grimpil
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Posts posted by grimpil
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My £70 gps was originally an investment (actually a gift) to aid my main interest of hiking, so that asset cost is already written off. I have a cheap mobile phone on PAYG - can use wifi & gps freely so spend less than £5 per year on top ups & as it was bought outright there is no monthly cost. No intention of upgrading either as both do what they need to do without bells & whistles. So there is no ongoing additional cost as such & as my only income is a basic state pension I find hobbies like hiking & geocaching are perfectly affordable. It is surprising what is possible when you have to live within your means & refuse to be pressured to have the latest gadgets & gizmos because the basics do what is claimed on the tin.
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On 7/10/2018 at 3:38 PM, cerberus1 said:
Brand-new people world-wide with a pm.
If the candy shop in Getting Started is an indication, word's out.
Does anyone actually pay up & join either without a free trial (like I did) or after trying it out. Would be interesting to see the percentage conversion rate of the triallers. Endless requests for a freebie are met with generosity. But that generosity to the masses seems to me to be spoiling the hobby for those of us who want to be a bit more serious about being part of a "respectful of our fellow players" community.
I still find it hard to believe that there are few people who really cannot afford the modest joining fee. How many other hobbies can you participate in for such little outlay. The world & his dog has a mobile phone these days so you don't even need to invest in a dedicated gps. My find total to date means each cache has cost me 18 pence & that is only over 6.5 months. What else can give so much enjoyment for 18 pence?
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Hmm! You got me thinking there. I assumed it was water, but the stones & pebbles were various shades of brown so cannot be 100% sure the liquid was clear. But it did not smell . . . . and the sodden log paper was nice & white . . . . Gee! Don't give the imps ideas!
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Found some lovely swag this week! NOT! Seeking a series of caches on a very enjoyable walk I found several had obviously been interfered with (the CO had only recently been checking them, replacing logs etc). Two containers were just thrown out in the open near to where they should be hidden. One box was full of water & stones with a new, as yet pristine & unsigned, but very sodden log. Going by it's hiding place which was well sheltered (& we had no rain since CO did maintenance) this must have been filled in the nearby stream & replaced in it's hidey hole as some perverted joke. I would guess it was the same joker who had filled another of the series with a handful of wet smelly rotting vegetation & put it back near it's hiding place. Yuk!! These were not PO caches. Can only assume some ne'er do well was having a laugh with whatever they could find. Maybe they had taken some worthwhile swag? Who knows? Certainly does not inspire leaving anything for these little tykes to get in exchange for their carp.
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Same problem here today when trying to copy some new lists of caches to my eTrex. Garmin does not even give a pointer as to the issue - just that stupid message that says "Request error. Problem with content being sent, Try later." Tried 2 different gps units so realised it must be a problem at "their end".
So kicked the PC, swore at the dog, uninstalled Garmin Express. Reinstalled (obviously a new version) & everything is hunky dory. Gee thanks Garmin! Why not give us a clue? I had it set for automatic updates so you would think a message would have appeared
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Been caching for 5 months, with 124 finds to date. Not one single item in any of them that I even considered tempting enough to take/swap. Before searching for my very first cache I read up on what this pursuit was all about & bought a few little trinkets to take out into the field. But beyond leaving some little ladybird buttons in caches in a particular location I was disinclined to leave any of the other bits & bobs for some thoughtless "grab it & go" individual to acquire. I am happy enough just signing logs but I can imagine how much more fun it would be to find & leave "treasure". Sadly we live in a greedy world.
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Hi,
Well nice to hear from you. I realise there are many problems in Greece & totally understand what you say (& I apologise for having to write here in English as my Greek is very limited).
I was surprised how many caches are on Lesvos as it is not a very touristy island & I enjoyed searching for them. It did make me wonder how active the local based cachers might be as I did not expect the caches to have been hidden specifically for visitors to find.
I do hope things get better for everyone - my own Greek friends are very resilient but I know how difficult life is for them & the relative pittance I spend in Greece on my annual trips is a tiny drop in the economic ocean.
I hope the COs of the ones I found understand how much value they added to my trip.
Yiammas!
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Interesting. People are lurking here but no-one is posting. Perhaps everyone is concealed in a wooden horse, waiting to pounce! Beware of gift bearers!!
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BTW I am based in UK.
I notice there is no even remotely recent activity on the Greece forum. I have been caching only since early 2018 so on my spring trip to Greece (Athens, Peloponnese & Lesvos) I searched & found a few caches. This really added value to my trip as I am mainly a hiker when on holiday & some of the caches took me to locations I would never have found as maps showing paths & trails are not covering many areas. Having co-ordinates on my gps was reassuring to this solo traveller. Plus it was fun to find caches in places I had previously visited many times, a highlight being my 100th find at what has always been a favourite spot on Lesvos at Perama Windmill.
If any Greek cachers read this I just wanted to say caching is a great way to encourage visitors to discover hidden corners of your amazing country. Sadly the Greece does suffer from an overload of those who see it as a 6 month a year theme park with sun, sand & sea. I have travelled widely on the mainland & on Lesvos & only wish I had started caching years ago. But I will be back! Efharisto polu!
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18 hours ago, EmzyJanezy said:
I'm new to geocaching - just a few days old in fact - but I've noticed the same. I'm not in it for the "stuff" but I love the idea of leaving little trinkets for other geocachers to find and collecting a pot full of cute bits and pieces from various locations.
I go out with my two daughters - aged ten and six - and there's not even any plastic tat for them to get excited about.
We made some little glass nuggets to drop into the caches we find but since they are backed with paper I worry the moisture in most of the caches will destroy them. However, I've been dropping them into the dry caches I come across, even though there has been nothing to take. I just think its a nice way to spread a little cheer.
Those are lovely. I am not involved with children & whilst I don't have an overwhelming desire to collect stuff I can see that swapping little treasures gives added value to the hobby for the young participants.
Could you put those glass nuggets into tiny sealed bags? Or perhaps varnish the paper to prolong its life?
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LOL! Pretty much what I first posted a couple of months ago when I started! I also wondered if this was the norm as I seemed to find lots of soggy paper on my first searches. But since then have found a variety from totally sodden to lovely & dry. So it varies!
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Same message here when sending caches to eTrex 10 & eTrex 30x. Have learnt to ignore/live with it.
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>>>There is no such thing as bad weather.. just inappropriate cache containers.
<<<
A new take on "wrong clothing" - nice one!!
Yes - does not get much damper than NW England!
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>>>The problem I have is that most cachers nowadays are so fixated on the state of the cache, they never ever say anything about the walk they've done, the wildlife theyve seen or the gorgeous views. They are just so fixated on the scrawl of dingy paper they write nothing else on their online log. As a CO I want to hear about their experiences and frankly that's gone out the window in recent years<<<
As I am pretty new to this hobby I have been reading all sorts of topics on the forum to up my knowledge of this interesting new take on the world around me. Maybe it is beginner enthusiasm but I am trying to write the sort of logs I would hope to find if I was a CO. But indeed there are loads that say little beyond "found it" or TFTC. I enjoy reading more descriptive logs of the caches I have found - makes it more fun.
But after 2 months hanging around here I see there is a large slant towards collecting numbers, in the same way some collect so called friends on FB. I don't care if I only find 3 or 4 of the 20 caches which might be in a specific area - for me it is all about adding value to my main interest of getting out & about hiking. It is gratifying to see people on here caching as families - getting even quite small children interested in a hobby which is far better for their physical & mental health than sitting indoors glued to virtual world. But well written logs would fill the caching world with more community spirit & shared enjoyment & surely more satisfactory feedback for COs. Perhaps better feedback would result in COs feeling their work was worthwhile instead of feeling "ho hum, 6 people found my cache this week - 6 notches on their bedposts, but only one bothered to make me feel they were actually there at GZ".
On a slightly sad note I have yet to discover any swag worth doing a swap for - most is either inappropriate for my advancing years or is just mouldy wet tat. No point me leaving some decent little trinket if that is how it will end up. But my motivation never was aquiring stuff so it matters little to me, but again I feel this reflects the "let's up our log count & move on to the next site" atmosphere that pervades.
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Lots of good ideas in this thread. Some items obvious, others "that's a good idea". I am incorporating caching into hikes so generally have a rucsac with water bottle, food etc & plenty of room for things that I might need but don't necessarily need to have constantly to hand in a pocket.
My latest addition to my kit is an A7 size piece of thick plastic (cut down lid of an old storage box), with small bulldog clip to hold logs safely & provide firm surface whilst I sign, especially on windy days. I would be mortified if a log blew away! Plus I have now added a piece of absorbent cloth (j-cloth, or thin dish washing sponge) to mop up damp logs so I can sign them.
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>>>>When I download a list I always get a message that Garmin Express cannot be detected<<<
I get exactly the same message, but it always does the job!
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I will speak up as a relative newbie to all this. If you can get your head around the truly awful & pretty much useless manual but have an intuition to teach yourself I would suggest the Garmin eTrex10. I got this for hiking & it does what I need as I had no need for a unit with more than basic mapping as I am a paper mapaholic. However I decided to have a go at caching 2 months ago & have now upgraded to the eTrex30x. No regrets as I learnt the gps principles on the 10, but with my somewhat elderly eyes the colour screen of the 30x makes life easier. And it has more capacity, including slot for microSD.
I found the 30x for £170. The 10 is around £75. You might find a second hand real bargain - friend of mine picked up an eTrex20 for £40.
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1 hour ago, NYPaddleCacher said:
I have suggested as a feature that GS create a "Badges and Achievements" tab for our user profiles. Because the "About" tab is the only one that is user-editable, it's used for third party stats, badges, custom souvenirs, and pretty much anything else. It would be nice if the "About" tab was just used for geocacher Bio information and other editable tabs created for stats and achievements.
Good idea. This is what confused me initially - I was looking for somewhere to paste in the badge. I don't really feel it is part of my profile info.
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Sorted! Thanks again!
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Thanks for the quick response. Easy when you know how! But puzzled by locating it as it is determined to snuggle up to my "about me" text, no matter how much space I try to leave. Shall play around now I have the principle.
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How do I add a badge to my profile? I attempted a cache series today & whilst I had 2 DNFs I did attempt them all & the CO instructions do say the badge he created can be claimed for attempting the series. I have no problem copying the URL but cannot find where to dump it on my profile pages. Thanks.
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Personally I don't care if the CO no longer cares about their cache & whether anyone has signed. I just enjoy the fun of finding them, & signing them (especially the miniscule log I found today) is part of the challenge/fun. My satisfaction is in having left a physical mark of my presence in some pretty interesting places. Every log I sign has the potential for someone far into the future to wonder who I was. Today I discovered over 20 caches & all the time I was searching/signing I had the following in my head.
This was in an area where from far & wide (from most of the caches) I can see the ruins of the farm where in 1871 my then 15 year old great grandfather was working. From that point he would have looked out daily & had no concept that in 2018 one of his great grandchildren, born 50 years after his death, would be looking back in his direction.
Those physical evidences of my being there mean far more than sticking my name on yet another wodge of digital media.
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It was indeed a relative's will that funded this unplanned upgrade. They would be pleased to see me purchase something useful that I can enjoy for years to come rather than blow the money on drink & debauchery!!
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Update. As I have deffo caught the geocaching bug I have upgraded from the basic eTrex 10 (which has served me well for hiking) to the eTrex 30x (well a belated Christmas pressie from a generous relative) & lo & behold this model will display the cache names that are in both Roman/Greek alphabet. Problem solved. Where there's a will, there's a way!
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A bit disappointed in people who take TB's and dont move them
in Trackables
Posted
In Australia most people appear to be premium members from the start. I am amazed when a person with single figure finds logs my cache and they are already a premium member, but this is most of them.