A Few More Caches and Some Facts & Figures

A FEW MORE CACHES

Well we have been a little bit busier on the caching front since I last blogged. We had a car to remap down in Tunbridge Wells so took the opportunity to do just four caches whilst down there. It also gave me a chance to drop a couple of trackables off.

The four caches visited were Mole's SOS A Road Anarchy A21 http://coord.info/GC1VECW one of the nicer of the A Road Anarchy series, this one set just outside a public rest area with a nice park where the dogs, and us could stretch our legs. Onwards we then visited and found Mole's SOS - Hill View#7 Bidborough Ridge http://coord.info/GC1TF0E There should have been very clear views from this one, but we were there on the first weekend in years where there had been a smog warning, and yes, there was smog. The great thing about this cache though was that there was an SD card in the cache. The cache owner had asked that anyone who had a camera with them install the SD card and take a picture before replacing. This we did, a nice twist on leaving a disposable camera in a cache which is what we have found a few times.

Our third cache of the day was Beyond The Traffic Jam http://coord.info/GC23N5A, a nice simple drive by but set in another park with great views. Finally we visited Sweeps Cave http://coord.info/GC283FT this was a good cache and the best of the day, I awarded this one a favourite point. We found a TB in this cache ~ ref TB1F819 which I couldn't resist picking up  as it was a little black and white dog. What with our three being with us, I thought it appropriate. Blends in well, don't you think?

Spot the dog TB

Then sadly it was time to head home, not the most found in a day but it did give my GAGB coin a few more miles to add to its total.

On the Easter Bank Holiday Monday we decided to have a look at the Geocache Trails website http://www.geocachetrails.com/ to see what localish caches there were to us. We plumpled for the Lincs Village Runaround Series. We didn't get off to a good start, we couldn't find Number 1! This series was a definate one to do by car, although there was a bit of walking as well.
http://coord.info/GC25QQV During the walking part we did come across one sign that has to be a cachers least favourite sign!

A cachers least favourite sign!

however we did find the rest, except for the bonus, which we will get back to another time. Including the bonus there were 21 caches, so in the day we found 19 of them. Towards the end of the series we had to make a bit of a diversion as this happened to us!

It didn't cause too many problems though as we just parked the Jeep up and walked through, the cache was just over the other side of the roadworks.

 It certainly was a nice day for it and gave us a chance to have lunch in one of the village pubs beer gardens. We saw some interesting places, see the pics below. The farmhouse was a sad site and we both wished we had the money to buy somewhere like that and buy it. It would make a wonderful B&B.

We would have loved to have an explore around the buildings but thought that we better hadn't, given the security sign on the gate!




It was nice to be able to park up though and do a few of the caches on foot.

Another cache in the series was found just near this old coalyard so we took a pic of another little old building and the sign just nearby.

We also managed to fit in a couple more of the Skeg To Ness series as well. We went for a third, but the young and vicious nettles beat us.








SOME FACTS & FIGURES

I thought I would finish this edition of the blog with a couple of facts and figures from me.
Firstly, my most visited cache, this one hasn't really been out for that long but has the most visits, perhaps not surprising really as it is in the city centre. Beggar's Belief http://coord.info/GC2JDG0 last found two days ago is currently at 139 finds.
My furthest travelled TB is called Little Soldier, it has currently travelled 21,113 miles and is in Maine, USA at the time of blogging.

My furthest travelled geocoin is my Earthday coin which has travelled a distance of 14,485 miles, this one is in Austria at the moment. It spent quite a lot of time in Malaysia.

The cache which causes people to stop and think a while is my Kegworth ~ 1989 cache http://coord.info/GC267FP and the cache which causes most frustration is my CCP ~ Two Bridges cache http://coord.info/GC22EF1 which stands at 44 DNF's on it. The cache that hasn't been visited for the longest is Babbling http://coord.info/GC1N3PC which had its last logged visit on January 24th this year!

Including events that I have run I have now placed 99 caches, this includes two camping events, one archived, one still to do, the recent Flash Mob and another event. Currently still active I have 76 caches.
That's it, another bank holiday weekend, don't know where it will take us, but I do know that we are off to Wales next week for a few days and the GPS is already loaded. Have another great bank holiday folks.
Happy caching.

Maintenance

Maintenance

Wemnog and I have had a busy week, we have been to Birmingham (twice) Stockport and Aberystwyth. We have been working repossessing cars and building plant. Sadly, due to the nature of the work we haven't had any time for caching in any of those locations, sad or what?

In between times I have performed maintenance on a couple of my caches, one when was visiting my son Cameron up in the Peak District. This cache RubyCam Cache has one of the best views of any of my caches http://coord.info/GC1M8G9 I placed this cache in January 2009 and although not visited as often as I would have thought is popular with visitors. Having said that I am surprised that this one has no favourite votes on it. Here are a couple of views from ground zero.



View from GC1M8G9 RubyCam Cache

As you can see, two of these scenes were shot a while ago, both at different times during the winter. The town in the background of the middle photograph is New Mills. This is the town where I was born and my kids still live.

New Mills in the background

There are some good caches in the area, so if you are ever in this part of the Peak District do have a look for them.
These caches aren't too far from where the Summer's End 2011 camp will be held in September.

The second cache that I have had to do maintenance on this week was another old favourite that gets lots of visits, Meg & Rum's Wet Run. This one http://coord.info/GC1WPCT has so far had 92 logged visits since being placed in August 2009.
It only needed a new logbook, but seeing that the dogs needed a walk I was able to get there as soon as a full log book was reported and replace it. Whilst at both of these caches I swapped some trackables as well.

Wemnog and I have just started discussing the idea of walking the full length of the Pennine Way next year. Of course a lot of preparation will have to go in to this, including getting ourselves fitter and losing a bit of weight as well. I will definately have to check out what caches there are along the way.
The weather today is bright, warm and sunny, so hopefully this afternoon we will get out and do a bit of caching.
Until next time, have a good week.

Just Like Buses ~ Geocoins

Just Like Buses

What do they say about buses? You can wait for ages for one and then two come along at once. Well today it is the same with the blog. No update for three weeks and then two within a few days.

I had to go and replace my Kegworth ~ 1989 cache which went missing a while back. http://coord.info/GC267FP The cache overlooks the M1 motorway where the tragic plane crash happened back in 1989. For those of you who don't remember, a plane was coming in to land at East Midlands Airport and missed the runway, hitting the embankment of the M1. There is a memorial plaque just near to where I have the cache. It went missing a while back but I decided to replace rather than archive as it does take people there who can spend a little time contemplating how fragile life is.
Having replaced the cache we couldn't resist doing just a little bit of caching. Only three, but fun all the same. The first one had been a puzzle cache that had eluded us for a while. By caching colleagues Baira and Darkfonz and called Catchphrase, we did resort to asking for a little help. Once we had FINALLY solved the puzzle we soon had the coords and located the cache. Funnily enough the container is one that I know as I had recently bought a similar one myself.  Info on Catchphrase can be found here http://coord.info/GC2PQ80
Then on to another couple, Blog Standard - She Went Of Her Own Accord http://coord.info/GC16894 we thought this one was going to elude us as the light was fading and the undergrowth had obviously grown since the cache was originally placed. We got it in the end though. Finally we found The Old Post Office http://coord.info/GC2DH1A a nice simple drive by. I remember the building being the Post Office not too far back. Another one that sadly bit the dust. So there you are, just three caches and a cache replacement. Now I want to talk a bit more about.............

Geocoins

I think that I have a bit of an addiction when it comes to geocoins and travel bugs. I can't resist picking them up to move on, if I see a cache that flags up as having a trackable in, I have to go for it.
There is nothing more frustrating though than when a listing says that it has something in, only to go and find that it isn't in the cache, and quite often hasn't been for some time. It is one of my bugbears that fellow cachers don't log that they have either picked up, dropped off or not found a trackable in a cache. It isn't rocket science. Not only would it let cache owners (and more importantly) TB/coin owners know that their trackable is missing or moving but it would keep mileage for them, which is important spot on.
Another major bugbear of mine is when someone picks up one of my coins or TB's and then holds on to it for months. My longest that someone has had at the moment is 15 months!!! Despite numerous emails they haven't bothered replying to me. Now I know what you are thinking, maybe they don't cache any more. Not the case though, I checked their profile and they last logged in to GC only three days ago.

I am seriously thinking of starting a name and shame page on Facebook that people can add to when a cacher keeps hold of trackables for longer than is necessary. I feel guilty if I have hold of one for more than a fortnight. I would love to hear your thoughts on naming and shaming.

Having said that, I have been chasing up long term keepers of coins and have had numerous apologies, and in the last week 8 of my trackables that have been with people for more than 3 months have now moved.

On a brighter note I have just been looking at my own stats pages and note that I have now found and moved a total of 266 coins and TB's. I also own 50 trackables which are either travelling or missing in action. Of the trackables that I have picked up 138 have been TB's and the coin that I have picked up most, totalling 6 times have been the Trakabulldogs tags.
The Garmin coins, Big Ben, Stonehenge, Clifton Suspension Bridge and London Eye come in a close second with 3 finds/moves on each of them.
I am thinking of putting some of my own trackables up for adoption, 50 is far too many really, so if anyone is interested, let me know.

At the moment in my possession and waiting to move on I have two Mega Coins, one celebrating last years Scottish Mega

Scottish Mega Coin

This coin belongs to Captain Gore-Tex and currently doesn't have a mission. It is a beautifully detailed coin and is a nice weight. Not sure where I am moving it to yet, but it is due for a move shortly. This coin can be referenced by searching TB39QEM

The other mega coin that I recently picked up belongs to mumzoid970, not a name that I have seen before. Another nice design this one was given to the cacher by her family for her birthday. She would like it to be back in Oxford for her next birthday, March 2012, this coin can be referenced TB3Z878

Mumzoid970's Miner's Lamp Birthday Coin

At the moment I also have hold of Bully, a strange name for this TB. I never could resist picking up a Vdub camper van TB. Bully originates from Germany and his mission is to visit nice places, just what every campervan owner wants and craves. This TB can be referenced TB2B07F




Last, but not least I have bootifullyred's Blackpool Tower Geocoin. When I saw this coin listed in a cache I assumed for some reason that it would be in the shape of Blackpool Tower, but I was wrong. This is another nicely detailed coin that the owner has no goal for. Referenced TB1PPV4 this coin has currently travelled 431 miles.

Blackpool Tower Coin

When I pick a trackable up I dip it in to my home cache The TARDIS http://coord.info/GC1WGEQ to keep mileage accurate, especially if I am not planning on placing it in to a local to home cache.

I still don't know what to do about having a new coin made, the ideas have now changed, maybe a new Jeep coin, from a photo of my own Jeep, or a St. Christopher. Being the patron saint of travellers I do think this might be an appropriate one to have made.

Let me know your thoughts on the comments section, not only on which coin I should go for, but also on my name and shame Facebook idea.

Until next time.........................H A P P Y  C A C H I N G

What's Been Happening (or not)

Once again caching has taken a back seat due to the amount of work that we have been doing. We have been travelling up and down the country, not only remapping, but also doing some car (and coach) reposessions. It helps to keep the wolf from the door.
Even when we have been travelling around, we haven't had time to cache. On the one occasion that we were going to do a couple the GPS failed on us. A first for the Oregon, once we got home we had to delete all the files and start again from scratch.

The good news is that I have now passed the 700 caches mark. Only just though as of now I stand at 705, I have got some work to do if I am to reach 1000 by Christmas.

My 700th cache was this one ~ Lady Jane http://coord.info/GC1EZJY down in Eastbourne at the marina there. Not exactly a spectacular cache, but the view of the few million pounds worth of watercraft was worth a look, followed by a nice strong coffee sat outside a marina coffee shop watching the world go by for half an hour.

Eastbourne Marina ~ view from Lady Jane cache

It was only a flying visit to Eastbourne to remap a car and then off home again. The motorhome is off the road until the beginning of next month when it will be taxed and then we hope to have a few days break at Shell Island in Wales, or maybe take the boats up to the Lake District.

Off the road until May

I am really pleased that the blog is getting a good following and has now passed the 3000 views mark. I hope that the viewings continue and that I people continue to enjoy reading about our adventures (even if they are few and far between sometimes)

In other news

I have been chasing up cachers (again) who have had hold of my trackables for far too long and this time I am pleased to say it has been fruitful. Out of the 10 people that I contacted who have had hold of either TB's or geocoins for more than 3 months, 8 have now got round to moving them on. Maybe the good weather has helped.

In the Great Travel Bug Knockout race my TB Knockout Ferrari has just been picked up again by a new cacher ~  Anothercell, over in the good old US of A, California in fact. They say that they hope to move it on a fair way, so I wonder where it will drive to next? So far in the race it is in 2nd place, having travelled 5729 miles since I set it free in this cache Woodland Wander #3 http://coord.info/GC2DKTZ just outside Barrow In Furness. It still has a way to go though to pass the current leader ~ BraveHeart which is currently in New Zealand having travelled a total of 11,942 miles. Luckily it didn't get caught up in the recent tragic earthquake. If you want to follow the race you can find it at http://www.travelbugknockout.blogspot.com/

I have sadly resigned at a committee member of the GAGB due again to work committments and the fact that I am unable to give enough time to the committee. I felt it unfair to be a member yet not be able to give 100% committment. I will still be on the forums as time allows but unfortunately at this time some things had to give and this one has had to go by the wayside.

Time or no time doesn't mean that I won't still be ready for the Summer's End event in September. Some cachers have already booked in at the campsite which is good news. It remains to be seen if it tops last years amazing turnout. I went up to the site the other day for a look round and I had forgotten just what amazing views there are from the site.

The next cache that I place will be my 100th placement. Maybe that will be the time to say enough is enough and not even think about placing any more for a while, there again, I do like to place them for people to find. We'll see.

Anyway, must go, sorry it has been a while. Don't forget to follow some of the other blogs, Fermi's (link at the top of the blog) is an interesting read.

Take care and back soon.

A Quick Trip To Bristol

Amazing I hear you cry, he is actually updating the blog within a week!

We were supposed to be going to Yarmouth for my birthday but had to cancel for one reason and another. Saturday came and we were just beginning to plan what to do for my birthday instead. Then the phone rang and someone wanted to book us in for a remap on their Smart car down in Bristol.
We decided to pack the van up and go down on the Saturday evening and then do the car on Sunday. We planned to park up somewhere in Bristol for the night. However as ever, our plans are always pretty fluid. We ended up stopping off for some chips at a nice chippy we know in Tewkesbury. Then plans changed again and we parked up at the car park just near Tewkesbury Abbey. We stayed there overnight and then in the morning headed off to complete the journey. As we arrived earlier than expected we decided to do a bit of caching. The first cache wasn't anything that special but gave me a chance to offload some trackables that I had had for far too long. The cache was called One Too Many? http://coord.info/GC1XFE2 and was at the site of an old home for innebriates.

Still having a bit of time left we found a virtual cache to do. Blaise Hamlet http://coord.info/GCF143 is an old established virtual and has been up and running since 2003. This one soon earned a favourite point. I can't really describe the place, I don't know whether we entered a fairy tale village or something from the hobbit. The pictures below really don't do it justice and all I can say is that if you are ever in the Bristol area, do go and visit this one.

The houses are still lived in and I have to say that it takes a lot for me to say I'd like to live somewhere, but I could quite easily live here.

The final cache of the day was on the way home. This has been on my watch list for a while and on the GPS for just as long, Bunker R http://coord.info/GC2HRAP I can't for the life of me think why it was on my watch list or why I had been so determined to do it at some point.  I picked up a trackable here, not one that I have seen before, called My Trackable Two Cents, attached to a bee which was probably a sign as at the moment we are on a bee keeping course. We hope to get some bees within the next couple of months.

That's it then, a bit of caching that wasn't planned but turned out to be good fun.

I am now 4 off my 700th, wonder if I will have it by the time I add to the blog next week?

A Winter's & Summer's End

I am sorry to say that for a lot of reasons over the last few weeks I haven't been caching. Not for the want of trying, it is just that other things took over.

Even this weekend, we were supposed to be going to Great Yarmouth for my birthday, the hotel was booked, the GPS loaded with caches, but circumstances have again taken over, so yet again, it is a birthday at home.

On a brighter note we held the Winter's End Flash Mob last Sunday, and what a brilliant day it was. The sun was shining, the car park of the shopping area absolutely full so all was set for us to see some bemused faces..............and boy did we!

At the stroke of 12.00 people gathered at the designated area and milled around, having a natter to each other and the at 12.10 the whistle blew and most people donned christmas hats, or tinsel, or both and started singing Jingle Bells. Once the song was finished people began to drift away, or stayed to have a natter.
There were certainly some strange looks from members of the public who didn't have a clue what was going on. Northking very kindly set some new caches for the event as well.

The turnout couldn't have been better, and I am genuinely thrilled with how many people turned up to support such a daft event. The photos below of the Flash Mob have kindly been given to me by the marriot hunters who emailed me to them a couple of days ago.
There have been some very funny logs that have been enjoyable to read as well, if you want to look you can find them here http://coord.info/GC2MWZC

A great way to say goodbye to winter

If you get a chance to either run or attend a Flash Mob, I thoroughly recommend it, and needless to say, I am already thinking of what to do for the next one.

Summer's End Camping Event 2011

Following on from the Winter's End, it was time to go about getting this year's Summer's End Camping Event published. It is again being held in the Peak District, but at a different campsite, this time one with hot water!!!!
For anyone interested, the details can be found here http://coord.info/GC2PYFR
If it is half as much fun as last years we should have a good time. The site is a lot smaller this year, so anyone wanting to attend will have to get it booked up pretty quickly.

Well that's it, short but sweet. Hopefully next time I will actually be able to tell you about some caching that we have done, it has been quite a while now and annoyingly I have been so close to getting my 700th cache for what seems like forever.

Happy caching.

Another Lull, A Special Offer and a New Website

Another Lull

Last time I posted I promised some photographs of the old airfield that we were going to go caching to. We arrived and parked up the campervan just as it went dark. Then we found out that the leisure battery hadn't charged properly so we had no lights and no pump for the water. Lights we could have done without as we had torches, but the thought of going overnight without a cuppa was too much, so sadly we headed home.

Since then there has been a lull in our caching adventures due to work committments, so sadly not much to report at the moment. So a bit of a blank page this time as far as photos are concerned. So far we don't have much work on this week, so we should hopefully get out and about and get some of the newer caches that have been published.

A Special Offer

My birthday is fast approaching, 13th March, so I have decided to give my blog readers a special present from me. Up until my birthday I can offer the UK Map coin at a cost of £8.00 + p&p
This is a saving of £2 off the Ebay listing price. If you want one, contact me directly daryl@jacaru.co.uk and I can sort it out for you. Payment will have to be by PayPal.

UK Coin A Special Offer for Blog Readers

This coin is proving to be popular amongst my regular customers and has also sold well in Australia and the US.

Whilst I am talking about coins I have finally made up my mind about what the next coin is going to be. It is going to be the old favourite the Border Collie coin. The same design but new colours for this year. For those of you who don't know, the original was blue and yellow, which represented the collie on a beach with the sky at the top. That came out in 2009 and sold out within a matter of months. The 2010 version had the same colour, but the background colours were blue and green, again to represent the sky and this time the collie was running on grass. I am not exactly sure of the colours for this year yet, but I have had so many requests for a new version that I don't want to let people down.

Other ideas that I had had for my next coin were an anniversary coin representing 80 years of the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout, more information here http://kindertrespass.com/ which directly helped to open up access for people throughout the country. I had thought about this coin for two reasons, firstly because of the fact mentioned above, but also because I was born in Hayfield where the trespass began and spent a lot of time on Kinder Scout in my earlier years. However, I have decided not to go with this as I am not sure how popular it would be. Having said that, I would welcome your comments on what you think.
Another design that I had in mind was a simple coin showing the Olympic rings. Seeing that we are hosting the Olympics next year I had given this one serious thought, however I am pretty sure that other manufacturers will be thinking along the same lines.
My last idea had been to have a 100th anniversary coin of the sinking of the Titanic. The Titanic holds a special interest for me, I have always been fascinated by the story and from being four years old I have always said that I was on the ship. I used to describe to my parents how I was a 34 year old man, wearing a uniform and that I had a beard, I was in a lifeboat but then drowned. Weird I know, but it has been something that I have said since being that age. Maybe I should have some regresssion hypnosis.
All these would have been annivesary coins for next year but aren't now on the cards from me.

In other news, my GAGB coin that is travelling around caches with me has so far done 1248 miles. My Knockout Ferrari has done 5378 miles and is currently in this cache http://coord.info/GC142VN in California. To keep following this knockout race have a look at http://travelbugknockout.blogspot.com/

A New Website

A new website popped up last week which I think is going to prove very popular with geocachers in this country and is well worth a look. It is called geocache tourist and can be found at http://www.geocachetourist.com/ It is hoping to get a comprehensive view of areas of the country where some decent caches can be found. The information will be written by local people for tourists visiting the area. Maybe you can contribute.

The weekend seems like a while off at the moment but now the leisure battery is fixed and we have a free weekend, we should be off in the van, I was going to say weather permitting, but that hasn't stopped us before.

Not sure what you think of this, but I am all for it, the government are looking at the possibility of  British summertime going forward by two hours. This would mean darker mornings for us, but think of all that extra light in an evening when we can cache for longer! Go for it I say.

Have a good week, hope you get some caching done and that the weather warms up for us all.

Chirps, Caches, Seeker and London Again



 Hello again and welcome to the latest update on the blog.

Chirps

The week started with a notification that a chirp cache had been published. We had only just updated our GPS in order that we could locate Chirps so were more than happy to go and search for this local one http://coord.info/GC2N16D As you have gathered this is the first of this type of cache that we have found. Not sure how the much they are going to take off as they are only compatible with Garmin devices at the moment, but we'll see.

I already have a Chirp here on my desk which will be going out within the next few weeks, once I have found a suitable location for it.

Caches

So what have we found cache wise this week. Well as I have said it has been a quiet week for us with just 5 caches found. The previously mentioned Chirp cache was the first, followed by Call of Duty 4 http://coord.info/GC1ZRF6 here in Nottingham, Metal Monster http://coord.info/GC235ZF over in Flint, North Wales and then Warrington Parks 1: Queens Gardens http://coord.info/GC1GR1P and Golden Gates http://coord.info/GC29GPX both in Warrington.

Golden Gates ~ Warrington

Golden Gates got a favourite vote from me, basically because it is one of those where if you look at the cache page for long enough, you will find the final location of the cache. Enough said, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.

On my personal cache front, there are a few new ones to tell you about. My Flash Mob which I think I mentioned before is called Winter's End Flash Mob http://coord.info/GC2MWZC which takes place on March 6th. Hope everyone who attends that is going to be in good voice.

The other new caches of mine are a tradional (multi). I had to call it a multi for the reviewer, even though the final is hardly any distance at all from the first part. That one is called Leslie Phillips http://coord.info/GC2MWHV This hasn't had that many visitors as of yet, but I am pleased to say that most people who have found it have enjoyed it and it has already got 4 favourite votes on it.

I have also put out three puzzle caches in the last few weeks, the first being Top Of The Pops http://coord.info/GC2MKKA, the second which I have to admit is a difficult one is Values http://coord.info/GC2MT9X, this one is staying low on the radar at the moment, people either aren't attempting to solve it, or are attempting it but not getting very far and failing to contact me for extra help. The final puzzle cache that I have put out is called Moor's Knot http://coord.info/GC2N8KH in order for people to find this cache they need a paperback version of the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

Things must be improving for cachers, both weather wise and time wise as both my CW and CCP series have been well visited over the last weekend.

Seeker

For those people who aren't members of the Geocaching Association of Great Britain (GAGB) I thought I would tell you that we now have a new bi monthly newsletter. Called SEEKER it is full of up to date information, not only of what is happening in the GAGB, but also news, interviews and reviews. Well worth a read, the first edition has an interview with Collin French who runs the UK Geocaching podcast. Again, if you haven't listened to that it is also worth a listen to. You can find the GAGB at http://www.gagb.org.uk/ and the podcast at http://www.ukgcpodcast.com/

Other good news for members of the GAGB this month is that we have managed to secure a 15% discount from the outdoor shop Blacks. To apply for the discount card all you have to do is become a member and even better news, membership is free.

Whilst on with GAGB news, the 2011 mileage challenge is doing well, with over 40 people now participating, as I type this, my own coin has now covered 1088 miles.

My own GAGB mileage coin

I am currently planning on how to follow this on next year and have some ideas which I still need to put forward, however, I do know the coin that I will be using and it is this one.

My Jeep 2012 Mileage Coin



Why this coin, two reasons, I like Jeeps, and I drive a couple of blue ones as well.

Wemog's 2012 Landy Coin

Keith (Wemnog) doesn't know it yet, but he will be using this coin, for similar reasons, he likes Land Rovers, although he doesn't drive one, he used to. This is going to be one of his Christmas presents this year! Talk about planning ahead. 

London Again

Just a couple of things that I forgot to mention about London in last weeks blog.
Firstly, our 550t performed really well, even with all the tall buildings around, it didn't seem to confuse it at all. We even used it for finding all sorts of other things, such as museums, where the nearest tube station was and even where the nearest Tesco's was. This leads me on to the second point. If you are thinking of having a cheap day out in the capital, you really can. Don't drive all the way in to the centre of the city. Do as we usually do, drive to Watford, park up there and then get the tube in. It is a lot cheaper than parking in the centre, and you will miss out on paying the congestion charge as well. Secondly, you can eat really cheaply while you are there, all we did was find a Tesco Metro, buy a couple of warm pasties and ate them on the hoof, no need at all to pay extortianate cafe prices. You can even get a cuppa from most of the Tesco shops down there.

My Geocoin Collection

Over the last couple of years I have collected a fair few geocoins, they haven't been activated and are still in mint condition. I have decided that I am going to sell them on Ebay shortly. Why? Because they just sit here in a box, not really doing anything and by selling them I can raise funds to have the next coin made. There are some nice ones in the collection, some of which have long since sold out, so if you are interested, keep an eye on the Ebay page over the next few weeks.

Finally

We are going away this weekend in the van. Not far, just going to park up overnight and do some caching in the day. We know where we are going and we are looking forward to it, fingers crossed for decent weather. We plan to go caching around an old WW2 aerodrome and forest. From reading some stuff about our destination, it has been used in the past for filming Dr. Who and Torchwood. There should be some good photos to be had. I'll be telling you about it next week and posting some photos I am sure.

So have a good week, hope you get some caching done.

Priscilla, Parakeets and a A Quick Flash

Priscilla

As I said in the last blog we were going to be in London over the weekend. Prior to that we didn't do any caching in the days leading up to it.
We actually went to London to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. Have to say, that I couldn't get in to the film at all, so wasn't sure that I was going to enjoy the show, but I did. I would recommend it for anyone to go and see, lots of great music and very funny.

Anyway, on to the serious stuff ~ caching. We started off with an Earthcache, we are very lazy when it comes to doing these, we still have one local to us in Nottingham to do. Anyway this is the one that we did, just near Trafalgar Square http://coord.info/GC285PA You never think of statues having extra history attached to them, apart from who the statue is about.

Then on to do more caching in the area. As you can imagine being in the capital it is difficult to hide anything more than a nano or micro, but we certainly visited some different areas that we wouldn't normally see, thanks again to geocaching.

A couple of the memorable caches that we found were Reflections of Neal's Yard http://coord.info/GC2AYKM, a difficult area to grab the cache from. As we were writing the log a few flakes of snow actually fell as well.


Signing the log at Reflections

Then we went on and found  The Tin Pan Alley Band http://coord.info/GC2C1NN I like this kind of cache having found something similar in North Wales last year. It is another of those caches that is right in front of you, making it virtually invisible. I am still searching for the right area around Nottingham to put one out similar. This one got an immediate favourite vote from me.



Tin Pan alley, I signed up to play ukelele

We found our first ever virtual cache as well whilst in town http://coord.info/GC56E5 We have since been allowed the find after submitting the correct information.


As I said before it is difficult to hide larger caches, but even in one of the magnetic micro's we found a TB that had just arrived the same day from Portugal. That is now in the caching bag waiting to move on.
We couldn't have chosen a worse day to be in London really as far as police presence went. There was a planned demonstration regarding the student cuts and there were police everywhere. We found a cache called Where Are All The Apples http://coord.info/GC1JYMY As we retrieved the cache a police van parked up beside us and the occupants were watching us with interest. Then Wemnog dropped the container and it rolled under the police van! He had to tap on the window and ask them to move their van whilst we got it back. Needless to say we then had to explain what we were doing, much to the amusement of the occupants. I guess it didn't help that this particular cache was just around the corner from New Scotland Yard. We don't do things easily!

All in all we did 11 caches on Saturday, not as many as we hoped, but it was a cold day and Costa's kept calling us.

Parakeets

On Sunday we planned on visiting our colleagues at Red Dot Racing in Enfield before going on to Hampstead Heath. As we were going to be a little early in Enfield I loaded three caches on to the GPS to do there. All very easy finds, one Sidetracked and two on the River Lee. I managed to drop a new TB off in one of the river caches http://coord.info/GC24GKE The TB has been released by Pinfold and is being watched by some of his pupils, this one is a jellyfish called Jellybelly TB3M41Q, seeing that it is water related it seemed an appropriate place to drop it off.

River Lee ~ Ponders End

Once we had finished with Red Dot we carried on to Hampstead Heath. We didn't plan on doing much so ended up doing just two caches. The first one, Hampstead Heath - Ponds View http://coord.info/GC16PA1 I dropped Pinfold's second class TB off, again water related, this one is a crab, and again is being watched by his pupils, Crabbydactyl TB3M41D, hopefully these two TB's will travel far for the kids.

Pond's View

One of the main reasons that we visited the heath was that I had in my possession a TB belonging to our caching friend Angellica. This TB is in the NW/SE TB race and has to visit a number of checkpoint caches during it's travels. The TB had to visit Stinky Hollow http://coord.info/GCF011 This is a fairly old cache having been running since 2003.



Stinky Hollow, placing Angellica's TB


That was the final cache of the day for us. We actually had lunch sat at GZ and were quite amazed at the number of parkeet's that were flying around and calling. We knew that there were some on the heath, but it seemed that there were literally hundreds around.















On Monday we did a little bit of caching, only 3 on the way back home, one, Peering Over Lord Archer was good, partly because I actually enjoy reading his books, I especially enjoyed reading his prison diaries. http://coord.info/GC189FJ

Peering Over Lord Archer

All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend, one that we will be repeating later in the year no doubt. We weren't too sure about caching in London, but on reflection it is definately worth doing if you get the chance.

A Quick Flash

No, not something that happened to us in London! I have organised my first flash mob. Not having attended one before either I decided to bite the bullet and organise one for March here in Nottingham. The flash mob is called Winter's End and the cache page can be found here http://coord.info/GC2MWZC Basically, for anyone who doesn't know, a flash mob is a 15 minute event and they can take any shape or form. Winter's End will consist of people turning up, donning a christmas hat, singing Jingle Bell's and then disappearing. Hopefully it will be well attended and people will enjoy it. I already have some strange ideas for future ones if this first event goes well.

Finally

I have the campsite booked for the Summer's End event in September and it will hopefully, again, be as well attended as last years. It is being held in the Peak District again, from September 2nd - 4th. A different location this time, a little less basic, this time we have showers! There isn't a GC number yet as it can't be published until 6 months prior to the event. I will therefore have a GC number on March 2nd or 3rd.
Another week over, and another caching week to look forward to, so have a good time, and I hope you get some caching done too.

Drought, The GAGB News, New In The Shop and New Caches

Drought

Somewhat of a caching drought again this week for Wemnog and myself. What started off as a good idea of trying to get one cache a day didn't quite work out and over the last few days we have only found two. The two found were local caches and both drive by's. You Cannot Be Serious, http://coord.info/GC2GCHK as you may imagine from the title this one was near a tennis court.

The second and final cache of the week was another Northking cache, this time, http://coord.info/GC2FPAK one of the nationwide A Road Anarchy series, as you can probably imagine though, this, being a Northking cache, was situated a little differently.

The reason for the drought this last few days has been purely ill health. Neither of us has felt on top of the world and it is only today that we are feeling 95% well. We are going to have to be well by Friday though as we are off down to London to see Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. Naturally, there are already some London caches loaded on to the GPS for the Saturday. Last year when down there with work we did a few caches on Hampstead Heath, as we are staying for the weekend we plan on doing some more on the heath on the Sunday so some of those are loaded on as well. We have one particular target for a heath cache and that is this one Stinky Hollow http://coord.info/GCF011 The reason that we want to get to this one is that it is one of the checkpoint caches for the NW/SE Travelbug Race this year, you can see more here http://www.jeremy-r.com/geocaching/tbrace11/ Our caching friend Angellica has a TB in the race and she started its travels in our home cache The TARDIS http://www.jeremy-r.com/geocaching/tbrace11/ and seeing that we are going to be near a checkpoint, it only seemed right to drop it off.

Hopefully, by the time we get back after next weekend there will be lots of fresh caches to tell you about.

GAGB News
A new chatroom for members of the GAGB was set up recently and is becoming a popular place to frequent, you can find it here http://www.chatzy.com/369171531960 It is free to join in and if you have a few minutes to spare a great place to go and have a natter with fellow cachers from around the UK.
We have just taken delivery of a new GAGB banner which you will be seeing out and about at events over the next few months, it will definately be at the Welsh Mega http://www.megawales.co.uk/ Keep an eye out for it and see what is occuring on the GAGB stand. The banner is trackable as well, so will be another one to add to your collection.

The all new GAGB newsletter will be online for members as well in the next few weeks. It is just in the process of being proof read. I have been lucky enough to see the close to final draft and all I can say is that I think our members will be really pleased with it. If you aren't already a member of the GAGB have a look at us and see what you think http://www.gagb.org.uk/

New In The Shop

A while ago I did say that I would let blog readers know what was going to be in the Ebay shop before anyone else.  As I haven't had anything new for a while this really didn't work.
However, I can now tell you about some newish and new things that are going to be in, if they aren't already.
Firstly we have been producing self inking rubber stamps for a few years now. Up until recently we haven't had stamps that we considered small enough for geocachers to carry around with them. Now we do. Good for 10,000 impressions and small enough to keep in you caching bag, us two are already using them.
We also have personalised keyrings in, basically, you tell us what you want on the keyring and we will make them up for you. Ideal for dropping in caches that you are going to add a favourite point to or just to have you caching name on. I drop them in to caches with the blog address on.

Sadly, I only have one First To Find card game to put in the shop. I am hoping that some more will be in stock shortly. This is a fun game, I played it myself over Christmas and was quite impressed with it. The object of the game, which is for two to four people to play is to geocache through the seasons, whilst coming up against obstacles.

I am awaiting delivery of a small batch of Gladiator coins as well. These have been on order for a while and this week I had confirmation that they should be here within a few days. These are lovely coins and I am impressed with them, what do you think?

New Caches

There have been some new caches published over the last few days, one on the hit list that we are still working on. I know this name crops up a lot in the blog, but I'd just like to say thanks Northking for the additional headache given to us whilst feeling ill. We have spent a few hours staring at the screen to try and get this one http://coord.info/GC2MEQA Capital Search 2. Now we did CS 1 pretty quickly, but this one is frustrating us. As I said, as much as anything I blame being ill!

Puzzles do seem to be taking the lead around this area of the country at the moment, a few people are putting them out. Not being able to resist, I have put one out myself Top Of The Pops http://coord.info/GC2MKKA not as detailed as some of the puzzles out there, this just takes a bit of pop knowledge and a bit of googling.
I do have another puzzle raring to go, it has been approved by the reviewers, I'm not putting it out just now though as it will be in the same area as another fun cache that is in the final stages of preparation. Hopefully people will enjoy them both, more news on those once they are published. I am also considering sorting out a Flash Mob with a difference, after seeing one that is happening in London. I contacted the people organising that one and asked whether they would be happy for me to copy their idea. There were more than happy to agree, so that one is on the cards.

Finally

That's it for this week, I'm sorry that there aren't more photos for you to look at, next week, after London should be a lot more entertaining. Most of the caches that I have put on to the GPS for us to do contain a warning about the police, so I wonder whether we will get stopped at any point. Knowing us two, yes we will!

The blog will be slightly later next week as we aren't home until Monday evening. Have a good week, try not to catch the lurghi and happy caching.

18 ~ New Caches and A Brand New Favourite and Finally

18


We have been lucky during the last week and managed to find another 18 caches, with DNF's on a further three.

There has been a real mixture of caches some run of the mill and some different ones as well.
The first cache since the last blog was this one http://coord.info/GC26281 A cache that had been borrowed from one that I had put out some months before. It was good of the cache owner to acknowledge this. Just near to ground zero was a very interesting (and rare) shoe tree with some strange coloured fruit growing on it!

Strange fruit tree

The next memorable cache of the week turned out to be a real treasure chest, full of money from different countries of the world. Called Funny Money http://coord.info/GC1VWQR we located the cache right away and it didn't take me many seconds to nominate Wemnog to retrieve the cache!

Caching continued throughout the week, between Nottingham and Warrington, there was one very memorable cache that we did, but more of that later. When we were in Warrington we did some more of the Woolston Cut series that we had started the week previously. http://coord.info/GC1M9DW was one of the caches.
Heading back home today we did a couple of Motorway Mayhems ~ South and Northbound at Sandbach Services, both simple micros that didn't take too much to locate. I worry more about all the security cameras around when doing these caches than anything else. The last one of the week was just as we were heading home. Christian's Box was another quick find and we took the opportunity to pick up a TB and drop another trackable off. I hadn't seen the name of the owner before, they have another couple of caches out, so no doubt we will be doing those shortly. http://coord.info/GC2FAXN

New Caches

Plans are afoot to get some new caches out in the next couple of weeks. I am not a great fan of puzzle caches but an idea popped in to my head the other night when I was trying to get to sleep. It is very simple compared to some of the puzzles that are doing the rounds at the moment, but I hope that people will enjoy it. Hopefully I will be putting the cache in place tomorrow and then sending it for review. We have also been working on another cache and that is now half completed, not a puzzle this time but a multi, that should be ready within the next month or so, dependent on finding a suitable location for it.

A Brand New Favourite

I mentioned earlier that there was a really memorable cache that we did this week. It is a puzzle cache and as I mentioned we aren't great fans of them but this was a challenge and very very enjoyable, though starting it at 11.00pm probably wasn't the best thing to do, although we did have the coordinates in an hour! All I am going to say about it is look at this http://www.360cities.net/london-photo-en.html and look at this http://coord.info/GC2MA73 and makes up. It has become my personal brand new favourite and I can't wait to read your comments on it on this blog. As I say we had the coords done in an hour and then went to retrieve the cache the next day and as usual the coords were spot on.

Finally

My home cache The TARDIS has had a couple of visits this week, so the trackables have been retrieved ready to transport to another time/space.

My GAGB coin has up until tonight now covered 552 miles, I wonder how many more by this time next week, that largely depends on work of course.

I spent another good hour this week emailing people to try and prompt them in to moving trackables on that they have had hold of for more than a short time. A couple of people have replied, but the majority have just not bothered. I am seriously considering not sending more coins out travelling but just laminating copies of them and attaching the name tags that you can get for dogs to them that we have engraved the tracking number on. It really frustrates me that people can't play the game in the good spirit in which it is meant to be played.

We met up with Warrington Forum cacher Andy, part of The Walker Clan last night, he has actually set up the Warrington Forum http://www.warringtoncachers.co.uk/ and he made us feel very welcome. It is good to forge links with cachers from different areas and get to trade ideas and information. One of the most bizarre things that he told us about was a cache that Deceagni had told him about. Have a look at this one! http://coord.info/GCTA5E Not sure it is one that I would fancy doing if I ever get to America.

That's it, have a good week, and happy caching.

Normal Service Resumed Events and Mileage

Back To Normal


Well we are finally back to normal now, christmas and new year are over. So I can get sorted with doing the blog on a regular basis on a Monday.

Firstly today, I am going to start with a joke....

Q How many people with ADHD does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. Can we go for a bike ride?

Not the best joke in the world,  but thanks to the person who sent it to me (you know who you are)

The reason I was sent this joke is because Wemnog and I have had the maps out and planning where we are going to go caching this year. Once we have located possible areas one of the first questions has been....Can we take the bikes? One of our caching buddies heard this joke and thought of us.

I am really in to cycling at the moment so whilst planning our trips this year I have been using the services of http://www.geocachetrails.com/ there is a link at the top of the blog. We have found this site really useful in the past and now trails and circulars that may be bike friendly have been added.

There has been so much going on again over the last few days that caching hasn't been at the forefront. We have only done five caches since the last post. None of them have been that outstanding and haven't exactly been photogenic, so sorry folks, but no pics this week. The best of the bunch though was up in Warrington  ~ Woolston New Cut Series 1 , Round The Bend http://coord.info/GC1M99A We were only able to do this one as we were heading back home to Nottingham as we needed to be back before dark to get the hens away. We will be back up there shortly though to complete the series.

EVENTS

We have said that we will attend some events this year, with 4 in the diary for a start. The first one is in a couple of weeks time Let's Go Public http://coord.info/GC2M0FC followed by Spring Madness which is being organised by one of our friends Staffs Geo http://coord.info/GC2G817
We then head down south at the beginning of May to The Annual South Wales Geocaching Event http://coord.info/GC2KBWH organised by Mushroom Mike who I mentioned in the previous blog. The final event planned so far is A Chough-ing Good Weekend down in Cornwall towards the end of May http://coord.info/GC2HB9P May is going to be a busy month!

GAGB MILEAGE

So far my GAGB coin has covered 302 miles since the beginning of January. You can see the graphs for where coins are up to at http://gagb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3796 It isn't too late to join in. Mileage can be backdated to the 1st January. The last date for entering is Jan 31st so there are still a couple of weeks.

That's it, more news next week and hopefully more caches to report on.

Have a good week.

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope that everyone reading this had a very happy christmas and some enjoyable new years celebrations.

It was certainly busy for us, in the caching sense! Following on from the distinct lack of caching in the last blog just before christmas, since then we have done 42 caches.

Just after I published the last episode Wemnog and I decided to go out and do a relatively new series that was pretty local to us. By svk616g the caches were placed around the old Gedling Colliery site. I have to admit that I have never visited the site before and didn't really know what to expect. It is quite a place. Brilliant for dog walking and cycling. We didn't complete the series on the day and there are still more to do. The weather got the better of us, it was windy, very cold and then the snow started again. The dogs loved it though, as usual.



Dogs enjoying caching in the snow again

The first cache that we did in the series was http://coord.info/GC2KEVA a simple first one of the day. As I said, it was a good series and we will finish them off soon.
It was good to get back in to action again after the lull over the last few weeks.

Then we were off to Wales to spend new year at the Travelodge at St. Clears. We did a couple of nowt too special caches on the way down, including my 600th. I would have liked it to be something a bit more special, but you can't always have what you want.

Then the serious work of caching began. We were both amazed that there actually very few caches in the St. Clears, Saundersfoot and Tenby areas. In fact there are none in Tenby itself! We thought that there would be at least a couple of nano's around. The first one we did in the area was Birthday Boy by Mushroom Mike. http://coord.info/GC1TA3X In fact, over the next few days we got to know his caches pretty well as he seems to be the more prolific of the cachers in the area, thank goodness for him we say!

We did a few more in Saundersfoot, including Muggle Mayhem http://coord.info/GC270JG a very simple cache and dash within a sensory garden. I have a similar one in place here in Nottingham, again in a sensory garden.




Muggle Mayhem ~ Saundersfoot

 Then we went on to Manorbier, this had been the one that I had been planning to do for my 600th. This was one of my favourites of the weekend. Now there is something strange about this one.
I tried to contact the owner to compliment them on the cache, however if you try and email them through their GC profile you come up with some strange things, there is no way of contacting them, they haven't been active since 2005! yet their caches that are active keep going. In fact in this cache there was a new logbook. Most peculiar. As I said this was one of my favourites of the weekend, just choosing which hole should say it all, it almost made it in to a puzzle cache. If you are ever in the area, it is worth doing this one. http://coord.info/GC1BEJP Here are a couple of photos, of the outside and inside.


As the hint says
It's In There Somewhere!




13th Century Manorbier






















So yes, the cache was in one of those holes. glad we had a torch with us as it was quite dark in there, feeling around we came across a fair few spiders webs as well.

At least the few caches that we did were successfully found.

Then it was New Years Day and really time to get caching seriously. Having looked at some maps, we decided to do a few series that were around. Again these caches were mostly by Mushroom Mike, hat's off to him, he has put some serious effort in to his caches and locations.
Firstly though we did some more one off's including Green Castle Woods by Munch Bunch http://coord.info/GC251C1 We arrived at this cache at 9 minutes past 11.00am. We decided to wait for a couple of minutes as it was too irresistable, and stamped the log at 11.11 on the 1 1 11
So that was our first cache of 2011.


11 11 on 1 1 11!

Here is a pic of GZ.

Continuing on we did far too many caches to name individually, but there were certainly a few that received favourite points from me, including Litter Bug http://coord.info/GC1YTP1 a very simple drive by, but with a container that I hadn't seen before.

Litter Bug

The first in the series that we did was called Magic Roundabout http://coord.info/GC259YP most of the caches in these series took me back to my childhood with all the TV themed names. Another cache worth mentioning is this one, only for the fact that I loved the view from GZ http://coord.info/GC252RN

View from Leat 1

We did a whole load of these and then went on to find H2o http://coord.info/GC2624Z This one took a bit of searching for as the tree cover had the GPS all over the place, but once found we managed to retrieve the logbook, without the use of water, but it would have made it more fun.
We had one DNF http://coord.info/GC252RC but I think that was a combination of the cold beginning to get to us again, plus the fact that we were getting cache blind as we had done so many.
The next day we did more caching well only two in fact ~ including two more ingenious caches of Mushroom Mikes, one called Hook Line and Sinker, a variation on a theme, and the other that I am not going to mention here due to the fact that a replica will be making an appearence here in Nottinghamshire in the next few weeks and I know that I do get some local readers so don't want to give too much away.
The reason that we didn't do too much was because the weather was glorious, 3rd January, 2011 we actually spent the afternoon on the beach, we even had sandwiches and a coffee there is was so warm, some folk were even in shorts. Here is the pic to prove it.

So that was it, our New Year's caching adventure was over and it was time to head home. Wonder what the year ahead will bring. My aim is to reach 850 finds by the end of the year, maybe it will be more, maybe it will be less, I will have to wait and see.

EVENTS

There are already a couple of  camping events that I am planning on attending this year, the first one being Spring Madness 2011 http://coord.info/GC2G817 by old caching buddy StaffsGeo. This one is at the end of March, the weather should be warming up then, but we will be ok as we are taking the good old camper van.
The next is The Annual South Wales Geocaching Event, this one is being organised by Mushroom Mike and I am really looking forward to it. http://coord.info/GC2KBWH

May is going to be a busy month as towards the end of it we are attending A Chough-ing Good Weekend, this one is down in Cornwall http://coord.info/GC2HB9P So we will be doing a fair few miles this year.
Sorry to those folks reading who are in the GAGB mileage challenge http://gagb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3715 good job it is only for fun!

I am planning on organising another camping event as well, somewhere in Derbyshire, I have got to visit a campsite over the weekend to have a look and see whether it is suitable or not.

That's it, sorry if I have bored you with such a long one. I will be able to get back in to the habit of blogging again on Mondays now. Until next time, have a good one.