It has taken 20 months, but I finally did my 500th cache at the weekend. Whilst Wemnog was busy down at Wembley watching the Rugby final (his team, Warrington, won) so a very happy chappy, I decided that there really was only one place to go for the 500th cache. It was http://coord.info/GC2ADPH . If you click on the cache page it will come up as being an archived cache. In theory it is, but in reality it is still up and running and there for everyone to discover.
It was good to meet up with Kathy again and have a good old natter. The shop is looking really good since they moved next door and the stock range is fabulous. It really is like being a kiddy in a sweetshop.
Kathy very kindly agreed to stock the new UK coins for me and took another 10 Border Collie coins to sell for me.
Here is a pic of Kathy and I, don’t know how it happened but the conversation seemed to revolve around poo, of one type or another for quite a lot of the time!!! Also pictured is the cache itself, a real treasure chest!
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| Kathy & I at the UK Geocachers shop. My tee shirt kindly supplied by Geotogs.com |
For want of a better word, I know it isn’t just me who this happens to, but it is really frustrating when someone picks up one of your coins or TB’s, logs that they will move it on quickly yet 6 months later it is still in their hands. During the last few days I have contacted 12 people where this has been the case. Some of them I have had decent replies and apologies off, a couple more have basically said that they have “misplaced” them and don’t know where they are. No apology, just that! No less annoying are those that don’t bother to reply. Granted it is still holiday season and folk may be away. All I can say to you is that if it does happen to you, keep on at them and don’t let it go. This is your personal property that they have at the end of the day.
Distributor
Just before the start of the bank holiday weekend I received notification that I have been granted official merchandise distributor status from Groundspeak. This means that I will be able to stock more of their goods in the Ebay shop and on the website, and get a link to the website on their own site. Hopefully it means that I will get more custom and be able to step sales up a notch or two.
Website
The Jacaru website has now been updated and is available for viewing. It means that people who don’t like, or want to use Ebay can order directly from there. The site address is http://www.jacaru.co.uk/ Click on the geocaching button and see what is on offer. I haven’t so far linked a PayPal account to the site as I wanted to see what kind of sales it generated beforehand.
Caching Buddies
I have been reading on some of the forums this week that people think it would be an idea for established cachers to link up with new people. It helps to show them the ropes and gives them the opportunity to go out caching with someone with more experience of differing types of cache. This isn’t to say that anyone thinks that new cachers aren’t any good, it just gives them another opening in to the caching world.
I know that when Wemnog and I started caching we were lucky enough to meet up with people at Notts Geocachers. We got to know more established and knowledgeable people and it also gave us an opportunity to ask questions. Having said that, it was still quite daunting walking in to a group who already knew each other. Our second experience wasn’t so nice. We went to an Emcache meeting and found that we were very much on the outside, neither welcomed or spoken to. Needless to say, we didn’t attend any of those meetings again. Having said that, there are people who are very happy within this group, but cliqueness certainly isn't for us.
If you can find a friendly local group, do pluck up courage and go, hopefully you will be welcomed with open arms and get to know what is happening in your area. If there isn’t one, it may be time to set one up. All you have to do is set an event cache for an evening or weekend in a local pub. You’ll be amazed at just how many people attend and how many people you get to know in a short amount of time.
Caching
We managed to bag 9 caches before deciding that we really should carry on and get to the customer. Our plan was to remap the car and then do some on the way back. Things in J & W’s life are never that simple though....(oh to be a meerkat)! The remap didn’t take so we had to stay overnight in a Travelodge and get the car sorted on Tuesday. We did really well though and the manager of the Travelodge let us have all three dogs in the room with us. Anyway, back to the caches, they were all drive bys, so nothing major about them. Apart from three of them. One was at an old Norman cross which had quite a bit of history attached. There is a photo of the information board, unfortunately the print isn’t clear enough to read. Just prior to finding this cache, we did two very close to the Nene Valley railway. Again, both were drive bys, but I think we will be back to do the rest of the series at some point.
The two Nene Valley Railway caches that we did were:~
http://coord.info/GC1V84B and http://coord.info/GC13KAQ
Finally
I have had quite a few preorders for the new coin and will be posting those out on the 8th of this month so that people get them in time for the release date.
As usual, we don’t know what the plans are for caching this week. We are down at Brooklands on Saturday for the SMART festival. That’s an early start so I don’t think we will be doing anything on the way, or the way back for that matter. We’ll see. Once we get back from Brooklands we will be making the final preparations for the camping event. If any of you know who I need to contact so that I can order decent sunny weather, please do let me know.
Until next time caching friends
Have a good week.
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