29 Apr 2011

A Few More Caches and Some Facts & Figures

A FEW MORE CACHES

Well we have been a little bit busier on the caching front since I last blogged. We had a car to remap down in Tunbridge Wells so took the opportunity to do just four caches whilst down there. It also gave me a chance to drop a couple of trackables off.

The four caches visited were Mole's SOS A Road Anarchy A21 http://coord.info/GC1VECW one of the nicer of the A Road Anarchy series, this one set just outside a public rest area with a nice park where the dogs, and us could stretch our legs. Onwards we then visited and found Mole's SOS - Hill View#7 Bidborough Ridge http://coord.info/GC1TF0E There should have been very clear views from this one, but we were there on the first weekend in years where there had been a smog warning, and yes, there was smog. The great thing about this cache though was that there was an SD card in the cache. The cache owner had asked that anyone who had a camera with them install the SD card and take a picture before replacing. This we did, a nice twist on leaving a disposable camera in a cache which is what we have found a few times.

Our third cache of the day was Beyond The Traffic Jam http://coord.info/GC23N5A, a nice simple drive by but set in another park with great views. Finally we visited Sweeps Cave http://coord.info/GC283FT this was a good cache and the best of the day, I awarded this one a favourite point. We found a TB in this cache ~ ref TB1F819 which I couldn't resist picking up  as it was a little black and white dog. What with our three being with us, I thought it appropriate. Blends in well, don't you think?


Spot the dog TB


Then sadly it was time to head home, not the most found in a day but it did give my GAGB coin a few more miles to add to its total.

On the Easter Bank Holiday Monday we decided to have a look at the Geocache Trails website http://www.geocachetrails.com/ to see what localish caches there were to us. We plumpled for the Lincs Village Runaround Series. We didn't get off to a good start, we couldn't find Number 1! This series was a definate one to do by car, although there was a bit of walking as well.
http://coord.info/GC25QQV During the walking part we did come across one sign that has to be a cachers least favourite sign!


A cachers least favourite sign!

however we did find the rest, except for the bonus, which we will get back to another time. Including the bonus there were 21 caches, so in the day we found 19 of them. Towards the end of the series we had to make a bit of a diversion as this happened to us!


It didn't cause too many problems though as we just parked the Jeep up and walked through, the cache was just over the other side of the roadworks.

 It certainly was a nice day for it and gave us a chance to have lunch in one of the village pubs beer gardens. We saw some interesting places, see the pics below. The farmhouse was a sad site and we both wished we had the money to buy somewhere like that and buy it. It would make a wonderful B&B.




We would have loved to have an explore around the buildings but thought that we better hadn't, given the security sign on the gate!




It was nice to be able to park up though and do a few of the caches on foot.


Another cache in the series was found just near this old coalyard so we took a pic of another little old building and the sign just nearby.




We also managed to fit in a couple more of the Skeg To Ness series as well. We went for a third, but the young and vicious nettles beat us.








SOME FACTS & FIGURES

I thought I would finish this edition of the blog with a couple of facts and figures from me.
Firstly, my most visited cache, this one hasn't really been out for that long but has the most visits, perhaps not surprising really as it is in the city centre. Beggar's Belief http://coord.info/GC2JDG0 last found two days ago is currently at 139 finds.
My furthest travelled TB is called Little Soldier, it has currently travelled 21,113 miles and is in Maine, USA at the time of blogging.

My furthest travelled geocoin is my Earthday coin which has travelled a distance of 14,485 miles, this one is in Austria at the moment. It spent quite a lot of time in Malaysia.

The cache which causes people to stop and think a while is my Kegworth ~ 1989 cache http://coord.info/GC267FP and the cache which causes most frustration is my CCP ~ Two Bridges cache http://coord.info/GC22EF1 which stands at 44 DNF's on it. The cache that hasn't been visited for the longest is Babbling http://coord.info/GC1N3PC which had its last logged visit on January 24th this year!

Including events that I have run I have now placed 99 caches, this includes two camping events, one archived, one still to do, the recent Flash Mob and another event. Currently still active I have 76 caches.
That's it, another bank holiday weekend, don't know where it will take us, but I do know that we are off to Wales next week for a few days and the GPS is already loaded. Have another great bank holiday folks.
Happy caching.

18 Apr 2011

Maintenance

Maintenance

Wemnog and I have had a busy week, we have been to Birmingham (twice) Stockport and Aberystwyth. We have been working repossessing cars and building plant. Sadly, due to the nature of the work we haven't had any time for caching in any of those locations, sad or what?

In between times I have performed maintenance on a couple of my caches, one when was visiting my son Cameron up in the Peak District. This cache RubyCam Cache has one of the best views of any of my caches http://coord.info/GC1M8G9 I placed this cache in January 2009 and although not visited as often as I would have thought is popular with visitors. Having said that I am surprised that this one has no favourite votes on it. Here are a couple of views from ground zero.


View from GC1M8G9 RubyCam Cache
As you can see, two of these scenes were shot a while ago, both at different times during the winter. The town in the background of the middle photograph is New Mills. This is the town where I was born and my kids still live.

New Mills in the background

There are some good caches in the area, so if you are ever in this part of the Peak District do have a look for them.
These caches aren't too far from where the Summer's End 2011 camp will be held in September.

The second cache that I have had to do maintenance on this week was another old favourite that gets lots of visits, Meg & Rum's Wet Run. This one http://coord.info/GC1WPCT has so far had 92 logged visits since being placed in August 2009.
It only needed a new logbook, but seeing that the dogs needed a walk I was able to get there as soon as a full log book was reported and replace it. Whilst at both of these caches I swapped some trackables as well.

Wemnog and I have just started discussing the idea of walking the full length of the Pennine Way next year. Of course a lot of preparation will have to go in to this, including getting ourselves fitter and losing a bit of weight as well. I will definately have to check out what caches there are along the way.
The weather today is bright, warm and sunny, so hopefully this afternoon we will get out and do a bit of caching.
Until next time, have a good week.

11 Apr 2011

Just Like Buses ~ Geocoins

Just Like Buses

What do they say about buses? You can wait for ages for one and then two come along at once. Well today it is the same with the blog. No update for three weeks and then two within a few days.

I had to go and replace my Kegworth ~ 1989 cache which went missing a while back. http://coord.info/GC267FP The cache overlooks the M1 motorway where the tragic plane crash happened back in 1989. For those of you who don't remember, a plane was coming in to land at East Midlands Airport and missed the runway, hitting the embankment of the M1. There is a memorial plaque just near to where I have the cache. It went missing a while back but I decided to replace rather than archive as it does take people there who can spend a little time contemplating how fragile life is.
Having replaced the cache we couldn't resist doing just a little bit of caching. Only three, but fun all the same. The first one had been a puzzle cache that had eluded us for a while. By caching colleagues Baira and Darkfonz and called Catchphrase, we did resort to asking for a little help. Once we had FINALLY solved the puzzle we soon had the coords and located the cache. Funnily enough the container is one that I know as I had recently bought a similar one myself.  Info on Catchphrase can be found here http://coord.info/GC2PQ80
Then on to another couple, Blog Standard - She Went Of Her Own Accord http://coord.info/GC16894 we thought this one was going to elude us as the light was fading and the undergrowth had obviously grown since the cache was originally placed. We got it in the end though. Finally we found The Old Post Office http://coord.info/GC2DH1A a nice simple drive by. I remember the building being the Post Office not too far back. Another one that sadly bit the dust. So there you are, just three caches and a cache replacement. Now I want to talk a bit more about.............

Geocoins

I think that I have a bit of an addiction when it comes to geocoins and travel bugs. I can't resist picking them up to move on, if I see a cache that flags up as having a trackable in, I have to go for it.
There is nothing more frustrating though than when a listing says that it has something in, only to go and find that it isn't in the cache, and quite often hasn't been for some time. It is one of my bugbears that fellow cachers don't log that they have either picked up, dropped off or not found a trackable in a cache. It isn't rocket science. Not only would it let cache owners (and more importantly) TB/coin owners know that their trackable is missing or moving but it would keep mileage for them, which is important spot on.
Another major bugbear of mine is when someone picks up one of my coins or TB's and then holds on to it for months. My longest that someone has had at the moment is 15 months!!! Despite numerous emails they haven't bothered replying to me. Now I know what you are thinking, maybe they don't cache any more. Not the case though, I checked their profile and they last logged in to GC only three days ago.

I am seriously thinking of starting a name and shame page on Facebook that people can add to when a cacher keeps hold of trackables for longer than is necessary. I feel guilty if I have hold of one for more than a fortnight. I would love to hear your thoughts on naming and shaming.

Having said that, I have been chasing up long term keepers of coins and have had numerous apologies, and in the last week 8 of my trackables that have been with people for more than 3 months have now moved.

On a brighter note I have just been looking at my own stats pages and note that I have now found and moved a total of 266 coins and TB's. I also own 50 trackables which are either travelling or missing in action. Of the trackables that I have picked up 138 have been TB's and the coin that I have picked up most, totalling 6 times have been the Trakabulldogs tags.
The Garmin coins, Big Ben, Stonehenge, Clifton Suspension Bridge and London Eye come in a close second with 3 finds/moves on each of them.
I am thinking of putting some of my own trackables up for adoption, 50 is far too many really, so if anyone is interested, let me know.

At the moment in my possession and waiting to move on I have two Mega Coins, one celebrating last years Scottish Mega


Scottish Mega Coin
This coin belongs to Captain Gore-Tex and currently doesn't have a mission. It is a beautifully detailed coin and is a nice weight. Not sure where I am moving it to yet, but it is due for a move shortly. This coin can be referenced by searching TB39QEM

The other mega coin that I recently picked up belongs to mumzoid970, not a name that I have seen before. Another nice design this one was given to the cacher by her family for her birthday. She would like it to be back in Oxford for her next birthday, March 2012, this coin can be referenced TB3Z878


Mumzoid970's Miner's Lamp Birthday Coin

At the moment I also have hold of Bully, a strange name for this TB. I never could resist picking up a Vdub camper van TB. Bully originates from Germany and his mission is to visit nice places, just what every campervan owner wants and craves. This TB can be referenced TB2B07F



Last, but not least I have bootifullyred's Blackpool Tower Geocoin. When I saw this coin listed in a cache I assumed for some reason that it would be in the shape of Blackpool Tower, but I was wrong. This is another nicely detailed coin that the owner has no goal for. Referenced TB1PPV4 this coin has currently travelled 431 miles.


Blackpool Tower Coin

When I pick a trackable up I dip it in to my home cache The TARDIS http://coord.info/GC1WGEQ to keep mileage accurate, especially if I am not planning on placing it in to a local to home cache.

I still don't know what to do about having a new coin made, the ideas have now changed, maybe a new Jeep coin, from a photo of my own Jeep, or a St. Christopher. Being the patron saint of travellers I do think this might be an appropriate one to have made.

Let me know your thoughts on the comments section, not only on which coin I should go for, but also on my name and shame Facebook idea.

Until next time.........................H A P P Y  C A C H I N G

9 Apr 2011

What's Been Happening (or not)

Once again caching has taken a back seat due to the amount of work that we have been doing. We have been travelling up and down the country, not only remapping, but also doing some car (and coach) reposessions. It helps to keep the wolf from the door.
Even when we have been travelling around, we haven't had time to cache. On the one occasion that we were going to do a couple the GPS failed on us. A first for the Oregon, once we got home we had to delete all the files and start again from scratch.

The good news is that I have now passed the 700 caches mark. Only just though as of now I stand at 705, I have got some work to do if I am to reach 1000 by Christmas.

My 700th cache was this one ~ Lady Jane http://coord.info/GC1EZJY down in Eastbourne at the marina there. Not exactly a spectacular cache, but the view of the few million pounds worth of watercraft was worth a look, followed by a nice strong coffee sat outside a marina coffee shop watching the world go by for half an hour.


Eastbourne Marina ~ view from Lady Jane cache

It was only a flying visit to Eastbourne to remap a car and then off home again. The motorhome is off the road until the beginning of next month when it will be taxed and then we hope to have a few days break at Shell Island in Wales, or maybe take the boats up to the Lake District.


Off the road until May
I am really pleased that the blog is getting a good following and has now passed the 3000 views mark. I hope that the viewings continue and that I people continue to enjoy reading about our adventures (even if they are few and far between sometimes)

In other news

I have been chasing up cachers (again) who have had hold of my trackables for far too long and this time I am pleased to say it has been fruitful. Out of the 10 people that I contacted who have had hold of either TB's or geocoins for more than 3 months, 8 have now got round to moving them on. Maybe the good weather has helped.

In the Great Travel Bug Knockout race my TB Knockout Ferrari has just been picked up again by a new cacher ~  Anothercell, over in the good old US of A, California in fact. They say that they hope to move it on a fair way, so I wonder where it will drive to next? So far in the race it is in 2nd place, having travelled 5729 miles since I set it free in this cache Woodland Wander #3 http://coord.info/GC2DKTZ just outside Barrow In Furness. It still has a way to go though to pass the current leader ~ BraveHeart which is currently in New Zealand having travelled a total of 11,942 miles. Luckily it didn't get caught up in the recent tragic earthquake. If you want to follow the race you can find it at http://www.travelbugknockout.blogspot.com/

I have sadly resigned at a committee member of the GAGB due again to work committments and the fact that I am unable to give enough time to the committee. I felt it unfair to be a member yet not be able to give 100% committment. I will still be on the forums as time allows but unfortunately at this time some things had to give and this one has had to go by the wayside.

Time or no time doesn't mean that I won't still be ready for the Summer's End event in September. Some cachers have already booked in at the campsite which is good news. It remains to be seen if it tops last years amazing turnout. I went up to the site the other day for a look round and I had forgotten just what amazing views there are from the site.

The next cache that I place will be my 100th placement. Maybe that will be the time to say enough is enough and not even think about placing any more for a while, there again, I do like to place them for people to find. We'll see.

Anyway, must go, sorry it has been a while. Don't forget to follow some of the other blogs, Fermi's (link at the top of the blog) is an interesting read.

Take care and back soon.