Firth of Forth

I'm going to join Haggis Hunter and TartanT. My 15 year old son is also coming along. Looking forward to it already.

A good idea - is there any interest from others??

I think that Pooter's recent achievement, announced in the thread 'Will he won't he' has largely gone unnoticed. I should have started a completely new thread to make it obvious. So here it is. Fantastic work Pooter!

Since HH and TartanT have already made plans for August 15th and an assault on Ben Nevis, not only Britain's highest mountain but also Britain's highest cache, and a trigpoint to boot, my vote goes to this being the first Scottish geocachers day out. Its a great opportunity to bag an inaccessible cache. As HH has already pointed out though, you will need all the proper gear, and some idea that you can manage a Munro. I believe that there's still snow at the top even now. Im definitely keen to come along. Perhaps we can persuade Highland Nick to come too, so that we dont actually have to call out the mountain rescue team if we get into difficulties?

Anyone who attended this event might be interested in reading a report of it in geocaching today under the regions page, or go to this link. I'm not at all sure what the role of Scotland rep for the online mag will involve, but I think it can probably develop any way that geocachers in Scotland want. If anyone has any ideas, or wishes to contribute a wee geocaching story or news, please contact me or Inukshuk at contributors@geocaching today.com.

Is that at the power walking speed or a more normal pace?

And he did! Reach his 300th I mean. A truly dedicated geocacher. Congratulations Pooter. The only Scottish cacher claiming 300 I think?

HH, you like that B***** word too much!! See Aviemore Adventures on Geocaching Today

It seems that there is probably enough interest to make an attempt at this. I dread to think of the difficulties we may have, however, trying to find a date that will suit most people. To pluck one out of the air - what about Sunday August 15th? As for which cache to do - it might be appropriate to do 'Scotland's First', a good hike, a trigpoint at the top, two possible Munros to bag, great scenery, and the oldest cache in the entire country. This one would of course be weather dependent. These are only suggestions. I'll now leave the debating about dates and caches to all of you.

I'm wondering whether there is any interest amongst the Scottish geocaching community for occasional group forays into the wilderness to track down some of the less accessible caches. I'm thinking along the lines of ramblers walks, where people are welcome to turn up at a designated parking place at a specific time. I think that many of us enjoy solitary caching trips, or cache regularly with friends, partners and children, but from time to time may be interested in getting together for a cache/trig point bagging hiking trip. I'm not offering to organise anything; think I've probably taken on enough having just (by default and a tiny bit of arm twisting) become the regional rep for the new Emag 'Geocaching Today'. Does anyone have any thoughts about the idea?

You know that you're addicted to geocaching when: You drive home from your latest geocaching expedition, planning the next one in your head, despite having suffered yet another mini disaster. These have included finding that my parked car has rolled backwards into a stone wall, encountering a bull in a field, lossing an expensive pair of sunglasses (luckily found on a return trip) and dropping my GPS into a burn in a place that made it difficult to retrieve it.

Probably the most central cache is Crag and Tail which is on Edinburgh castle rock. According to geocacheuk there are 38 caches within a 10 mile radius, or 27 caches classified as being in Edinburgh. I think that it would be a very tough challenge; there are a few fairly long historical multis, one cache is on an island and can only accessed at low tide, another is up a hill and is most easily accessed when the chairlift is operating, and another one can only be done at night (not as easy as you might think when it's not dark here until around 11pm at the moment). The geocacheuk site lists some of these as being outside Edinburgh, but I think the boundaries it uses are a little strange.

All this talk of caching numbers, plus a comment by Haggis Hunter a while ago, has me wonder whether anyone would like to try for a record in Edinburgh. There are 42 caches within an 8.2 mile radius of the city centre. Could it be achievable in 24 hours I wonder? I'm sure local cachers would rally round to help/buy a drink for anyone tempted to try.

Oh - and if you take a detour off the M6 at junction 38 at Tebay, you can bag two caches and rejoin the M6 at junction 37. These areCivic Trust (a virtual) and Flannagen and Allen (both of which you can do without getting out of your car). Take the 'Old Scotch Road' from there to rejoin the M6; it runs alongside it until Junction 37. Happy caching.

If you change your route a bit and go via the M90 and over the Forth Road Bridge, you can easily bag Forth 2 North TB Motel. I dont think it would add much time, if any, to go via M80 and M8 to get to the M74. There are currently four TBs waiting for onward travel.

I must admit to having become more blase about what other people might be thinking the more I have been out geocaching. It is certainly easier if you are not on your own, but unfortunately, once your children are past a certain age, they are much more likely than their parents to be concerned about others. My teenage daughter is horrified if I carry on regardless rummaging around in the undergrowth when passersby appear, and urges me to stop. Looking for a hidden plastic container just isn't cool! She also gets very embarrassed if I reveal my passion to anyone!

Obviously not completely addicted!!

Well, one of them would have been taken tonight if my plans hadn't been rained off. Miserable night and no rainjacket with me. Got a good soaking at a cache nearby and decided to give the rest a miss. We've been spoilt by the great weather in recent months.

However, the point is still that not that many people speak Dutch/Flemish or whatever you want to call it, so the opportunties for the vast numbers of people travelling through these countries to geocache are limited. I just wonder whether geocaching.com could organise a translation for those cache pages written in some of the less popular languages. It is to their credit that some cachers have taken the trouble to provide their own translations (which sometimes results in fairly hilarious phrases or words).

Look at how the Murricanes have spelled Fife!!

The link seems to be working OK, but the URL is www.geocaching.com/map/england.asp

The French game is virtually identical to geocaching without the GPS. So a cache is a "ciste" and a cacher is a "cisteur".

However, I may be able to claim a few in Belgium on the way back to the ferry. Although I can just about decipher French cache pages, I will have to give the Flemish ones a miss. It's a pity that such pages don't appear in other languages - how many people speak or read Flemish? The rules for placing caches appear to be a bit different on the continent. Many of them are buried in the sand and you are adivsed to take a shovel (or 'shuffle' as it appeared on one page). Here is an example

Big mistake I know, should have listened to my daughter who wanted to go to the USA. Will know better next year.

Thankks for the information, but it's as I thought, a compete caching desert. This map shows it even better