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Just read in this morning's paper that the National Trust are starting a campaign called "50 things to do before you are 11 3/4". It aims to encourage children to get out and explore the natural world. Guess what they have listed as number 49?!! :rolleyes:

 

My 9 year old son was one of the testers for the 50 Things website - earned £50 for an hours "work" one saturday morning :):)

"But the clicking the link to geocaching takes you to canoeing."

 

Maybe he should give some of that £50 back :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

 

Rgds, Andy

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As I was reading this in the paper this morning was I alone in mentally ticking off which I'd done in the pursuit of geocaches?

 

1. Climb a tree - Several times.

2. Roll down a really big hill - Not deliberately! I've run up a few though.

3. Camp out in the wild - Yes, on Shetland and on the west coast of Scotland.

4. Build a den - Not as such.

5. Skim a stone - Nope, but I've stacked them for a caching photo.

6. Run around in the rain - Oh yes :)

7. Fly a kite - Not while caching, but on Harris in the Outer Hebrides, on my way to St Kilda in 2007.

8. Catch a fish with a net - No.

9. Eat an apple straight from a tree - Nope.

10. Play conkers - Yes, at a cache event some years ago.

11. Throw some snow - Sure I must have dug a cache or two out.

12. Hunt for treasure on the beach - Certainly!

13. Make a mud pie - Am I alone in not really knowing what this involves? Must be an age thing.

14. Dam a stream - No, but I have crossed dams and streams to reach caches.

15. Go sledging - Nope, but it's on my to-do list.

16. Bury someone in the sand - It was concrete...

17. Set up a snail race - Nope.

18. Balance on a fallen tree - Too many times to mention.

19. Swing on a rope swing - Yes. Recently too.

20. Make a mud slide - Only by accident!

21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild - Yes.

22. Take a look inside a tree - Only a million times.

23. Visit an island - Yep. Many many!

24. Feel like you’re flying in the wind - Certainly.

25. Make a grass trumpet - Nope.

26. Hunt for fossils and bones - Yes. Lots of EarthCaches need them to be spotted.

27. Watch the sun wake up - Yep.

28. Climb a huge hill - Ben Nevis must count?

29. Get behind a waterfall - Not actually while caching, but yes. And I plan to do some like this when I can.

30. Feed a bird from your hand - Yes, on Scilly.

31. Hunt for bugs - TBs? Of course! :D

32. Find some frogspawn - As a bi-product of caching, yes.

33. Catch a butterfly in a net - No. Don't really approve of this one.

34. Track wild animals - Do I look like Bear Grylls? No.

35. Discover what’s in a pond - The hard way :(

36. Call an owl - PAF? (Phone A Fowl)

37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool - I think we've all been to cache events like this ;)

38. Bring up a butterfly - Never eaten one, but I get they can make you feel ill. I've swallowed a lot of bugs while caching..?

39. Catch a crab - [Comment removed by internal editing process]

40. Go on a nature walk at night - Oh yes.

41. Plant it, grow it, eat it - Nope. Not smoked it either.

42. Go wild swimming - Yes. Grand Union Canal must count?

43. Go rafting - Nope.

44. Light a fire without matches - Not for a cache, but on a caching trip. I used a lighter.

45. Find your way with a map and compass - Actually, no. I have a GPS..?

46. Try bouldering (rock climbing outdoors but with safety mats and short drops) Scrambled over rocks, for sure.

47. Cook on a campfire - No, but I've cooked outdoors while caching.

48. Try abseiling - Not for a cache... yet!

49. Find a geocache (use GPS and other navigational aides to locate hidden containers.) - Obvs :)

50. Canoe down a river - Not a river, but I did sea kayak on Guernsey to find a FTF on a cache at the foot of a cliff.

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I glad that it made the list...but why is it so low?.... I know that geocaching beats "wild swimming" and "lighting a fire without matches".

 

I guess not everyone understands the epicness of geocaching.

I had done "wild swimming" and "lighting a fire without matches" before I was twelve - an ex-Scout! :rolleyes: - but I was almost an OAP before discovering Geocaching!! :P

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2. Roll down a really big hill

Use hills with gentle slope

Good thing you are *not* in Florida {USA}. Finding ANY hills - other than “Space Mountain” @ DISNEY WORLD - would be rather difficult...<G>
Britton Hill was somewhere I wanted to reach on my 2013 caching trip across Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, but we ran out of time. For those who care, the lowest points of sixteen US states are higher than Britton Hill, as are many buildings in Miami. Points if you know where the deepest man-made shaft (not a drill-hole) in Florida is :)
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]Britton Hill was somewhere I wanted to reach on my 2013 caching trip across Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, but we ran out of time. For those who care, the lowest points of sixteen US states are higher than Britton Hill, as are many buildings in Miami. Points if you know where the deepest man-made shaft (not a drill-hole) in Florida is :)

 

At a guess its the hole under the launch pad at Cape Canaveral/Kennedy that deflects the blast of the rocket engines at blast off

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Okay, brief attempt at un-stumped: I just remembered that a couple of months ago I came across something online about a test that a contractor working for NASA built in some part of the {western?} Everglades where they tested a large solid-fuel rocket engine - or engines - in the 1960's for possible use with the Apollo program. The engine was never adopted AFAIK....

Edited by Coast Guard Kiteman
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Correct! I DNF'd the cache there in April and I think the hole has been covered with concrete now but I got some amazing photos through the silo's rusting 'lid' there last year. When the Aerojet money ran out (the firm still builds rocket engines) around '66, as Apollo 1st stage was selected to be liquid-fuelled, they didn't have funds to remove the world's largest solid fuel rocket (21ft diameter - the Shuttle's SRBs are only 12ft across) and so they just left it in the hole. Because of the high water-table, it's a very advanced hole as there's a vast upthrust upon it... Have a look for 'Space Miami' online for some cool video. Amazing history really, and it was very strange to see this relic still sitting where it was last tested, nr Homestead.

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2. Roll down a really big hill

Use hills with gentle slope

Good thing you are *not* in Florida {USA}. Finding ANY hills - other than “Space Mountain” @ DISNEY WORLD - would be rather difficult...<G>

Space Mountain sounds like a great example! I've never cached at Disney World, but I'd claim Space Mountain and almost every other ride as part of my quest for the Disneyland virtual caches.

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