Visiting From Kentucky, Usa To Newcastle, Ireland

[+bluegrassfan]

From approximately 23 April until 2 May 2005 I plan to visit Newcastle, County Down, Ireland. I plan to be arrive with my parents (father was a WWII soldier, and for a short time, stationed at what is now County Down Museum), my brother and his wife. We will be visiting for festivities concerning the museum on or about 30 April. I would like to try my hand at geocaching while there. What do I need to know about your brand of the sport? Any special bits of information I should know, customs, etc.? I won't be able to do a great deal of geocache travel since our days will be filled with tours, etc., but I do hope to slip away for a while to TRY to find a couple of caches. I will be disappointed if I don't find at least one, and it would be my first international find. I generally use a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) for cache pages, but do use cache computer printouts from time to time. I use a Garmin GPSmap 60C and Garmin eTrex Legend.

 

I have visited the webpages for all the caches currently in Ireland and have identified what appears to be in the vicinty of my visit, but that can be misleading. What is a reasonable distance for caches from Newcastle? I am not sure where we will be visiting during our tours; I have not seen the list.

 

Last year one of our local geocachers visited Ireland and took with him one of my travel bugs, which found its way to England, France, then England again. To the best of my knowledge it is now in Sweden.

 

I had ancestors supposedly from Ireland, surnames of WHITEFORD and possibly DOWELL. My genealogy research has not extended past 1850 for this family, but Thomas and Agnes WHITEFORD were said to have been born in Ireland (according to more than one U.S. census enumeration).

 

In August 1968, I landed at Shannon Airport on my way to Germany for a tour with the US Army. From the air, the land surrounding the airport was beautiful.

 

I do look forward to my visit even if I am unable to hunt for caches. Perhaps I'll even meet some of my Irish counterparts during my visit. My geocaching comes from my love of bluegrass music, which of course, has its roots from the areas of England, Scotland and Ireland. My geocaching signature piece is a single or double foam blue music note that I often leave in a cache container, sometimes more than one note. We have people in the US that collect them so leaving more than one does occur.

[+stu_and_sarah]

My experience of caching in the US versus UK was that it was very similar, but harder work (due to being 5000 feet up in the air in Colorado). I don't think you'll find a huge difference.

 

Welcome to the UK and good luck!

 

Stu

[+Lance Ambu]

Well welcome to the Emerald Isle.

 

You could do worse than seek out Wildlifewriter's caches in Newcastle, they were part of an event in November. The hilly one will stand out when you read the logs. As for the rest of the North or South of the Island check out this sites caching guide and log on to the Irish discussion group

 

Post a note here when you know your itinerary(spelling?) and someone will doubtless keep you right.

 

PS Bring a raincoat

[+wildlifewriter]

From approximately 23 April until 2 May 2005 I plan to visit Newcastle, County Down, Ireland. I plan to be arrive with my parents (father was a WWII soldier, and for a short time, stationed at what is now County Down Museum), my brother and his wife. We will be visiting for festivities concerning the museum on or about 30 April. (snip)

The Museum is well worth coming all that way to visit. It is housed in the former County Gaol at Downpatrick, the buildings and structures of which have been accurately and sensitively restored.

 

Your father will be able to identify the site of the accomodation huts which he used while stationed here, as traces of them still exist.

 

You will not need any special equipment for caching in Ireland, apart from the waterproof clothing suggested by Lance A. (Our rainy season start at the beginning of June and lasts through the end of May.)

 

If you are bringing any elecrical equipment (such as battery chargers) note that the mains supply here is 240v AC, 50Hz.

 

Get in touch with Ambu, myself or any of the active local cachers if you need any advice or assistance with planning your trip.

 

Hth,

[+bluegrassfan]

I will be arriving in Dublin, Ireland on 24 April, then coaching to Newcastle, County Down. I have looked at the caches for that area see there are 3. That may be the only ones I get to hunt. I will be bring 1 travel bug for a friend. Not ever having driven on the left side of the road I will not be renting transportation for geocaching. You will wee by the iteneary below that I have a pre-arranged schedule, with some time for geocaching. Unfortunately, I cannot stray too far from Newcastle unless its during one of the tours. Perhaps those of you in the areas I will visit can advise as to what might be quick to hunt. I am not necessarily wanting to hunt difficulty/terrain level 1 or 2, but that may be all I have time for. I certainly intend to hunt those near Newcastle. I will be staying at the Slieve Donard Hotel at Newcastle for the entire time. Will someone please advise me as to the distances and directions from the hotel to the local caches? I depart Dublin on 2 May. Any of you who want my cell phone # I will provide it in a private e-mail. I have international capability with the phone. Any of you who might want to try to get together some evening for a chat, let me know and we will see what we can work out. I won't have a computer with me and don't know if one is available for visitors at the hotel. Some hotels in the US are now providing some in their lobbies. I will also provide my itenerary in private e-mail. I'm really looking foward to my visit. Do I need to change my GPSR from the WGS84 standard?

 

If you would like to contact me between now and my visit, please do so at:

 

rndowell@ky-net.com

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Bluegrassfan

Edited April 17, 2005 by bluegrassfan

[+wildlifewriter]

Unfortunately, most of us will be away on the 23rd/24th, attending this cache event in the West of Ireland.

 

Lance Ambu will be staying behind to guard all the caches while the rest of us are absent.

 

The three caches in Newcastle were placed by myself. All three are within walking distance of your hotel, although GCKNNN is quite a walk - and it's 900ft ASL. Since you are travelling to Downpatrick, there are a couple of caches near the Quoile river which could be done... GCJ80N and GCJ80Q

 

I will contact you by e-mail, and maybe a tour of other caches can be arranged for w/c 25th.