Random ramblings: catching up with an M.I.A. CrazyCris

First of all: THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the 5th Annual World Oceans Day Oceanic Blog-A-Thon! There were some wonderful entries, and I'm so glad we could get together again to share our love for the oceans in our little corner of the blog-o-sphere! :o)

But that was almost 3 months ago... where did the time go?! :o(

And thus the title of this post. So... yeah. Sorry 'bout that! I've definitely been M.I.A. since World Oceans Day, and even for a bit before that! And sadly I don't think I'll be very active in the near future... although I promise to try!

And here's why! Good things and bad things.

Gorgeous hike up the Maigmó

Woah! Has it really been 4 1/2 months since I wrote a hiking post?! YIKES!!! 

It's not that I haven't done any hiking since then... it's that I didn't do any hiking in Nov-Dec (missed 2 hikes 'cause I was sick, another got rained out) and since Christmas I've been über-busy so haven't had time to edit the photos and write about the hikes! There's also the fact that the Christmas hike and January hike were kind of repeats, so I couldn't muster as much enthusiasm as usual to work on them... I'll get to it at some point ('cause the Christmas one was worth talking about!)

Anyhow, on to this hike! I'd like to get this post out today... 'cause tomorrow I'm heading out again and I don't them mixing up in my mind when I'm writing about them later! :p

So on February 24th we (the Centro Excursionista de Alicante) met up bright and early -as usual- at the Plaza de Toros in Alicante, piled into our cars and headed to a lonely road going from Agost to "Rincón Bello", near the "Vía Verde". Our starting point was at 493 metres above sea level (so ~ 1617 ft) and we were going to cover roughly 19km (~11.8mi) in a circular route that would take us up to the summit of the Maigmó (1296m ~ 4252ft above sea level). Now when I first heard about this hike I wasn't feeling too inspired, because I'd already climbed the Maigmó with the CEA last year in March. But Alberto assured me we were doing a completely different route, with the only thing in common with the previous hike being the actual summit (which we climbed up a different way!). Suddenly the outing was much more interesting!

Brrrr!

Just after 9 a.m. we all gathered round Alberto at the starting point for our briefing. And boy was it COLD!!! Barely 5ºC (41ºF). And windy. Hats, gloves, scarves... everyone was bundled up, not a common sight in Alicante! :p

The morning light was gorgeous, and let me get some really nice shots along our trail.

Barranco de la Zarza with Maigmó in the background

My First Geocaching Adventure!

For over a year now I've been following Kim's geocaching tales on her blog Snug Harbor Bay and thinking that it looked like a really fun activity to take up (the things Kim will do for a cache... crazy!)! Only problem: it requires the use of a GPS device and I didn't have one, nor was I going to invest in one just to try this out... Then I found out that smartphones have GPS capability and there's actually a Geocaching app that will guide you on your treasure hunt! But my poor 5 year-old Ericsson was definitely no smartphone... *sigh* So I waited, and continued reading Kim's stories, and waited... until last Christmas I finally got a new phone (the phone is dead, long live the iphone! What on earth did we do before cellphones? I don't remember!)!!! I gave myself some time to become familiar with my new phone, then created an account at geocaching.com (of course my name there is CrazyCris, what else would it be?!), downloaded the app and got ready to go Geocaching! I had to wait a couple of weekends for decent weather (what is it with this crazy wind we've been having for the past month?! weird!!!), but two weeks ago on Saturday I finally did it!!! I headed out to my favourite Alicante playground, the Cabo de las Huertas (a.k.a. "my" beach, of Alicante's various beach areas it's closest to home). Inspiration struck, so instead of narrating my adventure with photos... I'm going video! I hope you enjoy it! ;o)

Well, how'd you like it? A bit long perhaps... but I couldn't reduce the 20' I had filmed to less than 9' and still tell the story I wanted, believe me I tried! Definitely a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go out again and look for another cache! For starters I have to find a good cache to put this geocoin in so it can make its way "home" to Germany!

Oh! And guess what?! I was invited to tell the tale of this adventure over at cachecrazy.com (Thank you Bloodhounded!)! Go check out my post there and see what crazy adventures other geocachers have been having! ;o)

Very cool design work by Bloodhounded! :o)

Now remember... if this blog suddenly goes Geocaching crazy... it's all KIM's fault!!! ;o)