Deal Geocaching Challenge

[PeterJull]

A major geocaching challenge event with over 20 caches in and around the town. Finding most but not necessarily all caches will reveal the location of a prize cache value c£100 for the first to find.

 

Meet at Walmer Castle car park outside the castle grounds. There is a larger car park 100 yards north and on street parking that may involve a longer walk so arrive in good time. Timings are sublect to confirmation but should be an 11am start with expected completion mid/late afternoon. The terrain between cache areas is mostly level and good for cycling which might be almost as quick as keep moving a car.

 

A specially commissioned limited edition commemorative geocoin exclusive to this event or those completing a geotrail to be established afterwards will be available for £3 on successful completion.

 

There is usually an ice cream van at the car park and more refreshments at multiple locations near the final cache. (it will be lovely weather for an ice cream!)

 

An attendance of several hundreds is expected but to help with logistics planning notification of intention to attend would be helpful to admin@dealandwalmerchamber.co.uk to which enquiries should also be addressed. Check for updates as the event draws closer on www.dealandwalmerchamber.co.uk/events

 

The following extract form the draft instructions give for flavour to the event plans

 

STAGE 1

 

Using the optimum route to get from cache to cache you should able to find them all in just over 2½ miles. The co-ordinates are in a random order; other competitor’s lists will be in a different order.

 

Most of these caches will be lifted after the event so don’t worry about your actions being as unobtrusive to Muggles as you normally would and although other geocachers will inevitably be nearby time is against you and discretion may not be practical. But please ensure you replace caches exactly as you found them. Permission has been granted for access to all these caches for this event only so you should not afterwards re-enter fields to which public access is not normally allowed. There should be no need to climb fences or open gates other than kissing gates on footpaths

 

Each cache contains a coloured token which you need to collect. Some caches contain a duplicate colour to another cache. There are prizes that will help with the next stage for the first three back with the full range of tokens before 12.10 or if no one manages to do that the first back with all ten. To qualify for the coin you need to find 75% of the range of tokens. The second stage will not start before 12.40 and the start point may close anytime after 1.30

 

Many caches will be in prime Muggle dog walking territory so your dog should be appropriately controlled. * Sheep with lambs at foot. Dogs must be on a lead before entering field.

 

STAGE 2

 

There are another 10 tokens to collect to identify the exact co-ordinates of the final cache. Without all the tokens you should be able to work out the location but it will be more difficult. Again they are in a random order and others will have them in a different order.

 

The 11th co-ordinates are for the location of the decryption chart to give you the co-ordinates of the final prize cache. A time has been calculated that it would take someone on a bicycle to travel between each cache are in the optimum distance of 11 miles or so, find the caches quickly and get to the decryption location. If you arrive before that time the chart may send you not to the prize cache but to a red herring and you will need to come back later. So driving too fast and parking inconsiderately is not necessary to gain an advantage.

[PeterJull]

There is now a facebook event listing to make advice of intention to attend easier.

 

http://www.facebook.com/events/251878031560319/#!/events/251878031560319/

[+Pharisee]

Can I take it that these geocaches will not be listed on geocaching.com and therefore will not count as 'finds' on that site?

[dodgydaved]

Can I take it that these geocaches will not be listed on geocaching.com and therefore will not count as 'finds' on that site?

 

So I have been told by Castagnari (sorry if spelt incorrectly).

[PeterJull]

Deal is fairly saturated with with caches already, including multi caches which take out swathes of the town without being able to tell exactly how much from the Geocaching.com map. Exactly how many of the caches will be loggable will be announced when the review process is complete but it will be a lot of them. While in town you can always do those caches you haven't already got.

 

I'll happily walk 30 miles in a day but local opinion was that too much distance would put people off. It was a trade off given the lack of suitable parking areas between distance, ugly locations and not all caches being laggable. We hope the balance is acceptable.

 

If you look on it as one big multicache you would get only one loggable find at the end but this challenge will get you several on the way.

 

[PeterJull]

Only 2 months to go but might you might not know that because the date is only on the information link. Its Saturday 19th May.

 

The geolambs are now in the field and looking for a cache. They're about 25 yards off. if you can recognise the patch of grass that would be a clue.

 

I thought about using their numbers as a clue but they kept changing order. At least one has the date on.

 

[PeterJull]

One month to go.

 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/251878031560319/

[PeterJull]

14 loggable new caches will go live during this event to launch the Deal Geotrail. You can also get a smiley just for turning up now the the event has been tweaked a little to keep GC happy.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d98484cb-4e5f-441f-93fb-0b5ec3c8366c

 

There will be another 7 novelty caches available on the day only including the £100 value final prize cache for the FTF.

[+Delta68]

... the £100 value final prize cache for the FTF.

 

Aside from not being the slightest bit interested in this, the wording strikes me as a bit vague.

What do you mean by value?

What actually IS the prize?

Is it just a load of money-off vouchers to the value of £100?

 

 

Mark