Skinny Dipping, FTF's & Another Milestone

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FTF's

A day early with the latest edition this week. There is a lot to get through. We have found 30 caches since the last blog, only a week ago.
Firstly it has been a week of FTF's for me. Four in fact. Our reviewer, Antheia has been a busy bee and published a good few new caches in the last few days. Some of them have been really local to us and we have been able to rush out to them.

Level One http://coord.info/GC2YCTR by newer cacher candyfloss797

Stop The Bus http://coord.info/GC2YECC by the same cacher

From One Point To Another http://coord.info/GC2YEEM by another newer cacher pinkpigredrat and finally

I Am Here Papa http://coord.info/GC2YEXN by dingdongmerrily. The first three were very sneaky urban caches and I Am Here Papa is a cache with a very poignant story, have a click on the link and read it if you have time. The cache was also released with a trackable of the same name, which I have at the moment ready to move on the an appropriate place.

I also JUST missed out by about two minutes on another FTF this week. We arrived at ground zero of Froggy Went A Courtin'  http://coord.info/GC2YGYR by old caching friend y8c to the cry of "Don't bother" by another old caching colleague Blid435 who was already sat back in his car signing the logbook. After a natter we all returned to GZ to replace the cache.

Blid435 & Wemnog

This cache also had a frog trackable in it which was just setting out on its mission. I picked that up as Blid didn't want to take it and that is already settled in to another newish cache in Colwick Country Park, more of that cache later.

As I said at the introduction of this edition of the blog, there is a lot to get through this week. I am not going to go in to details about all the caches, as you can see from the number a the top we have found 30 caches in the last seven days.

Wemnog and I decided that we would try and find some cache series this week, so with this in mind we set off to find a series near Ilkeston called ABC. This is a short series of five caches which take you to three villages, Awsworth, Babbington & Cossall hence the ABC in their names. This was a pleasant afternoon spent out with the dogs. Sadly one of the caches was unavailable at the time, so we will have to go back for that one when it is up and running again.

The caches found were called ABC - Rock On Tommy http://coord.info/GC2NXTG

ABC - Sweet Shop http://coord.info/GC2X08W 

ABC - Sweet Shop (Don't Ask)

Don't ask why it is called this, I have no idea what the connection could be! ABC - Crossroads http://coord.info/GC2NP65

A Nice Old Wooden Sign

What we liked especially about this one was the fact that the road sign near to GZ was made of wood, rather than metal. It also looks like it is well maintained, it was almost like going back in time finding a sign like this. Wish there will more of them about. It was very traditional and somehow very British.

The last ABC cache that we did was called ABC - Walk This Way http://coord.info/GC2NXTR I am glad that we weren't the only ones who only found this cache by using the hint. The GPS was going mad and the hint was very specific in what we had to do in order to reach the cache.
All these caches were by a cacher called Bigspen. As I said earlier, there is one more in his series to do, hopefully soon. Earlier in the day and still in the same area we found Nottingham Canal Cache # 1 - Resited by O2J. To find this cache we walked along a very tranquil canal which was a nice haven from the nearby fast moving traffic. Typical though, the bench near GZ was being used by a muggle who was holding a very long and loud conversation on his mobile. I used the getting the dogs to chase a ball tactic to avert his eyes whilst Wemnog retrieved the cache.

Nottingham Canal Cache ~ GZ is there somewhere

The bridge held the secret and apart from anything else, I thought it was very photogenic.

One more cache on this day, and always nice to find a well hidden ammo box. Babbo Woods http://coord.info/GC19HWQ by uncle mouldy

Babbo Woods

As you can see from the photograph, this ammo tin blends in and is off the beaten track, so is very unlikely to be found by a muggle, which sadly happens all too often with them, only for them to disapppear.
 
I looked at uncle mouldy's profile and was quite surprised by what I found. By the quality of this cache, I would have expected him to have put more out, but in fact he only has this one plus one more hide, again and ammo tin. Even more surprisingly, although he has been a member since January 2008, he only has 24 finds to his name. I hope that he does put more out at some point, he certainly has an eye for a good hiding place.
 
This cache seemed an appropriate place to set off my new trackable Only In B's. Maybe you can guess from the name, it only wants to go in to caches whose name begins with the letter B.

Only In B's Lands In Babbo Woods

I wonder what strangely named caches it will end up in.
 
A couple of days later and we were out again. We had to visit someone to drop our baking off for the market and as we had the GPS with us decided to mop up a cache that had been on the ubiquitous to do list for too long we went to find Fifty Steps? by anothe local cacher whom I haven't yet met. foxtrott3r.
This was another of those "didn't expect that" containers that are always a joy to find. This cache has been well hidden since November 2006 http://coord.info/GCZEFD
 
The 50 steps in question are an old railway bridge ~ over an old railway line. This line runs in to the nearby Ruddington Park and has a recent claim to fame. It was used for filming the train crash scenes in Emmerdale.
 
The filming for this was done at 4.00am on a cold autumnal morning and led to one of the soaps more dramatic ongoing storylines which recently led to the assisted suicide of a character.

50 Steps And An Emmerdale Connection

More caching followed, including just one in Measham. I had to do some cache maintenance for my Colwick Country Park series, by the way, one has been muggled again and disappeared. Very frustrating as it is the second time that it has gone, the first version was only a 35mm canister, I replaced it with a turtle pot, this is what has gone, so I am afraid it will be back to another 35mm in the next few days. A new cache recently appeared in the park. Oh Buoy http://coord.info/GC2Y061 by newish cacher tank0115 has caused some fun as no sooner had he placed it than some fishermen set camp up right beside it!
This wasn't to be expected as camping isn't allowed in the park, however these two had received special permission. It turns out that they had heard of geocahing, although they didn't really know what it was about.........they do now! They have had a constant stream of visitors to their camp looking for the cache, and they have become something of local celebrities around here. They have been playing the hotter/colder game with cachers looking for the cache. This is where I placed the aforementioned frog TB.

Guardian Of The Cache ~ Oh Buoy

Then the weekend arrived and we are up to yesterday. I have mentioned a few times on here that we feel guilty about not going out to find a lot of caching friend Northkings caches. Yesterday we decided to at least partly right that wrong and decided to do his Limes Walk series.
 
A good series of 5 caches + bonus had us finding some cunning hides. We decided to get back to Tebbit caching for this series. We parked up at the nearby cafe, found the first cache and then went on to the second. Limes Walk 2 http://coord.info/GC2PJ8F had us stumped for a short while as the GPS was swinging a little. Then we had it in hand. The second of this type of cache we have found recently and a very cunning one at that.

Gates Near Limes Walk 2

Wemnog Signs The Log At Limes Walk 2

After signing the log at Limes Walk 2 we continued onward to find the next few in the series. All were relatively easy apart from one. Limes Walk 5 http://coord.info/GC2PJ9M had us scratching our heads for a while. Eventually it was located and we were able to carry on to the bonus cache. Both number 5 and the bonus got favourite points, number 5 because it was so crafty and the bonus because the terrain was a little higher than the rest and hidden nicely out of the way.
 
We were now in full flow and had previously loaded another series of caches on the GPS by darrach. Which leads us on to.........................
 
Skinny Dipping

We took a slightly different track to the first cache in the Darrach Series ~ Rainworth Water http://coord.info/GC2CK32 and came across a pond hat was just too inviting. What we hadn't realised at the time was that this was fully visible from the Sustrans's Cycle Trail. Needless to say it was clothes off and jump in. Not only did we enjoy it, but so did the dogs. Modesty doesn't allow for a photograph of me here!!!! BUT....
 



Skinny Dipping



Furry Dipping

After a brief swim it was on to find the caches. 6 caches in the series by Darrach along the Sustrans Trail and some good, well thought out hides that he has put some effort in to making. One of the best was Log It's View http://coord.info/GC23WQ4 After finding all of Darrachs along the trail we went for one more. An appropriately named cache, Railway Children http://coord.info/GC2QYHT by chiperty ended our afternoon and busy week of caching.
 Just rereading this prior to publishing it, I noticed just how green the photographs are after the recent rain. Heading back to the start of our days caching though I was saddened to see what the result of just a few dry weeks can do. The parched landscape had become victim to a discarded cigarette or match and a lot of the area was now just a blackened ruin of its former self. Please, if you do smoke, make sure that you extinguish your fags properly.
 

Burnt

 
 
Another Milestone
 
So I reached another milestone yesterday, I found my 800th cache. Not bad, saying that when we started two years ago our intention was to find just one cache a week! It just goes to show that we are more than a little addicted to this game.
 
Finally
 
I had a lot more to tell you in this blog but I will carry it over until next week for fear of boring you.
 
A new gecoin has arrived which has been added to my collection to be discovered at events.
 
I have four more coins on the way to add to the collection as well. (photos to follow next week)
 
I am having a new Jacaru flag made to fly at events, again once that is finished I will post a photo.
 
If you look on the right hand side of the blog you will see that things have changed slightly. There is now a list of other blogs that I follow that you may also like to have a read of.
 
Lastly, I hope to have some exciting news next week about a new TB/GC race that I am  trying to set up with a fellow cacher over in the United States.
 
What next? Well, it's Sunday morning, 8.00am and I think it is time to wake Wemnog up and have a fry up before decided what to do with the rest of the day. Hmmm, could geocaching be involved? You never know!!!!
Have a good week folks.

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.