Friday 3 June 2022 - Monday 6 June 2022

So, another eventful weekend came to an end. This weekend was full of Geocaching though!

For those of you who have followed along here for a while, you probably know that I (Kim) like to do geocaching. For those of you who don’t know what it is, you can read more about in on their website. Simply explained you look for containers (commonly plastic lunch boxes, but they can look like whatever) that contains a log book (a piece of paper or a note book) and these can be found because you know the coordinates of the hiding spots and then there’s normally hints to help you find it. Because it is hidden, and sometimes really well :)

There are aaaall kinds of types that you can possibly imagine. From small containers hidden in road signs, to fake birdhouses in trees, to fake rocks, to caches hidden under water or in caves.

Anyhow, you can do your geocaching however you like, but I like it varied, and I like statistics because I’m a nerd 🤓 Lukas prefer quality over quantity and only logs the very hardest ones.

Friday 3 June:

Right after work, Lukas picked me up at work in Västerås and we drove south. We first stopped in Hjälmaresund. First for me to grab a geocache and then to stop at the camping there for an obligatory ice cream (and sandwich), a long tradition for Lukas and his family.

We then stopped a few times every time we passed a new municipality, for me to find geocaches. We passed Katrineholm, and then stopped properly in Vingåker by Forsby Kalkbrott (limestone quarry).

After Forsby Kalkbrott we continued south. Passed Finspång, Motala and arrived in Vadstena. I remember being here once, back in 2015 when my best friend lived here, but I didn’t remember basically anything. I especially didn’t remember what the town looked like, but the beauty this summer night astonished me. Unfortunately, the sun dipped behind a few clouds shortly after we arrived, and I never managed to catch the magical golden hour in a picture.

After shopping food and doing a tour of Vadstena, it was beginning to get dark. So we continued south once more, to Omberg. A place I’ve only heard about before. Here we found a spot beside all the other campers, and went to sleep.

Saturday 4 June:

We woke to a grey morning, left our camping spot and decided to get up to Ombergs Hjässa. When we were in the area we also found Sweden’s (potentially) tallest tree and of course a few geocaches. One of them, Lukas had to climb a tree to get to!

After Omberg, we finally went to Linköping (but of course another stop for another new municipality on the way). We were supposed to go straight to the geocaching MEGA-event (an event with several hundreds of geocachers coming to visit, many from other countries as well) in the morning, but ended up having lunch at Lukas’ aunt Pia’s place instead. We had a great time, and it was nice to get to see how she lived as well.
Then we finally went to the event. We had some plans to go to more of the lectures than we did, but there were so many other things to do there as well! People to talk to, things to buy, temporary puzzle-like geocaches to solve… In the end, we managed to take all of the temporary caches (puh!) but just barely.
After the event we started walking around in Linköping, trying to take as many other geocaches as possible when we were here too. But our phone battery was quickly running out, and stupidly enough we forgot our powerbanks in the car! And by now it was way too far away too…

So when both of our phones were dead, we reluctantly headed back to the car. Now the sun was setting again, we ate some food and started to drive towards next day’s event in Norrköping. We reached the parking lot quite late in the evening again, so we hurried up, and went to sleep. Once again in the middle of another group of cars and campers, but this time - they were all geocachers.

Sunday 5 June:

Another day on the geocaching adventure. This time, the weather was great from the start, and would stay like that for the rest of the day.
First up in the morning, we participated in a so called CITO (“Cache In - Trash Out”)-event. Which meant hanging out with people and cleaning up the area! Really great initative. The spot was rather clean though, so we didn’t find a lot. But now it’s even cleaner 😊

After the CITO it was time for the event that we had been looking forward so much to! It was named “+T4” because in geocaching, geocaches are graded in difficulty (D-rating) and terrain (T-rating), with 5 being the highest number. +T4 means that the terrain-level during this event, 4 or higher.

The event started with everyone having to hike up a 500 m long, very steep skiing slope. The burning sun didn’t exactly help here.
At the top, we could hang around with other geocachers, eat ice cream that the event-owners had brought, and after a little while, it was time to release some new geocaches! Which is always the most exciting part of a geocaching-event, with people running in all different directions, to try to become first to find (FTF) on as many geocaches as possible, or some particular ones.

We ended up hanging out with m.g.l, Nalcolina, Sillen and eddalitho. A really nice and chill, but also fun group of people! We managed to become first to find as much as three geocaches, and then spent three hours on the very last one we took for the day. In short - it was a great day. We climbed ladders, explored abandoned places, crawled in caves full of spiders (or well, luckily I didn’t have to) and I got to practise repelling and ascending a rope. Such an awesome day!

We finished the day with passing some more new municipalities like Oxelösund and Trosa, before arriving at Lukas’ dad’s place to stay the night there.

Monday 6 June:

Last day on our trip we spent the morning with Lukas’ dad, and also visited one of Lukas’ old friends. Then it was time to head back home again.

On the whole way I didn’t take any geocaches, and I didn’t even think about it until we started reaching Enköping. We also wanted to stop for ice cream, so maybe we could both find a geocache and an ice cream?

Then I checked the map, and saw that there was an event in Enköping. And when? Already in 20 min! By Sillen! Of course we would go. So we stopped, had a really nice time socializing with the geocachers at the event, and we also got recommendations for an ice cream place.

All in all, a really great weekend. Super eventful, with a little bit of everything.