Around Aberdeen: Geocaching Part 2

Since I last wrote about geocaching, I've made several more attempts at finding caches. I've had some mixed results.

Since I attempted to find it, the Wells of Bon Accord - Chanonry Well Pump cache has been suspended. I'm bummed that I can't count that as a find, but I figured out that I actually found the spot where it was supposed to have been hidden. On the morning of December 10th, I attempted two more caches and came up empty on both of them: Brig O' Balgownie, and Snow Kirk. Early in the afternoon on the 17th, I made another attempt at Snow Kirk and still came up empty despite knowing that I was in the right place and spending about ten minutes looking around trying to find it. There are still a lot of decomposing leaves around there, so I might try again in the Spring. Similarly, I'm pretty sure I know where Brig O' Balgownie is, but it was still pretty slick and snowy in places from the snowfall on the 4th and 5th, so I elected not to get caked in mud or risk falling into the River Don right before class. I may make another run at Brig O' Balgownie during the long break. However, on the night of the 17th, I found The Royal Cache - without even needing the GPS, as luck would have it. This was a good pick-me-up after two failures at Snow Kirk. A few days later, I made a run at two other caches in the Wells of Bon Accord series: Wells of Bon-Accord - Corbie Well in Union Terrace Gardens near City Barbers and the William Wallace statue, and Wells of Bon-Accord - Castlegate Well near The Archibald Simpson. I couldn't find the former, but I found the latter.

There are a few more spots near places where I frequent, or within walking distance, where I may try to find some caches in the near future. Up near Old Aberdeen, on the south side of the River Don, are Carlotta's Cache and Watch the birdies. Hopefully I can bring my average up a bit!

I've also decided that I want to try to add some geocaching adventures to some of my travels while I'm over here. I think I've scaled down my travel expectations a bit due to cost and time constraints, but I'd like to get back to Muscat, and I definitely plan to head back to Orkney once or twice. With all of the GPS work I did in Orkney, I'm actually sort of disappointed with myself for not having looked up a few caches in advance, because I could have found some in locations like the Earl's Palace, St. Magnus Cathedral, and Wideford Hill. In Oman, there are caches in a number of places I hope to visit, like Salalah, Masirah, Jebel Akhdar, Musandam, and of course, Muscat. Given that Oman is a bit more of an ordeal to get to than Orkney, I'll be sure to arrive prepared!