I have never... been geocaching

Geocaching is yet another thing that I've never done. And yet again it's one that doesn't take me miles out of my comfort zone. I quite like walking. We used to do quite a lot of walking before we got married. Although to be fair we were usually looking for a pub, or at the very least where we parked the car, rather than a small plastic tub.

I didn't set out to try geocaching this weekend. I was on a 40th birthday weekend away in the peaks and was settled on painting my toenails different colours on each foot, walking the length of the room with a penny between my knees and wearing a blue wig. But the opportunity presented itself and it seemed rude to ignore it.

As such it was a really badly thought out bit of geocaching. Between us we had a map with some caches marked on it by a thoughtful holiday home owner, an IPhone app with very little signal, a terrible weather forecast and only fairly suitable outdoor clothing.

Before I go any further I would like to point out that we always knew where we were. Frankly I impressed myself with my map reading skills. It was just a shame that farmers don't believe public footpaths should be all that public. And that we chose to go out in torrential rain. I haven't been that wet in quite some time. We did a bit of stone wall vaulting (well slow climbing), some bog squelching, some farm dog avoiding. And very little of anything to do with coordinates.

The caches were marked on the map we had which made life a bit easier and Jodie actually knew what a Rowan tree looks like which was a  bonus and meant the clue left us by the cache setters had some worth. Imagine our sodden glee when we found the exact tree we were looking for. We sent Valda round the back of the tree to find the cache. Well it was her birthday. It wasn't there. We wrestled with bits of the undergrowth. We gave up and looked at the clues on the app. Finally we admitted defeat. It wasn't the best geocaching start.

The route we took should have included four caches but after all the retracing our steps and bog hopping it took us quite a bit longer than expected. After the first failure we ignored two others and headed for the last one which we knew was in a pub car park. It didn't have quite the same feeling of magic and adventure. It did however contain a pot full of small toys and was within spitting distance of a pint of Peroni.


All in all the experience was great fun but most of that was down to the wonderful girls I was away with rather larking about in the rain than any kind of geocache success. But it has got me planning on trying again. If we are going to take the kids though we need a route that definitely does not involve negotiations with farmers and one where the caches are, well, at the very least actually there. It's one thing disappointing a bunch of ladies on the long way round to the pub and quite another disappointing smallish children.

I'm off to do a bit more research. But this new thing has legs. Hopefully they won't be so soggy next time...

I have never... done watersports with my daughter

It's a bit of a stretch because I have canoed before, even if the the last time was 20 years ago. Last time I fell in.

This time I did it with my daughter and we both stayed in the boat. Which was a benefit since I wasn't wearing a wetsuit.

It was a short 30 minute trip where I did most of the work and we had very few obstacles to contend with. Just a few waves made by the speedboat. We went in one of those too as a family and squealed our way around the lake.

It struck me when thinking about things I could do for this challenge that there are lots of things I have done already. But not since I was a child. Being an adult has knocked some of the play and adventure out of me.

But a whole new world of possibility is opening up to us as a family now the girls are getting older. I can canoe again. With my family this time.

Give us a couple of years and we will be canoeing to Wildcat Island.

I have never... been to the Coal Mining Museum

Family activities most definitely count you know, which is a good thing as there are a few places we haven't been and wanted to try.

On Bank Holiday Monday we went to the National Coal Mining Museum. It's taken a while for me to be confident that my youngest could cope with being underground in the dark for an extended period. Plus I wasn't sure before now that the subject would be very thrilling for them.

But actually it was a lovely day. The underground tour was fascinating and once Phoebe learnt to cope with the dark, really funny. The nature trail was a real hit too, as were the cornish pasties.

It's free to go, although you do have to pay for the mining tour and it really is a must. If only to learn exactly how dark is pitch black and to teach you to thank your lucky stars you are a child of the 1980s.

I have never... watched an insect circus

I'm starting with an easy one but it's just timing. I'm not copping out and ignoring all the physical activities I promise.

Ok so I've never been to a circus I enjoyed. And I've definitely never been to one where every act involved an acrobat dressed as an insect. Who knew that was a thing? Well it is. The Insect Circus.

It was a pre-birthday surprise for my youngest to go to the circus yesterday. The stunning vintage style big top was pretty exciting, although I did get decidedly worried when three human sized flies starting buzzing around the audience and waving their bottoms in our general direction. Audience participation is most definitely not my daughter's thing. She demanded to sit on Paul's knee and I wondered if it was going to be a very long afternoon.

The wasp taming act was equally disconcerting for her. It astonishes me why she cannot suspend disbelief when faced with a woman dressed as a lion tamer hitting a box to encourage human dressed as wasps to stand on one leg, but bless her she just can't. I wonder now whether she genuinely believed they had stung their human counterpart.

But following all that anxiety everything got better. They both adored it. I was thrilled that they could see first hand amazing people (women in particular) doing staggering things. Aerial acrobatics, tight rope walking, hula hooping, gymnastics and very entertaining hat juggling - what more could you ask for?

Well I could ask for more comfortable seats but you can't have everything.

There were even some fabulous puppets - the worm charmer was one of my favourite acts and who wouldn't want to see a ten foot high snail.

We came out into the sunshine and went into the Insect Circus museum - a small wooden trailer showing the creative back story of the circus. So much attention to detail really made me smile with artefacts from the Insect Circus stretching back years along with little animated scenes. Bonkers.

The girls came out and went on a few old fashioned (and some more modern) fair ground rides and had a whale of a time. I tried not to consider the impact on my wallet and have a day for once where we said yes to oversized lollies and swing chairs. It was a truly lovely day.

The Insect Circus is doing short sections throughout the May Day event today, Sunday 18th May, so I'd encourage you to go if you get the chance. Especially if you like tightrope walking bees.