Monday 28 March 2011

A new series

Last week, The Cache and Cake Club put out 19 caches over a 3.5 mile loop. Over the weekend 17 cachers logged their finds and allocated numerous favourite points.
The series has been so well received by newbie cachers and experienced cachers. Each cache is named after a cake and the goodies are generally cake related. We wanted to aim the series at families so placed the caches as close as we could to keep the kids interested.

The Cache and Cake Club is myself plus two very good friends that meet once or twice (sometimes more) to cache and eat cake. We've found over 5000 caches between us and set over 100 caches, this though is our first joint venture.

The first cache can be seen here
A review of the series can be found here

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Some statistics from our first year

Here are a few statistics from our first year of caching.

1862 = total caches found
49 = squares of the D/T grid filled
18 = counties cached in
4 = countries cached in
45 = highest number in one day
57 = best weekend
72 = best week
148 days = fastest 1000
8 days = fastest 100
7 = most cache types in a day

Sunday 20 March 2011

A year of Caching

This time last year, we found our very first cache! Big QC brought home a magazine from school, there was an article about geocaching in it. We read it, I handed it to Daddy QC and then we signed up to the geocaching website. A week later, we headed out with our mobile phones and found our first cache. A few hours after the find, we ordered a GPS!
Today, we headed down to Salisbury and had a walk round a new series called the Lower Durnford Series. We measured this walk at just over 4.5 miles. The children had a brilliant time as they got to see camels, alpacas, pigs, sheep, cows, chickens and a stoat. The highlight for Little QC were the low flying planes. We did a few drive bys on the way home to make a total of 20 finds for the day.

We made it to 200 days of caching!

Yesterday, we hit our 200th day of continuous caching. We celebrated it by launching a new challenge cache. Cachers will have to find at least one cache per day for 100 days to be able to find the cache.
The past 200 days have been fun. Little QC was still a baby when we started, he has now turned 18 months and is almost past his baby days. We've had snow to contend with, the car has been in the garage, we've been abroad, the kids have been sick, the rain has been heavy and I've been injured.

I took both Big and Little QC to Devizes where we did a very nice 2 mile (8 cache) walk along a Quaker route. We then headed to an event cache which was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate 200 days.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Cache hides


Yep, one rat and one spider cache! 

Caching around Amesbury

This weekend I headed down to Amesbury in Wiltshire and wandered round a lovely 5 miles circuit (Great Durnford) of 22 caches. The terrain was easy going, the hides were good and the cache variety was excellent. Whilst in the area I picked up a few extra caches including a virtual at Woodhenge.
I ended the morning with 36 caches of which 2 were virtual caches, 2 were puzzles and one multi.

Friday 11 March 2011

Caching Injury

I have torn my left deltoid muscle (a shoulder one). I have spent the last week perfecting the use of my left hand and arm and being driven to caches by good friends.
As for how I did it...I think it was a culmination of throwing the buggy over stiles and gates, climbing a tree or two and X-Factor! It's been 5 days since the pain started. My mobility is increasing very slowly, but the pain is still there. Pushing the buggy has had to be done by my caching friends as one handed pushing is very hard.

Needless to say, it has been a slow week for caches with just 11 found.

Monday 7 March 2011

Caching in London

This weekend I took Big QC to London as she had tickets to see X-Factor Live!
I didn't want to pass up the opportunity of a few London caches, so I asked Big Qc how many she wanted to do. She now has her own caching account, so wanted to do 6 caches (it was her 6th birthday last week) to take her up to 60 caches- 10 times her age!
Our first cache was a local Sidetracked cache before we caught the train. We then arrived at Paddington Station and picked up an old virtual cache with Paddington Bear.

There was a cache just outside Paddington Station so we got that before heading for the tube. We managed another cache just off Regent Street and then another near Piccadily Circus. Our final cache was at Wembly Arena just after the concert.

Friday 4 March 2011

Top 500!

According to the rankings (box on right hand side) we are now ranked in 483rd position in the UK!
I find this rather impressive seeing as we only started (nearly) a year ago, a lot of the cachers in front of us have been caching for years.
I'm now wondering if we can make it into the top 400.

I'm now on day 185 of continuous caching; I'm feeling a little cached out now, but know I need to get to day 202 before I can have a day off. The '365 days of caching' is looking well within reach now. We now have 274 of  365 days filled in.