Monday 28 February 2011

Been there, Dunnet!

We spent the last few days of half-term up in the Scottish Highlands. We flew to Inverness and then drove a further few hours to a town near John O'Groats. Big QC spent a day with the Grandparents whilst we took Little QC off for a drive round the caches of Caithness.
We found an Earthcache at Duncansby Stacks, a virtual cache, a puzzle cache at Camster Cairns and quite a few traditional caches, one of which was Britain's most northly mainland cache- Dunnet Head.

With Caithness being so far away from anything, many of the caches hadn't been visited in anything from 2 to 9 months. We managed to rescue rather a lot of travel bugs and geocoins that I am now slowly re-homing in southern caches. On our way back down to Inverness we picked up a few more caches...and travel bugs! During our trip, we added in a few new 'finds by placed month' caches, a few 'non-traditional' caches and a trig point or two. There are some trig points in the UK that you can log on a special cache- the Dunnet Head trig point was one of those.

Sunday 20 February 2011

Quavers and Crotchets

Today, we drove down to Melksham to walk round 'Count Katie's Quavers' series. The series was made up of 19 caches (including a bonus) over a 4 mile walk. We also picked up two other caches en route. Big QC had a fun walk as the caches were close together and the terrain was fairly easy going.  We were very grateful that there wasn't a single stile to cross with the buggy. As a family, we would strongly recommend this series, the hides were good, the caches were large and well stocked and the route was very easy to follow.

This week, we managed to find 40 caches, this was an excellent week considering Big QC was home sick from school for 2 days. I finished off the WOW series near Swindon. This is a great series, Little QC thoroughly enjoyed all the different animals and birds he saw as we walked round.

We also picked up a FTF (first to find) which delighted Big QC.

Sunday 13 February 2011

Week round up

This week, I climbed a tree to find a cache. It was about 30ft up!

The tree was on the Wendlebury Circuit which is just south of Bicester. We walked about 5 miles and found 17 caches en route. The route was excellent, though we had a problem with an electric fence placed just infront of a stile. Getting a 25kg dog, plus a buggy and baby over this took a very long time.

Today, I had a child free morning, so I headed down to Winchester with the aim of walking round the Hursley Circuit (5.5miles and 19 caches). However, I was feeling good, so added on Ed's Circuit (4.5 miles and 16 caches). There were a few other caches to pick up as well so I ended the day with 9.9 miles and 39 caches. I highly recommend this circuit, it was such a great walk.

I also managed two FTFs, one of which with Big QC- she was delighted! We attended a caching event and launched another new cache. This new cache is one of three caches based around some of the cake shops we visit after we've been caching! 

Sunday 6 February 2011

FTF...New Puzzle...Favourites

We don't normally bother with 'First to Finds'- finding a brand new cache before anyone else. Caches tend to be published in the evening, just as the kids are going to bed and when Daddy QC isn't home. I wont cache on my own in the dark, so most new caches are ruled out. Big QC is always asking when we are going to get a FTF, but the opportunity to get one during a non-school day is hard.

However, we were having dinner with our caching friends when an email popped up with the notification of a new cache just over a mile from our pub! We loaded Big QC and her caching friend into the car and drove the cache location. My GPS ran out of batteries and we'd forgotten a torch; great start! Using an iphone each we made our way to GZ, but it was still too dark, so I turned the car around and pointed the headlights at GZ. The cache was ours! Big QC was so happy with her FTF.

We launched a new puzzle on Friday GC2NB03 I rated it 4 stars as you need a specific bit of 'equipment' to solve it! It has been found 4 times so far.

Geocaching.com recently launch a new 'favourites' button. You earn points from finding caches, you can then allocate these points to your favourite caches. Our 'Micros in Ivy' cache has 4 points so far, considering only 5 people have found this cache, this is good going! 'Sophies Country Cache' puzzle has 3 votes from 9 finders and our series currently has 3 votes.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

An Ammo in Alley?

Over Christmas we tried to find an ammo can hidden in a residential alley way...we failed!
Today, I was having lunch with a friend in Reading; it seemed rude not to try and find this cache again. Little QC and I parked up and walked down the GZ. The GPS took us to within 6ft which was pretty good. Now where would someone hide an ammo can?
The cache owner hadn't stated the size of the cache, but had written it was a 'well stocked ammo'. I had a quick search and then, bingo...got it. Here is Little QC holding the box...yep, the green thing in his hand!