Ghostly Pirates of Cache Island Geocache on Bateman Island

We had Brad, the pastoral intern from our church, over for dinner last night. Afterwards we treated him to a geocaching expedition to Bateman Island to find the Ghostly Pirates of Cache Island. Brendan, Kevin, Kyle, and Kirsten would hunt the elusive treasure along with Brad and me.

We got a late start, heading out about 7pm but I hoped we would be able to complete all 3 stages of this cache before dark. Brad and I stopped to take a photo of the sunset when we noticed that we were being followed by the blood-thirsty natives who guard this cache! By the time the evening was over we must have left a pint of blood behind to the little flying buggers.

On our way to the first stage, My expert navigating ability took us down the wrong fork of the path. When we realized our error we tried cutting across the brush but were thwarted by thick brambles and had to keep an eye out for a nice little black and white skunk who was not too happy with our excursion into his territory. An owl kept his eyes on us for quite a bit of this first trek until we got too close for his comfort.

We finally found a way through the bramble and found the first stage without a problem. Inside a little treasure chest was a pirate map. “X” marked the spot and luckily had the GPS coordinates for our next stop. I plugged them into the GPS and back down the trail we went, looking for the next clue to this pirate mystery.

The sky over the island was getting darker; our energy was being drained due to blood loss; but we finally reached the second stage, an ammo can. I opened the container only to find a skull, and it was speaking to us! (The folks who hid the cache rigged a digital recording to a light sensitive switch that ’spoke’ when the light changed). He was verbally giving us the coordinates! Too cool.

We entered these final coordinates into the GPS and made double-time to the final stage. Once we got to the area the kids found the container quickly. It was an actual treasure chest! And full of booty! The kids had fun looking through the chest and Kirsten made a trade. We all signed the log book and headed back to the car as fast as we could to avoid as many of the blood-thirsty natives as possible.

When we got back home I checked my ‘tracks’ on the GPS and we had covered 2.2 miles. It had taken us about and hour and a half to wander the island, dodge a persnickety skunk, and admire an owl. All in all, a great evening out!