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Flag / Windsock poles for camping

slimey

By slimey
in United Kingdom and Ireland

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slimey

+slimey

Posted
Posted

I know a few other camping cachers take a flagpole with them when camping, and so I'm looking for some words of experience...

 

Having booked for the mega camping next weekend, I've invested in a flagpole, and hope to come up with some distinctive stuff to fly from it. I did look around the net for a Geocaching flag, but couldn't find one, so I'm going to have a go at producing my own. I'm also going to let the kids have a go at decorating their own flags.

 

From those people who've got their own camping flagpoles, how easy are they to erect, and how sturdy are they? I've gone for a 6m pole, which came with two 1m ground stakes - but I'm not sure how well they're going to hold the pole up in a typical campsite - should I be expecting to come up with additional bracing of some sort?

 

Anyone found any geocaching related flags / windsocks?

 

Thanks,

 

Simon

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keehotee

+keehotee

Posted
Posted (edited)

I know a few other camping cachers take a flagpole with them when camping, and so I'm looking for some words of experience...

 

Having booked for the mega camping next weekend, I've invested in a flagpole, and hope to come up with some distinctive stuff to fly from it. I did look around the net for a Geocaching flag, but couldn't find one, so I'm going to have a go at producing my own. I'm also going to let the kids have a go at decorating their own flags.

 

From those people who've got their own camping flagpoles, how easy are they to erect, and how sturdy are they? I've gone for a 6m pole, which came with two 1m ground stakes - but I'm not sure how well they're going to hold the pole up in a typical campsite - should I be expecting to come up with additional bracing of some sort?

 

Anyone found any geocaching related flags / windsocks?

 

Thanks,

 

Simon

 

We got our poles from Aldi - they were sold as fishing poles, but are identical (apart from the branding) to the poles people buy. Oh - but ours only cost £12 for a 6 metre and a 4 metre..!! :laughing:;)

 

B&Q sell 1 metre 1/2 inch steel rod for about £2 (in the "architectural hardware" section) - we use these banged about a foot into the ground, and so far they've stood up to CoC in North Yorks and the gales at Piratemania last weekend without any additional bracing. I did have guys at the bottom end of mine, but have taken them off now.

 

We ended up making our own flags.... they took a couple of days each (a few hours here and there) - and I had a load of light weight ripstop that I use to make kites, so materials were free (ish)

21d4f060-2ffa-4c40-a4c5-76b350ebd6bf.jpg

 

d8e6865f-5328-4fb1-b01c-293a26c615bf.jpg

Edited by keehotee
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slimey

+slimey

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Posted

All the recommendations I hear are for http://www.skyblueleisure.co.uk/ who i'll be placing an order with tomorrow. If you call them they can also do you next day delivery so you can have it in time for the Mega!

 

Oooh, that's good - that's who I ordered from over the weekend (seemed the most reasonable price on ebay). I got the order

acknowledgement from them first thing this morning, so I'm hoping to have a parcel waiting for me in the office tomorrow...

 

I've got some acrylic paints, and a couple of their plain white 3' x 2' flags, so I'll be spending some time in the evenings painting a flag for the event...

 

Simon

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*mouse*

+*mouse*

Posted
Posted

I've got some acrylic paints, and a couple of their plain white 3' x 2' flags, so I'll be spending some time in the evenings painting a flag for the event...

 

Simon

 

Cool - we'll keep an eye out for it over the weekend - geocamps always look great when lots of people bring flags so hopefully lots of other people will bring some too :anitongue:

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slimey

+slimey

Posted
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Posted

Surprised that nobody has got the idea of making someof these for sale to cacher/campers

 

I was certainly surprised that no-one sells "Geocaching" flags - the closest I could find was somewhere in the US selling car flags with teh geocaching logo on them.

 

Depending on how it goes painting my own, I was considering offering them to other people, but then I've got the hassle of getting official approval to use the geocaching logo from Groundspeak. (Working on the basis that personal use is okay, but commercial use requires a license)

 

Simon

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Ponder Stibbons

+Ponder Stibbons

Posted
Posted (edited)

After seeing the many flags at Piratemania, we're keen to make one ourselves (although I have the artistic skill of a gnat).

 

 

We ended up making our own flags.... they took a couple of days each (a few hours here and there) - and I had a load of light weight ripstop that I use to make kites, so materials were free (ish)

 

 

We saw your flags at Piratemania a few weeks back. They looked fabulous! By the way, was it your flag that had the TB tracking id that can't be seen in daylight but was only visible by torchlight at night? If so, I'd be interested to find out how that was done (after all plagiarism is the highest form of flattery!).

 

Regards,

 

Adrian.

Edited by Ponder Stibbons
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keehotee

+keehotee

Posted
Posted

By the way, was it your flag that had the TB tracking if that can't be seen in daylight but was only visible by torchlight at night? If so, I'd be interested to find out how that was done (after all plagiarism is the highest form of flattery!).

 

Regards,

 

Adrian.

 

Teehee - plagiarise away.....

 

I work on the edge of the construction industry, so I nabbed a discarded high-viz vest and stripped off the reflective (3M) tape - cut it up and stitched it on.

The numbers are illegible in daylight because I put the number on both sides of the flag (the flag's transparent) - but at night it lights up if you shine a torch on it :wub:

 

I use the same stuff cut into smaller shapes as markers for night caches.

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FuzzyBears

+FuzzyBears

Posted
Posted

I have quite a few poles we use for flying windsocks. We have a number of wooden and metal stakes we pound into the ground before slide the poles onto them. They stay upright even in fairly strong wind without any guying. A word of warning though..... do not jam the pole onto the stake especially if it may rain. We learned the hard way that they don't come out of the ground easily and are really a pain to get in the car. Took a week to dry the wooden stake out to get the pole off it. We have sleeves that we slide over the pole that have split-rings every few feet so you can put quite a few different things on them. These can be purchased from BlueSky I believe but a search for kite sellers may bring results (got mine from kite festivals so can't remember who I bought them from). Got our banners done by a great local kite building expert. Anyone wanting her details e-mail me through our profile. Hope this is useful.

 

Sue FuzzyBears

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Alibags

+Alibags

Posted
Posted

I was in Aldi this week (economy shopping for me until I pay off my spending at the Mega)... I see that from today they say they will have 6m poles in store for £19.99. Not everything that they advertise seems to appear, but if there is an Aldi near you it may be worth a look.

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The Other Stu

+The Other Stu

Posted
Posted

I'll add on to this discussion...

 

Firstly, sorry Mouse, but the linky no longer works (was it deleted or something?) Grr!

 

We struggled to find some of the campers at the Mega Camping and decided that we maybe ought to buy a flagpole that tells everyone who we are (The T-Shirts were VERY useful at close range although we still had a few people who said "So who are you?")

 

So... I think it was Mr Rutson that pointed out to us that Aldi had a fishing pole sale on.

 

And indeed they did. Only they only had an 8 metre one left. So I bought it.

 

I then went and bought some polyester material (black and white) and whipped up an 8m cover for the pole and a quick Jolly Roger with the sewing machine.

 

We've got some other stuff coming (well ok, she doesn't know yet!)

 

I've found a couple of old kites and modifying Keehotee's idea, I'll probably make some Windsocks out of them (I'm becoming a dab hand at this sewing machine lark - I bought it originally to make some Camo' bags)

 

That's the flag pole sorted.

 

Now for the 'van.... I've got huge ideas for that!

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The Other Stu

+The Other Stu

Posted
Posted

I'll add on to this discussion...

 

Firstly, sorry Mouse, but the linky no longer works (was it deleted or something?) Grr!

 

 

Link works OK for me, BUT......it's in the Members Only bit of the forum. Are you a member?

 

Bizarrely, I thought I was, but I wasn't. So now I am :D

 

I was under my old caching name, but not since I changed it and now I've gone and locked myself out :rolleyes:

 

And Ali, yes, I'm aware Cow Print is nice, but it would be awfully expensive to cover a WHOLE van in it!

 

However, SWMBO probably wouldn't mind Tiger Stripes :D

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Deceangi

Deceangi

Posted
Posted

If any of you fancy trying to create your own flag, i spotted this on EBay

3m White Sail/Banner flag they also do other colours.

 

Funnily enough that's on my shopping list before next years Mega :P , well I bought a 6m pole, ground stake & flag bungee's off them for this years mega [added to Irish and English flags to join the Welsh one, and the O/H vetoed buying it this year :lol: ]

 

Also on the list is one of the GAGB Flags, when they go on sale :)

 

Then all I'd need would be a official GC flag to complete the set :laughing: [idea for Shop Groundspeak :yikes: ]

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Bambography

+Bambography

Posted
Posted

I was in Aldi this week (economy shopping for me until I pay off my spending at the Mega)... I see that from today they say they will have 6m poles in store for £19.99. Not everything that they advertise seems to appear, but if there is an Aldi near you it may be worth a look.

Sky blue 6m pole = £8.99 + ground stake.

 

I'm completely hopeless at ANYTHING artistic....

 

anyone any idea anywhere that would make a flag?????

There are simply loads of places if you google it. Trouble is for a one off personal design it gets quite expensive. I went with a simple black & white logo (version of my avatar) a dylon pen and plain flag (also from skyblue).

I printed the logo out on a total of 9 pieces of A4 and traced the image onto the flag. Then simply coloured it in.

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Ponder Stibbons

+Ponder Stibbons

Posted
Posted

Ideas for the banner we will sell is not finalised but we hope that we will be able to offer to personalise each with your own design, name, tracking number ( fingers crossed) and gagb logo.

 

Superb! This sounds exactly like the service I need. I fall into the 'as artistic as a house brick' category myself. Even my wife who is artistic is worried that if we try to make one ourselves using the pens/paints we'll end up making a mess of things.

 

Incidentally those who have painted/penned their own, how easy was it to do? Were you happy with the result?

 

PS.

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slimey

+slimey

Posted
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Posted

I'm completely hopeless at ANYTHING artistic....

 

anyone any idea anywhere that would make a flag?????

 

I'm absolutely useless at art, too, but came up with what I think was a pretty reasonable flag.

 

I got a 3' x 2' plain white flag from Sky Blue (big ups to them, they seem fab!), and some acrylic paints from the art shop in town (£1 each for a reasonable size pot that I probably used about 1/4 of). I also bought an acrylic black paint "pen" for outlining and the fiddly bits.

 

I printed the design out on 4 pages of A3 paper, stuck them together, and selotaped them to the back of the flag. I then traced the design through and filled it in.

 

Some pics from the making of the flag can be seen here: Flag Painting

 

For the finished flag, you'll have to find us at an event :-)

 

I was also able to add lettering to the flag (to add our caching name) using the same technique - just remember to use a bold-enough font.

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The Other Stu

+The Other Stu

Posted
Posted

I have toyed with buying some flags. FYI, if you want your local county / area flag, there's some reasonably priced ones here (no, never used them)

 

But I decided it would be much more fun to have a go at making them.

 

OK, I did buy one of those GC Car flags for near the top as suggested earlier but my current projects are building a TB flag to my own design and a fat fish windsock although someone else has a site here for other "ocean themed" windsocks.

 

Regular fish windsock designs can be found here

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drdick&vick

+drdick&vick

Posted
Posted

 

Ali, yes, I'm aware Cow Print is nice, but it would be awfully expensive to cover a WHOLE van in it!

 

 

Hmm if you live in London you may see these about courtesy of innocent drinks. Ill try to take a better photo when i next visit them . :rolleyes:

 

us_grass_vans.jpgus_cow_vans.jpg

 

Oooh! me want!!!!

 

If you want it like that and to look good plus you have a few pound to spend you could have a look at this company Enigma Graphics in Maidenhead

I know that they do a good job as I used to take cars there for Honda and the had a car done up in the cow print.

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Alibags

+Alibags

Posted
Posted

If you want it like that and to look good plus you have a few pound to spend you could have a look at this company Enigma Graphics in Maidenhead

I know that they do a good job as I used to take cars there for Honda and the had a car done up in the cow print.

 

I knew I was a trend setter! My top quality cow print cost me £10 (I had to apply it myself), I had it done once the cowmoobile got to 200K miles, and I thought why not?

 

So far I have seen in cow print:

 

2 separate Pug 307s

1 Range Rover

another Citroen ZX

a BMW mini

...what was that one on Brean Beach?... think it was something like a Mondeo

oh, and LOTS of Robert Wiseman trucks!!

 

you could always cow print your fridge!

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slimey

+slimey

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

 

So far I have seen in cow print:

 

2 separate Pug 307s

1 Range Rover

another Citroen ZX

a BMW mini

...what was that one on Brean Beach?... think it was something like a Mondeo

oh, and LOTS of Robert Wiseman trucks!!

 

How about a Fresian Caterham 7? here

 

Belongs to a friend of mine from Uni.

 

S

Edited by slimey
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burtsbodgers

+burtsbodgers

Posted
Posted

Hi All

having just returned from the Mega camping.

while we were there we bought a cheap flag from the camp shop £3.49 and then traced around the TB on the rear of our caravan (which no one could see as it was at the back and there was a fence) coloured it in with a permanent marker 25 mins later Job Done!

Not as big and flashy as others but cheap and easy. :(

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OldNickCov

+OldNickCov

Posted
Posted

We've knocked up a first plan on the forums and posted an image.

 

please have a look and let us know what you think :D

 

http://www.gagb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2320

Can't access, Ido not have the privelege :(

 

Same for me. I can access the forums OK, but don't have permissions from this link

 

you need to be members, easily done and costs nothing, honest :D

 

...but doesn't seem to give immediate access to it either.

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The Slaughter Family

+The Slaughter Family

Posted
Posted

We've knocked up a first plan on the forums and posted an image.

 

please have a look and let us know what you think :ph34r:

 

http://www.gagb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2320

Can't access, Ido not have the privelege :mad:

 

Same for me. I can access the forums OK, but don't have permissions from this link

 

you need to be members, easily done and costs nothing, honest :anibad:

 

thought i was, obviously not.....that is GAGB?

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nobby.nobbs

nobby.nobbs

Posted
Posted

We've knocked up a first plan on the forums and posted an image.

 

please have a look and let us know what you think :ph34r:

 

http://www.gagb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2320

Can't access, Ido not have the privelege :mad:

 

Same for me. I can access the forums OK, but don't have permissions from this link

 

 

you need to be members, easily done and costs nothing, honest :anibad:

 

thought i was, obviously not.....that is GAGB?

 

 

To explain. We were asked to seperate the forums from the membership of the GAGB. Some people didn't want to join us but did want to post on our forums....

 

So you need to join both. If you are not sure or have problems please post to this thread:

GAGB membership probs

 

and we'll make sure you get access.

 

posting to that thread means that there's a record and no one will fall through the cracks :blink:

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