A bit of a catch up

January was a busy caching month with just over 220 caches found. Sophie had a geat day with a new record of 33 finds in one day, we had an excellent walk down near Bradford Upon Avon...

A new series a few miles from us was published recently, we decided to do just half the walk one afternoon. Naturally we picked the hard hilly section, getting the buggy up one hill was so hard we had to take it in turns! Theo found his usual quota of sticks, plus a few extra for good measure!

I solved a fun puzzle cache which was located in a beautiful set of newly growing woodland. All the trees have been grown in very straight, regimented lines...which makes it fun for running through! Theo set off thinking he could hide from me...alas, the coverage was bare!

Caching in Scotland

Over half term, we visited the in-laws up in Northern Scotland. There wasn't much chance to cache but we still picked up a few including 2 Earthcaches and a virtual.
The Earthcaches were set around beaches so both kids were very happy. One was 'Bow Fiddler Rock' which is a natural archway created over time that now resembles a Fiddler's Bow. Our second Earthcache was a Cherty Rock set on beautiful beach.

A joint milestone day

It took a bit of planning, but we managed it...Both Big QC and I hit new milestones at the same cache. I started the day on 3992 and she started with 1485. We did a few drive bys that I knew she hadn't logged but I had, then we hit a new small trail which took us both to xx99 caches. One further cache (a puzzle cache) took us to 1500 and 4000 caches.
Big QC was delighted with her new number.

We spent the afternoon at an event cache where we won an ammo can in the raffle!

A surprise FTF

Today we had a surprise First to Find. Little QC had had a class so we picked up a few other caches in the area, then I remember that last night a new cache had come out but I didn't have it on my GPS. I'd briefly glanced at the map after publication so had a rough idea where it was. Big QC was put on 'Post Box' watch...lo and behold, I had remembered the route correctly and there was the cache with a blank log book!

This was Big QC's log:

First to Find!
I like FTFs
Sometimes Mummy surprises me by remembering things! She remembered where this cache was and I helped her find it. I told Mummy to write my name first as I spotted the cache location before she did. I didn't get out the car though as I went back to reading my book.
TFTC

200th puzzle cache and 20th EarthCache

So far, this year has seen a few milestones. Earlier in the week, we found our 20th EarthCache. To complete this we had to answer some questions set around West Wittering spit.

This was a fantastic area to visit and one, that no doubt we'll return to several times.

Today, I picked up my 200th puzzle cache. I found a hard cache to solve...and one that proved hard to find! It was certainly a memorable cache for a milestone.

I also added a new county to the map by caching in Sussex, this is a new area for us, and wow, we'll be back as Sussex is chockablock with caches!

2011 caching round up

Here area few bit and pieces for the year 2011.

Over the past 12 months, I managed to find a total of 2575 caches which I am delighted with, this is an average of just over 210 per month. I ended the year with 3896 caches of which 89% were traditional caches, the rest were made up of puzzles, events, multis, virtuals and earthcaches.

My D/T grid filled up quite a bit, I now have 64 out of the 81 squares filled, my 365 calendar is now filled except for 29th February...watch this space! I cached in a total of 30 counties, 5 countries, plus 4 areas in France.

My fastest 100 caches took one day, my fastest 1000 took 119 days. I walked 20 miles in one day for the 110 caches- this was a good solo effort.

So what next for 2012?
I would like to maintain less than 90% of traditionals cache types found. I would also like to fill a few more squares in on the D/T grid, but that takes a lot of planning and is very hard to do with a buggy. I don't think I will top this year's overall finds mainly because I can't expect Little QC to keep caching, he is beginning to have his own interests, though he does love to "me find cache". If I can hit 5000 total finds by the end of the year, I will be very pleased, anything else will be a bonus. Naturally, because I love going on holiday, I would liek to add another country or three to my map!