My Son & Cache Events

If you’ve been following my Blog, you will know about Stephens run. Unfortunately it is having a major knock on affect! Stephen has CFS which is a bit like running a car with a leaking petrol tank, you soon run out. Well his run to get to his mum has knocked the stuffing out of him. Over the last few days his legs have given way on him several times, his speech has gone slurred. Nette spoke to the consultant and He’s insisted that Stephen goes into Glan Clwyd Hospital for assessment and physiotherapy. So tomorrow he goes in until Friday.

Saturday arrived and off we headed to Holyhead for Fast Pub But No Wet Feet at the port we were soon checked in and went straight onto the boat. I had a walk around and Nette put a call out on the tannoy. But unfortunately Nette, Stephanie and I were the only cachers on the ship. Ah well! At least we can say that we’ve been to an Geocaching Event that took place in “No Country” in the world!

On our arrival in Dun Laoghaire we had to catch a shuttle bus into Dublin, as the Dart was down for maintenance work. When we got off the bus Stiffey By the Liffey was just around the corner, and the bus stop for going back to the port was right next to it. Nette who was in her wheelchair, so that she could cope with such a long day took the photo for the log.

Next we went to Memories by the Water on the way we found out that the Irish in Dublin are as much wheelchair friendly as everywhere else. They just try walking through the wheelchair. Well over time I’ve learned my lesson! We’re not moving out of the way they do or they get run down. Once at the location which is a set of beautiful statues. Nette and I raced to find the answer first, as it is a virtual cache. Nette beat me. Once again Stephanie and I posed for photos.

We went off from Memories By the Water to do Learning Money and Sea Food. This is a brilliant 3 part Multi, the first part Involves finding out information outside a large bank. Stephanie and I actualy looked at the correct location and missed the info. It was only when I was getting ready to cross over the road that I spotted it. The second part is in Trinity collage, by this time Nette was dying to go to the toilet, this was made even worse as Pushed her around looking for the next part. As Trinity has a cobbled floor inside the quads (just think about sitting in a wheel chair going over cobbles being bounced around). After about 6 tries I was able to spot the required info (if you ever do this cache, you will find out what blocks you from finding it). We then popped into the campus coffee shop for a brew and to use the facilitys (and also to work out the final location), after which we set off for the final part. Nette spotted where it was from across the road. Finding and retrieving the cache involved the 3 of us as the area was full of muggles, one tip use the chance to have a photo taken to retrieve the container. If you only ever get a couple of hours in Dublin, this is a must do cache!

Cache completed it was time to head to Irish\British Geocaching Meet Up. When we got into Doyles already waiting for us was our old (as in known for a good while)friends Joanne and Becky (Pengy & Tigger)and new friends Donnacha and Bootle, during the event we made more friendships. Even though many did not travel from the UK, I'm glad to say that cachers from Ireland, Scotland,England and Wales were present.

After the event we went on to do Castle Rock another great cache, and one where the container initialy caught me out. What makes this one even more special for those who take the time to stroll around. Is the names of all the competitors who took part in the very first Summer Disabled Olympics to have taken place outside the US. It certainly made me feel humble.

Our final cache of the day was Swift Liberty another great multi, and one where retrieving the final cache is difficult due to the amount of muggles around.

Time for me to return to Stephens stay in hospital. Because of his age he went into Paddington Children's Ward, and was put into a single room, all through his stay the biggest problem was boardum.He was assessed each day and had physiotherapy. Each day a group of student doctors came to see him, one of them his description was "Shes Fit". All the Doctors, Nurse and Physio's described him as a lovely,well mannered boy, and they wished that more of the children that stay on the ward were like him.

As it's getting late and I've already bored the pants off you, I catch up with the news on my new cache, and the earth caches I did at the weekend with Stephanie, also news about geocaching.org.uk tommorow.