mcwomble
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Posts posted by mcwomble
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A lot of the original "old school" Church Micro multi's and by that I mean those set by Sadex himself, used to be nowhere near the church in question due to a lack of decent hiding places.
The cache did require you to wander round the churchyard itself and pick up the clues and then there was a casual 1km+ walk to some distant point with either a vista of the church to enjoy or some other worthwhile reason for being at the cache site.
I have tried to emulate this with some of my Church Micro multi's, in particular CM Stow Maries and have had many a grumble from the "numbers" brigade about having to walk too far, or I thought I must have the sums wrong because it seemed too far to walk.
IMHO, if you cant hide a trad within the immediate locale of the church, then you should be looking at a multi/puzzle cache with a bit of a walk / drive
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G'day folks
I'm contemplating buying a droid tablet** to use instead of my laptop whilst travelling around here in downundershire.
GDAK looks like it will fit the bill for the GSAK requirement, but can you upload caches to your Garmin in the same way as GSAK or will it involve fiddling with the files?
** either Nexus 7 or ASUS equivalent
Tooroo
McWomble / McWombat
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The timing does seen out though.
Well April 1st did start over 12 hours ago down in Oz. I've counted 19 or 20 different cache reviewers for my watched area down in Essex.
Due to an accident of geography that normally is the patch of Red Duster, Long Man, Beekeeper and occasionally La Lunatica, so perhaps that's why I've counted more "new" reviewers.
Perhaps there's been a concerted effort to clear the backlogs?
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I found the need for a new addition this weekend.
Having pushed a 35mm micro pot into the wrong (closed) round hole on a gate post - blue-tak came to the rescue in retrieving it
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I went the Led Lenser route having had no trouble with their torches in the past.
I was torn between the MT7 & M14 both similar in light output (approx 220 lumens). In the end I chose the latter purely on battery type - I have far more rechargeable AA batteries than I do AAAs.
That said I've only just changed the original supplied batteries after 3 months of ad-hoc use.
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Yay - chrome too!! Thanks for the fix!!
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So I'm told just to ignore this series. The trouble is, they drag down the overall quality of the game. In the long term they affect me even if I ignore them, by changing the expectations of other cachers.
It's for this reason that I was very disappointed to see the series published. I would far rather have seen the equivalent effort being put into a score of high quality caches.
Rgds, Andy
+1
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Assuming Mon-Fri, and assuming parking in Maldon
Chelmsford Bus Station 1910 1940 2010 2110 2215 2315 gets you to Maldon Milton Road in 38 mins or Maldon All Saints Church in 33 mins.
In which case I think the two car policy is possibly more acceptable.
Free car parking at Heybridge Basin and £2.50 per traveller per day at Sandon Park & Ride.
There is a cycle route from almost the P&R to the navigation path and from memory the CBN towpath from A12 to Chelmsford basin is not that bad, certainly not as boggy as the section around Ulting Lock to Heybridge.
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Norwich's finest boys in blue one friday evening on the quest for the elusive Quatermass Goes To School cache.
They seemed most bemused and the word seems to have spread through the force, as subsequent cachers have not been queried further after mentioning geocaching.
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A hour and a half to cycle 12 miles...
Do you always ride with your back brake jammed on? 
Well it will be cycling over the second highest point in Essex so that's quite a steep climb to 109m asl. Certainly not a cycle I'd like to do in the dark.
The no 31 bus is only 44 mins and takes you almost door to door!
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If you want the two car option availability then use the Sandon Park & Ride (£2 last time I used it)
Of course you'll need a ticket per traveller but the P+R bus will take you to the centre of town and just a little walk through the Meadows Shopping Centre and you're at the Chelmsford terminus of the CBN.
Of course you wont be able to take bikes on the bus.
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Suggested alternatives have been to park at Heybridge Basin (free), get the bus to Chelmsford and then walk back. No worries then on late arrivals as your car is still waiting.
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The Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation often floods in winter, so depending on where they've been hidden, I imagine there'll be a lot missing come spring. I can imagine a flotilla of film pots bobbing their way down the river. Perhaps a large fishing net might be in order and just wait for the caches to come to you.
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The old Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation series has been saved from dereliction and reincarnated as a Power Trail; a 14 mile walk with 100+ caches placed roughly 200m apart. All maintenance is to be done US-style by the cachers doing the walk, in other words replace if you think it's missing. Any bets on how long it will be before there are multiple caches at the same tricky spot.
Oh joy of joys... be still, my beating heart
Another little something to warm the cockles - a quote from the Essex Geocachers Facebook Page
I know the guidelines say every cache should be in a spot worth going to, but I suspect that was written before the hobby took off to the extent it has. If we stuck to that we could scrap nine out of ten caches and we'd all be twiddling our thumbs because we'd have found all the caches near us. -
Another + 1 for either Bassett series, I prefer the second one.
Again +1 for Southwold - Pirates of The Sole Bay is a hoot but needs a little bit of homework beforehand. I've also heard nice things about the Dunwich Forest series too but have yet to experience.
Basically +1 from what Bendos & Real Boudicca said.
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All maintenance is to be done US-style by the cachers doing the walk, in other words replace if you think it's missing.
So much for cache owners being responsible for maintaining their own caches.
Well the cache owner is only a few months old and still in a pushchair
:blink: The series is mainly 1* terrain which would suggest wheelchair/pushchair availability - I think that must be a 4x4 wheelchair requirement for several parts of the journey.
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Essex got it's first US style power trail today.
The old Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation series has been saved from dereliction and reincarnated as a Power Trail; a 14 mile walk with 100+ caches placed roughly 200m apart. All maintenance is to be done US-style by the cachers doing the walk, in other words replace if you think it's missing. Any bets on how long it will be before there are multiple caches at the same tricky spot.
All traces of historical anecdotes have been scrubbed clean from the old caches, and now the series runs with extracts from the Essex Tourist Guide (to illustrate the diversity of Essex!!!).
To be honest it's like taking on a knackered classic car, and giving it a full body-kit, drop suspension, low profile tyres, flaming paint job and a kick-a** sound system!
Then again this is Essex after all - should we expect any better.
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I have looked at the Satmap, but at £280 per region for 1:25000 i think it's a rip off...
Let the recommendations begin ...........
I've had a Satmap for several years and only use two map cards - 50K All UK and 25K Essex but to be honest I could probably survive with just the 50K card.
Both map cards and GPS were picked up on a well known auction site and at considerably less than the RRP.
I do have an Oregon with talkytoaster maps but mainly use that as backup or when abroad or for those caches that the Satmap can't cater for - (Wherigo's & Chirps). Again an auction site bargain.
Having "grown up" with the Satmap as it's become progressively more geocaching friendly I really rate it, and find the Oregon a little clunky when I use it.
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Thanks for the points in the right direction.
I got mine from a well known auction site for about £170 (450T + 50K map). But I was prepared to wait for the right deal which in this case meant staying up until 0230 for the end of auction.
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Does anyone know if there will be a special Souvenir given for any caches found or events attended on 11/11/11?
If there is make sure it's a Red Poppy for Remembrance/Armistice/Veterans Day
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....as in - he is the top Johnny in this field.
DrSolly appeared at an Essex meet some while back and to most he was DrSolly of 20000+ finds fame, to a couple of us he was DrSolly of the toolkit fame
I still have a copy of that toolkit somewhere.
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I'm sure this one has been mentioned before but probably several pages back in the forum.
I've used it on and off looking for old railway lines for a few "really sidetracked" caches.
There used to be a 1940's OS map section as well as the 30's OS but was patchy for some areas - perhaps that's why it's been removed.
A fantastic tool none the less.
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Right, I like the look of the P7, but the T7 seems identical (and the same price)?
One's in the (P)rofessional series, the other the (T)actical series; the latter being the "preferred" choice for military and police applications (whatever that means!).
By the sounds of things the T series has a better rugged grip than the P series. There may also be defence features installed.
I quite like the look of the MT7 and am torn between it and the P14.
Both have a similar price and luminosity but it could come down to battery size. The former needs AAA, the latter AA of which I already have quite a few rechargeable NiMH. Like I said I'm torn!
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Satmap Active 10 with OS 50K maps or 25K map for Essex.
GPX files either loaded direct from site or after collation in GSAK.
Do you always ride with your back brake jammed on? 
:blink: 
New Geocaching Series
in United Kingdom and Ireland
Posted
I wish the series good luck but I can see the obvious clash with CM series.
Perhaps there will be a willingness to stop and smell the roses, rather than like the recent 110 CMs in a day brigade who must have spent a brief time, if at all admiring the church which the cache was promoting.