From 1/1 Extreme To Another

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LQ Series

We have never really taken much notice of the LQ series, but we were in Lincolnshire with work the other day and noticed that the LQ Lincs cache was nearby so we decided to go for it. For those who haven't heard of it before, you are tasked with finding a cache in every mainland county which you lead you to a final micro cache. As I say, we have never really taken much notice of it, but if you like a challenge, it may be another one for you to aim for. More details can be found here. http://www.nwcaching.co.uk/quest.php

GPS Blocking

Some more dates have been added for GPS blocking excercises during the coming months, so if you are planning a caching trip it may be worth you knowing about them. These dates are regularly posted on the GAGB site.

RAF SPADEADAM, CUMBRIA, 9TH APRIL 2012

Dates: Between 9th and 20th April 2012 inclusive (weekdays only).

Times: 0700 - 1800 GMT.

Location of MULTIPLE jammers: Land based within 5km of N55° 04.000’ W002° 34.000’.

Frequency: A 24 MHz band centred around 1575.42MHz (GPS L1).

Total Power: Up to 10 Watts EIRP.

and

NOTIFICATION OF GPS JAMMING EXERCISES RAF SPADEADAM, CUMBRIA 21st MAY 2012


Dates: Between the 21st of May and the 1st of June 2012 (Inclusive).

Times: : 0700 - 2000 GMT.

Location of MULTIPLE jammers: Land based within 5km of N55° 04.000’, W002° 34.000’.

Frequency: A 24 MHz band centred around 1575.42MHz (GPS L1)

Total Power: Up to 10 Watts EIRP.

and

NOTIFICATION OF A GPS JAMMING EXERCISE SENNYBRIDGE TRAINING AREA, WALES

Dates: Between 11–15, 18-22, and 25-29 June 2012 inclusive

Times: : BETWEEN 0900 BST AND 1800 BST.

Location of jammers: Land based within 5km of N52° 00.881’ W003° 38.518’ (SN873365 – Dixie’s Corner)

Frequency: 24 MHz bands centred around 1176.45 MHz (GPS L5), 1227.60MHz (GPS L2) and 1575.42MHz (GPS L1).

Total Power: Up to 10 Watts EIRP. Whenever possible the transmissions will be at lower powers.


With the holiday season beginning to kick in it is worth knowing if these are areas that you are planning on visiting for a caching break.

29th Event

The Breakfast 29 event went exceptionally well. In fact I think we frightened the pub staff with the amount, over 40 in the end, of people who turned up. It was great to meet up, as usual, with familiar faces, but also with cachers who had travelled from as far away as Hertfordshire for it. The breakfast culminated with a group of us rushing out for the FTF on a particularly evil new cache that was published during the event. Look Out For Foxes, http://coord.info/GC3DF9X  placed by stormjak and MFB Tracker had a group of experienced cachers, stood around scratching their heads in bushes. It took a phone call to eventually find it, and even then it wasn't easy!

1/1 Extreme To Another

Sunday was a good day with getting two FTF's The beginning of the day we were up and about feeding the puppy when the phones pinged with a new 5/5 cache published. Reading the description we decided we had to go for it and immediately got on the phone to friends, and aforementioned evil cache placers stormjak and MFB, to see if they wanted to join us. So, on a cold, wet Sunday morning by 9.00am we were stood on top of a disused railway tunnel ready to abseil for a cache. We dropped (pardon the pun) lucky that we knew where all our climbing equipment was.

Wemnog going down

Hanging About Scalford Tunnel http://coord.info/GC3DDW3 certainly proved to be a fun 5/5 cache, made even better by the fact that we had it in hand within 3 hours of publication. Who said getting up early on a Sunday morning isn't worth it!

stormjak descends

The end of the day finished at the other end of the scale and we got another FTF, this time a 1/1 with Eddy Grant here in Nottingham. http://coord.info/GC3DRQ6 So yes, Sunday really did go from one extreme to another.

New Trackable Ordered

It has taken some time to decide exactly what to do regarding commissioning a new trackable to sell. Ever since the last version of the Border Collie coin sold out I have been inundated with emails and phone calls asking when the next version would be released. I held back for a couple of reasons. The main one being that I felt guilty at having to charge so much to customers for a coin that they really wanted, and also the fact that I didn't know whether to go for the same design in a different colour or for something completely different.

Finally I found a company who could produce a TB trackable that I thought would be suitable. After receiving a prototype I am happy to announce that I decided to go ahead and have now ordered 100 of the TB's. Not only are they trackable, but after negotiation I have been able to use the same collie icon that was used on the coins. The TB's are collectable and this time numbered, from 1/100 up to 100/100 When I released the news on Facebook I received orders within minutes and have already sold on pre-order 20 of them. The other thing that I like about this trackable is that it has a QR code on the back. So if someone scans it with their Smart phone the code will take them straight to the trackables page so they can see what the mission is.

Border Collie Trackable Version 3 (2012)

Dates For Your Diary

Now that summer is coming (it is, really) he types as he looks out of the window of the office at torrential rain, there are some dates for you that you may want to plan holidays around.

Piratemania ~ Friday to Sunday 20th ~ 22nd July, 2012 http://www.piratemania.org.uk/

Geolympix ~ Sunday 22nd July, 2012 http://geolympix.com/ events happening throughout the week.
North West Mega ~ Saturday 11th August for the main event http://www.mega2012.org.uk/content2/ but events happening throughout the run up and beyond.

These are just three of the main caching events that are happening this year and may be worth planning a break around. Two of these events definately have Mega status with Geolympix looking like it is going to go that way as well.

New Caching Website

There is a new caching supplier on the block. Our old friend Rob, one of the Two Anchors recently left Anchor Supplies and has now set up his own caching supply business. His website has just gone live http://www.cache4u.co.uk/  We wish him well in his venture.

Finally, four of us of are down to That London next week to do some caching. There are three particular caches that have been on my hit list for quite some time in the centre of London. All large boxes as well as opposed to most of the micros that are planted in the capital. So no doubt some photos of our adventures,  currently titled Four Go Mad In London, next time.

Have a good week.

A Picnic By The Abbey

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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.

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.

Summer's End, Hacked Account and A Few Caches Too!

Summer's End

Well, the event is over, Summer’s End has been and gone. Wemnog and I arrived on Thursday afternoon and set up camp. One campervan, one Jeep, one gazebo, three dogs and us 2. After setting up we had to go over to pick Keith’s mum up from Liverpool Airport. By the time we got back to the campsite it was too late to go and check that the new caches were all in place.

Friday morning dawned wet and horrible. Still by 7.30am we were out checking the caches, the three were still all in place... http://coord.info/GC2BKV7  http://coord.info/GC2C80K and  http://coord.info/GC2C7M5 The last one has been fun for people and the logs from it have been entertaining since they started to come in. Our first camper arrived mid morning and more arrived through the rest of the day and evening. I think our final campers arrived during another heavy shower and in the dark. After meeting and greeting everyone, some retired to their tents, others to the pub and us off in the van. The Bridge Over The River Wye cache was found on Friday night by The Imp, a brave cacher indeed as this was a 5- 5 rating and it was getting dark as he went out. We did contemplate going out to check that he was okay, just as we were thinking about it, he arrived back, with chips in hand, he had even got some for us.

Saturday, well, can you guess? Yep, more rain. It didn’t stop people getting sorted and going off caching though. We stayed on site for most of the day, mainly due to the fact that we knew people were coming over just for a day visit. We welcomed quite a few new faces. We nipped out in the afternoon and did a few though. Wemnog and I did our first Earthcache too. It was one of The Imps, called Winnats Pass - The Coral Reef, details are here http://coord.info/GC1JPEQ As people started to gather back at the site and as the weather had cleared a little, it was time to get the kites out.

Quite a few were up in the air, although some struggled to get theirs up! As the evening progressed it was time to start the barbeque, everyone had something to put on and the weather continued to stay dry for us. After the barbeque was finished, it was time to set the Chinese lanterns off, we let 10 off to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of geocaching.  

On Sunday we woke to a very mixed day, it seemed more like April showers than an early September, with frequent heavy rain showers and sunny spells. Everyone began to pack away and say their goodbyes. All in all it was a very successful weekend and we are already thinking about our next one. It is likely to be called Summer’s Coming and will be sometime in the spring. Here are a few pics of the camp.



The Jacaru Enclosure



The Imp Pitch

Hacked Account

Unfortunately there are some people in the caching world who seem to get their kicks from trying to spoil things for others. This happened to me earlier last week when my GC account was hacked and my caching name changed. Not only was my name changed totally but it was also homophobic. Whether the people who did it wanted to just try and upset me, or actually try to out me I don’t know. In fact they failed on both counts. As I am already openly gay what they did was totally pointless, and as far as upsetting me they didn’t. In fact what they did was actually force me in to going to the police to report not only the hacking, but the homophobia. The constable I talked to was absolutely brilliant and I was able to give him the names of two people whom I suspect are behind this. Interestingly, I posted what had happened to me on some of the geocaching forums and I was both overwhelmed by the amount of support that I have had off people and also amazed at how many people throughout the country came back and asked me if I believed it was these two people as they had received abuse of them in the last few months. Some of these people are high profile and well known cachers. Thankfully a police investigation is still ongoing and Groundspeak have been very helpful throughout. I now have the Jacaru name back up and running.
To give you a bit of a chuckle, my temporary caching name that the hackers gave me was the-mincing-gaylord! Well, at least they made me a Lord eh?


A Few Caches Too

With one thing and another I have been pretty quiet on the caching front. I have only done a few, the most memorable of these was whilst we were at the event. This cache http://coord.info/GC1NNN7 threw up some strange things. This is a quote from the web page that is linked to the cache page.

"The carving itself is on the large flat rock in the foreground with the Edge itself further west beyond the trees which also hide the stones of the Neolithic enclosure walls"

The Carvings At Gardoms Edge, I Wonder What They Mean

I don’t know what happened to the original stone, but on touching this stone as seen in the picture, it soon became apparent that it isn’t stone at all, but a replica. It sounds hollow and feels decidedly plastic in texture. This is something that I definitely want to find out more about. Last time I was at Gardom’s Edge was a few years ago when I worked for Derbyshire Social Services. We took a group of service users up there to help out Sheffield University with a small archeological dig. Sadly, we didn’t find anything of interest whilst we were up there.

So that’s it, all the news from the event and a bit more too. I’m finished for this week, so until next time, Happy caching.





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.