26 Jun 2011

Skinny Dipping, FTF's & Another Milestone

803

FTF's

A day early with the latest edition this week. There is a lot to get through. We have found 30 caches since the last blog, only a week ago.
Firstly it has been a week of FTF's for me. Four in fact. Our reviewer, Antheia has been a busy bee and published a good few new caches in the last few days. Some of them have been really local to us and we have been able to rush out to them.

Level One http://coord.info/GC2YCTR by newer cacher candyfloss797

Stop The Bus http://coord.info/GC2YECC by the same cacher

From One Point To Another http://coord.info/GC2YEEM by another newer cacher pinkpigredrat and finally

I Am Here Papa http://coord.info/GC2YEXN by dingdongmerrily. The first three were very sneaky urban caches and I Am Here Papa is a cache with a very poignant story, have a click on the link and read it if you have time. The cache was also released with a trackable of the same name, which I have at the moment ready to move on the an appropriate place.

I also JUST missed out by about two minutes on another FTF this week. We arrived at ground zero of Froggy Went A Courtin'  http://coord.info/GC2YGYR by old caching friend y8c to the cry of "Don't bother" by another old caching colleague Blid435 who was already sat back in his car signing the logbook. After a natter we all returned to GZ to replace the cache.


Blid435 & Wemnog
This cache also had a frog trackable in it which was just setting out on its mission. I picked that up as Blid didn't want to take it and that is already settled in to another newish cache in Colwick Country Park, more of that cache later.

As I said at the introduction of this edition of the blog, there is a lot to get through this week. I am not going to go in to details about all the caches, as you can see from the number a the top we have found 30 caches in the last seven days.

Wemnog and I decided that we would try and find some cache series this week, so with this in mind we set off to find a series near Ilkeston called ABC. This is a short series of five caches which take you to three villages, Awsworth, Babbington & Cossall hence the ABC in their names. This was a pleasant afternoon spent out with the dogs. Sadly one of the caches was unavailable at the time, so we will have to go back for that one when it is up and running again.

The caches found were called ABC - Rock On Tommy http://coord.info/GC2NXTG

ABC - Sweet Shop http://coord.info/GC2X08W 

ABC - Sweet Shop (Don't Ask)
Don't ask why it is called this, I have no idea what the connection could be! ABC - Crossroads http://coord.info/GC2NP65

A Nice Old Wooden Sign

What we liked especially about this one was the fact that the road sign near to GZ was made of wood, rather than metal. It also looks like it is well maintained, it was almost like going back in time finding a sign like this. Wish there will more of them about. It was very traditional and somehow very British.

The last ABC cache that we did was called ABC - Walk This Way http://coord.info/GC2NXTR I am glad that we weren't the only ones who only found this cache by using the hint. The GPS was going mad and the hint was very specific in what we had to do in order to reach the cache.
All these caches were by a cacher called Bigspen. As I said earlier, there is one more in his series to do, hopefully soon. Earlier in the day and still in the same area we found Nottingham Canal Cache # 1 - Resited by O2J. To find this cache we walked along a very tranquil canal which was a nice haven from the nearby fast moving traffic. Typical though, the bench near GZ was being used by a muggle who was holding a very long and loud conversation on his mobile. I used the getting the dogs to chase a ball tactic to avert his eyes whilst Wemnog retrieved the cache.



Nottingham Canal Cache ~ GZ is there somewhere


The bridge held the secret and apart from anything else, I thought it was very photogenic.

One more cache on this day, and always nice to find a well hidden ammo box. Babbo Woods http://coord.info/GC19HWQ by uncle mouldy

Babbo Woods

As you can see from the photograph, this ammo tin blends in and is off the beaten track, so is very unlikely to be found by a muggle, which sadly happens all too often with them, only for them to disapppear.
 
I looked at uncle mouldy's profile and was quite surprised by what I found. By the quality of this cache, I would have expected him to have put more out, but in fact he only has this one plus one more hide, again and ammo tin. Even more surprisingly, although he has been a member since January 2008, he only has 24 finds to his name. I hope that he does put more out at some point, he certainly has an eye for a good hiding place.
 
This cache seemed an appropriate place to set off my new trackable Only In B's. Maybe you can guess from the name, it only wants to go in to caches whose name begins with the letter B.

Only In B's Lands In Babbo Woods
I wonder what strangely named caches it will end up in.
 
A couple of days later and we were out again. We had to visit someone to drop our baking off for the market and as we had the GPS with us decided to mop up a cache that had been on the ubiquitous to do list for too long we went to find Fifty Steps? by anothe local cacher whom I haven't yet met. foxtrott3r.
This was another of those "didn't expect that" containers that are always a joy to find. This cache has been well hidden since November 2006 http://coord.info/GCZEFD
 
The 50 steps in question are an old railway bridge ~ over an old railway line. This line runs in to the nearby Ruddington Park and has a recent claim to fame. It was used for filming the train crash scenes in Emmerdale.
 
The filming for this was done at 4.00am on a cold autumnal morning and led to one of the soaps more dramatic ongoing storylines which recently led to the assisted suicide of a character.

50 Steps And An Emmerdale Connection
More caching followed, including just one in Measham. I had to do some cache maintenance for my Colwick Country Park series, by the way, one has been muggled again and disappeared. Very frustrating as it is the second time that it has gone, the first version was only a 35mm canister, I replaced it with a turtle pot, this is what has gone, so I am afraid it will be back to another 35mm in the next few days. A new cache recently appeared in the park. Oh Buoy http://coord.info/GC2Y061 by newish cacher tank0115 has caused some fun as no sooner had he placed it than some fishermen set camp up right beside it!
This wasn't to be expected as camping isn't allowed in the park, however these two had received special permission. It turns out that they had heard of geocahing, although they didn't really know what it was about.........they do now! They have had a constant stream of visitors to their camp looking for the cache, and they have become something of local celebrities around here. They have been playing the hotter/colder game with cachers looking for the cache. This is where I placed the aforementioned frog TB.

Guardian Of The Cache ~ Oh Buoy
Then the weekend arrived and we are up to yesterday. I have mentioned a few times on here that we feel guilty about not going out to find a lot of caching friend Northkings caches. Yesterday we decided to at least partly right that wrong and decided to do his Limes Walk series.
 
A good series of 5 caches + bonus had us finding some cunning hides. We decided to get back to Tebbit caching for this series. We parked up at the nearby cafe, found the first cache and then went on to the second. Limes Walk 2 http://coord.info/GC2PJ8F had us stumped for a short while as the GPS was swinging a little. Then we had it in hand. The second of this type of cache we have found recently and a very cunning one at that.

Gates Near Limes Walk 2

Wemnog Signs The Log At Limes Walk 2
After signing the log at Limes Walk 2 we continued onward to find the next few in the series. All were relatively easy apart from one. Limes Walk 5 http://coord.info/GC2PJ9M had us scratching our heads for a while. Eventually it was located and we were able to carry on to the bonus cache. Both number 5 and the bonus got favourite points, number 5 because it was so crafty and the bonus because the terrain was a little higher than the rest and hidden nicely out of the way.
 
We were now in full flow and had previously loaded another series of caches on the GPS by darrach. Which leads us on to.........................
 
Skinny Dipping

We took a slightly different track to the first cache in the Darrach Series ~ Rainworth Water http://coord.info/GC2CK32 and came across a pond hat was just too inviting. What we hadn't realised at the time was that this was fully visible from the Sustrans's Cycle Trail. Needless to say it was clothes off and jump in. Not only did we enjoy it, but so did the dogs. Modesty doesn't allow for a photograph of me here!!!! BUT....
 


Skinny Dipping

Furry Dipping
After a brief swim it was on to find the caches. 6 caches in the series by Darrach along the Sustrans Trail and some good, well thought out hides that he has put some effort in to making. One of the best was Log It's View http://coord.info/GC23WQ4 After finding all of Darrachs along the trail we went for one more. An appropriately named cache, Railway Children http://coord.info/GC2QYHT by chiperty ended our afternoon and busy week of caching.
 Just rereading this prior to publishing it, I noticed just how green the photographs are after the recent rain. Heading back to the start of our days caching though I was saddened to see what the result of just a few dry weeks can do. The parched landscape had become victim to a discarded cigarette or match and a lot of the area was now just a blackened ruin of its former self. Please, if you do smoke, make sure that you extinguish your fags properly.
 

Burnt
 
 
Another Milestone
 
So I reached another milestone yesterday, I found my 800th cache. Not bad, saying that when we started two years ago our intention was to find just one cache a week! It just goes to show that we are more than a little addicted to this game.
 
Finally
 
I had a lot more to tell you in this blog but I will carry it over until next week for fear of boring you.
 
A new gecoin has arrived which has been added to my collection to be discovered at events.
 
I have four more coins on the way to add to the collection as well. (photos to follow next week)
 
I am having a new Jacaru flag made to fly at events, again once that is finished I will post a photo.
 
If you look on the right hand side of the blog you will see that things have changed slightly. There is now a list of other blogs that I follow that you may also like to have a read of.
 
Lastly, I hope to have some exciting news next week about a new TB/GC race that I am  trying to set up with a fellow cacher over in the United States.
 
What next? Well, it's Sunday morning, 8.00am and I think it is time to wake Wemnog up and have a fry up before decided what to do with the rest of the day. Hmmm, could geocaching be involved? You never know!!!!
Have a good week folks.

20 Jun 2011

A Picnic By The Abbey

773

Picnic By The Abbey

As you can see my find rate has gone up by a measly 3 in the last week. One of these was an event cache held by our caching friend Angellica. This is the second year that she has run this event and this year even more people attended.
It was great to meet some old friends including Angellica and her spin offs The Nottinghamshire Pirates and Slightly Tall Paul, as well as some new friends, Ketts, y8c, loop 1968, alcoman and yorkypudding.
The weather was mixed and inbetween picnicking and caching everyone managed to dodge the showers.

Dodging The Rain
There are a some great caches to be found around the area although Wemnog and I decided to leave these for another day.
They range from straightforward caches along with some decent puzzles which are very enjoyable from all accounts.

Some quiz sheets were handed out as well for people to fill in, including a geocaching bingo sheet which Angellica had printed out from another very useful geocaching site. The Geocacher University http://www.geocacher-u.com/
This site has some very useful information on it which is worth looking at.




The other two caches that we have found in the last few days are Sharper, a new cache placed by bl4ck4dd3r http://coord.info/GC2Y922  here in Nottingham and also Countryside TB and Coin Retreat in the West Midlands by Foraging 5 by Forager No 2. This cache was well hidden and when I found it had 6 trackables in which I removed to move on. http://coord.info/GC2W7J4 Not wanting to leave it bereft of trackables I placed 5 in, including the BLOG TB for the start of its journey.


Trackables ready to enter the cache
 As I mentioned above, BLOG started its journey in this cache, two days after I put it in there the cache owners actually picked it up and it is now in there hands, so I will look forward to seeing where it goes next.

Geotogs & Turtles

I have been made aware over the last few days that the link to Geotogs that I had at the top of the page is no longer working. I have tried to make enquiries but nobody seems to be able to tell me whether they are still trading, so unless I hear otherwise I have now removed the link tab. I have replaced with a link to Cacheshack who sell some geocaching equipment including the very popular turtle containers. These containers have screw tops and hold a reasonable amount of swag and are easily hidden. I have now used a fair few of these containers and swear by them. The link can now be found above.

More Must Do's

As I said last week, I have started compiling a list of caches that I must do at some point. Two more for you this week that take my fancy.

Firstly another boat cache, this one is up in Yorkshire, Titanics Funnels http://coord.info/GC2NKRN I think this one will be the one we do first.



Titanics Funnels
This photograph is one that I was sent by another cacher as is the following one for another, not just must do, but a definately must do.

Cold War Cache http://coord.info/GC1782Z down in Wiltshire is one of those rare caches that you visit where you know beforehand that you are probably going to end up giving it a favourite point, simply because it is something different.

Cold War Cache
The hint itself is enough to inspire me to do this one ~ "Find the small green hatch ...... 15ft below is another hatch, the cache is behind it."

I reckon once we have done that one a number of photos will be posted on here.

Geocache Tourist

Another website that I have found that could do with a bit of help from you is http://www.geocachetourist.com/ This site is trying to establish itself as a site to help you out if you are visiting an area that you are unsure of. It gives you information on caches, cachers and more.
The site is looking for people to contribute about their own local areas so that they establish a really good database. Have a look, and see if you can help out.

Personal Collection

I already had a few coins in my personal collection that I hadn't activated. I have now decided to activate them so that others can discover them at events. Whilst going through my drawers looking at what I still have available for sale I decided to add another couple to the collection as well. Quite a set of photos here.

                                                                
                                                                                             

     
                                                                                                    


Finally

Last week I told you that I had ordered two personal geocoins, one for Wemnog and one for myself. They arrived this morning, just as I was thinking about writing the blog. So brand new and never seen before by anyone else, apart from you who are reading this, here they are.



Until next time, whether you are caching or not, have a great week.

15 Jun 2011

Caches, Rankings and Personal Geocoins

770

Caches

We haven't done as much caching as last week but still managed 3 + one DNF. The three caches found were all in Nottingham and have been those annoying "must do" list for too long.

It wasn't the best time to decide to do these three, ominous black clouds were gathering as we got in the car and headed out to them. All three were within walking distance of Wilford Crematorium and graveyard. There are many interesting gravestones in the cemetary and UK sould singer Edwin Starr was buried there following his untimely death in 2003 I actually met him once when my ex wife worked in Essex he did a cabaret at the hotel she worked out. He was a very down to Earth nice guy.


So, once we had parked up and headed off towards the first cache  Seventeen Soldiers http://coord.info/GC1X5DC the first rolls of thunder started. The cache itself was a quick find but not in the best of conditions, we couldn't have signed the logbook as it was more like papier mache. Luckily we had a spare new notebook that we left in there. Hopefully it will get sorted by the CO soon as it is a decent sized cache for the location.

Wemnog and I were now in competition, I had the trusty 550t in hand and he had his new geocaching app on his HTC phone. It has to be said that both performed equally as well. I have been sceptical of the caching apps that are around, having heard and read some bad reports. Having said that, I don't think that I would like to rely just on the phone.

Heading onwards with the thunder still rumbling overhead and the clouds darkening by the minute we found our second of the day Sharphill View http://coord.info/GC12JCY by Nottingham Nutters. Another easy find in an area of Nottingham that I didn't know. There were 3 TB's logged as being in the box and as they had been there for some time we were going to rescue them to move on. Sadly they weren't there (one of my pet hates as all regular readers know)

By now we were thinking ourselves blessed that the clouds hadn't yet opened to drench us, we were only in tee shirts and shorts. The final cache meant a walk along the top of a hill that gives magnificent views of the city. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me as the captured images would have been stunning with the white buildings and the black sky. The final cache of the day was called Sharp and was located in a small nature reserve that has recently been set up.

We all know how erratic a GPS can be with tree cover and neither the Oregon or the phone performed well. Even resorting to the hint on the listing and reading previous logs this one had us scratching our heads. As we continued our search and the three dogs rooted around in the undergrowth the thunder got louder and we heard the first drops of rain hitting the canopy above. Then bingo, I had the cache, another nice container here that was well stocked with marbles and other assorted goodies. Sharp http://coord.info/GC2B7DA by local cacher bl4ck4dd3r certainly was a puzzle but well worth a visit. After signing the logbook and retrieving the trackable and also leaving some of the signature keyrings mentioned last week it was time to head back to the Jeep and get home for a cuppa. As we replaced the cache the sky really opened up and the gentle tapping on the tree canopy above became a roar and the leaves didn't protect us in the least. As we headed out of the woodland and back on to the open hillside the two of us and the dogs were soaked through. Having been so dry recently the ground wasn't soaking the water in quickly so we were stepping in already quite deep puddles that had formed within minutes..........the joys of caching eh?

The final cache of the week was up in Warrington, a puzzle cache by Walker-Clan, Where's The Cache took a while to work out, in fact I resorted to contacting Andy, the CO to ask for a hint which he very kindly gave us. As we got in to Warrington we were confident of a quick find, but it still failed to appear. Where's The Cache http://coord.info/GC2KVN8 certainly does pose that question. After getting on to an island, sure that we must have the right location, getting over there resulted in Wemnog getting wet again by slipping in to the pond, I again phoned Andy, but even with even more precise instructions, after half an hour or so of searching we had to admit failure and record a DNF. We will be back!

Rankings

In case you didn't know there is a ranking system in place for geocachers to see where they stand in the whole scheme of things when it comes to number of finds logged. It is an interesting place to jump in and out of occasionally to see where you stand in the list. At the moment I am in 1861st joint place for the number of caches found in the UK. A long way to go before I catch up with the long time leader. Cacher drsolly has 20,251 finds under his belt as I type this. His first cache was found in September 2006 and the cache itself is still going strong. A cacher who is well known in the East Midlands and who can often been seen at events is stevo185 who has 11,250 finds. If you are interested in where you are in the listings have a look at the website http://www.cacherstats.com/United_Kingdom1.html and you can see for yourself.

Events

I can't believe how quickly the year is already going and that the camping event in the Peak District will be here quicker than it should be. If you haven't signed up for it and do want to attend I suggest that you book with the campsite soon as it is already filling up. The information can be found here on the cache event page http://coord.info/GC2PYFR

In the meantime I am organising another event which will take place next month. This one is local to us in Nottingham and will take the form of a bring your own barbeque. For more details have a look at the event page here http://coord.info/GC2XPF7
It would be good to see lots of new faces as well as some familiar ones at both events.

Want To Do

I read about a cache the other day that I really want to do, basically because it sounds like it will be just like finding real treasure. Toms Treasure Chest is down in Kent and is an old placing, having been in situ since 2003. I saw some photographs of this one recently and if you have younger children I am sure that they would find it fun.



















There be treasure in that box



As you can see from the photos, it does look like a fun one to find. The gc number for this one should you be lucky enough to be in the area is http://coord.info/GCH1B2

It must be good, it has got 25 favourite points on it. If you get there first I am going to be jealous.




Personal Geocoins

As regular readers will be aware, last year for the Summer's End event I had some trackable geocoins made that were given out as prizes in goody bags over the weekend. Whilst these coins were okay, they weren't very bright, being just basic black and white.



2010 Camping Event Coin
I am now thinking about this years event coins but when making enquiries I found that the company that maade the above coins has now gone bust. Having looked at alternatives I have found another company that is reasonably priced, however they are still much more expensive than is reasonably affordable. My thinking now is that I may have just one event coin made and make it a special prize for something that I still haven't thought of.

In the meantime I have ordered two personal coins from the company just to see what the finish is like on them. I have designed the coins myself, one personal trackable for me and one for Wemnog, these will become our own mileage trackers when this years GAGB mileage competition is over. I will post photos of them once they arrive. If you want details about the company let me know in the comments box and I will post a link to them next time I blog.

Finally

The TB knockout race organised by Slightly Tall Paul continues, but I am sad to report that my Ferrari is not in the cache it is listed as being in over in California. Hopefully it will turn up, but chances are that will be me finished in the race. I will keep you informed.

I chased up 14 geocachers over the weekend, asking the same old question..when are they going to move my trackable on. These are people who have held on to my things for over three months. Since the emails 7 trackables have now moved, I have had a further three apology emails and the rest have just been ignored.

We plan to be out and about on the bikes this weekend, so there should be more caches to tell you about next time. Don't forget to post any comments that you may have, including caching questions and I will do my best to answer them.

All for now.





6 Jun 2011

Tebbit Caching, Signature Items, Maintenance & The Blog TB

767
Tebbit Caching

As you can see from the numbers above, we have found another 20 caches in the last week. A big improvement over the last few weeks.

This has been down to a couple of factors:~

work is quiet at the moment, and more importantly

I need to lose some weight!!!

So I decided that we should do some Tebbit caching. This isn't an official geocaching term, one that I have made up, literally it just means getting on our bikes!

For any younger readers Norman Tebbit was an 80's MP famously known for telling the jobless to get on their bikes and find work.

Having once again used the services of http://www.geocachetrails.com/ to find some bike friendly circular routes we decided on doing the fairly new CCP series around Cotgrave Country Park by cacher Colonial Sin. This was a nice series of 6 caches + bonus. When the notification of a CCP series first pinged on my emails I was a little confused, and wondered what was going on. Simply put this was because I have my own CCP series out ~ Colwick Country Park.

The Calverton series starts with CCP 1 Last Post http://coord.info/GC2W9JQ Bikes loaded, dogs loaded and off we went. This was a really enjoyable series that took us to a country park that we didn't know. The second cache in the series brought us to a familiar type of hide, I've got a couple of this type out myself............


Wonder Where The Cache is!
To get the bonus cache coordinates we had to collect information from each of the caches. I'm not going to give the game away as to the bonus cache but all I will say is that although I knew this type existed, I hadn't actually found one before. It took us both a few minutes to locate it, even with spot on coords. It was a really enjoyable afternoon out.

Tebbit Caching

Following the closure of the Nottinghamshire Collieries, Nottinghamshire County Council and the Forestry Commission entered into a partnership with British Coal to restore 8 former colliery sites.

Cotgrave is one such park.

 This series was put out by local cacher ken.brown66 who should be congratulated on such an enjoyable and varied series. He has another series out which is also on our list to do before summer ends.

Part of the circular route took us to the nearby canal where we had to find a cache. This cache took us the most time to find, it shouldn't have done as it was really easy (there again isn't it always once you have found it)


Whilst looking for this one I looked up to see a familiar face approaching us. It was one of our caching friends RoPeHe. We spent a pleasant few minutes nattering away, discovering trackables that he had on him, and he looking at the trackables we were hoping to move on. RoPeHe (Rod) has been caching a lot longer than we have and has 3780 finds under his belt!


RoPeHe
We have a long way to go before we have found that many.
Once home from this series we had three very tired dogs and had a quiet evening without them asking to go out for a walk.

2 out of 3 tired dogs

A couple of days later we decided to do another circuit by bike. This time we did a series that had been on our list of to do's for a long time. This lovely circular was a little more challenging on bikes, and we did do part of it by walking. Just under 6 miles in total we did this series on another lovely sunny day. In fact we set off at 8.30am to do it, realising that it was going to be very hot later in the day. The first in the series was called Chapel Lane (Epp #1) http://coord.info/GC19WR7

This series took us around some lovely countryside and past some very nice (expensive) properties, alongside wheat fields, 

View from 2nd cache GC19WR9
  Over some lovely wooden bridges,


Another log signed



and alongside fields laced with poppies



Wemnog beside the poppies





























A lovely series which we both enjoyed doing








Signature Items

So do you have a signature item that you leave in caches when you have found them? We do, in fact over the last couple of years we have had a few. We started with military buttons which we bought locally at a place called Anchor Supplies. This is a brilliant place, an Aladdin's Cave in fact. So much so that our friend and fellow cacher Northking has a cache placed nearby, guess what it is called........Aladdins Cave http://coord.info/GC20EBP If you go to find this cache you may just bump in to some other cachers around including the Two Anchors and Charlie Chuckles.

We have also used calling cards in the past which we made ourselves, these also proved popular when we made them for others and we did for a while sell them on Ebay. However, more and more people are complaining about calling cards  being left in their caches as they go soggy if a cache is prone to dampness. Since then we have used marbles (always an old favourite with cachers) trolley coins and lately keyrings with this blog address on.

I must admit, I like finding trolley coins in caches and tend to pick them up when I find one. I am considering having some made, again with this blog address on, that's a future plan for now though.

I have heard of all sorts of signature items that people have found, from pieces made from Fimo to wooden discs with a cachers name on. Let me know what your favourite signature pieces are, either found or ones that you leave in the comments section at the end of this blog.

Maintenance

It was time once more to get on our bikes yesterday and do some maintenance. Nothing frustrates me more than having caches out that I know need some TLC and not having time to sort them out quickly.
The same goes for caches that I find where maintenance logs have been reported from months back yet nothing has been done about them. If people put caches out I wish that they would take the responsibility of looking after them.

I had a couple of my CCP series that needed new logbooks, Silver Birch http://coord.info/GC22FKX and Parachute Tree http://coord.info/GC22FJJ One cache Stuart Reilly's Benches http://coord.info/GC22EE5 had been muggled and needed replacing.

Then it was on to another site to replace Meg & Rum's Circular # 3 http://coord.info/GC1YEEB which had also done a disappearing act and finally Meg & Rum's Circular ~ The Final http://coord.info/GC1YRVW which needed a new logbook.

The Blog TB

The blog TB is ready to go, dipped in and out of The TARDIS http://coord.info/GC1WGEQ I will be moving it on soon. If you want to follow the progress of the geocaching TB you can do so by searching for TB3ZM9G




Finally

I have just done pocket queries for this week. It still amazes me just how many caches that there are locally. I did a query for 1000 traditional caches over a 25 mile radius from my home coords. When the results came in that 1000 caches only took me a few miles away. We could certainly be kept busy doing nothing but caching over the next few years.

This is my caching chronology up to today as copied from the stats page on GC.com


You've found 767 caches (767 distinct) since your first cache find on 01/09/2009.


You find the most caches in January and usually on Saturday.


Find Rate 0.8726 caches/day


Longest Streak 9 consecutive days with finds from 01/11/2011 to 01/19/2011


Longest Slump 44 consecutive days without a find from 09/16/2010 to 10/30/2010


Best Day 24 caches in one day on 05/25/2010


Best Month 66 caches in January of 2011


Best Year 376 caches in 2010
 
Until next time....happy caching.




 
 
 

1 Jun 2011

Trackables

747

Trackables

A couple of caches to tell  you about this week, but  more of that later. In this edition of the blog I wanted to talk a bit more about trackables. This may be useful for newer cachers but others may find it informative or gain some ideas from it.

Releasing Trackables

As well as your regular Travel Bugs, there are numerous other tags out there for sale now that you can attach to an object of your choice that you want to send travelling. From Trackabulldogs see http://www.ukgeocachers.co.uk/ to Travel Slugs, and from racing cars to flags and creatures.

These are an ideal cheaper version of sending out a geocoin and you can attach anything to it that may have some meaning to you. In the past I have sent out toy cars, post boxes, Doctor Who figures and even an old sixpence from the year that I was born. Obviously and sadly some of these have now been lost forever, either muggled or lost by cachers who have misplaced them (yes it does happen)! The good thing about the original travelbug is that when you purchase it, it does come with a copy tag, so if the original does go missing you can send a copy out. More about sending copies out later.

When you release a trackable, either a tag or a geocoin, I and others would recommend that you attach a mission statement to it. This can be brief and only needs consist of a piece of card with the statement on, then ideally laminated and attached to the traveller. It is also worth mentioning that the trackable isn't collectable and does need to move on (especially useful for new cachers who may mistake it for a swap item)

Copies ~ TB's and Tags

I briefly mentioned copies before. Firstly I will talk about TB copies. When you buy a travelbug it comes complete with a copy tag. Keep this, and in the unfortunate circumstance of your original getting lost somewhere in the world you can send the copy out along with either the same type of item that the original was attached to, or a photograph of it.
As far as I am aware, only travelbugs come with a copy tag. If you have a tag of a different type then what a lot of people do is visit their local pet store and get a dog tag engraved with the tracking number on. This is then attached to a similar item to the original and can again go travelling (it is even more important in this case to attach a mission statement to the new trackable) as it could just be mistaken for a trade item.

Copies ~ Geocoins

There are some beautiful geocoins in circulation and sadly some unscrupulous people out there, and sadly I don't mean muggles, take a fancy to them when they find them in a cache. These coins then find themselves lost to the owner forever, never to travel a single mile further. Whilst coin owners take the risk of sending out a coin that is valuable to them, either personally or monetary, the people who take them and keep them for themselves are actually committing a crime, although I can't see a prosecution ever taking place!

Again, what a lot of people are now doing is sending out copies of their coins so that they can keep the original at home safely. Sending out a copy of a coin is just as easy as sending out a copy tag. Simply scan your coin on to a piece of card, laminate it and then in the same way as the tags, attach an engraved dog tag to it along with a mission statement. At least if this goes missing you can send out another copy relatively cheaply, we get dog tags engraved for £1 at our local RSPCA charity shop.

A lot of cachers don't actually like picking up this type of trackable, and I have to admit that I have been guilty of this in the past. However, after having numerous coins go missing myself I now do pick up laminated copies to move on.

Coin Dipping

Another way of keeping your coin safe but still clocking up miles is to dip your coin. This simply means that you log the coin in and out of every cache that you personally visit. Not the same as seeing where you coin travels to without you of course. You can easily do this when you log a cache. At the bottom of the page where you have logged the cache you will see a Dropped off any trackables box, along with the tracking code and name of any trackables in your posession, either your own or any that you have picked up. To the right is a drop down box which has three options, No Action, Dropped Off or Visited. Just click on visited and that will log your coin in and out of the cache automatically and accrue the mileage.
At the moment that is what is happening with my GAGB coin TB3Y2V7 which has so far accrued 2891 miles since January 1st.

Daryl's Dipper ~ My 2011 Personal Mileage Coin
Blog TB

I have just ordered a TB from UK Geocachers and on arrival will be attaching it to one of my blog keyrings, so yes, the blog will be having it's own trackable. Once I have the number I will let you know so that you can also follow it if you want to.


More About Trackables

I have only done two caches in the last week or so, I'll mention them later. I picked up a trackable in each one.

In the first cache I picked up one of the aforementioned travel tags. This one goes under the guise of a hamster. Reference TB3XXH3 This one doesn't have a goal and is a new tag, having travelled only 1.3 miles from the cache it set out in to where I picked it up. I will be dipping it in to my home cache here in Nottingham before moving it on.

At the other end of the scale is a TB that I picked up has travelled 4902 miles so far. It started in France, then visited Germany, Switzerland, back to Germany, then on to Finland, Slovakia, Spain and then arrived here in the East Midlands. Again, I will dip it in to the home cache before moving it on. It is really nice to find a trackable that has moved around so much. You can find this one using the reference number TB2JW02 This one does have a goal, the owner just wants it to travel anywhere in the world. It's doing a good job of that so far.

Caches

So as I said, just two caches over the last week or so. The first in Warrington  by GForceUK was called Rylands  2 Steel http://coord.info/GC2D4YJ a clever little 3 part multi. It was easy to find each stage and used a couple of different containers that I especially liked. No doubt one or more of them will be seen in caches around Nottingham soon!!

The second and final cache this week was back here in Nottingham,  Back On Track by The Two Giraffes http://coord.info/GC2RM0E There had been some heavy rain and the approach to this one was slippery to say the least. A straightforward cache, well hidden and deserving of a favourite point.

Finally, my new cache 100 And Out has been published http://coord.info/GC2X38X only two visits so far but I am very happy that it has also now got two favourite points.

As an aside, I have also reopened the Ebay shop. Amazingly I got quite a few emails from customers asking that I do keep it open. On reviewing the situation I decided that I will continue for another 6 months up until December and see how things are going. I have just made my first sale to a customer in Russia.

Next time I will talk about Signature Items as well as letting you know about anything else of caching interest that I hear about in the week and also give you all the latest news on caching that we have done.

At the bottom of this blog you will find a tick box. Please could you tick any of the boxes that you feel are relevant to the blog. Cheers.

Have a good week and happy caching.