Getting Around Town - the multicache

Moving to a new place is a difficult undertaking, full of questions ranging from the general (Are these people lunatics, or is it me?) to the specific (Where do I find a good plumber?). It took us a while to figure out what every other American who came along to England apparently already knew: the answers are in the pub.

The challenging thing about coming to a town like Ramsgate is that there are so many pubs. Ramsgate is by the sea and has a long-standing tourist trade, so there seems to be a pub on almost every corner - kinda like Dunkin Donuts in Boston or Starbucks everywhere else. How is one to choose?  Is the key feature proximity to home (your “local”), or is it any pub with a crew of friendly locals who are willing to help? England has some pretty serious drunk driving (which they call “drink driving”) laws on the books, so finding a pub you can walk to has a distinct advantage. Still, without the right atmosphere and amenities, its hard to get to know people well enough to get key questions answered.

When we first arrived from Ann Arbor, MI, we moved into that a part of Ramsgate that was in the middle of a residential area, and there was only one pub within an American’s customary walking distance. We went in once for a drink, and everyone just looked at us and left us alone. It didn't seem a particularly friendly place.

Fortunately for us, when we bought our semi (as in semi-detached house) six months later, there were at least five pubs within reasonable walking distance (which, by then had become somewhat farther than our original comfort zone). Each has its own character and clientele. I think the first one we visited was the Prince Harry, often called simply “the Harry”. There were not many people there, but the pub had internet access we could use while we were moving in. It helped that a couple of our American friends had chosen to live near the Harry and had made some acquaintances there. Once again, the first time we went in there was little contact from others. After showing up three or four times, though, I guess they figured we weren’t going away, so they started talking to us.

The crowd at the Harry was pretty sparse, at least in part because the Harry does not serve real ale. We heard that several of the patrons went to the San Clu for food, so we decided to give it a try. The food at the San Clu is indeed pretty good, and it should be, since it’s the bar/restaurant for the local Comfort Inn. The menu includes typical pub food, Italian dishes and a variety of Indian food, so we continue to go there occasionally to eat. But the beer was mass-produced, and the place lacked the feel of “our local”.

Our third foray, the Honeysuckle Inn, is in a slightly different direction from our house, down a steep hill from the house. Its an older building, and they say a public house has been on that spot for more than 500 years (I doubt the current pub is older than 100 years). We’ve had a good time on Wednesday nights, since they have a good karaoke machine with a great selection of songs, and several people sing pretty well. But on other nights it seems dead. At this point we were envying Goldilocks, who only had to sample three of everything before finding one that was “just right”.

We have since discovered that the Monefiore Arms (aka “The Monty”) is the best place for a good pint of ale, and it has a crew of locals who are friendly enough to give good pointers to a pressing question. Its small; it has a dart board and a pool table, and always has two or three good beers/ales on tap. The owner/operator knows us by name now, even though we don’t stop by more than once a week. We’re still getting to know some of the local characters. There may seldom be very many people there, but we’ve never walked into an empty pub.

So how does all this relate to geocaching? Early in the development of the pastime, someone decided it would be a great idea to expand the hunt. Instead of looking directly for the cache, you could have people go from place to place, picking up hints to the true cache’s location at each ”waypoint” until they had enough clues to converge on the cache. This variation is called the “multicache” and in many towns and villages of this corner of England, this has taken the form of a stroll around town. Introducing waypoints at historic places or well-known landmarks helps you get the lay of the town. Maybe next time you won’t get hopelessly lost. Ramsgate is large enough to have had two multicaches.  The one on the left is “Ramsgate – a Grand Ville”.  It is a relatively short walk along the clifftop on the east cliff of Ramsgate.

The other, depicted at the right, is “Westcliff Wanderer”, which goes along the west cliff of Ramsgate.  Neither alone gives a picture of the whole seafront, and even both together don’t begin to cover the entire town, but doing both caches gives one a picture of the key areas of town and establishes landmarks for further investigation.

This type of cache has many variations.  I've done caches with eight different waypoints on the path to the final cache.  They work really well in smaller towns and villages (go from historical marker to historical marker), in cemeteries (from grave of notable citizen to grave of notable citizen), or to give a tour of a large park.  If the area covered requires that one spend more than about an hour and a half to get all the clues, the cache is probably better served as a series of separate caches.

Regardless of the venue, multicaches are a good way to get out for a walk and investigate you local surroundings.  You even pass by a number of pubs.