Pieman

Thanks guys, he says wiping away a tear of emotion. I'm shortly going to be stationed near Oxford for a few months and there looks to be some pretty good puzzles down there (Lewis etc). I look forward to having a go at them. By the way, another one due this weekend thanks to the kind help of our moderators...

Well done! Haven't bumped into you at one of my caches for a while!

I'd make the effort to solveThe Clairvoyant which is near the centre of Chester and is the best puzzle cache in the area or you could try Hockenhull Platts which is close to your route and an easy find in a nice area.

The Geo screw is actually pretty much 2D- like a cross-section of a screw.

Congrats Iain. Now for the next 300...

Although I'm someone who is part of the UK geocoin group, I can still understand where snosrap is coming from. Some people collect them which I can understand, some people log them at meets (which doesn't interest me) and some people release them and try to find them in caches (like me). It adds a little bit of fun trying to find them in caches as they are quite rare, because although there are now lots of them, most of them don't see the inside of a cache. I guess if the explosion in geocoins continues you will find more in caches in future.

If Waymarking is the solution what on earth was the question.

In general, I think no log=no find but I have recently accepted a find where the person had solved one of my puzzles (where you solve the puzzle at the site) but couldn't write in the logbook as the previous finders had dismantled part of the cache. I think a little bit of leeway where soemone has a good reason for not being able to log is reasonable. And I should add that the person emailed me to ask before logging.

With respect to what defines a cache being in the top 1%, it just means that the statistically averaged score that the cache has is higher than 99% of all the caches that have been scored so far. This of course can and does change as more scores are added and more caches released.

As far as I am aware you have to do this manually.

I went looking for a cache late one summer's evening in East Anglia. Punched in the coordinates and followed the GPS by car from my hotel. I found a footpath that seemed to go directly to the cache which was two thirds of a mile from the road. The light was fading so I had to walk quickly and was fairly puffed by the time I got close to the cache which appeared to be bang in the middle of a wheat field. I thought this was odd and checked the coordinates. I was not used to caching right near the meridian and had assumed the coordinates were west when they were actually east- I was several miles out. Chastened, I returned to the car in darkness.

You can send off another TB with the copy tag- no problem. Just add a note to the cache page as you say.

Forgot to say I also met some muggles with cache in hand. They had come across it by accident. They were a nice couple and were writing a log when I turned up. Aother first fpr me!

2 finds (one after an exceptional walk), a DNF, a Personal geocoin logged and I lost my PDA at a cache. Satisfying but a b****y expensive day!

This has got to be a New Year windup! I think the clue is in the quote above. Unless Lathama is in a region where they make caches easier by using flashing neon signs above them, I don't think cycling past them is likely to cause too much distress!

There was an article in the Sunday Times- probably around March 2004- which was about a reporter trying caching. I thought it sounded interesting and mentioned it to someone at work. It turned out that he had not only heard of it but had done some caches with his family(what are the chances of that?). Bought a cheap (since lost at a cache) yellow eTrex on ebay and so the madness began...

I think you should have still logged it- nothing to stop you doing that and perfectly reasonable in the circumstances.

Dave, if you can make it into Chester there is a shop there called Soldier of Fortune which sells them- along with other useful potential cache stuff. They also sell via the web here. but you save the postage by going.

Mine will be in a new cache for a Christmas Eve- Boxing Day release, approvers willing

Well done to both on providing such a good service. In fact, I was thinking about this the other day- the best service I come across I get from E&L and from a football fanzine site (bsad.org, if your interested) and in both cases it's done by people for free. A victory for love over money, I think! Forgot to add, I was also planning to submit a cache on Christmas day, just to test how good the service really is!

I guess I am missing the point of it. I stared at the site hard this evening and I admit it has a certain surreal quality. As there aren't any waypoints near me I picked a catagory at random- local airports I think it was called. And yes that is exactly what was listed! Lots and lots of randomly selected local airports... with the latitude and longitude... and some nice pictures. I could go and list my local airport I suppose... and then there would be an extra one on the list.

I've set a few puzzle caches covering the spectrum easy to very difficult. I don't see there's a problem in setting a puzzle cache only a few people can do, just as I don't see a problem in someone setting a cache that demands scuba diving skills. I wouldn't be able to do it but I bet the very few cachers who did it would really enjoy it. I found The Clairvoyant impossible without several hints from different people- including the cache setter- but it is one of the most enjoyable that I have done. I realise that this type of cache is not to everybody's taste, but that's what good about caching- variety.

Silica gel- taken from its Material Safety Data Sheet: Airborne Exposure Limits: Silica (synthetic, amorphous): - OSHA Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) - 80/(%SiO2) mg/m3 (TWA) for amorphous silica, including natural diatomaceous earth. - ACGIH Threshold Limit Value (TLV) - 10 mg/m3 (TWA) for amorphous precipitated silica and amorphous silica gel. Ventilation System: A system of local and/or general exhaust is recommended to keep employee exposures below the Airborne Exposure Limits. Local exhaust ventilation is generally preferred because it can control the emissions of the contaminant at its source, preventing dispersion of it into the general work area. Please refer to the ACGIH document, Industrial Ventilation, A Manual of Recommended Practices, most recent edition, for details. Personal Respirators (NIOSH Approved): If the exposure limit is exceeded and engineering controls are not feasible, a half facepiece particulate respirator (NIOSH type N95 or better filters) may be worn for up to ten times the exposure limit or the maximum use concentration specified by the appropriate regulatory agency or respirator supplier, whichever is lowest.. A full-face piece particulate respirator (NIOSH type N100 filters) may be worn up to 50 times the exposure limit, or the maximum use concentration specified by the appropriate regulatory agency, or respirator supplier, whichever is lowest. If oil particles (e.g. lubricants, cutting fluids, glycerine, etc.) are present, use a NIOSH type R or P filter. For emergencies or instances where the exposure levels are not known, use a full-facepiece positive-pressure, air-supplied respirator. WARNING: Air-purifying respirators do not protect workers in oxygen-deficient atmospheres. Or to put it simply- try not to breath it in as it may cause iritation.

With a geocoin it is possible that those new (or even not so new) might think it is a swap. I make sure I put the coin's mission in a note inside the coin's plastic wallet so finders will know it is a type of travelbug. So far none of mine have been stolen.

Having contributed my thoughts on the previous thread I wasn't going to get involved in this one as Moote is just being disingenuous re rating on the back of some people rating a couple of his caches below what he would like. But on the second topic of this thread, I can't agree that people who only find caches are taking and not giving. I get pleasure from people finding my caches just as I do from finding other people's. If no-one placed caches it is true that the hobby would disappear, but let's be practical, that isn't going to happen. There are so many people who enjoy placing them that we can accommodate lots of people who don't.