Events

With Mega season fast approaching it seems an appropriate time to mention the events. Wemnog and I are attending the two events that already have Mega status. Piratemania http://coord.info/GC365FT is being held up in Derbyshire next month. If you want a great weekend with loads of fun and caches galore then this one is really worth a visit. There is a dedicated website as well that is worth looking at. If your other half needs a bit of persuasion then maybe having a look at that will convince them to go. The site can be found here http://www.piratemania.org.uk/

The second event being held the same weekend at Piratemania, that doesn't yet have Mega status is Geolympix which is being held in Oxford. http://coord.info/GC22T2T With loads of events planned around the main event this one is sure to go Mega and Groundspeak have said that if the Will Attends log reaches 500 the event will be made Mega in advance. A lot of hard work has been put in to organising this event and it should be well worth a visit. The only downside is that it is the same weekend as Piratemania so unless people are willing to make the journey to both and have a really busy weekend then people have a dilemma of which to go to. However as Geolympix is on the Sunday it is possible to do both.  As with Piratemania, Geolympix also has a dedicated website. http://www.geolympix.com/

Then we come to the main event of the year the North West Mega. This is the UK event of the year. This year it will be held up in Cartmel, Cumbria and follows on from last years event in Wales. The theme for this year is country fayre and loads of side events are being held throughout the week. The main camping event can be found here http://coord.info/GC3EKQV

For those of you who haven't visited Cumbria before but are heading up, you are in for a real treat. One of the most beautiful counties in England with something for everyone. Wemnog and I spend a lot of time up there with our kids and can often be found out in the boats, usually on Coniston. As with the two previously mentioned events, this one also has a dedicated website http://www.mega2012.org.uk/content2/

A series of geocoins has been made for this event which are joined together to form one large coin. This photo shows the Cheshire coin.

Finally for this edition more events. This weekend sees the 9th World Wide Flash Mob event. As the name would suggest, Flash Mobs are being held worldwide at the same time.

Some of the local ones to us are my own Row Your Invisible Boat http://coord.info/GC3JAFH and also:~

Is It A Bird? http://coord.info/GC3M6MG
Northampton http://coord.info/GC3JEAA
Stamford Splash Mob http://coord.info/GC3HY09

Worldwide there are 295 Flash Mob events and a souvenir has been announced by Groundspeak for those who attend.

For coin collectors out there, a specially minted coin has now gone on sale.

That's it for now. Whatever event you are attending in the next few weeks, whether it is one of the Mega's or one local to you, I hope that you have fun and enjoy it.

With our campervan back on the road we shall be out and about and have lots more to talk about soon.

Happy caching.

Quiet Times

Since the last blog things have been fairly quiet on the caching front. We nipped down to London for a day out last Saturday and revisited the British Library cache http://coord.info/GC2M0AF to drop some trackables off. There were quite a few in the cache so I picked some up to move on, including the biggest TB that I have ever picked up. As I have said before this is an excellent cache that takes a bit of work, but if you have the time and are down in the capital, do try and do it.  We were there with Keith's son and one of his mates. His mate, Lewis has done a little bit of caching with us in the past. We took him to another favourite cache in Soho Square which he successfully found without help. However, just after he had replaced it we found ourselves being stopped by a couple of plain clothed Met officers asking what we were doing. Once explained, all was well. It all adds to another caching story to tell. The cache isn't too far from the Bruce Denny sculptures in the square.

Bruce Denny Sculptures (Soho Square)

Whilst in Manchester doing some reposession work we did have chance to find one cache which intrigued us. It was one of those places that you drive past and automatically think that there should be a cache there. We parked up and checked the phones and sure enough, there was.

Long Lost Tracks http://coord.info/GC3B1FF is placed in a retail park. I'll not go in to any more detail and let you read the cache page for yourself. This photo may whet your appetite more. I was very surprised that this cache didn't have any favourites on it. Needless to say, I soon awarded it one. The cache was a very apt find with the Queen's Jubilee coming up soon.

Long Lost Tracks

Events

Our good friend Barbara, aka Dragonlady held a very successful event the other evening. With the decent weather finally having arrived we were able to sit out in the beer garden and have a good catch up with friends old and new. The pub was right beside the canal so the occasional chug of a narrow boat going by added to the atmosphere. The next Dragonlady event is already in the planning stages and should be published soon.

My next three events are all published and look set to be busy. One of them, is part of the 9th World Wide Flash Mob which will be held at the same time throughout the world. Groundspeak recently announced that there would be a souvenir for people attending any of the flash mob events.

As summer progresses more outside events are happening and locally to us there is going to be a CITO event held which we are hoping to attend. http://coord.info/GC3KY09 

Quite a lot of camping events are looming as well all over the country. We will be at Piratemania V and also the Mega up in Cumbria.

Finally, a fun photo to leave you with. As I mentioned before I picked up a rather large TB when down in London. Here he is, this is Fun Ship Freddy, all 1 feet tall of him. He started off in Washington, did a bit of touring in the Carribean and Alaska, and then paid a visit to Groundspeak Headquarters before ending up in London.

He is going to travel with me for a while and then I am going to drop him off in a large cache that I know.

Keep happy, keep caching and enjoy the weather. More soon.

A Tour Of Africa

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We have been quite busy caching since the last blog.

Beat The Devil

As mentioned in the previous blog we were struggling with the Devilishly Difficult cache by stormjak and MFB Tracker. http://coord.info/GC3FVZW  I am pleased to say that after numerous visits in all weathers we finally found this well crafted and crafty cache. We even got he shirts to prove it!

The prize

stormjak and MFB Tracker have kindly given these embroidered shirts out to the first few to find the cache. It saw us out in all weathers and, as with all caches, it's obvious when you have finally found it!

Africa

Looking at some circular walks to do to try and help with the fitness programme that I am on at the moment I came across a great series in Yorkshire that sounded fun to do. Spud's African Series http://coord.info/GC2X8PD takes in various terrains and gives you a good walk through woodland, hills and a little bit of road.

I decided to offer this out as a GeM (Geocaching Midlands) group walk. Sadly I did this at rather short notice so a lot of people couldn't join us. It ended up with just four of us, Wemnog, stormjak, MFB Tracker and myself, plus two muggle family members setting off on Saturday morning to attempt the series.

  We also had 8 out of a possible 9 Border Collies with us. The weather forecast for the day was good so after all the recent rain it seemed like the perfect opportunity to go and do this series. #1 in the series was supposed to be the most difficult one to do so with the CO's number in my phone we set off. Another caching team were just ahead of us so we let them grab another cache that wasn't in the series and set off ahead of them.  We arrived at GZ and thankfully found the first cache really easily. This put us in a good frame of min for finding the rest. During the course of the day we found all the caches really easily. We encountered all sorts of weather though and did get quite wet during periods of the day. I would recommend this series to anyone who is in the area, either living locally or visiting the area on holiday. Although a lot of the containers are the same there are a few different ones to break up the series. Whilst doing it there are a few more that you can divert to without going too far out of your way.                                                                                                                                 

This included the first guide stoop cache that I have done outside of Derbyshire. Thurstonland Guide Stoop http://coord.info/GC1ZVXW  gave us a chance to catch our breathe before continuing with the series.

Rest Stop

As the series continued the rain became heavier but it didn't stop us from enjoying the day. We knew that at the end of the walk we were going to meet the CO in the pub. It wasn't only us humans who enjoyed the series though, the dogs had a whale of a time, paddling in the streams and getting muddied up to buggery.

Woodland Stream



The end of the series culminated in a puzzle to solve having gathered clues from every container in the main series. This gave us a chance to sit down in the pub by the blazing log fire whilst we steamed and worked out the answers. Then it was off home to dry out completely and have a good soak in the bath.

 To date, that is the most caches Wemnog and I have found in a day. No doubt we will beat that amount at some time, but we aren't racing to do so.

  



Another beautiful view

 

Golden Favourites

Sometimes, for one reason or another, whether it is because of how devious it is, or how well constructed a cache is, it seems to beg for something more than just your run of the mill favourite point. For that reason I have devised a Golden Favourite award that members of GeM can give out to caches that feel are deserving. Basically, they just add it as a photograph to the cache log when they feel it should have one. I don't know if it will catch on or not, but a couple of recent caches that I have done, namely Devilishly Difficult (as previously mentioned in this blog) and A Pit Extreme 1 http://coord.info/GC39AZ0 definately deserved this award.

I don't expect to give many of these out, but hopefully they will catch on and people will hand them out.                                                             

Signature Items

A while ago I heard about a cachers signature item being sold for a fair amount of money on Ebay. I couldn't understand this so decided to look further in to it. This turned out to be the story of long time cachers Tim & June who started putting teddy bears in to caches as their signature item when they found their 100th cache. These bears became legendary in the caching world when it was much smaller, back in the realms of time, and people would go out of their way to find one to add to their collection. Six different marks of bear were placed over the years and it is one of these early bears that sold on Ebay to raise money for charity. I won't go in to too much more detail here, but let you read the story of T & J Bears for yourself by following this link. http://www.geocaching-bears.co.uk/index.html

Finally

As I sit typing this edition of the blog I am looking out on the garden. It is a fine sunny day, with washing blowing on the line, the hens pecking in their pen and the dogs playing on the lawn. However, the forecast is not so good for the next few days and with a bank holiday coming up a week today we can only guess at what it will be like then. Whatever the weather, I hope that you get out and get some decent caching done, whether urban or countryside, enjoy yourselves and keep safe.

Happy caching.
 

Tangling With The Devil!

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47 caches on since the last blog. With the long weekend of Easter we were lucky enough to have some time to spend on caching.

Not wanting to travel too far because of the usual bank holiday busy roads and also the ridiculous amount that diesel is costing at the moment, plus the fact that we haven't got any of our own bio diesel ready we were pleased on Good Friday when a new series was published that was only a couple of miles from home.

The Ron's Round (RR) series by GOGMT and R ambler took us on a two and a half mile walk which took in walking through peoples gardens (yes it was allowed) and an airfield. Again, the airfield had a public footpath so again totally within Groundspeak rules. http://coord.info/GC3G43W  The series had a nice varied collection of containers and a couple of hides that took a little bit of working out, mainly the first and the tenth.

Not quite ready for takeoff

Easter Sunday saw a tease come out on our local Facebook book page GeM https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/groups/137568269677358/ asking who was going to be up early on Easter Monday ready to go caching. With no more than that from our local pair NottsPenny and her husband mono78v it was left to us to set the alarm and wait.

Sure enough the first notification came through at 7.00am in the morning. The next trickled through at 7.30am and then 8.00am. We knew that with previous caches set by these two that we were in for a fun time. Armed with GPS, dogs and smart phones we set off for the first in the series. The CS Code series, here's a link to number one http://coord.info/GC3GDZ7 was again nice and local to us, in fact it tied in nicely with the RR series and both could actually be done at the same time taking in a figure of 8.

Arriving at GZ we saw a couple of familiar faces searching for the first cache, fly2live2fly pair Barbara and Steve were already well ahead in searching for the first. As we joined the search we realised that we may be in for a tough time. After some while they decided to leave us searching for it whilst they headed off for number 2.

Wemnog with fly2live2fly

A little while later we were chuffed to find the container and once we had signed the logbook as FTF's we headed off to number 2. We were again surprised to find that Barbara and Steve were still at GZ not having much luck. Between four of us searching and the coords pointing all units to one place we still couldn't find the container. By this time the phones had already pinged up the next couple in the series. With heavy hearts we resorted to a PAF to the owners and armed with the information needed we still took some time to locate this difficult one.

I was pleased to note however that it wasn't just us who had difficulty with this one and cachers throughout the day and subsequent few days also struggled. So much so that Penny has now upped the difficulty rating on it.

At this point it seemed reasonable for the four of us to team up to continue the series. Our success rate continued and we got 11 out of the 12 FTF's on them. Why not 12? We met up with Eviepops who had seen our log on number 1 and decided to try and nab a few FTF's by doing some of the series from the opposite direction.

The notifications popped up every half hour and by the time we had got to number 9 we were up to date and hanging around for the next one to come through. By the time we got to number 11 the rain had started but it wasn't going to put any of us off. Number 11 in this series is by far the most challenging and certainly had 3 of us laughing whilst poor old Keith had the task of retrieving the container. I didn't know that anyone could get quite that intimate with a tree!

Armed with all the clues needed for the bonus cache it was time to retreat to work things out. Now here was a twist. Without giving anything away I will say that we were unable to complete the bonus without some additional research and had to abandon the search until later in the day. Sadly by the time we had the coordinates worked out Barbara and Steve weren't able to join us to go and retrieve it. So one shiny new logbook later and an FTF prize of a new TB we were really pleased with our day out.
One week later and the four of us are still the only ones to find the final, although the rest of the series has been found by quite a few people.

Our final series came a couple of days ago, a bit further afield this time we decided to attempt The Bonhams SC series, a nice simple set of 16 caches that only took a couple of hours to complete. We had mixed weather but a very pleasant walk. The views were good as well. Rape is just beginning to flower in the fields adding some colour to our walk as well.

The dogs have certainly been enjoying the extra walking that we have been doing and, I think that the final walk has given me the next collie TB to boot.

The next collie TB?

Tor gets the log!

One cache that has been getting all the locals going over the last couple of weeks is Devilishly Difficult ? by our friends stormjak and MFB Tracker. This cache isn't for the faint hearted and has had numerous visits from lots of the local dignitaries searching in vain for it. In fact it took an extra clue before it was finally found. http://coord.info/GC3FVZW  I am embarrassed to admit that we have now visited three times and are still no further on with finding it, and yes, we do know what we are looking for! At the time of writing this blog it has only four finds on it with an amazing 16 DNF's. It is certainly driving people around here potty.

Speaking of stormjak and MFB, we joined forces with them to put a new cache out at the beginning of April. 'Ouse Dyke Is It? is a fun cache for people to do with a D rating of 2.5 but a T rating of 5. We put it out under the caching name StormtracarunoG. So far it has had 6 visits and 5 favourites on it. We are really pleased with this one and all of us look forward to reading the logs for it. http://coord.info/GC3FZ4Z 

That's it for now. We are planning on doing another local series this morning, just to start the week off nicely before we have to think about doing some work. Have a good caching time everyone, until next time.

A Little Caching

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Since the last blog there has been a little bit of caching by us. We have been busy again reposessing lots of vehicles. However, finding time to cache while we have been in different areas has proved extremely tricky. You click on the phone, find that there is a cache nearby and then something happens and you don't get a chance to go for it. Very frustrating!


One nice new series that we managed to do though was local cacher Benpob's new B Movie series http://coord.info/GC3F699 around the local Netherfield Lagoons. It was one of those hot summer days (in the spring) and was also the new geopups first caching and walking outing.

Tor In The Lead

I have put a few new caches out as well over the last few weeks since the last blog. La Gazza Ladra http://coord.info/GC3EV3K  Hole In One http://coord.info/GC3FKWQ and Lord Webber http://coord.info/GC3FEDG


I can't say too much at the moment but Keith and I are involved in a team cache that should be published in the next couple of days. Four of us are involved and we went and placed it yesterday. More of that next time.


The new TB's arrived the other day and I am pleased with the way that they have turned out. The good thing about these is that they are cheaper than any of the geocoins that I had for sale and people are more likely to buy them. Geocoin sales certainly went downhill last year which is the reason why I closed the Ebay shop.

Border Collie Version 3

Photos of the new tags are below. If you do fancy buying them contact me directly, daryl@jacaru.co.uk and we can arrange to get them to you.


We have just been saying how good caching has been in the Nottingham area over the last few months. With some challenging caches out there, Pit Extremes, the stormjak and MFB Tracker caches, as well as great new series like the Golf Series by Spire67 + many more. Nottingham is in a really good place at the moment with it's caches and there is something for every taste. So just a quick big up for all our local cachers.

Titanic 100th Anniversary

Kinder Trespass Anniversary

We held another successful breakfast event yesterday which was really well attended. This was the fourth brekkie event and judging from the popularity of them I am sure that we will be holding another one at some point soon.
I did worry that the same venue would become a bit staid for people. However, the fact that the pub is so laid back, the food cheap and the staff bend over backwards to help, I think it will be the place to stick with. It is also very central for people. This time we had visitors from the North West as well as Tracey and Pete from the Podcache show to talk to people.


Well, that's it for now. Easter is coming, with the forecast of snow. However I hope that it doesn't stop you getting out and about and finding a load of caches over the bank holiday weekend.


Until next time, happy caching.

Trespass Anniversary

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Mass Trespass

On 24th April it will be 80 years since the mass trespass on Kinder Scout by ramblers from Manchester, Sheffield and further afield took place. The trespass led to several arrests and subsequent imprisonment for some of those involved. However, the event has been a cause of celebration since.

I was lucky enough to be born just a couple of miles down the road from Hayfield where the trespass began, and so grew up knowing all about it and what it meant. Indeed hearing about it when I was around 10 or 11 is what first inspired me to take up walking in the countryside. I did my first walk up to the Kinder Downfall not long after and made it a tradition to go up there every New Years Day. Something that I did for a good number of years.

Getting back to the trespass itself, it eventually led to legislation in 1949 to establish the National Parks, and to walkers' rights over open country and common land in 2000.


A number of events are being held to celebrate the trespass, so if you are in the Peak District around that time it would be well worth you having a look at what's on. Aside from that, there are plenty of good caches in the area, including some on Kinder itself. Without the trespass all those years ago, who knows whether we would have had access to all the land that we have now, not only for walking, but for caching as well. More details of the events and the trespass can be found here on the official website. http://kindertrespass.com/

I have been thinking for a long time that a trackable celebrating those events was overdue. Scouring my photographs taken over the last few years I found one that I thought would be suitable and after submitting it to Groundspeak for approval it is now being made in to a TB which will be available in time for the anniversary.

Gathering at Bowden Bridge ready to trespass

If you do get to Hayfield where the trespass began, make sure that you have a look at the plaque that was unvailed there some years ago.

The Plaque commemorating the trespass

5 Go Mad In London

An early morning start was called for when I decided that I wanted to go caching in the capital for my birthday. So at 6.30 in the morning Keith and I were knocking on stormjak and MFB Trackers door to pick them up for a trip down the A1. After parking up at Cockfosters we tubed in to the city and started our caching the only way caching should be started, with a cup of Costa's.

My main target for the day and the cache that we did first has been on my hit list for quite a while. The British Library http://coord.info/GC2M0AF is fairly new in the scheme of things, having only been live for a year. However with so many favourites (as I type it is up to 128) it really was begging to be found. Now I know not everyone likes multi's, me included, but this was fun. Not only educational, it took us to a place that might not be on your top ten of buildings to visit whilst in town. However, even if you are reading this and don't go caching, please do go and visit as it is well worth spending a few hours in there. The cache itself took us about an hour to complete but the container at the end has to be the biggest that you will find in any city centre, never mind a capital city.

stormjak and the cache

Our aim of the day wasn't to go out and cache cache cache, it definately wasn't a day about the numbers. The thing with caching in London is that it takes you to some amazing places that are well off the tourist trail. One such cache, The Winchester Geese took us to an unconsecrated graveyard where it is believed up to 15,000 bodies are buried. You arrive at GZ to find a gate covered in ribbons, teddy bears and messages.

 It isn't too far from Tower Bridge and should definately be on your list to find if you are around the area. http://coord.info/GC13ZAG

By the way, yes, there were only four cachers but we also had a little glove puppet with us, Timmy The Dog, hence 5 Go Mad In London, and yes, we do have the photo to prove it!

Us 4 & Timmy

Fools

After seeing that April Fools day falls on a Sunday this year, I couldn't resist organising another breakfast event. http://coord.info/GC3EB1H After the amazing turnout for the last breakfast on February 29th, including someone travelling from Northamptonshire, and that was a workday, it will be fun to see how many turn up to this one. This will be the fourth such event, and they do seem popular with people who decide to use it as a start to a full days caching, either meeting up with old friends or tagging along with new ones to do some.

Cache4u

Some eagle eyed readers may have noticed that I have overhauled the links at the top of the page. There is now a new link there for a website called Cache4u. This is run by old friend and cacher Rob. Rob is one of caching team the Two Anchors. He recently left work and has now set up his own site selling caching goodies at really reaonable prices. Have a look at what he has to offer. Chances are, you will also see him at any of the events that I run, so if you want to grab some good value bits and pieces get in touch with him, or turn up at any Jacaru event.

Finally, the Border Collie TB's have now gone in to production and should be with me in the next two weeks, along with the Kinder Trespass TB's. The Jacaru website http://www.jacaru.co.uk/ is due to be overhauled in the next couple of weeks and the new caching stuff added. As you know, I no longer have the Ebay shop as the fees that both Ebay and PayPal charge were getting ridiculous. I will still be selling coins and TB's through Ebay, but I am aiming to sell more through the main Jacaru site.

Have a good week, weather is improving and spring is coming. Longer evenings, rubbish on telly, so there's no excuse. Happy caching.

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.

Coffee, Caching Calendar and More

1089


Coffee

So here I am up to 1089 caches. It has slowed down considerably from that mad rush to get to 1000. The birth of the puppies and subsequent looking after them has slowed things down significantly. However, things should be on the up again now as five of the puppies are now sold and will be going to their new homes over the next few days and we are keeping one of them.

At the weekend we held a very busy event at Costa Coffee in the city. It gave locals and visitors to the area the chance to get to know one another as well as cache in the city. There was also a new TB hotel cache published to coincide with the event.

City Centre Caching & Coffee

It was good to see some of the regular faces, as well as some new local cachers as well as some who had travelled from further afield. Nottingham is certainly getting a decent influx of new cachers at the moment which is good, and we are getting some new cache placements from them as well, which is great for the area.

Caching Calendar

It's strange how some things that have never bothered you in the past suddenly come to the forefront and become an important part of your caching career!
Over the last couple of weeks I have become slightly obsessed with completing my caching calendar. Making sure that I have done at least one cache on each date of the year. This has probably been brought on by the fact that the leap day events are coming up. I missed out on filling in February 2nd this year, but I am determined to fill in all the spaces now and so (hopefully) will have the thing completed by this time next year. I have 134 days to still fill in.

There are loads of leap year events going on, including my own breakfast event Breakfast 29 http://coord.info/GC3ARBV

If you haven't seen the souvenir that Groundspeak have made for the occasion there is a picture of it below.

Interview With A Cacher

I have just added a new interview on the pages. This time the interview is with seasoned geocacher Mollyjak. She is based in Wales and had a lot to do with the organisation of Mega 2011 as well as organising her own events to coincide with the main event. You can often meet up with her at events, and people attending Piratemania V will no doubt bump in to her and her husband, along with their very popular parrot, well you have to have one at a pirate event don't you?

Mollyjak

Caches

Over the last few weeks we have found a decent amount of caches, both locally and further afield. The one that stood out for me though since I last blogged was one that I found along with Wemnog and MFB Tracker.The Miners Lamp, a cache placed by Nedwobs Navigators http://coord.info/GC21ZMW to us to a miners memorial dedicated to all the men, women and children who worked at the local mine.

Each brick in the memorial wall has the name of one of those people carved on to it. The miners lamp is continually lit and is one of the best memorials that I have seen for a long time. If you are in that area, it is well worth a visit. Just stand and read the names and contemplate for a while as to what those people went through in order to bring coal to the surface.

Latest Trackable

I am almost ready (this weekend) to order the next version of the Border Collie trackable. This time it will be slightly different and isn't being produced by Oakcoins. I have found a different manufacturer who have recently formed and they are producing some excellent new designs. More of them at a later date. This time the trackable will be numbered from 1/100 to 100/100 to make it a little more collectable. However, it will be the same picture, but this time in photographic form and it will have the same icon.

Border Collie Trackble Version 3 ready soon

Until next time, I hope that you manage to make it to a leap day event, or at least to grab a cache on the day so that you can get the souvenir. The weather is brightening up now and the clocks will change soon, so all in all, it's good times for all us cachers. Have fun.                                                                                                                                                                                    

Good Times, Socials and Sad News

1062

So since I last blogged we have had some good times with a few decent cache finds. Of course, since then we have had some snow, so obviously there had to be a bit of snow caching in the mix.

One nice little series of three that we did here in Nottingham was The Undiscovered Trio http://coord.info/GC3A7EF only a short walk but with a nice sized container at the end of it. It was a bit misty on the day we went but on a good day there should be some decent views.

Misty cache walk

Two caches found only yesterday are worthy of a mention, Hedgerow Hunt http://coord.info/GC1GYAW as it is another cache that gives you good views and is a decent size, followed by Great Northern Cache No.1 - Awsworth Junction. http://coord.info/GCNEK8 this is another nice old cache that has stood the test of time.

One very near FTF was Can't-Do-It http://coord.info/GC3BY5A ~ well when I say near FTF quite a few had beaten us to it, but we were all within half an hour or so of each other.

Near Awsworth Junction cache

Events and Socials

A nicely attended social took place the other night between the Notts Geocacher group and the Geocaching Midlands GeM Facebook group. As well as some regular faces it was nice to meet up with some new ones including mono78v, CelineM, skybluesbazza, Spire67, Keith1947 and not forgetting stormjak and MFB Tracker. A new cache was published for the occasion and it was quite funny to see everyone sat very politely, trying not to rush out to get FTF on it. When they rushed out en masse they were almost beaten to it by another cacher who then popped in for a pint.

Northking had generously donated some containers which were shared out at the event as well.

I have planned two actual events as well. One to enable people who can't cache or attend events later in the day is set for February 29th. Breakfast 29 http://coord.info/GC3ARBV is an early meet. For those that don't know, anyone caching, or attending an event on that date will get an official souvenir to add to their profiles.

The other event has been organised to get people to cache in the city centre here in Nottingham. There are some decent caches to be had within the city. City Centre Caching & Coffee http://coord.info/GC3BX3Z is being held upstairs at the main Costa's coffee shop in the city. People can meet up and do the regular event type things before going off to grab the local caches.

Sad News

Well I guess it's not that sad for anyone else but us, but it is only another couple of weeks before the puppies will be ready to leave us. Their characters are really coming out now and it would be nice to keep them all. However, they have to go.

So if anyone is interested in a Border Collie pup, and has the time and committment to spend on a dog that needs a lot of walking (ideal caching companion) as well as plenty of attention to give then contact me by leaving a message on this blog.

Some Stats


I decided to start looking at the favourite points that I had awarded the other day and a little more about them. Looking back through them it brought back some memories. I just have to now decide out of all of them if I do really have one top favourite - so far.

1062 distinct caches

So far I have awarded 72 favourite points

60 for traditional caches
6 for puzzles/unknown caches

1 for a virtual
2 for multis and
3 for Earthcaches

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Regionally


38 to caches in the East Midlands

12 to the North West

9 to North Wales
6 to South Wales
2 to London
2 to Southern England
1 to the South East

1 to the South West and
1 to the West Midlands



Until next time~
Carry on caching.

News and Views

1049

It's been a few weeks and as you can see there hasn't been a great amount of caching going on in that time!


Work has taken over a little. A couple of remaps, sadly local haven't lead to any great caching adventures. We have done a little bit of reposession work, collecting some industrial crushers from a waste recycling place down south and a couple of cars.

You never know what we will be reposessing next, Wemnog with a crusher

Whilst looking for a car down near Folkestone, not a repo this time but one to buy, we managed just one cache. I needed to find one big enough to drop some trackables in and so we headed to a canoe centre where we found Seapoint http://coord.info/GC24ZZ9 The place was full of interesting information. The canal (The Royal Military Canal) has links to the French Revolution. It would have been good to spend more time down there and learn more about the place.

Info board at the Royal Military Canal

With the repo work we often sit around for hours watching houses, workplaces etc and it does give us time to check the phones to see what caches are about. Sadly there isn't always a lot of time to go for them as we have to react fairly quickly if a vehicle (owner) comes out to get in their car.

However, it does mean some travelling on the motorway system. One cache that I can't quite believe that we have left to find for so long is the cache at Newport Pagnell services. This is an old cache, having been published in December 2005. It seems to have had a few changes of container since then but as I have said before it's always good to find a cache that has stood the test of time.

Local Caches

There has been a nice steady influx on new local caches placed lately. We have found a few but are leaving others for those days when we are at home with nothing much else to do. One of the best new ones that we have found lately has been stormjaks Plenty Of Room With A View http://coord.info/GC389K8 which is a tricky little cache.

Keith and I first went for this one when it was first published but after searching the area for quite a while along with another couple of locals, Plasmawave and Spire67 we had a fruitless search. A few weeks later and we were pleased to find it quite quickly, a sense of achievement when Keith finally shouted GOT IT. I would certainly recommend this cache for people to look for.

Another good couple of recommendations if you are in Nottingham are the two Pit Extreme caches http://coord.info/GC39AZR and http://coord.info/GC39AZ0 both worthy of favourite points. We actually did these two along with stormjak and skybluebazza so we had a fun afternoon out.

As I said, there are plenty of new local caches out and I know of a few more that are due out in the near future which should also prove fun.

Numbers

Now I know that people say that it's not about the numbers, whilst others will shout that it is. What I can't understand though is those cachers who fool themselves by claiming a find just by writing a couple of logs on the same cache. Surely they are only fooling themselves? For instance I have seen a few caches lately where the log has been written and then above that another log that says something along the lines of I forgot to drop a TB!

I credit cachers with having something about them, but why oh why fool themselves like this. There is one cacher who I know of who has logged quite a few caches in this way. Surely if you are in to collecting the numbers you would feel better in yourself for having original finds, or maybe that's just me. The Write A Note system is simple enough, or so I thought, to use.

New Souvenir

Groundspeak have announced that they are awarding a new souvenir to cachers who log a find on February 29th. There have only been a couple of times prior to this year when geocachers were able to log a find on this date and so they thought that it was was a good time to encourage people to get out on a once every four year opportunity. Apart from caches there are numerous events being held throughout the country on the date itself, from an event being held just after midnight, to breakfast events right through to the evening. In fact, up to the time of writing this, 32 events nationwide have been planned. So make sure you get out there on that day and grab yourself that souvenir.

Dogs Dogs Dogs

Finally today, a bit of news about the puppies and a new TB race. Three weeks old today they are certainly growing quickly and are now developing their own characters. With one already provisionally sold we are still trying to decide whether (and which) one we are going to keep.

Keith has his eye on one of the bitches, but there is a little dog who I think has something special about him. I guess we'll just have to see.

Whilst talking about dogs, I am organising a new TB race, this one is aimed specifically at dog owners and is going to be a race just in the UK to four caches that are dog related. There is going to be a prize again for the winner, just as there was for the Nottingham to Nottingham race.

TB Dog Race Winners Coin

That's all for now, hopefully more actual news about geocaching next time.

New Beginnings

1040

Back up in Warrington again at the end of last week so not much time for caching. We managed a grand total of 1! Sat at Costa's (coffee house of choice) and having a quick look at what was around, we noticed a cache that had a United States Navy geocoin in it. As both our Dad's were in the Royal Navy during the war we decided it would be a good coin to pick up. Having a couple of hours to spare before heading off for Whiston we finished the coffees and headed off.

The cache was near to the Foundation For Peace Centre which was set up in Warrington in memory of two youngsters, Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball, two youngsters who were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded in Warrington in 1993.

The cache itself was just a small container but nicely hidden Cromwell's Walk 7 http://coord.info/GC36MEQ is the final part of a series in the Sankey Valley which I am sure we will be completing at some point.

Peace Centre

After completing the cache we headed off to the hospital to do our afternoon visit. When we got back to Warrington though we were greeted to this sight.

We hadn't expected the pups to arrive for another week or so. Fen had had 7 pups, sadly one of them had died but the rest are doing well. The dilemma then was that we had to be back in Nottingham by Tuesday and we were undecided as to how well two day old pups would travel. Thankfully after a chat with a vet we were assured that there wouldn't be a problem. Needless to say mum and pups travelled well and are now well and truly settled back here in Nottingham.

The only dilemma now is which one are we going to keep!

So, as I said, still not much in the way of caching news. Hopefully out later today to do a few, we still have a few of stormjak's to complete as well as some a little further afield that look good, including the Erewash Valley Trail series http://coord.info/GC39YEC

Hopefully more caching news next week.

Puzzles and Christmas Caching

Firstly, happy new year. Only 3rd January and it seems that the celebrations were months ago!

Puzzles

My latest puzzle cache Sweethearts http://coord.info/GC3858A seems to be causing a few problems for people. It was published on 29th November and so far has only been found once. Now that I am only putting puzzles out I do find that it is much more fun getting a log occasionally than them coming in constantly. It shows that people have taken their time to work at them and makes me appreciate them more for having done so.

And so to our Christmas caching.....


The plan had been to have a quiet christmas and new year here in Nottingham, do a fair bit of caching and walking, but as the old saying goes, the best layed plans etc. Keiths Mum was taken in to hospital up in Warrington and it was touch or go for a while as to how things were going to go, so we have ended up spending quite a bit of time up there. We didn't have the GPS with us as we rushed up although we did have the phones. However, bad weather and lack of light meant no caching happened.


A couple of days before Christmas Mum was transferred over to the regional burns unit at Whiston hospital. Again this meant we spent more time visiting than anything else. However, we were determined to do a cache on Christmas Day and it just so happened that there was one not too far from the hospital car park.
Henley Park http://coord.info/GC2RNGQ was a great little hide and container. It just cemented the fact that people don't have to go to a lot of expense or trouble constructing intricate hides to plant something decent, and then beg for favourite points. A different container in a well used park, which even when the gardeners are in full flow they wouldn't locate is the kind of cache that deserved a favourite for its simplicity.

That was to be our last cache of 2011 bringing last years total finds to 428.


Yesterday saw us teaming up with stormjak to attempt a couple of new local caches that have appeared over the last few weeks. On our way to them we met up with skybluebazza who was in the area doing a few other caches. We invited him to tag along with us to bag these two new ones. They were a couple of fun caches, well worth doing if you get a chance, and both deserving of fave points as far as we were all concerned.

Checking coords




Wemnog Goes Down










I am sure that there will be some good caches from this guy over the next few months.

I have now transferred the caching interviews that I have done previously to a separate page on the blog and these will continue to be updated over the course of 2012.

That's it for this brief one.

All the very best for the coming caching year.