Firth of Forth

I was there a couple of weeks ago for a day, and introduced my brother to caching. Look at my profile to see what you could manage in that time just by walking (although I took a taxi to the Vondelpark and then a tram back to the station). AMS1 was probably the most fun, and the next day after I was there the third in this series was published. The puzzle cache in Chinatown is easy to solve too.

Maybe that's what happened, then, as I did start working on this cache a few weeks ago. Anyway, I'd just like to thank the reviewers for such a speedy job over the last few days. Yesterday I submitted another cache and it was published about 2 minutes later! Do you guys never have a holdiay?

Never mind! It's just been published (but I still didn't get the email beforehamd).

I put the finishing touches to a new cache this morning, clicked on "Yes, this listing is active", but did not receive the usual emails to say that it is in the queue. Should I be concerned or has the system seized up today?

You get an automated email when a log is deleted, so everyone would know. While, in principle, I think that it's fair enough to set a task and delete logs if a cacher hasn't stuck to the conditions, I do think it's a bit unfair to do so for logs made so long ago. I think that it would be fairer to 'police' the logs as they are made so that a cacher has a chance to recitfy the matter, if possible. If this can only be done by checking the logbook, then that makes the task of doing so more cumbersome, and you may want to reconsider whether there is another way to check on the task or whether you should change the task.

Current top ten list from Itsnotaboutthenumbers: Consecutive Days With a Find Name Days Dates Alibags 24 10/09/04 - 11/01/04 G Force 18 1/21/07 - 2/07/07 Stuey 17 2/12/07 - 2/28/07 Cache Hit 14 1/02/06 - 1/15/06 katiegremlin 12 7/16/04 - 7/27/04 markandlynn 12 7/30/06 - 8/10/06 allieballie 11 7/21/05 - 7/31/05 The Bolas Heathens 11 7/28/06 - 8/07/06 purple_pineapple 10 8/21/06 - 8/30/06 drsolly 10 2/17/07 - 2/26/07 Good to see two completely obsessed Scottish Cachers in that list! My own is a paltry 7 days when on holiday in Portugal.

You could try contacting a Scottish cacher who moved to Atlanta last year - one half of the Decisive Twins - profile here.. She may be able to help.

I made a mistake in entering my profile details - how do I ammend them so that the hypertext works? I have just noticed that the list of Scottish Councils is incomplete as Orkney and Shetland Islands are missing. I don't think that the UK cache would be complete without them!

Prague is a great city for caching. Jack Aubrey and I spent a few days there last August and combined sightseeing with caching very easily. There are more than enough caches to keep you fully occupied for a number of days. The only problem with the caches there is that they are constantly being muggled and replaced. Many of the centre ones have been replaced a dozen or more times! It seems to be an accepted part of the cache setting experience. I printed a map from Mapsource (data exported from GSAK) which was provided with my Garmin.

It would appear that most other cachers who have expressed a view here are happy to go along with the OP's guidelines. This may be the case, I think that the majority are happy to go along with the OP's guidelines BUT that doesn't change the fact that the same cachers - and I am one of them - may have envisaged something else. Secondly, the Guidelines have not been decided upon and I for one (possibly in the extreme minority) would like to see more of a challenge/quest than driving around picking up "easy" caches. For once, I am living on Planet Reality and am fully aware that I will not complete this series. I do not have the time or money spare to do so. therefore, I am going to be limited to finding those caches in the counties I am fortunate to visit. I'd certainly like to make it a bit more interesting than Drive-by's or 5 minute walkie caches. I don't have any intention of placing a drive by or a 5 minute walk cache. I think that we could trust that the vast majority of those who have volunteered to participate will set a cache that is reasonably interesting and takes a moderate degree of effort to get to. If not everyone does this, does it really matter? As for the phone idea to check coordinates of multis, forget it. There are too many unforeseen obstacles to this eg i) no signal ii) dead battery or iii) left it at home/don't have one. IMHO we should try to ensure that all of the caches can be completed without hiccups. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are all going to be dead easy.

It would appear that most other cachers who have expressed a view here are happy to go along with the OP's guidelines.

I've put myself and/or Jack Aubrey down for East Lothian. It will be a straightforward traditional cache in a nice spot. It could prove difficult to cover some of the more remote areas in Scotland. Completing this series of caches just in the 32 Scottish council areas is going to be a challenge, whatever the level of cache difficulty, involving at least two major ferry trips to the Western Isles and Orkney.

So which one is the film can hidden in ?? Luckily the cache box is nearby but not hanging from the tree.

And then....what about a shoe tree??!! The Balerno Shoe Tree and again here

On last year's skiing trip all we were able to find was the cache at Geneva airport: there were no caches in the vicinity of our resort. I'd like to say thanks to Kewfriend for placing a cache last week just in time for this year's trip! If there is any more fresh snow in the next few days we may be able to ski all the way to it!

Unfortunately I have never been to Capetown. It was my partner, Jack Aubrey (not his real name of course!), who was there and wrote about his caching adventures.

And a few logs before that, my partner Jack Aubrey! Here is an extract of his geocaching adventures log that he wrote for our Scottish forum: "The first part of the journey to Cape Town was the flight to Heathrow which I shared with a lady who insisted on eating the filling from BA's sandwich without eating the bread. Happily she was transferring to a transatlantic flight.... The rest of the journey was much more agreeable, slightly aided by an upgrade to first Arrival saw me getting entangled with South African officialdom. I'd been asked to get 2 botles of whisky as gifts for my Minister to give to his counterparts at the conference we are attending. So did as I was bid. Should have read the small print: only one bottle allowed duty free into RSA. After a while I got the duty paid (just over a pound, for which I received a two-page receipt). Once at the hotel, I met up with the rest of the small Scottish contingent. The South African Government was taking no chances on security and each Minister and party is allocated two close protection officers. We tried going for a walk around the new Waterfront development in Cape Town (more like Leith than you want to imagine...) but it didn't really work. And more importantly, you can't do much caching in these circumstances. But I did manage to grab a virtual at the harbour entrance. So we negotiated with the minders, who, being decent chaps, readily agreed to turn themselves into tour guides and they whistled up a vehicle and drove us along the coast to Simon's Town and the African penguin colony on the beach. I learned later that the two caches in the area had been disabled, but, to be honest, I was so taken with the penguins that I couldn't be bothered looking for boxes. The little creatures wander round through the kids on the beach without a care and will cheerfully pose for photographs. They lurk everywhere (there is a sign in the car park asking you to check for penguins beneath your vehicle before moving off.) Then back into Cape Town along the high road acoss the flank of Table Mountain and on to Signal Hill which looks out towards Robben Island (where Mandela, among others, was imprisoned). I knew there was a cache nearby and persuaded the assembled company to let me give a caching demonstration. There were the expected expressions of sympathy for my affliction but when I returned with a TB, the questions started to flow and the two protection officers took the website details. (If GC.com gets closed down on security grounds, it's not my fault, honest!) Two caches for a day was not a great haul. But I felt that there were mitigating circumstances. Today (Sunday) was different. A colleague and I got up early determined to have a go at Table Mountain. Because the Minister wasn't coming with us, we were free to go unprotected. And I'd got a caching plan worked out the night before (not a caching plan in the sense that FoF would use the term, of course; but a plan, nevertheless). Cape Town must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world in terms of location. The city itself is not a great gem, but the location between the huge sandstone terraces of the mountain and the sea, coupled with the climate is peerless. The mountain forms a long, sheer-sided, flat-topped ridge behind the city and lies about 15 minutes drive by cab on a Sunday morning from the centre. There is a cable-car at the eastern end of the ridge, but it can't run in strong winds. Today was such a day, but we were intent on getting up on foot anyhow. About 3,500 feet high, rising from pretty much sea level and a couple of miles or more long, the wall of Table Mountain is like a bit of Torridon dropped into Africa. Except for the vegetation. There are more varieties of plant on Table Mountain than there are in the whole of the British Isles. Meadows of purple irises, fields of wild geraniums, forests of what look like cone-bearing succulents. It was like climbing through a botantical garden. And except for the wild-life. Brightly coloured lizards and insects, "dassies" a kind of rabbit sized creature (related most closely it's said - rather bizarrely - to the elephant) that has developed sticky feet to move more securely round the mountain flanks. And very much except for the climate. If only Scottish hills were always so balmy! The Platteklip Gorge makes height quickly, over a succession of rocky steps into a final narrow section with impressively overhanging walls that pops you out suddenly like a cork from a bottle into a wee dip on the summit plateau about a third of the way along the ridge from the eastern end. And it is a plateau: Table Mountain looks flat from below because it is all but flat on top. The Gorge disgorged us at about 1040 meters. The "summit" at Maclear's Beacon about a mile and a half to the west is at 1085. We set off for the Beacon along the edge of the escarpment facing out over the City and the Cape Peninsula. A series of expostulatory emails were blackberried to FoF - she's accurately reflected the flavour of the gibbering. It is truly a stunning place to be. Technically, of course, you can't see both the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. The huge "False Bay" on the Eastern side of the Cape Peninsula which Magellan thought was the Indian Ocean when he'd rounded the Cape of Good Hope is still geographically the Atlantic. But it's so different in character and temperature from the sea to the West of the Cape that it really should be the Indian Ocean! Maclear's Beacon discharged a micro that a previous visitor had rescued from water-logged squalor. My companion was duly impressed that my Foretrex had led me to such a tiny thing across more than half the world. I knew then that I had a convert. On across the other edge of the plateau, gazing out across the rolling hills of the Cape wine country. Up towards the sharp Eastern prow of the Mountain and Fountain Peak, a rocky prominence with stunning views (just like every other point on the hill!). Consulting my GPSr, I declared that we were close to the cache and Tim spotted it in its hidey hole. Hooked! He invented a caching name for himself on the spot (inspired by the Torridonian setting) and signed the log. I left Malinky's kiwi coin to continue its journey to New Zealand from here - a 6,000 mile start of Skinny's, provided the cache isn't next visited by a Brit! After romping out to the far end of the rocky ridge of Fountain Peak with a bit of enjoyable scrambling (sorry, FoF! ) we cut back up to collect a cache near the top station of the cable car. Tim now all for "where's the next one?" At the station we met a group of young British climbers who wanted their group photo taken. And very one of them had a camera and they all wanted a shot on their memory card. So Tim and I were festooned with other people's cameras while the group posed. We thought for a moment about what we could make on Ebay, but reckoned the youngsters were probably fit enough to catch us. We left them taking the next series of group pictures (the "sunshine pose") for themselves... Back down the Gorge (hard on the knees) and a long a countour path that led through a grove of pines, across a waterfall, under a 300 metre sandstone roof and past a holm-oak to find the next cache. Or, rather, to find ourselves 500 feet above it. Another kilometre of walking to get to and down the zig-zag that would get us to it. Why didn't we go straight down the slope? The flowers here are gorgeous; but they are interspersed with bush that makes the Scottish use of the term "jaggy" for feeble stuff like thistles, thorns and brambles positively wimpish. After the last cache "Top Billing" (so-called because it was placed to star in a TV film about caching) we thought about walking up to the bottom Cable Car station to call a cab. And what should come by at that moment? Fortune favours the seriously sun-burned! Back to the hotel just in time to shower and change and put the shoes worn for the day's epic into a cupboard that now smells like a compost bin. Then down to the lobby to meet Tricky Vicky and Mickey and CownChicken, African cachers who had kindly emailed me their suggestions for local caches and much else besides. And they did me the further favour of introducing me to Windhoek beer...... Journeys end with cachers' meetings........ Well, if I finsih this quickly, there might be time for another Windhoek... Refreshed Jack"

I ALWAYS poke first with whatever stick or branch I can find. Recently at a cache (which we never found) at Bracklinn Falls near Callander, Jack put his hand in a hole and took it out very quickly when he felt a warm wet nose!

27 caches! More than enough for everyone!

Thanks for the link.

Does anyone have a 1,000 finds geocoin to sell?

Sometimes a trig is a cache as in this one called 'The Imprisoned Trig'. Deego - perhaps you'd better not read this one! Might be too upsetting

Is there a view on this from admin? If it's not viable, for whatever reason, then it would be good to know.

It's a stone bridge.....and not very old Come to Europe and you might see thousands and thousands of stone bridges, just like that. It's interesting to see what the different perspectives are on different continents. Reminds me of a locationless cache for 'roman bridges' started by a Portuguese cacher and which was logged by hundreds of Americans in America. Somehow I don't think the Romans ever got across the Atlantic, but I could be wrong Our mistake is to get very blase about old things, which visiting Americans appreciate so much more than us!

A big bump for this! I'll be in London by lunchtime tomorrow, and looking forward to the event. Ive counted more than 20 new icons that I can discover! Whoppee!