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Unnecessary Waste Of Time?


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What caches have you done or attempted to do where you, as the cacher or even cache setter, have wasted copious amounts of time because of stupid errors?

 

Let me give a couple of examples of what I'm looking for.

Yesterday, I visited a micro in one stage of a multi cache as there had been a report if it gone missing.

 

Armed with the relevant information about the cache - I keep all co-ords and answers in a booklet to assist enquiries - I set off. Parked the car, took a micro out in case it needed replacing and wrote the information needed to go in it.

 

Set off and got to the location. Original was gone so put replacement in, took a few photos for spoiler purposes and was set to return to the car. Hold on a mo'. It dawned on me that I had written the co-ords of the micro itself on the paper I'd put in the micro instead of the next stage.

 

Did I have the info with me i needed? NO! It was back in the car. So I had to return to the car and do the whole thing again. What a b*mm*r. Operator error!

 

The second example, funnily enough, happened on the same day. Parked the car up in a very dodgy lane (it was narrow but cars could pass) to be fairly close to the footpath I wanted. Got out and being wary of getting to the cache made sure I took all my belongings from the car - bag; hat; gloves; belt!; radio; ipod; TBs; pen; car keys.

 

I knew where I had to go and off I went.

 

10 minutes later, I wondered to myself: "How for to go now?" as it was about 0.4mi from the car.

 

Ah, a good idea would be to bring the GPSr! There's more time wasted. Operator error!

 

Oss!

 

PS I probably have alot more. Do you?

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In the very early days we found a cache that had a very nice pencil and notepad set in the cache. A nice swop item, so we took it.

 

Couldn't find a log book in the cache though so wrote an impromptu log on a bit of paper.

 

Got back to the car, took a closer look at the swap we had made and inside the front page of the notebook was written....... "LOG BOOK"

 

a true "DOH!!!" moment

 

alex.

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Alex that reminds me of one more I must add.

 

In the earlier days, I did SP's puerile Photo cache #3 where you found the cache, signed the log book and had to post a piccy of yourself next to a designated sign.

 

The sign was in the car park. I went off, found the cache, signed the log book, returned to the car park to take the required photo.

 

The problem? What I didn't realise was you did NOT need the cache box with you in the photo!

 

Long hike back to replace. Doh!

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a true "DOH!!!" moment

In our office we refer to that at a Zero "K" moment. This is after one of my colleagues asked what the Zero K button was, and it was the OK button. In his defence it was a strange font.

 

I have taken out of date printouts to a cache more than once, and gone the wrong way a couple of times, but nothing overly daft. Don't worry, it is only a matter of time before I dorp a clamger.

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I once spent a lot of time trying to find a cache with a set of coords that were for actually for another cache 9 miles away. ;) By judicious manipulation of a couple of figures, I was able to adjust the coords to make them fit my location pretty well. It was only when I started searching for a "green plaque" in the corner of a muddy field that I realised that I had brought the wrong coords as well as the wrong clue... ;)

 

Read the whole sorry tale.

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We recently did a cache where we introduced non cachers to the pastime. This was far from home so we picked just one to do in a town. After returning to the car park I checked the gps and saw that there was a cache only 98 feet away. So we all searched around the car park area thinking that this was a funny place for a cache! After about 20 minutes I realised the co-ords were for parking for the cache we had just done DOH! I was a big red faced numpty. ;)

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I set a cache (an offset with a micro) and posted the co ords for the final cache rather than the outstanding view next to the micro.

 

Transposed the co ords for the sign and the bridge on Krystals Birthday bonus not an issue but it could of been confusing finding as bridge number on a mileage sign ;) .

 

Lynn has set the wrong waypoint as a goto loads of times on the GPS.

 

Got to the top of a hill to realise the cache was on the next hill checked the GPS for nearby caches and found we were literally stood on top of another one and hadnt realised it.

 

Searched for micros in the car park loads of times.

 

Walked the wrong way cause we didnt allow the gps to settle.

 

Set out without maps, palm, gps etc a couple of times. They always go in the front of the car now.

 

Lynn left with no walking boots once and climed a hill in her nursing shoes.

 

Not much more to say really...

other than we have unfortunately never lost the kids but we are working on it ;)

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Spent AGES trying to find a cache in Cambridge. The description was for one church and it waxed lyrical about how lovely this church was and the clue said the cache was on the church. The GPS said the cache was 500m away. Weird. Turns out the GPS was correct and the cache was in fact on a completey different church and nothing at all to do with the one described. What a waste of time. I still don't get it, they could have slung the micro on the church described just as easily.

 

In general, the biggest wastes of time have occurred when group caching and everybody has assumed that somebody else has read the cache page, so they have not bothered to do so themselves. Huge amount of faffing about until somebody takes responsibility eventually. Have lost count of the number of times this has happened to me!

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a true "DOH!!!" moment

In our office we refer to that at a Zero "K" moment. This is after one of my colleagues asked what the Zero K button was, and it was the OK button. In his defence it was a strange font.

 

I have taken out of date printouts to a cache more than once, and gone the wrong way a couple of times, but nothing overly daft. Don't worry, it is only a matter of time before I dorp a clamger.

That reminds me of a friend who regarded herself as something of a European, with family in France, Holland etc.

 

She was in a bakers with a range of donuts to choose from. She thought about it and saw an unfamiliar flavour so asked what Le Mon was. :rolleyes::D

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At Christmas I decided to do Ghost Village. I've cycled through Imber before so knew what to expect and as we drove through I kept an eye out for the figures I needed. On the end of the pub I saw a crest with numbers and letter.

 

Beth said, should we check with the GPS. I said No, they're the only ones we've seen.

 

Doh

 

Anyway, I revisited yesterday. Closed.

 

That must be 6 hours and 10 gallons of petrol wasted!

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I went looking for a cache late one summer's evening in East Anglia. Punched in the coordinates and followed the GPS by car from my hotel. I found a footpath that seemed to go directly to the cache which was two thirds of a mile from the road. The light was fading so I had to walk quickly and was fairly puffed by the time I got close to the cache which appeared to be bang in the middle of a wheat field. I thought this was odd and checked the coordinates. I was not used to caching right near the meridian and had assumed the coordinates were west when they were actually east- I was several miles out.

 

Chastened, I returned to the car in darkness.

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In my early days went for a cache in Epping Forest and got a rough bearing and set off, still very keen then :)

 

Trying to be very cautious, I carefully waypointed the position of the van, didn't want to get lost did I!!! GPSr was all over the place so I turned the GPS off and just used the bearing and started following paths. :rolleyes:

 

About an hour later I was lost!! So headed for some open ground and got the GPS "up" again. :D

 

About another hour later I finally arrived, BACK AT MY VAN. :D

 

When I plugged in the van co-ords at the start I must have just overwritten the cache co-ords by accident. :D:D

 

Haven't done it since!! :)

 

Nick

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Don't know about all these early days hiccups, this was the beginning of this week.

 

After finding a cache with a certain travel bug I had been after for a while we departed back to the car park in the town centre for some well earned fish and chips. Thinking nothing of it we then headed for the next cache about 45 mins away (15 miles as the crow flies but this is deepest darkest yorkshire).

 

After completing the second cache I asked Helen if she had the bug to release it straight into this cache.

 

You can sort of guess the rest

 

After searching Helens pockets.......................

After searching the car...............

After a 45 minute drive back to the first cache............... (during which time I managed to scratch and dent the side of my 6 month old company car, the day just gets better)

 

Helen decided she had better rummage through the bin she put the fish and chip wrappers in (I saw the funny side of a busy tourist town centre on a bank holiday with a strange lady emptying the bins on the main road). Helen did'nt.

 

Never did find the bug or do anymore caches that day, but we did offer to pay the owners for a new bug (ou of Helens pocketmoney/housekeeping).

 

The moral of the story is Helen is now only to go geocaching with a responsible grown up present (not me then).

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A waste of time?

 

Try the other night when I tried to drive a stretch of Ridgeway which had nice and firm a few nights before when I walked it with you, Sensei. A little rain and a few degrees higher temps had turned a hard surface into a quagmire, which I only discovered as my car slid towards a deep ditch at the side of the path. I gamely fought with it to keep it on the track, and managed to slue to a halt inches from certain death abuse by a farmer with a tractor needed to extract me. After much (about an hour) mucking about in the muck I was able to turn the car around and work it slowly back onto a firmer surface. The moral of this story: When looking to place a geocache, stick to byways which are open all year round. Don't be cheeky by using one that's closed (with good reason) in the winter.

 

The other side was even worse:

muddy.jpg

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There was a cache just made live near me so thought I would go and find it. No problems, found it easily enough. There were some finders cards in the cache, kept together with a rubber band. I took one of the finders cards, re-hid the cache and came home. When I sorted out my caching bag, to my horror I had accidentally taken all the finders cards! I was concerned because it was a new cache so there was a chance that someone else might go looking for it and miss out on the finders cards. Luckily the cache was only a couple of miles from home, so I quickly returned and replaced the cards. I looked in the logbook, but luckily no-one else had visited. I'm glad I did this with a local cache and not one many miles away!

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How about looking at the OS map, seeing where the cache was hidden and turning your GPSr off to conserve batteries as it was a long walk from the car.

 

Then 30 minutes into your long walk once in the general vicinity of the cache reaching into your pocket to switch the GPSr back on for the final search and realising you had left it in the car.

 

Yep been there, done that.

 

Also out caching one day with a friends children who managed to swap a toy car for a pen while I was writing in the log book with my own pencil. On my return home I got an email from the cache owner saying the pen was THE pen.

 

oops !! :D

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I did a cache in Wales in the middle of last year "The Frenchmans Grave" and spent a very long time between a tree and a rock face looking for the elusive box. I must have been there for a good half hour when I turned around and saw an old couple sitting eating a picnic and watching me.

I thought I had better go explain myself so went over to tell them what I was doing hiding behind the tree.

The old lady said "well we were just talking about you. I said to my husband that you must have been sleeping rough" :ph34r:

To top it all the final cache location was nowhere near where I had been looking.... ;)

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Another early days story:

 

Having spent a few days getting all the Sherlock series clue I cam to the conclusion that the final cache had to be in the middle of the thames. I got to the location and decide that there was asolutly nothing there and I wasn't swimming to the middle of the thames for a submerged cache!

 

I got back home and checked the coords and I had E/W mixed up! The final cache was considerably easier than I thought :ph34r:

Chris

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When I sorted out my caching bag, to my horror I had accidentally taken all the finders cards! I was concerned because it was a new cache so there was a chance that someone else might go looking for it and miss out on the finders cards.

:ph34r:

<_<B)

 

ROTFLMAO!

Well some people have been dissappointed when they find one of my caches and the souvenir finders cards have run out. I like getting a souvenir of a cache I've visited, especially if it's one that I really needed to work for B) .

Edited by dogastus
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