Mega Time in Scotland

A fortnight in the north of Britain ... geocaching of course

Wow! I've just stepped off a flight in London from Edinburgh having just spent two weeks in Scotland, mainly geocaching but also sightseeing too. I flew in to Aberdeen, oil city of the UK and was met by grey breeze-block housing and a confusing set of new highways that weren't on the map. The folk up there were very friendly though and there was plenty to see and do in Scotland's third largest city.

The hire car I picked up wasn't the one I had booked. I'd ordered a budget little car for myself with enough space for a small suitcase. Instead, I got a 2019 Mercedes A class, complete with tablet-style display and sat nav. It was a lot of fun driving it though the low suspension didn't agree with some of the off-road scenarios.

Monday - a fair chunk of this day was consumed picking up many of the Geoart series around Banchory. Superb walking south of the River Dee in Forestry Commission paths, good sunny weather and no midges. I found a couple of dozen caches, some of which feature in a video I'm working on.

Tuesday - the Aberdeenshire Mega event organised hosted a dolphin watching experience on the Tuesday morning. Parking in a small car park, the place suddenly became swarmed with anoraks and binoculars. I did see some dolphins and managed to capture a brief exert on my camera. It was also an opportunity to go hunt for some more lunchboxes using military satellites.

Wednesday - a visit to Stonehaven and a chance to try Groundspeak's Adventure App on my smartphone as part of a Lab Cache puzzle. I wasn't too impressed with the performance of the app. My mobile started at 100% charged, however, the app requires the display to be on, a 4G signal to be active and GPS functionality. The rain didn't help as this confused the app and the device. By the time I'd completed the 10-lab cache adventure the phone was down to 5% remaining battery. With that adventure completed, I walked up the 4km coast path to a castle and met up with scores of other geocachers, many of whom had driven there in their camper vans.

Thursday - what I call mountain day, a hundred or so geocachers made the journey out to Glenmuick on the Balmoral estate to take in the views. Many simply returned to their campervans and headed back to the towns, others including my geofriend Omiwahn, hit the paths. Once we'd left the warden's hut the paths opened up and actually we found there were only two of us. Occasionally some distant outlines of humans could be spotted ahead or behind, but we certainly weren't fighting for space. Two hours later and we'd ascended one of the hills for a geocache find and some spectacular views. It was also time for a picnic, to which my geofriend told me that I was well prepared!

Friday - it had to rain on one day. Friday's planned visit to a highland games event morphed into a dash round Banchory collecting more lab caches and a few trads. Fortunately my apartment was within very close proximity and I'd gone out and left all the radiators on maximum which meant I could quickly dry out my clothes ready for the evening's events. Friday evening soon came and a bite of pizza at the mega event site followed by a dance with Mo from the Teddies at an Old School Disco, and soon I was at the Teddies' house with a £200 bottle of whisky that I'd brought up from home. Keith Mac Teddy, Omran Mac Omiwahn and I soon demolished half the bottle between us and agreed as whiskies go it wasn't so bad!

Saturday - the big day arrived and the skies were clear. I arrived early and picked up a few caches in the nearby estate of Crathes Castle (at which I managed to sneak a tour earlier in the week). As 10 o'clock approached a line of prospective FTFers formed by the entrance to the main marquee while a bag pipe ensemble piped ceremoniously to officially open the event. During much of the day I met up with many geocachers and with video camera in hand, recorded our experiences. It was a good day and I met many people including new friends from Canada, Germany, Sweden, Australia and Belgium. I even met up with some lackies from Groundspeak and had a chat with those guys too, all of whom were impressed with the location and turnout. Eventually, the evening arrived and there was one more thing to do.. a Side-Tracked event for Side-Tracked Day at the nearby heritage railway. That event became a record breaker for the most attended S-T event ever!

Sunday - it was time to say goodbye to Aberdeenshire and a train was waiting for me to take me to Edinburgh. The route, much of which followed the coast and crossed many long bridges, got me in to Edinburgh where I quickly checked in to my city centre accommodation before heading out for the Fringe, the biggest arts festival in the world.

During the following week I attended some 12 shows including comedy, talk and theatre; I also geocached, ate haggis (not that bad really), geocached a bit more (including a webcam cache in Rose Street), sampled more local food, climbed Arthur's Seat, did some more geocaching... and a day trip to Glasgow where I took the Subway and geocached at many of the stations on the loop. Soon it was over and a flight home was due.

Thank you Scotland, I love you.

Watch the adventure on YouTube