As you can see from the above number, not nearly enough caching in the last week.
Bangs
Well the Wetherby incident has certainly been the talk of the caching world, at least here in the UK for the last few days. Thanks to those who added comments on the last blog about the situation. There have certainly been some mixed views regarding the police response and to what has happened since.
For those of you who don't know, a new guideline has now been put in place that will hopefully stop such a happening again. I'm still not fully convinced that it is the way forward. My argument for urban caches has always been that there are people out there in the caching community who can't go out to find any other kind, whether that be because of time constraints, disability or for some other reason. The fact that it is now being said that containers should be clear and labelled doesn't really do the idea of disguising a cache and/or using camo any favours.
The latest guidelines from the GAGB are copied below.
“Urban caches should be placed to minimise the chance of security alerts. It is essential that micros and larger are marked externally as a geocache with the relevant listing site reference (eg: GCxxxxxx, OXxxxxxx or OCxxxxxx). Containers larger than 35mm containers should have clear sides to enable inspection without opening. Cache pages must contain the following wording: This cache meets the GAGB Urban Placement Guidelines”
I already know of people, some who are close caching friends who are already archiving their urban caches. I do fear that this could bring a lot of urban caching to an end.
Having said that, if the police forces throughout the country do have a database of caches, and a liason officer in each force then this can only be for the good of the caching world in general.
It also has to be remembered that one mans urban is another mans country.
Book
As some regular readers know we have recently started caching more using our bikes. There are some good bookmark lists that people have compiled in the past. However, some of these are quite out of date now and a lot of the listed caches have long since been archived.
Wanting to know more about different traffic free cycle routes in the country, which we obviously need so that the dogs can go with us, I found a book on Ebay that suits us down to the ground.
Traffic-Free Cycle Trails by Nick Cotton (so that's what he did when he left Walford)! lists over 400 rides all over the country and if you like both your caching and the idea of doing it by bike is a worthwhile addition to your bookshelf. The ISBN number for the book is 978-1900623216 it includes rides alongside canals and also old railways. Well worth a the few quid that it cost. If you aren't sure if it's for you order it from your local library to have a look at.
Blanks
Pet hate time, and here I am going against Groundspeak. I have decided that I will no longer accept blank logs. I can just about put up with a Found or TFTC log, though if I had my way I would delete those as well, but blank logs just don't do it for me.
I know that I am not the only one who feels like this. A lot of cachers put a lot of thought, time, effort and money in to the caches that they put out and to receive an email with a blank log is extremely frustrating. Groundspeak have decided that blank logs are acceptable and should stand as a record of someone finding your cache, but I disagree. I don't expect an essay, but a few words to describe how a person felt about the cache, the location etc. etc. not only shows that what I have put out has been appreciated but may just help another person who is struggling a little with that particular cache to find it.
Someone posts a few lines at the beginning of their cache descriptions. I asked if I could use it and they kindly agreed. This is what I now put on my cache pages.
Logging Etiquette: Geocache hiders sometimes go through a great deal of planning to place their caches. As a result, they'd like to hear your feedback on whether you liked or disliked any aspect of the hide, or if you feel that some cache maintenance is required. Single word, acronym, or emoticon logs may be easier when you have a lot of caches to log, but it doesn't tell the hider or other finders anything about your adventure (or lack thereof) in finding the cache. Please keep this in mind when entering your log. Completely blank logs will be deleted.
If you feel strongly about blank logs you should lobby Groundspeak to get their decision overturned.
Caches
The Android phone came in to its own this week. We were delivering a car to a garage when it broke down and we had to wait for a recovery truck. It just so happened that we didn't have the GPS with us but being parked near Loughborough University we were sure that there would be some caches around. Checking the phone and sure enough there were some nearby, in fact the nearest was only 400 feet away!
So off we trundled and found some well disguised caches by the now sadly deceased cacher Somloci. These caches have now been taken over by PlasmaWave. All named Lufbra Uni and then numbered these were urban caches at their best. We did have one DNF though amongst them. A couple of photos below taken in the grounds of the uni.
We got back to the car just in time for the recovery vehicle to arrive. At least we hadn't sat around twiddling our thumbs.
The final cache of the week was my event yesterday at Colwick Country Park http://coord.info/GC2XPF7 It was really well attended and we were really lucky in that the rain stayed away until the very end of the event. Some people took the opportunity to hand me their bugs in readiness for the Nottingham to Nottingham race which starts in September. I have so far received 9 entries and they are now waiting in the container ready to be found once the race has started.
The cache has been approved by our local reviewer Antheia and permission has been granted by Nottinghamshire County Council to place it on some land that belongs to them. The name of the new cache from where the racers will leave is very simply Nottingham TB Hotel. Not very original but the cache over in America will also be called the same.
If you want to see some photos of the race entrants have a look at the race blog which can be found either by following the link at the top of this page or http://www.usuktbrace.blogspot.com/
Finally I will leave you with a couple of photos of yesterdays event.
It was great to see some familiar faces and again lots of people for whom it was the first event.
Until next time, I hope you have a great week and get some good caches found.
Happy Hunting.
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