The Wombles

Well done to Chris for turning this ban into a permission. That's a first. Very well done. Dave (GAGB Committee, caching as The Wombles)

As I'm the person who set up the GAGB phone service I thought I'd offer some insight into how it works. It's provided by a company called YAC, incoming messages are converted to an email .wav file and emailed to the GAGB's designated contact point. A couple of us have performed this task in the past, currently it's Bill. If the incoming message contains sufficient information to contact the cacher directly then we email that person with the gist of the message (we can't forward the original because the GC.com email system won't take attachments). Sometimes caches aren't clearly marked with the caching name or waypoint number, and sometimes the finder doesn't pass this on, in which case we need detective work before we know who to send it to. As has already been pointed out, we set this up to ensure that there is a workable contact system which doesn't make personal contact details public. There will usually be a delay in passing communications on due to people working. It's a facility which we offer free, voluntarily and if people prefer not to use it and make their own arrangements than of course that's their decision.

No bad, the article did convey some excitement. Will there be many new cachers finding their first today / tomorrow?

Ah, there's a solution to that - take the boss with you. Mine enjoyed it. I also enjoy the buzz of finding something with lots of people passing by - epitomised for me recently by an ingenious cache on a very busy (large) traffic island in the City of London.

Well done indeed

Why stop at a Premium Member event cache? Why not a Charter Member event cache? Seriously, I think everyone should be welcome at event caches - even reviewers.....

108 placed since 2001. 45 archived so far. We are much more selective about which caches are retained. Some are archived because we no longer think the location worthwhile, or because it has been muggled but the location isn't worth replacement. I have replaced some caches 4-5 times, but only if they are special. In a few cases I have archived a cache simply to release some locations for other newer cachers. Some caches were archived because they were too far away to maintain (placed before such restrictions) eg Singapore, US.

That's Last Delivery.

Geocacheuk used to provide these stats, last time I looked the leader was Last Delivery in the City at 871 finds. I was interested in this because St Etheldreda used to be the leader (now 658). Of course none of these are close to some in the US, our cache An Englishman in DC (Washington) has been found 1375 times and another in the Mall, Washington has been found 1786 times.

Congrats indeed on a huge milestone.

Ian, That sounds promising and many thanks to your anonymous supporter. We really appreciate the geocacheuk service and it would be great to see it back again. Thanks.

Rutson's list please.

My two oldest multicaches (May 02 and June 02) have had 102 and 189 visits. The oldest offset (August 03) has had 109 visits (the text has always said it is an offset and in fact it was incorrectly categorised as traditional to begin with). Of the traditionals (similar difficulty/terrain, also in the country not towns), the figures are: Nov 02: 186 visits, Jan 03: 161 visits, Sept 02: 185 visits. So it's hard to tell from this (statistically invalid?) sample. Of a similar age, I have two virtuals which have been visited: April 02: 563 visits and June 02: 1364 visits. Admittedly they are in London and Washington DC.......

Likewise, it's of limited use. I use the WAP interface for the latest cache details, and mobipocket for a paperless list of caches. It's also sometimes used to log caches on the train home.

We have a Twin City cache here. This ended up with caches in Bath (UK), Alkmaar (Netherlands) and Darmstadt (Germany) all of which have been in place since 2004.

We still leave our Signature Item with a purpose.

Fantastic total Celia & Ron, well done

Topo V2 shows SOME footpaths. It's certainly not complete - at least in my area - and there doesn't appear to be any pattern to which paths appear. However, it is the best mapping for a 60CSx.

You more experienced cachers are always going on about how difficult it was then

Here you go.

Just squeezing my pledge cache into 2007, here is my Wheelchair accessible cache.

Excellent coins, thanks.

In a similar vein, it would also be useful to post how many people your team name includes, assuming it's more than one.

We hope to attend the event assuming the dates work; there are 5 Wombles which is 1% of the target . I see the Yorkshire Showground has a Caravan Club site for all of us with Tin Tents.

Harrogate and Swindon have emerged as strong contenders, but I've seen more offers of help with Harrogate so far which will be essential in order to run the event well. How about planning Harrogate for 2008 and Swindon for 2009? I'm willing to lead a Swindon event in 2009 if there is enough interest and support available for it. In the meantime, the Harrogate team could get into their stride and try to make this a success.