talkscience

I did one in Dorset. The involvement of the library is a big clue towards solving the puzzle (not the whole way though). For that reason I have linked to it, rather than put the GC code here. SPOILER (Sort of) If you don't want to know which puzzle in Dorset it is, don't click the link! A Dorset Puzzle Cache with a bookish element. HTIOI Talkscience

My Fave in Surrey is LQ Surrey (GC162DT). There are some other interesting caches fairly close by too - I always fancied trying GC11WMT which is nearby (but have not quite gotten around to it). There is a nice cave type thing at St Catherines Hill (not one you can go into though). There is a cache there: GCZJJJ St Catherine Tate (another one I keep meaning to do...). That said, LQ Surrey and St Catherines hill might be a bit on the hilly side.... If you can travel a bit further north in Surrey, some of the ones on the bank of the Thames are really good, and the Staines Moor series (GC1P9GX onwards) is a fave too.

Loving the binary signature!! My head is hurting trying to learn txt spk for "getting down with the kids". Binary is a whole 'nother thing (I cheated and used a binary decoder)!

Wasn't geocaching during the BH Monday day, but idly surfing the site that evening I found a potential first to find multicache opportunity (Thorpe Meadow: GC1CC47) about a mile from my house. Half past 9 at night I cycled to the requisite spot and started hunting. By 11 the heavens had opened, the torch batteries were failing, there were nettles and barb wire and I had still not found the first stage of the three stage cache. I went home very wet, and woking wonder claimed the FTF the next morning (they were lovely and invited me to join them, but my work isn't that flexible). Still enjoyed it though!!

Thanks everyone for your comments on this. As I said before, my work is encouraging teenagers to walk more - specifically in urban environments (I work for the Walk to School Campaign at the charity Living Streets). We are looking at creating a sort of reward scheme for walking, but one of our big challenges is how we can "prove" that teenagers are walking. One idea we had was to place something which teenagers would find on their walk to school (and which wouldn't be visible from cars). These would be similar to caches (in that they are located in a geographical location and take a bit of finding), but we would not expect teens to have a GPS to find them. We were toying with the idea of coded stickers stuck to street furniture. They would then enter the code to a website to prove they had walked, and would be able to leave comments associated with a particular spot. From everyone's posts, it sounds as if we may need to rethink a little bit. The key themes I feel are coming out of this discussion are that the "urban" and smaller caches are less popular, and the fun (for teens) is in the finding, the swapping and the cache contents, rather than the logging and collecting as many as possible. There is also a fair amount of fun in the "secrecy" aspect (which is encouraging) but there is also a risk that caching can be seen as weird or "uncool". Thanks everyone for your help - it is greatly appreciated. I love the fact that everyone I have met through geocaching (virtually or actually) has been so friendly and welcoming!

WoW. What a response! Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Keep 'em coming! I found Jantaculum's comments especially interesting - one of the things I am finding (in terms of encouraging kids to walk) is that if "the cool kids" are doing something, the "less cool" kids are more likely to do it. If cool kids are interested in caching I may have found a way in!

As a relatively new geocacher (December 07 onwards) I have been enthusiastically extolling its virtues to all my friends and colleagues. A few have suggested potential overlaps with my day job, which is encouraging teenagers (predominantly 11-16 year olds, with some older and younger) to walk more (specifically to school, but any walking is good in my book!). Before I pursue this too much further, I thought I would ask the opinions of other UK cachers. What are your experiences of caching with teenagers (family members or otherwise). Do they find it enjoyable and actively look forward to it, or are they just doing it because they "are being dragged on a walk"? Are there particular types of caches, cahe locations, or aspects of caching, that appeal more to teens? I don't quite know yet how this will develop, but lets see what the response is and we will go from there! If you want to discuss it with me off the bulletin board get in touch through my profile. Andrew (Talkscience).

I am a Royal Holloway Alumni, still living in the area, so sign me up! (E-mail just sent).

My wife's old job used to involve her climbing up lamposts to retrieve air pollution tubes. She always said that the only time she was asked what she was up to by members of the public was when she was not wearing her bright yellow jacket. I have a theory that wearing a fluorescent yellow jacket makes you invisible - I plan on trying it for urban geocaching sometime soon!