Caches, TB Hotels, Stargates and Updates

I always end my blogs with a similar question, will I have done a little or a lot of caching by the next blog?

CACHES

Well this week I have done a fair bit of caching again, another 21 in fact. Now I know that I have said before that I don’t go chasing FTF’s. However, I was sat at my computer when a new series flagged up that was very local to us. This was the Sunday Stroll series by Baira and his son Darkfonz. A nice series of 5 caches on a pleasant circular walk. This is the first cache in the series http://coord.info/GC2DH1K

Heading to one of the caches there is an avenue of fruit trees of different varieties. Unfortunately none of the fruit was quite ripe enough to pick. We may just have to go back!

We didn’t get FTF on any of the caches though, we had been beaten by about half an hour by another local cacher ~ Paneke.

A couple of days later we had a phone call from a customer in North Wales. He needed a remap on his Smart car. Could we do it over the weekend. Not a problem, we decided to make a whole caching weekend of it, packed up the campervan and off we went.

En route we did some drive bys on the A55, nothing to spectacular and even though it’s not about the numbers (or so they say) we did them. We were staying on a camp site at Rhos On Sea and so had located some caches to do in the surrounding areas. We don’t often resort to hints, but when we do it is much easier when they are in English rather than Welsh. We struggled for a while with one cache and then asked a passer by whether he could read the hint for us. No real surprise with the answer though “sorry, I don’t read Welsh and I’d be surprised whether you could find anyone round here who does!” Luckily after a bit more of a search we located the cache.

Keith (Wemnog) before he hit the slippery slope!

Some of the caches that we did took us in to woodland and the ruins of a castle. These was a brilliant walk which we and the dogs enjoyed. Wemnog did receive some injuries though, slipping from the top to the bottom of a long slippery slope. He escaped without broken limbs, although he does have some nasty grazes on arms, elbows and thighs.

Looking for three caches, we had to log DNF’s on two of them, most disappointing. We really wanted to find this one http://coord.info/GC28PMB but couldn’t. Got some great photos though, have a look at these.

All in all whilst we were in Wales we did 16 caches, a lot of them were micros as the seaside towns were loaded with holidaymakers and there wasn’t any way that larger caches could have been placed. We did do some good ones though, including this one http://coord.info/GC1KAZN Just look at the brilliant view from this cache PIC Three caches that we did have given me some ideas for new ones here in Nottingham. Similar caches should be appearing soon.

My particular favourite of the weekend was http://coord.info/GC14DAX which is called Rhuallt Village Vexation. A brilliant, yet very simple cache. I am not showing any photos of that one though, that would just give too much away! Just before I was going to publish this blog today a very local new cache popped up. Yep, we got there first and I left my new UK coin in it. I am going to make that the blog coin, so will keep everyone posted on where it ends up. So far it is in the new cache Car Auction Lagoons, http://coord.info/GC2DTR6 so still in Nottingham

TB HOTELS

TB hotels are brilliant. If you have been stuck with a coin or TB for too long and you need to get it moving again, locate your nearest TB hotel and place it in there. I use two in this area. One is actually called a TB hotel and is near East Midlands Airport http://coord.info/GCYCXK East Midlands Airport Travel Bug Hotel. I don’t use this one often, only if I have a coin which I know needs to travel abroad. The cache that I use most to drop and pick coins up from isn’t actually a hotel, but I must admit that I use it as such as I know that it gets visited quite often. This is another cache by Northking and is called Nuts In Notts Number 9 (THE FINAL) http://coord.info/GC20EBP It is in an unusual location and if you are ever in Nottingham well worth a visit. As I said, I often use this one as a hotel. There is actually one right here at home. The TARDIS http://coord.info/GC1WGEQ I decided to place this one for people to drop coins off as it is on the doorstep for us. The nature of our business, remapping, means that we travel fairly extensively in this country so we are able to move trackables on quite quickly for people. This is another cache that is used fairly regularly. It may be closing down soon though as I have a cunning plan to replace it with something a bit different!

STARGATES

Stargates are something completely different. Usually placed in two locations, one in this country and one somewhere abroad, rather than me going in to too much detail here, you may be better off reading this page http://coord.info/GCHXQE It is a clever idea and we are thinking of setting up a stargate between us and a place in France. We obviously can’t go in to this one lightly so are doing a little more research on it before finally committing ourselves.



UPDATES



I put the To Cache A Thief series out last week. Just three caches, but boy have they caused some problems for people searching for them. I have had a few phone calls from people asking for help. Met up with some of the people who have looked for them and seen some amazing scratches on arms, they look like they have been wrestling with an angry cat! The logs make for some interesting reading, have a look. http://coord.info/GC2DM4G http://coord.info/GC2CD6G http://coord.info/GC2DM58 Wemnog and I actually thought that apart from the bonus cache these were quite simple stand alone caches. The only thing really needed to find the bonus is a UV light.

Summer's End event coin

A couple of things now to finish off with. Here is a photo of the coin that I am giving out to people who attend the Summer’s End event. It is a trackable coin so I hope people like it.

We are having a few things going on at the event. Geocoins will be for sale and we are still hoping that UK Geocachers will be there with some of the goodies from their shop. We will also have a stamp making printer there, so if anyone wants a stamp made to mark logbooks with, bring your own design on a memory stick and we can convert it in to a stamp. We can even do photos on to them, so if you want your face smiling out on a logbook, now is your chance.

That’s it, done for another week. 497 caches done, I am sure that by next time I will have reached, and passed my 500th. Just hoping for a good one for it. I will have to search for something special.

Have a good week and happy caching.

New Caches Just Published

Not my usual day for adding to the blog, but just to let everyone know, I have just had three new caches published.

 http://coord.info/GC2CD6G

http://coord.info/GC2DM4G


http://coord.info/GC2DM58

These are a little bit different from my usual, I like to try something new!!!

Caching, Canoeing, Events & Getting Groped

CACHING and CANOEING
A busy week again, sometimes we can go for a long time without doing many caches, then suddenly we have the opportunity to get out and do lots. Since the last blog we have done another 20. The week started with us doing three caches in the Oxford area when we were down there remapping. I can’t say these were thrilling caches, in fact one of them, Magic Roundabout, has to be about the least thrilling cache that I have ever done. It was plonked in the middle of a litter strewn roundabout with a none stop stream of cars, motorcycles and trucks.

The week got better though and as we were attending caching event on Saturday we did some of the caches along a great stretch of the Grantham Canal placed by local geocacher, Pinfold. He had put a brilliant new cache out ~ Gimme Shelter GC2D9P2, which we got to just as old caching friend RoPeHe was signing the log. Needless to say he got FTF, but we were a very close second. The cache is very well concealed and worth a visit. The canal is no longer navigable in parts but remains a lovely place for a walk and a cache or two. We did some caching around the area as well including one by fly2live2fly just near to a well known local cheese manufacturers, see the pic.

After caching it was time to attend the event, but more of that later.

The day after we decided that as the weather was good that we would get the Canadian canoe out and do some caches that we had had our eye on since they were first published. This was the Sneaking Around Stamford series by Dakar4x4. A great series of caches along the River Welland. 8 caches in all, some on busy parts of the river, some on much quieter parts. Wemnog and I even had to do a bit of limbo style canoeing to get to one of the caches as a tree had fallen and the only way through was by getting down low in the canoe. This is one of the GC numbers GC1YVNJ, if you are interested you will can find the rest on Google Maps. It was a great day out though and has certainly given me some ideas for a future series! See the pics below to see some of the fun we had.

Alberts Bridge ~ one of the cache locations

EVENTS

Back to the event that we attended. This was organised by our old friend Northking and Pinfold. It was very well attended by faces old and new and the pub certainly was a lot busier than I can imagine it usually is on a Saturday afternoon. The two guys held a raffle as well with some prizes, they managed to raise a decent sum in aid of the RNLI. To make the event even more special this turned out to be Northking’s 1000 cache, not bad in around 12 months of caching, so congratulations to him.

Staying on the subject of events, the Summer’s End event is approaching fast. The number of people saying they will attend, if not for the whole weekend at least on the Saturday keeps going up which is great news. Now that the farmer has given us permission to allow small caravans on the field it means more people can go for the whole weekend as well. The three new caches already reviewed will be published late on September 9th, they are called Around The Bend From Yonder Man!, Hole In The Wall, and Bridge Over The River Wye, I am looking forward to people finding them, especially the Bridge cache.

Plans for the event are in the final stages, the quiz is done, the coins for the goody bags have arrived and most importantly the barbeque is ready to fire up. I have asked people to bring flags to fly if they possibly can, the site can get quite windy, so having some flags flying should make it quite a spectacle.

Now all we need to make everything perfect is the weather.

GETTING GROPED

Some blog readers may already know about a group who go about stealing and destroying caches, both containers and contents apparently all in the name of environmental conservation. I myself have had a TB taken from a cache and supposedly destroyed ~ they threw it in a lake according to the email I got off them. How environmentally friendly is that, throwing a plastic object in to a lake, hmmm, not sure whether it’s going to rot down guys, maybe it will kill a fish or two though!

These prats don’t reckon that they are doing anything wrong (poor misguided individuals) and reckon that they are above the law. However the destruction of what is basically private property is, in the eyes of the law, theft. People from this group have been tried with success in other countries and now the reviewers have got together and sent out a statement on some of the forums. Here is their statement which reviewer Graculus, has kindly said that I can copy and paste on to this blog.

“This post is in response to cachers who have had their caches or trackables removed by a person or persons calling themselves GROEP and is to give you advice about how to deal with it.

The caches that we create are deliberately placed in locations and not abandoned as litter therefore what the GROEP people (under whatever username they currently use) are doing is simply theft of the cache containers and any trackables in them. I have spoken to my local police and they have confirmed that this is the case. If you find this person (or persons) has stolen either your cache or your trackable from a cache you should contact your local police and report it as a theft. Explain what geocaching is and that the cache container/trackable is your personal property and make sure you get a crime report reference number. If you have any difficulty explaining to the police what geocaching is or what has been stolen and need help then please contact me via my profile and give me the police station phone number and I will be happy to talk to them.”

Signed by

Chris

Graculus - Volunteer Reviewer for geocaching.com

and all the members of the UK reviewing team.

If you have the misfortune of having one of your caches or trackables messed with by these idiots please don’t just let it go, inform the police and let’s get this stamped out once and for all.

FINALLY

Well, quite a long blog this week so I guess I will quickly mention another link and then be on my way.

This time it’s the turn of the Geocaching Association Of Great Britain, or GAGB for short. The Geocaching Association of Great Britain (GAGB) was established to provide a voice for its members in the United Kingdom.

The aims are to establish good practices, provide a focal point for public liaison and support the growth and enjoyment of Geocaching within the UK. They do much more than that though. They have an extremely friendly forum where you can get advice, share ideas and find out about other things going on in your area.

Well worth becoming a member of, and it’s free.

That’s me done, until next week. As usual, I can’t say whether I will have done a little or a lot of caching by then, but if I do, you’ll certainly find out.

Have a good week.

Only 2 ~ Too Much To Do & UK Geocachers

Only 2!

Well after all the plans to do a lot of caching whilst we were in the Lakes, we ended up doing just two! High Cross http://coord.info/GC1Z55C and Swallows and Amazons http://coord.info/GCN9GA. This was by far the more fun of the two. Off we set, two adults, two 16 year olds, two dogs and one puppy in one canadian canoe and one inflatable. Trust us to pick a busy day on Coniston to go and get it.

Peel Island on Coniston was used as Wild Cat Island in Arthur Ransome's book Swallows and Amazons. I loved the Ransome books when I was younger and growing up down south they always transported me to somewhere I would rather be. There is a photo of Peel Island below. Now that we have a little Seagull engine for the inflatable there will be no stopping us ~ we plan on doing a lot more caches that are only accessible by boat.



So, only two caches as we had much too much to do. The lads just wanted to mess about in the boats all day, and as the weather was so good to us, we couldn't resist just hanging about, we finished the day with a barbeque on the banks of Coniston and watched the sun go down,

before heading back to the campsite for a nice hot cup of tea and some cake.


UK Geocachers

It's about time that I started saying more about some of the links that I have on the blog. I am going to start with UK Geocachers.

This is a brilliant online and walk-in shop that has so much to offer cachers. From Travel Bugs and Geocoins to little cache goodies for you to drop in to caches that you are visiting this shop certainly has it all. If you are in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, it really is well worth taking the time to visit. Even if you don't buy anything from them you can be assured of a warm welcome from Kathy and the rest of the team there. If you want to visit the shop the good old caching way, then the Coords N 53º 00.173 W 001º 43.242 will get you there. For a lot more information than I have given in this brief write up, visit the link above. Next time I will go in to detail about one of the other links.

Finally

In between arriving back from London and setting off for the Lakes, I managed to get to the collection depot and pick the first 100 UK coins up. On arrival at home I very excitedly opened them up, and me being me, always expecting some disappointment with new arrivals, was more than a little surprised at just how good they have turned out. I am not just saying that either, they really do look good. As you will know I am not releasing them for sale until 10.00am on the 10th September, but as they are here, I have already registered my coin and will be releasing it somewhere shortly.

I am not sure what is planned for this week, whether we will be caching or not, but I am sure one way or another there will be something cache related happening. After all, I have a new multicache planned ~ and this one is going to need some specialist equipment to locate the final!!!!!!

Back Home, Permission Denied and Off To The Lakes

Back Home

Well I am back home. Cameron and I found ourselves on Oxford Street yesterday afternoon, boiling hot and we just looked at each other and said "Let's Go Home" So after a short tube ride we got back to the Travelodge, packed up our stuff, loaded it in to the Jeep and set off. It was a bit of a draughty journey back as the temporary window didn't stay in place, luckily it was dry though. I finally got home just after 9.00pm last night.

Permission Denied

Checking emails after I got home I had a couple of emails regarding a cache that I wanted to place. The first one was from a lady at Natural England who approved where I wanted to place the cache, however the second email was from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust who co manage the land. They denied permission to plant as they felt that the cache placement would be encouraging people on to the land who weren't interested in the wildlife, and felt that it would have a negative affect on the area.
You can't win them all, so I am afraid that I will have to let this one go. Shame really as the cache was wildlife themed (I can't give anything away as the container will be placed elsewhere)

Off To The Lakes

We are off to the Lakes in a couple of hours time. The campervan is all loaded up, we are going in two vehicles as two adults, two teenage lads and three dogs is a helluva squeeze in one, plus all the equipment as well.
Really looking forward to this, a few days messing about in the boats on Coniston and hopefully loads of caching as well. I have got a fair few TB's and GC's to move on. I want to be able to swap a load so that there is a collection for the camping event. Even better, the forecast is looking very promising for a good weekend.

Finally

The customs letter had arrived when I got home, so I am off in a few minutes to pick up my package. 100 nice, shiny new UK geocoins. Yep they are finally here so I am looking forward to getting them.

All for now, have a great caching weekend.

No Caching, Just A Story Of Thievery In London

No Caching, Just A Story Of Theft In London

So, here we are in London. Staying in the Travelodge on the M4 a few miles outside the city centre.

Cameron and I arrived on Monday afternoon and didn't really do much, had a drive around Langley and Slough where I had the misfortune of growing up. I showed him the two houses where I lived when I left New Mills at the age of 4. I then showed him my infants and junior schools, and the site of my high school, no longer there, it is a leisure centre and housing estate now.

Yesterday was a good day, well at least until the end of it. We got parked the car at Hounslow West tube station and got in to the centre of London by around 10.00am. First stop was the London Eye.

The views from the eye were great, and it is well worth doing if you haven't done it. Even with prebooking tickets online, we still queued for almost an hour to get on.
After the eye we went on to walk past the Houses Of Parliament and then decided to go and have a look round the Cabinet War Rooms. Now that was interesting and is well worth a visit. It was very hot down there though. The journey continued with a quick visit to Downing Street. Then on through Green Park to Buckingham Palace.

After spending a bit of time at the palace (we weren't invited in for tea) we walked back to the tube and caught a train to Covent Garden. That was as entertaining as usual, I always enjoy visiting. There is some building work going on and what looks like a massive Apple store is being worked on, ready for opening later this week.

From Covent Garden we got a rickshaw to Leicester Square. I recommend that if you get a chance you have a rickshaw ride through at least part of the city, just to say that you have done it. Leaving the rickshaw we went and had a quick coffee before deciding to take in a movie at the Odeon. Cameron really enjoys the cinema and really wanted to be able to say that he had seen on at the Odeon Leicester Square!

So we saw the A Team. Now I remember the TV series as a teenager. I had high hopes for the film and although it was good, it seemed a bit disjointed for my liking

After the film we decided that we had had enough for one day so caught the tube back to pick the Jeep up. Got back to the station and the car and that's when things took a turn for the worse.

We arrived back to find that the passenger window had been smashed and the Sat Nav and for some obscure reason, my specs, had been taken. The satnav and cradle had been hidden under the seat as I always do so weren't on show. I rang the police to report it and got a reporting number ~ it'll take up to 3 days to get a proper crime number!

Of course it was after office hours so I couldn't get in touch with the insurance people, I have trade insurance and they only work office hours with no 24 hour helpline ~ which of course didn't help. Then I rang the AA who put me in touch with Autoglass to get a replacement window. This is where you have to laugh, I had to, or I would have cried.

Autoglass told me that it would be three days before they could get someone out to me to fit a replacement window!!!!! London, capital city of the UK, 24 hour metropolis ---3 days!

As we couldn't really do anything else we drove back to the hotel and managed to get hold of a carboard box and some sticky tape to seal the car up the best we could for the night.

So here I am, typing this update at 7.15am waiting for the insurance office to open at 8.30am and we will have to take it from there.

So all in all after a brilliant day out things had to come crashing down again big style. I am just glad that more stuff, or the car wasn't taken.

Photographs Of The New UK Geocoin

NEW UK GEOCOIN

Hi folks, couldn't resist breaking in to my holiday to let you see the final version of the new UK Geocoin. As I have said previously it will be released for sale on Friday 10th September at 10.00am.



Let me know what you think.