mumbo jumbo

I submitted a cache yesterday morning completely oblivious to what was going on. Within a couple of hours erik had come back with comments (doh - I always forget to do the waypoints on multis!) which I sorted out yesterday evening and at midnight (UK time) BINGO - Listing Published! Whatever my feelings about L&E's resignations etc, it still feels like service as usual at the moment, for which I am grateful.

Not quite the same as with a coin but I came across one TB recently where it turned out the owner had deliberately released 4 copies (I think): http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=13584 Consequently, the TB has big mileage although I think there's only one left in circulation now (the one I found). It should have been obvious to me on reading the TB's listing what was going on but the explanation appeared by way of an exchange of emails between a previous finder and the owner which had been popped in the TB's bag. I thought it was quite clever myself at the time. I would probably have been miffed to find a photocopy of a coin though despite the understandable reasons why coin owners might do this (I've had two, possibly three, coins go missing recently ).

Dorsetgal (sans Geodog) posted these logs on one of my caches last year: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...97-48595ee873b2 and http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...4e-c1459ef71384

So should a cache of mine which requires special equipment (most people would have to go and buy it specially) AND where the nature of that equipment is a puzzle be a D5? It's currently a 4.5 (having started life as D3) and there have been 11 finds since 14/7/07.

I had a similar problem with 74 day "down" period from my broadband provider last year. Things only got moving when I emailed the UK CEO and moaned extensively copying the chains of emails (from the office) with spectacularly thick and often contradictory comments and broken promises from the so-called "customer support" team. Maybe you could try a similar approach with TomTom. CEO's name (from their website) is Harold Goddijn and the email is ...@tomtom.com. Play around with the usual corporate email address formulae and you're very likely to get through. It worked for me! MJ

I was just scanning my list of TBs when I noticed that two of my TBs are just 2.4 miles apart in Holland at the moment. One was released in France in July 06 (1031 miles) and the other in Birmingham in Jan 07 (6885 miles). They have comepletely different objectives which don't involve meeting each other - but there they are, practically next door neighbours! It would be dead cool if they actually spent some time in the same cache together but that is probably too much to ask. Anyone else had something similar? MJ

My Legend finally gave up the ghost today. It's well out of guarantee / warranty so I need to replace my GPSr. I was thinking of upgrading anyway. I've decided on a Garmin 60 CSx and the best deal I can find is from thenavigationcompany.com . Having been stung online recently I just wanted to check if anyone else has bought from them and whether they found them reliable etc... Thanks. MJ

Just ordered one. Surprised that the optional donation drop down stopped at just £7. Hope you make it to £1,000 by the end of the month!

More caches to do - great! More shared use cycle paths - grrrr!!! Here's what I posted in another thread (as a keen geo-cyclist): Footpaths and cycle paths (especially shared use paths) are a recipe for conflict (at least) or worse, disaster. Pedestrians are far less predicatable, are not required to indicate and don't have brake lights. Pedestrians with dogs, especially ones on extendable leads, are particularly hazardous for cyclists. Don't get me wrong here - I'm not having a go at pedestrians (I am one a lot of the time) or dog walking muggles (or cachers for that matter). They've got as much right to be on a path, sometimes more right, as your average cyclist. Put me on a bike on an arterial road in Birmingham during rush hour and I'm basically happy, maybe a bit frustrated from time to time, but basically happy. Put me on a bike on a busy shared use canal towpath or footpath/way (whatever you want to call it) and frankly - it's rarely enjoyable. When I absolutely have to cycle on a path (normally because there's a cache on it ) my motto is expect the unexpected. That means dead slow when there's people (or dogs) about and give them as wide berth as possible. So here's one cyclist you're very unlikely to meet on a path, especially a Sustrans-type shared use path. In other words, support for the OP from a perhaps surprising quarter! The irony is that although this is supposed to be about promoting cycling all you'll end up with is a growing urban myth about how mad / dangerous cyclists are - all becuase of a minority of psycho ninja morons who think it's cool to weave between the peds at speed. I'd string 'em up at dawn myself! There's tens of thousands of miles of cycle paths in the UK already. They're called roads.

You would be surprised. Several years ago my nephew was knocked off his bike on a 60mph road near his home. Understandably, once he was out of hospital and recovered, we was nervous of using the road, so rode on the pavement instead. He was stopped by the police (actually the local bobby with nowt better to do) and asked to get off the pavement and ride in the road instead. Verbal arguments ensued and eventually it ended up in court. It was thrown out of course as it was a waste of everyone's time, however a 15 year old boy and his parents had been through an enormous amount of stress because a copper did not want to back down. £30 fine for riding on a pavement - which can be given in the forma of a fixed penalty notice - interesting comment about it beiong a local bobby 'with nowt better to do' -though i feel what you will find is the local bobby has been to many meeting where there have been many complaints from people about those dadgum cyclists who ride on the pavement and often causing injury to the elderly as they shoot past at great speed. so the poor local bobby is in a quandry - does he deal with the matter robustly because it has been a matter of complaint and because it is indeed an offence which he is empowered to deal with - or does he ignore the complaints because of the stick he will get from the local civic society who insist it is safer to ride on the pavement. Most local bobbies will deal with this very emotive issue sensibly - if the cyclists are young then of course it is safer - however if the cyclist is an adult who shouldnt have a problem with riding on the road then that is where they should be - if they do not feel safe to ride on the road then they should not ride at all, and certainly not consider themselves above the law - oohhh !1 this will cause uproar i am sure Most of the problems surrounding cyclists anywhere, road, footpaths anywhere however are these - (1) unroadworthy bikes - a lot of youngsters and many adults ride bikes that are not roadworthy in that they do not have brakes, reflectors, tyre tread and are likely to be 'off road' bikes (2) No lights - I find it absolutely amazing that ANYONE will go out on a bicyle at night with no lights. That is just a serious accident waiting to happen There are many sensible cyclists around but far too many irresponsible ones that give cyclists a bad name - i ride on the roads and will never ride on the pavement or footpath - i will also not ride on the cycle track around where I live becasue they are more dangerous than the roads (anyone who knows Tonbridge will know what I mean) - there are some areas where the cycle tracks are very good however Very much an echo of my earlier post (no 33) on this thread. Getting to this perspective on cycling issues only dawned on me after several years of cycling and I'm now something of an evangelist on such matters. I'm glad to see others share these views MJ

As an all year round cycle commuter who tries to do a good proportion of my caching by bike this is quite a hot topic for me. Personally I loathe cycling on paths and pavement ninjas make my blood boil . Traffic is reasonably predicatable and a confident cyclist can influence the behaviour of motorists considerably by road positioning etc. Much the same for motorcyclists. In 12 years of cycle commuting I've never been hit (but I've fallen off twice ). Footpaths and cycle paths (especially shared use paths) are a recipe for conflict (at least) or worse, disaster. Pedestrians are far less predicatable, are not required to indicate and don't have brake lights. Pedestrians with dogs, especially ones on extendable leads, are particularly hazardous for cyclists. Don't get me wrong here - I'm not having a go at pedestrians (I am one a lot of the time) or dog walking muggles (or cachers for that matter). They've got as much right to be on a path, sometimes more right, as your average cyclist. Put me on a bike on an arterial road in Birmingham during rush hour and I'm basically happy, maybe a bit frustrated from time to time, but basically happy. Put me on a bike on a busy shared use canal towpath or footpath/way (whatever you want to call it) and frankly - it's rarely enjoyable. When I absolutely have to cycle on a path (normally because there's a cache on it ) my motto is expect the unexpected. That means dead slow when there's people (or dogs) about and give them as wide berth as possible. So here's one cyclist you're very unlikely to meet on a path, especially a Sustrans-type shared use path. In other words, support for the OP from a perhaps surprising quarter! One thing I'm not sure I agree with though is the erosion argument. I can't pretend to be well informed on this but my strong hunch is that bikes on paths will rarely have any lasting impact. If damage to paths / tracks is your thing, take issue with the Green Laners .

Thanks RoPeHe. Once I worked out how to use the search facility in the Ordnanace Survey site I found what I was looking for. There are, as you predicted, dozens of the things in the vicinity (I clocked a flush bracket bench mark this lunchtime too) so I'll probably start logging them onto Waymarking.com etc. Nediam. No photo, but it looks something like this: __ /|\ MJ

I think I have found a cut bench mark in Bham city centre which is not showing up on either Waymarking.com or bench-mark.org.uk. I must have walked past it thousands of times but only noticed it this lunchtime. Any suggestions as to how I find out more about it? Thanks. MJ

Excellent. Thanks to all who replied. I should have made it clear that I need this to work globally, not just in the UK. I will trial run it with some of my caches.

Probably a dim question, but is there a quick way of working out the altitude (above sea level) of a particular location remotely without actually going there and taking a reading? Thanks.

Not quite sure if you could call it a franchise but there's Team Marzipan's Village Vexation series of trads. Saw loads of these whist planning for a trip to North Wales earlier this year.

Blimey! What's your problem? The smiley comes from being in a certain place at a certain time - that's all. It's an event like any other: a few new caches released; an opportunity to meet up early to tick off some undone caches; and a couple of hours in a pub talking caching. Sounds like fun to me. [i have to disclose an interest as an organiser!] MJ

The FTF on one of my recent caches was a muggle. Wrote a nice log and even added stuff to the cache!

One of my TBs had travelled a modest 700 odd miles before a kindly cacher took him from Durham to Cyprus last week. The TB is now showing as 2114 miles from my home co-ords but its overall mileage has jumped up to 5035. Now, maths isn't my strong point but this doesn't add up (or am I missing something?). What's going on? MJ

Thanks all. That should give me enough to go on!

I'm trying to devise a new cache listing page whre the clues will be photos of people with numbers superimposed (nuff said for the moment...). I have looked for ways of doing this with the various programmes on my pc but just don't understand how to do it I have Windows XP with all that comes with it including Microsoft Office Picture Manager. There's also Dell Image Expert - Standard Edition v3. And Adobe Photoshop Album Editor. Somebody help - pleeeeeeeaaaaseee!!! Thanks in anticipation.

I'm no techno wizard so I just copy paste what I need. I'll be on hols soon so am preparing for some possible caching outings. By cutting out the cr*p I've got 20 caches on 7 pages. Re printing pdfs, I think the additional waypoints don't come out on the print out. This caused a few seekers problems on one of my caches until I worked out what was going on and put the co-ords in the main listing. There can be other problems with this too - for instance, where the waypoints are part of a puzzle.

I had a UV multi published 2-3 weeks ago. So far just two finds and this in an urban area where most new caches get about ten hits in the first week or so. That's because the fact you need to take a UV light is a puzzle (harder than I thought it seems!). The required info is in a photo booth, a phone box and a public lift to minimise the risk of fading etc. When a few more people have found it I may be tempted to add a hint.

Depends who's asking. If it's police / security it has to be the truth. Otherwise I've had fun with these: To group of old ladies - I'm testing the air for radiation To group of hooded teenagers - I'm conducting a survey of tree snails To lone teen boy (who genuinely caught me unawares) - If I tell you I'll have to kill you - now scoot!

It depends on the type of cache. I put up a series of drive by caches last year, most of which were FTF'd by Wisewol within a couple of hours overnight. This was followed by a deluge of finds over a short period which then shrinks to the usual steady trickle. But it can be different for puzzle caches. I had a new Bham city centre multi / puzzle cache go up over the weekend. FTF was 3-4 hours. 2TF was day 3. 3TF ...? Plenty of people asking questions though, which keeps me amused