niknrich

Hi, we're also in Loughborough (hi Stu & Sarah!) and would be interested in attending, except we have visitors on the 19th... but if everyone is still around in the evening we'd be able to pop along. If it's near the Grand Old Duke of York we may have to "march to the top of the hill" and re-attempt it as we DNF it first time!

No. 4 (1st one on page 2) is Rich of niknrich - he's doing a Christopher Eccleston gurning impression.

I don't think that compulsory membership would prevent cache-trashing. Our only cache was muggled in March and something nasty left in it. The culprit even signed the log, and it was clear that the previous finder was observed (from a distance) replacing the cache. I think the solution is to take care you're not seen retrieving and replacing caches, and to hide them well. We would rather walk on and return later if there is any danger of being overlooked, as we know how upsetting it was to have our cache trashed. In many cases, you'd need to be pretty determined to find a (well-hidden) cache from the website without a GPS. Of course, a 1/1* plus the hint/spoiler pic might be fairly easy, but you'd need at least an OS map for the harder rural ones, and even then it might take a while. If someone is that determined to make mischief, they'd just stump up the membership fee. Most people who own a hand-held GPS will probably know about Geocaching anyway - we found out about it because our etrex had an icon with the website address. We bought ours originally for hill-walking, and I suspect that a lot of others do the same. IMO, if you enjoy the outdoors and are willing to spend a fair amount of money on a GPS, you're not likely to be the sort of yob who goes around vandalising things for fun.

WOTWM might be a bit much for a 2 yr old on foot, it is about a 6 mile walk. However, a lot of it follows the cycle trail so if you had one of those 3-wheeler all-terrain buggies you should be ok. The track is shown on the back of the sculpture map.

Hiya, just wanted to say I heartily agree with Inukshuk above, Way of the Waymarkers is our favourite multi cache, we took four non-cachers there over new year and we had a great day. The nice thing about the forest (apart from the fab sculptures) is that if it rains there is plenty of shelter. Also the food is indeed superb at the visitor centre - especially the sausage baguettes! You can also get a map of the sculptures and tick them off as you visit each one - a bit like another multi-cache! Have a lovely trip, we'll be up there in June so if you can recommend any caches for us we'd love to hear! (we've done stock ghyll & skelwith force, kirkstone pass & WOTWM).

We love amusing/rude/mis-spelt signs, and cracked up laughing when we saw this shop's name in Singapore: The shop assistant gave us funny looks for taking the photo!

Thanks, will try that one. Wasn't sure if there was a more high-tech way of doing it! Shame there aren't encrypted photos like the clues!

We thought of that, but how do you print them without looking at them?

We've been caching for 2 months now and have found 17 out of the 18 caches we've looked for. However one thing is puzzling us: how do you use the spoiler photos while you're out hunting for a cache? If you look at them in advance then it's cheating, so how can you use them without having to go back home to check on t'internet? Don't tell me everyone carries laptops and wireless internet cards out into the countryside?!

We've been caching for 2 months now and have found 17 out of the 18 caches we've looked for. However one thing is puzzling us: how do you use the spoiler photos while you're out hunting for a cache? If you look at them in advance then it's cheating, so how can you use them without having to go back home to check on t'internet? Don't tell me everyone carries laptops and wireless internet cards out into the countryside?!