SteveThePirate115

Excellent mate... Is there any chance we can meet up over the next couple of days? I know it's a bit short notice, but I had a rather busy weekend so this is the first chance I've had to think about it! Many thanks for your help!

Hello all... I produce and present shows for a community radio station that broadcasts to Antrim, Belfast and Lisburn. We have a reporting team that covers anything that could be of interest to our listeners, so today I call the senior reporter and mentioned Geocaching... Now, they thought it would make a great story, but then suggested that I do it! So I'm looking for a volunteer... What would it entail? Well all I'm looking to do is meet up and go find a cache. I'll bring along some portable recording equipment and just ask some questions along the way. The package will only be about 3 mins long, so I won't need much from you! So who's up for it? It can be done at the weekend or during the week, but will need to happen somewhere in the greater Belfast / Antrim / Down area. Let me know by replying to this post, sending me a message through GC or emailing steve.radcliffe@bfbs.com. Thanks to you all for your interest! Ratty (Steve) P.S. If any of you England / Scotland / Wales type folk wanna get a flight over for a cache or two and a bit of recording, feel free! Ste

We don't parade a lot in the local towns here mate, bit of a security problem in NI with that kind of stuff! If it were back back on the mainland though...!

Hello all! This is my last shift at work before I come home, so I'm wasting as much time as possible on the internet as possible! I would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone to offered their support while based here in Iraq. It is really great to know that I have so many friends in the geocaching community who will get behind our troops, and also many people I have never met who have wished me luck on this tour. I also want to say a big thank you to Ian from ukgeocachers.co.uk. Today I received a package containing a an LED torch, two coins, a pin badge and a badge. It put a huge smile on my face, and while I'm not able to cache again before I go home, I'll certainly be setting them loose when I get home next week. Cheers Ian... I shall buy you a beer or two sometime! I'm hoping to make it over from NI to a camping event this year (not sure which one yet) so I'm really looking forward to catching up with you all soon. Again, thanks to all of you... true friends. Ratty

Just a wee word from here - ALL IS GROOOOOOOVY! (that's groovy, not gravy, 'cos that would be weird!). Steve's Baghdad Weather Watch: DUSTY and SUNNY Temp: Mid 30s UPDATE: I may be coming home a few weeks early... bonus! I hope all is well back in Blighty. Oh, and congrats to the serial-geek they call Liane (of jungle goddess / cache hopper fame - my oldest caching buddy / mum). I missed your 1000 completely, so congrats for that -cough-geek-! Laters, Ratty

Congratulations me old mate, KING GEEK of the caching world! We shall celebrate with a few beers when I return from this horrible dust hole of a country!

Yes thank you Ian, I do remember last time! I was bombarded with eblueys, and did indeed have to buy the beers! It was, however, overwhelming to receive mail from so many people wishing me well while deployed. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write. If you do want to say hello this time, I've put my address on my profile page here. It's down the bottom on the left. A BIG thanks to everyone for their support! I hope everyone is well, bye for now... Ratty x

Hello again..! Unfortunately, no super duper high-tec GPS equipment for me, but I have a nice new GPSMap 60CSX to play with, so not too fussed about that! Weather picked up a bit today, not too sunny, but you can walk around with your eyes open at least! If you wanna do e-blueys Liane, please feel free - it's always nice to get something in the post! You'll need to go to https://www.ebluey.com and set up an account if you don't have one (it's free!). I'd rather not post my address here, but if you want it, email me at steven.radcliffe@onetel.com. Please don't all post at once though, if you can remember that little rule we have here Liane..? It may cost me a slab of beer! Hope you're enjoying the cold miserable UK weather... talk to you all soon! Ratty x

Hello to all who know me! I've just started a couple of months over here, so thought I'd let you all know that all is well. I don't have access to IRC so the forum is the only way I can let you know I'm alright! I'll keep you all posted with the weather; STEVE'S WEATHER WATCH - Today: SANDSTORMS And that's about all I can talk about over the highly secure communications medium we call 'the internet'! I hope to get a couple of caches in while I'm here - we'll see how that pans out! Take care all, will hopefully see some of you at an event over the summer . Ratty x

I'm not going to dipute the legalities of riding a pushbike on public footpaths, as that seems pretty conclusive. However I would argue that riding a bike along a footpath and leaving some tire marks is doing far less damage to the environment that driving a car short distances to each cache.

As I write this, the GC server is down. Now while I appreciate that planned outages are essential for maintenance, and server crashes just can't be helped, wouldn't it be prudent to at least give us an idea of when we can expect it to be back online? At the moment all we get is a 'Server down at the moment' message and a picture of a sick looking signal. I'm sure a few of you will read this and feel that I'm just having a moan, but GC isn't just someone's hobby. It is a service that many of us pay for and that gathers funds through advertising revenue. Should we expect more?

I've been toying with the idea of 'Let's go camping on the ISLE OF WIGHT' for nearly 3 years now , as that's where I'm from and my folks have a cracking little pub there. The only problem... I live in Ireland, so organising is always gonna be a bit of a drama ! Still, you never know - when I get back from Iraq in April I may well do it! August maybe... Watch this space hehe

How will you keep caching down under? I didn't even think they had electricity yet, let alone the interweb. If you telegram to Groundspeak, will they send you listings in the telemail? I just hope you took enough batteries with you to last a while! Take care all, will look you up if I ever make it that far, which is quite unlikely. Not unless we invade any time soon! Maybe if I do something bad I'll get sent to one of them there prison colonies? You live anywhere nearby??? hehe Ratty

Well done, keep it up

Greetings all, I hope this finds you all well For those of you who are unable (or uninterested ) to do our cache in Reading, may I bring your attention to the video we did for it? It seems a shame that after all the effort that was put into quite possibly the cheesiest horror film of all time, only a few people will get to see it! So here is the YouTube link; Don’t laugh Ratty

I'm used to only posting in the UK forum so for some reason it feels like I'm really shouting right now! On All Hallows Eve this year, myself and a good friend (Cryptik Souls Crew) set out to launch a new cache 'Cryptikal Massacre'. We spent a couple of weeks planning, shooting a video to accompany it, then on the night itself we hid in the woods and scared those that dared visit. It was great fun, but the reason I post this is to draw your attention to the video we took which we stuck on You Tube. We had intended it to set the scene and make the experience that bit more scary. Unfortunately our acting has a lot to be desired but it was our first attempt with very little time! This is just one example of how geocaching can be opened up for a different experience. Feel free to take a look and the vid and post your comments!!! Ratty P.s. Go easy on us, we tried our best!

Don't want much, do you?!!!

A big thanks to those who turned up on Wednesday - people seemed to have enjoyed themselves and we certainly had a great time running it! We were a little bit upset by the slightly poor turn-out, but to be quite honest, I don't think we'd have been able to handle too many more! We set up two ambush points en-route, and put as many tracks into the gps as possible, but we were still running around like complete nutters trying to keep up with people 'cross country'! Still, bit of exercise never hurt anyone! And of course, hearing the girls scream like, er, girls (eh, Lauren) made it all worthwhile! Thanks again chaps, and see you all again next year Ratty

In our village, we used to offer one child from every family to the witch in the spooky cave. We'd then wait for her to come out, and stab her to death with her own broomstick. She always managed to come back to life, which made sure next hallowe'en was just as enjoyable. I took the kids to take part last year, but the tradition seems to have died down of late. I'm told it's because they were finding it hard to puncture the rib cage with her new Dyson. GC16ZW6 **

Right chaps, please accept my appologies. This course has become rather intense and quite stressfull over the last few days, and with no internet access here it has made things a little difficult! There have also been some publishing issues to deal with, but I am sure that this is now sweet! As Liane posted just now, the caching will kick off at 2030 tomorrow night. The page should go live before then sometime tomorrow; http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...31-6a286ca32c7e However, you can't do it in the daylight and you can't find it before 2030, cos it won't be there! YOU WILL NEED; A BRIGHT TORCH A SENSE OF HUMOUR (BOTH ESSENTIAL) You should aim to be at Wokefield common car park between 2030 and 2200. You don't all need to pile over at 2030. I know the FTF is always nice, but we'll be there till 2200, and the cache will be available like a normal cache after that. IF YOU ARE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION AND THINK THAT GETTING A BIT SCARED MAY MAKE YOU KEEL OVER AT ANY TIME, PLEASE LET US KNOW ON ARRIVAL. WE MAY BE ABLE TO USE YOUR CORPSE AS A PROP ON THE NIGHT. Once again chaps, many appologies for the extreme lateness of this info. I can assure you however, that if can get over tomorrow night, you're likely to have a good time. Ratty P.S. If I have forgotton anything, I will get in my car and come charging up to this internet suite later on to post it!

Jon, We're arranging the cache around the flash mob events, so it's likely to start shorty after 2000hrs. A more definative time will be available closer to the day. Should be ace. Ratty (Steve)

Right chaps, the Halloween Cache by Cryptik Souls Crew and Critical Mass Inc. WILL go ahead, and will be called; Cryptikal Massacre - Night Cache As the name suggests, this cache CAN ONLY be completed at night, and you will find out why when the cache listing is available. The video was filmed over the weekend and is currently being edited. It was great fun filming, but there were trees in the woods that were less woody than our acting (quote: Cryptik Souls Crew). We haven't decided it will work with the upload date/time of the listing/video, but we will try and make it accessable to those that are out and about already that night. You won't however be able to bag the cache before the allotted time, as the start of the trail is incomplete and the cache won't be in place until the night, so there! I really hope some of you are able to take a few mins on the 31st to come do our cache. We've put loads of time and effort into it and should prove to be a good laugh. If you are unable to make it on the night, fear not... the cache will be available for the foreseeable future after halloween, just without the little extras we plan on doing on the night! MORE TO FOLLOW SOON!

Here's a thought, why not write all 35 of them down and and log them when you get home?! Take 2 pieces of A4, in case one isn't enough. Peace, out...

Right chaps, please excuse the shortness of my original post, was sat in a classroom trying to write it on my mobile phone! We were never planning on making this an event as such. It's gonna be a cache like any other that will remain in place for some time to come. However, on the evening of halloween this year, we plan to make it a little more interesting, just for one night only! I suppose there is scope to log the evening itself as an event, but that was never the intention. As there a a couple of flash mob events in the are, we'd planned to give people something to do, and get scared out of their minds in the process! Stay tuned for more info as the planning and setting will all be done this weekend! Ratty

Yes Liane, he plans on doing some maintenance, just as soon as he's not learning how to be a trade supervisor in the aircraft engineering role! The cache is gonna be a long-term affair, just like any other cache, but anyone wishing to complete it on the evening of halloween may increase their experience further...