Bank Holiday Caching

Over the long weekend we went down to the New Forest. We spent some time on the Friday walking round the Michelmersh series (19 puzzle caches over 4.5 miles). Saturday was spent at Paultons Park where the kids had so much fun, we picked up one cache at the supermarket on the way back to our campsite. On Sunday, I took both Big and Little QC to an event cache, run by one of the top 3 UK cachers. We spent the event catching up with old friends and making new ones. There was a multi close by that we all attempted en masse. It was far harder than I imagined. Big QC was helped down a very steep slope by one cacher and carried back up by another cacher! I had Little QC in my arms; it would have been much easier without 26lbs of boy to hold!

We then moved onto the Verwood series (4.5 miles and 14 caches). We'd been told by the cachers at the event that the route could be cycled. Big QC jumped on her bike and headed off. I had to run to keep up. I haven't run properly in at least 5 years. My last proper race was the Stockholm Marathon when Big QC was 18 months old! Anyhow, we found all the caches before heading back to the tent. I cannot remember falling asleep, all that running with the buggy was hard going!

On Monday we took in two caches before heading back home, one of which was a virtual cache based around the author Arthur Conan Doyle.

Michelmersh Puzzle Series

We spotted this series of 19 puzzle caches last week. Big QC decided it would be fun to have a large smiley face on her caching map, so I set about solving the puzzles. I managed 18 of the 19 puzzles. We set off on Royal Wedding day and walked round the 4.5 mile loop collecting the caches as we went. We even managed to pick up the cache to the puzzle we couldn't solve! A great walk and a fun smiley to have.

Caching in Dorset

"We're going to Dorset over Easter" I announced to Mr QC. I reasoned, "Big QC can go to the Jurrasic Coast, there is a great dinosaur museum, Little QC can play on the beach and we can camp...oh, and it gets us a new county on our caching map."
Sold!
So, we headed off with half of England to the south coast where we pitched our tent, ate fish and chips, went to the sea, visited dinosaur museums and cached!

Little QC and I went round a 6 mile series called Piddletrenthide. It was the hardest series I've ever done, even without a buggy it would have been hard work! It was a brilliant series though with lots of different hides. The views from the tops of the hills were amazing, well worth being caked in sweat for!

Another day we took in the Symondsbury series. This was just under 3 miles and had 15 caches on it. It was a lovely walk and just the right distance for Big QC. The bonus of a lovely village pub was found at the end of the series!

Our geocaching map is beginning to fill up a bit. I feel a trip to Sussex happening this summer! We do have a trip up North planned so no doubt we'll fill a few more counties in.

Well done Big QC!

A few months ago, Big QC asked if she could have her own caching account. I agreed, set one up and she started logging whatever she found. Then, Big QC met a top cacher who suggested she backdate all her finds from the time we first started caching. I spent a few hours doing this for her one evening....she'd found a few more than I had estimated!

On Sunday, Big QC logged her 900th find. Considering she has just turned 6 and has been caching for 13 months, she has done brilliantly.

Caching in Kenya

We are just back from a week in Kenya, we all had a fantastic break. We went on a 2 day safari, visited some local parks, went on a glass bottomed boat, swam, ate and grabbed a cache!

We picked up one cache whilst we were there. There are only 43 caches in the entire country, of which some are half way up mountains or in the back of beyond. There are quite a few caches that haven't been found in years or ones that have been muggled.

We picked a safe bet of an EarthCache. We found the cache about 10 miles from our hotel so we took the chance....and thankfully, we hit all the requirements and the cache was bagged.

How are the TBs getting on?

How are our travel bugs getting on?

Little Dolphin has travelled 14,000miles and is now in Tasmania.
Marmalade is now in California, having travelled 5500 miles so far.
Vendee Gem is in France somewhere!
Para who was aiming for Australia seems to be missing.
Mountain Panda is in the West Midlands in a cache that looks out to the Welsh mountains.

I have a new TB (a cake), it is sitting in a Gatwick TB hotel.

The Devil

There is a cache that has been on my list of 'caches I must find' called The Devil (GC25VW5). It is a puzzle cache, the puzzle answer will take you to the first of 3 micros. Once you have all 3 micros then you can work out the final co-ordinates for the cache. The walk was around Devils Punchbowl near Lambourn, we measured it at just over 6 hilly miles!

This was one of the most satisfying caches we have found and well worth the walk. It is a shame that there haven't been many other finders of this fantastic cache.

2000!!!

It was Mothers' Day last weekend, so I got a day off! I headed down to LittleCombe for a series of 5 miles and 24 caches, backing onto the circuit was the Pertwood Bonaza walk- 4 miles and 24 caches. I walked both, did a few drive bys and hey presto...2006 caches!

It was a personal record breaking day, I managed 57 caches which was my best in one day, this gave me my highest total for one week.

Both series were lovely and I highly recommend both.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!