THE BRAMBLERS

There seem to be so many new teams caching now who are probably unaware that any guidelines exist at all. As well as the guidelines Lactodorum has pointed out, there are also the guidelines set by the GAGB. (Geocaching Association of Great Britain). Hope this helps.

I have introduced geocaching to the school where I teach. I started off giving a whole school assembly and now we are using geocaching in many lessons both at KS1 and KS2. We have our own cache within walking distance of the school where the children regularly go out and check on it and read the log book and they also check it during ICT. We have a T & J Bear called porridge that the children take home during the weekends and holidays. He is a very well travelled bear! They take photos and write up all about his travels. He has even got his own passport which gets stamped as he goes through customs. We have three travel bugs which we track, which have all done well. Giant Wood Wasp Stag Beetle Purple Emperor Stag Beetle This year some of our Y5 and Y6 children have been doing Trailblazer, which is a scheme to get children outdoors and link it to education. I took them out geocaching as part of their studies and they really enjoyed it. They all achieved their bronze award at the end of term. Just a small insite into our school's geocaching activities.

Well done to Geoff, Bonnie and Jack who have just clocked up 200 finds at our Friars Rock Revisited. Woof, woof from Megan CONGRATULATIONS!

CONGRATULATIONS Well done from us too.

After a couple of teams emailed me, I have now got a very good idea who took our travel bug. Apparently it's not the first time a TB has gone missing after this particular team visited a cache. I have sent a couple of emails but received no replies. Debbie

We put out a new travel bug a month ago and within days it had gone missing. We visited the cache that it had been placed in and a team signing themselves "Team Fatty" (or that's what it looked like) wrote in the log book that they had taken it and even put the TB tracking number on the log page. (This I rubbed out). On checking gc.com and guk.com I cannot find any teams with that name or anything similar. Is there anyone out there who has heard of a team with this name or seen their logs in the log books? I would be really grateful for any information. This team obviously looks at gc.com to get the cache waypoints so if they happen to look at the forums, PLEASE log our Mystic Ball travel bug. Debbie

We also could send you our calling card. We would have loved to have helped out as the event is going to be held in one of our favourite areas. In fact we walked across that field only last year. But Robert will be in the middle of his GCSE's so it's not really a good time. It's great to see the FC Wales actively promoting geocaching. Well done all involved.

HCC were the first local authority in the UK to endorse geocaching. They also held the world's first public geocaching event with live on-site remote internet connection. Their geocaching web pages can be found here. Following this I was contacted by the government's National Grid for Learning. Article can be found here. Subsequently, I was asked to write another article for Ordnance Survey's Mapping News magazine which is distributed to educational establishments throughout the UK. Here. The magazine was recently reprinted in Welsh. Just thought that this info might be of use to some of the newer geocachers who are trying to seek permission from various landowners, as most of the more seasoned ones have already seen most of this.

Congratulations to Omally and Krazy Kats on reaching their double century at our Forest View - Environmental Cache yesterday. Could this be a record, two teams, two double century's, same cache, same day? Well done to both of you.

Well done you two. Very many congratulations Debbie and David

Congratulations Ann and Brian That's over double our cache finds and we both joined on the same day.

Just noticed that Subarite hit and exceeded 700 cache finds today, and drove right past our house in the process. If we'd have known, you could have popped in for a cuppa! Congratulations and very well done Andy

Many congratulations from us.

Many congratulations from us.

Thanks Bill, Eckington is going to help us. Debbie

I was just setting up a travel bug page and when I looked at the finished page, the origin has come up as United Arab Emirates whereas it should be United Kingdom. I don't seem to be able to change this anywhere. I can't even find anywhere to delete the whole page and start again. Can someone point me in the right direction as I cannot find and links to do this. Debbie

I was just setting up a travel bug page and when I looked at the finished page, the origin has come up as United Arab Emirates. I don't seem to be able to change this anywhere. I can't even find anywhere to delete the whole page and start again. Can someone point me in the right direction as I cannot find and links to do this. Debbie

Congratulations Deego.

We picked a package out of the Secret Santa lucky dip at the Late Christmas Cache Bash and it turned out to be one of these boxes, batteries and all. We're really pleased with it. Pat on the back to the person who put it in.

I can understand if someone logs a TB in and out of a cache as this shows the journey it has made. But recently I have seen, on several occasions someone logging a TB as having picked it up and then logging it back in and leaving it in the same cache, I don't think this is right. If you don't intend moving the TB on, then there is no point in logging it.

An amazing achievement in less than a year. Our heartiest congratulations.

We are sorry to have to reiterate this, but as most cachers are thinking along the lines of whether the cache can be found relatively easily (without having to dig numerous holes to find it), few seem to be aware of the implications of digging from the landowners point of view. Digging of any sort in order to hide or find a cache would be totally unacceptable to most landowners, including the National Trust who, as we have been informed by the GAGB, will be monitoring geocaching over the next few months. ____________________________________________________________________ QUOTE FROM GAGB FORUM BY THE WOMBLES "GAGB has been negotiating with the National Trust Headquarters over the last few months following an approach from one of their people in the South East. We have made some progress and they have agreed to allow Geocaching to continue on their property for the foreseeable future. They would like cachers to follow GAGB guidelines. We requested a national agreement but they have decided to continue to monitor Geocaching to gain experience of it and consider it's impact on their land for the moment. Therefore cachers should request placement permission with the relevant local NT warden. GAGB will remain in contact with NT HQ and therefore requests that any issues with NT cache placement are reported to the committee. Discussions with NT have been positive throughout and GAGB hopes that cachers will observe the guidelines to ensure that this relationship can be enhanced in the future. Dave on behalf of the committee " ___________________________________________________________________ As we all enjoy this pastime and don't want to see caches being lifted, we really need to be thinking about this FROM THE LANDOWNERS PERSPECTIVE AS WELL.

We agree in part with what you say, providing the existing hole is not an animal hole. These should never be used to place a cache in. As for animal scrapes, it would be very difficult to know if one existed in the first place or whether a cacher has just stated this as an excuse for burying a cache. (Some people will always try to find loop-holes). Either way, if some sort of digging implement had been used to place the cache and soil had been removed, then the guidelines should apply. Working in the area of conservation, I know that some of the land owners that have already granted permission for geocaching, i.e. FC, NT, HCC would certainly not condone the enlarging of animal scrapes or digging of any kind. It is obviously very difficult for approvers to know exactly how and where a cache has been placed, so we believe that it would then fall to the first few finders to report any concerns. After all they would be able to see first hand how the cache had been placed.

Well done John, that's alot of boot leather.

Congratulations from us.