Dark_Faerie

Unfortunately only the other half of the team is under 30. He's 28, I'm 30. We started after going camping with friends in September and visiting interesting places we wouldn't have seen otherwise. They told us about caching a couple of years ago, but I never had a spare £100 for a GPS. After the camping trip I managed to find a cheap bluetooth GPS for my phone. Had great fun since, we even went out Christmas Eve and discovered a place I've passed hundreds of times and never noticed.

Can't do any caching christmas day. Working 'til 4 (triple time and a good laugh:D ), followed by dinner at the In-laws, followed by being over the drink drive limit. Otherwise I would have considered going out in the morning. Working Boxing Day too, but off until next year after that (will probably change) Just about to find a few to do on the way to my Mum's tomorrow (Christmas Eve) though. Merry Christmas everyone

The first coin I found 'Aha!' has a mission to visit only puzzle caches where possible. I think there are others. Still my favorite coin as it glows in the dark and is lightbulb shaped.

I saw some in Woolworths that claimed to be 100% watertight! Can't remember what make, but there was a picture of water droplets on the label. Not the ones in the multi pack. My small lunchbox from Asda is holding up quite well (the one with the white lid, the clear lidded ones don't seem as good). I got a lunch box about 9 years ago that is totaly watertight, no rubber seal, but has carried liquid lunches and has been used daily, can't seem to find another one though

I've only got a 15L and a 90L! Must talk to Santa. Forgot to add poop scoop + bags to my last post (even when I forget the dog, the bags can be useful)

When I've replaced the battery, I'm going to put my personal alarm in the bag. Has anyone mentioned a camera yet? With all the things mentioned above I'm going to need a bigger bag!

Not been playing this game long, but this is where I've found swag. Poundland has some really nice fluffy pens for the girls and some clip-on pen keyrings. Supermarket stationary departments are a good place. Also our local corner shop has unusual items which have received positive comments in logs. I've got two mini torch keyrings from Woolworths and I may have to keep one myself. Mainly I just try to think like a 12 year old and if they would like something. I try to keep things in their packaging so that the finder knows it's not from the back of the kitchen drawer. I always have my eyes open for something small and unusual when I'm shopping. I enjoy looking for swaps and see it as part of the fun.

Email sent.

. Had the same problem. Try this. go to the start menu. select 'settings' then the 'connections' tab. click on the 'USB to PC' icon and untick the box. I have to do this and change the GPS connection every time I want to link my phone to the PC as both insist on using the same com port! Your GPS might not be so annoying.

Hi susan, My MDA Vario has the same insides as your XDA mini (mine just has a slide out keyboard as an extra). I'm currently using Beeline on a 30 day trial and It's been amazing. I downloaded the software straight to my phone using its web browser too. I've found some free software but couldn't get it to work (from gpstopsoft.com). Beeline is also the only one that I've found with good instructions. Not tried Geoscout yet, but TB management feature looks interesting. Karen

If you had 1000 you could try this... or here's a few ideas Hot water and Alkaseltzer sounds fun On a more boring and sensible note, I really like the mini first aid kit idea. Might go to Boots next time I'm shopping.

I've got a PDA phone I use for caching. It's got a diffent model number in the States though. It's made by HTC and has a slide out keyboard. In the UK it's the T-mobile MDA Vario II or the O2 XDA something. Not tried Cachemate with it yet but it does work. I also have a bluetooth GPSr and use Beeline GPS instead of having a GPS as I already had the phone when I started caching. The phone has windows mobile 5, mobile internet explorer so you can check cache pages and log find online as you go/check web based email, word, excel, outlook, notes, todo list, callendar. I've also downloaded a route finder (Beta version that won't connect with external GPS but free), Google maps for mobile (also been used to find caches before GPSr arrived) and a few games. I'm going to get a spare battery, but the phones good for about 4 hours use as a GPSr and both devices use the same car charger.

Thankyou for the links! [] I've spent most of the past three weeks looking for and trying software. There seems to be a lot that won't find the correct com port. Last weekend I tried GPS melody from www.pdatopsoft.com and it was great until I got 50m (150 feet) from the cache and it stopped as I was close. Got that down to 12 feet on Friday night. After finding this thread yesterday, I got a demo copy of Beeline which I used this morning to find a cache and I was very impressed. It's also the first one I've found that has an instruction manual. I had problems getting it to connect to my bluetooth GPS last night but no problem today. I'm using a T-mobile MDA Vario II phone with window mobile 2005 (has Internet explorer so I can view cache pages on the move too) and a generic bluetooth GPS receiver with SiRF III chip in it (Should work under trees and in cities). I've managed to download .loc files direct from geocaching.com to my phone and use with Beeline. I just can't work out how to zoom in and out on the map page.

Congratulations. The listings look good with plenty of interesting information. Went to visit a location for my first hide on Saturday. I'd found information about a sculpture on the web. Looked really promising from the website, interesting sculpture, good views, easy walk, parking - sounded great and I wondered why the location hadn't been taken already. Got there and the sculpture had been vandalised, there was evidence of fires being started, the only hiding place was in gorse bushes and the view was rubbish. The walk was easy but I wouldn't want to go there alone. Had another idea today. Need to find/make a matt dark green container with magnets. Don't want to do a micro, but may have to make this the start of a multi. I know the area is safe and there are trees nearby.

Here's one supplier I found in the USA whilst browsing the web last week http://www.oakcoins.com/?geoswag they do pin badges too. The coin looks great. I found my first geocoin yesterday, it is a lightbulb shape that some one had made. Unfortunately it doesn't say who made it.

Just found a link to these keyrings on the handicaching website http://www.cachezone.us/index.php?main_pag...;products_id=37 they're about the size of your thumb. Container is not waterproof but the pencil and log are. Sorry can't seem to work out how to put a picture in the post

There's one near me that has a puzzle to open the box. Not sure what it involves as I've not been there yet. Thinking of going on Sunday afternoon if I don't decide to go somewhere easier to get to. It's GC10PXD if anyone is curious. Karen

Asda (I think) had some very small pots for storing stuff in. I've got one thats had shower gell in for a year now. It's square and a little longer than a film canister. Just noticed an old contact lens case next to the computer, if I could remove the lens holding bit ... Karen edited to add - middle bit of contact lens case just pulls out.

My friend got me into geocaching on a camping trip two weeks ago. I'm planning to try using my phone and blue tooth GPS reciever. I've got impatient and found 3 caches just using google maps whilst waiting for my reciever to arrive. One was 2m out, google pointed right at the exact side of the trees the caches had been hidden! There is a lot of navigation software out there for phones that use windows mobile. Don't know how good any of it is (any recommendations?) but they range from free to $60 or more. My phone is made by HTC, don't know what the model is in the US. In the UK it's the T-mobile MDA Vario II (with a keyboard that slides out to the side). If it can't be used for geocaching, the reciever cost little more than the car charger it comes with and both use the same usb cable for charging. plus I've got a route finder it can be used with.