thehoomer

What a nice gesture, I would love that if someone did it for me. Quick question though..... Are you sure you will be able to find the cache in which the message is secreted? You haven't actually found any caches yet. Unless of course, you have found some and not logged them? Either way, I wish you well with your plan .

'She usually shares water from a bottle I will be carrying for myself anyways (I'm sure that thought probably turns stomachs of a few).' The water sharing doesn't turn our stomachs Gackt. I often give Charlie a big kiss, right on his nose and he always gets several licks of Dave's summer ice creams too! I always say, there's a big difference in a dog owner and a dog lover. Sorry, slightly off topic I know, but I had to get that one in.

We would no sooner go caching without Charlie, than we would without shoes but given all you have said, I can understand why you leave your dogs at home quite a lot. Until recent months, Charlie was getting 6 hours of exercise every day but we have come to realise that he is not as young as he used to be and that amount of exercise has now decreased to 4 hours. We enjoy caching, he LOVES it and he gets his daily quota into the bargain. We are fortunate in that we don't have too many stiles in Oxfordshire but when we go caching to a place that does, we are usually in the company of Deadpebble and any obstacles are made short work of. We have had our fair share of encounters with livestock and have adopted methods to avoid confrontation but if cows are showing too much interest in us (or Charlie) at the start of the field, we abandon that route and try to find another way. If no other route is possible, we abandon the set altogether. This may sound a bit drastic but we have had some VERY scary times and the lure of a few more smileys isn't enough to risk another. I agree about the water carrying aspect but we have found this to only be a slight burden in the hot months (remember them?). When the weather is warm, we always try to pick a series where various watercourses feature, so Charlie can have a dip and a drink. The rest of the time, we carry the water between the 2 of us. We are also fortunate that Charlie is a very friendly dog and is impeccably behaved, with sheep, cows, horses, dogs and other walkers. I know there will come a time when he is unable to come on huge cache walks with us but for now, he is most certainly part of our team. I hope you can find a way around some of the obstacles and take your 2 dogs with you again.

We may not go out caching as often as we used to but we are still passionate about keeping our caches in good order and respond promptly to reports which arouse concern. Often though, we have gone out to check on a cache and despite logs to the contrary, have found all to be well. Just interested....at which point would you check on your cache? Do you take into account the experience of the cacher? Obviously, caches which are meant to be difficult will generate DNF's but what kind of comments have been the catalyst for a check from you? Damp/wet/damaged accepting of course. Do you think that DNF's 'breed' DNF's especially on new caches?

Ahhhh yes, the famous 'Bear Grylls Brasserie'......much easier.

Thats what I do at the mo, but the flask/water doesn't keep its heat after a 4+ hours. Two flasks. One with me. One in the car for use on return. But. Must admit, the thought of being able to 'Brew up' on return to the car had crossed my mind on more than one occasion! I looked into the possibility of getting a microwave for the car, so I could have hot pies. That's all very well if you can afford the Tax.

I agree with both replies. I would only ever drink 'flask tea' if there was no other choice. 'Flask coffee' is an acceptable winter warmer IMHO though. Personally, with all we have to carry, we wouldn't contemplate carrying a stove and tea/coffee making gubbins too but I know that some cachers do. We do have a flask of coffee in the winter but it always stays in the car for our return. I wasn't certain if the wind break question was serious (I was struggling with the vision of a cacher walking from cache to cache, carrying one of those stripey beach numbers) but if it is, my solution would be from nature. Trees/hedges aren't portable but there are usually plenty of them on the trail to shelter from the breeze

I must admit, I do like to read a decent log and I have never posted, 'TFTC' on a cache, no matter how mundane or uninteresting. My logs have decreased in size over the years but I do always try to write (at least) a different sentence for each cache. Something else which rarely happens these days (partly due to an improvement in technology, making locations more accurate) is a PAF. I really enjoy being phoned for help and when we find a particularly difficult cache, I always make several mental notes of the location, just in case I should get asked for help by a fellow cacher in the future. Writing a decent log helps me remember which cache it actually is and consequently, enables me to be an effective PAF. As cache setters, we often receive 'short' logs but they are usually on our caches which could be deemed unremarkable (there aren't many ).

You sound like you are fully versed in rechargeable batteries. To be honest, we don't use them anymore but can certainly see the benefit if you have a lot of gadgets and are in the field quite often. We go caching so infrequently these days, its more hassle than its worth for us and we have fallen out of favour with them. For quite a few years now, we have been buying packs of Kodak Extralife (other brands are available) from the pound shop. They are in packs of 12 and 1 battery typically lasts for 6 hours. May be we have been lucky, we have never had one leak into our E Trex but for the convenience cheap batteries offer to people in circumstances such as ours, we are happy to continue using them. Some good advice to folks on rechargeable's here though.

Thanks very much Legochugglers, you have now confused me even more. When I tried your solution, my laptop gave off smoke and then blew up. We are currently sifting through the debris of our former house for anything of any value. Are you certain that Kl'D23d! is 'OK'? Are you sure that isn't a typo and what you actually mean is: K2'D23d! is OK? PS.... Are you going to pay our Travel Lodge bill for the next 3 months whilst they re-build our modest semi in Bicester?

Thanks Mrs B. At least I now know its nothing Ive done I hope they get it sorted because currently, I cant read any messages from GC.com and they could be telling me that I need to email them back immediately, to claim my £1000 'Cacher of the Month' prize money.

Thanks B&R. If that is the case, do you know what I can do about it?

Thanks stijnhommes. There is one cacher who's email comes in like this and also anything direct from noreply@geocaching.com arrives in this format. All our cache log notifications come in perfectly readable. The address line and sender line is readable. I have scrolled right down to the bottom and the whole email is in the script format. Our email provider is orange. I have now marked the email as 'not Spam' but I still cant read it. I will keep fiddling.........

Just a quick question. When we get emails from Geocaching.com, it comes into our spam box and is made up of masses of script like this - 'dG9tOjFweCBzb2xpZCAjZDlkZGFkO3BhZGRpbmc' and we are unable to read it. I'm not at all techie but I'm sure its something simple. Can anyone tell me how to resolve this please?

You mean you have time to check a log against those who claim to have found it? I am retired and need all the time left to complete my bucket list, not worry about those who claim to have "found it". I don't think that walkergeoff said that he 'checks logs against those who claim to have found it'. He said that he had read logs where cachers claimed the find but couldn't sign the log because there was no pen.

Reviewers do a sterling job but in almost all cases, will not be able to direct a cacher on who to contact before setting a cache. The OP will have to Conduct his/her own research via (internet/papers/local council offices/asking around) to request permission for a cache.

Well, I thought we were hot on maintenance.... I was told recently about poshrule and his highly commendable maintenance record and Ive just been having a look. Paul has 932 cache hides and at this, the busiest time of the year, has only 1......yes ONE cache which needs maintenance . Its relatively easy to hide loads of caches but to keep them all in such good order is nothing short of amazing. We haven't had the pleasure of completing any of his circuits yet but it looks certain that when we do, they will all be present and correct. I know that a large percentage of us take care of our caches but I'm thinking poshrule takes the Gold.....unless anyone knows different.

I haven't got this model but I would guess that the answer is, 'yes'. Without maps to guide you en route, you would be wise to have at least some idea of where the caches are before you set off. This may help you in planning a route. Zooming right in on Streetmap (on the left hand side of each cache page)would give you an idea. I'm not very techie and I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along to help you further but I thought I better reply because you sounded so desperate to get out there. I hope I have advised you correctly. Have fun.

The log books are often too damp to singe! Crying over here !

Common sense to you may be. As has already been mentioned, we all play the game differently.....blah blah blah. Players also vary in the amount of seriousness they apply to it. I would say though, I have only ever deleted 1 legitimate log (the other 2 were a known armchair logger and a cache thief)in the 6 years we have been involved and even though the reason was to protect wildlife, I regret deleting the log. I would do things differently next time and have learned from the experience. As with some of the replies above, I would definitely give the cacher/s in question, chance to rectify first.

Sorry for not posting the link and thanks eusty. Ive had an email about this post and thought I better clarify something..... The reason why I said, soon is because after all the 'summer' we have been having, the water level is high. If by some miracle, we get a prolonged dry spell , it would still be good but not quite so challenging. Anyone attending the Geolympics and completing this series should have the same great experience as we did. Enjoy.

We haven't logged any yet but have just completed the series including GC3Q9X4. I know this is a shameless plug but we had THE best fun getting to this cache. Suffice it to say that the clothes have just come out of the washing machine and they are much drier than when they went in! If this cache doesn't get a favorite point from every visitor, I will eat my hat. If you don't like hills (or even gentle slopes), this is the series for you. You must however, have a fondness for the wet stuff at #49. Word of advice though, complete in numerical order and soon.

Thanks very much B&R. I WILL get to learn how to do that one day .

There will be an open day of this ROC bunker on Sunday 1st July, between 12:00 - 16:00 hrs. Please see listing for further details.

27 sounds gud.