Watford Wobble

I doff my hat to you and can remember when I finally got to fins one of your keyring lights. Well done Sir.

My wife and I, whilst looking for a cache in Northampton on a bridleway, could see in the distance two 'birders' watching us through binoculars and a long lens camera. We ceased the search and decided to have a drink of coffee. An aggressive 'birder' bloke then walked up to us and asked 'What you doing?' 'And you are?' I'm not partial to someone of no authority asking me what I'm doing. 'I've called the Police!' 'OK.' 'So what you doing?' 'I'll explain to the Police when they arrive.' He goes on to say we are disturbing birds. I'm a bit of a birder myself and know we were not disturbing no birds around the field gate nesting or otherwise. Oh, how I'm so looking forward to the arrival of the Police. After some time of small talk he tells us he's going home. 'But you've called the Police. Can you call them again and let's get this issue sorted out?' He went on his way and I logged a DNF. So, when someone asks me what I'm doing I ask of them 'And you are?'

That's as big as my house!

I've used my iPhone a couple of times and it's pants for caching. I still use my Garmin and log using the iPhone.

And there was me thinking farmers just flung cow sh1t everywehere once in a while.

I know of an owner that couldn't find his own cache I'd never log my own caches as found though.

What a tight wad. £1970 for an engagement ring. No wonder the lady in question didn't want to marry the tight fisted bloke

I log DNF's. I'm not proud.

Blimey, has harry Potter been around since 1997?

I'm told by the wife that the reference to muggles comes from one of his books. People without mystical powers or some such nonsense. Never read the blokes book myself. So, prior to this Harry Potter bloke turning up what did cacher's call muggles?

What I find particularly shallow is that the individual or group haven't even got the balls, courage or conviction in their claims to identify themselves. Oh well it will only make me the more determined to continue.

I've had three caches go missing in the first quarter of 2009. These all located around the Watford, Northampton village area. Two were clip top boxes and one a nano. When the first nano went missing I thought it very strange as it was covered by a small door fashioned out of a branch. Even TAG who was FTF commented that it will get some people searching. The second and third caches were in isolated locations and I just can't imagine this being due to opportunistic muggles. I thought to myself then that I was maybe being targeted. All caches had my details contained within them even mobile and e-mail address so can't imagine it being these enviro 'mentalists' going round at the moment. Or maybe it was. I wasn't aware of a possible larger problem until I saw Dragontree and TAG Premium Member some of their caches on my watchlist. I will leave mine as they are for the moment. I only have a few but feel really sorry for members who put a great deal of work into series and other caches only for them to be vulnerable to these nasty people.

I'm up to a grand total of 47 but have only been doing it for a few months. I try and build my caching into my everyday life. So if I have to travel anywhere I'll sort out some caches along the route or destintaion. I'm in Paris next week on business so have a couple of caches sorted out. No idea how that's going to pan out but be an adventure.

Oh blimey my phone's about 8 years old so up grade about due. Nokia something or other. But it does have a very useful LED light and a good version of snake game.

Thanks D&G. I'm down your neck of the woods (Chagford then Padstow) in October. It would be great caching 'on the hoof' so to speak with an iphone. I'm also dropping off a TB and won't be able to log the drop until I get back home. Maybe I need to do more research.

OK, I'm a real old fart when it comes to technology and am very interested in going paperless. Is the iphone 3G the way to go do you think? I'm no IT expert, can figure my way around eventually. But I got lost after the second post in this thread.

I took Mr. Jiffy #25 for a ride today on my British built Roberts cycle. I think he liked it. Will drop off soon somewhere in Northampton England.

Oh well, not a great success at the weekend with only a 25% success rate for 4 caches around Barby, Northamptonshire. However 100% success rate in walking to places I'd never been before even though living in the area for 42 years. Seeing some great views on my doorstep. And sleeping like a log on Friday night. So not all bad then.

This is very sad news indeed however being a newbie to geocaching I agree with Studlyone's comments and can provide some insight into a newbie's thought process. Before I started geocaching only a couple of weeks ago and had I not reasearched how to play I also thought geocoins were to keep. Geoswag I thought? Of course having read and researched I soon realised that this is certainly not the case. I would like to think though the person if it is indeed a newbie would have realised what to do with the geocoins. This problem seems to have gone on for some time though.

Yeahhhh, well done geo kitten. I'd just finished caching around Barby and was driving home when I heard you. Good, good tune to request by the way. Had rubbish day caching otherwise 3 dnf's.

Nediam is correct about the site. I'll have another bash this weekend with the wife. When I mentioned to the wife about the size of nano caches she thought I was joking. It'll be a while before I tackle any of those I must admit I didn't appreciate the devious nature of this for some of the cache owners. I'll be out this afternoon honing my skills on some easier caches. Thanks for all your advice and help. Much appreciated.

Hello Munkeh, Yes, checked that out and corretly set.

Thanks everone for your response. All very helpful. I guess it could be a while till I get a hang of this. But if it was easy where would the fun be. I'll take the wife along. She just seems to stumble across the cache straight away. And anything I hide or try to at home she finds anyway.

OK, I’m new to this game so be gentle with me. I believe there are two key fundamental points with geocaching. 1. Is based on GPS. 2. A cache is hidden at a defined point that includes a log. There is of course a lot more frippery and fun to be had with geocaching but these as I see are the fundamentals. So, I’m looking to do my seventh cache at the weekend. I load the GPS co-ordinates into my GPS that locates me to a point on the earth’s surface only to find that in the clues it states not to look in the logical area as the cache is not there. The cache is to be found in the surrounding area I presume. What’s the point of that? If your going to give out co-ordinates surely they should be reasonably accurate to where the cache is hidden. This particular cache and it’s co-oridinates leads the geocacher to a fallen tree. Great place to hide a cache but oh no it’s not there. There is enough inaccuracy in a GPS to make it fun without intentionally being misleading. Where does it stop? I’ll hide a cache in Harlestone forest but it’s not there. It’s in the New Forest? Surely if you want to make the find difficult use ingenuity of hiding the cache and not provide mis-leading co-ordinates. It doesn't appear to be a regularly visited cache. I think I know why. Or have I got the wrong end of the stick totally?

It was a full sachet I'm afraid.