On Saturday Mr S attended our first event cache - WWFM IV Lap of Honour. Ms S wasn't able to attend due to being in hospital, but Mr S made sure there was a video of the event so she could see what she missed out on. The event was the Sydney part of the World Wide Flash Mob IV, and was one small component of the international WWFM IV organised by Sonny and Sandy from Podcacher.
It was a fun event to be part of, even though Mr S missed out on the FTF. If the next one involves running, there'll need to be some training as Mr S struggled a bit and there was a bit of huffing and puffing. It was worth it though to be part of this event, and we can now claim a find on our first event cache.
There is talk of the next WWFM in Sydney being held at the same time as the San Diego event, which would be anywhere between 3am and 5am Sydney time. We'd love to be part of it, but we'll have to see how much sleep our baby geocacher is letting us have.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Our baby geocacher's nearly here!
On Friday Ms S was admitted to hospital after her obstetrician was a bit concerned about how things were progressing with her pregnancy. The opinion of our obstetrician and renal specialist is that our baby will be here sometime this week. It's a bit of a scary thought, and although 32-33 weeks is a bit early the baby's doing well so everything should be OK.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Stumped no longer
We managed to remove another cache from our to-do list. Stumped... has had us, well, stumped, for a while now. We weren't able to find it when it was initially placed as a multi-cache, and Mr S had no luck trying to find it when it was converted to a traditional cache. Last weekend we went out on another mission, and made the find.
It turns out we (well, Mr S) were looking near the wrong stump. Once we saw that there was another likely hiding spot, it wasn't long before we had the cache in hand. This was our lesson in not being too focussed on the arrow on the GPSr, and stopping to look around to see if there are any other likely hiding spots nearby.
Our to-do list is shrinking, and hopefully we can cross a few more off soon.
It turns out we (well, Mr S) were looking near the wrong stump. Once we saw that there was another likely hiding spot, it wasn't long before we had the cache in hand. This was our lesson in not being too focussed on the arrow on the GPSr, and stopping to look around to see if there are any other likely hiding spots nearby.
Our to-do list is shrinking, and hopefully we can cross a few more off soon.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Event caches
We are still yet to attend an event cache. The first one we could have attended was C.C.C.C.C. #3 (All Rogues Day) last year, but it was on the same weekend that we moved house. Last month was the first meeting of Geocaching NSW Inc., but that fell on our wedding day. Finally, we think there's an event that we'll be able to attend - the WWFM IV event in Sydney.
After hearing Sonny and Sandy from Podcacher talk about the WWFM III event, we thought it would be fun to take part in a WWFM if there was one organised in Sydney. Ms S will be on the support crew and take some photos and video of the event, while Mr S will take part in the run. Sounds like a fun day, and we'll finally have the chance to put some faces to geocaching names.
After hearing Sonny and Sandy from Podcacher talk about the WWFM III event, we thought it would be fun to take part in a WWFM if there was one organised in Sydney. Ms S will be on the support crew and take some photos and video of the event, while Mr S will take part in the run. Sounds like a fun day, and we'll finally have the chance to put some faces to geocaching names.
Another milestone in our caching career
After a bit of a lull in our caching activity which was caused by the fact we had to organise our wedding, we finally made another find yesterday, and it was another milestone in our caching career.
Pearce Family Plot was the first cache that we found as husband and wife. It was also memorable for the fact that we discovered the battery in our car was flat when we got back to it after finding the cache. After waiting for the NRMA Road Service, we were on our way again.
With daylight saving starting in Sydney this Sunday, we may be able to hunt some caches after work.
Pearce Family Plot was the first cache that we found as husband and wife. It was also memorable for the fact that we discovered the battery in our car was flat when we got back to it after finding the cache. After waiting for the NRMA Road Service, we were on our way again.
With daylight saving starting in Sydney this Sunday, we may be able to hunt some caches after work.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Sad news about our first cache placement
The first cache that we placed, Sshhh! had a few DNFs recently, and those cachers that had found it had commented on the amount of litter that had been building up in the area. Mr S went for a look on Saturday, and confirmed that it had been muggled. We decided to archive it, as the area seemed to be becoming unsuitable as a cache hiding spot. We've got a cache container ready to go. All we need to do is find a suitable location for it.
Our second first to find
We recently managed to snare our second FTF. It was The Sacred Order of the Stonecutters, and there was a bit of confusion whether or not we were actually there first. We think we were lucky to try this one during school holidays when some of the regular FTF-hounds were out of town.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Back in Oz
With Mr S back in the country, we've managed to make a few more finds. During his week off after arriving home from the US, Mr S tried to find a couple of caches that have been bothering us for a while.
The first of these was No Trolls Here. We'd had two previous attempts at finding this one, so armed with some fresh ideas of where to look, courtesy of the logs of some of the successful finders, he hoped that our third search would prove lucky. We'd figured out that the cache was a magnetic key container, and that it was hidden near one corner of the bridge. Mr S spent some time walking slowly backwards and forwards across the bridge to try and figure out which corner was the correct one. The GPSr managed to keep pointing pretty much to one corner (with occasional variation), so the hunt began. There weren't many places to search, so it wasn't long until the cache was in hand. It felt good to finally cross that one off our list.
Inspired by his success with No Trolls Here, Mr S set off the following day to search for another of our nemesis caches, Stumped .... We'd had no luck with this one in its original location, so hoped that the new location would be easier. After searching GZ fro half an hour, though, Mr S came up empty. He thought that muggles might have discovered this one, as there was a newly-constructed BMX track next to GZ. It was a bit disappointing to log a DNF for this cache again. Turns out that the muggles hadn't been there, as the cache has been found after his unsuccessful attempt. I guess we'll have to go back!
The first of these was No Trolls Here. We'd had two previous attempts at finding this one, so armed with some fresh ideas of where to look, courtesy of the logs of some of the successful finders, he hoped that our third search would prove lucky. We'd figured out that the cache was a magnetic key container, and that it was hidden near one corner of the bridge. Mr S spent some time walking slowly backwards and forwards across the bridge to try and figure out which corner was the correct one. The GPSr managed to keep pointing pretty much to one corner (with occasional variation), so the hunt began. There weren't many places to search, so it wasn't long until the cache was in hand. It felt good to finally cross that one off our list.
Inspired by his success with No Trolls Here, Mr S set off the following day to search for another of our nemesis caches, Stumped .... We'd had no luck with this one in its original location, so hoped that the new location would be easier. After searching GZ fro half an hour, though, Mr S came up empty. He thought that muggles might have discovered this one, as there was a newly-constructed BMX track next to GZ. It was a bit disappointing to log a DNF for this cache again. Turns out that the muggles hadn't been there, as the cache has been found after his unsuccessful attempt. I guess we'll have to go back!
California cachin'
During late June and early July, Mr S travelled to the US to attend a conference in Anaheim. Of course there was no way he was going to let work get in the way of some geocaching. He had a few days in San Francisco before flying down to Anaheim, and was able to do some a couple of caches.
He managed to find our first virtual cache, WPArt: Lillie's Cache, as well as I met him in a swamp down in Dagobah.... Being a Star Wars fan, there was no way he was going to leave that one alone. He was able to set our Gingerbread Man geocoin free, and it didn't take for him to be moved on.
There were a couple of other caches on his list that he would have liked to have found, but the muggle factor was too high, and he doesn't like doing urban caches in Australia, let alone overseas. Ms S got into the caching spirit too, and dropped off a couple of travel bugs and coins that we'd held onto for quite a while.
It was nice to come home after adding a couple of overseas finds to our tally. If only he'd known about geocaching two years ago during his seven week holiday in the US!
He managed to find our first virtual cache, WPArt: Lillie's Cache, as well as I met him in a swamp down in Dagobah.... Being a Star Wars fan, there was no way he was going to leave that one alone. He was able to set our Gingerbread Man geocoin free, and it didn't take for him to be moved on.
There were a couple of other caches on his list that he would have liked to have found, but the muggle factor was too high, and he doesn't like doing urban caches in Australia, let alone overseas. Ms S got into the caching spirit too, and dropped off a couple of travel bugs and coins that we'd held onto for quite a while.
It was nice to come home after adding a couple of overseas finds to our tally. If only he'd known about geocaching two years ago during his seven week holiday in the US!
Baby geocacher on board
As mentioned in our previous post, we may need to reconsider our goal of reaching 250 finds by 20th May next year.
Just before we left for our trip to Port Macquarie, we found out that we're pregnant with our first child. This will probably mean no more long weekends away where we can devote ourselves to going geocaching. Now that we're over the initial shock, we're both very excited about becoming parents. Apparently prams and kids make good cover while caching, so we can't wait to take our child with us to distract the muggles.
The baby's due on 2nd January, so it will be a quiet Christmas and New Year in the Sensible household. So far everything's going well with our mini-cacher. It (we find out in a couple of weeks whether it's a boy or girl) will have a geocaching.com profile, so will be able to log the finds that it accompanies us on.
Just before we left for our trip to Port Macquarie, we found out that we're pregnant with our first child. This will probably mean no more long weekends away where we can devote ourselves to going geocaching. Now that we're over the initial shock, we're both very excited about becoming parents. Apparently prams and kids make good cover while caching, so we can't wait to take our child with us to distract the muggles.
The baby's due on 2nd January, so it will be a quiet Christmas and New Year in the Sensible household. So far everything's going well with our mini-cacher. It (we find out in a couple of weeks whether it's a boy or girl) will have a geocaching.com profile, so will be able to log the finds that it accompanies us on.
Another caching milestone
Since our last post, we've reached another caching milestone. While on a trip to Port Macquarie in May, we made our 100th find. It ended up being Light-A-Tack (GCR6QN) on 5th May. We'd set ourselves the goal of getting to 100 finds before our one year cache-a-versary (May 20th), so we were happy to be able to do that. We've bought a 100 finds geocoin and will drop it in a cache once we get it engraved with "Sensible Shoes".
We managed to find nine caches on our trip (along with one DNF which was the first of many for that cache so the owner has disabled it). There were some nice spots along the way that our caching led us to. The caches that we found were:
Our goal now is to reach 250 finds by our second cache-a-versary. However, this might not be as easy as we first thought ...
We managed to find nine caches on our trip (along with one DNF which was the first of many for that cache so the owner has disabled it). There were some nice spots along the way that our caching led us to. The caches that we found were:
Our goal now is to reach 250 finds by our second cache-a-versary. However, this might not be as easy as we first thought ...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Yes, we're still here!
It's been a while since our last post, mainly because we've been too busy planning our wedding to go caching, and it's been too wet over the past few weeks. However we fixed that situation last weekend with a trip to Shoal Bay, in the Port Stephens region of New South Wales. We had our bookmark list of 21 caches ready to go. Ms S also figured out how to use GSAK to download the caches as an OV2 file, which she then imported into her HP PDA which includes TomTom GPS software. This saves us from entering them all manually.
The weather on Saturday was perfect for caching - sunny, but not too hot. We didn't find as many caches as we would have liked - we ended up finding ten. They were:
Taylors Beach
Pied Piper
Sailing @ The Bay
Ducks and Quackers
Corlette Head
Millionaires Row
Sitting by the Bay
Bagnals Boardwalk
Dutchies Dolphin Walk
Gardens and Views
We're off to Port Macquarie this weekend with another bookmark list ready to go. Hopefully we'll be able to find eight caches and reach our 100 finds milestone!
The weather on Saturday was perfect for caching - sunny, but not too hot. We didn't find as many caches as we would have liked - we ended up finding ten. They were:
Taylors Beach
Pied Piper
Sailing @ The Bay
Ducks and Quackers
Corlette Head
Millionaires Row
Sitting by the Bay
Bagnals Boardwalk
Dutchies Dolphin Walk
Gardens and Views
We're off to Port Macquarie this weekend with another bookmark list ready to go. Hopefully we'll be able to find eight caches and reach our 100 finds milestone!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
A significant day
Last Sunday (2nd March) was a significant day for us for two reasons.
Firstly, we claimed our first ever first to find. The cache was Ted's Sports Box (GC19R86). Mr S was checking our email, and found that there were several new caches available. Ted's Sports Box was so close to home we could have almost walked there. However, we wanted to get there ASAP to try and snare that elusive FTF! So even though Ms S hadn't yet finished her morning beauty routine, we jumped in the car and headed off. We managed to get past the cricket-playing muggles and a couple of walkers to find the cache. When we opened it we were very pleased to see a blank logbook. After signing the log and taking photos, the other significant event occurred.
Mr S dropped to one knee and asked Ms S if she would like to become Mrs S (but in slightly more romantic terms than that). Luckily she said yes, because we'd bought the engagement ring the day before. She knew a proposal was coming, but not when or where. I guess we can be added to the list of geocaching wedding proposals.
We went shopping today for an engagement watch for Mr S, and came home with a nice Tissot piece. Very posh!
Firstly, we claimed our first ever first to find. The cache was Ted's Sports Box (GC19R86). Mr S was checking our email, and found that there were several new caches available. Ted's Sports Box was so close to home we could have almost walked there. However, we wanted to get there ASAP to try and snare that elusive FTF! So even though Ms S hadn't yet finished her morning beauty routine, we jumped in the car and headed off. We managed to get past the cricket-playing muggles and a couple of walkers to find the cache. When we opened it we were very pleased to see a blank logbook. After signing the log and taking photos, the other significant event occurred.
Mr S dropped to one knee and asked Ms S if she would like to become Mrs S (but in slightly more romantic terms than that). Luckily she said yes, because we'd bought the engagement ring the day before. She knew a proposal was coming, but not when or where. I guess we can be added to the list of geocaching wedding proposals.
We went shopping today for an engagement watch for Mr S, and came home with a nice Tissot piece. Very posh!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
podcacher.com bulk download
We've been listening to Sonny and Sandy over the past couple months. When Mr S first found the Podcacher and Geotalk podcasts - I couldn't believe it when he said they went for 30-60 minutes. What on earth could they talk about?? But now I'm hooked, and have started listening to Podcacher's archive from their first show in 2005. I've been spending 2-3 hours a day in the car to/from work lately, so they've been great to help pass the time.
I have been manually downloading each show from the blog, getting a few at a time .... but almost always end up with half a trip with no shows left to listen to, and nothing else at hand either. I just discovered a big bonus - how to bulk download all the all old shows - see here. We've now got all of 2005 and 2006, and I'll save 2007 for our off-peak download times. When they're done, I'll catch up with Geotalk too.
I have been manually downloading each show from the blog, getting a few at a time .... but almost always end up with half a trip with no shows left to listen to, and nothing else at hand either. I just discovered a big bonus - how to bulk download all the all old shows - see here. We've now got all of 2005 and 2006, and I'll save 2007 for our off-peak download times. When they're done, I'll catch up with Geotalk too.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Hungry
Tacos for dinner, hard and soft, plenty of meat and salad. Still not satisfied. "Do you wanna...?" There was that look in his eye. He knew we shouldn't do it. So many other things we should be doing .... but I could tell at once what he had in mind. And I wanted it tooo....
Yep - a quick dash out for a cache - Ted's Toybox.
Ahhhhhh, that's better. Time for bed.
Yep - a quick dash out for a cache - Ted's Toybox.
Ahhhhhh, that's better. Time for bed.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Our Brisbane caching experience
Earlier this month we flew to Brisbane for a conference, and of course we managed to fit in some caching while we were there. It didn't take us long, with Queen's Place being found within a couple of hours of arriving.
The next two days were taken up with the conference, but then we got to our free day on Sunday. We had a list of 12 caches on our bookmark list, and the rain wasn't going to stop us trying to find them all. We managed to visit 11 of them, and log eight finds. Most of them made Mr S a bit uncomfortable, being urban caches, but it was a productive visit.
Our two favourite caches were On the Horns of a Dilemna and Lover's Expo. Trying to put The Ringleader back in place posed a challenge for Mr S, and he was starting to panic that it wouldn't go back.
We've put the photos on our Flickr page, so you can see what we got up to.
The next two days were taken up with the conference, but then we got to our free day on Sunday. We had a list of 12 caches on our bookmark list, and the rain wasn't going to stop us trying to find them all. We managed to visit 11 of them, and log eight finds. Most of them made Mr S a bit uncomfortable, being urban caches, but it was a productive visit.
Our two favourite caches were On the Horns of a Dilemna and Lover's Expo. Trying to put The Ringleader back in place posed a challenge for Mr S, and he was starting to panic that it wouldn't go back.
We've put the photos on our Flickr page, so you can see what we got up to.
Friday, February 8, 2008
What a day!
We prepared for our geocache-a-thon by compiling a list of 14 caches to find on the day. They were:
Our second stop was the multi-cache Pemulwuy. We well and truly blew our time limit on this one, taking about 90 minutes. We were making progress for all of this time and didn't feel like we were wasting our time. The first waypoint was hidden very cleverly and we had to try approaching it from a couple of different angles before we got it. Once we found GZ we spent a lot of time on the wrong side of the rock, but it was a quick find once we changed sides. After this success we rewarded ourselves with breakfast.
The next cache we visited, Dead Wood, had one of the craftiest containers we've come across yet. With a muggle in a nearby backyard cleaning his pool, Mr S was a little reluctant to keep searching. Once the muggle went inside, Mr S was happy to continue searching and was finally successful.
It was hidden in a false branch at the base of the tree stump - very clever!
Cache number four was Plugs Leads & Thingymejigs. We didn't log this one, as we used up our 30 minutes trying to find the best way to walk in to the cache. Our TomTom in-car GPS put us close, but in a spot with no walking track. We drove to a spot on the other side of the creek, but again, no trackto be found. Seeing as though we didn't get to GZ we felt justified in not calling it a DNF.
Road Less Trodden was fairly straightforward, with a nice walk in and a quick scramble up the hill to the hiding spot. Previous finders had mentioned the amount of damage that was being done to the vegetation surrounding the cache location, but it didn't look too bad to us.
We were all set to do AO#2 - Ubatuba before lunch, but the track leading to the cache has been closed for 12 weeks while maintenance is being done.
The next cache we visited was Point in the Park, which was pretty easy. The nearby plaques of historic sites gave us an idea for a series of caches we could place.
Hidden Oasis tested our balance skills. Mr S was a bit unsure about this one due to the fence that had to be walked around. The green slimy patch on the weir had Ms S worried, but she conquered her fears and was brave enough to replace the cache.
Ms S did a quick grab of Newline, then we moved on to Wirrabara Waste. This was a special cache for us, as it was the first cache that our travel bug Danny & Delinda visited after we set them free.
We came across another brilliant hide at Thirteen Sixteenth's. Ms S did a good job grabbing this one. The cache was hidden behind one of the round red reflectors that was attached to one of the logs.
Sally's Way and The Park were found in quick time, then it was on to our last cache for the day.
Granny's Scramble was another example of the TomTom putting us close, but in a spot where we couldn't get to the cache. We consulted the old-fashioned street directory, and where ab;e to find a more appropriate place to park. Like most of the previous finders, we missed the easy track in and spent a lot of time trying to find a track that took us in the right direction. Ms S had to overcome her fear of green slippery rocks twice, but got through in the end. We saw two dragonflies near the cache, so we named them Danny and Delinda, after our travel bug. The walk back to the car was much easier, as we found the easy track back. We could see how easy it was to not find it on the way in (unless you were a local with a knowledge of the park).
So that was our first cache-a-thon. We broke our previous record of five finds in one day by finding 11 today. We're on our way to our goal of making 200 finds by the end of the year.
Now that we've found a few caches in the local area, we might need to look further afield for our next cache-a-thon. There are more photos from today and our other geocaching adventures on our Flickr page.
- El Guarda (GCVQZ4)
- Pemulwuy (GCVA58)
- Dead Wood (GC16MDX)
- Plugs Leads & Thingymejigs (GC148PM)
- Road Less Trodden (GC12AR1)
- AO#2 - Ubatuba (GCMMN6)
- Point in the Park (GCTPE7)
- Hidden Oasis (GCTPE2)
- Newline (GC18DA6)
- Wirrabara Waste (GC10XA0)
- Thirteen Sixteenth's (GCWC87)
- Sally's Way (GCMNQX)
- The Park (GCN3X3)
- Granny's Scramble (GCM9XM)
Our second stop was the multi-cache Pemulwuy. We well and truly blew our time limit on this one, taking about 90 minutes. We were making progress for all of this time and didn't feel like we were wasting our time. The first waypoint was hidden very cleverly and we had to try approaching it from a couple of different angles before we got it. Once we found GZ we spent a lot of time on the wrong side of the rock, but it was a quick find once we changed sides. After this success we rewarded ourselves with breakfast.
The next cache we visited, Dead Wood, had one of the craftiest containers we've come across yet. With a muggle in a nearby backyard cleaning his pool, Mr S was a little reluctant to keep searching. Once the muggle went inside, Mr S was happy to continue searching and was finally successful.
It was hidden in a false branch at the base of the tree stump - very clever!
Cache number four was Plugs Leads & Thingymejigs. We didn't log this one, as we used up our 30 minutes trying to find the best way to walk in to the cache. Our TomTom in-car GPS put us close, but in a spot with no walking track. We drove to a spot on the other side of the creek, but again, no trackto be found. Seeing as though we didn't get to GZ we felt justified in not calling it a DNF.
Road Less Trodden was fairly straightforward, with a nice walk in and a quick scramble up the hill to the hiding spot. Previous finders had mentioned the amount of damage that was being done to the vegetation surrounding the cache location, but it didn't look too bad to us.
We were all set to do AO#2 - Ubatuba before lunch, but the track leading to the cache has been closed for 12 weeks while maintenance is being done.
The next cache we visited was Point in the Park, which was pretty easy. The nearby plaques of historic sites gave us an idea for a series of caches we could place.
Hidden Oasis tested our balance skills. Mr S was a bit unsure about this one due to the fence that had to be walked around. The green slimy patch on the weir had Ms S worried, but she conquered her fears and was brave enough to replace the cache.
Ms S did a quick grab of Newline, then we moved on to Wirrabara Waste. This was a special cache for us, as it was the first cache that our travel bug Danny & Delinda visited after we set them free.
We came across another brilliant hide at Thirteen Sixteenth's. Ms S did a good job grabbing this one. The cache was hidden behind one of the round red reflectors that was attached to one of the logs.
Sally's Way and The Park were found in quick time, then it was on to our last cache for the day.
Granny's Scramble was another example of the TomTom putting us close, but in a spot where we couldn't get to the cache. We consulted the old-fashioned street directory, and where ab;e to find a more appropriate place to park. Like most of the previous finders, we missed the easy track in and spent a lot of time trying to find a track that took us in the right direction. Ms S had to overcome her fear of green slippery rocks twice, but got through in the end. We saw two dragonflies near the cache, so we named them Danny and Delinda, after our travel bug. The walk back to the car was much easier, as we found the easy track back. We could see how easy it was to not find it on the way in (unless you were a local with a knowledge of the park).
So that was our first cache-a-thon. We broke our previous record of five finds in one day by finding 11 today. We're on our way to our goal of making 200 finds by the end of the year.
Now that we've found a few caches in the local area, we might need to look further afield for our next cache-a-thon. There are more photos from today and our other geocaching adventures on our Flickr page.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Our cache-a-thon!
Today we did our first "cache-a-thon". We prepared a list of 14 caches that we wanted to find, and set out before 7am to start the hunt. A quick summary of how things went (who said geocaching isn't about the numbers?):
- Number of caches found - 11
- Number of travel bugs/geocoins moved - 6
- Number of dorks who got sunburnt - 2
- Number of spider webs avoided - 72
- Number of spider webs not avoided - 3
- Number of green slimy patches safely negotiated - 2
- Number of sausage sandwiches consumed - 2
- Number of times Ms S told Mr S to"Be Careful!!!" - 27
- Number of things we'd rather have done today - 0
Saturday, January 12, 2008
geocaching 2.0
Geotales - believe it or not
I love this - what a fab idea for a puzzle cache!!
See the youtube video
See the cache page (premium members only)
Gabrielle the Gadget Queen REALLY speaks to me
... so does Marta Skewer and Sharulia
I love this - what a fab idea for a puzzle cache!!
See the youtube video
See the cache page (premium members only)
Gabrielle the Gadget Queen REALLY speaks to me
... so does Marta Skewer and Sharulia
Handheld GPS devices - CHOICE article
When we went shopping for a GPSr last year, I went to CHOICE looking for info to inform a confident shopping trip ... but at that stage could only find tests on car GPS units. However, the current issue of CHOICE (Dec 07/Jan 08 ) has just published an article roadtesting 1o units between AUD299-729 - "Where the hell am I? A handheld GPS uses satellites to guide you through the bush - but don't rely on them alone!" (pp.52-55, Dec 07/Jan 08). Geocaching was not mentioned at all.
The one we bought (Garmin 60) was not in the test - it does not have the map facility ... just vague knowledge of suburbs, but not street level detail. All the models tested came with a basic world map, and included LOWRANCE, GARMIN , and MAGELLAN units. The overall score was made up of "ease of use" (50%), "battery life" (15%), "accuracy" (15%), "acquisition" (10%), and "waterproofing: (10%). Funny that accuracy only attracted 15% ... I guess it's the geocachers more so than the hikers that are more interested in that!!
Garmin eTrex Vista Cx score best overall (83%, $599), closely followed by Garmin eTrex Legend Cx (81%, $499) and Magellan eXplorist 500LE (78%, $650).
The test article is here (subscribers only get the full article, but you can pay per view). Otherwise, trot down to your local library and read the full article for free.
The one we bought (Garmin 60) was not in the test - it does not have the map facility ... just vague knowledge of suburbs, but not street level detail. All the models tested came with a basic world map, and included LOWRANCE, GARMIN , and MAGELLAN units. The overall score was made up of "ease of use" (50%), "battery life" (15%), "accuracy" (15%), "acquisition" (10%), and "waterproofing: (10%). Funny that accuracy only attracted 15% ... I guess it's the geocachers more so than the hikers that are more interested in that!!
Garmin eTrex Vista Cx score best overall (83%, $599), closely followed by Garmin eTrex Legend Cx (81%, $499) and Magellan eXplorist 500LE (78%, $650).
The test article is here (subscribers only get the full article, but you can pay per view). Otherwise, trot down to your local library and read the full article for free.
Friday, January 11, 2008
A 50/50 day
Well, our most recent geocaching trip last weekend wasn't as successful as we hoped it would be. As the title of this post suggests, we found half of the caches that we were looking for. It was a trip to some of our local caches which we hadn't yet visited. We managed to cross Bella Vista (GC101TP) off our to-do list (Serenity Now (GC170DZ) has also been taken care of, having been found the day before), as well as find Run Rabbit Run (GCHK41) (which wasn't actually on our list). Our unsuccessful attempts were on the multi-caches Daniel's Decoy Duck (GC16ZKE) and Stumped...(GC130KD), both hidden by sspack.
The day started off well with a quick find at Run Rabbit Run, thanks to Ms S spotting a likely hiding place which turned out to be spot on. 11am on a sunny Sydney summer day was not prime rabbit-spotting time.
Our next stop was Daniel's Decoy Duck. We had read the clue for this one, so we found a likely spot where the first waypoint would be and started searching. Now, Mr S isn't too fond of urban caches which require loitering and poking around in places that make you look a bit suspicious. He hasn't yet mastered the sneaky search. The location we were looking in didn't have many muggles around, but it was an area that was overlooked by offices and restaurants. Needless to say, Mr S was not comfortable. Our ploy of buying coffees so we at least had an excuse to be hanging around failed when the cafe we went to didn't do take-away coffee. We weren't really in the right frame of mind to be tackling this one, so we moved on.
The next cache we went to was Bella Vista, and it felt good to finally cross this one of our to-do list. The location of this micro had been changed, and we had looked in the original location twice (once after it had moved and we hadn't read the updated logs) with no success. It took us longer to find that it probably should have. Despite the clue changing to reflect its new location, we were perhaps subconsciously influenced by the original location, and assumed that it would be hidden in a similar way. But just as we were about to give up, Mr S did what the clue said and found it. The GPSr was also a bit all over the place, despite the tree cover at GZ being minimal and also being on the top of a hill.
Our final stop for the day was the multi-cache Stumped..., and we certainly were. Mr S was a bit put off by the council worker who was spraying weeds nearby, so waited for him to go before joining the search. Despite having a clue, which we weren't sure was for the first waypoint or the cache itself, and finding an area which matched the clue we weren't able to come up with the goods. Our search was also shortened by the fact that Mr S was getting hungry and wasn't too keen to do any more searching once a muggle family set up their picnic right near where we were looking. Another one to keep on our to-do list.
We're hoping to go for a walk tomorrow morning and cross High Adventure and Lip Lapper off the to-do list.
The day started off well with a quick find at Run Rabbit Run, thanks to Ms S spotting a likely hiding place which turned out to be spot on. 11am on a sunny Sydney summer day was not prime rabbit-spotting time.
Our next stop was Daniel's Decoy Duck. We had read the clue for this one, so we found a likely spot where the first waypoint would be and started searching. Now, Mr S isn't too fond of urban caches which require loitering and poking around in places that make you look a bit suspicious. He hasn't yet mastered the sneaky search. The location we were looking in didn't have many muggles around, but it was an area that was overlooked by offices and restaurants. Needless to say, Mr S was not comfortable. Our ploy of buying coffees so we at least had an excuse to be hanging around failed when the cafe we went to didn't do take-away coffee. We weren't really in the right frame of mind to be tackling this one, so we moved on.
The next cache we went to was Bella Vista, and it felt good to finally cross this one of our to-do list. The location of this micro had been changed, and we had looked in the original location twice (once after it had moved and we hadn't read the updated logs) with no success. It took us longer to find that it probably should have. Despite the clue changing to reflect its new location, we were perhaps subconsciously influenced by the original location, and assumed that it would be hidden in a similar way. But just as we were about to give up, Mr S did what the clue said and found it. The GPSr was also a bit all over the place, despite the tree cover at GZ being minimal and also being on the top of a hill.
Our final stop for the day was the multi-cache Stumped..., and we certainly were. Mr S was a bit put off by the council worker who was spraying weeds nearby, so waited for him to go before joining the search. Despite having a clue, which we weren't sure was for the first waypoint or the cache itself, and finding an area which matched the clue we weren't able to come up with the goods. Our search was also shortened by the fact that Mr S was getting hungry and wasn't too keen to do any more searching once a muggle family set up their picnic right near where we were looking. Another one to keep on our to-do list.
We're hoping to go for a walk tomorrow morning and cross High Adventure and Lip Lapper off the to-do list.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
A good start to 2008
After hosting a successfu New Year's Eve barbeque, we didn't waste any time in starting geocaching in 2008. This afternoon we set off to find Excelsior (GC186C4), a newly published mystery cache located close to home. It hadn't been found, despite being published a couple of days ago. We set off with much excitement at the prospect of our first find in 2008 being a First To Find (FTF).
The start of the walking track leading to the cache was quickly found, and we set off for a very pleasant walk through Bidjigal Reserve. At GZ, we had an option of two places to look. We started with the easier of the two, but didn't have any luck. After having a look at the second possible location for the cache, Ms S declared that it wasn't safe, and that Mr S should "step away from the edge". Despite this, Mr S stood his ground (literally), and after he pointed out a safe route to the likely hiding spot, Ms S relented and the search proceeded. It was a short search, and the ammo can was quickly found. This isn't the first time that a cache has been found after Ms S changed her mind about the danger that Mr S was in and allowed him to keep searching. It's nice to know that she cares.
Upon opening the logbook, our suspicions were confirmed. On our way to the cache, we had passed a couple who were coming the other way. We discussed amongst ourselves whether they were fellow geocachers, or just bushwalkers out enjoying the warm Sydney weather. It turns out that they were The Wandering Wilkos, and they beat us to the FTF by about 20 minutes. We signed the log, and took the Water travel bug (which The Wandering Wilkos had collected from one of the caches that we own - Sshhhh! (GC16VHK)). What a small world!
As we were walking back to the car, we passed a young lady who was carrying a GPSr. We'll keep checking the logs to see who she was. It looks like Excelsior will have a few visits today.
We'd brought the details of another cache with us just in case we couldn't find Excelsior, so we headed off to Quarry Creek #4 (GC12P5Y). After initially looking on the wrong side of the creek, we found it fairly quickly once we crossed over. When we checked the log, it turned out that the last people to find it were - The Wandering Wilkos!
We'd now found three out of the four caches placed along Quarry Creek by sspack. The one that we were missing was No Trolls Here (GC12NE7), which we'd looked for in July but couldn't find it. Back then we didn't have our GPSr and were using a PDA with built-in GPS. We thought that we would have a better chance of finding the cache with a GPSr. A short drive brought us to GZ and we started looking. The GPSr was pointing us to the same spot that we were looking in before, but we didn't have any luck, despite there being fewer muggles than the last time we looked. Now that we've read the logs again (the most recent of which was by The Wandering Wilkos), we think we might have an idea of where it is, so we'll be trying again soon.
The Water TB that we collected from Excelsior needs to be moved on within 48 hours, so we'll be looking for more caches in the next couple of days. We'll probably try and find the other three element TBs, and then find The Fifth Element.
Because of the time difference between Sydney and Seattle, we haven't been able to log any of these finds yet. The list of years on the "Log your visit" page doesn't include 2008 yet!
The start of the walking track leading to the cache was quickly found, and we set off for a very pleasant walk through Bidjigal Reserve. At GZ, we had an option of two places to look. We started with the easier of the two, but didn't have any luck. After having a look at the second possible location for the cache, Ms S declared that it wasn't safe, and that Mr S should "step away from the edge". Despite this, Mr S stood his ground (literally), and after he pointed out a safe route to the likely hiding spot, Ms S relented and the search proceeded. It was a short search, and the ammo can was quickly found. This isn't the first time that a cache has been found after Ms S changed her mind about the danger that Mr S was in and allowed him to keep searching. It's nice to know that she cares.
Upon opening the logbook, our suspicions were confirmed. On our way to the cache, we had passed a couple who were coming the other way. We discussed amongst ourselves whether they were fellow geocachers, or just bushwalkers out enjoying the warm Sydney weather. It turns out that they were The Wandering Wilkos, and they beat us to the FTF by about 20 minutes. We signed the log, and took the Water travel bug (which The Wandering Wilkos had collected from one of the caches that we own - Sshhhh! (GC16VHK)). What a small world!
As we were walking back to the car, we passed a young lady who was carrying a GPSr. We'll keep checking the logs to see who she was. It looks like Excelsior will have a few visits today.
We'd brought the details of another cache with us just in case we couldn't find Excelsior, so we headed off to Quarry Creek #4 (GC12P5Y). After initially looking on the wrong side of the creek, we found it fairly quickly once we crossed over. When we checked the log, it turned out that the last people to find it were - The Wandering Wilkos!
We'd now found three out of the four caches placed along Quarry Creek by sspack. The one that we were missing was No Trolls Here (GC12NE7), which we'd looked for in July but couldn't find it. Back then we didn't have our GPSr and were using a PDA with built-in GPS. We thought that we would have a better chance of finding the cache with a GPSr. A short drive brought us to GZ and we started looking. The GPSr was pointing us to the same spot that we were looking in before, but we didn't have any luck, despite there being fewer muggles than the last time we looked. Now that we've read the logs again (the most recent of which was by The Wandering Wilkos), we think we might have an idea of where it is, so we'll be trying again soon.
The Water TB that we collected from Excelsior needs to be moved on within 48 hours, so we'll be looking for more caches in the next couple of days. We'll probably try and find the other three element TBs, and then find The Fifth Element.
Because of the time difference between Sydney and Seattle, we haven't been able to log any of these finds yet. The list of years on the "Log your visit" page doesn't include 2008 yet!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
