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Winchester Cache Bash & BBQ


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Thought I'd start a new topic, as the other one was getting rather long....

 

First, just in case there are still any rumours out there: the event IS happening, on Saturday 19th July... see The Cache Page for the details.

 

I went with David Plunton (Bramblers / HCC) up to visit a nice man at NTL this afternoon, to see if we could persuade them to give us some internet connectivity for the day. I think we have done well : they will be driving one of their satellite uplink trucks to site, and we'll have ourselves connected via satellite.

 

"How much bandwidth do you need?.... about 700kbps is the minimum the link will do" we were asked..... I suggested that we could probably manage quite well with that!!!!

 

So what else is happening?

 

- we have a man from St John's Ambulance lined up for those of you who faint from finding all the caches.... (we'd better give him a big pile of dock leaves too!).

 

- Tim & June have promised to have some "demonstration caches" to show potential cachers what you should & shouldn't put into caches.

 

- We have a few GPSr's to give away, and Omally has offered to work out a quiz or whatever....

 

- Garmin will have a stand there, showing off their latest toys

 

- The Cat is coming along with a load of Geocaching stuff

 

- There will be a bunch of PCs with live access to the various geocaching sites.

 

- Overnight camping on the Friday & Saturday nights for those helping out

 

- The "formal" event BBQ on the Saturday evening.... but nothing stopping us *also* having one on the Friday too! (Bring your own food & charcoal!)

 

- David said something about some "small funfair-type rides for the younger kids"

 

- Ice cream vans and that sort of thing

 

- about TEN caches for geomuggles & cachers to do, with event keyrings etc....

 

- (hopefully) a night cache for the Saturday

 

Now I'm back in circulation, I'll be emailing a few of you who have shown an interest, to see what you can do to help.

 

Finally, let me share a quote from one of the Groundspeak guys:

 

"We truly commend the Hampshire County Council on being the first land

owning/managing authority to take such a progressive step. It will

undoubtedly be a benefit to all"

 

There you go... we're making world history AGAIN!

 

Paul

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quote:
Originally posted by Team Blitz:

Finally, let me share a quote from one of the Groundspeak guys:

 

"We truly commend the Hampshire County Council on being the first land

owning/managing authority to take such a progressive step. It will

undoubtedly be a benefit to all"


Very nicely put, Groundspeak icon_smile.gif I couldn't have put it better and I want to thank them for saying it. I also want HCC to know that that I'm grateful for their interest, enthusiasm, understanding and patience.

 

Sadly, I probably won't be able to make it to the meet but, if I do manage to turn up, I'll be pleased to help out in any way I can.

 

=====

There's no such thing as a free lunchbox!

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quote:
Do we know what's being done to promote the event to non-cachers? Any idea how many are expected to turn up?

 


 

The event will be promoted through the press, radio and TV. Schools publications will also be promoting it.

 

We will be releasing three travel bugs for schools to track, hopefully around the world.

 

There will also be other attractions that we are in the process of negotiating at present.

 

David and Debbie

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On the subject of a "quiz", I was thinking of doing a Pro-Am multi-cache.

 

Every one of you that turns up to help may be called upon to link up with a Geomuggle to help them find each cache in a series of maybe 10, with the fastest "team" to find all parts winning a GPS.

Would something like this appeal to y'all? It would be a great opportunity to explain on a 1-to-1 level about the ins and outs of Geocaching, such as: How to use a GPS; Where to look for a cache; What should/should not go in a cache; the country code; Cache in, Trash Out; and so on.

I can knock up something along these lines, providing enough people are willing to have a go! I was thinking: seeing as we're all gonna be wearing badges, GM's could identify us thusly and just ask one of us to help them out.

 

That's one idea among many, I just need to know if many of you are up for it... icon_biggrin.gif

 

"Woof" quoth he. Oh, and "Grrr" also.

What Trolls?

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quote:

The event will be promoted through the press, radio and TV. Schools publications will also be promoting it.

 

We will be releasing three travel bugs for schools to track, hopefully around the world.

 

<snip>

 

David and Debbie


 

A thought. Instead of releasing 3 bugs for schools to track how about a Travel Bug for each school? I'd be happy to purchase the bug for each of my daughters schools (if, of course, there is interest), perhaps other cachers would be prepared to pay for the bug for their kids school or perhaps a school near to where they live.

 

"Fear is temporary, regret is permanent!"

 

motley. adj. varied in appearance or character.

crew. n. group of people.

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Originally posted by Motley Crew

quote:
A thought. Instead of releasing 3 bugs for schools to track how about a Travel Bug for each school? I'd be happy to purchase the bug for each of my daughters schools (if, of course, there is interest), perhaps other cachers would be prepared to pay for the bug for their kids school or perhaps a school near to where they live.


 

Good idea. The best way forward would probably be as you suggest, parents approaching schools and purchasing their own travel bugs.

 

Logistically it wouldn't be practical for us to do this from the event as there are over 500 schools in our area alone.

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quote:
Originally posted by THE BRAMBLERS:

Originally posted by Motley Crew

quote:
A thought. Instead of releasing 3 bugs for schools to track how about a Travel Bug for each school? I'd be happy to purchase the bug for each of my daughters schools (if, of course, there is interest), perhaps other cachers would be prepared to pay for the bug for their kids school or perhaps a school near to where they live.


 

Good idea. The best way forward would probably be as you suggest, parents approaching schools and purchasing their own travel bugs.

 

Logistically it wouldn't be practical for us to do this from the event as there are over 500 schools in our area alone.


 

Taking into account the potential misgivings/problems of children and the Internet I think it would be wise to have something 'official' when contacting schools. Is there any 'Official' letter/document that we can use (or refer to) when approaching the schools, maybe refer to something from the HCC?

 

"Fear is temporary, regret is permanent!"

 

motley. adj. varied in appearance or character.

crew. n. group of people.

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Originall posted by Motley Crew

quote:
Taking into account the potential misgivings/problems of children and the Internet I think it would be wise to have something 'official' when contacting schools. Is there any 'Official' letter/document that we can use (or refer to) when approaching the schools, maybe refer to something from the HCC?


 

The HCC Marketing Department are currently liaising with the Education Dept. on the releasing of travels bugs for the event. Head Teachers should be aware of this shortly.

 

HCC are also intending to set up a Geocaching page on their site.

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We have already got a travel bug - Fawley Owl that is currently in South Africa, travelling on behalf of the children at Fawley Infant school. Mind you I am a governor of the schoo; so it was easy to set up! The Owl has been out & about for about a year now.

Sorry this was off topic! We are still coming to the event!

Sarah

 

Team Tate

 

Remember - if it's moving, it's not dead...

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quote:

 

The HCC Marketing Department are currently liaising with the Education Dept. on the releasing of travels bugs for the event. Head Teachers should be aware of this shortly.

 

HCC are also intending to set up a Geocaching page on their site.


 

That's good. Thanks for the info.

 

Also forgot to mention that I and, hopefully, at least one of the junior members of the 'Crew' will be available to help on the day.

 

"Fear is temporary, regret is permanent!"

 

motley. adj. varied in appearance or character.

crew. n. group of people.

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This all sounds great!!

quote:
The HCC Marketing Department are currently liaising with the Education Dept. on the releasing of travels bugs for the event. Head Teachers should be aware of this shortly.


Does this still mean you'd like cachers to buy TB's for their local schools? We'd be happy to buy one for our childrens school and one for the school where I teach?

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Originally quoted by Team Hydro

quote:
Does this still mean you'd like cachers to buy TB's for their local schools? We'd be happy to buy one for our childrens school and one for the school where I teach?

 

Just to make things a little clearer, HCC will be releasing three travel bugs from the event. These are being made by a local artist and will represent rare bugs found in Hampshire.

 

Schools will be made aware of this and how they can track the bugs' travels on the internet.

 

There is no need for anyone to buy anything for the event, but if they wish to do something independently with their school then that would be fine.

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Bring yer tent, if you dare! Just pray that Dan n Pid don't stumble over it when they go out night-caching!

Seriously though, there are plenty of B+B places round here, gimme a mo and I'll see what I can find for you...

 

"Woof" quoth he. Oh, and "Grrr" also.

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Originally posted by plaid-dragon

quote:
I am considering taking some leave in the area, starting with this event, and doing as many of the local caches as possible in the few days following. You mentioned camping for people helping out? Oh, and would my dog also be welcome?

 

If you are intending to help out, then camping is available on the evening of Friday 18th until 12 noon on Sunday 20th.

 

Your dog is welcome to come along.

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Originally posted by THE BRAMBLERS:

If you are intending to help out, then camping is available on the evening of Friday 18th until 12 noon on Sunday 20th.

QUOTE]

 

I don't know how much use I'll be to you, but have booked my leave to come on down.

 

All I have to do now is find my sleeping bag... icon_smile.gif

 

One day my sigline will stop changing.

Until then, it's "Lost in the woods? Not if you remembered to waypoint the car!!". icon_smile.gif

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quote:
Originally posted by plaid-dragon:

I recommend a liberal application of alcohol, to be taken either systemically (drink it!) or topically (rub it on the affected area!) - well, its bound to cure something!


 

Yep... that'll do it !!

 

John

 

Age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

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Plaid-Dragon, from your avatar, did you used to be the girl on the old BBC testcard?

 

That pose....

 

No trees were harmed during the production of this posting, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced....

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what you may not realise is that the photo in the testcard is in fact reversed so that the girl appears right handed when in fact she was using her left hand when the picture was taken.

 

That would make it face the same way as plaid-dragon's avatar...

 

No trees were harmed during the production of this posting, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced....

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This sounds like a great event and I must come along. As I’m not a very experienced cacher myself I think that I could learn quite a few things while having fun myself! As for the BBQ and ice cream well that’s right up my street icon_biggrin.gif It seams like its going to be quite a big turnout.

 

I look forward to meeting you all there,

 

Dukey icon_smile.gif

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Hi again all!!

 

Could those of you who are planning to CAMP at the HCC cache bash please go to the cache page - GCG4PM & log the fact that you WILL be camping: this is simply so that we can have a list (and thus a number count) of how many tents there will be!

 

Feel free to tell us size of tent, if sharing etc.

 

FYI: There is a toilet block nearby, which provides a loo and a supply of water (rising main). But those who are weak of bladder are welcome to bring a toilet tent!!!

 

If you want a shower, bring a bucket with holes and hang it in the trees!!! (now THAT would be worth seeing).

 

Thanks all!

 

Paul

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quote:
Originally posted by Team Blitz:

If you want a shower, bring a bucket with holes and hang it in the trees!!! (now THAT would be worth seeing).

 

Paul


In that case, put it on SimonG's "Favourite Things" list....

 

No trees were harmed during the production of this posting, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced....

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