24 Oct 2011

Munzee Sites and Caching Bites

931

Munzee Sites

Since I first mentioned Munzee a few months back when it first started the game has really taken off.  We were something like 830th to join the game, and now there are over 11,000 players and it is growing daily.

There are some really innovative players out there now, who are pushing the boundaries of what can be done with the game. Some of these include a local cacher who has been mentioned before in this blog, Northking. He really thinks outside the box when it comes to creating new ideas for Munzee, including a couple of journey's that you can do and Munzee at the same time. One of these includes a train journey from Nottingham to London where you capture Munzees at certain places on the journey. You can find more information about this on Jeff's new Munzee site http://www.munzee.org.uk/index.html  You will also find information on this, his Postcode Capture Munzee.
If you want to capture this one, contact Jeff through his Munzee site or via his geocaching profile.


There are another couple Munzee sites to mention, obviously the main Munzee site where it all began, http://www.munzee.com/ and there is also a UK Facebook page,  Munzee GB for people who are want to join in. The Facebook site is a closed group, but you can request to join, just search for it by name on Facebook.

The UK's first Munzee meet will be happening shortly as well. More details of that can be found on Jeff's pages.

Caching Bites

As you will see from the number at the top of the page, since I last updated we have got around to doing more caching, in fact another 26 since then. We have been out and about on the bikes for a lot of it.

We have cached in Derbyshire, obviously not too far away from us, Birmingham, Newcastle and a couple of locals here in Nottingham. There are quite a few new local caches to go and find, but we tend to leave some of the newer ones for when the weather is bad during the winter period.

As usual, you see some unusal things when you are out caching, so I will share a couple of photos with you of things that we have seen lately, including this wise old owl carving. 
Wise Old Owl

We also found this place, and this is somewhere which we definately would have just ridden past had it not been for caching.                                                                                                                   




Getting out and about on the bikes again has been good and the weather for it has been perfect over the last couple of weeks. Yesterday we were on the Monsal Trail with some none caching friends, we think we may have some converts! There weren't many caches on the trail itself. If you are ever in Derbyshire this is a really good trail to either walk or cycle. The route has quite a lot of tunnels which have only recently been reopened. Prior to that you had to make some detours. At the Hassop end of the trail there is a decent cafe and a must visit bookshop as well.

As I mentioned we did a little bit of caching up in Newcastle over the weekend as well. We had to meet a customer at the airport who had just had a flying lesson and having some TB's and coins to move on we thought we would look for suitable caches.

There are two really decent TB hotels around the airport, they really are the closest to terminal TB hotels that I have seen, another cache that we did gave some really good views of the runways and the really modern control tower.

Control Tower at NIA

One final place that caching took us to this weekend was the Newcastle Falcons rugby ground. I'm not a rugby fan but Wemnog is and according to him they are quite a decent team. Wem used to play rugby and actually set up a team here back in the 80's.

Newcastle Falcons Ground

Finally this week one more new caching site on Facebook to tell you about. It is called Geocaching East Midlands. It is a none political friendly group with no hidden agenda, just a place where people can chat in a decent civilised manner. Although the name is Geocaching East Midlands, the page is there for people to join from anywhere in the country. In that way if people are thinking of visiting this area, members can point them in the right direction for finding caching equipment such as Anchor Supplies, or for meeting up with like minded people for a natter.

At the Nottingham to Nottingham launch event we had a number of visitors from around the country who gave us the idea. They preferred not to join in with forums but still wanted a place to be able to chat. So that's how the idea came about. Again, this is a closed group as with the Munzee page and people can ask to join. Just search for Geocaching East Midlands and put in a request. We are planning on holding an event soon as well to meet up with people, this won't be an official geocaching event just an informal gathering of like minded people.

I mentioned Anchor Supplies above, if you don't know about them they are a government surplus stockist here in Nottingham. It is an Aladdins cave of a place to visit and you are sure to spend a lot of time and a little money there if you get a chance to visit. You will also find some decent caching equipment for sale there, or stuff that you can turn in to caching equipment. They also stock very reasonably priced ammo boxes. If you are too far away to visit they do do mail order. If you do visit, you are sure to get a warm welcome as a lot of the staff are also cachers themselves.

This link will take you to their site. http://www.anchorsupplies.com/

That's all for now, happy caching.

11 Oct 2011

Finally, Race TB's and Questions and Answers

905

Well after last week I finally hit the 900th cache. A good one down in Gloucester that a friend had told me about. Troll, by oz uk http://coord.info/GC23GGH is the first container that I have come across that was actually sold for purpose. A neat little container that was large enough for me to drop some TB's off in.



A view from near the Troll cache
So that was 900, no time to do any more that day. However, we did have to go to East Midlands airport a couple of days later to pick up some bits and pieces for the new TB race that starts in January. We decided that we had enough time to go and find a couple of caches whilst around so went to Adrian's Birthday Cache http://coord.info/GC2MQKH and Grumpy's Departure Lounge http://coord.info/GC345RR Both easy finds which again were large enough to drop some trackables in.

A few days later we were off up to Liverpool to do some remapping and had chance to do a couple of Motorway Mayhem caches on the M6 before doing just one cache in Liverpool itself. The cache Captain "Johnnie" Walker was a cheeky little container placed at Pier Head. We were lucky that it was a quiet and blustery day so there weren't that many people around. This is the kind of cache description that I like to read, one with a bit of history. http://coord.info/GC32XP6

Captain "Johnnie" Walker statue, Liverpool


 We have only done one other cache of John Stead's a while back in another part of the country, but from the two that we have done and from others that we have read about he places some very interesting caches.





Race TB's

All the Nottingham to Nottingham race TB's are now back in the UK and will be moving in to caches shortly ready to resume the race as they were meant to. They had a brief stay in the US but thanks to Captainwilly who kindly UPS'd them back so that the race could continue correctly.

Questions and Answers

I recently approached some cachers who I know and asked whether they would consider answering some questions about their caching experiences for the blog. The first person up is Yorkypudding who kindly agreed to be the guinea pig.

 How long have you been caching for?   Since Wednesday 16th February 2005, officially and did one in France a bit before but never logged it.
How did you get in to geocaching?   A friend of mine saw it on Countryfile.
Favourite type of cache?   A nice full Ammo can.
Series or single caches?  Prefer a Series.
Your favourite find?    Paper Caper by The Soupdragons. http://coord.info/GCKEEC

Fair weather or any weather?   Any weather, been in the snow,rain, fog and I actually prefer it quite bleak less people around.
Your very first find?    Woolley Rail by Rimosky found 21st of February 2005. http://coord.info/GCJZM4
On your own or with someone else?  Both really, not keen on big groups.
Furthest cache from home?  Done a few virtuals, in Maine- usa, The Antartic and even the Mia space station. But my real furthest is Perth in Scotland.
Favourite bit of advice for other cachers?  Read the log page that someones gone to the trouble of writing and use the hint to avoid destruction to terrains.
What’s in your caching bag?  What isnt , GPS, pens hundreds of them. A long mirror with a magnetic end. Head torch, baby wipes, A pouch that turns into a bag, A smal maintence kit with supplies in.Batteries, gloves. Lots of crumbs at the bottom. and old name tags from events.
Any cache that you have heard about that you really want to find?    A cache at Brimham Rocks that you have to Absail to get it, but i'm too big for that. But one day soon I won't be.

A big thanks to Yorkypudding for being the first in this series. If you would like to answer the same questions and have them posted on the blog feel free to get in touch with me.

Finally there is some exciting news coming. I can't tell you any more at the moment, but it will be great news for cachers everywhere and will be well worth waiting for.


Cheers.

3 Oct 2011

How Difficult?

899


So how difficult can it be to find a cache that I want to do for my 900th? Nothing so far has grabbed me as being anything special.  I have done all the decent caches around Nottinghamshire that I want to do especially. I have a few caches that I have got my eye on for 1000, including caches by Northking, Team Blid, Baira and SVK but nowt around here for number 900.

We were down in Virginia Water at the weekend and had planned for us both to reach the milestone then, Wemnog is a few behind me. We had a series that were going to do but the weather was too hot for the dogs to chase us around on bikes. I ended up doing my 899th cache just outside Marilyn Monroe's old house in the nearby village of Englefield Green ~ GC2HDHW was a nicely stocked, decent sized container. I used to live in the area, well 30+ years ago and never dreamt that next time I was going to be back round there would be with my partner searching for plastic boxes!

So 900 still eludes me, something will turn up I am sure.

Nottingham To Nottingham Race

The Nottingham to Nottingham race is moving on apace. Lots of movement in the last couple of weeks and some surprising movements in the coming weeks as well.

As I write,  another race is being planned and there will be more details of that at a later date. We had some good publicity for the last one and I am sure that the next race will prove to be popular too.

So not much to tell you at all this time, just thought it was about time I touched base. I am sure that next time I write there will be more to tell you, including some great Mega news as well.