Nediam

Tut Tut! shame on you (I'm with you on Tom Tom, ruddy things taken me down some decidely "dodgy" tracks )

Right i'll do the begging then . Please think carefully about your decision. I have had a quick look at your profile as to caches found and caches hidden. I don't know what's been said to you in the forums or in the cache logs (to be honest you've placed that many it'll take all night for me to find out ) But seriously, you seem to really enjoy finding and placing caches. I've only place one cache in nearly 8 months but you've placed loads! Please don't let a few people ruin your (and our) fun! If necessary, ignore the forums if that's where the main problem has been, and concentrate on the actual finding/hiding business. If you really do think that archiving your caches is the only way to go, then I can only respect your decision. But it makes me feel a bit embarrassed, to be honest, to think that I can go on enjoying the hobby whilst you seem to be almost suffering due to it I hope enough people respond to your posting to encourage you to continue caching in whatever way you feel comfortable with. I have yet to have the pleasure of finding one of your caches as you are a little too far south (as yet) for me to get to. Wishing you you all the best. (we are not all "bad") Matt (Nediam)

Congratulations of your 300th

Well done on your 500th

I've seen a couple with a Geocache sticker on one side and the original ammunition info on the other. There was one I went to that wasn't marked as a Geocache. I think in future if I see any I'll let the owner know of this thread. Might be worth carrying a permanent marker around to cross out any incorrect labeling on a cache.

I'll have a look to see if my local Tourist Information Centre does postcards of my area. If it does, i'll send one across

Thanks for the tips Plan to use them regular now

Congrats on your first hundred Here's to the next 900

Congratulations on the forthcoming wedding I Think "Stuey" has got the right idea but it might be worth contacting the cache owners of the ones you "have to log twice" to let them know what you are doing. If they think something weird is going on, they may delete your finds P.S. If you met through caching we might have the first "Geocaching wedding"

71 points and first 20 within 5.9 miles WS7 (South Staffs)

If you are interested in the ancient sites, the O.S. do a map called "Historical Map & guide, Ancient Britain" The map is a 1:625 00 scale but it has national grid references to 6 figures. The map has a listing of the majority of ancient sites and has them listed by county and has a brief description of the sites. I find it quite useful as a rough guide as to what's in an area that I'm going to visit. You may be able to buy it online or, as I did, from a local Tourist Information Office. (I don't know if they have a digital version of it) With regards to the $77 for a map of a quarter of Britain, thats a bargain (depending on scale). I spent about £200 (about $350) for the whole of Britain at 1:50 000 scale

Hey! you beat me to Hoar Cross Travel Spa by a good 15 mins

Congratulations to Des and Bren (Snerdbe) on reaching the 500 milestone at The Icehouse. I take it your next 500 are ALL going to be FTF's

I carry a tub of baby wipes in my car, which I use when I get back after visiting a cache.

I found out about Geocaching whilst looking for some treasure hunts that I could do. The treasure hunts I found all appeared to take ages to find (some hadn't been found for over 3 years!). In one of the google pages that came up, I saw a link to Geocaching.com and clicked it. After reading the info on the site and realising I already had all the equipment I needed, I entered my postcode to find my nearest cache (expecting about 2 or 3 within a 100 mile radius). I was amazed to see nearly 2000 within the search area and my nearest cache was less than 3 miles away. I went and found it later that day and I've been hooked ever since

TomTom does work pretty well But make sure you keep an eye on the screen and take the directions with a pinch of salt. Mine's tried to take me down a bridle path a couple of times and round and round and round the new roads around the "Nottingham Canal Cache"!!!! With regards to wirless connectivity.........I don't . I "active sync" the PDA to my home PC and download all the necessaries before I leave to go caching. If I have to, I can access Geocaching.com via my "smartphone". P.S. 19 in a weekend is a bit good

With regards to the comments on "sneaky" hard to find caches, Geocaching.com recommend in their FAQ section that variety is very much encouraged. It would be a bit boring if everyone used medium sized ammo tins wrapped in plastic bags. I think that variety and ingenuity of cache containers adds to the game. Some cache setters like to set very hard caches to test out peoples abilities, whereas other setters prefer to place easier to find caches. Maybe people who use "sneaky" containers could place a note on the web page giving a hint that the cache will take a bit more searching to find it. Another advantage of unusual containers is that they are less likely to be "muggled". If a cache is disguised as a rock or a log etc, a muggle is likely to interfere with it than a large, white tupperware container poking out from behind a tree. Quote from the FAQ section on the "Getting Started" page at Geocaching.com:- Are there any variations in the game? YES! We strongly encourage it, actually. Geocaching is a game that constantly reinvents itself, and the rules are very flexible. If you have a new idea on how to place a cache, or a new game using GPS units, we'd love to hear about it.

I sprayed mine green, to match it's surroundings

Right! lets start the abuse Only joking I have to admit to placing a micro. It is my first cache placement but in all fairness if you visit the site, you'll see why it has to be a micro......an ammo box would stick out like a sore thumb By the way, my cache is an official Geocaching micro cache so it SHOULD stay dry as it has a rubber seal (fingers crossed). I have only done a couple of micro caches and don't really have a problem with them but sometimes it is nice to have swaps. I take it no-one has objections to using a micro as part of a multi leading to a "normal" sized cache?

Phoenix has mad some good points most of which I considered or had pointed out to me by sales people when I was purchasing. The battery life on my PDA, a HP 2210, with the GPS removed is around 4 hours, with the GPS it only drops by about 30 mins. This has only been a problem once as I always put the PDA back in it's charging cradle when driving between caches to top up the battery. I have also now purchased a spare battery if I'm totally out in the field for more than 3 hours (i.e. "The Plough" series etc) The other thing I considered about the bluetooth GPS was the fact that I am more likely to lose it if it isn't attached With regards to the expansion slots, my PDA has both CF and SD slots. This is highly practical as my camera, PDA and even my mobile phone all use SD cards and this allows me to swop and change if necessary. Another good thing with my phone is that it's a "smartphone" which has pretty much full internet access (except flash........sort it out Mr Gates ) This enables me to download web pages, hints and spoilers as and where needed without the need to bluetooth. One word of caution regarding mobile phones and bluetooth, make sure that the phone can transfer DATA via bluetooth as quite a few phones claim to be bluetooth enabled but can ONLY tranfer HANDSFREE signals.........make sure before you buy As I said, Phoenix has pointed out some important issues, and now that the 2210 is no longer available, I don't know if there are any other PDA's with SD and CF expansion slots. The imporatant thing to remember is it's "horses for courses". Decide what you want to do and how you want to do it and then look at what equipment suits you

500 caches and still a noob!!! I don't think too many people would have a problem with you not setting caches, after all, there are people with quite a few finds who haven't set any. I've only set one myself, although I am now looking at setting some more (it's almost as addictive as finding them ) With regards to a lap top in the field - BAD idea! . I wouldn't advise walking around with £600+ of computer that's gonna break into a million pieces if dropped or is going to pack up at the first sign of rain. If you leave it in the car you're gonna have to be careful where you park in case of theft . I use a PDA with a Compact Flash GPS reciever, it's not waterproof but can be put in a "ziploc" plastic bag to keep it dry. I usually only log caches at home when I return, but I can log / check web pages on my "smartphone" a SPV C500 if necessary. As regards cachemates, I've never used it / one and don't know what it does.......can't be that necessary then Best of luck with your future caching, who knows, you may get the placing bug too

Thanks for the map. I was planning on putting a cache on some nearby common land thinking there would be no problem with needing permission. Someone said they thought there was a SSSI on the land so I used the map to check. Unfortunately, the WHOLE of the common is a SSSI, so I won't be able to place a cache

Thanks for the link. You could try Link , it seems to be close to the latitude you are after and it's part of a series so might be quite popular.

Hi, I unfortunately live too far south to help, but people in the past suggested that you look for a cache or cache owner somewhere close to your desired co-ords. You can then e-mail them or post a note on the cache page for someone to help you. (the UK forums don't seem to be all that busy ) I myself am looking for someone in Halifax, Canada to help me