CACHE IN HAND
Recently, I have been looking at ways to expand the experience of going on a photo walk, to include a different element to just taking photos of an area. To this end, I started to look at the possibility of geotagging my photographs, so that a random photograph of the countryside could be easily identified years later, by including some extra data with the photograph. Most phones will offer the ability to automatically include GPS mapping data, which makes cataloguing photographs a lot easier.
Whilst looking into GPS apps, I recalled the activity known as ‘geocaching’, which is a pastime involving tracking down hidden caches and logging them on a map. Originally, this would have been done by hand using maps and compass, but lately, it uses satellite GPS signals and a special app. Having downloaded the app on my phone, I checked the immediate area around my place of work and found there were a couple of small caches nearby. Caches vary in style and content and can either be a simple microcache which would contain a slip of paper or small log, for the finder to leave a name, or be something larger, like a plastic weatherproof box with small treasures or trinkets inside, for the finder to swap or move to another cache. My first cache was a small plastic lunchbox with a couple of small coins, a badge and a couple of trinkets inside, plus a slightly soggy logbook.
The app provides a gps co-ordinate, hints and general directions to the cache, then it’s down to the ‘player’ to use their detective skills to locate it. Sometimes a cache can be hidden in a hollow tree, under a hedge, in a hole in a wall or it might be magnetically attached to something.
As I was already going to be visiting Liverpool, to shoot the cathedral, I checked the location on the app and found two caches nearby. The first one was logged as being on the corner near St Luke’s Church - an empty shell which had been firebombed in the 1941 blitz and had stood empty ever since. The gardens around the church were maintained by a local charity and the inside of the building is now used as a social space. The app directed me to the corner, which was surrounded by a wrought iron fence and as the cache was described as being magnetic, I checked here first. It took a few minutes and I got a few strange looks from passers by, but I eventually found it attached to the inside of the fence. As it turned out, it had not been replaced properly and the small tube, attached to a magnet was empty.
Located on Rodney Street, one of the more desired areas of Liverpool in the Georgian era, is St Andrews Church, an imposing building with columnar entrance and two high towers. In the graveyard next to it are a few scattered graves, but chief amongst them is a fifteen foot high stone pyramid. This is the monument to one William MacKenzie a Scottish merchant who lived in the city.
As is often the case with unusual monuments, a legend grew up around the pyramid, which suggested that before his death in 1851, MacKenzie had made a deal with the devil over a game of cards, in exchange for success and prosperity. Having lost the game, the devil stipulated that once MacKenzie was dead and buried, that Hell would claim his immortal soul. As a result, MacKenzie ensured that after his death, his body would be interred above ground, inside the monument, seated at a card table holding a hand of cards, so that he would never be below ground and subject to the devils bargain.
The truth is much less interesting and he is actually buried in traditional fashion, together with his wife and the pyramid was erected as a monument over the grave by MacKenzies brother. It is a striking tomb and although inacessible to the public, as the church next door has now been converted into student accommodation, it is extremely photogenic, even if it’s not possible to get close to the grave, due to a locked gate.
Nevertheless, I used the cover of photographing the building to check out possible hiding places for a cache and soon found a small tin, again with magnet attached, containing a small log book, which I recorded the find on and quickly replaced.
From the cathedral tower, later that morning, I had a clear view of the area and could easily see St Andrews nearby. The Georgian Quarter of Liverpool has some of the most ornate and attractive period architecture in the city and is always a pleasure to explore.
However, the first geocaches I found were much more rural and situated in the countryside around the university, where I work.The app suggested there were a number of ‘traditional’ caches within a 2 mile radius, so one lunchtime I set off to find them. The first was found off a country road down a small track and was fairly easy to find.
