Yesterday was an awesome day. The weather was nice and warm so that meant it was a perfect day to go Geocaching. We sat down and planned the route which would take us all the way from the beach to a mountaintop 235 meters above sea level. We packed our bags, got on the bus and was off.

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is a real life outdoor treasure hunt. People from all around the world hide boxes and containers tied to a set of GPS coordinates. These are called caches. Other people then go to these coordinates and find the caches, sign the logbook and put it back. There's millions of caches hidden all around the world. It's a great activity to get you going outside, discovering new places and being active. I've written a more in depth explanation in this post.

The beach

We started off low with two caches found near the beach. When we arrived at the first site we were afraid we might not find the cache. A lot of trees had fallen down and the whole place was a mess. We did however see that the cache had been found just a week ago and the fallen trees looked older than that. After some digging around we found it after all. The original hiding spot, under quite a large rock, was wholly intact. We picked up the cache signed the log and went off to the next.

The beach. The cache is hidden in the trees to the right.

This place was a real mess as you can see.

My girlfriend managed to climb through the debris to find the cache.

We then set off for the next cache which was on a beach not far off. About a 350 meter walk. The walk took us through a museum. A lot of old buildings has been moved here from across Norway to form a little hamlet of sorts. A couple of times a year they have viking and medieval age arrangements to show off how life in Norway was back then. I used to go here a lot as a kid so it was cool to see the place again. I haven't been here in years now.

The site of the cache was much better here. The cache was hidden in plain view but still you would only see it if you knew it was there. We logged the cache and stopped up to take some pictures.

Part of the museum and hamlet we walked through.

The cache was hidden near this boat shed.

Short stop before climbing the mountain

Before starting out climb up the mountain we had one last stop. A cache that we had looked for once before but didn't find. It was time to get our revenge. Last time we were there it had just rained and our footwear was bad. We never found a dry route to the cache so we had to let it go. This time it was dry so we made our way through the trees to find the cache.

After we found it we did however see that we had over complicated things. We never had to walk through the woods and trees to get to the cache. There was a perfectly narrow gap between some buildings and fences that led straight to the cache. Had we seen that we could have found it the last time we was here.

I took some pictures to show you all how a hidden cache could look.

Hidden underneath some rocks. This is a classic hiding spot.

The boxes are often marked with some instructions in case muggles find them.

There's often swag for trading inside.

The climb

We then started the climb up the mountain. It's a lovely trip and not so steep. This mountain is just between where we live and where we took the bus to so the plan was to walk over it to get home. We did however make one last stop. On the very top there's a view point which is pretty awesome. Pictures can't justify how awesome it is.

We had packed our backpack full of food and goodies. We brought sandwiches, some strawberries and mangos, coffee, beer and chocolate. It was absolutely awesome and a perfect place to eat lunch.

There is a cache hidden on this location but since this is a place we've been often we've found it long ago.

The view really can't be justified by this picture.

The Kvikk Lunsj is a classic on any Norwegian hike.

Happy camper with his beer.

Lunching with a view.

The menu.

Kvikk Lunsj

I actually want to dedicate some space to the Kvikk Lunsj. This chocolate has been around for as long as anyone in Norway can remember. It's a common companion for anyone in Norway going on a hike. No hike is complete without a Kvikk Lunsj.

It's a pretty standard chocolate with biscuits in the core and it tastes delicious. What's cool though is that inside the wrapping is written something known in Norway as "Fjellvettreglene" which would translate into the Norwegian Mountain Code. It's nine rules commonly known by most Norwegian. Here's what it would say in English:

Plan your trip and inform others about the route you have selected.
Adapt the planned routes according to ability and conditions.
Pay attention to the weather and the avalanche warnings.
Be prepared for bad weather and frost, even on short trips.
Bring the necessary equipment so you can help yourself and others.
Choose safe routes. Recognize avalanche terrain and unsafe ice.
Use a map and a compass. Always know where you are.
Don’t be ashamed to turn around.
Conserve your energy and seek shelter if necessary. ^DNT

And that pretty much concluded our little hike. It was an awesome day and an awesome place to eat lunch. We're having a patch of rough weather this week but then it looks like we're seeing the sun for the next weeks. We'll definitely be doing this again.

I'll leave you off with some extra photos we took on our trip. Enjoy!