Shell Island and A Change Is Afoot

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Hiya and welcome to the latest chapter of my blog. Again, it has been longer than anticipated in updating this, so apologies to my regular readers.

Shell Island

So Wemnog and I gathered three teenage lads together for a few days away on Shell Island in Wales.  We fooled them in to thinking that they were staying overnight at ours so that we could have an early morning set off. When they arrived just after 11.00pm we told them that were actually setting off at midnight. They were up for it so we set off, arriving on Shell Island at around 5.00am. We had the first cache in hand by 7.20am  This Daughter Went To The Seaside http://coord.info/GC24VBB An easy enough cache, and very nice to find one on arrival. The only other one on the island is near to the naturist beach, we had planned on getting that one, but the weather wasn't warm enough this time, even though the lads were up for it. We are going back later in the year so I am sure that we will get it then.
We didn't do much caching over the next few days, purely because we were busy doing other stuff. However, we did find a few sidetracked caches and also this one Scotch Baptism Well http://coord.info/GC1QK76



Scotch Baptism Well




A couple of photos here of the well, not sure that I would like to have been dunked in it though!










The sidetracked caches were some of the better ones that I have found being in really nice rural locations. As I said, we didn't do much caching at all this time, purely because of other stuff going on and the time limits that we had.
If anyone reading this from the UK ever gets a chance to camp on Shell Island, I do recommend it, especially if you like a laid back, free and easy holiday. You can find more details about it here. http://www.shellisland.co.uk/ People of all ages can enjoy it and there are some great places to explore around the area. You can camp pretty much anywhere on the island and these days they even allow camper vans, though this time we did it the old fashioned way....in tents.




Our camp

 Changes Are Afoot

Changes are coming with Jacaru! Firstly the Ebay shop will be closing as of the end of this month. Sales are down and it isn't financially viable to keep it running any longer. So if you want to grab yourself a coin it will need to be sooner rather than later. http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Jacaru-Geocoins Along with the shop closing, the Jacaru name is also likely to come to an end. Although I am not 100% certain on this one yet, the chances are that next time you read the blog it will be under a different name. For this reason you will need to contact me for the new name otherwise you won't be able to access the blog and obviously the blog address will also change. If you want to be kept informed privately about this please feel free to contact me here over the next few days and I can sort out letting you know of the planned change date.

Other Stuff

Jacaru may be going, but geocaching will definately continue, and I am pleased to tell you that the courier will be arriving today with my latest cache. This one has been made for me by caching friend Mushroom Mike from Saundersfoot in Wales. I did his version of this cache a few months back and it impressed me so much that I contacted him and asked him whether he would consider making me a replica of it. He very kindly did, and it should go live in the next few days. More info on that one when it is up and running. This will be my 100th cache placement. That includes events and obviously by now, some of the earlier caches have retired.

Favourites

Following on from this I decided to have a look through my profile to see where I was at. So far I have awarded 28 favourite points to caches.........21 of these have been to traditional caches, 2 to multi caches, 4 to puzzle caches and 1 point to a virtual cache. Just looking through them again, I have challenged myself to find an overall favourite, I think it has to be this one ~ http://coord.info/GC21WYM Bomber Command by The Bolas Heathens, purely because I enjoyed exploring the area so much and finding the wreck of the car. I know that I have posted this picture before, but I make no apologies for posting it again as I really like it.

At the top of the blog from now on you will see a number. This number will be how many caches I have found. Just so that you can see how busy (or quiet) I have been on the caching front.

That's it for now, more news and views soon, until then.............happy caching.

GAGB, Geocache Trails and The Last Few Caches

Hi and welcome to the latest installment of the blog.

GAGB

As I mentioned last week, I am now one of the committee members on the GAGB ~ the Geocaching Association of Great Britain. This is a great association to be a part of and if you are not already a member, please do think about joining us. It doesn't cost anything, unless you would be so kind as to offer a small contribution towards the cost of running the site.

The GAGB is a mine of information regarding landowner agreements, news about what is going on in your area, CITO, and much more, including monthly competitions and an extremely friendly, non judgemental forum, where you can express your views, ask questions and offer advice to others. The association web pages can be found at http://www.gagb.co.uk/ We are even having a geocoin mileage game next year, not a competition, this is just to see how far your personal geocoin and you travel from 1st January to 31st December. The details are again on the forum pages of the website.
GEOCACHE TRAILS
Geocache Trails http://www.geocachetrails.com/ is another website that is well worth a visit. If you want an easy way to find some caches in your area, or an area that you are unfamiliar with, this site can give you valuable information about cache trails, whether they are circular or linear. The caches range in number from 3 upwards. All you need to do is type in the location that you want and the site will give you a guide to different caches in that area. We recently found it useful when we visited Barrow and have used it on quite a few occasions now.

THE LAST FEW CACHES
We have been a bit quieter on the caching front since the last blog. We have only found 6 caches, having said that, two of the finds have been slightly different.

Following on from last weeks tunnel cache Tunnel-Tastic, we felt compelled to do another one, and seeing that it was only a few miles from home it had to be done sooner rather than later. This cache came in two parts, and without giving too much away the first cache that you needed to find, was virtually on top of the final part of the cache! Confused? Well read the logs and it may become a lot clearer, as clear as the mud we encountered getting to the final cache!!! The first part is called Shrodinger's Ghostly Paradox - The Happy Outcome http://coord.info/GC2HK2Q This was soon located on our trip out and we were soon transported to the second part Shrodinger's Ghostly Wormhole Paradox http://coord.info/GC2HJYV As we got transported to the second part we encountered all sorts, a ram that had seen better days, we couldn't work out whether it was the guardian of the cache or had entered the wormhole to die! We even encountered a very friendly toad, who was to lead us to ground zero! Here are some photos.

The entrance to the Ghostly Paradox

Torture Cages in the Ghostly Paradox

A most helpful toad!

It was a great cache to find that was something a little out of the ordinary and a great way to spend a winter's morning. The two caches were created by Pinfold, who has obviously put some thought in to how to set them up. I even managed to leave a ghost geocoin in there that I picked up from the other tunnel.

Over the next few days we found a few more caches, the first of these was 'grave by bl4ck4dd3r http://coord.info/GC2JMDR We really made a meal of this one, I am blaming the cold weather for addling our brains. We worked out the hint, which had been further encrypted and headed off. We knew where it should be, the GPS pointed to where it should be and it still took us almost twenty minutes to find. We had hoped that we would be first to find after it was DNF'd just after publication. We got there though and Northking had beaten us by minutes.

Just driving around this week we also found Ruddington Grange by Fosiposi, http://coord.info/GC2DJGB
an easy drive by but with some history to where it is placed.
Then it was time to find another Northking cache, we are getting through them slowly but surely, this time we found Caching Practice 4 (waterlogged) A nice simple find for us on a cold winter afternoon, http://coord.info/GC27BAW  The same day we found Dead Centre of Ruddington by seasoned cacher Angellica, http://coord.info/GC1YNJR this one has eluded us a couple of times as the area seems to be a magnet for the lads of Ruddington to gather for a kickabout.

Our final cache of the week came to my attention a couple of weeks ago and immediately made my MUST DO list. Bomber Command by well known cachers, father and son team The Bolas Heathens http://coord.info/GC21WYM is placed in one truly atmospheric locations. I am not going to say much more about it, other than Wemnog, his son Tom and I + the three dogs spent well over two hours just exploring. The cache was located in minutes, but if you cache and dash you are really going to miss out.The dogs were wary, I am sure that they could sense ghosts of times gone past. Here are some photos, I am pretty sure that if you are near this cache it will be one that you also say you must do.

Don't think this will switch any lights on now!

The glassless window

The usually hyperactive dogs weren't too sure

Ghostly

The final parking spot

As you can see from the photos, this place is too good to miss if you are around at any time.

FINALLY

I hope that the snow isn't hampering your caching efforts too much this week and that you manage to get out and about. Have a good week.