5th Place!

Just over a year ago a trackable race started and I entered Peach and Mario.  After a year of mad calculation for EyeD10T, the race organiser and sponsor Peach was announced as 5th overall!

A week or so later a beautiful trackable coin landed on my door mat as a prize.

Have a look at my coin and a range of other coins at wherethecacheis online shop.  EyeD10T has designed his own coins and sells them on this web site.

Click the here to have a look

Thanks very much for your time and effort EyeD10T, it was a really good fun race.

100 Geocaches Logged!

Hello all,

I have been out today and reached my first first notable milestone of 100 Geocaches.  I am over the moon about it and can't wait to get back out again.  It seems like it has taken a very long time but I got there in the end!  I have said for a while that I will treat myself to a brand new 100 finds geocoin.

Silly self taken picture to mark 100 finds.  GZ just in the background!

HGH 16-Way Down (GC2HXY3) is the cache that happened to fall as my 100th.  It is a cache that I have attempted before but didn't look very well because it was getting dark and I was rushing back.  I also got 2 others in this series today which means I have 19 out of the 20 in total.  I had planned on getting the other one as well but I didn't realise the cache was on the top on the step old quarry and I had got to the bottom.  It would have meant doubling back and my legs where already telling me to call it a day.  Unfit I know but 2012 I am hoping to change all of that!

Beautiful waterfall that was a nice surprise when I came round the hillside.

What milestones have you got?  Can you remember your 100th?  Or are you still looking forward to your 100th?  Post in the comments as I love reading what people think of my stories, and love to read yours!

My first Souvenir

Went out especially to get our first souvenir today (with Search and Retrieve).  Went out after work.  Only got three because the dark was drawing in but that was enough to get what we set out for.

 First Souvenir

Basically a souvenir is an achievement in Geocaching and can be gained by completing a certain task.  There have been a lot since I have been caching but I have only managed to get the one.  This one is available once every four years, on a leap year and specifically on 29th February.  All you have to do is log a find or an attend at an event on this day and you gain the souvenir above.  Hopefully this is one in a long line of them!

How many souvenirs have you got and what did you get them for?  Let me know in the comments below!

It was a really nice night out tonight.  I wish the days where longer so we could have gone on to pick up a few more.  But in the end after only three we had to turn back and get to the car before dark.  Got a really nice sunset picture though!

Sunset near Belmont

Really looking forward to the longer days and better weather.  Me and S&R said we are going to try and get out once a fortnight because when we are out caching we have a really good laugh and it seems like we are away from all the trouble of work and other things.

Also today I got my 96th cache.  So I am only 4 away from my 100th.  My first major milestone which I intend to get the 100 caches found Geocoin.  But before then I am hoping to go for a really nice well favoured cache for my 100th.  Do you know any great caches in the Lancashire area that would be good for my 100th?

2012 - The Year for Caching?

Happy New Year!!  Okay a bit late I know.

2011 was an okay year for Caching.  I had a target of 100 and managed 73.  I have set a target for myself again for 2012, going for 100 again.  I might push for 127 so that I make up for the 100 last year.  I am also going to hit 100 in total this year, I am on 92 at the moment.  Hopefully 93 by the end of the day (snow might stop that!).

I want to be a lot more active this year and see caching is the best way to do that.

Anyone else have a target for 2012?

I have also just returned from Egypt and managed to get the Aswan High Dam Earthcache meaning I have now become an Earthcache Bronze member.  That's visiting and logging three or more Earthcaches in two or more states or countries.

 

I have also to it on my to do list that I need to do a proper profile page on Geocaching.com.  But for now I will be gunning for 100 in a year!

Happy Caching!

2 Posts in as many days!

Well I am back and totally have the caching bug again!  I went out with a mate from work who goes by the caching name "Search and Retrieve".  We got the most I have ever got in a single day today 18 Finds and 1 DNF.  Out of all of the caches today I wanted to talk about the DNF.  We where up on the moors today and had only been going for about 20 or 30 minutes when we can to the 3rd cache.  After going on the wrong side of a fence my mate decided to hop over the fence and have a look while I held the dog (he isn't trusted to be off his lead near sheep!).  After about 2 minutes we noticed a sheep had got entangled in a fence on the other side of the ruins where he was looking for the cache.

We noticed the farmer wasn't too far away so a five minute walk I got the farmer to come and have a look.  After a few minutes he had come and managed to untangle the Sheep (which mad massive horns!).  He then said that it would have died if we didn't spot it.  The sheep also had a lamb which could hardly stand as we think the mother couldn't feed it due to been tangled.  Hopefully the lamb was okay as well.

I thought I would share this with you all because it just goes to show a DNF isn't always bad and this particular one was well worth a mention.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera today so I didn't get any snaps.  But I have included the map of where it is and marked the DNF.  I have also put a few signposts to show where the two roads go.

 

Saving a Sheep!

Have any of you saved any animals while out caching or had a great DNF?  Please let me know on the comments! 

1st Post since May!

First of all I want to apologise to all of the followers of my blog.  I haven't done much caching at all recently because I have been quite busy, always something that needs to be done!

So today I won't be talking about my recent adventures because there hasn't been any!  I am hopefully going tomorrow with a friend from work but the weather looks pretty grim and we might not end up going.

I have just had a look at the current standings of a trackable race I am in and I was surprised to see that one of mine is currently third.

Mario

 Peach

Okay Mario isn't doing very well and he was mine Peach (my girlfriends) is doing brilliantly.  Over 12 thousand miles covered and currently in third!

Trackable Race For The Heck Of It or TRFTHOI for short can be seen on this blog by clicking here.  There are almost 100 trackables in the race.

More posts coming soon I promise!

Dream Team and The Muppets

Hello everyone,

Got an email from Jacaru this morning saying he misses the updates on my Blog.  I have been meaning to post and promise I will start posting a lot more regularly.  Thanks to all of my regular readers and thanks for those who have posted comments and become followers.

Not so long ago I went to Fleet on a busniess trip with two work mates and obviously I had to get a cache to add some miles on my GAGB Coin for the fun competition, click HERE for more information on the competition.  I introduced them to Geocaching and they where both fascinated by the idea.  John took it that step further and is now a keen Geocacher!  He has bought a GPS and is now a registered member on Geocaching.com.

We went out on his first Geocaching adventure the other day with his son and dog and had a great time.  In fact we both decided to go because it was the Royal Wedding and we didn't fancy it and thought it would be quite.

So we decided to go onto Rivington, Lancashire, UK and do a few caches there.

Rivington Reservoir showing our finds for the Day.

There was two great series round there.  The Muppets which included four muppets and a clue in each to lead to the final.  And the second was the Dream team which included an 11 cache series of all time great players throughout the history of football.

So the Muppets included Fozzie, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Kermit.  The caches are great as they cache owner made the caches to look like the characters.  We managed to get three of them and will return for the fourth and the final some day.

The Dream Team was a brilliant idea and included players such as Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore, Pele and Diego Maradonna.  We managed to get 10 of the 11 and again will be returning to get the other some day.

Rivington Reservoir

The picture doesn't show the weather much but I can tell you it was a fantastic and sunny day.  We where out about 4 hours and picked up a record 16 caches and only had 1 DNF which was the 17th of the day.  The wedding was over and more and more people where about.  We came around the corner and realised we where right near the car park and Going Ape which is a fun thing involving zip lines and tree climbing.

It was great to get out and about and have set myself the task of going caching more because every time I go I enjoy it so much.

Toby having a good shake after swimming after a couple of Ducks.

Good job his lead was on!

I couldn't believe how popular this area was for Cachers.  Over 200 logs on most of the caches we did that day.  We actually met two lots of Cachers while out and about as well.   So hello to roamingbarbarians and also little pea who we stopped to talk to along a memorable journey.

Thanks for reading and I promise to update more often!

A cache worth a mention!

So I got all of my caching gear together and went off to the homeland near Hull to see the family in particular my mum for mothers day.  I had 3 days holiday to spend before the end of April and the end of April was looking a little hectic with holidays so I didn't chance it.  I planned on doing a little caching on the Monday while everyone else was at work.  Well I got up on the Monday morning and it was raining and blowing a gale!  So I said stuff it I am not going and stayed in and played computer games all day.

I set off on the journey back home, takes about an hour and a half and I was thinking while I was driving down the M62 that I haven't done any caching for a while and the failure the day before wasn't much of an effort!  I still have my 100 caches for 2011 goal and currently have 28 for the year.  This is a little behind schedule but I am hoping the weather gets me out more in the summer.  In fact it is a nice day today and I have a few planned on the Leeds to Liverpool Canal near Blackburn.

Anyway totally waffling on and going off track a bit.  So I was coming home on the M62 and decided, because there won't be many people about I could have a crack at a cache I DNF on a while back.  In fact when I first started caching I didn't get this on 10/10/10, obviously I had no idea about the worldwide event.  This cache got a favourite point from me because it was such a nice place to go.  GCNQ58 - Hapton Castle is a clough with water running down.  Not very deep and at parts is as wide as the clough that has 50 foot walls either side.  This means wellies are a must and it just adds to the fun of this one.

A view down the end

Near GZ.  Very Muddy

Its very quite down here and all you can hear are the birds and the flow of water.  I heard a Woodpecker on my way back but didn't manage to see it to take a picture.

When I got back to write the log I noticed there was a trackable in there that I had completely missed.  I also noticed it had been there for almost 3 months with nobody moving it.  So I emailed the owner who replied saying the have recently moved to Australia but would love it if I could move it on.  So my plan this afternoon is to go and grab it, hope there is nobody about (camera is always a good one so you can stand near the cache without suspicion!).  Then later on I can get it dropped off near Blackburn!

A Ford near the parking area

So thanks very much to Ian Z who placed this cache back in 2005, it was a awesome place to come and I will defiantly be back for a walk.  I have also thought about placing my first cache down here as well.  Who knows?  Will let you know when the time comes.

Just before I go I wanted to congratulate Jakaru on his 700th find!  Have a look at his blog HERE.  Give him a comment, it will make his day.  Also thanks to him for mentioning my blog as well, I am almost at 900 hits and have a few followers (you know who you are!).  Thanks for reading and I promise to make sure this blog is updated more often!

Happy Caching!

Our first event.

Sorry for not keeping my blog up to date and sharing my stories with you.  I know a lot of you have been blogging away and I thank you all for that, there have been some really good reads out there since the Christmas period.

We went to our first event cache towards the end of last month.  It was our first time meeting fellow Geocachers and we really didn't know how it was going to go.

We got there early, in fact we where the first to arrive.  I was unsure what we where going to do when we all met up.  It was in a pub so that should have been a big give away.  We didn't realise how many people where going to be there.  With well over 100 people, even most of the regulars that meet up said it was very surprising to see so many there.

We got talking to a few people, Starlitwolf and her husband dobpet, beauchief and lfc4eva who are both in the coin mileage competition (just for fun) that I do the graphs for.  And also a big mention for countrymatters, who organised such a great event.

I took a few trackable numbers down to discover which I found quite entertaining.  Starlitwolf and dobpet who also brought their son along had him running round the carpark getting trackable numbers from cars.  Great idea the stickers in cars to make them discoverable.

I think for my next event we will try and speak with a few more people and discover more of the trackables.

Really enjoyed it.  Look forward to the next one.  GCK978 - Banish the Winter Blues

The Ley Inn where the event took place.

Brilliant Day Out!

Me and Lorna where supposed to be flying to Eqypt in the morning but as you will probably know all of the unrest there has meant we have had to cancel.  We got the news on Saturday and it really did put me in a fool mood.  Planning on a few Geocaches on our cruise down the Nile which included a few Earthcaches and the Earthcache which is the Aswan Dam.  So on Sunday I decided I needed to get out.  See my last post for the lesson I learnt.  This time I went back to the same place but all my proper equipment with me this time!  I planned finishing the HGH series.

A view from GC2HR3N - HGH6 -Windmill View

 

I got a total of 11 caches and is my best for amount found in a day.  This was on Sunday and it is now Tuesday, I am aching like mad still and think I over did it a little but it was well worth it.  I also found my first ammo can!  I know that across the pond in US and Canada they have a lot of these so I was curious to see how big they where and how much they weighed!  GC1XE3B - Peter "Eye Candy" : Ian Lizzardman 4.4 which was not part of the HGH series but a good find along the route.  It's hard to believe how well you can actually hide one of these thing!  This also got a favourite point from me which is the first one I have given away.  I like to think they are a true favourite when I do use on of my points.