Oxford Stone

https://www.geocaching.com/plan/lists/BM2P972?sort=name&sortOrder=asc&skip=0&take=200 a series of geeky puzzles in SE England. Some need programming skills; most don't.

Lots of fishing rod caches near here (Oxfordshire, UK) going out with high T ratings. I wish they wouldn't... actually I wish they wouldn't put out fishing rod caches at all, they're the spawn of the devil.

@Matty449 , take on any D/T feedback from early finders then if necessary adjust the ratings once and once only (otherwise you'll annoy people who are "collecting" ratings for whatever statistical / challenge reason).

https://www.facebook.com/QuirkyCaches/videos this CO put out getting on for 100 caches like this, heyday being about 2014. I bought one and it's still going strong - inside a wooden box on an axle are 4 wooden wheels, almost touching so you can only see their edge, with 1 2 3 4 5 6 painted on. On the side of the box is a small hole. On a chain is a long metal rod. Poke it through the hole and spin the numbers until the rod engages with a hole in each wheel, thus revealing along the top of the wheels the combination for the padlock on the bottom of the box giving access to the log paper container.

I have a multi that starts in Paris and ends in London - in the early days I had some Parisians accusing me of breaking the rules (the didn't realise that icon-GZ distance is not limited on multis) and then a handful got it logged by a pal in their determination to have found all the caches "in Paris". I let them go. Otherwise no issues beyond those that any cache might experience. The above seems a strange one, though.

I just noticed that gc.com stats list Cyprus as an Asian country - and don't even get me started on what they've done to Ireland.

I love a puzzle cache (just don't make me do another Jigidi) - I have found 1403 "?"s and put out 72. Some are a bit lame or obtuse but many are cleverly constructed and teach you something.

Near vw_k and I was a couple with one account - he's in the Royal Air Force and one day logged a cache in British Indian Ocean Territory while his wife was finding a cache in England. So their furthest travelled in a day is quite impressive.

51.69699, -1.36306 Tubney Woods - home to a multi strangely called Fore! (nearest golf course about a mile away)

On project-gc you can get a ranking of finds in a county / state (as opposed to cachers from that place) - I have for at least 5 years been 3rd in Oxfordshire (UK) with 2 cachers who started before me a few hundred ahead. Oxford Stone junior hovers around 10th. If you add the "type = unknown" filter" then I'm always neck-and-neck top - not bad considering how many of the puzzles belong to me! Still hoping to complete 10 calendar loops on 29 Feb - I need 9 caches on 4 December dates, 3 on 20 Jan and 4 on 29 Feb. @CCFwasG the bluebells are beautiful this year!

https://coord.info/GC20519 above Lake Como, Italy.

Reading the "not another souvenir promotion" thread and searching for "priorities" brought up this nearly 10-year-old thread of mine! Here are some aspects of caching in (for me) descending order of importance: puzzles / mysteries (1313/9088 finds) all local caches (I do like to keep that map clean...) high Terrain or Difficulty counties and countries (next stop N Wales to "complete" England and Wales) D/T grid (2 and 85/91, kind of stalled) being a CO (over 100 caches but slowing down) FTF (nearly 100 but I don't dash out for them - prefer to find "lonely" / long-unfound caches) challenges (on a self-imposed one to fill calendar 10 times, 6 days to go) events (one or two a year - local cachers have an active FB group so keep in touch that way) TBs series (Side Tracked etc…) - some people obsessed by these but just not interested souvenirs (ignore) I'd be interested to know what order other people would put those in - do souvenirs make the top 6 for anybody??? I think the 2013 me would be amused that I'm on 9000+ caches (teenage OS Junior approaching 6000) and still climbing trees etc! On the human side - made some firm friends, people I'd literally trust with my life as have been abseiling / climbing / kayaking / tunneling with them. Happy caching, here's to the next 10 years...

Superb - thanks - I'm on 52! I'll bookmark that, assuming it'll stay around? PS great name (my real name's Huw...)

Yes, some 'challenges' have to be just for your own benefit I suppose. A cacher local to me said he found his 100th lonely cache ("resuss / resuscitation" as we call them over here) - he keeps track by adding them to a list. Wish I'd done the same as I find them at least as satisfying as a FTF and have lost count of how many I've found (but I digress). https://coord.info/GC3CZ5H is another one that would no longer be allowed (and see the caches that inspired it, one on each side of the US, still active) - took me the best part of 10 years to qualify, lining it up for my 9000th in the coming weeks. Another one that I don't think Project-GC can cope with. It was a matter of keeping a spreadsheeet and then using geocaching toolbox to do things like circles 210 and 214.9 miles from home. Hardest D3 I'll ever do! IMHO as with puzzles, there's room for a whole range from dead easy to encourage the novices, through to hardcore / verging on the impossible to reward those who have the time.

If you want some for your ignore list, look at https://coord.info/GC767JJ and (view larger map) about 25 others nearby. I'm on nearly 9000 caches but only qualify for about 5 of these. But I often see logs on my puzzle caches in particular, 'needed a regular sized unknown cache on this date'... and know they're working on this lot.

1. There are a lot of puzzle caches (and fans thereof) round here. That'll be easy. 2. Cos I work in base 10? But I do know what you mean about getting the colour one shade darker. Guess what I'll be doing in 2024-25...

Fair dos, I think the only cache I currently ignore is a CITO in 6 counties' challenge! Doing one in my own county was bad enough!

Thx, I'd not read the guidelines!

Interesting read, thanks. https://project-gc.com/Home/FAQ#3082063764 a useful link to see how to get that checker set up. Here https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC42ARE is an example of one near me that would no longer be allowed. Here's my list that I want to set up - in March 2024, you'll see why: FTFs in 6 counties (I qualify) 1000 unknowns (I'm currently on 1236 so maybe that will get pushed up to 1500) 1000 caches in each of 3 counties - verifiable in PGC, drill down a level from Region - I'm in low 900s for my 3rd county 10 calendar loops - I'm currently 10 dates and 30 caches off (including today, need 4 will get 1, but it'll be a Saturday next year!) and hope to finish on 29 Feb next year. Those are all easily verified by eye in PGC - setting up the checkers will be fun.

Don't say that to an economist, an environmentalist or a virologist - they've all been flinging stats at us for years! Everyone knows that only 87% of statistics are meaningless... On the adlab thing - I know a cacher who set up a separate profile for them so that he could do them to qualify for the bonuses (he likes mystery caches) - and had a massive run-in with the CO who was deleting his bonus finds saying he'd not qualified! That ran and ran. I've been using adlabs when I've come across them - useful for my self-imposed challenge of doing 10 calendar loops by 29 Feb 2024. Not tempted to set my own. Numbers distorted, yes - but for the last 3 years life's been pretty distorted anyway so I just go with the flow and enjoy occasionally being shown something interesting. Adlab dislikes: sequential ones; airport ones; ones with huge distance tolerances so you can solve from your armchair; ones where you have to Google for the answer rather than find something in the field but there's no indication of this (a lot of this in Spain).

Last year I did a puzzle cache in South Wales that is behind the counter of a shop ( a chain, not an independent, for what it's worth) and there's a multi in Belgium that's behind the bar of, well, a bar. But the CO (is he also the bar owner?) pays for your drink.

Filling the DT grid (and then going back and doing it again) is a popular side-game, so I'd never change and Ds or Ts above 3.0 for fear of messing up people's stats. Just try and get it right first time. If terrain changes that much, archive and put out a new cache. I've only give D5 to one of my 100+ caches, as I don't think my puzzles are THAT difficult. I've also never put out a 1.5/1.5 - that dullest of ratings...

I get a 23/20. Drove past the trailhead last July - there are a couple of rare Jasmers in the corner of the country, we'd got them and were also collecting for https://coord.info/GC3CZ5H which IMHO needs a higher D, it took us nearly 10 years to complete (really depends on one's travel habits...) This one 25 miles from me predates the tightening of the rules - https://coord.info/GC5M4PK - I've looked a couple of times and then given up. Any tips as to how to get a result quickly on it? Might be one for a Friday evening over a glass of something. A great series in the UK involve finding caches in N squares of Map N in the Ordnance Survey 1:25000 Explorer series https://shop.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/maps/paper-maps/explorer-maps/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA37KbBhDgARIsAIzce14Qd6ICwcAl77dCwJS2hzaUZ9-R6aYbiZXfBCfQJscVyTSHiGG1uRcaAit2EALw_wcB - I've done 4 now. They wouldn't be allowed under the new rules although a cacher has set up a checker on their website. https://ww2.cgtk.co.uk/geocaching/challenges/explorer?gc=GC4QQBE Would finding 1000 caches in 3 different counties pass? I'm in the 900s for a 3rd county and am considering that idea when I qualify myself.