COINTEST: Win a GARMIN UK Coin

[mlbcard]

 

...and one of my favorite photos! A frozen flower that my dad is holdin! It is a rare photo just because we actually do not have snow in Rhodes!!! this photo was taken on the tallest mountain in Rhodes, and it was -16 C° !!! I had never experiensed something like that (frozen things, snow and very low temperatures!!!)

 

 

Nice photo. Of course up here in wisconsin that's a regular sight in the winter where it gets down to -15 F (-26C) every winter (and no, I don't get used to it).

[+Geo.Error]

A cache and event in barenpark germany last august

 

 

 

 

[+Geo.Error]

also in the barenpark

 

 

 

[+DJ.J.ROCK]

For Me Alot of the time my daughter,, Is the prize,, She's sooo funnie when we go out,,like last night she stomped her feet while she danced in a rocking motion most the way to a cache,, by the way shes only 1 yr,, so all the jibberish ,, is quite the kick too,, here are some photos on our trips caching togeather:)

 

her geo shoes

ok Ill stop there,, I just love her so much!!

Edited October 26, 2008 by DJ.J.ROCK

[+Geo.Error]

We did a multi and when we calculate the new coordinates, this fly came by and stay by us very trustful.

Even when the papers go with the wind the fly did stay.

and even the photo camara was almost above him it stays. a real wonder in nature

 

 

[+Geo.Error]

 

Even aliens we encounter while caching..scary

[+DJ.J.ROCK]

We did a multi and when we calculate the new coordinates, this fly came by and stay by us very trustful.

Even when the papers go with the wind the fly did stay.

and even the photo camara was almost above him it stays. a real wonder in nature

 

 

I had a fly like that too while caching,, weird!!!!

[+Geo.Error]

We were in howth harbour dublin caching when a dog barked very hard so we go look and we saw...big seals..wow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks tooey for this cointest . i loved all the photos

 

p.s edit for forgot / by img

Edited October 26, 2008 by Geo.Error

[+DirtyMiss]

 

Some silver shining Flowers with a lot of bumble bees. I had never seen this flowers before in this region.

[+zazth]

Look dad I found something.

 

Yes son, you stumbled across Mother Nature's Crack.

 

I personally didn't think anyone would ever find this. But alas, leave it to my Thorne to be the first. lol

 

Mike

[+Team Professor X]

Sunset in Autumn makes you feel close to nature.

 

My daughters searching for the cache and finding mushrooms also.

[+Roaring_Fork]

Here are some pictures from two caches we found this summer.

 

Double Rainbow:

 

Amazing Bull Elk:

 

A quick Thief:

 

I about had a heart attack when I ran into this guy five feet away:

 

Took a boat across the lake to get to the cache. It's located between the peaks:

 

A waterfall on the hike to the cache:

 

The view from the cache looking west:

 

The view from the cache looking east:

[+burgessfour]

Wow, all these pictures are incredible!!!!!!

[+forthferalz]

what a lovely cointest- thank you Tooey and everyone for photos. I thought long and hard about this because since moving to Tasmania I have been so blessed with close encounters of the natural kind.

 

My picture is about a special 'christmas present' i received in an act of serendipity and kindness that always nearly makes me cry when I think about it. For 40 years until I started geocaching it's like I have been literally blind with ignorance of the natural Australian environment. I only saw what I had been taught to see - foreign plants growing in pretty gardens and worse - mistaking showy weeds for the natural flora!

 

I was out hiding "ghost of caching presents" cache in a forest famous for it's wild orchids but I had never seen any! Still I lived in hope and it was a perfect spot for a cache A white haired lady was walking with a young girl very slowly bending over here and there - she was showing her young friend the tiny mosquito orchids and she took me along on her walk as well. After that it was like I had been given the gift of second sight - and passed it on taking my family for the same walk - and so on. Once I learnt to spot one it was like the forest jumped alive in a new dimension - like seeing fairies - I can't describe it better. All my walks now have this extra dimension because of the kindness of a stranger. My favourite is the christmas blooming beauty here - it smells heavenly.

Dipodium Punctatum (the Hyacinth Orchid) which spends almost the whole of the year underground although it has wide distribution usually in undisturbed environments. “Another name they could give it is the Australian Christmas Orchid, because it does come out in flower around Christmas time” I was overjoyed to discover them near my old home far away on the mainland too while placing another cache!

 

-----warning sad coda do not read if you want to stay with the warm fuzzies ---------

 

It cannot be grown in a regular garden because we do not understand it's requirements properly yet - it is so co-evolved it requires a perfectly intact ecosystem the one which is being destroyed so needlessly and there's an 'eco' war being waged with firebombs! at the moment down here - you might read the news perhaps we are too small and far away

All unless you get a special permit Australian orchids are so ' wholly protected' one is not allowed to pick a single flower in the wild any longer so my mum who loves orchids in particular will never get to smell one even though it grows just down the road - she'd not manage the 5 min track - but through our collective ignorance she must have flattened a heap out of existance when she built the house!

[+hollora]

Geocaching has taken me to many beautiful places. Most exciting has been the opportunity to visit places in my own state I would have never ventured.

 

With my daughter and her family - Eustis ME in late September. We cached, son-in-law hunted, attended an event and enjoyed nature.

 

Fall, 2007 - caching with my son trying out the new 4 Runner. We went to places I would have never ventured.

 

 

 

Thanks for the cointest!

[Tooeygeotrashed]

Some simply stunning photography, thank you for sharing. Some of the photos remind me of the pictures in my Sierra Club Desk Calendar, I just love turning over a new week to see more wonders of nature in America. I like the inclusion of children in the pictures too, taking them out to be close to nature is known to affect how they will respect and cherish the environment in later life.

 

The Squirells that visit our garden like to come and eat the peanuts I leave for them and often come to this little dish for a drink.

 

 

I'm not much of a photographer and my camera isn't anything special, but I was very pleased with this photo as it was taken on Zoom through the kitchen window.

[+Geo-Gophers]

Tooey, that's a lovely photo. To think you get reds visiting you in your garden....you're so lucky.

 

Beautiful photos all through this thread.

[+GATOULIS]

Hello again! I am back!

 

Here are some photos from Leros island, The island of Goddess Artemis!!

 

 

[+GATOULIS]

here is a tiny rock island in leros! It is connected with this path and the only thing it has on it is the tiny church of St. Isidoros! what a nice place to get married....during summer!!!

 

 

[+GATOULIS]

...and here is Leros by night!!!

 

[+GATOULIS]

How about this flower (cactus), from our balcony???

 

[Tooeygeotrashed]

Lovely photos Gatoulis, thank you - does it get very cold there in Winter? Leros Island looks lovely, I'm wondering if I might spend some of the winter there, but if it gets cold..................

[mlbcard]

I like the squirrel picture .

 

My furry creature picture keeps on disappearing. I have a link from my Google Picasa web album. Is there a way to directly upload photos into our message?

[Tooeygeotrashed]

I like the squirrel picture .

 

My furry creature picture keeps on disappearing. I have a link from my Google Picasa web album. Is there a way to directly upload photos into our message?

 

I upload the photographs I want to post into one of my archived cache logs. Then I click on the photograph in the log to show the 'original' on a page of it's own, I copy and paste the url from that image into the post. Hope that helps.

[+DJ.J.ROCK]

I want to share another experence,,weve had so many and were only too 100 caches found today!!!! Once again on our trip to Steamboat,,,going to the Hot Sulphur Springs cache, We drove across some rail road tracks and it dead ended there,, during the find,, the train came so we quickly set up the cam on auto and placed the cam on the hood of the durango,,took a pic of the train behind all of us,,,moving!! Im not sure how often the train runs,,, but really what are the chances the 100 car train comes while at the same time you find the cache and are able to think to set it up for a photo!!! ha!! I think were lucky to have such a background for the pic of us 3!!! Also it was the baby's first train,the Conductor waved and sounded the horn, she tooted back at it for most the time it went by!!

FRONT OF THE TRAIN!!

US WITH THE TRAIN MOVING BEHIND!!

MID TRAIN,,,POWER!!!

 

THE LAST TWO PHOTOS ARE CRITTERS WE SAW ALONG DIFFERENT PATHS!!

NOTE THE HORN,,WONDER IF HE WAS AT A EVIL MICRO?

 

THANKS FOR THE COINTEST ITS BEEN FUN SHARING ALL OUR PHOTOS WITH YOU !!!

[mlbcard]

I like the squirrel picture .

 

My furry creature picture keeps on disappearing. I have a link from my Google Picasa web album. Is there a way to directly upload photos into our message?

 

I upload the photographs I want to post into one of my archived cache logs. Then I click on the photograph in the log to show the 'original' on a page of it's own, I copy and paste the url from that image into the post. Hope that helps.

 

Thanks, here it is:

 

[+Fiery Searcher]

Thanks, here it is:

 

 

Oh my gosh - is that a pika?! They are so cute!

[+Roaring_Fork]

A well fed chipmunk

 

 

[+mfamilee]

On one of our geocaching adventures out on the rural back roads we were met by two very curious cats. They were both so cute & friendly and followed us everywhere as we tried to make the find. Our jr. explorer begged us to take them home, but we had to tell her no. She shared her bag of chips with them before we hit the road to make the next find.

We also think it's really neat all the times we come across bird nests. This one we found tucked away on a bridge while looking for a magnetic cache.

Unknown orange mushrooms we spied in a magical forest.

[mlbcard]

 

Oh my gosh - is that a pika?! They are so cute!

 

yep, especially because they always have flowers in their mouths... and here's another mountain creature on the same trip (Marmot).

 

Edited October 28, 2008 by mlbcard

[+GATOULIS]

Lovely photos Gatoulis, thank you - does it get very cold there in Winter? Leros Island looks lovely, I'm wondering if I might spend some of the winter there, but if it gets cold..................

 

Thank you my friend! Leros is my other island! I have many relatives there! My unckle, my aunt, my god father is there, and of course, my mother is from there!

 

Oh, we do not have cold like you have! We have rains, and winds mostly! The weather is colder than Rhodes, but as I told you, do not expect very gold weather! We do not have snow!!

 

The bad thing is that because the wind is comming from the sea, it makes the cold colder, and if you count moisture too...

 

Of course, Just because the weather is getting crazy & crazy, I can not guarrandy anything! Last year we had snow in Rhodes!!!!! First time to see snow!!!

 

Oh! there is not water in Leros! They have wells, but they collect water from roofs (rain), and fill tanks!

 

The water you may see in the pipes... is from the sea, so it is not drinkable!

 

I like being there in October or November when it is quiet, but during summer is fantastic!

 

Leros has history too! except the ancient times that has some ruins but they are not well excavated yet, you will find many byzantine churches, 2 castles from the knight period and many things from the WWII! A great battle happent here, Leros was a huge navy base of the Italians (we had Italian occupation), and...

 

Leros it tiny, but beautiful! It was blessed by nature, has clean seas full of fishes, lot's of rabbits etc, (paradise for hunters), and that is the reason the island had as God protector, Artemis!!!

 

I forgot to mention that in the ancient times, Leros was a part of the Miletos!!!

 

there are no caches there yet, but.... When I will go...

 

I hope when you visit Leros, to come to Rhodes too!

[+vw_k]

We consider ourselves lucky to have discovered some wonderful plants and creatures on our caching trips this year.

Here is a hedgehog we found on the way to a cache, he's probably hibernating now.

 

A baby swan.

 

A coot on it's nest on the River Thames.

 

and some beautiful pink Foxgloves near a cache in Oxfordshire.

 

Some Images from last years caching...

 

Deer in Richmond Park.

 

I love taking mushroom photos!

 

..and a gorilla up a tree, cunningly disguised as RangerChuk!

[+GATOULIS]

Ok! some new arrivals!! All these are from today!

 

these are the rare Rhodian deers, the dama dama!

 

 

[+GATOULIS]

Here is my favorite insect! The bee!!! I love it! Not only they give us honey and wax, but they are helping flowers too!

 

they are very clever and actually like me!! The bee in the photo went to drunk some water but fell inside and was about to die! I saved her and 2 other of her sisters! isn't it a lovely one???

she stayed on my fingers until she had her wings dry! then Ileft her in a flower!

 

 

 

[+GATOULIS]

Hey friendly visitor!!! How she knew that I am GATOULIS????

 

 

 

[+GATOULIS]

Dino's head???? No!!! Just a rock!!!

 

 

what a mushroom is doing up there???

 

[+GATOULIS]

 

 

Hmm.... doesn't this reminds you an advertisment of a whiskey???

 

[+GATOULIS]

And now something I didn't know we had in Rhodes!!! Lama!!!!

 

I saw a family (mother, father & child!!!), in a big cage! WOW!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+Roaring_Fork]

Pictures from Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho. We used a boat to find two caches on opposite sides of the lake.

 

Clear water and flat rocks make the shore line:

 

The Statue of Liberty in Sandpoint Idaho???:

 

An old root ball:

 

A great way to go caching!!!!

 

Fun between caches:

[+Just a Trifle]

Wow! All the photos posted look so professional! Mine are a bit ordinary, but I would still like to share.

 

While attending a CITO event on Fraser Island, we were visited by a small goanna. We had the Big Red London Bus TB along for the trip so I decided to take a picture and placed the TB in the path of the goanna. Unfortunately for me though, as I crouched down to take the photo, I almost spooked the goanna and gave myself the fright of my life! Now you don't usually have too much trouble with a goanna so long as you don't get too close or make it feel threatened - but if you do it is not pretty. A goanna will usually just amble by, but when they need to, they run very fast and climb trees with amazing speed and agility. With their claws, you don't want them confusing you for a tree

 

 

Some other photos from the weekend include a nice little lake

 

Champagne Pools

 

Turtles in Lake Allom

 

and sand, sand and more sand

[+DJ.J.ROCK]

I HAD SOME FUN WITH A TB TOO!!

THX AGAIN FOR LETTING US SHARE OUR PICS WITH EVERYONE!!

[+LadyBee4T]

This was taken on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan not too far rom a lighthouse cache. I took a TB there called the Giant Squid

 

[+LadyBee4T]

This picture was taken in a nature preserve near the cache Underground as I was walking back to the car. I love finding preserves and small parks like this that I never knew were there!

 

[+Geo.Error]

This were the guardians from the castle here under:D

 

[+gardengorilla]

what a lovely cointest- thank you Tooey and everyone for photos. I thought long and hard about this because since moving to Tasmania I have been so blessed with close encounters of the natural kind.

 

My picture is about a special 'christmas present' i received in an act of serendipity and kindness that always nearly makes me cry when I think about it. For 40 years until I started geocaching it's like I have been literally blind with ignorance of the natural Australian environment. I only saw what I had been taught to see - foreign plants growing in pretty gardens and worse - mistaking showy weeds for the natural flora!

 

I was out hiding "ghost of caching presents" cache in a forest famous for it's wild orchids but I had never seen any! Still I lived in hope and it was a perfect spot for a cache A white haired lady was walking with a young girl very slowly bending over here and there - she was showing her young friend the tiny mosquito orchids and she took me along on her walk as well. After that it was like I had been given the gift of second sight - and passed it on taking my family for the same walk - and so on. Once I learnt to spot one it was like the forest jumped alive in a new dimension - like seeing fairies - I can't describe it better. All my walks now have this extra dimension because of the kindness of a stranger. My favourite is the christmas blooming beauty here - it smells heavenly.

Dipodium Punctatum (the Hyacinth Orchid) which spends almost the whole of the year underground although it has wide distribution usually in undisturbed environments. "Another name they could give it is the Australian Christmas Orchid, because it does come out in flower around Christmas time" I was overjoyed to discover them near my old home far away on the mainland too while placing another cache!

 

 

Wow, thanks for that Fortheferalz! Our family went on our first caching 'walkabout' last weekend and I would like to second your story. In Canada, we get used to seeing the native flora and it really is a treat to go to a new land where everything is new to you. At the same time it is frustrating because we don't know any of the names. I've been told that Western Australia is the wildflower capital of Australia and we are having a great time, just the smell of gum trees is enough for us!

 

 

I don't know what they are, but they are lovely. I'd rather focus on these than the massive spider and bee's nest we had to walk around to get to the cache.

[+Just a Trifle]

Hi gardengorilla

 

The plant in your first picture, in Queensland, is called either a grass tree or a black boy (if you see much taller plants, you will notice the stem of the plant is black) - hope that helps. Grass trees are very slow growing, approximately 1cm per year. Unfortunately I do not recognise the flower in the other picture.

 

Robyn

Edited October 30, 2008 by Just a Trifle

[+Carbon Hunter]

Well 3 stories - 2 caching and one pre-caching: Hope you enjoy them.

 

1) My best was out caching with my son in Johannesburg (Sundowner Cache - on Roodepoort Ridge). We had been struggling through some really thick grass to get to the cache. Victory - we found the cache and were elated as it was pretty full of good swag and was a good hunt. So we signed the log, did some trades and were off back to the car. When all of a sudden - an EXPLOSION in the grass between us. We had walked past a crested guinea fowl nesting on a clutch of eggs! Well after being really shaken and calming down - we had the chance to see the nest and have a good look at the eggs and the amazing camoflauge of the eggs and nest. The guinea fowl is also a really pretty bird. So that was really cool and we still speak about that.

 

 

2) Doing some caching with my brother in the desert of Qatar, we came across this really scaly looking guy. He looked really scary - and we tjhought we were in trouble as he was close to GZ. But after acting a bit like a chameleon (one eye on our scaly friend, and one eye searching for the cache) - he just sat lazily and did nothing. Enjoying basking in the warm Middle Eastern sun. I must say i was particularly worried about this guy!

 

 

3) And finally a CLOSE encounter we had on our honeymoon. We got married in South Africa and went off to a game park for the honeymoon. We were driving in an open top 4x4 in the veld (bush) - when the accelerator cable snapped and we had to radio for the mechanic to come help. We sat in the dry river bed, which had good visibility and hence safety. We were sitting merrily enjoying the winter African sun, sipping cool beers and just enjoying life. My brand new wife (an dab hand in the bush) - popped up into the dense bush for a quick "wee". While she was gone, the mechanic arrived and quickly sorted the car out. We were on our way as she arrived back to the car. As we drove off, we were about 60m away (almost in the exact spot where my wife had "sat") when out ambled this amazingly HUGE bull elephant. You could imagine how we were both shocked - and then amazed! A real close brush!

[Tooeygeotrashed]

Lots of great pictures and stories - thanks for sharing.

 

Technically not a great photo, but this is one I snapped on an Autumn day while out caching, it's just a ditch full of water where pine needles had gathered.

 

[paganfrog]

i couldn't resist placing some photos i have taken.

 

this one always makes me sad whenever i see this tree. its in central London next to Euston train station. as you can see there are a line of trees going along the road and every single one is poorly looking. the pollution alongside where the odd passersby have fidle-fingers and are peeling the ailing trees bark away. it makes me sad to see this, but at the same time i also find the trees interesting to look at with their camouflage pattern/colours.

 

 

 

This was taken a couple of weeks ago, near John O'groats in Caithness.

[+ByrnedFish]

 

On our hike up Cat Mountain in the Adirondacks in Norther New York a couple weeks ago. The views were incredible