Muddy Logs

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A Muddy Day

Another few under our belts this week. Accompanied by very occasional cacher Ashman-BMX we decided to go for a pretty new series,  Whissendine Wanders by Crafty Foxes. A nice series of 15 + bonus we planned to do it at the weekend when Ashman was free from work commitments. When we decided to do the series I contacted a previous finder to see whether the series could be done by bike or not.

Although the attributes didn't show bikes and the person I contacted said that some of it would be difficult we decided to go for it anyway. When we planned it we hadn't had the amount of rain that we then saw. Needless to say on Saturday when we reached the parking spot and looked at what was ahead we saw a field of mud ahead. Not one to balk at a challenge we were soon on the bikes and set off. We didn't get far before we were off the bikes again, they were so clogged with thick gooey mud that the wheels seized completely and we spent a good ten minutes clearing them before setting off again.

Still not giving in we carried on, stopping every few minutes to de clog the bikes. It made for a really enjoyable, if dirty day out.

Wemnog and some muddy bikes

Halfway round and still with loads to find we decided that it may be better to leave the rest for another day and do some drive bys. As we arrived at the end of a particularly muddy part and reached the road we spotted a couple of familiar faces sat in their car having a cuppa.

We headed over and had a natter with seasoned cacher darrach. It turns out that they had done the rest of the series apart from this one cache which we were about to look for. They had had a fruitless search for it a little while before and decided to stop for a cuppa before looking again. Joining forces the five of us continued to look and eventually Wemnog came up trumps and found the cache, some 40 feet away from the listed coords. This was the only cache in the whole series where the coords were out.

After signing the log and heading off to find a few more of the series that were on the road darrach caught us up again whilst we were waiting for a train to pass.

darrach at the level crossing

Although we didn't complete the series in one go it is one that I would recommend if you want a good walk (or cycle) and we will certainly be completing it in the not too distant future.

The bike rides the rider!!

We finished off the day with doing another couple of the Crafy Foxes drive by caches followed by a couple of the great little ongoing series by Treecrabs. The CKTV series is one that takes people back to their childhood days of TV watching. We have only done a couple of them, but heard good reports about all the whole lot.


Entertaining Logs

It's always fun to see logs coming in on your caches, or on those caches that you have been watching. The following log was neither, but one that was mentioned on Facebook. I reproduce it here with kind permission of the author who had been out to find a night cache.

"This has to be my most dramatic DNF ever!!



I am thinking of setting up a night cache myself, and as I was researching I noticed these two only 20mins away! It was only 9pm and I don't have to get up tomorrow so I set off.


My torch was not the best and so I found a couple of the reflectors difficult to find but I was ambling through and enjoying a night walk, listening to a couple of owls.


I had read the description carefully and was aware that there was open water around so I was being careful. I got up to a certain point and could not see the next reflector. I walked down the obvious path but didn't pick it up so went back. To the left, down a curb was what looked like a newly paved cycle path, with the sparkly bits reflecting in the moonlight. 'Maybe it take you down the cycle route a little way?' I thought. So I had thought I heard people walking along under the bridge close by, so didn't questions it. As I stepped off the small curb on the beautofully sparkly newly paved cycle path, my foot went through it. It was too late to pull back and I fell full into the canal!! I think it was covered in a weed, and it was so still, it looked solid!!


Maybe I am a lightweight cacher, but I did not continue, I emptied my wellies and headed back to the car, dripping as I went, and rushed home for a shower.


I read the warnings to be careful, and I thought I was, so this is totally my fault and I do not write this as a complaint, rather for my own catharsis and as a story to share!!


Sadly my smartphone/gps reader and my head torch are no longer working :(


update- 28/10/11 - After sitting in a bowl of lentils (I didn't have any rice) in the airring cupboard for the last three days, I tried turning on my phone and it worked!!!!! Will head back for the cache soon."

This log had a few people chuckling when it was pointed out to people. Again, I have to say thanks to the author for letting me copy it here.

Interview With A Cacher

Another in the occasional series now where a geocacher answers a few questions about their caching career. This time Team Blid435

How long have you been caching for?  Since November 2009.

How did you get in to geocaching? Through a Geocaching friend.


Favourite type of cache? Any, except puzzle caches, I'm not too good at those. Not good at caches that involve walking or climbing due to health problems.

Series or single caches? Either, but prefer drive bys due to reasons above.

Your favourite find? One of my favourites has got to be Schrödinger’s Ghostly Wormhole Paradox GC2HJYV.which I found with Rob and Ian 2Anchors and Jeff Jat2010. Very glad to have been supported by a great crew and doubly glad to have taken the risk to do it.
Fair weather or any weather? I do prefer decent weather, but have done a few in rain and snow.

Your very first find? Harry's Cache-The Quarries GC1EXVG.

On your own or with someone else? With Susie my faithful Geo-Westie.


Furthest cache from home? Platja de Ses Salines, Ibiza GC34J59. This one was extra special as I was FTF even though the app on my phone failed as I was about 100 metres from GZ so had to rely on my geocaching senses.

Favourite bit of advice for other cachers? Just get out there and enjoy yourself. It doesn't matter if you find one cache or several, just enjoy being out and about and finding places you never knew existed or that you wouldn't have visited if it hadn't been for geocaching.

What’s in your caching bag? Two or three pencils, pens, plastic bags, a multi tool, a couple of extendable magnetic probes, various items for swapping, a few spare log books of different sizes,a small torch, a UV light, a note book, camera, and a couple of medical items for emergencies, and my GAGBGeocoin which is dipped into each cache I find as a form of mileage checker.


Any cache that you have heard about that you really want to find? Not really I just take each cache as it comes.There are a few I would have liked to have done but again due too health restrictions have been rejected.

Thanks John

Piratemania V

Piratemania V has recently been published. As mentioned before this has already has Mega status for next year. This is a very friendly event and well worth a visit, even if it is just for the day. Along with the North West Mega up in Cartmel next year is going to be a good one for UK and overseas cachers. If anyone wants to know about a decent campsite up in the Lakes for the Mega let me know and I can tell you about a hidden gem that my man and me have used for years.



Piratemania V

Lastly for this week, the new Facebook page GeM is getting a good response and a healthy membership with some really interesting stuff being posted. If you want to join let me know and I can give you more details.

Not sure what we are up to later in the week, we have seen a few boat only caches that we may go for, though we have also been told about a few green lane caches that may just tempt us even more.

Have a good week.

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.