Geotrotters

I'm afraid you are going to have to give me an idiots guide on how to read your updates without signing up. I have just taken another look and at the top of the page it says this - Hey there! opengeocaching is using Twitter. Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Join today to start receiving opengeocaching's updates. Yep and if you cast your eyes about two inches downwards it should list a couple of one-line updates which I've made so far? I've just signed out and it still lets me view the update so I'd have thought you would be OK to see it. I've just taken a look and the last update says "Let us know if you have any ideas or suggestions for what YOU'D like to see in an Open Geocaching framework. Idea gathering has begun!" As I haven't got a Twitter account how would I let you know my idea's/suggestions? I'm not trying to be facetious but I think an actual web page or blog would be a better idea, one where you don't need to sign up to add responses. Personally, I still think you'd be better off following the suggestion of Lakeuk re geocaching.co.uk as I feel that, following the path you plan on taking, you will end up putting a lot of time & effort into a project that will not gain as big a following as a UK stats & resources type website. Just my opinion but good luck either way..

If you're interested in meeting fellow cachers why not book into Piratemania 2009 at the end of July? It's in Derbyshire and there will be loads of friendly cachers there. So many in fact that they've just had to arrange an overflow campsite for people who still haven't booked yet. Camp over for the weekend or call in as a day visitor. I'm sure you'll be made very welcome. There's also the Lancashire Event at the end of this month. It's near Settle which borders Lancashire & Yorkshire. You'll get the chance to meet the majority of the regulars/nutters from the North West Caching Forum

While it's great to hear cachers coming up with new idea's to improve/freshen up the game/sport, I [personally] don't think creating a site to compete directly with Geocaching.com would be the best way to go. There are already sites like Terracaching.com & Navicache.com which haven't managed to bite into Groundspeaks stronghold. There have also been alternative TB sites which also fail to make an impact. The main reason would be that there are currently over 40,000 caches in the UK alone listed on GC.com. People don't really want to log onto multiple sites to log their daily finds, especially as the totals would be split. eg. GC.com = 865 finds, Brand X = 32 finds etc. Everything can be found on GC.com and while the local forum's have proved that people are willing to use other sites for socialising, they aren't really interested in another site that wouldn't really offer anything new. [imo] I personally think the best idea would be to note the suggestion made by LakeUK about possibly bringing back GeocachingUK which, like he pointed out, was very popular. You would probably stand a better chance of hosting a successful UK site that compliments Groundspeak rather than competes against them. GeocachingUK was officially recognized by Groundspeak & Geocaching.com. You would obviously need to contact Teasel about the possibly of bringing it back as a more open source project Geocaching Australia did go down the route of hosting their own cache listings but I don't know how successful that has been and how many Australians still use Groundspeak. Rather than risking antagonising TPTB by touting for business on here, you may be better asking for the views of cachers using the local forums. Details of the local forums can be found on GAGB. Good luck with your plans whichever route you decide to take and I'll keep an eye out for any future updates. Update: - I've just noticed your Twitter link. I don't use, or wish to use, Twitter and would prefer any updates to be posted on local Geocaching forums. Just my personal choice as I know plenty of people do use it and are quite happy doing so.

My nearest 500 caches are within 6.8 miles and closing fast.

Thanks. I'll make a note of that one.

Im thinking it may be better in an IOM cache "unsure" but it needs to be somewhere you can go early in the holiday and get back to later in the holiday. Still happy for it to remain with you in the meantime or you could virtually log it into an IOM cache with a note to contact you for it ?? Not sure how to proceed allthough im certain we want to share it with other cachers on the island. HH any thoughts ? I'll be quite happy to take it over with me, I'll contact Minstrelcat via email. I'm sure we can find a cache to put it in. We found a very large one last year, The Montpelier Ford, which I'm sure wll be ideal. We found the area just by using the etrex so it should be easy for future visitors to get to. If any local cachers know of any better caches to place it in please let me know.

Well I've got it all sorted. Ferry booked. Campsite in Peel booked. We'll be on the island for our 2nd annual visit from the 18th to the 27th August. Hopefully I'll be better organised than last year. If anybody fancies a spot of caching, locals or visitors, between those dates we'll always welcome the company. I've got 4 weeks to get some of the puzzles worked out and I've still got the details gathered from the caches we managed to find last year. I still can't believe we only managed to find less than 10% of our intended total, although I still can't believe we could have so many mishaps in the space of one week. Still looking forward to our visit though. We really enjoyed the scenery last year and we're hoping to go up to the Point of Ayre this time. I wouldn't mind a trip to the calf of man as well. Now counting the days and we've also got Piratemania and the Mega event to look forward to beforehand

I might just find my way to this one being a local. I might even take the tent along then I can have a drink without having to get home afterwards.

I requested a 'My finds' PQ about 3 hours ago and it's still not come through. It's showing up on the PQ page as being generated though.

i. An area of the forum for premium members to air their grievances without risk of censorship. ii. A democratic vote for all premium members before rule changes are applied.

Thank God for that. I thought it was just me.

Thanks Edgy. Works fine in Flock as well as Firefox. Glad to see it back.

Err.... Will you not be in Cheshire for your own event the weekend before Hazel?

ROFLMAO

We went to the Isle of Man last year and asked this very same question. [] A site that was recommended to us, and which we plumped for, was the Peel Campsite. The prices were reasonable and the facilities were clean. It's only a short walk to the beach and it has a Swimming Pool next door. There's also a supermarket 2 minutes walk away. We're going back again this year and will be booking at the same site. I can't really recommend many caches as we didn't do many due to misfortune but we'll hopefully get a lot more done this time. We did enjoy the Three Legs - J3 (Coast) cache and would recommend caches by Happy Humphrey as he does come up with some ingenious hides. We'll be back there from August 16th if anybody else is planning a journey over and fancies meeting up for a caching trip. Keith (Geotrotters)

That's some going seeing as it was 423 days between his 1st and 50th cache. The bug must have bitten him suddenly.

It's all down to personal choice. We met Lollybob this way on our very first cache and it was only their second week. They put the cache back and left it for us to find, though we were on the wrong side of the river at the time. They waited for us to cross over and find it and introduced themselves. We also met Wicker and Charlie & the Wheelies this way as well. It's fun meeting up with other nutters cachers this way.

The link doesn't appear to be working. Is there another one to log on to?

There are a few Manx cachers out there but I doubt if an Isle of Man forum page will appear unless someone starts one up personally. The cachers in the NW of England have set up a more local forum Here which all Manx cachers are more than welcome to visit.

It's not another of Lollybobs "Bobs Tackle Box-Ickle Fisherty" series is it? I know there's a Keith-ickle Fisherty and a Mark-ickle fisherty one so it could well be. I'm not going looking for it though as i'll only 'balls' it up.

I'm also unable to access the site. Is the address still the same? http://www.geocacheuk.com/ ?

Worth bookmarking this link..

3.4 x 24 = 81.6 + 20 - 101.6 rounded off to the nearest penny = £1.02

No, I've not tried the puzzles yet. I've tried talking Martin into doing them while I'm at work now he's finished school but it's surprising how busy he's become all of a sudden. Thanks for the offer of the paper map. I was thinking more of memory map due to the fact that I can print out the maps and see where all the caches are, therefore making it easier to plan a route. It's something I saw another cacher using in Snowdonia at the weekend and I thought it was a really good idea. I'm going to follow PUP's recommendation and give GSAK/GoogleEarth a try. It might serve the purpose. I'm not sure how many we'll do but I'm hoping it's quite a lot as we'll only get bored sat on the beach otherwise.

Thanks. For once I can actually be organised before going out caching.