Geocaching On a Damp Day in Bratislava

The forecast was for rain today. After not experiencing any for 10 weeks, we were actually looking forward to it. It was supposed to come mainly after lunch, so we decided to head out for some geocaching around the city beforehand.

We managed to find 10 caches on a 5.5 km walk — a mixture of physical caches (find the container) and virtual ones (take a photo). A couple were in places we couldn’t have searched yesterday because of the tour group crowds. But this morning, we were early enough that it wasn’t too busy. Below is a picture of me returning a physical container — the size of a film canister magnetised under a manhole cover — while posing for a photo as the tourists do. 😉

We came across another couple in a park who were very obviously looking for the cache we’d just found. They weren’t very stealthy, so I walked up to them without them noticing and gave them a bit of a fright. 😂 They were too focused on figuring out where the cache was hidden instead of looking out for muggles (people who don’t know about geocaching — also a Harry Potter term). One half of the couple was from Canada, and the other was a Kiwi who has lived in Australia most of his life. After a quick chat, we continued our walk.

At one virtual cache, we had to note how far from home we are. I read a few previous logs, the furthest of which was 1,300 km from home. Amateurs! I bet they can’t beat 17,975 km! It’s a shame we changed our plans and aren’t going to Portugal this trip — there’s a spot there which is the exact antipode of Nelson that I’d love to visit. Yes, I know: I’m a bit of a geek! 🤓

Towards the end of the walk, it did actually start to rain. Not heavy, but enough to get us damp. We hadn’t bothered to take our rain jackets and didn’t need them anyway. Our last stop of the morning was a nice bakery we’d passed earlier. Then it was back to base for a late morning tea break, and soon after that it was lunchtime.

The afternoon was spent trying to figure out logistics for future travel — including, would you believe, looking at flights to exit Europe. ☹️ Actually, I don’t think it will be sad to leave; we’ll be well and truly ready by then. With our Schengen days left and one more non-Schengen country still to visit, we’ve worked out that we’ll most likely fly out around the middle of October — a bit under two months from now. All going well, we’ll stop halfway back to New Zealand and spend a month or more there, with the intention of being home by late November or very early December. 🤞

Oh, and the rain never really turned into anything much. Cloudy and cooler all day, but very little actual rainfall.

We didn’t feel like cooking again tonight, and with a quick Google search we found a Vietnamese takeaway and restaurant with great reviews. I’d actually Googled Thai takeaways, but this place came up instead. It was called Au Co and turned out to be very nice and good value: crispy chicken plus a chicken curry with rice and two Coke Zeros, all for €16.20.