metal-bijou

Just had to share this on twitter, such a nice story.

I now feel I need to explain my avatar. It's a symbol of my being lazy and fond of food. If you look closely, I'm also wearing sub-aqua kit so it's not that I'm an armchair cacher.

That always makes me laugh - the old "We did this as part of group x". I've noticed many a difficult puzzle cache found by groups. I have to admit, when I'm struggling to solve a puzzle or difficult terrain that kind of irks me, but in the end I laugh. There is one particular cacher (naming no names) I've noticed at events who goes around asking other cachers about the difficult puzzles, until they've picked up enough pieces to effortlessly put it all together... sure enough in a few weeks there's a "found it" logged. I notice this particular cacher enjoys using the events to team up and get the high terrains too. I just smile to myself and I know I can be self-satisfied that we've needed very little assistance in any of the puzzles or high terrains we've done (only contacting CO/teaming up on 3 or 4 of them). It really is interesting seeing others views. So much I'm in agreement with and that includes both those that play it their way (slightly different within the rules) and also cheating is just cheating yourself. I will happily admit though that I have found caches as part of teams: • Four friends drove to a mega in Austria and we worked together. If we had been individuals we wouldn't have been able to do some of them. • A friend said at an event that they were going to an extreme cache requiring climbing or abseiling, I jumped at the chance to go and jump off a cliff having not done it for 10 years or having my own eqpt. Safety in team work here essential. Just round the corner we found a waterfall cache; I learnt later that another friend had to ignore this cache because he was on his own when visiting. I wish he could have been with us. • I even have a cache setup where I would be disappointed if finders didn't do it as a team. I needed a team supporting me when I set the cache. • I have another less physically challenging cache where there were a couple of groups forming to get the FTF and I loved watching the teams work together to work it out. In the end I think they almost solved it simultaneously and found it on the same day after it being unfound for a couple of months. Others have found it since on their own and without help and while I admire them I have fonder memories watching the others work at finding the cache together. I suppose what I am really saying is that each and everyone are different. Team work also means different things to different people. Different members of teams bring different attributes which enable all of the team to work together and accomplish something they couldn't on their own or perhaps would find more difficult on their own. I love tackling some of the harder caches on my own but just as much in teams. I enjoy events more than just the social side because it allows me to discover caches I wasn't aware of or to team up with people who become friends. I’m lucky that I was taught early to “man-up” to my fears and now am able to throw myself into situations however some cachers are not and either need support or encouragement to achieve something they never thought they could. Most of all I'm glad that cachers can go out to find a log in a way that challenges or pleases them. So why did I feel the need to reply specifically here to team work? I suppose because we often lose sight of what something means to someone else and their achievements while not apparently as large as others may be a big deal for them. But that doesn’t mean I support bogus armchair caching and do get infuriated with one of my caches that seems popular to bogus finders.

September 3rd 2010 was pretty 'international' for us - caching in six countries in 24 hours.... Pretty sure you're the current UK record holders with that. We plan to take your record though later on in the year. This is going to end up being a re-run of Cram and Ovett! As part of "The JAMS" (JOSSS, Alibags, Metal-Bijou and Sipmly Paul) roadtrip to a mega event in Austria, we found caches in 9 countries within 72 hrs. Think we only got 6 countries bagged within the 24 hr period too. And that was on the way out when we were rushing to get to Austria, on the return we stopped at two small countries (Liechtenstein and Luxembourg) just because. Look forward to seeing you beat the country count.

Despite my old mutt being easy to train, I could never get her to find a cache. THe only one I ever claimed that she really helped with was when she presented me with a very long 8' stick to make a retrieval.

A couple of sensible things do spring to my mind (many none sensible but nevermind). Love the idea from the Met Police about taking a photo of the container. But where to store it so it's not seen by all cachers? Perhaps in the original log to the reviewers so that it's available in the archives? Or could this be an added feature to the site? Perhaps this would mean people would have to stop replacing caches even if they are only being helpful. There's a very difficult balance between placing a cache so that it's difficult to find (inthe shape of a stone or taped up so that it doesn't reflect light easily) but really liked the post about particularly in urban areas. Perhaps the rules on GC could be expanded so that you have to indicate if urban or rural and be tied to more rules depending on the location. Nanos and micros are unlikely to be confused with a bomb but then you are more likely to cause suspition when searching. Not that I want GC to be a "Nanny" site but ... .

I cleared all in the builder generated section - that uploaded. By process of elimination I added section at a time. And although time consuming it proved succesful. Looks like one of the inputs had the wrong name. Phew, not as time consuming as re-doing it all. Thanks for the assistance.

I have similar problem. Would someone please be so kind to review my script? I was editing the inputs between saves when this occured. I uploaded a test file to Wherigo. While completing the last few steps I saved the cartridge but when I came back to it I got the following error: (Quote) Error Reading Cartridge. System.ApplicationException of type 'System.ApplicationException' was thrown. at Groundspeak.Wherigo.ZonesEngine.ZonesEngineDll.LuaDoFile(string filename) at ZonesAuthor.LuaFunctions.ReadLuaCartridge(String luaFileName) at ZonesAuthor.frmMain.OpenCartidgeFile() (/Quote) Marlow Town Trail.zip

Slightly related toAh yes!'s question. I uploaded a test file to Wherigo. While completing the last few steps I save the cartridge but when I came backto it I got the following error: Have I lost it all or can it be recovered from the uploaded gwc file?

And now pigo is Wherigo. I will be testing my first creation tomorrow.

JOSSS introduced me to an absolutely fabulous app for paperless caching, geosphere.

love it on the iPhone - hate it on IE6 at work Gray works for me .... (so in joke) but hate the space. Change is good if it's andvancement, can't see the advancemnet here myself.

me thinks me wants to do all of this. need a driver???

My first find was in ireland so holds a special place in my heart regarding caching. best finds in Ireland are: http://coord.info/GC43 in Bray, just south of Dublin. And not just because it's Europe's first cache. http://coord.info/GCGE68 on an island of Galway on west coast http://coord.info/GC10XX9 near Carlow, ok probably just sentimental with this one.

Went to tht pit for a friend's birthday. Great experience. I thought a locker in the showers would make a great cache container...

I keep saying I need a new GPS. I started with a GPS 12 that I bought for work back in 2000. It was ok for caching but I knew there were better units when caching buddies had a much more accurate location than me. So next I bought a pda so that I could run memory map. That was a great move. The paperless app I used wasn't great but workable. Memory map wonderful and it allowed me to run Wherigo which I have come to love. Next came the iPhone 3G, not for caching but because I wanted the toy ... sorry, phone. it proved great for adhoc as you appear aware. Then when those around me bought the iPhone 3GS I saw the real potential of an iPhone as it was probably as accurate as my GPS 12 which I was still having to use. Now I have an iPhone 4 and it's great. Never use my other devices. But i don't just use the Groundspeak app as that's more energy and data hungry than another I use. However I do still want a flashy GPS, but now know it will have to be very accurate, paperless capable, Wherigo able. And I just can't justify that yet.

My aim is to find a cache a day. I should have tried this a few years ago when I hadn't cleared my area.

The target and then size of nano are good ideas but it's just not comprehensive enough. Guess it won't be ling before they create units only compatible with their site.

I'd like to put the record straight. The Groudspeak national forum was used to ask the question would it be a good idea. That is we asked the question. Thought provoking I knew at the time. The reason I asked the question was in order to discover if it was worth us organising. We got mixed reviews but positive vibes too. Jumping into the mix we were then told that NW were talking. Fair enough. But why not discuss it more pubically when others try to do the same?

Well I think the common sense approach certainly has worked. It was aplied to the two events in chequers and it seemed appreciated by all who attended the evening event. Originally the event was going to be the night before but it made sense to have two very different events at similar times. The times for the evening event wre suggested by the reviewer to try and follow the common sense and it worked. It gave cachers a chance to either go caching or relax in the pub. So a thumbs up from me to common sense. As for the other issue of smiles I seem to be in the minority here. I can't see why they should be stopped for events. Someone going to an event once a month hardly breaks the caching stats. In a year that's the equivilant of a mornings caching for some. And there already is a way of seeing how many caches someone has found broken down by the type.

Think you're right. Any NW want to get in touch then please e-mail me through my profile. It would be good to discuss. This will teach me to read to the end before jumping in.

Perhaps if thought was really involved to check if the "mumblings of the SE" had been taken seriously a quick note via e-mail would have been appropriate to those who had shown that interest. I publically put out there the notion of a SE (OK I said London but SE is more suitable) mega for the Olympics for the very reason mentioned by a few here. I hadn't heard of other events and I wanted to see what anyone thought not just in one region. Interest was expressed and committee volunteers stepped forward. Well that's my 2p worth. I'm sure more will be discussed and this will run and run. I for one still support the SE mega as place where coincidently many foreign cachers would be able to get to as well. Isn't that after all the reason for a mega. To draw in all from far and wide. If NW moved theirs to 2013 then I would also happily support theirs in any way that I could.

we can only hope sniger sniger

Yep. me too

Thanks for the offer. Plans do seem to be coming together so hopefully see you there.