Once upon a time, back in the annals of history, well about a month ago anyway, on 2^nd June 2010, we were out walking at Coughton Court near Studley.

As we strolled along minding our own business, we were accosted by a strange man who turned out to be “Swan of Avon” – well ok, I actually accosted him – sort of. I asked the fellow for directions and was impressed by the fact that he had a hand held GPS device…..and a map of the area. This was someone who was actually prepared and knew where he was going, unlike us!

We got talking and before I knew it, he had my wife on her hands and knees – steady now, wait for it – rummaging around inside the nearby hollow metal gatepost – see told you – looking for a Geocache. I knew he looked a strange one the second I laid eyes on him!

Anyway, this was our introduction to the fine art and our conversion from “Muggle” to one of the enlightened and I have to say a great big thank you to the man for that.

The next day I signed up for a premium member account at Geocaching.com and have been fairly obsessed with the whole thing ever since.

I use a Blackberry Bold 9000 with Geocache Navigator, Trimble Outdoors and Allsport GPS installed to combine Geocaching with general walking and also incorporate it into my daily running routine whenever possible – told you I was obsessed!

I have to say that Geocache Navigator is absolutely brilliant and it means that I can turn Geocaching on at a moments notice wherever I am without the need to visit websites or print off any sheets or co-ordinates or whatever. I tend to do this on a regular basis and have had to buy a second back up battery for my Blackberry to make sure it gets me through the day. Errr…did I mention I was obsessed??

My wife, I am glad to say, is almost as interested in Geocaching as I am, which is a good thing as it could have resulted in divorce and then I would have had to hunt down “Swan of Avon” and make him apologise for changing our lives that fateful day.

So, that’s us as things stand at the moment.

As I write this we have logged 62 caches and counting.

I am just working on my first cache hide which is going to be a multi cache set in The Lickey Hills in south Birmingham.

The cache trail and final site will be on one of my favourite running routes, so if you are out there hunting it down one day and you see a mad looking bloke running past with a red and sweaty demeanour, ask him if he’s Dafthead and if it’s me I’ll probably be glad of the break to stop for a quick chat. If it’s not me, you might need to be ready to run yourself due to the fact that you’ve just called some random runner a “Daft Head” – some people may not take too kindly to that sort of thing.

Happy Caching!!

Myself, the wife and our “Drones” on Sandbanks Beach July 2010