It's Oh So Quiet

It's Oh So Quiet

It has been another cacheless week! There have been a couple of days when we have got up and planned to go caching this week. On both days other more pressing things (work) cropped up! Yesterday we spent the day baking for the Country Market, so that was another opportunity out of the window.

Ebay

Ebay has also been quiet this week, the current economic climate worldwide certainly seems to be hitting sales, September was the worst month, sales wise, that I have had since I opened the Jacaru Geocoins shop. Hopefully things will pick up on the run up to Christmas. I have some new stock, including stocking fillers arriving soon. I also have some new signs that will be in the shop from the middle of next week. These make excellent caches and I have a couple of them out and about. It is fun reading the logs for these caches as people do sometimes struggle with them, especially as they are usually placed in high muggle areas! The photo above shows how one design looks. They are magnetic and come complete with a log book in a sealed bag.

Only a couple of weeks now until we are in Barrow and caching can once again become a priority for a few days at least.

More news next week, until then...............Happy caching.

New Coins On Ebay

Well it has been another week without finding any caches. We don't seem to have stopped, travelling up to Warrington to visit Keith's Mum and then I went on to New Mills to see my son Cameron. Between all this we have been remapping and doing other bits and pieces that needed catching up on. The motorhome failed its MOT so needed a bit of work doing on it. It is booked in for a re-test on Friday so fingers crossed.



Colours Of Geocaching Geocoin

 I have had time to put some new coins on Ebay though, here are a couple of pics of the latest coins that I have up for sale.






Enigma Geocoin




Caching Kids Geocoin




Geocachers Star Geocoin


All these coins are available through the Ebay shop:~ http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Jacaru-Geocoins



Barrow In Furness

I'm not sure what caching we will be able to do beforehand, but we are off for a few days break to Barrow In Furness on the 1st November. We have got one of the cheap Travelodge deals, a room for £9.00 a night so we are having four nights up there. Keiths son Tom is going with us as well. Having looked at what caches are in the area it looks ripe for doing a load, so hopefully we can make up for the last few weeks.

Muggled

I have been out this afternoon to replace one of my caches that has been muggled. It was an excuse for a break from the daily grind and we got the dogs out for a walk as well. It was more like walking on a spring day by the canal, lots of midges out and a nice warm breeze. It seemed appropriate to drop off a DNF geocoin in the new cache as it hadn't been found for a couple of times.

So, for now that's it, no more news. Sorry this hasn't been the most exciting blog entry that I have written, maybe next week there will be more to tell.

For now, have a good week, and happy caching.

Normal Service Resumes Shortly!

Just to let people know, I haven't disappeared off the face of the Earth! Due to illness and a heavy workload, I haven't been caching over the last few weeks. Hence there hasn't been any updates on the blog. Hopefully over the next few days we will be back up and running and getting out there caching.

I am just about to update the Ebay shop as well, there will be some new cache containers and also some different coins up for sale. The new UK coin is selling well and  I am getting some good feedback about the design.

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.





A Quiet Week, Jacaru, Stats and The Build Up

A QUIET WEEK

It has been a quiet week on the caching front. Only five caches this week. Time has really not been kind to us, we seem to have been chasing our tales all week. Having said that, three of the caches that I found I did get FTF on. Regular readers will probably recall that a while back I said that I didn’t actively go searching for FTF’s. These have all virtually been on my doorstep though and I have managed to get them all when they have just been published. So these are the caches that I have done this week. The cache at Brooklands GC22MFR was a little disappointing. I thought more could have been made of it. It was basically a plastic takeaway tub just dumped in some bushes. Not even well hidden. The location cried out for something a bit more special.

http://coord.info/GC2EDQ8 FTF

http://coord.info/GC2B7GJ

http://coord.info/GC2EDZ4 FTF

http://coord.info/GC22MFR

http://coord.info/GC2EJ75 FTF



MORE ABOUT JACARU

So, seeing that it has been a quiet week on the caching front, I will tell you a bit more about me.

The caching name came from the first two letters of each of my children, Jacob, Cameron and Ruby.

I have been caching since January 2009. For the first few months going out to actually cache came and went in fits and spurts before becoming the full on hobby that it is now.

People often ask how I got in to having coins made. The simple answer is that my Dad died and left me some money. He was a dog lover and always enjoyed spending time with our dogs. I had a good photograph of one of our collies, Meg, and decided that I would have a coin made as a kind of memorial to my Dad. From there it really took off to being what it is today. The first coin sold well and I decided that I would get some more made. I love traditional things and decided to go along with that kind of theme. Hence the post boxes and phone box coins. The collie coin sold out, I got emails asking if I would do some more, so I changed the colours slightly and had a new run made. The latest UK coin came about just from the fact that we travel so much around the UK remapping, that it seemed like a good idea to have a coin made showing a map of the British Isles. Now here’s an exclusive, still in the initial stages, I am thinking of having a coin made to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle Of Britain. I have some photos of Spitfires and I am thinking that this may be a goer. There is also a new collie coin in the pipeline. New picture, this time of the puppy, Fen.


STATS

I happened on a new site the other day. Since the demise of It’s Not About The Numbers I haven’t had any stats on my GC profile pages. Now I have, and it’s thanks to this site http://www.mygeocachingprofile.com/ This one is very simple to use and you can add a lot of detail to it. Well worth a look. For instance, rather than having to trawl through all my cache finds to locate my milestones this site loads them for you. To give you an example, this is the list of my milestones:~

It really is a very handy tool.

THE BUILD UP

We are building up ready for this weekends Summer’s End event. The information sheets, new cache sheets, kids activity sheets and quiz sheets are all printed and packed. As are all the things that are going in to goody bags. These include keyrings, bookmarks, a new trackable geocoins and other bits and pieces. I only have 20 trackables to give out in the goody bags, another 20 are on the way, but have got lost in the post. The manufacturer has posted out replacements, but as they are coming from America, I really don’t know if they will arrive on time. I have a quiz prize sorted and packed and we are now having a silliest hat competition at the barbeque on Saturday night, so there is also a prize for that. We are just hoping that the weather holds, not looking too promising at the moment after checking the BBC forecast for the area. Fingers crossed though.

The next blog should have some photos of the event, hopefully everyone will enjoy themselves. Wemnog and I are heading up to the campsite on Wednesday, we have decided that it would be quite nice for us to have a few days just relaxing as we don’t seem to have had too much time off during the last few weeks.

That’s it, all for now. Have a good caching week dear readers.

500, Kidnapping, Distributor & More.

500

It has taken 20 months, but I finally did my 500th cache at the weekend. Whilst Wemnog was busy down at Wembley watching the Rugby final (his team, Warrington, won) so a very happy chappy, I decided that there really was only one place to go for the 500th cache. It was http://coord.info/GC2ADPH . If you click on the cache page it will come up as being an archived cache. In theory it is, but in reality it is still up and running and there for everyone to discover.

It was good to meet up with Kathy again and have a good old natter. The shop is looking really good since they moved next door and the stock range is fabulous. It really is like being a kiddy in a sweetshop.

Kathy very kindly agreed to stock the new UK coins for me and took another 10 Border Collie coins to sell for me.

Here is a pic of Kathy and I, don’t know how it happened but the conversation seemed to revolve around poo, of one type or another for quite a lot of the time!!! Also pictured is the cache itself, a real treasure chest!

Kathy & I at the UK Geocachers shop. My tee shirt kindly supplied by Geotogs.com

Kidnapping

For want of a better word, I know it isn’t just me who this happens to, but it is really frustrating when someone picks up one of your coins or TB’s, logs that they will move it on quickly yet 6 months later it is still in their hands. During the last few days I have contacted 12 people where this has been the case. Some of them I have had decent replies and apologies off, a couple more have basically said that they have “misplaced” them and don’t know where they are. No apology, just that! No less annoying are those that don’t bother to reply. Granted it is still holiday season and folk may be away. All I can say to you is that if it does happen to you, keep on at them and don’t let it go. This is your personal property that they have at the end of the day.

Distributor



Just before the start of the bank holiday weekend I received notification that I have been granted official merchandise distributor status from Groundspeak. This means that I will be able to stock more of their goods in the Ebay shop and on the website, and get a link to the website on their own site. Hopefully it means that I will get more custom and be able to step sales up a notch or two.

Website

The Jacaru website has now been updated and is available for viewing. It means that people who don’t like, or want to use Ebay can order directly from there. The site address is http://www.jacaru.co.uk/  Click on the geocaching button and see what is on offer. I haven’t so far linked a PayPal account to the site as I wanted to see what kind of sales it generated beforehand.


Caching Buddies


I have been reading on some of the forums this week that people think it would be an idea for established cachers to link up with new people. It helps to show them the ropes and gives them the opportunity to go out caching with someone with more experience of differing types of cache. This isn’t to say that anyone thinks that new cachers aren’t any good, it just gives them another opening in to the caching world.

I know that when Wemnog and I started caching we were lucky enough to meet up with people at Notts Geocachers. We got to know more established and knowledgeable people and it also gave us an opportunity to ask questions. Having said that, it was still quite daunting walking in to a group who already knew each other. Our second experience wasn’t so nice. We went to an Emcache meeting and found that we were very much on the outside, neither welcomed or spoken to. Needless to say, we didn’t attend any of those meetings again. Having said that, there are people who are very happy within this group, but cliqueness certainly isn't for us.

If you can find a friendly local group, do pluck up courage and go, hopefully you will be welcomed with open arms and get to know what is happening in your area. If there isn’t one, it may be time to set one up. All you have to do is set an event cache for an evening or weekend in a local pub. You’ll be amazed at just how many people attend and how many people you get to know in a short amount of time.

Caching

So, towards the end of last week I had only done No. 499 and 500. Then we got a phone call to go and remap a car down in Tilbury. Setting off early on Bank Holiday Monday to avoid traffic we decided to do a pocket query before hand and set the route along the A1.


We managed to bag 9 caches before deciding that we really should carry on and get to the customer. Our plan was to remap the car and then do some on the way back. Things in J & W’s life are never that simple though....(oh to be a meerkat)! The remap didn’t take so we had to stay overnight in a Travelodge and get the car sorted on Tuesday. We did really well though and the manager of the Travelodge let us have all three dogs in the room with us. Anyway, back to the caches, they were all drive bys, so nothing major about them. Apart from three of them. One was at an old Norman cross which had quite a bit of history attached. There is a photo of the information board, unfortunately the print isn’t clear enough to read. Just prior to finding this cache, we did two very close to the Nene Valley railway. Again, both were drive bys, but I think we will be back to do the rest of the series at some point.

The two Nene Valley Railway caches that we did were:~

http://coord.info/GC1V84B and http://coord.info/GC13KAQ


Finally

I have had quite a few preorders for the new coin and will be posting those out on the 8th of this month so that people get them in time for the release date.

As usual, we don’t know what the plans are for caching this week. We are down at Brooklands on Saturday for the SMART festival. That’s an early start so I don’t think we will be doing anything on the way, or the way back for that matter. We’ll see. Once we get back from Brooklands we will be making the final preparations for the camping event. If any of you know who I need to contact so that I can order decent sunny weather, please do let me know.

Until next time caching friends
Have a good week.

Caches, TB Hotels, Stargates and Updates

I always end my blogs with a similar question, will I have done a little or a lot of caching by the next blog?

CACHES

Well this week I have done a fair bit of caching again, another 21 in fact. Now I know that I have said before that I don’t go chasing FTF’s. However, I was sat at my computer when a new series flagged up that was very local to us. This was the Sunday Stroll series by Baira and his son Darkfonz. A nice series of 5 caches on a pleasant circular walk. This is the first cache in the series http://coord.info/GC2DH1K

Heading to one of the caches there is an avenue of fruit trees of different varieties. Unfortunately none of the fruit was quite ripe enough to pick. We may just have to go back!

We didn’t get FTF on any of the caches though, we had been beaten by about half an hour by another local cacher ~ Paneke.

A couple of days later we had a phone call from a customer in North Wales. He needed a remap on his Smart car. Could we do it over the weekend. Not a problem, we decided to make a whole caching weekend of it, packed up the campervan and off we went.

En route we did some drive bys on the A55, nothing to spectacular and even though it’s not about the numbers (or so they say) we did them. We were staying on a camp site at Rhos On Sea and so had located some caches to do in the surrounding areas. We don’t often resort to hints, but when we do it is much easier when they are in English rather than Welsh. We struggled for a while with one cache and then asked a passer by whether he could read the hint for us. No real surprise with the answer though “sorry, I don’t read Welsh and I’d be surprised whether you could find anyone round here who does!” Luckily after a bit more of a search we located the cache.

Keith (Wemnog) before he hit the slippery slope!

Some of the caches that we did took us in to woodland and the ruins of a castle. These was a brilliant walk which we and the dogs enjoyed. Wemnog did receive some injuries though, slipping from the top to the bottom of a long slippery slope. He escaped without broken limbs, although he does have some nasty grazes on arms, elbows and thighs.

Looking for three caches, we had to log DNF’s on two of them, most disappointing. We really wanted to find this one http://coord.info/GC28PMB but couldn’t. Got some great photos though, have a look at these.

All in all whilst we were in Wales we did 16 caches, a lot of them were micros as the seaside towns were loaded with holidaymakers and there wasn’t any way that larger caches could have been placed. We did do some good ones though, including this one http://coord.info/GC1KAZN Just look at the brilliant view from this cache PIC Three caches that we did have given me some ideas for new ones here in Nottingham. Similar caches should be appearing soon.

My particular favourite of the weekend was http://coord.info/GC14DAX which is called Rhuallt Village Vexation. A brilliant, yet very simple cache. I am not showing any photos of that one though, that would just give too much away! Just before I was going to publish this blog today a very local new cache popped up. Yep, we got there first and I left my new UK coin in it. I am going to make that the blog coin, so will keep everyone posted on where it ends up. So far it is in the new cache Car Auction Lagoons, http://coord.info/GC2DTR6 so still in Nottingham

TB HOTELS

TB hotels are brilliant. If you have been stuck with a coin or TB for too long and you need to get it moving again, locate your nearest TB hotel and place it in there. I use two in this area. One is actually called a TB hotel and is near East Midlands Airport http://coord.info/GCYCXK East Midlands Airport Travel Bug Hotel. I don’t use this one often, only if I have a coin which I know needs to travel abroad. The cache that I use most to drop and pick coins up from isn’t actually a hotel, but I must admit that I use it as such as I know that it gets visited quite often. This is another cache by Northking and is called Nuts In Notts Number 9 (THE FINAL) http://coord.info/GC20EBP It is in an unusual location and if you are ever in Nottingham well worth a visit. As I said, I often use this one as a hotel. There is actually one right here at home. The TARDIS http://coord.info/GC1WGEQ I decided to place this one for people to drop coins off as it is on the doorstep for us. The nature of our business, remapping, means that we travel fairly extensively in this country so we are able to move trackables on quite quickly for people. This is another cache that is used fairly regularly. It may be closing down soon though as I have a cunning plan to replace it with something a bit different!

STARGATES

Stargates are something completely different. Usually placed in two locations, one in this country and one somewhere abroad, rather than me going in to too much detail here, you may be better off reading this page http://coord.info/GCHXQE It is a clever idea and we are thinking of setting up a stargate between us and a place in France. We obviously can’t go in to this one lightly so are doing a little more research on it before finally committing ourselves.



UPDATES



I put the To Cache A Thief series out last week. Just three caches, but boy have they caused some problems for people searching for them. I have had a few phone calls from people asking for help. Met up with some of the people who have looked for them and seen some amazing scratches on arms, they look like they have been wrestling with an angry cat! The logs make for some interesting reading, have a look. http://coord.info/GC2DM4G http://coord.info/GC2CD6G http://coord.info/GC2DM58 Wemnog and I actually thought that apart from the bonus cache these were quite simple stand alone caches. The only thing really needed to find the bonus is a UV light.

Summer's End event coin

A couple of things now to finish off with. Here is a photo of the coin that I am giving out to people who attend the Summer’s End event. It is a trackable coin so I hope people like it.

We are having a few things going on at the event. Geocoins will be for sale and we are still hoping that UK Geocachers will be there with some of the goodies from their shop. We will also have a stamp making printer there, so if anyone wants a stamp made to mark logbooks with, bring your own design on a memory stick and we can convert it in to a stamp. We can even do photos on to them, so if you want your face smiling out on a logbook, now is your chance.

That’s it, done for another week. 497 caches done, I am sure that by next time I will have reached, and passed my 500th. Just hoping for a good one for it. I will have to search for something special.

Have a good week and happy caching.

New Caches Just Published

Not my usual day for adding to the blog, but just to let everyone know, I have just had three new caches published.

 http://coord.info/GC2CD6G

http://coord.info/GC2DM4G


http://coord.info/GC2DM58

These are a little bit different from my usual, I like to try something new!!!

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.

Only 2 ~ Too Much To Do & UK Geocachers

Only 2!

Well after all the plans to do a lot of caching whilst we were in the Lakes, we ended up doing just two! High Cross http://coord.info/GC1Z55C and Swallows and Amazons http://coord.info/GCN9GA. This was by far the more fun of the two. Off we set, two adults, two 16 year olds, two dogs and one puppy in one canadian canoe and one inflatable. Trust us to pick a busy day on Coniston to go and get it.

Peel Island on Coniston was used as Wild Cat Island in Arthur Ransome's book Swallows and Amazons. I loved the Ransome books when I was younger and growing up down south they always transported me to somewhere I would rather be. There is a photo of Peel Island below. Now that we have a little Seagull engine for the inflatable there will be no stopping us ~ we plan on doing a lot more caches that are only accessible by boat.



So, only two caches as we had much too much to do. The lads just wanted to mess about in the boats all day, and as the weather was so good to us, we couldn't resist just hanging about, we finished the day with a barbeque on the banks of Coniston and watched the sun go down,

before heading back to the campsite for a nice hot cup of tea and some cake.


UK Geocachers

It's about time that I started saying more about some of the links that I have on the blog. I am going to start with UK Geocachers.

This is a brilliant online and walk-in shop that has so much to offer cachers. From Travel Bugs and Geocoins to little cache goodies for you to drop in to caches that you are visiting this shop certainly has it all. If you are in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, it really is well worth taking the time to visit. Even if you don't buy anything from them you can be assured of a warm welcome from Kathy and the rest of the team there. If you want to visit the shop the good old caching way, then the Coords N 53º 00.173 W 001º 43.242 will get you there. For a lot more information than I have given in this brief write up, visit the link above. Next time I will go in to detail about one of the other links.

Finally

In between arriving back from London and setting off for the Lakes, I managed to get to the collection depot and pick the first 100 UK coins up. On arrival at home I very excitedly opened them up, and me being me, always expecting some disappointment with new arrivals, was more than a little surprised at just how good they have turned out. I am not just saying that either, they really do look good. As you will know I am not releasing them for sale until 10.00am on the 10th September, but as they are here, I have already registered my coin and will be releasing it somewhere shortly.

I am not sure what is planned for this week, whether we will be caching or not, but I am sure one way or another there will be something cache related happening. After all, I have a new multicache planned ~ and this one is going to need some specialist equipment to locate the final!!!!!!

Back Home, Permission Denied and Off To The Lakes

Back Home

Well I am back home. Cameron and I found ourselves on Oxford Street yesterday afternoon, boiling hot and we just looked at each other and said "Let's Go Home" So after a short tube ride we got back to the Travelodge, packed up our stuff, loaded it in to the Jeep and set off. It was a bit of a draughty journey back as the temporary window didn't stay in place, luckily it was dry though. I finally got home just after 9.00pm last night.

Permission Denied

Checking emails after I got home I had a couple of emails regarding a cache that I wanted to place. The first one was from a lady at Natural England who approved where I wanted to place the cache, however the second email was from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust who co manage the land. They denied permission to plant as they felt that the cache placement would be encouraging people on to the land who weren't interested in the wildlife, and felt that it would have a negative affect on the area.
You can't win them all, so I am afraid that I will have to let this one go. Shame really as the cache was wildlife themed (I can't give anything away as the container will be placed elsewhere)

Off To The Lakes

We are off to the Lakes in a couple of hours time. The campervan is all loaded up, we are going in two vehicles as two adults, two teenage lads and three dogs is a helluva squeeze in one, plus all the equipment as well.
Really looking forward to this, a few days messing about in the boats on Coniston and hopefully loads of caching as well. I have got a fair few TB's and GC's to move on. I want to be able to swap a load so that there is a collection for the camping event. Even better, the forecast is looking very promising for a good weekend.

Finally

The customs letter had arrived when I got home, so I am off in a few minutes to pick up my package. 100 nice, shiny new UK geocoins. Yep they are finally here so I am looking forward to getting them.

All for now, have a great caching weekend.

No Caching, Just A Story Of Thievery In London

No Caching, Just A Story Of Theft In London

So, here we are in London. Staying in the Travelodge on the M4 a few miles outside the city centre.

Cameron and I arrived on Monday afternoon and didn't really do much, had a drive around Langley and Slough where I had the misfortune of growing up. I showed him the two houses where I lived when I left New Mills at the age of 4. I then showed him my infants and junior schools, and the site of my high school, no longer there, it is a leisure centre and housing estate now.

Yesterday was a good day, well at least until the end of it. We got parked the car at Hounslow West tube station and got in to the centre of London by around 10.00am. First stop was the London Eye.

The views from the eye were great, and it is well worth doing if you haven't done it. Even with prebooking tickets online, we still queued for almost an hour to get on.
After the eye we went on to walk past the Houses Of Parliament and then decided to go and have a look round the Cabinet War Rooms. Now that was interesting and is well worth a visit. It was very hot down there though. The journey continued with a quick visit to Downing Street. Then on through Green Park to Buckingham Palace.

After spending a bit of time at the palace (we weren't invited in for tea) we walked back to the tube and caught a train to Covent Garden. That was as entertaining as usual, I always enjoy visiting. There is some building work going on and what looks like a massive Apple store is being worked on, ready for opening later this week.

From Covent Garden we got a rickshaw to Leicester Square. I recommend that if you get a chance you have a rickshaw ride through at least part of the city, just to say that you have done it. Leaving the rickshaw we went and had a quick coffee before deciding to take in a movie at the Odeon. Cameron really enjoys the cinema and really wanted to be able to say that he had seen on at the Odeon Leicester Square!

So we saw the A Team. Now I remember the TV series as a teenager. I had high hopes for the film and although it was good, it seemed a bit disjointed for my liking

After the film we decided that we had had enough for one day so caught the tube back to pick the Jeep up. Got back to the station and the car and that's when things took a turn for the worse.

We arrived back to find that the passenger window had been smashed and the Sat Nav and for some obscure reason, my specs, had been taken. The satnav and cradle had been hidden under the seat as I always do so weren't on show. I rang the police to report it and got a reporting number ~ it'll take up to 3 days to get a proper crime number!

Of course it was after office hours so I couldn't get in touch with the insurance people, I have trade insurance and they only work office hours with no 24 hour helpline ~ which of course didn't help. Then I rang the AA who put me in touch with Autoglass to get a replacement window. This is where you have to laugh, I had to, or I would have cried.

Autoglass told me that it would be three days before they could get someone out to me to fit a replacement window!!!!! London, capital city of the UK, 24 hour metropolis ---3 days!

As we couldn't really do anything else we drove back to the hotel and managed to get hold of a carboard box and some sticky tape to seal the car up the best we could for the night.

So here I am, typing this update at 7.15am waiting for the insurance office to open at 8.30am and we will have to take it from there.

So all in all after a brilliant day out things had to come crashing down again big style. I am just glad that more stuff, or the car wasn't taken.

Photographs Of The New UK Geocoin

NEW UK GEOCOIN

Hi folks, couldn't resist breaking in to my holiday to let you see the final version of the new UK Geocoin. As I have said previously it will be released for sale on Friday 10th September at 10.00am.



Let me know what you think.

Latest Coins In The Ebay Shop/Short Breaks

Latest Coins

As I promised that I would let blog readers know which coins would be going in to my Ebay shop before I actually list them, here are the next three. There are two 10th anniversay coins, both a standard size and a micro coin, and a Leave Only Footprints, Take Only Photographs coin. Apologies for the poor photo quality on the micro coin. These coins will be listed in the shop on August 7th when I am back from my two short breaks. If anyone did want any before they are listed just email me and let me know.





Short Breaks

I am having a few days away starting from Monday. I am taking my youngest son Cameron down to London for five days. There won't be any caching for me down there unfortunately as he doesn't enjoy it and to be fair, it is his holiday.

Straight from dropping him back off home in New Mills, I am going to be meeting Wemnog, his son Tom and Tom's mate Lewis in Warrington, before carrying on up to the Lake District for a long weekend.

Hopefully we should be doing some caching there as well as messing about on the water. We are taking our inflatable up, hopefully we should have a small outboard for it by then. We are also taking the Canadian canoe up. There are some caches around that can only be reached by boat, so we are hoping to do a few of those if we get a chance. We aren't daft though, we shall be staying in the motorhome, the two lads will be in a tent.

So, that's me, all blogged out for now. I am sure that I will have lots to tell you in the next blog, including the latest updates on the camping event and the UK geocoin.

All for now, happy caching.

Caches, Splashes and Park and Dashes

Hiya and welcome to the latest blog update. A busy few days since the last blog, hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Caches

Well, saying that Wemnog and I had hardly done any caches when I wrote the last update, since then we have done another 29. As we were up in Yorkshire and Humberside remapping we couldn't resist downloading some caches on to the 550t. We ended up doing a circular series called Denby In Style, by 3 Edges. This was a series of 6 caches and a bonus cache. It was a really hot day and although it only took us an hour to do we were certainly in need of refreshments aferwards. At one of the caches the horses were very interested in knowing what geocaching was all about and Keith ended up explaining to them. Sometimes I think his last name is Dolittle!

We have also been up to the camping field that we are going to use for the Summer's End event (more of that in Splashes section) and did some more caching in the area. The Peak District really is a rich source for many different styles of cache and we do enjoy doing them. We found some more of cats-eyes C.O.D. series as well as their other series ~ Guide Stoops.

If you ever get up to the Peak District, as well as all the other brilliant places and caches to find, I really do recommend finding some of theirs.

One of their caches was at Ashford In The Water and the photo shows a view of the sheep wash bridge from Ground Zero. This was a particularly poignant cache to go and find for us. Our good friend Howard loved Ashford In The Water and spent a lot of time there photographing it from every possible angle. Unfortunately he died of cancer earlier this year, so we did this particular cache in his memory.

On the way home from our little weekend break we did a few more caches, some of which were the Skeg to Ness series. We haven't actively decided to do this amazing series, but as some were near we couldn't resist. If you haven't heard of this series it is quite an amazing feat ~ 207 drive by caches over 193 miles. I know some cachers personally who have done the whole series. I believe that other cachers have also done it in one go!

Splashes

More news now on the Summer's End Camping Event. I have now put out two caches for this event, they are going to be published late evening on September 9th, so hopefully it will be someone who is at the event who will get the first to finds on them.
I have a third cache ready to go out, I had to wait for landowner permission before I could place it. The landowners involved are Natural England and just prior to writing the blog I was on the phone to them. They were a bit concerned as there are some open mineshafts near to where I want to place but after some very productive discussion they have agreed in theory to the cache being placed. I am just waiting for email confirmation and once I have that I can submit for review.

So why is this section called Splashes?
Basically because one of the caches that I have placed for the event requires people to wade out to it. When I was placing it I had the dogs with me. Meg and Rum didn't have a problem with this, but it was the first time that the pup, Fen, had encountered flowing water. She did a fair bit of splashing about, getting me wet as well in the process! The good news for Fen is that she soon mastered the doggy paddle! Here is a photo of Fen with Rum and Wemnog at a drier cache.



I am looking forward to reading comments about the cache that people have to paddle to. I have called it Bridge Over The River Wye, I couldn't resist the play on words.

Other news on the event front ~
The event coins have arrived, 20 trackable coins to give away in goody bags to all event attendees. I think that I may need to order some more though. Here is a picture of the event coin.


The farmer has now agreed that small caravans are allowed on the field for the two nights of the event.
We are having a barbeque on the Saturday night, if the weather is bad we have a marquee to put the barbeque in, it's gas, so no smoke issues.
The quiz sheet is finished and will be given out to all attendees, the one with the most correct answers gets a new trackable geocoin.
We are going to release 10 chinese lanterns at 10.00pm on the Saturday night ~ two reasons, firstly (officially) our way of celebrating 10 years of geocaching. Secondly, because I am a big kid and enjoy watching the lanterns flying!
Two caches already approved by reviewers for publication in time for the event.
One cache waiting for landowner permission.
More caches being put out nearer the time.

I am getting really excited about this event. I haven't organised anything like this for a long long time. Fingers crossed it will go well.

Park And Dashes

There is always a lot of debate on forums and meetings about the validity of cache and dash caches. A lot of people don't like the nano, micro, film canister caches where people can park up, grab the cache, sign the log and then drive off.

Personally I don't mind them and they do have their place in the caching community.
As much as I enjoy a good walk with the dogs and Wemnog, there are times that I just don't have time to do that, but know that there are caches in an area that we are in.

Furthermore, there are a lot of cachers around and about, either with small children or with disabilities who just can't walk, not even for a few hundred feet. Why should people who have difficulties, no matter what, be discriminated against? So for me, the cache and dash caches are just as important as those hidden deep in the countryside.
Sometimes they are even more difficult to find than those ammo boxes, or lock and lock boxes, hidden under a bush, stone, in the ivy etc etc. The people who place them use a lot of imagination and innovation in the containers and how/where they have been hidden.

Finally

Well I guess it is time to finish off for this session. As you will have noticed I have now put quite a lot of links at the top of the blog. I will talk more about the links in future blogs. One final question though.

Do you think that you will ever get to visit this cache and sign the logbook? Not sure that I will! GC26REM Would love to hear your comments about this one.

All for now...............Happy Caching.

Caching, Competition and Camping Event Latest

CACHING

Well, it has been a quiet few days on the caching front, with only two to add to my numbers.

I have never really been one to chase the first to finds, though I do hold my hands up to those who do, some of them amaze me at how quickly they get to them after publication. I did go and get one on Wednesday morning last week. The notification came up and as I had nothing to do decided to go for it. I got there within half an hour of the first ting on my computer. This was the cache http://coord.info/GC2BG84

I must admit, I still thought that I would be beaten to it by my good caching friend Northking, only to find out later that it was his wedding day, so he couldn't really chase it! My second cache was yesterday, I dropped my son off at home in New Mills, in Derbyshire and as I had the GPS with me had a quick look at what was around. One that I had been meaning to do for some time popped up as being the nearest so I did that one. An interesting story behind this house, I was always told that the house Peep O Day was so called because the chap who had it built put a window in, so that as the first light of dawn came the sun would shine on his new brides head as she lay sleeping in her bed. How true it is, I don't know. That cache has been going for quite some time http://coord.info/GC19A15.

Hopefully Wemnog and I will get more caches this week. We are planning on camping again at the weekend, so fingers crossed.

COMPETITION

The Geocaching Association Of Great Britain, an excellent site for cachers in the UK has had some competition this week. This is an ongoing saga between a couple of East Midlands cachers who seem intent on trying to cause trouble for everyone in the caching community, not just in the East Midlands but nationwide. They previously set up another site, icache, and that failed due to their inability to be civil to its members, banning people left, right and centre for questioning some of their motives. It will be interesting to see what this new site of theirs does,it is already getting slated on the main national forums, and quite rightly.

CAMPING EVENT LATEST

Planning for the camping event in September ~ http://coord.info/GC2B8HZ goes on apace.

I am in the middle of negotiating with the pub and cafe which are very near to the site as to whether they would allow caravans to park up on their car parks for either one or two nights as unfortunately caravans can't get on to the camping field, due to the angle of the gate and adjoining dry stone walls.

Quite a few people have now posted Will Attends, so it is shaping up to be a good one.

Already planned for the Saturday evening is a barbeque, with cachers bringing their own food to cook, we will provide the gas barbeque. If the weather isn't too good we will have a gazebo up to cook in.

The quiz sheet is already completed and will be given out to all cachers. The person who gets the most answers correct will win a prize, or prizes if there is a draw.

I have got an ammo box for people to drop TB's and geocoins in to and take out of so that should hopefully be a good way of swapping trackables that need to move on.

The goody bags are bought, and although I don't know exactly what will be in them yet, I can say that there is going to be a trackable Jacaru event coin in them.

Finally, on the Saturday evening at 10.00pm I am hoping that, weather permitting, we can release 10 chinese lanterns, just as our way of marking 10 years of geocaching.

FINALLY



Finally, after mentioning that I wasn't sure about having another Border Collie coin made, and yet more emails this last few days asking me to do one, I have decided on a picture that I am going to eventually use for it. This is a photograph of the latest puppy, Fen, it does beg to become a coin. What do you think?

Well, that's it for now, but in the words of that famous Californian governor ~ I'll be back.

Weekend In Derbyshire

Wemnog and I had a weekend away in the campervan in Derbyshire. We had the three dogs with us of course, it was Fen the puppy's first time camping, she soon settled in to it.

We decided to stay at the site which we are going to use for the Summer's End camping event in September. That way we thought that it would be good to suss out some caches that we can point campers towards doing.

The photo above shows Peters Stone, the location of the first cache we did, C.O.D. Petrus,GC7A06, there is a cache there somewhere! We picked up our only TB of the weekend in this cache.Following on from the first cache we did the next one, Beyond Peters Stone, we had a bit of a scramble down to this one GCG6W0.

Then it was back to the campsite for some well earned food, and an early night.

Another very hot day on Saturday, so after a cooked breakfast it had to be a full day of caching. We did a lot of the C.O.D. caches (Curiosities Of Derbyshire) by Cats-Eyes. They have put some brilliant caches out that are well worth visiting. The first of the day though was a little way out, I Want To Be Wanted, a cache by the Wanted Inn, not too far from Chapel en le Frith. The only thing that I picked up there, apart from the cache was a load of dog poo on my shoe (not the best start to the caching day)

Then it was on to Monsal Head, well worth a visit at any time of the year, caching or not. The views here are spectacular. After stopping for an ice cream we ventured off to the cache and soon had it located and the log signed.

So the caching continued, one of the next caches we found was in the village of Great Longstone, a beautiful little village, not too far away from Monsal Head. The old water pump in the village was the location for this cache. Even with caches eyes, and knowing exactly what we were looking for, this cache took a couple of minutes to find, I blame the bright sunshine!

We carried on and bagged a few more caches including GC1G9E9 C.O.D. All Saints RC Church, Hassop. This one certainly was a curiosity. Hassop is another smallish Derbyshire village, but there, in the village itself is a massive Roman Catholic church. The size of it and the building material used certainly didn't fit in with the village itself!

We have heard a lot about the Skeg to Ness series from our good friends NorthKing and also Two Anchors, but we hadn't planned on doing any in the immediate future. However, the next cache on the GPS that flagged up for us was, in fact #129 in that series. As it was so near we couldn't resist doing it and we were glad that we did. It was another clever cache container. I have got similar ones out there, but this one went just that little stage further, we spent more time retrieving the log than actually finding the cache!

A few more caches around Stoney Middleton and chips from the chippy there and then it was time to return to the campsite for a cuppa and bask in the evening sunshine.

On Sunday we did a couple more C.O.D. caches, C.O.D. @ The Races and C.O.D. Well Fancy That, which is pictured below before driving on through the plague village of Eyam and on to the wonderful Grindleford Station for a well earned Sunday lunch.

Finally, below is a photograph of the campsite where the Summer's End event is going to be held. As you can see, it is basically just a field. Having stayed there though, we feel sure that people will enjoy it, pure back to basics camping, one sink, cold water, one loo, but loads of fun. Roll on September, there is already the promise of people bringing musical instruments, so although we aren't allowed to have campfires, it should be a brilliant atmosphere. If the weather is good, there is every chance that we will have a barbeque as well.

I wonder where caching will take us next? I'll let you know.