metal-bijou

Do try not to feel awkard. If the em are anything like the cachers around me and those that I've met around the world, I'm sure they would welcome another set of eyes for the hunt and another friend to socialise with. I had great fun only this weekend meeting up with cachers that I'd either met once at an event or never had met. We all brought different things to the group and had great fun. Though we still couldn't find one pesky little cache. I like the fact that most cachers aren't about cliques.

I'll put my hand up and say I have here. Very sad and wouldn't normally but I had one cache that I got the impression was being used as an armchair cache. A quick review and a word of warning appears to have stopped that. The same cache does get annotated as being found when they couldn't retrieve it (it's wedged in well but can be retrieved) or is densly populated by muggles. I disagree with both of these reasons for not signing. But while I disagree or condone I also don't let it bother me as that's how they want to play. I would of course prefer somebody to make their mark on the log in anyway they can; signature, stamp, sticker, mud, cutting and even blood. Ok maybe not blood on health and safety grounds but you get the gist.

Couldn't agree more. It's not the mutt it's the owner.

There is a big difference between an uncontrolled dog and a dog off the lead. The responsibility lies with the dog owner 100% but that does not mean that dogs must be on a lead. Being on a lead is restrictive for the exercise of the dog. The times my mutt used to jump at people were when she was a puppy and strangers encouraged her, making it very difficult to break the bad habit. However with training the only time she jumped later in her short life was when other dog owners had treats in her pocket. Owners do most of the time know if their mutt is going to be friendly. It's fairly obvious to a decent owner. Growling should not be tolerated in the slightest though. A responsible owner will muzzle their mutt if there is a chance of aggresive behaviour and this then leaves the bounding of mutts even when friendly. Big dogs are intimidating even if friendly. And for that and on behalf of all responsible mutt owners I apologise - training is difficult. Just a shame that the mutt owners didn't apologise at the time, that probably would ease a lot of situations but then if you have someone that doesn't even say sorry then you probably won't have a responsible owner training their owner properly. But that's no different to bad drivers, cachers or ... well the list is long. P.S. Swift knee to the their solar plexus normally works. No I don't mean the owner.

I've only been a couple of times but have managed to find some real beauties. It helps having an Uncle over there. In fact he suggested the first cache that I ever found as it was behind his house. That was Mount Leinster with fantastic views but doesn’t even make it to my recommendations here. So here is my list of favourites: Europe's First – On my list because of the significance but actually a lovely little seaside town and a gentle walk with a nice coastal view. It’s just south of Dublin. Short Walk to a Long Fall – Out of this world. Will take a good proportion of a day and I recommend hiring a bicycle to get there. It is the otherside of Ireland from Dublin but the scenary and people are just fantastic. A Rock and Two Spires – On the main land not far from short walk to a long fall. Entertaining if done at night, is quick and easy and really only on my recommended list if you happen to be in the area. Glendalough – Another breath taking place and well worth cycling to almost all checkpoints. For me this holds a real love affair but probably not due to the cache. The Guinness Logbook Of Records

There's always BEER (at least at the events I go to), so what more do you need? And even free beer at some. Big grin.

I can't remember what cache it was, but there was a tube again, however it has several holes in it going up it, and had to plug them all, I have to say we got rather wet There's a fantastic little series near me of similar ilk (http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=c8f5b201-12a0-4753-82bc-24dd1c1ed154). You are asked on the cache page to take with you: Krypton Caches Require Special Equipment: You need 1 Litre of water, perhaps a little more or maybe its the Metal key ring attached to end of fishing line or similar which is over 35" long or a balloon. You need to work out yourself which one will retrieve the cache.

Messe has one very similar called, H2O (GC1196Q). Very clever and loads of fun. We have experienced various ways hiding signpost caches, most of which have been mentioned above. One of the best ones we ever did had a clue that read, 'base of sign'. We spent absolutely ages looking for it in the grass and were barking up a very wrong tree, it was simple but clever at the same time. When we eventually found it, we got a round of applause because unbeknown to us, we were being watched by the CO and his friends from his garden . I had a vision of the OP filling the sign post with expanding foam but I think that would be expensive. Seriously though, good luck with it. Maybe it was the LR giving away your parking position... I'm sure you wouldn't have been left to leave without a hint either.

There are really three points here as I see them. Firstly the guidelines; the guidelines provide a safety net for us, it's great they can be tailored to our needs and not meet a standard for another country only. I once wanted to set a flashmob event in Hungry to meet local cachers but there the guideline is that events should not be that short. Flashmob events here appear to thrive. I digress. My point is that I feel we need the guidelines to show to the rest of society that we are respectful and appropriate e.g. micro containers in London being the preference by the Met. I’m sure the arbitrary nature of the decisions is carefully thought about and is open to appeal if individuals thought the decisions were not appropriate. Ok some decisions may go too far in my mind and others not far enough but thankfully I don’t have to draw the line within the grey area of everyone’s happiness. The good news is that these decisions are made by humans and while sometimes you can get them on a bad day, you can also benefit when they take circumstances into consideration. Secondly is the comment within the log; frankly I agree with you that you should be able to put what you like, preferably if it’s constructive. But here I sit on the fence a little as only recently someone put a 100% spoiler in a log to one of my caches so I did ask them if they wouldn’t mind either editing or encrypting. Up to them as it is their log. They were good enough to encrypt their log. Personally if I was leaving constructive comments for a future finder I wouldn’t delete my points (I probably would edit to water down or encrypt if asked) but I would leave deleting the log to the CO if they still didn’t agree with my compromise. Then I think it’s appropriate to have a blank log as you did at least sign the logsheet. Thirdly is the placement around war memorials or rather memorials in general; this probably also has two sides, the permission and the placement in principle. The permission is easy for me, either the CO has and has informed the reviewer or the reviewer didn’t realise the significance of where the final was placed. However here I side with the reviewer and the CO with the assumption that permission has been gained. I once had a cache that had been given permission by the local farmer and while not on a permissive path the farmer allowed walkers to roam. There was a sign to say not a permissive path for legal reasons to stop the field being used to officially connect from one side to the other. A finder complained (after signing the log themselves) and then the debate started. So to me the act was of an internet troll as they set light to the wick and then left the conversation but happy with their smiley. Thankfully the cache was allowed to stay but unnecessary effort was required to justify a situation that already had permission. There has got to be trust in the CO and more importantly between the CO and the reviewer about the correct due diligence. Regarding the placement in principle, I have found caches that have specifically taken you to a war memorial. Often included are memorials that you would drive by and not really notice. The cache maybe tucked to one side but to me as long as it’s placed respectfully and perhaps with a blatant hint to stop you foraging then it get’s my approval. We will remember them and I’m always humbled at the sheer number who fell all over the country. I agree that if not able to be easily respectful then a multi is the perfect balance and to be honest my favourite “we will remember them .. “ cache is a multi setup by a friend after visiting many war memorials in Scotland. Ok so that’s four points really, opps.

What out spoiler alert.... I've not seen anyone block the tube but I've seen: attached to the cap hooked over the lip of the post with a wire coat hanger string, paracord or fishing wire - of differing lengths. magnet all have limitations but work. Recently we recovered a nano that had been pushed a little too far down for anyone to reach with fingers (certainly not where the CO had left it as we had a previous finder with us).

That is nice and simple. And just seen your other scripts too. Nice, do you write any that you don't share but might? Why can't these sort of great scripts just be incorporated be GS. SHame as there are excellent scripts written.

This is a very good summation of my thoughts - And that's coming unfortunately from someone who probably didn't help in the spirit of the challenges. I was certainly one of those on day one taking advantage of loopholes in logging requirements. That's not to say I didn’t do all the ones I logged. I would love to see these moved away from geocaching and on to their own page. BUT also think it's a good idea for those who play multiple GS games to be able to search for all in a joined up tool. Perhaps allow people to have a joined up profile page if they wish. But give people more options as to where they wish to opt in or out. I don’t want the challenges I’ve done to show up anymore as I have no interest in doing anymore.

Opps, yes. But only because Heff made me as we were passing your Amersham series of silliness. Will I do anymore - I hope not. While they are supposed to be the gap for virtual replacement but aren't virtuals, they also do not seem anywhere near as good as the virtuals that have survived. I wasn't around when publication of virtuals stopped but I can perhaps see what a farse they may have become and therefore appreciate the ones we have.

Three of us had great fun hunting for a cache that had not been found for over a year and the last few loggers put a DNF. Original box found. Perfect, now to hunt down our nearest Challenge cache to spread our love of the old caches too.

I love your vision for the future. I wish that this can be incorportated slightly into the standard gecaching apps as I'd love to know there is: another cacher on my trail stalking me another cacher close that I just can't catch up to a friend nearby that I could meet up with. =========================== There are certainly areas that could be developed as I'd love to be able to download a GPX into the maps area so that I know if I'm passing another cache

Thanks for the points in the right direction.

As for caches to be used, I've recently discovered the Redbull small drinks container works well. It's transparent so you can put a logo on the inside so everyone can see it's a cache. They are also water tight with a screw top. Maybe redbul could even provide them ???

For the first time in four years I'm looking at buying my first GPS around geocaching. I first bought a unit in 2000 for work. It has served me ok for caching but not great as the accuracy is a little off. I then bought a pda that I could maps on and thankfully was able to load caches on too. Even better was that it could play Wherigo. However again accuracy is not great. I've been caching with an iPhone now and is great at paperless and Wherigo. But now I want to buy a GPS that I can go paperless, is very accurate, change batteries quickly and most importantly can play Wherigo. I was thinking of the Oregon 450 so that I could have all that and put UK OS maps on only to ready that Garmin aren't supporting Wherigo any longer. Does anyone know why? I'm now stuck as what to do.

I think it's a shame when D/T ratings have to be changed. But I sit firmly on the fence and here is why: Against change - My first FTF was a 5/5. It no longer is a 5/5. That's a shame because the rating is relative. Though the rating is now more comparable with other 5/5 caches around the country. In favour of changin - I've got it wrong in the past and feel it's unfair for future finders to not be able to search for appropriate caches. The hardest I find to work out are disabled/wheelchair friendly or multi/Wherigo caches.

Does anyone know if the Oregon 450 has Wherigo and Chirp functionality please?

I think I'm about to go and do the same. I'd be interested to know where you found the best deal to include mapping please.

I too add favourite points to archived caches or rather did when they first come out. If I ran out of favourite points then I would reallocate if I found one more deserving but that doesn't mean I would take it from an archived cache unless that was the one at the bottom of my list. I find the favourite points great as others indication of where to focus if I want to do a few caches only. This weekend I was surprised at how many people had given favourite points to the majority of caches in a series of 11 (Toby lane - http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=e2f79ea4-b918-4212-a3df-4899f5754d8e) until I used up 8 favourite points myself. Hopefully the favourite will raise the quality level. I will use my favourite list and favourite lists of others to place my caches in future. GCVote was inconsistent, while I agree that it was more comprehensive it wasn’t widely used and negated it’s helpfulness. I also found it really strange that a cache of mine got wonderful feedback but the GCVote is/was low. I much prefer the comments, both good and constructive.

I can't agree more with the last two posts. I love caching as a group, especially now that I no longer have my mutt. Just this last weekend, three of us were on a series (Toby Lane in Bucks) where the hides were imaginative and you couldn't undo knowing where the cache was once someone else had spotted it. Team effort for all. In the past I’ve traded skills/equipment with friends to find caches. Most memorable was a waterfall cache for a rock face cache. For me the bar is set the same as Amberel that I will only log if I think I could have done it. On this example however I was pleased to do both rather than just one as it was exhilarating. If I’m in a team and someone doesn’t have the ability to do one section but they feel comfortable logging their experience then so be their decision. They’ve certainly contributed to me finding the cache.

I remember being at an event I organised (think it was the 10 year one) when a couple of cachers came up to a CO and said "oh we replaced your cache for you. We placed it at the top of the post which seemed right”. CO replied “that’s very kind of you, I just gave instructions to someone else as to where the cache was supposed to be; at the bottom of that post tucked in the ivy.” Reply by proud replacers “oh. Nevermind. You don’t mind if we mark it as a find do you?” CO commented “your rules”. 5min later we get a phone call, “Thanks CO, found it on this attempt, not sure how I missed it the first time round. Strange thing, there’s another here too which wasn’t there earlier.” Well it made me laugh. Don’t get me wrong, I have replaced caches for CO in the past but only with their permission etc. I don’t mind doing maintenance for CO.

I'm sure we could get you finding this one if you wish