Earth-cache Wissel

On this sunny, cold last day of the year 2008, we went for a nice earth cache(GC18FHK - De Dun) nearby where we are staying.
It is an area with dunes formed by the river Rhine a long time ago.
At the start of the walk in the dune area.

We had to walk a round of about 2 km through this area and find the information signposts on which the answers to the questions could be found.

Looking for clues on all the very nice displayed information.


We found all the answers at 15:30 and made a picture of the bears at the tree that was asked to make.

The dogs in a winter wonderland.

On our way back posing in this nice area.

Kalkar, Germany

We traveled to Kalkar, Germany.
Today we did a multi-cache (GC1C02Q - Historischer Stadtrundgang Kalkar) that lead us through the historical centre of this town.
Here we are walking towards the town and I'm calling Toby...

and next I'm calling Brego...

At the start point we discovered this tag on a tree, it's a tag of an old cache that must have located here, later on we discovered another one as well.

In Kalkar a lot of old buildings exist,

Some of them have typical roof-top as you can see on the next picture.

The walk brought us to the town museum.

And at the end we passed by a very beautiful wind-mill.

And at the end the reward of finding the stash-box.

We logged it at 15:15, this was our first German cache and the 80th in total.
Inside the box we found a TB that we exchanged with a coin.

Lauwersoog

We are staying at a camping site in Lauwersoog and in the neighbourhood only one (young) cache (GC1FZY1 - Orchid Defense) is hidden. Only three cachers were able to discover it, and a lot didn't find it, so for us a challenge. It is a multi-cache that takes about a 7 KM walk. We had to walk about 800 meters from the camping-site to the start so that would make the total of 8.5 Km's without making mistakes.
It was a cold but very sunny day, and here we are at the start of the walk.

We had to walk from way-point to way-point, through a very nice area, with a lot of water that was frozen today.

One way-point was at a watching tower where we had to find dices but we didn't find them here.

Here the dogs are searching for water while we are searching for way-points.

A nice bench to take a break. The way-point that was next was the last one, we needed to find it, because it should give us the formula to the final cache location. We searched for almost half an hour for that way-point. What a good feeling to find it after we almost decided to quit.

And as a reward the final cache. Which we had to search also for almost half an hour, but we found it and logged it at 17:00.

Inside the cache we discovered two TB's and we exchanged them with two TB's we brought with us.

Afsluitdijk

We continued our holiday trip and left the island Texel. On the road towards the harbour we picked up the cache (GC1BHXQ - Caching Texel 28 - Juttersmuseum) that we were to late for last night (the museum closes at 17:00). So today's cache-vehicle.

We logged this on at 12:00 as our #75.

Near the harbour itself two caches are hidden, we choose to pick up the (GC16ZAZ - Caching Texel 22 - NIOZ) and after this one the boat arrived so we left the other one for the next trip to this island.

We logged it at 12:30 as our (#76)

For our trip towards Groningen we had to pass the "Afsluitdijk" and at the monument a virtual cache is located. We had to answer a question for which the answer could be found over here and we had to make a picture with a famous statue (not this one).

We logged it at 14:10 and this was our first virtual cache.

A couple of KM's further another cache was hidden (GCEAB0), we discovered this one after a short walk, the doggies need to exercise somewhere and this was a cold but nice spot.
We logged it at 14:30

We left a coin in exchange for a dwarf that was hidden here.

Second Christmas Day

On the Second Christmas day we took our bikes again to make a tour to the South of the island and try to find some more caches located over there.
We figured out a tour of about 30 Km that would bring us back to the camping site again and where we could stop regularly, with the longest part of 4.5 km.
The first cache (GC11KK6 - Caching Texel 09 - Jac. P. Thijsse) we found after about a 3 KM ride.

We logged it at 13:20 as our #70.

The second we discovered after again a short ride (4 Km) (GC11KKA - Caching Texel 11 - Uitkijkpunt), which gave a spectacular view on the dunes.

We logged this one at 14:00.

We stopped for a coffee and while we were enjoying this, a couple of horses passed by.


Next for the third stop of the day (GC11G6X - Caching Texel 5 - schotse hooglanders) brought us to our favorite cows, Scottish Highlanders, who are walking around in an astonishing surrounding.

We logged it at 14:55.

The fourth of the day (GC11G6P - Caching Texel 4 - prot. kerk Den Hoorn) a cache hidden near a lovely church.

We logged this one at 15:45.

And the fifth and last of the day (GC1BH0R - Caching Texel 24 - Grondwatermeter) was discovered at the beginning of a forest.

We logged that one at 16:45. This makes our total caches found 74.

That made our total bicycle trip almost 30 KM and the dogs walked all the way besides the bike. It was very cold but lovely sunny weather. We are now enjoying the warmth of the motor home.

Christmas Caching

On Christmas day we went for two nature areas. In both areas an earth cache is located and nearby both also a traditional is hidden.
We took the bicycle to go to (GC11JJK - Caching Texel 7 - Slufter), which we discovered and logged at 13:10.

Immediately followed by the Earth cache (GC15Y6G - Texel: De Slufter)
We took the picture at 13:25 and we had to figure out a height difference.

Then we took the bikes to ride to the Bertusnol, the highest dune on Texel.
We walked through beautiful dunes.

First we had to climb the dune and on top we could make a picture for the earth cache (GC1HNER - Bertusnol).

Next we looked for the traditional hidden here. We logged that at 14:45 as our #69.

We decided to walk along the beach towards our bikes again.

This is always a reward for all of us.

But for sure the bears love the sea.