jerryo

I wanted a few film canisters so I went to the inevitable Boots and said I was arranging a river race similar to this. I said we couldn’t afford plastic ducks and 35mm film pots would be ideal. I got 250!

Erm... it is 10 million METRES as was said, Helen Edited to mention that I added this before jerryo responded But no-one'll believe you. I believe you though.

But it is ten million metres, as the answer says.

Absolutely. The thing with grading a cache like this as 5/5, or my other one that’s the same grade, is there really is no indication of how difficult it actually is. The other one is a doddle if you have the right equipment and is only a serious-bordering-on-insane climb if you don’t. On the latter, there are now some spoiler photos and almost anyone can do it. As far as the cache in the OP is concerned, there need be no danger and the technical difficulty doesn’t compare with actually having to use “proper” climbing skills, as it were. It’s equipment you need and a bit of common sense. I have done more arduous caches with a lower grading and they can take all day. This one, with care, will take about half an hour. I don’t want deliberately to exclude anyone from any caches and I’m open to being asked to come along and help people get it but I fear that it could get silly. Ceratinly if it’s the last cache in the area for someone who wants to clear their front page then I’m up for it.

It's actually about 3-4 metres to the water surface so stilts might do it

OMG!

I'd echo that too. All the best and good luck.

Is that what we did? It was the best cache I ever did. Must go back and put a TB in there next year. :-)

I suppose it was only a matter of time before you stepped in with your opinion. You seem to be renowned for taking – and giving – offence when someone posts something you don’t “approve” of. As you say, you can always ignore cache types you don’t like. In the same way you can ignore – as you’ve probably unkindly pointed out on more than one occasion – threads you don’t like. You never seem to manage to do that, though, do you? You always have some snide, acerbic, and valueless comment to add to the forum. And remember it is a forum and not a library: people are entitled to ask questions and I checked for recent similar topics before I posted what was, in fact, a polite question. Another fact that you seem to have overlooked. If you can get over yourself and think about something constructive to say it would make a refreshing change. You don’t like much, do you? And you complain about everything else.

In that case, if I have a puzzle cache in my area and I sent you the info, would you be interested in solving the puzzle part and I'll get the cache and log you as a finder too??? Team effort. I'm only half kidding and that half's only if I'm going to get flamed. Otherwise...

Thanks to the you both for those ideas. Good ones and I'll have contemplate.

Oh, I hope you didn't mind my referring to your post . I wasn't criticising ot in any way at all, just using it as an intro, as it were.

This post was prompted by someone using the expression “proper puzzle caches of the settee solving type” in another recent thread. Puzzles have come up a few times recently and I was wondering what does everyone think about them as sit-at-home puzzles rather than “unknown” caches that are what you discover when you are outside geocaching, which is what this hobby’s all about IMHO. If I want to do a puzzle, I'll go to a puzzle site. Personally, I think they are only "proper puzzles" if they relate directly in their puzzling aspect to finding Tupperware inter alia - i.e. ones where the cache details are unknown, or indeed puzzling, until you figure out what to do once you're out there. I really don't like the sit-at-home puzzles that have nothing to do with geocaching (music quizzes, general knowledge, global Internet picture searches), and are difficult sometimes because they are so woolly that only the setter understands the full logic in them and hasn't communicated the full story, understandably, because they already know the answer. Admittedly I have such a puzzle but the answer’s on the page and it says so in the hint.

If anyone’s interested, I emailed the guy concerned about this matter (politely ) and thanked him for telling me what had happened. On the grounds that the log book was a bit difficult to retrieve (particularly if hanging upside down), I suggested, rather kindly I thought, that he might like to log the cache after all . He had touched the log book and was very close. It would also prevent him from trying the same stunt again . What do I get? Nada! Nix, not even a thank you – and still no “sorry about the coin”. Pah! So I emailed him again and told him I’d changed my mind and now a condition of logging it is a photo of the equipment in situ. Still nowt, and he logs in regularly. However, this means, irritatingly, that I’ve had to ask Deceangi to change the cache type to “unknown”. Now people’ll think it’s one of those irritating puzzles that I’m just about to start another thread about.

Safari? Er, got it I did wait though! And I broke my dog.

I agree with you. My target for numbers is 1000 (300 and odd to go), but when I see people (and well done, people) with thousands I don't find it over-exciting to contemplate achieving the same. I'm pleased it's not just me. As far as my own caches go, I'm actually removing as many of my micros as I can (mission nearly accomplished: one to go) and swapping them for larger containers. I also don't set any quick caches and mine are now going to be offsets or multis. Sadly, only one person has done the last multi I set a few weeks ago.

How many's that, then? I was wondering what the record was in terms of numbers and percentage of overall finds.

Eschew obfuscations! You are terribly good-natured about it all though and you'll do well on the forums. You make some fair points, I agree, but the liklihood of any change to "our" American way is pretty remote I would say: to see who's in charge, watch this - "dadgum"* change to "dagnum" See! *D A M N

What rebuff? If you mean Deceangi's closure post on the other thread then it wasn't rude or “buff” of any sort, I didn't think. Now the OP writer knows the particular protocol, he can avoid the mistake again. This is the first time that this particular topic has come up to my knowledge so perhaps the fact that it is an unwritten rule implies that it should be obvious. You wouldn’t go to a bank wearing a balaclava (some would!), which is obvious, and promoting your own caches when, having perused the forums, you see no evidence of any else’s doing it is equally so. The writer owns a forum, and should be more familiar than most with their little idiosyncrasies. The OP did mention blatant cache plugging and perhaps may have eschewed unwanted attention had he not done that.

For every two FTFs I get, I'm putting out a cache. I've been at that for a while and I'm a bit ahead of myself so I need another FTF. Look out, y'all.

Why??? Who?

But your replying to the thread implies that the script doesn't work.

Judging by some of your cache hides, if these two people didn’t go for them as fast as they do, it’d probably be a week or so before anyone else found/looked for them. I see that two people have found 3 each but it’s by no means a huge number. When I log a first to find, I never write Wooooohooooooo!!! FTF!! If what’s annoying you is the person writing “FTF” or “First to Find”, or whatever, consider that they may be doing it so they can search through their records for statistical purposes; I use a program that looks for the phrase “FTF” in all my logs so I can count them. I am, however, a statistician and interested in such things although I use the phrase FTF subtly. I think you’re being unfair. Why don’t you email the people rather than resorting to subterfuge? I think if I found out that someone was doing this to me, I’d not bother finding their caches again anyway. It’s only a game, as the mantra goes, and you now appear to want to spoil it for others who are very keen players.

Many of them but probably not all! Mind you, I've never considered D.amn to be a swear word, just a very mild expletive. Perhaps it's different "over the pond". You can do it with any word you like if you can be @r$ed. Ahem.

I’ve got loads of FTFs. As I’ve said before, I don’t really care about them and I often leave caches for days to give others a chance as it seems to make a difference to some people. Having said that, they often remain unclaimed for ages and off I go. Maybe, as has been said before, your “hounds” would have to travel too far to get any other caches and, as they like the sport, your reluctantly-placed caches are the only ones available to them? If someone set a cache that they were desperate for me not to find first, they could send me an email and I’d respect it. I’d find it a bit sad, but I’d respect it. When I started caching, I wasn’t bothered about FTFs; I honestly don’t think newbies are, and it’s more the last F than the first one that matters. It seems to largely to be the misconception of some experienced setters that anyone really cares that much about it. Once the cache has been found, are other people then not bothering as the FTF has gone or does it really make no difference? You could easily make it an unknown type cache with the stipulation that the FTF could only be claimed by someone with a low number of finds. This is going to do wonders for your popularity, though. Of course the other possibility is that there is a personal dislike/vendetta against the FTFer(s), which is a whole new, and prepubescent ball game.