The Other Stu

Insofar as it is not strictly 'missing' this is something I am reluctant to do. If the player who picked it up would have the courtesy to let me know it's fate, and tells me she lost it, then I will mark it as missing. If it had been somebody who had become inactive a long time ago then again I would mark it as missing. But this is a regular cacher who is just plain ignorant! "Plain Ignorant" is a bit strong. Arguably, you could be "plain ignorant" of the very difficult situation she's had to deal with in the last 12 months. But then again, reading some of the posts on this forum, Geocaching is life and death for many. I've told her that she's been trolled* on the forum. She'll respond in her own time. *

I doubt they would go for this. They are making money out of letterboxes by selling the "clue" sheets in the shop, if the exact co-ords for the letterboxes were available on GC.com for free they might sell fewer info sheets. Unless of course they could rent out Etrex 10s for £10 a day

Chatting with a couple of reviewers at the weekend about this. I think what it needs is for someone to approach Lundy and see if they would allow Geocaching.com to list the letterboxes as letterbox hybrids (clearly, permission is needed, particularly as rules say you can't have caches on Lundy currently). This would be a nice compromise surely?

That be a useful site, but don't be under any illusions that it was placed by Groundspeak. For a start, it doesn't mention Groundspeak anywhere on the site. And it's registered by a fella in California that doesn't work for Groundspeak.

I don't think the UK is religiously obsessed. On the other hand, we have a number of beautiful church buildings which date back to the 13th and 14th century. Indeed, most of the really old buildings here are churches. In addition, the UK Geocaching community appear to be very keen on "series" or "collections" of things. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but we the Motorway Madness/Mayhem series have been very popular for a number of years for instance. The Church Micro series has a numbering sequence which is managed by Sadexploration To the OP: There used to be an annual challenge, but I'm not sure it's kept up to date.

I find they do turn up in the end - I've nudged a couple of people lately. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago.... Does anyone else find that if German cachers pick up your TB, they find it acceptable to dip it into every cache and event they do? I've got 2 at the moment which have specific missions, but the people who have them currently seem to be hanging on to them. I've asked them not to do it, but the silence is deafening!

Yup, I'd go along with this. I know that Geotees can do them for instance....

I've come across a few.... Treasure Island, Norfolk Broads http://coord.info/GCD182 (I think the d/t is wrong) There's quite a few round Northants called "Float your boat" by 2 different cachers http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?key=Float+your+boat&submit4=Go And finally, there's an annual event called "The Boat Only Event" which was a couple of weeks back http://coord.info/GC4CVKC Mr Panteras is a lovely fella - might be worth contacting him to find out if he knows any boat-only caches worthwhile doing. Personally, I'm into bigger boats, but I've always noticed these come up and I do have the opportunity to do boating courses so I should really consider....

There's at least 2 of those in the UK with an even bigger twist (I don't want to give away, but I found one a couple of weeks back)

Another vote for talkytoaster maps. I find them better in many ways than OS maps - they're more up to date (the newest version of Memory Maps are now over 2 years old which is a lot in the big scheme of things). They also have a lot of permissive footpaths which the OS aren't allowed to map as they're not official. Is £300 regarded as a large amount for a GPS? When we bought our Colorados (Imported from the US pre-UK), they were the only dedicated Geocaching units that Garmin did - your alternative at the time was a 60CSX which didn't handle all the cache information etc. Then came the Oregon (which was considerably more expensive for the top-end one - around £550 IIRC) I know people often say "But why not use a smartphone - it can do everything a dedicated GPS can do and more"? Well not only do you have to still download the files and save them onto the phone (unless you're doing urban caching, you're not likely to have much of a signal most of the places we go), but the GPS chipset is nowhere near the quality of a dedicated unit. Consider this: A smartphone costs £300. It does a million different things, all OK, but battery life is awful too. A GPS unit costs £300, it is dedicated only to navigation and 2 decent AA batteries last me for days. Clearly, the money on the smartphone hasn't been spent on the GPS chipset - I challenge anyone to show me a smartphone that is as accurate as my 5 year old Colorado, and many people say that they find the Colorado the weakest of the modern Garmin units!

To be honest, if you want a geocaching number plate, you'd be better off buying your own - there are plenty of "Geo's" to go round. For instance.... is only £250 Unfortunately ladies, GEO8ABE has gone... so own up... who has it?

I'd go and do that maintenance on your own caches 1st. That people have been advising you for many a month. Ooh who let this troll in? Careful everyone. The Geocache police are here EDIT: No, just realised it's a sock.

Hi Nick, We're having an intriguing month (31 days of Geocaching challenge). More than the pointless urban caches (really, what makes you want to put a Nano outside a School in a Residential estate?) and the "Nano's where you can put an ammo can", I'm disappointed with the Church Micros series - in theory it's a great idea, but it's just turned into a series of 4000 odd 35mm film pots. I think in the future, I'm going to do a filter to get rid of anything that is either Micro or Other. I accept that this week, we've been in North Norfolk and we've been using the opportunity to visit the beaches rather than do some of the worthy looking series (that series of 128 along the Marriotts way looks interesting). That's always going to lend itself to Urban Micros (and yes, I believe they do have a place). But every time someone says to me "but how are you supposed to put large caches out in Urban Environments?" I remind them of this cache which is bang slap in one of the busiest parts of London!

I think we all know about the validity of the OP. I'm perhaps a little naive here, but what's your part in all this? Your from New Jersey and yet seem to have a lot to say about Lord of the Cachers? Have you had chance to search for this series by chance? or some of the others that he set?

Just to add some additional noise to this thread...... Clearly, many people who are commenting on this thread haven't found the caches. If they had, they would know that you need quite some caching experience to find these. This isn't some jaunt that a non-caching landowner might come upon "by chance". This series was tough. Things like "fake hollowed out stones in a pile of shingle" and "pine cones in a pine tree". When you have no idea what you are looking for, it gets harder too! This is by far and away my favourite series. I'm not bothered about puzzles (I'd much rather be finding caches than solving them), but I'd be surprised if there is a more difficult series of caches than this that probably have a terrain of no more than 1.5. There were groups of experienced people hunting for this series who couldn't find them. It's a shame that this series has been put to bed. I'd like to see someone set up a similar series.

I've been on Facebook for some years now. Most of my "friends" are 'cachers and always have been. The main reason I did it was the camping aspect of 'caching that I met my now wife through. For me, it's a good medium of being able to keep in contact with close and not-so-close friends on a day-to-day basis, not to mention family who seem to be moving away (brother in Australia, sister-in-law currently in South Africa and so on). I try not to be one who shares their entire life (what I had for breakfast etc.) on it, but when working abroad, it's very settling to know that life is still going on for others.

In addition to ragwort, is it me or is bindweed multiplying too? Places I never used to see it seem to be infested with the stuff?

Maplins cough cough choke And being a G0 too HI HI! Seriously though PPs, this is the same technology we're talking about. They would be excellent. 7 day shop do some too which are probably made in the same factory and they're £2.49 a pack cheaper (Hence my comment about the fictional holiday camp people) The Patrician; Interesting, I didn't know that. I did hear that as Eneloop were the best on the market, I guess they were ripe for buyout. I just thought someone would buy the patent, not the company!

Just to add to this, eneloop's aren't the only ready-charged batteries, nor are they necessarily the best, but they are really, really good. I bought some Panasonic equivalents, called Evolta. I'd never heard of them, but they were recommended and were on a BOGOF type offer for a fiver. They are absolutely outstanding. I think there are other makes out there too (I bought my kids some 7-day-shop own brand ready-charged ones and they seem OK for game controllers etc.) Just to add some other brands to the mix

And this was exactly why Geolympix was set up so I am led to believe. Geolympix All going well, I will be attending at least one of the events. Are you aware that all caches in the close vicinity of Olympic venues have all been disabled?

I will take the blame - it appears I might have got myself twisted. Firstly, I was very supportive of the Mega Wales event and I have absolutely no gripe with them - so anyone who was involved has no reason to see anything sinister in my comments. I was led to believe that the committee paid the site a "fee". Apparently, of which, a percentage was donated to charity? (I leave a question mark deliberately). I don't have a problem either if they did or didn't. Perhaps someone from the mega committee could answer the question.... "Did the mega committee offer an unsolicited donation to the campsite?" If I'm honest, it's probably irrelevant. I know in the past that other camping events have had "paid-for" features which have been covered in other ways (asking for donations etc.) i appear to also have upset others who think I want to start setting "friends-only" events or my opinion is "If you don't camp, I don't want to be friends". I have honestly no such wish. My personal issue is that I've tried to setup camping events before but was limited to certain sites who allow day visitors and more suitable sites had to be overlooked. I have since found out that you are allowed to charge a small fee. Considering most campsites charge a small fee for day visitors, I will take that into account. So please ignore anything I've said above or on bookface.

Blacks (and Millets) have been bought out by JD Sports. My first impression was that they might stop selling cheap tat and actually sell quality goods. JD Sports (for those of you who are either young enough or have kids may already know), are known for selling premium brands. Over the last few years, they have distanced themselves from Sports Direct by selling top-end stuff rather than budget or discounted brands. It appears that the Sports Direct owner also owns 19% of JD Sports(who also had a 29.4% stake in Blacks Group before it went into administration) so Karrimors might still be on the menu. I'm not knocking SD by the way - as a manager of 2 children, I use it a lot because they seem to grow out of clothes almost weekly (not to mention through football boots and trainers). For occasional walkiers, Karrimor boots (and Campri - another SD brand), are fine. But not for hardened Geocachers

Can't promise that we can attend, but will do our best. As I've said to Paul, Piratemania comes first (if funds allow), but we see no reason why we can't do both. Originally, the intention was to take the week off work and spend it attending as many Geolympix events as we could, however, life has got in the way (I have been forced to take the following 2 weeks off). Also particularly when it comes to events that people are spending small fortunes of their own money, time and effort, if you haven't got anything nice to say, then say nothing. We both wish Paul, Dr Solly and the whole team, the best wishes and really hope this event is as successful as the effort they are putting into it.

Just to add to this, I would always try and have a day-event if I was to publish another camping event if I thought it was suitable (my Birthday event was the perfect example), but as Hazel says, it seriously limits your ability to find a quality campsite sometimes. Most campsites allow day visitors, but they charge. Last year's Mega committee will remember this well. In case you didn't know, I believe they paid a "fee" to the campsite to allow day visitors. That of course came out of their fundraising. When I started caching, the Oxford event (Dreaming Spires) had a camping event associated with it. The camping event enabled people who were coming from a long distance away, had somewhere to stay. But of course the rules then said that you had to open up the camping event to day visitors. I mean, how daft is that? I did a similar event in Cheshire because I wanted to attend a Manchester evening event. If I'm honest, I made the day event on the Sunday lunchtime knowing that few people would attend just to get a smiley (and I was right). If you can't deter the smiley hunters and GC.com wish to keep this ridiculous rule, can I make a suggestion? Have a flash mob outside the door of the campsite. 15 minutes only. Job done. I know by posting this, I'm going to incur the wrath of some non-campers, however, we won't be attending many camping events this year because time is going to be difficult and we have a geo-wedding to organise and pay for. We won't be attending as a day visitor because it goes against our principles (although if it's local, we will do our best to stay at least one night).

I'm doing quite well for my bargaintastic boots last year. Currently, have some Salomons for light walking and some Merrell Moab GTX mids which I bought from Field and Trek instore for £60 (they're back up to £110 online). Field and Trek are Sports Direct in disguise but with more branded stuff. I guess you probably already know, but Karrimor years ago were a well-respected outdoor brand. Then they were bought up by Sports Direct as one of their instore brands (you probably realise now that SD owned a large percentage of Blacks-Millets until a few weeks ago). Sports Direct also own Dunlop, Donnay, Everlast, Lonsdale and Slazenger these days. Personally (and this is only my opinion - please feel free to disregard), I wouldn't buy walking boots from Sports Direct unless they have an instore Field and Trek concession. I also had to return 2 pairs of Karrimors (I ended up getting a refund the second time). This was because the Metal stud that holds the laces on the top broke. I've seen this several times in some of the discount shops that sell Sports Direct "Seconds" (We had one until recently in my home town).