My First D5/T5 Cache.....sort of....

I've had one eye on the weather this week for two reasons....firstly, me and the better looking half of the household are thinking about a camping weekend, and secondly, I wanted to go "darn sarf" to complete the Chiltern 100 and grab the 5/5 Bonus Cache.

I watched the news last night (after the football, obviously!), and it seemed that today would be better than Thursday, so I got up nice and early...well, vaguely early....at 7am and set off for Buckinghamshire with plans made to grab enough additional Chiltern Hundred caches to convert my 97 into 100+ and to grab the bonus cache. I then had a nice little series of 13 caches in Ashley Green to do.

Anyway...parked up in Chesham at about 10am, and soon had two more to add to the total, making 99....one more needed. Toyed with moving the car, but another 4 were within a mile, so decided to walk the dog!

The next one was a DNF, ch050 on Westdean Lane, notoriously difficult for some reason. I bagged the next two (one to get me to a 100, and another as insurance).

I found myself a perch (a bench on the main road) and sat down in the sunshine and using the iPhone slowly entered the numbers I'd got from all 101 caches into a web page....I hit send....I waited.....slow connection....and it eventually tells me I've got 98 and need 2 more!!!!!!!

I must have typed a couple in wrong then....so I typed them in again....same result!!!!

Luckily I had a PAF on hand (Mark of Delta68) and fortunately he answered his phone. I was horrified to learn that he had heard that the Bonus cache had been muggled! Oh no!!!!!

He gave me the coords for the Bonus (I had found more than a 100, so surely this isn't cheating), and he said he'd get Donna (Mrs Delta68) to e-mail me the numbers they got from the caches.

I drove on to Chesham Station to grab No.102 of the series for me, by which time an e-mail had arrived, which upon scrutiny revealed that I had got one of my numbers wrong. I then typed 102 numbers (which matched Delta68's) into said web page, only to be told that I now had 99 correct, and I could bugger off, I wasn't getting the coords!

Little did the web page know, I already had them, so I drove off towards GZ and found myself a suitable parking spot. By now I'd checked the listing for the Bonus cache, and it was active, so maybe drsolly had replaced the Bonus cache already?

On arrive at GZ, I find a blue piece of string...that's all...(see photo):



Dissappointed, I walked back to the car, and pointed the X-Trail towards Ashley Green for the series.

Now, the day gets better, I had one DNF, but a tremendous 4 mile stroll around the countryside, fabulous views, and some good caches.

Even the cows were paying an interest (I think they were checking I'd signed the log, the cache was in the bush at the bottom of the photo...)



Much happier now, I decide to head back to Brum by using the A5 rather than the M1, and bag a few caches on the way home, which I did....a rubbish Off Yer Trolley (dull), and interesting micro (Birth of Radar), and the final cache of the day, Roman View, making 25 caches in all on a day of ups and downs.

Upon my return home, I logged my caches, and logged the Chiltern Hundred Bonus as a DNF, and contacted the cache owner, who has kindly allowed me to log it as a "Find", which I have done, although it would have been nicer to have actually got my hands on a box!!!!

Total caches found at time of log: 1954

Mega Caching Day "Up North"

Having failed to bag a single cache on Saturday, and hence finishing my "cache a day" quest on 63 consecutive days, I was cheered up considerably by an excellent caching trip 90 miles north of Birmingham in the rolling hills of the Lancashire countryside, in the company of 8 other likeminded weirdos who like hunting for tupperware in bushes.

The team photo below, from left to right.................The Washers (Ron, Diane stayed in the car!), [Monki] (Ashley), Pete3 (Pete, obviously), Blue Nora (Nikki), Team Balders (Kev), yours truly, [MF]Taz (Lee), Graham1875 and AJIGeo (Alan).

Alan turned up with the height of fashion, a Tilly hat, so, not to be outdone, I got mine out of the boot of the cachemobile.

The day started at 5.15 am, when Nikki and Pete turned up at my house, and after a short diversion via Balders Manor, 4 of us were on the M6 headed for the rendevouz point at the reservoir.

Graham, as you can see from the photo, was sporting a fine pair of legs, despite there being a distinct chill in the air at 7.20am!

Our team were last to arrive (we stopped for a splash and dash at the services), and soon after we were on our way, heading in a vague southerly direction for our first cache of the day, then heading west on the Witton Weavers Way. We almost got ourselves lost on the first cache, but soon realised our error and we were soon bagging cache No.1 of the day.

After 11 hours we arrived back at the cars, after finding 1 Earthcache, 65 Letterboxes and 18 Traditional caches, a fine effort by all! We managed 3 DNF's in the day, 2 of which we think are still there....one we think has been muggled, but who knows...they're on the Watchlist for the time being to see if one cacher can succeed where 9 failed!

The terrain was tough in places, but worth it for the fine views along the Witton Weavers Way. Even Kev's one-liners didn't deter us from having a good time!

At one point (on a DNF) we were searching through the undergrowth when a couple came from nowhere, and Kev said "I knew we shouldn't have brought the damn lizard" and carried on searching. The couple moved on.....quickly.....

We even managed to see a couple of new born lambs....bless 'em!



After arriving back at the car, a very brief discussion was had about walking around the reservoir to bag another 15...... surprisingly no-one seemed that bothered, probably due to the fact that we had walked 23.1 miles thus far!

So, the 100 caches in a day eluded us all, and I'm not sure when the next opportunity will surface, not long I bet!

84 was a personal best for every one of us, so 9 people went on our way happy....but knackered.

After a good nights sleep, I decided to do a little light caching to stretch the muscles, especially as 8 new caches had been published within 2 miles of home while we were up north. I managed 4 finds and one DNF before the heavens opened and I headed for home.

I have the rest of the week off, so beating my record for caches in one month looks likely, and I might even break through the 2000 barrier before work beckons.

Caches found at time of posting.....1919.

A week off work!

I've got a whole week off next week, and hope to continue my cache a day quest (today's finds make 62 consecutive days). I originally wanted to get to 50, but now I'm aiming for 100!

Saturday, as per previous posts, there's 9 or 10 of us trolling up to Lancashire for a bit of power caching, so that should get me well into the 1900's, so maybe next week could see the 2000 cache landmark achieved.

Some plans I'm toying with for next week.....

Completing the Chiltern 100, as I only managed 97 of them last October and it's bugging me!
A possible trip to do another section of the UK Mega Series as I enjoyed it last time.
The circular series around Carsington Reservoir in Derbyshire (I worked on the reservoir when it was built)
Plus a few other local trips...so plenty to choose from, and so little time!!

Coventry......twice

I managed to find 11 of 15 of the Coventry city centre caches yesterday, it would have been 12 but for some reason I didn't have the latest GPX file for one that had been moved, so I went back in my lunch hour today!

Eight of the caches I found were placed by DivingDJ, and upon my return home last night I discovered he'd hidden another 6 just outside the city centre....I grabbed one of them today after clearing up the unfinished business. Looks like they are all drive by's, so I'll pick them off at random when I'm in the area.

New Caches Placed!

I've just got back from walking the dog, and came home with less in my pockets than I went out with....as I left the house with a few cache containers!

I've placed a little mini series of 3 caches along the river Tame near Water Orton, nice and simple, and a nice and simple stroll along the river. It's also allowed me to "bagsy" a spot I might want for a high terrain rated cache at some point in the future....but you'll have to wait a while for that!

My car is in the garage tomorrow for a service, so I'm going to Coventry to do the Scent2Cov series of caches around the city.....I'll report on how I get on!

The trip to Blackburn for the weekend is still on, with even more cachers joining in the fun after word got around at the recent meet in Walsall.

AJIGeo, The Washers, [MF] Taz are joined yours truly, Team Balders, Pete3, Blue Nora, Monki and Graham1875 on the trip, so now we are taking three cars! We are still planning to attempt 100+ in the day, but terrain will make this difficult, we'll have to wait and see!

FTF on Witton Walkabout!

Managed a FTF today, GC.com log as follows:

"I was sat at my desk on a slow day after returning to work after the Easter break, when an e-mail popped up at 11.38am with a new cache only 3 miles from the office. I had to go out for food, so decided to go for a FTF attempt.

Parked as recommended, and half expected to see Graham1875 walking back towards the parking area with a big grin on his face. Luckily, I saw no-one on the way there, and all was quiet at GZ. Found the cache straight away....it's refreshing to see a good size cache after all the micros I've endured over the Easter holiday!

Opened the box to find a card congratulating me on my FTF, a gift (nice one, that will certainly come in useful!) and a nice blank log book! Plenty of good quality swaps in the cache too, although I TNLN other than the gift.

Signed the log at 12.02pm, 24 minutes after publication!

T4TC, the FTF, and the gift! Excellent cache!

Stokesy."

Easter Caching

I've had a slow caching easter so far, 5 on Friday, 5 on Saturday, and due to the Webbies, 15 on Sunday. It was busy out there today, did half the series in the company of Delta68, and we met Monki, Snerdbe and Shanks Pony on the way round.

Kev will be gutted, another series gets published on his doorstep while he's on holiday...mind you, he could come back from Arran with a couple of FTF's under his belt!

Not sure if I'm caching tomorrow....yet....

Geocaching Update

I've been keeping the numbers ticking over nicely since my last post (1715 as of today), and I've been keeping up the "cache-a-day" project. Today's one and only cache is likely to be "Trail of Destruction" (a Mumbo Jumbo multi that I've got the final coords sorted for) or the new puzzle cache "Primal Happiness", which I struggled over all day yesterday, and fianlly cracked it about 9pm last night....it is simple....honest.

Preparations for the trip to Blackburn are almost completed, and I'll be e-mailing the details out to all later this week. The team now consists of yours truly, plus Team Balders, Pete3, [Monki], Blue Nora and Graham1875 (complete with Zimmer frame).

Over the weekend I went over to Bromsgrove to do a few of Cakemaker's caches along the canal, along with a short Kaitlin's Railway Walk, and a few Garrison Works caches dotted around. Still a few to do over there, so a return visit won't be too long coming.

On Sundat, the geo-mutt and I travelled up to Swynnerfield near Stone to do the new Swynnerfield Circular series of 12 caches over about 6 miles (with "Fifth Gear" thrown in for good measure). A nice walk, and some challenging hides, but I managed to find them all. In 6 miles, I saw 2 people.....weird....