I’d been caching for seven years before I went to a Mega. I’m not really sure why it took me so long, given that I was already obsessed with the game by then. Actually, when I think about it there’s probably an number of reasons. For much of those first few years I was a lone cacher, playing an under-the-radar game and had almost no communication with other players. The first Mega Event didn’t even take place until 2008, in Harrogate, Yorkshire. which explains at least some of my Mega-absence. The social side of the game took a while to interest me, partly because at was at that time still married and my then wife just didn’t get it at all, so I supressed my interest, to an extent.
However, the summer of 2013, my life was changing. While this was not a good time for me in general, and my health was suffering, pages were turning on new chapters and I saw promising glimpses of a new future. At the few Events I had attended, I’d picked up some chatter about Mega’s. Initially I was trying to imagine what they might be, what would happen at one and who’d be there. I was now in the business of embracing new experiences and possibilities, so I decided that it was time to see what all the fuss was about and made plans to attend my first Mega.
What follows is in no way meant to be a comprehensive report on all the UK based Megas over the past decade or so, and it certainly isn’t a criticism of them in any sense, and especially not of anyone who has been involved in them either. It’s just a rambling reflection of my experiences of these fascinating occasions, some of my memories and how they contrinuted to my evolution as a geocacher, starting in Warwickshire.
West Midlands, August 2013 (GC3V2NV)
Although I’ve not always realised it, I’m an extrovert. I don’t easily get fazed by meeting strangers or finding myself in unfamiliar surroundings. And so in the summer of 2013, between jobs and now enjoying unfettered participation in the world of geocaching, I thought I’d try my first Mega. By now my social tide was turning; I mixed socially with more cachers than colleagues, so I knew a fair number of people who’d be going. I used the location as an opportunity to catch up with an old friend in Birmingham, and stayed over there on the Thursday night en route. I knew that some people were planning to camp at the Mega for a whole week, some having also been to ‘Piratemania’, whatever that was!’ This seemed at bit OTT even to me, so I decided to stay for just a couple of nights in my tiny backpacker’s tent.
While not really knowing what to expect, it certainly wasn’t the sight that greeted me as I pulled into the grounds of the Hertitage Motor Museum that day. A seemingly endless sea of tents, camper vans, motorhomes and awnings. Colourful flags stood out against the blue sky, standing up in the breeze. Hundreds of people milling around everywhere, carrying water, running with clipboards, hugging each other. Although I’d been a camper for years (I am Tentmantent after all!) I’d rarely camped with others. Until that day, the whole point of camping, for me, was to be alone, quiet, taking time out. My tent and all my equiment was tiny, lightweight and fitted into a single rucksack. Here, however, was a small village with massive twin-axeled caravans and massive modular tents. Giant flagpoles with personalised banners and streamers advertised each unit’s occupants; groups of children played together, having water fights and throwing balls high into the sunshine. There were dogs in fancy dress and barbeques galore!
Once I’d been guided to my pitch and checked in, I soon erected my tiny home, and made my way over to where the evening’s event would be. Even the concept of an event within an event was strange to me. I saw a few Lincolnshire cachers and started to relax. Within the hour I’d been introduced to new friends, matched some faces to names I’d seen on log sheets and found the beer tent. It didn’t take long to get the feel of what a UK Mega was all about and I fitted right in.
The next 24 hours were a blur of caching, hugging, chatting, drinking, walking, sleeping and exploring. I visited stalls, attended talks, took a selfie with Signal, the geocaching mascot, and even chatted live at 2am to some Aussie friends I’d met on Twitter, much to the annoyance of my neigbours! Within no time I felt like an old-timer, and everything that other cachers had said about Cartmel and Swansea began to make sense. I’d found my people, like Harry Potter at King’s Cross; like the Pevensies at Cair Paravel.
Piratemania 8, 2015 (GC5B3WH)
The summer after the West Midlands Mega I dragged my new, introvert partner up to Ayrshire, where we slept in a wet tent, won the tug-of-war and continued to immerse myself (and her) in my new world. Other than being a split site, this was much the same as in 2013, albeit with examples of the newly introduced Lab Caches.
Another year on, and I decided to see what all the fuss was about at Piratemania. I heard a good deal about it from other cachers, many of whom attended it each year before the UK Mega itself.
I knew it was themes, and expected to see a few people wearing pirate hats. What I didn’t expect, however, was the number of cachers in full costume, complete with beards, cloaks and eyepatches. Small dogs were dressed as smugglers, the skull and crossbones flew from almost every flagpole, grown men were talking about ‘grog’ and ‘pieces of eight’ as if they were at an Enid Blyton immersive experience. No one seemed capable of talking without incorrectly conjugating the verb ‘to be’ and everyone finished their sentences or gave affirmation wihtout uttering an ‘AARRGGH!’ Breathtaking quantities of undulating human flesh spilled from groaning seams.
Tents and caravans were dressed up as ships, with anchors, wooden steering helms and inflatable parrots. The (plastic) bones of stranded sailors were scattrered on home made sandy beaches, and netting, seaweed and fishing nets covered everything.
I fully admire the commitment from everyone who made the effort that weekend. The costumes were truly inventive, and I continue to have nothing but admiration for the deeply committed Piratemania team, who still make this annual favourite a firm fixture on the summer caching calendar. While PM is nowhere near as big as most Megas, and in many years doesn’t even attract the full complement of 500 attendees, it has a loyal following and carries with it a wealth of experience that all other UK Megas struggle to attain from a standing start.
But I knew within minutes of arriving there that this was not really my bag. Perhaps there were other themes than I could get into, such as space travel or animals, but pirates just didn’t appeal to me. I always thought it was a shame that an Event like this couldn’t morph into something else each year, clearly not as ‘Piratemania’, but with a different topic, to allow people to make fresh creations each year, to explore new possibilities for cache themes and caravan decor.
I’ve attended once more, in 2018, dressed as Julius Caesar, complete with scroll, who in 75BC was captured by Mediterranean pirates, befriended them and lived as one of them before being released and ultimately hunting them down and clearing them from the sea. I knew my school Ancient History & Literature studies would pay off one day! I thought I was bringing a fresh and intriguing perspective to the event but in the end I probably looked like a grammar school boy being a bit of a knob. Told you this wasn’t for me! Next time maybe I’ll go as Abduwali Muse.
Hallowe’en Hides and Creepy Caches, October 2014 (GC4YCAV)
The Hallowe’en Mega was another themed Mega, but with a subject matter that was more appealing for me. Again, this had largely passed me by in its previous iterations. Sadly, by the time it had come across my radar, it was all over. It ran for two years as large themed event before gaining Mega status, but only three actual Hallowe’en Megas ever happened. My first would be the last, as it turned out. Around a week before the event, the landowner had revoked their right to stage the event and they had to hurriedly find another venue and move all the caches down the road. This may well have had something to do with their never running the event again!
In 2014, I noticed, the event was due to take place not far from Stamford, the southern outpost of my home county, Lincolnshire, which made it reachable in a day. As a single-day event, like most international Megas, previous versions had really been too far away to justify the journey, but this time it was only just over an hour’s drive.
Hallowe’en fancy dress is something I can get into, and so I planned a costume which was on-message but practical for caching. I decided on an old dinner suit, Rocky Horror style, and pale skull-like make up, which my newly acquired stepdaughter was excited to help with!
A group of us travelled down together and learned that there were two parts to the event. In the afternoon there was a daylight cache trail, and later a night trail. The caches were all fabulously inventive, with moving parts, puzzles to solve and creepy noises emerging from coffins and skulls. Seeing hoards of cachers dressed as witches, demons and skeletons wander around the woodlands was both bizarre and hilarious. I bumped in to several friends, some of whom I barely recognised. At the event ‘base’ there were stalls and sustenance, and a photographer capturing us all in our creepy cosplay. I met up with my pal Hazel and we were photographed in our full glory!
Stumbling around those woods at night in fancy dress, looking for caches, is one of my favourite memories. I still have hope that one day this small, niche Mega event will be resurrected from the dead once more!
Lincolnshire, August 2021 (GC928T3)
By now, I was fully immersed in the world of geocaching. Most of my social life revolved around caching, I’d hosted dozens of my own events, created cache trails, gadget caches and puzzles. I’d appeared on international caching podcasts, written guest blogs for others and articles for magazines. By now I’d attended several Megas, including one in Germany, and I’d even ‘been’ Signal for the afternoon! I had a several friends who’d served on Mega committees in Essex and in Yorkshire, as well at Piratemania, and I’d been approached to join the bid for a Lincolnshire Mega, but resisted. Once my fears of personal financial liability had been assuaged, I was approachd once again, and this time, having been nudged by several friends, I signed up!
Most years there is just one Olympic-style bid for the next vacant Mega, and I’m not sure whether there have ever been competing bids. Once word gets around that someone is getting a gang together, the whole community breathes a collective sigh of relief, thankful that they’re off the hook again! As soon as the shadowy machinations of the so-called Stakeholders had been completed, and we’d been awarded the UK Mega for 2021, planning started in earnest.
In those early days, there was some significant change in committee membership. Several memebrs who’d been keen and supportive through the bidding process, stepped away, and others, including me, came on board. The membership settled, and we began to firm up many plans- selecting a venue, choosing our branding, designing geocoins for sale and much more. But then, just as our plans for fundraising were to go into full swing, the whole country shut down because of Covid. The 2020 Mega was cancelled, and no events were taking place at all. Although we continued to meet virtually, things pretty much ground to a halt. We hoped for the best, however; there was still a year to go and surely this would be over by the spring.
But the year ticked on, and little had changed. Our fundraising was slow, our venue planning uncertain, and some fractures appeared in the committee, all of which were eventually overcome, I’m glad to say. And then as 2021 dawned, things just started to fall into place. A better venue, the Lincolnshire Showground, became available, with superior facilities to our original location. Geocaching Events and cache placement was ramping up again. Each of us found our niche and together we hit our stride. Even as Mega week itself began, there was still enormous uncertainty overhanging the event, and the threat of our being closed down at short notice was very real. I missed the first two days because I had been ‘pinged‘ by the Covid app as having been close to someone who’d tested positive. Even on Mega day, na couple of attendees fell ill and tested positive, and having to leave early.
But we did it and I continue to be very proud of what we achieved that year, as individuals, as a team and as a community. The support and understanding we received was very gratifying, attendance was good, given the circumstances, and we even managed to pass on a good chunk of money to subsequent Megas. This was also the only time I’d stayed more than a couple of days at a Mega and, such was the intensity of the experience, not to mention the exhaustion, it felt like I’d lived there for a while. Even now when I have cause to visit the Showground, I can’t help but glace over to a certain group of trees and think, ‘I lived there for a while!’
Would I do it again? Possibly, but not yet. Something else was coming over the horizon which would change Megas for me significantly!
London Calling, May 2025 (GCAK7KC)*
(*Yes, I know it’s a Block Party, not a Mega!)
By the spring of this year, PinPoint was completing its third succesful year. The story of how Jane and I came to be running a quarterly UK geocaching magazine, is chronicled in a previous blog post, so I won’t dwell on that here. However, for me at least, PinPoint has changed my Mega day experience significantly. Not for better or worse, but a change nonetheless.
I still try to get to a Mega at least a couple of days before actual Mega day. This is in part so that at least I feel like I’ve been away, but also to give me time socialise and maybe even do a bit of caching. Mega Day itself is now largely taken up by my being behind a stall all day, promoting the magazine, signing up new subscribers and selling copies to visitors. Several extra boxes, including banners, stands and balloons, not to mention the magazines themselves, are now added to my list of stuff to pack. (I’ve come a long way from my tiny tent days of 2013!) Saturday means an earlier start for me than most, as I get to the venue, set up the stall, check that the card reader is working and get ready for the huddled masses to descend.
Sometimes Jane is free to join me, and we get a lot of ‘work’ done together if she is! At other times, I’m very grateful to friends for stopping by for a few minutes while I take a comfort break, or they bring me a sandwich or a cuppa. Some events are busier than others and I generally get a bit of a sit down, although I rarely get to visit other stalls or do the new Adventure Labs, and I never get to go caching. But at least I don’t have far to go that night, and I can usually park the car right outside.
Except for London Calling. This requires a good deal of logistical planning as bringing a car into Westminster on a hot Bank Holiday weekend really isn’t an option! This year I had our banner and a box of magazines delivered in advance to my friend Sarah’s flat In Blackheath where I was staying for the weekend. Everything else, including a toothbrush and a change of clothes, went in a big, heavy rucksack to be lugged from Lincoln to King’s Cross, across London and out to Blackheath, back into London for the Block Party itself, back to Blackheath and eventually home to Lincoln, including a climb of our Steep Hill. This is exhausting!
At the event itself, I was reminded of just how tiring socialising can be, especially when it’s purposeful rather than passive, you can’t sit down and your bladder is half full. No end of our subscribers came to visit, some of whom I only know as a caching name. It’s particularly enjoyable to catch up with those who have contributed to the magazine, and to receive a few hugs along the way. Everyone is in a good mood and so every conversation I had was enjoyable.
Thankfully, I managed to find an Evri collection point close to the event venue in Westminster so I shipped the banner home, and dropped my rucksack off at at Radical Storage location near Kings Cross so I could at least do a little bit of exploring. And so on the days either side of the Block Party itself, I managed the following:
- An event at St Pancras by my little friend Penny
- A walk around The City collecting in a few Virtuals, solved puzzles and multis
- A scooter ride from London Bridge to Elephant and Castle
- A nap in the grounds of the Imperial War Museum
- A nearby event from the LC25 team
- A few EarthCaches in Westminster before the Block Party
- Some of the excellent on-site Adventure Labs
- A few more EarthCaches near Victoria
- Another LC25 Event at St Paul’s
- Some beers and a Thai meal with my Irish pals
- A train journey to and from the GPS Maze in Brentford
- A couple of beers with my pals Ben, Clare, Tracey and Penny at King’s Cross
- My own Tentmantent on Tour Event at the Unioin Tavern, before legging it to catch my train home!
Amazing what you can fit in on Mega Day when you want to!
Tentmantent 13/5/2025
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