Firth of Forth

I'm helping someone with an article about geocaching in Scotland. Is there a way to find out how many caches there are in Scotland using a database of all of the UK caches on GSAK? And is there any way of finding out at what rate they have been increasing (ie being placed) in Scotland?

I sent a print out of the g.com thread to Ewan's family, as I thought that the posts were really quite moving. I've had a reply from Lorna, Ewan's wife, which I really didn't expect, as I'm sure she has better things to do. However, it's a lovely letter and she tells me that Ewan is communicating by blinking his eyes and squeezing his hand. The brain injuries may not be as bad as was first thought. She was comforted by the kind words and good wishes in this thread. She knows that a lot of people are thinking about him and wishing him every chance of a recovery.

Ewan is in intensive care. He has not regained consciousness, but has responded to his name. So that's a good sign. Keeping all of my fingers and toes crossed.

When your son gets accepted to the great halls of Cambridge,he will then be in an enviable position to hide a few well placed caches to make up for the lack thereof. I too was disappointed by the lack of handy caches when I was in Cambridge a little while ago. Oooh, you think your son will place some caches? We DEMAND an underwater one in the Cam. It's only a couple of feet deep!!! Well, IF he does go there next year, I will suggest that idea to him. At the very least I suppose that I could place them on a visit and then get him to maintain them! Could possibly get him to think up some kind of dastardly maths puzzle, seeing as that's his specialist subject....how about that?

A lot of you know, or know of, Billy Twigger, the Isle of Bute cache-setter extraordinaire. I have just learned that Ewan fell from a cliff on Bute yesterday whilst putting a new cache out. He was rescued by helicopter, but has broken his neck and suffered brain damage. The prognosis is not good. His wife wants the Geocaching community to know the news, as caching was such a large part of his life. I'm completely devastated, as I'm sure everyone else will be.

I wish that Cambridge was similarly endowed with caches. Looks like I might grab two or three at the most next week on a short visit with my son to look at colleges, once I exclude a couple of long multis and the unavailable from the very short list. Perhaps I should encourage my son to apply to Oxford instead of Cambridge.

That's a good link. It's clearly much worse and more confusing than I thought!! I pity those people who live in a village in one area, whose children go to school in the nearest town in another local authority and who work in yet another local authority.

Hmm...it's all very confusing. I have lived in Scotland for nearly 20 years and have never heard of an early August bank holiday - and have never known anyone to be off work then. But when I googled just now I discovered that we, apparently, had a bank holiday on August 7th. Noone told me! There are different public holidays in different parts of Scotland - the school holidays are different in each Local Authority (and are always different to those in England). Even with different parts of one region there can be different holidays. Being different is a national pasttime! From the Scottish Executive - please someone tell me what it means!! "Q. What is the difference between a bank holiday and a public or local holiday? A. It is important to draw a distinction between bank holidays, and public or local holidays in Scotland. As the dates for bank holidays are set out in statute or are the subject of proclamation, it follows that they are the same across the whole of Scotland. On the other hand public or local holidays in Scotland are determined by local authorities, based on local tradition (not statutory authority) and after consultation with local business interests. There is no legal or statutory definition of public holiday in the United Kingdom and it is questionable whether public holidays exist in Scotland. The term is often confused with bank holidays. In England and Wales a bank holiday tends automatically to be a public holiday, in that the majority of people have the day off and the day is generally observed as a holiday. In Scotland this is not always the case."

Well done TP!! Congratulations!!

It's all very flexible There is a crowd starting at 9.30am. There are some starting at 10.30am. And I think that there may be others starting at 11.30am (the faster ones). At any rate, the meet up afterwards is at The Fountain a few miles down the road in Aberfeldy. A print out of the spoiler photo is a must, as the terrain is a massive sea of large and smaller boulders.

I don't see a problem with this - as a way to get a TB hotel started. It's no different to collecting TBs or geocoins before a trip abroad in order to help them move on.

The weather forecast for Sunday is looking quite good: Southeastern Highlands Forecast

Can I point you in the direction of this 3-month-old thread? We could equally well argue for a ban on 'ban-congratulatory-threads' so that some of us don't have to scroll past them.

Being a UK cache it could have been in Scotland, or Wales, or NI......but, of course, it isnt. Of course if it had been in Westminster,London then it would be a Scottish cache If its in NI then the English wouldn't bother anyway (unless he/she's an army type). And if its in Wales then the English can only find it at weekends while visiting their cottages. Err... Ok...guess we'll leave it at that, then.

It's always a bad idea to place caches near a military facility. Whoever placed that one should be, er, shot. Perhaps. This particular 'military facility' is bang next to Prague Castle and its winter gardesn, which are thronged with tourists - probably why we weren't arrested immediately. To be fair, there was a warning about being close to this area on the cache page, too.

Being a UK cache it could have been in Scotland, or Wales, or NI......but, of course, it isnt.

Jack Aubrey and I had to abandon a search in Prague last week. It was a multi in a glen below the castle and the end point was close to a wall of a military area. We searched in vain (in fact we were on the wrong side of the glen as it transpired) but what really put an end to it was the edgy army chap with a machine gun standing on the path nearby, who clearly was wondering whether he should file a report of two suspicious looking characters. We beat a retreat before he became too edgy. I think that there are some circumstances in which caution is advised. Luckily this was a couple of days before the terrorist alarm.

I don't have a midgie net but will bug spray suffice or do I really need a net??? Nah. Only joking. You probably wont need anything walking up the Munro. The campsite may be a different matter Avon Skin So Soft works well - just needs reapplying at frequent intervals!

I'm glad you said it. My sentiments exactly (though I think I did answer one question in the quiz thread early on ).

My thoughts exactly. I listened to the excerpts tonight - and sent a late email to Colin to tell him that the show had done a great job promoting the hobby. I received a very nice personal response very soon after.

Might want to bring your midgie net. It will probably be OK up the mountain though Sadly, Billy Twigger will be unable to attend his own event due to illness. It is, however, still going ahead on August 27th.

Oh! I forgot about the one cache that I did with Deego and....a couple of others whose names I can't quite remember. Caching must be the only activity in which it seemed perfectly reasonable to jump into a car with 3 strange men five minutes after I had met them in a pub, and go off into the woods.

The group caching trips up Munros have been some of the best caching days out - Ben Nevis in 2005, Ben Macdui in 2005, and now looking forward to climbing Schiehallion in less than two weeks (for the third time!). I've had great caching days (and nights) and even a weekend with the ECG. I've cached with the 'Most Enthusiastic Cacher Ever' - Allieballie. I've cached as part of Team Tongue (Pooter, Billy Twigger and Highland Nick) for 12 hours in the pouring rain on the far North coast of Scotland - a highly enjoyable and memorable day. In years gone by I've been out on caching forays with Perth Pathfinders; and The Forester ( ). I spent a day caching in Manchester with Mongoose39 and Powerbookfanatic (or rather they led me around some caches!). I used to do long solo caching Sundays. Since I met Jack Aubrey, I no longer have to cache alone, and with him have extended my caching range considerably to Europe: Dublin, Portugal and Prague. It's a wonderful hobby.

hope it's not 112 after the fire yesterday! Fire?? What fire? I've been out of the country. Who owns the other two caches?

And you had fun deciding who to give it to!! It's my jeep!