biggles1024

Problem persists. Bad news, the day before a Mega. Glad I use GSAK.

This is very bad advice. Tweezers should never be used to remove a tick. The current teaching in Australia is to freeze the tick using ether spray and when it's dead, just brush it off. If ether spray isn't available a tick key or similar tool should be used but not tweezers. This video explains it very well.

Seeing as you've posted in this forum I'm going to assume that you mean the cache or caches in question have been listed on gc.com. Step 1 is to check that the cache or caches aren't also listed on GCA. Just because a cache is Archived on gc.com doesn't mean that its not still active on GCA. The container doesn't belong to you. It's not your property. Is "Theft by finding" an offence over in the west? It's something that foreigners no nothing about and as a Victorian, I'm not conversant with laws in Western Australia. That said, when a cache has for all intents and purposes been reduce to litter, collecting the litter is the right thing to do because it is just that, litter. Adoption has been addressed by other posters here but accepting responsibility for a cache as a "Community Cache" is often possible with our local reviewers but rarely if a cache has already been Archived. This is done when a cache has some special significance. Finding Archived caches is a 'sub-game' for some caches. The detective work that is often needed to ascertain whether or not a cache is still likely to be in place adds an extra element to the game. Having spent what maybe a considerable amount of time solving a puzzle it is only natural that a cacher will want to receive the reward of finding the cache in question even if it is archived. Finding an archived cache and finding a trackable inside it which was not listed in the cache's inventory, and then returning that trackable to the game will make the trackable owner very, very happy. In summary, given the way we play the game in Australia, unless the cache has been reduced to litter, I believe that it is best left as is. Cheers, b.

Are you sure the analytics part of the site isn't broken? I thought I was going barmy when I couldn't find the relevant link this time last week, but I see now that I wasn't, well at least not for that reason. I'll add my voice to those who are requesting a return of this facility. I didn't use it often, but when I did, it was terrific.

Wrong on both counts. Since 1996 we have had mass murders. 3 arson attacks killing a total of 36 people, blunt instrument attack killing 5 and knife attack which killed 8. Changes to firearms laws only changed the weapon of choice. And then there are those 'attacks' which have resulted in the deaths of 3 or more people but aren't counted because the weapon was a car. Automatic weapons have been banned since the 1930's. Obtaining a licence for a rifle or shotgun is as easy as falling off a log. Handgun licences are also easy, but quite time consuming.

The guidelines are guidelines, not rules and that's not what they say.

Please don't lock me. I can assure you that I'm a real person and a real geocacher.

That's very presumptuous. I've done many a night cache where the first leg didn't involve reflectors of any sort.

A night cache such as you describe would be considered a challenging night cache with a D rating to suit, but still be considered a multi. Obviously everyone has their own interpretation of what constitutes a Mystery. Cheers, b.

Around here, Victoria, Australia, night caches are multis except for those that contain an actual puzzle component e.g. you must solve a puzzle to obtain the start co-ords. Reflectors aren't counted as physical waypoints either but many of our N/C's contain projections in addition to having to find containers with information, usually co-ords for the next waypoint inside or tags with that same information. Such waypoints are considered Physical wp's and as such, the proximity rules apply.

Three finds including this one.

A 'cacher party' for a FTF hunt is a lot of fun, especially at night if you can see car headlights coming from a number of directions to a place that no-one would go to at night unless it was for a cache. As for FTF etiquette, I always upload a preliminary log from the field as soon as I'm satisfied that I am the FTF as a courtesy to others. There is one cacher in my area who makes a habit of logging anything up to a week after his find and is earning a reputation for discourtesy because of it.

That's a great way to quickly fill the log in a nano, like those who insist on using their stamps on nano logs. Horse hockey. Even on thumbnail sized nanos, I've gotten the date and our full username in on ONE line. For teeny-tiny log scrolls, I use a fine-point Sharpie. And I write the date (always) in D/M/Y format: 17/8/15 I've never thought to not include the date on our logs, until this thread. It just never occurred to me to not include it. B. Just keep on deluding yourself that you're performing some sort of community service. Sheesh..

A small group of cachers went there from Australia last year and found a cache that had been published ten years earlier and never found. They didn't experience any problems with China's Police or security services.

That's a great way to quickly fill the log in a nano, like those who insist on using their stamps on nano logs. This is especially true considering the guidelines don't require anything more than one's cacher name.

I write the date except on nanos. For a FTF I also write the time. I know of other cachers who like to know by how much they missed out on a FTF and I'm happy to oblige.

A retractable tape measure was used on one cache I found a couple of years ago. The hint said something like "you'll find the log a metre away". Of course most cachers started measuring one metre but the log was on the back of the tape, starting at the 1.0m mark and then extending up the tape. A felt tip pen was provided so that we could write on the metal surface. That cache attracted a lot of favourite points.

I live in Victoria and use OSM (Open Street Maps) and OCM (Open Cycle Maps) in preference to the Garmin Topo maps. OSM is much more detailed and up to date, especially since I started contributing to it and OCM shows many more tracks in the bush but also cycleways in suburbia than does OSM. HTH, b.

CO's who consistently list the wrong container size which inevitably lead to cachers looking in the wrong place. How hard is it to read and then apply the guidelines? Not hard at all and yet where I cache, there are some serial offenders. What makes it worse is that sometimes gardens get trampled by cachers no matter how carefully they tread because they're looking where a specific size container is most likely to be hidden.

My favourite night caches are located on Point Nepean, Victoria, Australia. They start amongst the buildings of the former Army Officer Cadet school and the former quarantine station and take you down a variety of bitumen and dirt tracks to the gunnery ranges of OCS and then the buildings of both Fort Nepean and Fort Pearce. The barracks, gun emplacements, generator room and ammunition stores. Many of these buildings are multi level and your GPS won't help you work out which level you're supposed to be on. With the ocean of Bass Strait on one side of the peninsula and the usually calmer waters of Port Philip on the other, this is an exciting place to do night caches. Black Ops Coles Track A Girls Night Out Edit: Formatting.

In my area, some caches are listed on geocaching.com.au before being published on geocaching.com. Those who monitor the Australian site can, on occasions, get the jump on everyone else. btw, I'm not one of them.

The number of latches or flaps as you've called them increases as the container size increases. There is a cylindrical one, I can't recall the volume but it is a 'small' in geocaching terms that, owing to its shape has three latches.

CO's who consistently state the wrong size container and these are serial offenders that I'm thinking of annoy me more than nano's. All container sizes are OK in my book, provided they are used in an appropriate place and then the size is correctly nominated on the cache page.

Sistema's aren't necessarily waterproof when submerged but from my observations, much of the water inside Sistema's is from condensation rather than direct entry. They seem to be the best available especially when used inside an ammo tin.

I use Geosphere to log my finds in the field and use it's ability to stamp each log with Date and Time and Find Count. I do not however upload these logs from my phone except in the case of a FTF which I do as a courtesy to other cachers who may be rushing to try and be FTF. When I return home, I export those logs, which at that point in Geosphere are actually Field Notes, to a text file which I then import into GSAK. I then use my notebook PC to type up a decent log, attach photos and log trackables etc. Owing to the fact that my iPhone is an ancient 3GS, it doesn't have Siri so I have taken to using Dragon Dictate voice recognition app, which is free on iOS to make some notes about each cache to jog my memory when I'm typing up my logs. That note along with a photo of the cache or hide, which is NOT uploaded to GC.com gives me enough information.