OldGimmer

Thanks for the info. I will look into it

Why not set up a GC profile in which the images html code etc are placed A counties list showing the counties available for people finding out about the challenge. Links to the bookmark list and who to contact if you want to help out. As soon as the first few are listed people who dont read the forums can look up the list etc This alos keeps everything on the geocaching site (with its super reliable servers ) I am in the process of trying to register, and arrange hosting for, BigQuest.co.uk, but having a few difficulties. When, and if, I ever get it registered I will make it available to the project and reserves will be welcome. All it will need then will be some help in setting it up. My web design knowledge is NILL so if anyone would like to volunteer help to the task please email me direct through my profile. Bambography or MarkandLynn - Are you available, your chance to setup the website! As previously mentioned, we urgently need someone who can set up an easily accessible database/display of which counties have been "Sponsored" and which are still available. Rutsons list is very helpful at the moment, but I am aware that he is a very busy person, and expecting him to continually update this is not something I think is right. I will happily do this task if possible. I have contacted him with a view to helping with this. Thanks to all, keep booking the counties, but check previous posts, if you can, to see if your chosen county has aleady been sponsored as it is first-come first-served as far as I am concerned. But I am happy that we have two or more names for each county initially as I am sure that when we get to the point of placing the caches one or two people may not actually be able to complete, for whatever reason.

Like it......

Can anyone give a reference to a definitive list of counties. The harder I look the more confused I get. At the moment I favour this listing from Wiki. This only covers Engand, I haven't really considered Scotland, Wales and Ireland yet. The advantage, IMHO, of the Wiki list is that it incorporates the metropolitan and smaller areas into a more traditional format, without including places such as Westmorland which appear on some other traditional lists, but sadly no longer exist. Also, thinking about a collective name for the series I orignally suggested something like "UK Counties Quest". Others since have the word Challenge in their suggested title. Looking here gives "Quest: noun: A long search for something that is difficult to find, or an attempt to achieve something difficult:". This seems most appropriate, and descriptive to me. The definition for Challenge is:- noun: (the situation of being faced with) something needing great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and which therefore tests a person's ability: Whilst this is also good it doesn't incorporate the idea of the searching aspect of the task. Both the above definitions have been edited slightly.

Hi everyone. My proposal seems to have hit a nerve somewhere. Thanks for all the responses. keep them coming. Thanks for all the offers to place caches, when this gets off the ground. Already problems are appearing, as I expected. Some already noted are: 1 -Will it be feasible for the whole of the UK? Obviously the highly populated areas will be easy to cover, but how about the less populated such as in Scotland. As I said in my original posting, perhaps several sets of caches can be arranged on regional basis. By this, individuals could bag England, Scotland Wales and Ireland as triumphs in their own right and eventually bring them together as a UK triumph. 2 -What type of cache should we aim for? All the same e.g traditional or should we use all types. I personally favour traditional. 3 -How difficult do we make the caches? Do we put a limit on the Difficulty/Terrain levels? I think that the sheer task of visiting all the caches is, in itself, very difficult without making the individual caches very difficult. 4 -What is the definitive list of counties? The list already published by Rutson is very good (Thanks Ian) and I suggest that this be used, at least at the moment. 5 -What should the series be called, and how should it be presented.? I'm in favour of something like "UK Counties Quest" followed by the county name e.g "UK Counties Quest - West Yorkshire" but this may be too long a title. However having a common title format should automatically ensure that all the cahes appear together in listings. I also think that the page layout should be similar for each county similar to the US style as linked in my original post is good. It allows for all the usual stuff plus an area for info about the county etc. I will try to contact the US organiser to pick their brains and expertise. 6 -Final location? Thanks for the comments. Again this depends on a concensus. I'm inclined to go with the UK central point in Lancashire, (and that is very hard to say for a true Yorkshireman), but regional centres may be appropriate also if we go with the regional idea as in "1" 7 - Who else wants to get involved with the organisation? To be honest, I am only a begnner in Geocaching, and cannot even claim to have come-up with a truly original idea. My experience of actually organising something like this, and knowledge of what is possible is very low. I have already contacted another very experienced cacher in my locality and will be getting together with him to discuss possibilities very soon. But if you feel you can offer help then shout out. We need to do this project as a group. Further comments appreciated, and carry-on booking the counties.

My apologies if this has been raised before, but I have done a search of the forum using words I think are relevant and not turned-up anything. My idea came from lazily browsing the general board where I found this topic :-"The 50 State Multi-cache, Cache Across America". This is a big thead, 17 web-pages, running from June 06 to today, which indicates a lot of interest. I haven't read every posting, but have read enough to get a good feel for what is happening. In summary this was a proposal to create one new cache in each state, as being part of an enormous Multi-cache. Each cache would have a unique code which, when all have been collected, is used to unlock the co-ordinates of the final "Target" cache which would possibly be located in Washington DC (which isn't classed as a state). Each log/claim would have to be verified by photo evidence of actually visiting the site. They are hoping to have some form of (sponsered?) prize for the first to find the target cache, but the main kudos was to be FTF the target itself. This is obviously a major project, locating and visiting 50 caches in 50 states is not a trivial task, the distances will be enormous. They anticipate that it could take upwards of 5 years before anyone logs a FTF, BUT they have virtually completed getting all the state caches in place, each with a customised page and a database of logs for the project (Virginia Sample Page). As of today only 3 state caches remain to be placed, and many of the placed ones have already been logged as finds. What I am proposing is to set-up a similar Multi-cache in the UK. Ideally this would involve England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (possibly Republic of Ireland as well). There are, according to a quick search, approximately 100 counties in the UK, with about another 25 in ROI. So in strict number terms the project involves something like twice as many caches (at least) as for the US version, BUT the distances are much smaller here than there. It is feasible in many parts of the country to log several counties in one day. A possible alternative would be to have regional "targets" which could be claimed by visiting all the counties in that region, with that regional target having part of the co-ordinates of the "UK target cache". A project such as this is not realistically possible for one person, it would take a dedicated group to organise it and lots of individuals to volunteer to place a cache to represent their own county. Is anyone interested? Is the project feasible? Moderators - Is it "legal" within the UK geocaching guide-lines? Where shall the final "Target cache" be located? Am I talking out of my .....? Does anyone care? Lets talk.

Hi from the UK I have just discovered this thread and spent the last hour or so reading most of it. Its a great idea and as a frequent visitor to the USA (32 states visited so far, with cache finds in several) I do hope your venture is very sucessful. If you require a cache for the unofficial 51st state i.e the UK I would be glad to arrange something Good look to everyone involved

I am going on a holiday in a day or two to New Zealand and Australia, so I have run several pocket queries for places we will be visiting. All the queries for Australia run fine, as do ones for USA and Hawaii (which are en-route) BUT no matter how I try I cannot get any results for New Zealand. I have used exactly the same method for them all; i.e. Search for a suitable cache somewhere near where we are staying and use the GC number as the basis of the search. This works for all the searches I have tried but not for New Zealand, and I have tried now about 8 times. The query is accepted and seems to run, but when I preview it the message says "No results returned". Checking the details of the query does not show anything wrong. Now reaching hair pulling time Has anyone else had this problem and/or can anyone offer any advice? [updated] Additional info: I have retried the query with a "Country" selection (= New Zealand). This does work and provides results, but is a rather "Shot-Gun" approach. It gives a selection (but not all, within the maximum of 500) of the caches in the whole country. It will do if necessary, but I would prefer a more localised result.

Judging by the effort that the police are putting ito their search at High Wycombe, the woods don't seem to be a good idea. I don't think I am being paranoid, but I think you have to admit that someone using a strange (that is to most muggles) electronic device and poking around in obscure locations, as is the case for most caches, can appear suspicious to some people. Normally they would probably ignore these activities, but as things are at the moment they "may" decide that it is not a bad idea to notify the authorities.

(I apologise if this topic has already been raised, but I haven't found any recent postings that really appear to be relevant, apart from some light-hearted comments on the High Wycombe Wood search) Last weekend I was out trying to become FTF for a local cache Greenhead Park which was (now archived) positioned in a busy part of the local park. Despite trying to act in a non-suspicious way I was very aware that a few people seemed to give me more than a passing glance. It struck me that in the current security situation a geocacher placing, or retreiving, a cache could raise suspicion and, possibly, subsequent police action. I, for one, would not like that to happen to me. Any thoughts?