Car Free Day

[+The Forester]

Today has been an international "car free" day. I dunno who dreams up these gimmicky ideas, but I'm a bit of a sucker for them if I think they're worthwhile.

 

Having looked at my stats on GCUK and having seen the appallingly high number of car miles I've driven in my comparatively low number of cachetrips, I thought I'd do my bit by going geocaching on horseback today. I borrowed a neighbour's horse and set off to bag a cache a few miles from Forester Towers, which I've been saving for a 'rainy day'.

 

There's something very satisfying about riding a horse and navigating by means of a $10Bn satellite system! It tickles my sense of irony. Along the way I checked out the location of a cache which I'm planning and did a good gallop in some newly created woodland. I enjoyed watching the speed readout and calling out the speed to the horse who seemed encouraged by the rising numbers. Horses have a way of communicating to their rider with their ears when they hear good news and the selective ear rotation was good. 30mph made her go faster and a whoopee from me that she was doing 35mph made her give an approving flick of both ears from astern to a slightly lowered position of full ahead.

 

Approaching the location of the cache, I talked the horse through the procedure and explained the concept to her. Horses understand the wishes of their riders, even if they don't understand the technowibble of what makes a GPSr's clock tick. They like to be told what is going on. I explained that I'd be doing a bit of walking about on my own two feet and that I'd be back shortly. She gave me that grunting whinny that they give when they're doubtful.

 

She was right to be doubtful. I came back empty-handed. It was a DNF. The cache was definitely a gonner.

 

Her contempt for me was visible and risible. She just wouldn't go faster than a fast walk. No canter, not even a trot. She was disgusted that my 'mission' had failed. She just mooched along, listening to me making my excuses and trying to come up with theories as to why the cache was not were it oughta have been. Her entire body language just screamed out something like "call this a good day out, you silly sod?" I was repeatedly rechecking the co-ords on my GPSr against the printout which I've been saving for months. I'd goofed somehow but did not have the wit to understand how.

 

Bringing her to F'Towers for a bit of munchies on some of the last of the lushest grass, I went back to the 'puter and rechecked. Ouch! The cache had been shelved many weeks ago and withdrawn following discovery that it was in a SSSI. My printout was old and completely out of date.

 

That'll teach me to be old-fashioned and to go geocaching using non-modern technology.

 

Horses for courses? No thanks! The buggers laugh when you screw up. Cars don't do that.

 

 

Cheers, The Forester

[+StrongGale]

That sounds absolutely wonderful, even with a DNF. Just wish I had access to a horse.... :-(

 

Dom

[lakeuk]

Today has been an international "car free" day. I dunno who dreams up these gimmicky ideas,

And there was an advert on TV this week for Grandparents Day this Sunday

[Nediam]

I'm afraid I used my car today as I didn't know it was "car free day". Even more ufortunately I was at work so couldn't go out and do any car free caching despite a new cache being very local!

 

As regards to using a horse, no way, not ever, never in a month of sundays am I gonna use one of them things!

 

I recently had to do a bodge job at the stables where my sister keeps her horse. The beast had learnt that if it leant up against the stable door it would pop open and it could get out!

What did this highly intelligent beast do? Make a bid for freedom, find a suitable mare for a "amicable aquaintance", ride off into the sunset.......No! the stupid thing ate EVERYTHING in the entire stable block, nearly gave itself colic and finally ended up stuck in the muck heap!!!!!

 

Solution to the problem?.... a bit of wood fixed to the door!

 

I am convinced that horses are putting on the "stupid act"! What else could explain an animal being able to defeat a miriad of locks and bolts on a door just to get some food and then, in the next instant, being terrified of a bit of plastic bag blowing in the wind, stuck in a hedge!!!!

 

And as for doing 35mph on something with a mind of it's own! I'd demand a seatbelt or preferably a parachute!!!!

 

Seriously though, well done to the Forrester for having a go at getting rid of the car and trying something new!

Edited September 23, 2005 by nediam

[nobby.nobbs]

good for you, didn't know until half way through day but couldn't have used car less. daughter to school 25miles away not possible by public transport and then the dump with refuse. long walk with very heavy bags. didn't use it apart from that though.

[+Globetrotter.uk]

I don't have a car, so I have to plan my cache trips very carefully. I tend to get a bus or train cental to a view caches then just set off looking for a good route to the caches. 15 mile walk planned this saturday.

[+Kitty Hawk]

Forester - great story well told, good that you make the most of your opportunities.

 

My 2 year old was ill, so Beth stayed home with him, giving me the opportunity to walk to school with Finn - a round trip of two miles that would be good to do everyday, except for having to have Finn and Zak in two places 6 miles apart at the same time.

 

Then I played golf, OK, I had to drive to the course but it must count, I even car shared...

[+Moote]

Most of my caching has been done by bus or rail, 90 caches in about 6 months, I'm sure that if I fixed the gear box on my car I would have hit the 100 mark by now!

 

Saying that I did have a day in the peaks on public transport which cost £8 in total, when my car was running that used to cost me around £20 so I'm better off!

 

moote

[+The Forester]

I don't have a car, so I have to plan my cache trips very carefully.

I'm full of admiration for cachers who do it that way. There's one guy in Edinburgh who does most of his cacheing trips by bike, occasionally using the train for long-range departures. Well over 400 caches done that way.

 

The propagandists who devised yesterday's car free day have got a point. We'd all be happier and healthier if we used cars less. Collectively, we are screwing up our planet which our excessive consuption of oil (currently 2,975,000,000 gallons a day!) and the effects of global warming are no longer a theoretical potential but are real and can be seen on newscasts almost every day.

 

I think some people are beginning to review whether they need to use cars quite so much. Near Forester Towers there is a local village primary school, which used to have a convoy of large cars delivering and collecting children for a one or two mile trip. One of the parents, who was the organiser of a car pool rota, sat down one day and mapped out the routes that the individual children were taking to and from school. She realised that the 6 mile round trip to ferry four children was absurd when she saw the network of footpaths.

 

Now, unless the weather is unusually bad, the kids walk an average of about a mile each instead of doing a 6 mile car journey. They are noticeably healthier and happier, they eat properly and they sleep well without the usual bedtime tantrums. They have developed good observational skills and are much more aware of their natural surroundings.and the developing passage of the seasons. They've even started taking their litter home, whereas previously they would chuck sweetie wrappers etc out of the car window without a thought, they now even pick up other people's litter because the sight of it offends them. Their teachers say that the kids are noticeably more alert in the morning and more attentive and have longer concentration spans.

 

All of that came about as a result of one intelligent woman sitting down one evening and studying a large scale map of the local area around the village and really learning how to read it. She was surprised to "discover" the network of ancient footpaths and to find that the journey on foot is a fraction of the distance along the twisty country lanes. OK, so she had a wee bit of help from a geocacher, but her findings and conclusions were all her own.

 

The icing on the cake is that she has also calculated how much money she is saving by not driving her LandCruiser those 6 miles, twice a day! That thing, according to one of the car magazines, is phenomenally expensive when you calculate its operating costs on a per mile basis. The four families in that car pool have made an agreement with eachother that the money saved by not driving the cars be spent on books for the children. Once a fortnight the kids are allowed to choose one hardback and two paperbacks each to add to the book exchange that they've got going as an incidental outcome of the 'new transport' system. A further incidental and unexpected spinoff is that most of the kids have developed a love of reading books. One of the mothers just about fainted when she saw her nipper going and switching the telly off one rainy evening and settling down with a carefully selected book!

 

It just goes to show what can be done with a map in the right hands!

 

Cheers, The Forester

[+Jaz666]

I don't have a car, so I have to plan my cache trips very carefully. I tend to get a bus or train cental to a view caches then just set off looking for a good route to the caches. 15 mile walk planned this saturday.

Same here.

Any cache trip is a major event if you don't have a car. In 3 months I've managed to visit around 25 caches, with a car I'd have managed all 139 caches within 10 miles of my house by now!

[+Birdman-of-liskatraz]

I've been without a car for a while now - In this neck of teh woods it's getting harder and harder to get a reasonable set of caches to do in a day. Though Stueys set of Exter Bridge caches looks kind of tempting.

 

Theres a lot to be said for setting groups of ( or a nice multi cache) that can be easily done using public transport.

 

I'm in the midst of a multi using the little Looe - Liskeard branch line.

[+Papakas]

I'm just off to do a couple of caches by motorcycle!

[+Globetrotter.uk]

As a cacher without a car, I was fortunate to have the help of Victor aka Globetrotters.us when he was in the UK and his hire car to drive me around the countryside which was not so public transport friendly. Also on a trip up north a fellow cacher was very helpful welcoming me to his neck of the woods and driving me to some rural caches.

[+Team Maddie UK]

As regards to using a horse, no way, not ever, never in a month of sundays am I gonna use one of them things!

 

The aches and pains in my neck and shoulders today are a direct result of trusting one of those wonderful beasts many years ago in Egypt so I must concur. However,

 

I'm just off to do a couple of caches by motorcycle!

 

doesn't quite capture the essence of the event I fear

 

Martin