘under a large boulder’ when there were about 20 of them! I found it eventually and it had a Travel Bug in it, so that made it all worthwhile.

Then began my short tour of Hadrian’s Wall by motorhome. I had decided to leave the caches actually on the wall in the middle third as I had worked out 2 good walks for these. I was after the ones I could walk to from the road and I did 5 out of the 6 I had intended; I couldn’t park in Vindolandia as it was nearing closing time.

There is a lot of Roman remains to see around here; Housesteads is a great visit, as is Chesters and, of course, Vindolandia where excavation continues today. I made a slight detour to Crindledykes, old limestone kilns for a quick drive by. I had had quite a successful day and was happy to settle for the evening near Lambley.

Of course, the day to go home is the nicest! I setoff towards Alston, doing a couple of caches on the way, then went for a short walk along the enthusiasts railway for another find. The one onto of Hartside was disappointingly absent and I didn’t do ones round Appleby as I was very busy – it’s Appleby Horse Fair this weekend. I finished with a visit to Long Meg which is a virtual cache – you answer a question and take a photo and email it to the owner so I did that!

I trundled down the M6, home, pondering on what I had discovered in this trip. I think the main thing is that I went to many places I would never have dreamed of stopping let alone getting out of a vehicle and going for a walk. I also honed my skills in turning my van round, learnt that there are very few places where you can’t stop for a cache and also thoroughly enjoyed, as always, my time in my campervan. Can’t think of a better way to see this wonderful country of ours!

Originally published in Issue 4 of FTF Geocacher magazine.

By Jan Kent

Hi, I’m Jan Kent, a teacher of 53 and have owned a motorhome for 7 years now. I’m on my second; the first was very old and didn’t last long but by then I’d got the bug. I now have a coach built autoroller and I love it. I have recently discovered geocaching and use a Garmin GPS 60; it wasn’t cheap but it sure does the job.