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.




 
 
 

Staying Local, Isle Of Man Schools, New Caches, DNF's and UK Podcast

Staying Local


Last Monday we travelled up to Yorkshire to remap a car. The weather wasn't too nice so we decided to just do one cache http://coord.info/GC1R036 We were looking forward to this one as it had had good comments in the past. Knowing it had just been replaced after a muggling incident we thought that we were on to a winner. Sadly after a prolonged search we had to record a DNF on it. I emailed the CO when I got home and the next day had it confirmed that the cache had gone missing again.


As far as distance with caching was concerned that was the furthest that we have been in the last week. We have indeed been staying local. We have been very lax in mopping up local caches, including those of friends Northking and Baira. So as the week went on we ventured out and found a few. It is a sad state of affairs when it has taken us so long to do some caches that are only a mile or so from home. One of Baira's caches that I particularly enjoyed was this one, only for the fact that the cache was located somewhere different from the norm. http://coord.info/GC1XNYQ I really do need to get out locally, I have visited the park many times, but didn't know this existed!!!

Keep Crossing Clear cache site

Over the next few days we did a few more caches. One that intrigued us after reading comments about it was Time For Tea? by new cacher Noords. The cache http://coord.info/GC2ER2N was a real surprise. A lot of thought has gone in to the placement and design of this one. I am not going to give anything else away about it. It is in the memorial gardens just off the Embankment here in Nottingham. If this cache from such a new cacher is anything to go by then s/he is definately going to be surprising us in the coming months.


The gardens where it is placed are lovely, no matter what time of year you visit, so if you are ever in Nottingham, pop in and have a wander round. The statue of Queen Vicoria that is in the photograph (below) was originally in the market square in Nottingham but was moved when the square was redeveloped back in 1953, it had been in the market square since being unveiled in 1905.



Not too far from the Time For Tea? cache, Memorial Gardens, Nottingham



Also over the weekend we have done some of Northking's caches. Not as many as we planned to do. We really have waited far too long to do these and we aim to try and finish his by Christmas. We did his A-Road Anarchy caches this weekend. In the past we have found some ARA caches very boring. A film canister chucked in to a lay-by. These had a bit more about them and larger containers. I was able to leave some trackables in a couple of them and also retrieve one from another. Jeff, aka Northking has a reputation for putting out quality caches and I look forward to reporting in the next few weeks on some of his other caches. From reading logs, they may just have Wemnog and I scratching our heads!



Isle Of Man School

Whilst up in Barrow last week, I picked up a trackable TB3QHVJ, I won't give the actual tracking number for it on here for obvious reasons. This trackable is owned and being followed by a group of school children from the Isle Of Man. Having picked it up I decided to set a bit of a quiz for the children, not actually telling them where I was going to take it, but giving them hints. So, at the moment I have brought it home to Nottingham, some Robin Hood hints for them there. In the next few days I am moving it down south, so again I have given them some hints without actually saying where it is going. I had a lovely email yesterday from their teacher thanking me for doing this. Now I enjoy moving trackables anyway, but this has made it a bit more special, especially as the kids are enjoying it so much. This is a photo of the trackable in question, so if you see it out and about, please try and take it somewhere interesting for them.

New Caches

Following on from doing the A-Road Anarchy caches by Northking, I felt inspired to put one out myself last night. So far it hasn't been published so I can't say too much about it apart from the title A-Road Anarchy - A612 - Time For A Picnic! I'll report next time on how it is doing. I have another cache ready to go out in the next few days, this is a nano cache in a well loved area of Nottingham. Going back to the ARA caches, I do already have one which has been in place for a while http://coord.info/GC24942



DNF's


Many cachers seem to be reluctant to record a DNF when they have been unable to find a cache. Whether they are embarrassed to say that they haven't found it, or simply don't feel that it is important to register that they haven't found one. As far as I am concerned recording a DNF on one of my caches, or my recording one on a cache that I haven't been able to locate is important. Not only does it inform the CO that there may be a problem with their cache, it also informs other cachers that they may have to either look that little bit harder or be prepared for a DNF themselves. The same goes for Needs Maintainance reports. Sometimes, rightly or wrongly cache owners don't get a chance to go and check on their caches, so a NM report is their only way of knowing if some work needs doing. So please, don't be emabarrassed about reporting. We all have DNF's at some point!


UK Podcast


I am glad to report that after a brief hiatus, the UK Podcast is back online. If you haven't heard the podcast before, it is very informative and worth a listen. You can find it here http://www.ukpodcast.com/ Not only does it inform you of what's going on in the caching world, it also contains news from cachers around the UK.



Finally
Having entered the Great Travel Bug knockout race that has been organised by Slightly Tall Paul, I am pleased to say that my TB was picked up in Cumbria and having been placed in an event cache in Scotland has now been picked up and is on it's way to America. If you want to follow the knockout you can find it here http://www.travelbugknockout.blogspot.com/ My TB is called Knockout Ferrari, Wemnog also has a TB in the race, his being The Skylark. Keep your fingers crossed that these two TB's travel far, we both quite fancy winning the final prize of an engraved glass paperweight.




That's it, another weeks news over, so until next time...............have a great caching week.

Back In The Saddle, Ebay, TB Knockout

Back In The Saddle


Yay, after a long period without doing any caching at all, the visit to Barrow last week certainly got Keith (Wemnog) and I back in the saddle.

During the week we did in total 33 caches, we could have done more, but it was also nice to relax in the hotel and we seem to have encountered a years worth of wet weather in one week whilst up there!

So where do I begin? Well after doing a route planner for Warrington to Barrow we actually did a couple of caches on the way up. We left the main start of the caching until Tuesday though. One of them, Nuns In A Bunker? http://coord.info/GC1K7JT was strange, if you ever do it, see what you make of it. This pic shows GZ.

Barrow In Furness doesn't have the best of reputations as an area to visit for a week, but the caches certainly are worth it. We spent some time on Walney Island and did a couple of caches over there. It was very windy and the dogs cetainly got blown about. We left Meg at Keith's mum's as she is in season and Rum was taking too much notice of her.

Here is a pic of the dogs on the windswept walk to a cache. It wasn't a long walk, but what with wind, driving rain, and my new hiking boots making a nice blister on my heel, it was long enough.


All this for a nano! There again, I don't have anything against nano's and too be fair, GZ wouldn't really have allowed for anything else.

Over the next few days we cached, then cached some more. One of the more interesting ones was called On The Right Track, http://coord.info/GC2D8C1 it is a pity it isn't an actual sidetracked cache as it is about the nearest to a railway line that you could get.

Over the road from GZ three warships are moored. Deciding that we wanted to know more about how they got to be there, once we got back to the hotel we googled them and found out that they belong(ed) to Brunei. There has been an ongoing legal argument between BaE systems who built the ships and the Sultan of Brunei who ordered them. He says that they aren't up to his specifications. They have been moored at Barrow since 2007. For more information on these ships, you can visit this link .

http://z3.invisionfree.com/Defense_Philippines/index.php?showtopic=5978

The photos below show Wemnog and I at GZ and also with the ships in the background.

Wemnog at Ground Zero (couldn't get much closer!)






Jacaru and the Sultan's Warships

















I chose to leave my new TB CP1MDK here, it is a North West Mega 2012 tag attached to a turtle which I want to stay in the North West of the UK, as I write this blog up, I have read that it has been picked up by someone who is going to take it home with them to Norway!!!!! I have emailed them, asking them to leave it in a cache more local to its mission! We'll see.

We did a series of caches called Woodland Wander. http://coord.info/GC2CYW6 A nice little series, that took us to some woodland very close to Barrow itself, close to the main road in to the town, but a little escape from the hustle and bustle elsewhere. I decided to leave another of my new trackables in this cache, my Knockout Ferrari, more of that story later. No sooner was the TB in one of the caches and the cache replaced I heard a scottish lilt asking "So which one of you is Jacaru then"? It turns out that another couple of cachers had been following us around Sue from Perth Pathfinders and Snaik. We knew that they were in the area as they had already spotted the mobile TB on the Jeep, we read that log the night before. Sue picked up the Ferrari and said that she would get some miles added to it.
We walked on together to the last cache in the series, before parting ways, the Scottish contingent back up to Perth and us off for a spot of lunch.

After lunch we did a few more, one of the more interesting places, although quite a boring cache was Bow |Bridge, http://coord.info/GCR4DX this medieval stone bridge carries an old route to Furness Abbey, which was founded by Stephen, later King of England. This is all the more interesting for us at the moment as we are engrossed in watching Pillars Of The Earth on TV, which is about that period of time.

Bow Bridge

The next day found us doing a series called The Old Slaggies, not the most endearing name that I have ever heard for a series. This was a good morning's outing and gave us some good views (well it would have done if not for the driving rain) We did see a light aircraft battling the wind though to land on the airstrip over at Walney Island, which belongs to BAE systems. Wonder who was on it?

The series actually took us for a wander around the old slag heaps. The mountain of slag,known locally as "The Slaggy"was waste from the old iron and steel works,which in the 1870's was the biggest Bessemer steel production plant in the world,employing over 5,000 men.  http://coord.info/GC1YPPD Only seven caches in the series. but enjoyable none the less.


The final afternoon of our break took us to Walney Island again. There was a cache that I really wanted to do Sheep Island http://coord.info/GC11M6Y This was probably not attempted at the best time of day, especially with my ankle being a mess, but we did it anyway, just before dusk, again in driving wind and rain, it cried out to us. Armed with torches and mobile phones, in case we got stuck in the sand, we set forth. It took us a little while to get to the cache, but once in the right area it was soon located. The walk back seemed to take longer, us two and the dogs were caked in sludgey sand. In the distance we could see the wreck of an old car, obviously one that had got stuck at some point and couldn't be recovered before the sea claimed it.

We did a few more drive by's on the way home, but the caches that I have mentioned are the main thrills of the week for us. If you ever get to Barrow they are worth doing, along with a visit to the nearby Dock Museum.

Ebay

Now that I am back home I have updated the Ebay shop, it now has self inking rubber stamps in it as well as some new sign caches that have always proved popular. As Christmas is only a few weeks away these would make ideal pressies for any cacher out there.

TB Knockout

My caching friend Slightly Tall Paul has set up a new TB knockout race.  Information on it can be found here travelbugknockout.blogspot.com  I have entered a Ferrari in to the race, hopefully it will travel far. As I mentioned above Sue from Perth Pathfinders grabbed my TB from the cache up in Barrow and is going to pass it on to someone who is going to take it to America, not a bad start for its journey, let's just hope the miles continue to clock up once it is over there.

Well, you must be getting bored by now, this has been the longest entry in the blog for a long time.

Back soon, with more caching news and views.

Caching, Canoeing, Events & Getting Groped

CACHING and CANOEING
A busy week again, sometimes we can go for a long time without doing many caches, then suddenly we have the opportunity to get out and do lots. Since the last blog we have done another 20. The week started with us doing three caches in the Oxford area when we were down there remapping. I can’t say these were thrilling caches, in fact one of them, Magic Roundabout, has to be about the least thrilling cache that I have ever done. It was plonked in the middle of a litter strewn roundabout with a none stop stream of cars, motorcycles and trucks.

The week got better though and as we were attending caching event on Saturday we did some of the caches along a great stretch of the Grantham Canal placed by local geocacher, Pinfold. He had put a brilliant new cache out ~ Gimme Shelter GC2D9P2, which we got to just as old caching friend RoPeHe was signing the log. Needless to say he got FTF, but we were a very close second. The cache is very well concealed and worth a visit. The canal is no longer navigable in parts but remains a lovely place for a walk and a cache or two. We did some caching around the area as well including one by fly2live2fly just near to a well known local cheese manufacturers, see the pic.

After caching it was time to attend the event, but more of that later.

The day after we decided that as the weather was good that we would get the Canadian canoe out and do some caches that we had had our eye on since they were first published. This was the Sneaking Around Stamford series by Dakar4x4. A great series of caches along the River Welland. 8 caches in all, some on busy parts of the river, some on much quieter parts. Wemnog and I even had to do a bit of limbo style canoeing to get to one of the caches as a tree had fallen and the only way through was by getting down low in the canoe. This is one of the GC numbers GC1YVNJ, if you are interested you will can find the rest on Google Maps. It was a great day out though and has certainly given me some ideas for a future series! See the pics below to see some of the fun we had.

Alberts Bridge ~ one of the cache locations

EVENTS

Back to the event that we attended. This was organised by our old friend Northking and Pinfold. It was very well attended by faces old and new and the pub certainly was a lot busier than I can imagine it usually is on a Saturday afternoon. The two guys held a raffle as well with some prizes, they managed to raise a decent sum in aid of the RNLI. To make the event even more special this turned out to be Northking’s 1000 cache, not bad in around 12 months of caching, so congratulations to him.

Staying on the subject of events, the Summer’s End event is approaching fast. The number of people saying they will attend, if not for the whole weekend at least on the Saturday keeps going up which is great news. Now that the farmer has given us permission to allow small caravans on the field it means more people can go for the whole weekend as well. The three new caches already reviewed will be published late on September 9th, they are called Around The Bend From Yonder Man!, Hole In The Wall, and Bridge Over The River Wye, I am looking forward to people finding them, especially the Bridge cache.

Plans for the event are in the final stages, the quiz is done, the coins for the goody bags have arrived and most importantly the barbeque is ready to fire up. I have asked people to bring flags to fly if they possibly can, the site can get quite windy, so having some flags flying should make it quite a spectacle.

Now all we need to make everything perfect is the weather.

GETTING GROPED

Some blog readers may already know about a group who go about stealing and destroying caches, both containers and contents apparently all in the name of environmental conservation. I myself have had a TB taken from a cache and supposedly destroyed ~ they threw it in a lake according to the email I got off them. How environmentally friendly is that, throwing a plastic object in to a lake, hmmm, not sure whether it’s going to rot down guys, maybe it will kill a fish or two though!

These prats don’t reckon that they are doing anything wrong (poor misguided individuals) and reckon that they are above the law. However the destruction of what is basically private property is, in the eyes of the law, theft. People from this group have been tried with success in other countries and now the reviewers have got together and sent out a statement on some of the forums. Here is their statement which reviewer Graculus, has kindly said that I can copy and paste on to this blog.

“This post is in response to cachers who have had their caches or trackables removed by a person or persons calling themselves GROEP and is to give you advice about how to deal with it.

The caches that we create are deliberately placed in locations and not abandoned as litter therefore what the GROEP people (under whatever username they currently use) are doing is simply theft of the cache containers and any trackables in them. I have spoken to my local police and they have confirmed that this is the case. If you find this person (or persons) has stolen either your cache or your trackable from a cache you should contact your local police and report it as a theft. Explain what geocaching is and that the cache container/trackable is your personal property and make sure you get a crime report reference number. If you have any difficulty explaining to the police what geocaching is or what has been stolen and need help then please contact me via my profile and give me the police station phone number and I will be happy to talk to them.”

Signed by

Chris

Graculus - Volunteer Reviewer for geocaching.com

and all the members of the UK reviewing team.

If you have the misfortune of having one of your caches or trackables messed with by these idiots please don’t just let it go, inform the police and let’s get this stamped out once and for all.

FINALLY

Well, quite a long blog this week so I guess I will quickly mention another link and then be on my way.

This time it’s the turn of the Geocaching Association Of Great Britain, or GAGB for short. The Geocaching Association of Great Britain (GAGB) was established to provide a voice for its members in the United Kingdom.

The aims are to establish good practices, provide a focal point for public liaison and support the growth and enjoyment of Geocaching within the UK. They do much more than that though. They have an extremely friendly forum where you can get advice, share ideas and find out about other things going on in your area.

Well worth becoming a member of, and it’s free.

That’s me done, until next week. As usual, I can’t say whether I will have done a little or a lot of caching by then, but if I do, you’ll certainly find out.

Have a good week.

Weekend In Derbyshire

Wemnog and I had a weekend away in the campervan in Derbyshire. We had the three dogs with us of course, it was Fen the puppy's first time camping, she soon settled in to it.

We decided to stay at the site which we are going to use for the Summer's End camping event in September. That way we thought that it would be good to suss out some caches that we can point campers towards doing.

The photo above shows Peters Stone, the location of the first cache we did, C.O.D. Petrus,GC7A06, there is a cache there somewhere! We picked up our only TB of the weekend in this cache.Following on from the first cache we did the next one, Beyond Peters Stone, we had a bit of a scramble down to this one GCG6W0.

Then it was back to the campsite for some well earned food, and an early night.

Another very hot day on Saturday, so after a cooked breakfast it had to be a full day of caching. We did a lot of the C.O.D. caches (Curiosities Of Derbyshire) by Cats-Eyes. They have put some brilliant caches out that are well worth visiting. The first of the day though was a little way out, I Want To Be Wanted, a cache by the Wanted Inn, not too far from Chapel en le Frith. The only thing that I picked up there, apart from the cache was a load of dog poo on my shoe (not the best start to the caching day)

Then it was on to Monsal Head, well worth a visit at any time of the year, caching or not. The views here are spectacular. After stopping for an ice cream we ventured off to the cache and soon had it located and the log signed.

So the caching continued, one of the next caches we found was in the village of Great Longstone, a beautiful little village, not too far away from Monsal Head. The old water pump in the village was the location for this cache. Even with caches eyes, and knowing exactly what we were looking for, this cache took a couple of minutes to find, I blame the bright sunshine!

We carried on and bagged a few more caches including GC1G9E9 C.O.D. All Saints RC Church, Hassop. This one certainly was a curiosity. Hassop is another smallish Derbyshire village, but there, in the village itself is a massive Roman Catholic church. The size of it and the building material used certainly didn't fit in with the village itself!

We have heard a lot about the Skeg to Ness series from our good friends NorthKing and also Two Anchors, but we hadn't planned on doing any in the immediate future. However, the next cache on the GPS that flagged up for us was, in fact #129 in that series. As it was so near we couldn't resist doing it and we were glad that we did. It was another clever cache container. I have got similar ones out there, but this one went just that little stage further, we spent more time retrieving the log than actually finding the cache!

A few more caches around Stoney Middleton and chips from the chippy there and then it was time to return to the campsite for a cuppa and bask in the evening sunshine.

On Sunday we did a couple more C.O.D. caches, C.O.D. @ The Races and C.O.D. Well Fancy That, which is pictured below before driving on through the plague village of Eyam and on to the wonderful Grindleford Station for a well earned Sunday lunch.

Finally, below is a photograph of the campsite where the Summer's End event is going to be held. As you can see, it is basically just a field. Having stayed there though, we feel sure that people will enjoy it, pure back to basics camping, one sink, cold water, one loo, but loads of fun. Roll on September, there is already the promise of people bringing musical instruments, so although we aren't allowed to have campfires, it should be a brilliant atmosphere. If the weather is good, there is every chance that we will have a barbeque as well.

I wonder where caching will take us next? I'll let you know.