Simply B

Look at GPX Sonar or GPX View - both work with the GPX files you get from geocaching.com (as a premium member). See here for links and more info: http://www.geocaching.com/waypoints/default.aspx

Check the OziExplorer website for new upgrades to several of the products. There's a long list of changes, the ones I personally found useful are ... OziExplorer CE development version 1.11.6f: - Full screen mode option, really shows a lot more of the map - Configurable display datum, so you can show and edit positions in WGS84 regardless of how you calibrated the map - GPS Tracking can now be turned on and off (the gps is still connected but will not automatically center the map) - I've also just discovered the Log Book function (came in with 1.11.6a), which is a great way to quickly record where you make your finds Img2Ozf version 3.0: - Much easier interface with more functionality, it's now really easy to convert and download files to the PDA - For now, if I've read the pages right, it only works with development versions of OziCE There's also version 3.95.4i of the main OziExplorer PC program, with several big changes but nothing that related directly to me.

Yes, it's great isn't it. Having just put my hand in my pocket for Premium membership, I'm discovering the joys of Pocket Queries, GPX Sonar and Spoiler Sync. Well worth the cost of membership, in my opinion.

Thanks for the ideas - son of Lucky Ducky may just make an appearance some time soon if the original doesn't turn up. And reading over this post again now, I think my original question should have been whether or not TBs are suitable for paranoid parents!

Thanks for the positive replies. They've raised my spirits from cynical to mildly hopeful that there just might be good news at some point. I guess the state of the cache is what made me so pessimistic so quickly. And given that LD had been stuck in the cache for about a month, Alex had got bored of asking about him anyway. So I do have a little breathing space.

My 5-year old son Alex sent off his first travelbug Lucky Ducky a couple of months back. By the looks of this cache log, LD hasn't exactly had a long and fulfilling life before disappearing. I've not mentioned anything to Alex yet in the hope that LD turns up, but it feels like a false hope. I know he's going to be upset, even if only for a while. Are we just unlucky, or are TBs a risky idea for kids?

Ramblers Assn - Basics of Footpath Law gives clear answers to many of the points raised here. I was going to start quoting it, but the whole page is well worth a read.

I've used a RAM Mount on my mountain bike for the last year to hold my iPaq. It's very well made and has been rock solid. Mind you I only ride on bridleways and tracks, as I don't think I'd want to treat the Pocket PC to more shaking than that. I just checked their website and they do offer mounts for Garmins. Basically you choose the cradle for whatever equipment you have, and the bracket for whatever you ride, and the two fit together. If I recall it worked out about £25 with VAT and P&P, which isn't cheap but given the cost of what I was attaching to the bike I thought it well worth it.

I'd also vote (with my wallet) to pay the extra £1 to make them trackable. I recently found a Canadian geocoin, and the pleasure was slightly dimmed when I realised I had to log it somewhere else - not a big deal, I grant you, but a noticeable one.

My worst caching day so far was at GCM8A9 Hang Up and Run To Me. April 3 - GPS wouldn't settle down and had me jumping around all over the place. I got scratched to blazes by trees and brambles, threatened by a dog while crawling under a holly bush, and finally shot at by a teenager with a paint gun. Didn't even find stage 1. Cycled home despondently. April 7 - Sun shining, all passers-by friendly (even the dogs), GPS spot-on. I walked straight up to stage 1, guessed first time what to do next, then found cache in under a minute's searching. Felt really good all that afternoon! Hope your next trip is a "return to form" too.

I think it only looks funny the very first time you ever see it. The Irish one doesn't look funny to me, because I've seen the British one so often. I just tested it on my kids. Alex (5) says it looks "cool", and Antonia (3) says it looks "silly". So no laughs there, then...

Thanks for the Tom Lehrer link - it's well worth going up a level and then reading some others. "I Hold Your Hand In Mine" and "She's My Girl" are the ones I remember best, being an old romantic...

I actually said he invaded "the South". I didn't say the South of what. To make it quite clear, I meant the South of the larger land mass that includes the bit where he invaded as its southern part. But seriously, I'd have sworn that was what I was told back when I wore shorts and believed what people told me. Has history changed, or was I just not listening?

I'm at much the same stage as Mattwaggie with placing my first cache (also in Cheshire, it's going to be a busy weekend...) Have had a look at the form to fill in, please can someone explain where the "Short description" is displayed, assuming that the "Long description" is what is displayed as the blurb on the cache page. Thanks BandMandAandA

Have had nothing to do with this, but assume that it's based on Caesar's famous quote "veni vidi vici" = "I came, I saw, I conquered" when he invaded and conquered the South. This new geocaching version is rather more peaceful, along the lines of "I came, I searched, I found".

What happened next ??????? Having come to this thread on Sat morning, I read with mounting excitement as the riddles were solved and the cachers closed in on the prize all through Fri evening. And then ... nothing. I now feel like when you set the video to tape a film. You settle down to watch it the next day, are really enjoying it, only to find out that the tape ran out five minutes before the climax. Who can you call who knows the ending? Did they find the treasure, and are now nursing hangovers in a nearby hotel? Are there now 10,000 holes (and counting) along the footpath amid a growing crowd of spade-wielding maniacs? Please someone, put me out of my misery!!! My only helpful idea is to point out that "fiducials" are also markers used in other practices, including surveying, to mark reference points. So is there something like a milepost on the roadside where it meets the path? There doesn't seem to be a trig point anywhere nearby, which would have been neat. (Not that I'm suggesting digging it up and moving it a few feet sideways to look for gold...)

Well done! Several of your caches are high up on my "to do" list.

By all means send me a few of your test coordinates, and I'll send back the results I get using it. I'd be interested in the results, as I've not yet been in a position to test it on the ground in Ireland. (I'm BarryD on PocketGPSWorld and BandMandAandA here, as all the family is into geocaching).

Hi My utility mentioned earlier does it for Irish Grid too, if you want to do it using a Pocket PC. It uses the code from the OSGB website - I just had to change a few numbers, and add the different format grid square IDs, to get it running for both grids. It should be good to within 5m, and when I compared its results with a couple of samples on your web page, we agreed to within a couple of metres - so we're either both right or both wrong! The Grid Inquest software freely downloadable via links from the OS web site also covers British and Irish grids, and does the conversions even more accurately.

Thanks for the feedback. And I'll take it that your avatar isn't a very good likeness, then?

TT5 is the new "common platform" - so it updates the older "common platform" as used in the Go, Mobile, and 4 products, and completely replaces the different code used for TT2 and 3. This obviously makes life a lot easier for TomTom. If you're a TT3 user, the main differences you'll see are the new user interface, newer maps, full 7 digit postcode support, POI approach warnings, but a few things now missing (at least they are in the BETA) such as the ability to tweak road speeds to your liking. So, if like me you've already used add-ons to give TT3 postcode support and POI warnings, then the only real benefits are that it'll all be inside TomTom now and the maps will be newer. Go/Mobile etc users will already be used to the interface, but will now get a lot of the functionality that they had been missing out on compared to TT3, plus the other new features above. All this is based on discussions going on over at PocketGPSWorld, where they've been to CeBIT and have had their hands on the BETA of TT5 for about a month.

As I am now spending more time using my BT GPS & PDA for hiking and geocaching than for driving, I'm finding that I need several hands to juggle PDA, GPS, compass, map, camera, etc. One good solution, apart from the risk of feeling like a plonker, is to put the GPS under my hat - keeps it dry, clear view of sky, and can't really get a more accurate positioning! But given it's a BT unit and hence a radio transmitter, is there any sort of health risk in it being so close to my brain for a couple of hours at a go, akin to mobile phone risks? This may well be a dumb question, but it's nagging away at me now, and I'd appreciate an informed opinion. Or a sarcastic comment, if you prefer.

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Without wishing to "fan the flames", could someone explain to this tadpole what is the benefit of making your cache members only, apart from that already given that anyone set on vandalising caches won't then see it. As I think about placing my first cache (hey, I made double figures today), I assume that once I've had the fun of planning and placing it, then the main pleasure is in reading the log as others find it and give feedback on it. Surely making it members only dramatically reduces how many other cachers do so, and hence the amount of pleasure you get from placing it?