Today we, along with Savannah and John, went to Pompei (my 5th visit) for a Geocaching meet up and adventure. It was hosted by Davide, a fellow geocacher whom I met earlier this Fall. Several other local geocachers joined us and we had a decent sized group.
There are several geocaches hidden in and around Pompei and Davide planned a trail to find all of them, plus time to sit and enjoy lunch.
Our trail started at the Amphitheater with the first clue for a multi-cache.
Turns out there was a special exhibit going on as well.
What's inside the OSB pyramid?
(Turns out the pyramid is a volcano; it's Vesuvius)
The exhibit was about the destruction Vesuvius wrought on Pompei in 79 AD.
So here's the deal, these are partially actual people's remains. When they excavated Pompei, they discovered cavities where bodies had been. They filled the cavities with plaster to create the forms. Some bones remained. I do not like the bodies. I find them upsetting as you can clearly see the fear and terror in these people. When I take people to visit Pompei, I will show them were the permanent bodies are, but I will not look at them anymore. Side note - in some semblance of comfort, it is believed that the citizens of Pompei died in a sudden heat flash (upwards of 300°C/570°F) and would have been killed in an instant. At least they didn't suffocate as previously thought.
Moving on.
Wooden Vesuvius in the Amphitheater.
A small geocache is hidden near this entrance/exit to the amphitheater.
Dan and one of the geocachers with his caching flag.
On our way to the second waypoint for the multi-cache.
View from the bathroom. Woo!
(Not the actual bathroom, but the area outside where the bathrooms are.)
We stopped at the grand theater to find another small regular cache and to eat lunch.
Davide gave us all certificates for attending and I won a trackable. I am pretty excited about the trackable as I've never owned one.
We walked along up to the Forum area, logging an earthcache along the way.
There was a sneaky cache hiding in the hole here in the wall.
At this point, Savannah, who was recovering from a cold, was starting to crash. So we went with the group to find the last two waypoints for the multi-cache and headed off to find the final cache location. I had actually found this cache on our first visit to Pompei, so I let Savannah and John find it.
She found it!
We departed from the group at this point, wandered off to find the last cache on the trail, and piled into the car to head home.
We had a grand day with the other geocachers and I am grateful for Davide for organizing the event.
This concludes our adventure for today.
