Original A1

Does your pup do repeat performances? Is he out for rent? I can't find that dadgum cache!!!

There are such keen FTFers in the Edinburgh area that there's absolutely no point in going for any which aren't my side of town (i.e. almost all of them!). One went out last week and was found just over 10 minutes later by some cachers who had driven 4 miles to get it!! Other cachers appear to have noticed this too and I'm seeing a few "please give someone less experienced a chance to FTF this" kind of requests on new caches now. The last FTF I went for in Edinburgh which was quite close to me had about 10 DNFs before it was eventually found! That said, I had a glut of FTFs in May when I was heading up to Perthshire and did a PQ of unfounds. They'd been part of masses set for an event which I couldn't attend, and had been out for 3-4 days before I came along. So it is possible.

Really don't like the Mapquest map (nor Beta map for that matter). Would be a big advocate of restoring the original visuals.

Yes, many congratulations on Dr "Chiltern Hundred" and "fob-torch"! I feel privileged to have met the man himself, and his good lady last year, albeit briefly, and look forward to reading about his exploits in getting the next 20,000...

My closest found is 0.245 miles and the furthest is 8478.088 (Falkland Islands), although had I found the traditional one behind Shackleton's grave in South Georgia, that would have been a bit further, and likewise any of the earthcaches in Antarctica (we didn't have the chance to fulfil the relevant conditions). I think my North/South range is probably one of the greatest, as I've also found caches in Svalbard. Dunno the distance between that and Antarctica, but it's more than a day's caching worth!

Apart from the glaring 5/5 issue, I feel mildly insulted that they feel the need to hold both events at a McDonalds. Proper cuisine in the UK is perfectly good should you look around a bit.

The harder the better, imho, depending on time and availability. Neither sadly is relevant with a cache over 340 miles from me. Mebbe once I exhaust all of Scotland, Wales and Northern England...

Would that were the case. I have adopted a very popular cache and the page quite clearly says those posting spoiler pics will have their log deleted (after having gone through the "please will you remove this" option more times than I've had hot dinners). The time that I allow for a cacher to remove the offending picture - a day or so - can mean several cachers have had their fun spoilt in the meantime. Why? Because not everyone who posts spoilers actually puts that caption on the picture! And even if they did, I wouldn't want it to be posted. Mind you, it seems to be much more popular in Switzerland and Germany to post spoiler pics, in my experience, so I suppose we should thank our relatively lucky stars!

Goodness gracious! Although I'd occasionally revisited this page to see other comments, I'd completely forgotten about this, and didn't realise there was actually a prize up for grabs, so what a pleasant surprise to see that I've left the "also-ran" benches for the month and actually WON something! Not just any old thing, but a GC! Thank you very much, Hazel, and I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say we expect to see you winning a gold GC in 2012. If you need to know how to get there, I'm sure someone will gladly provide co-ords...

Afraid I'd never heard of him, but nonetheless very saddened to hear this news. It always seems all the more poignant when someone from another country dies here, almost as though we haven't taken care of them (even though I know that sounds illogical). Rest in peace.

There's a report on "Underbody of a Jet Plane" (GC2173Z) in Sendai from Tokyo-based strikeeagl: To every geocachers. We were Tokyo geocaching community confirmed a cache owner tmiya and his family both alive in safe area by web info.However,We do not communication directly yet.The area still stop phone electric.etc. Thanks for all fellowes geocacher strikeeagl in Tokyo There's also an update on nearby(ish) "Hanabuchizaki" (GC2PPPP), presumably from the cache owner there: 14th March, 2011 At this time, I can not visit the point of the cache. As you know, in the afternoon of last Friday, the earthquake occurred in north eastern Japan.I want to visit again one day.Thank you every geocachers in the world for your comforting word. Sad that this 2nd cache only had the one finder before it's (presumably) been swept away - it's on an exposed-looking cliff. I hope all the cachers and their families are safe and well, but then I hope that for all the community, and alas we know it can't be. Thoughts with you all though.

Due to building delays, the London Olympics introduces the inaugural parallel bars competition outside.

23785: Remove country that does not exist from search dropdown Farewell "Burxina" (Can we have a wee farewell party?)

Welcome aboard! It's especially encouraging to learn that a geography teacher is onto the hobby (I'm sure plenty of folk on here are geography-orientated too). I think most of the advice has already been given to you. All I'd say about the iphone, which I have used, is that it's been perfectly good for finding caches on the rare occasions I don't have the GPS to hand. However, it chews up battery life, so use sparingly, and as you'll know, it's not waterproof, something which is really not worth risking in the sometimes hazardous pursuit of a little tupperware box, etc. I'd strongly encourage checking out the caches you want to aim for before leaving home as the signal can sometimes disappear completely when you're nearer the caches themselves, and there's nothing more annoying than knowing there's something nearby without being about to access the correct info. Sadly, this doesn't suit my more spontaneous method of caching, but for the more organised, it's very useful. As regards owners, they're a mixed bunch. I have a rather tricky cache which has marginally more DNFs than finds, and for reasons which would become obvious when you found it, I really don't want to give any hints whatsoever about how to find it. For others, if someone approaches me, I'm usually happy to give a little extra direction on how to find. Be prepared to get the whole answer from some and nothing from others (including no response at all). Likewise, those setting puzzles may not want to disclose too much about how to solve them because that's part of the fun! Aren't we an evil lot? Greatly encouraged to hear that you're taking the sensible approach about hides - definitely better to get a really good feel for what it involves and setting quality caches rather than going all out just for the sake of hiding new caches. Don't forget they take a bit of maintaining, so it's worth being selective. Finally, if you are hiding any, I'd STRONGLY recommend using a GPS rather than the iphone which is notoriously inaccurate on the hiding front. If that means borrowing one, why not? I wonder whether it might be worth investing in a "GPS jar" wherein you put in a nominal sum of money (5p, 10p, £1?) per cache found according to your capabilities? That doesn't mean you raid it for a consolation drink if you get a heap of DNFs! But hopefully that might start to raise funds for one of your own. Ebay's not a bad place to search for second-hand models (I'm not sure, but perhaps Garmin themselves might have ex-display/old models that they recycle?). Good luck and have fun!

Welcome to the madhouse.

Mine have just arrived - absolutely beautiful - thanks. (I still hope that your compatriots are a wee bit less efficient than that (and their opposition!) at Murrayfield this afternoon though... )

Beautiful coins and an inspired idea to use slate. Just put in my order - thanks.

See those wee "DrS/Blorenge" torches? And then those earrings? How's about removing the ring bit from the torches and turning THEM into earrings? Brighten up lots of lives. Idea - copyright Original A1.

Interesting. As a cacher, I like to be able to check on Geochecker. As a luddite technophobe (but one who likes setting puzzles), I haven't gone down the Geochecker road. This has the effect that those few who have solved my puzzles (more from general dislike of puzzles than the difficulty of my caches!) and who want to check first just e-mail me. They usually get a quick answer and on they go...

Wow - I've taken my GPS to quite a number of countries now (usually by air) and it never even crossed my mind not to put it in my handluggage (along with all other MUST have items)! Food for thought though. Oh, and likewise, I've never even considered turning it on during a flight.

I've found the "collectable" option completely confusing and unnecessary. Most of my geocoins stay with me now since I read of lots going missing, but ALL my trackables are marked "non-collectable" as I understand this to mean that no other cacher can get confused that they have the right to walk off with one. Hasn't stopped a couple going missing. I know you shouldn't release them if you're not prepared to lose them (which is why I've hung on to most of the coins), but it's still annoying when you spend the time and money in getting them on the road in the first place. As for "discovering" - it's a great button. I "discover" all the time! Please keep the option...

lol - was it worth it?! When I moved to the job before last, everyone talked in acronyms all the time and it took me a while to tune into them all. Luckily a kind colleague provided me with an A4 sheet of them which helped a little. There aren't THAT many here and it's just a case of going with the flow. No-one minds if people ask if they don't understand - we're a helpful lot really - but we do like to speak the lingo. As for log deletion, I've only done it if there's a duplicate post where the poster doesn't respond to my request to remove the second one, if they have posted a spoiler pic where I've specifically asked it not to occur, or on one occasion last week, where the cacher gave away the whole finding method in his log (which was part of the fun). In the latter two instances, I encourage the poster to re-post without the offending extras and all's fine. TFTP (post).

Interesting comments. I see why Happy Humphrey has the views he does but isn't the point of geocaching to discover new things and visit new places, whether or not a container is there? Like Simply Paul, Fly-By is one of my favourites and yes, although I was new to the game and cheekily logged it from my armchair as I instantly knew what it would be (and rightly got a mild rebuke for doing so!), I made sure to visit the area a couple of weeks later when down, and so it was properly "found" too. For me, as a relative late-comer, most of the really good spots had already been taken in Edinburgh, and virtuals were no longer allowed to be set anyway. That means someone else gets more favourites on their list than I do, but that's not a problem because it just goes to show those spots deserve the footfall/favouriting they get. If you look at Haggis Hunter's list for instance, he has a very high favourite count on it for that reason. I have an adopted cache in a very popular and easy-to-access part of Edinburgh and it's a bit galling that it has zillions more favourites than mine, but again it's because of its location and just goes to reinforce that it was worth keeping going when its real owners moved away. Likewise, it's been going for a lot longer than mine, so is likely to pick up more votes as it's had squillions of visitors. I see now that they've put in a new marker where you can see what percentage of loggers have favourited a cache. It doesn't really matter to me - I pay a little more attention to one that has received votes, but will not overlook those who haven't. It's all part of the fun, innit?

Good idea re. the disliked caches, not that I'm about to create one as I think my logs are usually honest enough already. I've still 34 favourites left I think, but I suppose the more we've found, the more we may have left over, depending on pickiness. I reckon those with an Original A1 Seal of Approval are worthy of it (of course!).

Ah, but do you get any finds?! Anyway, I hate ivy, but will go for caches hidden in ivy nonetheless. It's better than gorse - we have a few masochists who seem to enjoy hiding caches in gorse up here - bleurgh.