GeoFamilyCharles

Require a little work to solve... Either at home or on-site. Some can be fun, some can be a right pain in the and get ignored by me! Cache sizes can vary. Micro are 35mm film cans or smaller... Or smaller includes nanos, although a lot of cache owners will class them as 'Other' or 'Not Chosen" -Although a well disguised/camouflaged cache may also be classed as 'Other' or 'Not Chosen" to hide the fact it's a sneakily disguised container! Things are never 'Easy' in the land of caching! So we've discovered We're back out again today...hopefully a multicache, 4 standard caches and possibly a mystery cache to be collected (we'll see)!

Ah right okay. Well which (android) apps would we be recommended to look at

Hi all, We attempted our first unknown caches today. After we worked solved the puzzles we were supposed to enter the 8 digits that we had worked out from the clues back into our C:geo app to find the new location. Can anyone do a step by step on how/where to update the new location code into the c:geo app so that we can attempt to locate these caches? Thanks @geofamcharles

Our second day Geocaching today and we remained within West Lothian. We planned to visit 5 caches today as we had to squeeze today's walk in between work finishing at 12noon and the Scotland v France six Nations game at 5pm! Our first foray was to squirrel and nut's Under Bridge (GC29VZM). We had visited this twice on our first ever Geocache adventure but were beaten on both occasions. We decided to return today and, after a good rummage around we discovered the well camouflaged cache! What a relief, it was there after all We knew from the description of Lest We Forget: Mid Calder (GC19MCK) that this cache was intended to be a quick find however, we were not yet aware of the vast array of sizes, shapes and colours that exist in the world of cache containers. Intrigued by the hint (zntargvp abgvpr) we began searching high and low, interrupted for a few moments by a group of muggles. We eventually locating the small magnetic container and wondered - what constitutes a quick find Next on this afternoon's list was Almond Pool East (GC1BHFA). This is where we discovered how small a cache can actually be! A few of the logs had indicated that this cache hadn't been found and even suggested that it had been removed but no, it is there, it's just very small. We got a good bit of satisfaction finding this cache. Not just because it was so small, but because we knew it had proved a difficult find for others and, it was Mrs Charles' first Geocaching find! The next two caches were unknown caches. We didn't know what unknown caches were so we rummaged about using the coordinates given. After coming up blank we expanded the description of the caches to find the code but we were unable to work out how to update our app in order to get the new destination. All in it was a good couple of hours. We learned about the different sizes of caches that were out there and to research unknown caches before leaving the house! We found another part of our district that we've never seen before and we all really enjoyed the walk along the swollen River Almond. Hoping to visit some more tomorrow

Great! Here it is then... It was taken near 'Near the Riverside' (GC29D0H) in Calder Glen, West Lothian. Apologies for the duplicate, we posted in General section too

Q - Does the picture have to be taken in February? We just started Geocaching last weekend and I've a picture from our day that I'd like to enter? Follow us @GeoFamCharles

Thanks for all the warm welcomes! We're off out again over the weekend (to a few different places if possible). We will report our findings! This is great @GeoFamCharles

Yep agreed, on re reading it does sound a bit like a commercial! I guess I wrote it from the point of view that when I first heard of Geocaching I didn't understand any of it, I wanted anyone who read this and was in that same 'newB' position to get a good understanding of the technology involved as well as the experience. Next story will be all about the hunt Thanks for reading and for the pointer on the coins, I didn't know that. The coin doesn't have any writing on it (Skull on one side, treasure chest on the other), I think this isn't a trackable one?

Sunday proved to be a good day in the Charles household this weekend! Normally we watch our oldest Son play football in the morning then settle down for the afternoon in preparation for Monday morning's return to the grind however, this Sunday was quite different, for this Sunday we set out on our first Geocaching adventure! Having researched the basic principles and downloaded the required technology from Android Market the night before, we were all set and ready to go. Today we were on an adventure in Calderwood Country Park near Mid Calder, West Lothian. Our starting point was to be 'Under Bridge' for cache number 1. We arrived at the Almondell and Calderwood Country Park car park at around 1pm with mobile phone in hand, complete with the brilliant C:geo Geocache application. We switched the phone on, selected 'nearby' from the app menu which presented us with a list of the closest caches to be found around us. Under Bridge was to be the destination where we hoped to find a our first cache which had been cunningly concealed by Squirrel and Nut back in June 2010. The application's built in radar and compass directed us to within 10 metres of the stash. The remaining distance was to be covered using a combination of a Hint and posts left by previous successful Geocachers, which were also handily located in the description part of this cache in our mobile app. I discvered the evening before that the Hint uses ROT13 encryption which in itself sounded quite complicated. It's not - basically you're presented with a sentence of apparent nonsense, that is until you take each letter in turn and find out what it's equivalent is 13 letters further on in the alphabet, put these new letters together and hey presto – you have a perfectly obvious clue! My method to decipher was to write down the alphabet then directly underneath write the alphabet again, this time starting at N (under A) then the following 25 letters. I thought this was very clever just before my youngest tapped the sentance in the application screen twice and the text magically transformed! Back to the hunt. It was a frustrating start as we spent a good 25 minutes scouring the undergrowth in an attempt to locate the mystery item. Our anticipation quickly waned though as we discovered this could be harder than we initially thought! Quotes like “spotted quickly” and “cache is quite visible” were taunting us from our previously wonderful phone by this stage! Not wanting to be perturbed by our early Geocaching experience we decided to move on to the next cache, Calderwood. The radar took us over the bridge and through a small copse of trees before we headed up a muddy path toward the summit of a small hill. Why had we never been here before? It was a brilliant open space, distant from the busy traffic we had left just minutes before. Having just discovered the real reason for Geocaching, the discovery of what's really just on your doorstep, we decided to press on. A fair bit of scrabbling around tree stumps and hollows in the ground provided it's reward. Our first ever Geocache! Remembering the wise words on Muggles (non Geocachers who may happen upon the strange actions of a Geocacher in full flow), my research the evening before told me that we should hurry away from the exact spot of the find before exploring the caches contents. We quickly explored the collection of Geocoins, trinkets and oddments before signing the log book and stealthily returning the cache to it's exact rightful location. Onto cache three and hopefully find number two on a south easterly heading, about 300 or so metres. The path took us through a thicket before heading steeply downwards towards the river banks. It was slippery underfoot and we could see our youngest was enjoying the difficulty that the mildly treacherous terrain brought. The mobile app's GPS was telling us that we weren't far away, but where was it, the title was Near the Riverside? As Mrs Charles headed along the riverbank with Master Charles in tow I decided to cross the river in order to capture a picture of small but picturesque waterfall on the far side of the river. . Shortly after we assembled back at the point that we had gone our separate ways. We had a picture of a waterfall but the cache had remained undiscovered. We were that caught up in the hunt, the success of the last find and the description of "under a fallen snapped tree" that we completely forgot about the GPS! Had we remembered our secret weapon we would have quickly discovered we were indeed on the wrong side of the riverbank. Moments later the cache was found, a skull coin was removed and replaced with Sixsix, whom our son reliably informs us is a Ben10 character, his second Ben10 character of the day having dropped Vilgax off in return for a puzzle toy involving a spring during the Calderwood find. We were getting good at this, so where would we be led next? We were conscious that our son had not actually uncovered a find at this stage but, were were hopeful he would find the next treasure trove - Life Stump! We had decided to miss out a cache that lay between our latest discovery and the next plus one, On the Beach appeared to be on the opposite side of the river, far down a very steep bank. One for another day we thought. We navigated through sparse woodland into slightly thicker woodland until we were near the spot. How many upturned tree stumps do you suppose there are in your average woodland area!? Again we reverted to the GPS which directed us to a spot 10 feet from where a couple of none to obvious stumps presented our delighted son with his first cache. He didn't want to put his hand into the stump's void but he knew that aside from what he couldn't see, there could be rewards to be found. What a brave lad - true Indiana Jones stuff! Having secured the cache he removed a blue notepad and gave 'Stinkfly' before some massive mouldy growths demanded his immediate attention (from a safe distance). Cache returned, by this time it was starting to get quite dull. The light was fading as the dark started to creep in. Where next? Where else but back to Under Bridge. We had experienced the highs of Calderwood, Near the Riverside and Life Stump so we didn't want to go without a final search, now that we knew what we were looking for! The walk back towards Mid Calder proved quite enjoyable as we discussed our findings so far and our tactics for the next hunt. Arriving at the bridge for the second time the hunt began. Peering into the bushes in this kind of light was not ideal Geocache finding conditions we debated! Another good twenty minutes of searching, clue deciphering, reasoning and muggle observations resulted only in enjoyable frustrations. Mind you Squirrel and Nut - we will return as the cache is there to be found! All in all it has been a brilliant day out and this won't be our last adventure! Lived in west Lothian for 25 years and I never knew this was in Calderglen!!