Geocache swims across the English Channel

By Janelle Seymour Tower at low tideFinding the Traditional Cache L’Avarizon (GCWNGX) on the island of Jersey is no small feat. You must walk over a mile from the shore along a rugged coastline during low tide, making sure not to get stranded when high tide rolls in. Through an unusual series of events, a child stumbled upon the cache—when it washed ashore, over 100 miles (160 km) away on the other side of the English Channel in West Sussex, UK!

The cache crossed the English Channel from Jersey to Sussex, UKIn June of 2006, a Traditional Cache was placed at Seymour Tower along a crack in the wall. Built in 1792 as a coastal defense tower, visitors now come from all over the world to explore the area and stay overnight in the historic tower. Since its original placement the cache has been found over 130 times, amassed 60 Favorite points, and passed through three cache owners.
Seymour tower as the tide rolls inTwelve years after publication, the cache was found by a young lad walking along the beach over the weekend with his family. But the funny thing is that he didn’t find the cache in Jersey. He found it along the Selsey Beach in West Sussex, on the other side of the English Channel, over 120 miles away!
Seymour Tower from the shore at high tideExcited that he had found some sort of buried treasure, the child brought the container to school on Monday to show his class and teacher. The teacher happens to be a geocacher (Plunkies) who realized that this was a lost cache. Being the resourceful sort (as most teachers and geocachers are), she looked up the GC code to discover what an amazing journey this little container had made. Plunkies contacted the current cache owner (Fauvic). The cache owner told the teacher to let the little boy keep his treasure and replaced the container for others to enjoy.
Current cache owners Alan and Jan (Fauvic) at the cache locationHere is part of the note written on the cache page from Plunkies:
I work in a Primary School in Saltdean, East Sussex; on Monday, a pupil in my class came to me excited as he’d found some treasure at the weekend. He showed me the plastic container, and its contents which were a very rusty key shaped metal money clip, a 500 Tanzanian Shilling note and a small notebook. The writing within the notebook was totally illegible however, the boy pointed out to me some “secret” language and codes which potentially lead to more treasure – he was beside himself with excitement!! I realised it was geocaching language that gave the cache name and GC code and the geocaching website!
Here comes the amazing part….. he said that he found it soaking as it had been in the sea and washed up on the beach he was visiting for a holiday – Selsey Beach, West Sussex, on mainland UK!!! Amazingly – somehow – this little box had travelled all the way up across the Channel – facing some pretty rough conditions and landed on this beach to be found by an innocent passer by!!
Perhaps the cache fell into the sea or was washed away by a rogue and strong wave, but it’s astounding to imagine how the container stayed intact and floated across the English Channel.
So geocacher owners, make sure your cache containers can withstand the elements. You never know what the weather will bring, or if it will take your cache on an epic journey!
Some caches become rainbow connections