AbsoCachinlutely

Ohio Delorme Challenge

The Ohio Delorme geocache requires a visit to each cache in the Delorme atlas for Ohio but only visits after the cache was placed will count towards the cache find. Once a cache has been found on each page you then get the co-ordinates for the final cache hidden somewhere in Ohio.

With the aid of a KML file, the recent finds pocket query, GSAK and Google earth it is quite easy to work out which pages you need to do.

First download the Ohio Delorme KML file from the main cache page, GCZ554. Next download Google Earth (if you don't already have it already. Finally  you want a .loc file of all your finds since the 2nd of December 2006 when the cache was placed.  The easiest way to do this is to download your latest finds into GSAK, then using the filters set State=Ohio, Found=Yes, Date=On or After 12/2/2006.  I saved the filter as Delorme so I can run this whenever I need to check my status.

In Google earth open the KML file and then open the loc file  to see the caches appear in gridlines for each page. You may want to turn off extra options and layers such as road names, community uploaded content etc. This will give you a cleaner picture.

The picture above shows the gridlines and the picture below shows my found caches so far. I've actually found quite a few other pages but unfortunately they were before the cache was placed so they don't count.

So far I've found pages 45-48,55-59,65 and 67-69

Meanwhile TeamJNLe4 completed all the pages yesterday and now just has to go for the final cache - congrats Jonathan!

Another cache night

Had a great time tonight doing 3 caches, although one was actually a dnf. The cache in question is Tiger Den and I've posted some pictures in the extended entry (as opposed to the cache page) due to the possible spoiler nature - even if the cache is missing, this is well worth going to do.

More pictures are uploaded to the Tiger's Den zooomr set

A cache!

I actually got to go out and do some geocaching this evening as the weather was so nice. Unfortunately I only found one cache, Wyandot Trading Post due to the number of muggles at the other caches I tried to do. However I posted some pictures at flickr and whilst doing this I noticed that the time on the gps was wrong as it hadn't updated automatically. I thought that the gps's got their time from satellites (which I still think they do) but they don't know that Daylight Saving has kicked in. Once I turned it on in the gps the time was correct. I also had to change the time on the camera, but that was because it was set to 8.24am and not 8.24pm which meant the process of geotagging the images was very painful.
I did upgrade my gps by using the Garmin Web Updater which upgraded me 4 versions of firmware - some of the newer garmin gps's have new firmware available.

Newport Kentucky

Kristen and I had the day off so I tried to find a couple of geocaches - but unfortunately one was unreachable as they were doing work on the bridge, and the other one was just hidden too well (or missing).
I did manage to find the virtual peace Bell, but then as its about 30' high it is a bit difficult to not be able to find it. We originally heard the bell chiming at midday but when I went to see the bell later in the day they were actually testing the bell so I got to see it in action and heard it chiming and chiming and chiming - I feel sorry for anyone who actually worked in the vicinity, especially if they were working nights. I did manage to get a video with the camera of the bell which I've uploaded to YouTube

On the way home from Cincinatti today I had the gps on the dashboard of the car tracking our journey. I turned around to get something out of the back seat and there was a bang - the gps had fallen off the dashboard to the floor - I didn't think that was a problem as it has fallen on the floor before. However, as we got out of the car I picked the GPS up and the screen had cracked AND it had also damaged the LCD crystals so I now have a functional gps but no screen that I can actually use.
I'm going to be looking for a new gps now - the garmin autorouting ones look great (but expensive) - in the meantime I'll just have to cache with some buddies and use their gps.

400!

 Found my 400th cache yesterday - a great day out caching - thanks for the company Team Lefor!

1st cache of the year

I got out to do some real caching today - although almost all of them were urban, it is another 7 more cache finds. I've not got out to do any for ages so I really enjoyed these ones. 2 caches I couldn't find - i suspect they've been muggled. I'm waiting for a response from the owners to confirm that the cache is there still.

Jeff's #2

Plook asked if I wanted to join him and some others in going to do encrypted cache and Jeff's #2. The answer was yes of course, so we headed on down there this afternoon. Had a good time finding the cache which was easy to find when you know what you are doing. I'm glad I had confirmed my coordinates though - a 136' error (which I had initially) would not have helped in finding the cache.

Here's the Beef finally found

Finally managed to solve Heres the Beef. This puzzle cache has taken forever to solve (almost a month) and it was only when i saw a new alteration to the cache page that it confirmed I was on the right lines to solving it and it actually sped the solution up. I went and found it in some nice woods this morning and was relieved that noone else had got there first. The annoying thing is that I was *this* close to solving the puzzle yesterday afternoon but was really struggling with the placement of numbers. A good puzzle but I don't think the rest of Dublin are up to this standard of hiding puzzles yet as only one person has found mine and I'm the first to find this cache.

Google maps of found caches

With a bit of help from the gpsbabel mailing list, I've now been able to work out how to use the google maps api and the main page of this blog now shows all the caches that I have done around my home. As I find more and more caches then I'll have to start the page zoomed out a bit more :-)

Feed script fixed

Updated the latest found script this morning after I noticed it wasn't working. The weird thing is that it was breaking on a temporarily disabled cache which had the <strike> tags around it. By removing the strikes and changing it to "temporarily disabled" the script now worked (but the temporarily disabled cache does not appear on the list as I only display the last 10!)

Friday finds.

I woke up early on Friday, checked the geocaching website and there was a new cache near me - Well,Well,Well which had not been found. A quick load of the gpx onto the pocketpc, the coordinates punched into the gps and I jumped into the car to go find it. I think it took me longer to find the carparking space that it did to find the cache. It was well (haha) hidden but I eventually found it. Opening the lid, there were quite a few goodies, probably freebies from reps of people visiting the hider but I didn't mind and came away with a nice First To Find prize of a pen. Nice and heavy with a blue neon type light if you push the pen top.
I also managed, at my third attempt, to find Jeff's puzzle #1. This cache had plagued me for a while as I just could not find it. My streets and trips drawings gave me about 4 different places to search and when I was on the ground, there were loads of places a cache could be hidden. On my second visit I used the projection capabilities of the gps and was confused to see that one of the points was about 5 miles away from where I was standing. I went back home, ran some more projections in the gps and plotted them onto street and trips, and again came up with two points 5.6 miles apart....hmmmmm.
After a tipoff I used a palm emulator to solve the problem and with some coordinates that now matched from both sets of projections I went back to the site on Friday evening and found the cache.
So Friday was a good day - but now I have 1 temporarily archived cache and 4 multi's in my nearest 10 unfound. So the next lot of caches will take slightly longer to do.

quietening down on the cache finds?

Not sure how many caches I will find in the next few weeks for two reasons. The first is that on Saturday my hayfever kicked in with a vengence and I've been sniffly ever since. The two types of tablets I've tried haven't really helped much and they both make me sleepy with the non-drowsy making me feel tired but the non-non-drowsy knocking me out. The other reason is that hopefully I'll have a job real soon now.
We did manage to get out and do 3 caches yesterday but by 12.30 it was too hot and I was sneezing so much it wasn't fun anymore so we just came home instead.

First day caching

After the dismal weekends weather of snow and rain, today was gloriously sunny so I put on some sunscreen (yes it was that hot and sunny) and Kristen chauffeured me around Dublin as I went and did 6 or 7 caches in the area that I had not done yet. Had a great time and saw some really nice areas and artwork. Pictures will follow on the geocaching website when I upload them from the camera. It was quite amusing to see that people had been to a lot of the caches after I had been and at one cache, 3 sets of cachers had been unable to find it. However, the coordinates were quite a way out and I had a lot more experience than they had (put together). Some of the caches were in (huge) ammo boxes which meant I was able to pass on some of the travel bugs I had brought over from the states and others were in micro caches.
Had a great time and got over the withdrawal symptoms of going a week without caching.

I now have to get my hard disk installed in the computer so I can get my gsak database onto the computer I currently have access to. Speaking of which, GSAK got updated today and this new version fixes a bug I reported in the debug processing in the macros AND it also allows you to check a pop account for gpx files and process them automatically - that is an awesome feature.

300!

Found my 300th cache at Mumbles Hill Cache which was a really picturesque one to end up on. I actually went on to do one more cache afterwards just in case I had miscounted :-)

Cache finds now automatically posted here

With the aid of the Movable type mt-rssfeed plugin, I've now got my cache finds automatically posted here as a post item. This means the webpage is updated automatically and I don't have to post each find as a unique post.

3 caches on the way home....

Got three caches in on the way home tonight. The M6 was chocka so I took a diversion or two and had a good walk to M6 travelbug hotel, Bluebells by the M6 (although there aren't any bluebells around at the moment) and The Green Drive which was really black at that time of night.

200!

Its been a couple of weeks since I thought I had got to 200 and hadn't. With the aid of Stormcat and Arrks, the total had risen to 197 found and I just had three more to do and today was the day.
I decided to head off to (hilly) Buxton and do a couple of caches there and then head to Cheshire's Highest Cache for the 200th.
Back of Macc Forest was the first find which was straight up a hill and then back down to the carpark. Not too steep, but uphill all the way.
Lightly Wooded Walk was next with a short steep walk, which I don't think is quite what the cache owner had in mind, but I did discover the lightly wooded wood on the way back, along with a "house" in the middle of the trees and several peat bogs.
Cheshire's Highest Cache was the final cache and a very rewarding cache. Had to wait for ages for other walkers to disappear who were sheltering from the wind just down the stone wall from where I was.
Now I'm sitting at home nursing the blisters - but happy.
Congratulate me here

Got up early.....

and was First to Find on Cache for a Laugh which was very difficult. Still I made it enjoyable for the owner by hiding it so well she couldn't find it when she went back later that afternoon. Got soaking wet but had a great time and inspired kristen to pen this blog comment.

Valley View found

and it was chucking it down with rain when I did Valley View, which seems to be a common theme for the later part of this month. This was one of Stormcats caches.

Snowdon Caches

It was a busy weekend in Wales and I hoped to have completed 200 caches but I didn't record my starting numbers and my guesstimate was 5 out so I'm stuck on 195 at the moment.

Cache day

Yesterday I got up late and felt like a bear with a sore head, minus the bear. After a couple of coffees I decided to head out for some fresh air and get some caches in as the weather looked like it would hold and not rain (any more).
I headed off to Northwich and attempted Lock at the locks but after about 30 mins of searching in what feltlike private property I decided to give up and go onto another cache as this was taking far too long. I headed off to the Anderton Boat Lift which I'd never seen before and found An Uplifting Day Out and then went to look at the lift. You can't see that much from the top side and I didn't have the time or money to take a trip so I decided to head off to Step Into Cheshire - Dairyhouse Meadows. This was meant to be .9 miles away but because of the circular walk it was a lot further than that. Anyway, a nice pleasant walk, apart from the slugs on the path and then a walk back to the car park following the river. From this side of things you can see the lift quite clearly although you can't get very close to it as its all fenced off - probably to make people pay to enter the area. Having traded clues with Arrks, I then went back to Lock at the Locks and this time I found it in about 5 mins.
Next on the list was Step into Cheshire - Whitegate way. Another .75 mile walk to the cache site where I found the cache under Tigger's nose and I still got a TB out of it too. Back at the car the traffic was horrendous. I think a race meet or a motorbike rally had just let out so I took a diversion towards the delamere forest instead of going home.
First stop was Bucket of Dishes, a cache placed on the top of a hill. Fortunately I parked in a very nice location so I didn't have to climb up much of the hill. I couldn't find the trig point there though and then headed off to the nearby Primrose and Sandstone. This was found fairly easily although I did need the clue for it. It was then (way past) time to go home so I stopped off and had a fantastically tasting Chicken Tikka Bhuna with rice and a Peshwari Nan (and boy am I feeling it this morning........)

3 twilight caches around buxton.

Was a gorgeous night tonight, so decided to go and do my nearest unfound and some close caches so drove to Buxton and did Murderous axe, my second attempt at slippery when wet which I found this time around and then squeezed in Tri-Country Cache and got home about 9.30pm in the dark.

Loaded Gun

One minute it was sunny, the next it was chucking it down with rain. But after working on the house this morning I needed a (caching) break. The log page was empty and so I dashed off to Loaded Gun. I managed to get to the cache before it started to rain - only to find that I wasn't the first to find after all but I still enjoyed the cache and the views. I went back to the car very quickly, almost wishing I had brought a canoe with me!

Which?

Hopped off to Which witch is which? this morning after a nice oatcake breakfast so I think I'm even on the calories front :-)

Bolsover found

I was at my parents on Saturday so it was a chance to get Precisely Bolsover. I had already done most of the work and failed to find previously, so this time it was a quick drive up and find the cache. This time I was unable to drive down the green lane due to the amount of rubbish that some idiots had left on the lane. As I was about 200 yards away from the cache, the GPS bleeped twice and showed "Low Battery". This prompted a run down the field as that meant I had about 30 seconds before the gps would switch off. Fortunately the GPS showed the correct spot - according to my Dad who had already found the cache - but someone had moved it since he had been there. It didn't take long to find the most recent hiding place though. And another annoying cache has now been found.

Austin Powers #4

Found Austin Power #4, a kimrobin cache, and the fourth (and most recent) in a series of devious puzzle caches hidden around Leeds. Fortunately we have a couple of clients near Leeds so I was able to go and find this after work. This was unusual in that once the coordinates were found, the cache place was fairly easy to find - the others have been straightforward coordinates but finding the cache has been 30 mins of scratching my head and looking suspicious to passerbys.

Manchester Caches

Friends of ours were coming home from America today and we volunteered to pick them up from the airport. I took the day off work and managed to sneak in some caches and travel bugs before their plane arrived. I found MIATBX Final Approach, the worlds furthest airport travel bug hotel from the airport and whilst there got the numbers for the travel bugs that were in there (too many to mention). I then drove over to Fletcher Moss Jukebox first and then fought my way through Didsbury traffic to Chorlton Water Park where I got another travel bug but forgot to write down the number so I can't actually log it! After that I then realised that there was another Fletcher Moss cache by the first one I did, but there was no way I was going to go through all that traffic again.

Don't Look Down at The Roaches

My 150th cache found and a fantastic time with loads of people there. Pictures available at my camera gallery but here is a sneak preview of the panoramic view from halfway up - click on the image for the full size.


The Official cache page

Alchemy Quest

Dave and I did the alchemy quest series today. You'll need to look at the logs from sodium through to Gold and the virtual lion

Christies visit

After a frustrating waste of an afternoon waiting hours for someone at Christies to check my cancer surgery and then it was two quick finds at Mossy Spider - where it was fairly easy to follow the bushwhacked path to the cache and then a walk around a park at Wythenshawe Wander.

Phew - thats all the caches upto date. Looking forward to the Alchemy Quest run on Saturday where Dave from the LongFamily and I hope to get all 15 caches found.

Wokingham cache run

A visit to a customer site in Wokingham and a visit to Roman coins where I made 3p on the exchange as I swapped a 5p in the cache with a 2p coin that I left behind. It was then check into the hotel pub, a nice tea and then out to do the nearby caches. Boar hunt was a nightmare to find due to the lack of gps coverage and this slowed me down a bit. It was then a quick drive to Fourdes Bridge which was a nice quick cache - AND a shorter walk than the suggested parking place too :-)
A drive to All Saints Log which had co-ordinates that were miles out, taking ages to find and then a walk across the river to Revirhsa which had a spooky walk through the hedge in the dark as can be seen from my log.

Shutlingsloe

A nice walk up the top of shutlingsloe in the afternoon. Unfortunately the cache was a bit mouldy but I enjoyed the walk up. The "summit" was a bit disappointing and was like "is that it?"

Saturday morning caching

One of the roving photographers caches had come into the area for a couple of days and I wanted to grab it before it left the area again so it was an early start to photograph the outside of the Wade factory. This was followed by a visit to Apedale II which was a new cache at the apedale country park. The second cache placed there and it started to chuck it down with rain as I got back in the car.

Grinning from ere to ere

A sneaky hide in the woods this one and one which took me ages to find my way out of the woods which meant we were slightly behind time to help dad move house. Having said that, he was still doing paperwork with the agency when we got there so it wasn't too naughty!

Austin Power

Another lunchtime cache on the way back from a customer and a first to find too. Austin power #1 was a cunning micro which took me about 5 minutes to find, much to the annoyance of rudson who took about 3 attempts to find the cache - although they are newbies to the game.

DR day 2

After the first day of DR work I had another night to spend in the hotel.
The first cache was Snipe on the line on the way back from the office to the hotel. This was a bit of a nightmare for my hayfever as I had to walk through very high fields of grass nettles and all manner of horrible things.
A quick tea (or it would have been if the hotel staff did their job and worked promptly) and then it was off caching. There was a series of caches to do but I ran out of time as it was getting dark when I go to the last cache and I didn't have a torch with me.
The second cache was the moving Dam Busters Memorial as this was based around a memorial to the dambusters pilots. There had been several fresh photos and stories laid at the memorial which were really moving reading. Then it was off to High Spirits where I got bitten alive by mozzies and thought I had lost my pda. It turned out that I had left it in the boot of the car - phew! This would have been a very expensive cache visit if I had lost it. The annoying thing is that this was a couple of days after trying to get a cheap palm pda off ebay for precisely this reason.
The final cache was Guy's Gaff which was after 10pm and it was starting to get dark. I had to use the GPS's backlight to see the writing on the logbook and get the all important code word for the final cache in the series (which will have to wait for another day)

Before DR day

After being called to do some Disaster Recovery for a company, Stormcat and I nipped out to do some caches late evening. Beats sitting in the hotel and we managed to do Hidden Grave, Toys Toys Toys which was very foggy and finally Hid n Chapel which looked like a deserted church in the middle of a field.

Suffragette find

The whole family found Emily Wilding Davidson's last resting place of the first suffragetter who jumped in front of the horses.

Cousins Wedding

After ducking out of my cousins evening reception, Dad and I went caching to Beacon Hill which was a fantastic evening out bonding with dad and we saw loads of wildlife including a hawk up really close that had just caught a mouse. We got back to the hotel just as it was starting to get dark. This was my furthest north cache so found.

Only 1 of 3 found.

Nipped out for an afternoon's caching and went to Viking Hoard which was a cache hidden at the bottom of a valley, and the only cache I found - the other two were not founds.
Fernilee Find was not aptly named as it had gone missing but I thought I'd check it just to confirm along with everyone else that it really had gone. Then it was a fairly long walk around the resevoir to Slippery when wet which I couldn't find. Nice to find that the next person couldn't find it either - but then someone else found it so I know its there - arghh!

Fisherwick Wood

After the clients had gone to lunch without inviting me,leaving a contact number and I had to wait for approval until I could continue working I decided to nip out for lunch.....to Fisherwick Wood and back by the end of lunchtime. A very quick cache and ideally situated for this.

Haddenham cache

After a visit to a customer site I managed to do The Worlds tallest building and on the way I stopped at Mrs Tiggywinkle's hedgehog hospital to get the weathervane virtual

Bicester caches

On a trip down to bicester the night before a customer's site I went out caching with my dad and we did two of Simply Paul's caches. The first was Military Intelligence which was a fantastic hide and we were wondering just how Simply Paul knew this area. I just remember thinking that I wished I had grown up in this area as it would have been cool to play in as a kid!
On the way back I did Box in the bush which my dad had already done. This was a quick visit to a fairly new cache in bicester and the last bicester cache that I am likely to do as my parents have now moved.

Emmerdale rock

Found Emmerdale Rock, a cache placed in the village that Emmerdale used to be filmed in. I took the long way round to get to the cache, which was huge and in a very smelly wood, but a nice cache on the way home after a customer site.

100!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well after visiting Black Brook Black Hole, which was my nearest unfound cache at 7.3 miles away, I hit the one hundred mark. I had a great time although it was really really hot and I think I got sunburnt - even though I was wearing factor25 suncream and was out for a couple of hours. What a fantastic way to finish a lazy weekend, followed up by the wife coming home from a weekend away!

99....

How annoying is that? 1 cache short of a hundred as I was unable to find the second cache this morning which meant that I was one short as I hadn't made a backup plan of having an extra cache planned just in case.
Still 99 is a good number to rest on and shows that I am not addicted and can stop when I want to (for the day anyway!)
Had a fantastic day out visiting yet more places I've never heard of and seeing some great wildlife. There were loads of baby ducks at the first cache I went to and I saw several squirrels and a jay at the penultimate one. Now my feet ache so I'm going to have a bath.
Scania Cache, Moors the Merrier (DNF), Park Hall, Dead End Cache, Above the deep

Day and night caching.

Did Rebecca's Resevoir on Sunday afternoon after church and as I had the co-ordinates for the owners house, we went round afterwards to correct the clues. When I was logging this find at about 9pm I checked the new caches and there was one near home - a quick check with ARRKS to make sure it hadn't been found and then it was a night cache to go find Deep Joy!. Arrived home at 11.30pm - good job I didn't have to work today.

Harecastle Tunnel

I love the light evenings! Went to do the multi stage Harecastle Tunnel cache tonight and the final piece was not quite where I thought it would be but very close. A very enjoyable cache through areas I'd not been to (yet again). I am now on 83 finds and there are 15 in the Alchemy quest which I hope to start. I want the Gold to be my 100th cache so I need to plan any more finds carefully.

Evening find

Did Stormcat's Beyond Wellintonia Avenue cache this evening after tea. Kristen told me to go and enjoy myself so I nipped out and did this one. I had planned to do another multi cache in Stoke/Kidsgrove but as I started off parking in the wrong place for this one it took me longer than I thought - but at least I didn't have much of a hill to climb up. The walks through Biddulph Country Park are great and will be really pretty when the rhodedendrums are out.

Winterley Pool

Found Winterley Pool whilst out delivering some left over furniture from the office move to the local playgroup.The cache was placed this morning by ARRKS and had already been found by StormCat earlier in the day (who then came into the office to gloat ;-) ) so that was two finds within 4 hours of it being (cunningly) placed.

Dam cache

A bit of a cheek to call this one a dam, so I didn't submit it as a locationless find, but Another Dam Cache was a pleasant walk around Bosley Resevoir after I got home whilst Kristen finished up the wall papering.

NW Cache Meetup

Went to my second North West Cache meetup on Sunday which was good fun although I spoke to more cachers out on the trail than I did in the pub itself. On the way there I did It's a crime and the only crime was how long it took me to find the thing, followed by Poor struggler which was hard to do without any muggles spotting me. By this time it was getting close to the event cache but I still managed to squeeze in Serenity which was a weird place (without giving too much away) and I managed to find a frog! It then started to chuck it down with rain so I went to the Cache meet, had a fantastic Beef and Ale pie - I can strongly recommend the food in this pub - and then nipped over the field to find Forever Bury where I met up with Rev n Doc and Taylor and had a quick chat with them as I was coming back and they were going. Shortly afterwards I met them again at Burr's Mousetrap which is a very intriguing cache location, especially with the train trying to make people jump.

Dewsbury find at last

On the way back from Ben and Liz's house on Saturday I wanted to stop off and try and do Cambox 2 again.The first time I had gone there, the tree that it was meant to have been hidden under was nowhere to be seen. This time I managed to find the cache and I posted the correct co-ordinates. The cache has now been un-archived by the moderators so it will be interesting to see how long before the next finder.

Manchester finds.

Found two more caches on the way home from a client in Leeds this afternoon. There didn't seem to be any easily accessible caches in Leeds near where I was working and I wanted to get most of the motorway driving done as soon as possible so I wouldn't get stuck in the rush hour traffic. Did Platitude first and then did Ineptitude which although was a nice cache, the area is digustingly filthy with rubbish. There were several bikes, supermarket trolleys, beds and settee's lying on the ground - not too mention the hundreds of empty cans and crisp packets :-(

Caching Weekend

Seeing as though it was bank holiday friday and Monday I took the advantage of the weather and got three days of caching done which was really good. Nice and relaxing although my legs ache.
Friday we went to Chester and did Stop on the way there and then Steps in the Wall and Shropshire Union canal which was very sneaky (without giving too much away). On the way home we stopped off and I got a photo of Helsby for Where's My Name.
Saturday was a hike around Macclesfield Forest for the Monster and despite ARRKS's disbelief I did manage to walk all the way round AND do the Shutlingsloe cache (and trigpoint) too. My legs were really aching at the end of the day although not as bad as they were a couple of weeks ago.
Sunday was a day off from caching and then today we went over to Chesterfield to see my Sister and Brother in law and Mum and Dad. Whilst there we did Hipper Sick, followed by Alien Hideaway (which was a nightmare) and then whilst the girls went shopping in Bakewell we did Wash your woolies

Birmingham Caches

Managed to find the 5/5 cache in Birmingham, Cut Down Cache. As this is a special cache I can't really comment much more on this one!
Also found A King Could Hide Here which was near a National Trust hall and a pleasant drive on the way home from the Cut Down Cache one.

Caching Catchup.

Realised today that I hadn't logged my recent finds, so here they are:-

• 11.03.04 Yomping Yet Again


• 12.03.04 The Other Wedgewood


• 15.03.04 Can you hack it (ftf)


• 18.03.04 Mission Kinder:Crossed kinder


• 18.03.04 Kinder Suprise


• 18.03.04 Crackin Cache


• 18.03.04 Houses of the holy


• 18.03.04 Close to the edge <-My 50th Cache


• 18.03.04 Hey Diddle Diddle


• 21.03.04 Woodhouse Wanderer


• 21.03.04 Maerwen's Choice


• 21.03.04 Luddites Choice


• 21.03.04 Day Rover 6


• 22.03.04 Cambox2 (DNF)


• 22.03.04 Day Rover 4


• 22.03.04 Day Rover 3


• 03.04.04 Around About a Subway

This last one was on a quick visit to Manchester and there were several others that I had lined up but Kristen wasn't keen on doing more and it just started to rain when I finished it so it was time to head home.

OrdanceSurvey Maps

After doing all that work on generating a bookmarklet for OS maps, I've realised that GeocacheUK already has those links built in. Like mine, they don't have the topographical map (which I thought mine did) so theres one more click needed to get last step.
It wasn't much use though when I was doing The Other Wedgewood cache as this was showing a footpath that wasn't on the ground.

Frogs

Went to a Froggy themed cache this afternoon which was meant to have been by a pond but there was no sign of the pond or even a place where it could have been. The field was REALLY muddy so the new boots that I got at Surplus and Outdoors got a good workout. Wish we'd looked at the streetmap though as we'd have then easily seen the best way to the farm from the main road, with only one gate, instead of the two we took. Having said that we did get all the best views of the lambs in the fields.

Down in the Dumks and 2 locationless

Had a two hourish hike to Down in the Dumks this morning which was a glorious walk in the peace and quiet of the countryside with the only sound being the crunch of snow under my feet, the river babbling away on my right (on the way home), the warbling of birds, oh - and I nearly forgot - the bangs of the gun club about 5 miles away and the low flying aircraft :-)
Seriously though, it was nice and peaceful and really relaxing with only the occasional disappearance of a foot in the occasional bog. I was hoping that the ground would still be frozen hard, but it looks like the sun had melted some of the snow so the ground had started to get rather damp again.
I also managed to bag a locationless cache of a rather large birdhouse.I had only seen this locationless about two days ago so it was an unexpected and pleasant suprise. Seeing this locationless reminded me of another cache that I had seen, Arboretum Walkabout. This will be logged when I get home and can upload the photo.

White Nancy views

Went to Bollington this afternoon to the Saddle-Up Pale Lady! cache. The views were fantastic despite the snow a mile or so away from where I was (and a few flakes landing on my shoulders). Pictures from White Nancy are posted online and I'll be adding my own I hope.
Update The panorama pictures came out too dark, but pictures of some fancy mosaic artwork

Roaches - Staffordshire's highest

We went geocaching on top of the roaches on Saturday where the wind was howling. Kristen at one point said she was going to wait in the car for me but I was really pleased when she appeared at the top a few minutes after I had been searching for the cache. This photo shows me at the trigpoint, being blown around by the wind and I'm waiting for Kristen to log her find for the cache so I can then upload her picture too.

London finds

Arrived in London at 4.30 so had time to nip out for two caches. I managed to find the Brent River Cache (complete with smells!) but it looks like the locals got to the Elthorne Park one as that was suspiciously missing. The weird thing is that the latter was recently visited, but the former hadn't been visited for three months!

Newbridge

Found NewBridge in Winsford this afternoon - yet another place and country park I didn't know existed. Was watched by a Heron that was standing the other side of the canal and didn't have to wait for walkers to get out of sight for once!

Geocache meet

A long day today but a total of 7 caches found and 2 travel bugs after going to Superman's rest for the Northern meet. Logs found were Risley Moss and its tower. Then there was a clever hidden cache followed by a mistaken find. A walk right next to the motorway, a quick stay in the pub and then a wet walk to finish the day.

2 finds on way to parents

Found the Staffordshire castle cache this morning on the way down to london - someone else visited after me, took the item I left and logged it before I got the chance this evening! I also managed to go to a really nice windmill site with some pictures to come soon. I was going to try and get some on the way into London but when I turned the gps back on when leaving my parents I got the message that there was no map loaded in the gps, initiating upload - no idea how it's done it, why its done it or how I'm going to fix it!

Bosley found at last

Found Bosley Locks at my third attempt although I am sure someone rebuilt the wall between today and the last time I went. I then went onto My Kipling and found that one two. Took two hours to do them both which was a nice break this afternoon. Was tempted to go and do Staffordshire's highest cache but Kristen wanted me back home so that'll be another day.

Stoke on Trent finds

Found Apedale country park cache which took about 90 minutes to do as it was a follow the clues type puzzle. A really nice walk on a pleasant sunday afternoon. Also did Bradwell Quarry just before that which was on the top of a hill overlooking an industrial estate. Suprisingly, it was actually better looking than it sounds.
Monday afternoon I managed to get in Hay Head Wood in Walsall, which was my first Ammocan cache.
Friends of mine have also been and found the Bosley Locks cache which I've not found twice now - I need to get that one crossed off the list!

Another easy find

Reading the transcript for the GC2725 Radio K.A.O.S. by Team Chaos gives another Virtual find - again from the comfort of your home :-)

Virtual cache on the pc

There's a caching simulator where you can actually pretend to cache and then Log your visit

Great Scott in Birmingham

Managed to get to the GCD236 Great Scott cache in Birmingham situated on the top of the hill. This was a virtual one that needed some questions answered. I saved the answers in GPXSonar and unfortunately did not hit the save button, instead I just hit the close page.....and it didn't ask me if I was sure I wanted to abandon my pages - and I didn't find out until I went to log the find.