We recently had a very nice holiday on the northern coast of New South Wales at Coffs Harbour. The weather was perfect, and Shoes Junior had a great time in the pool and at the beach. He loved going down the waterslides.
During our time away we managed to find two more caches (Rotary Lookout above Bellinger River and Rest at Repton). We had a bookmark list of about 35 caches that were in Coffs Harbour or on our way, but we'll have to save them for next time.
The milestone that occurred was that Shoes Junior found his 50th cache (Rest at Repton). Not bad for a 16 month old. He still doesn't really understand what this whole geocaching caper is all about, but it will be more fun once he does.
We're hoping to be able to go on a cache-a-thon on Easter Monday. Our current most finds in a day is 11, and that was before Shoes Junior came along. It would be nice to beat this, but it will be tricky.
Showing posts with label geocaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geocaching. Show all posts
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
We're still around!
It's been quite a while since our last post, but we've been pretty busy and haven't had any spare time to update the blog. We'll try and summarise the last seven months in this post.
We mentioned in our last post that we were off to the South Coast for a holiday, and we had a lovely time down there. Of course we did some caching, which included our first EarthCache. Our find count increased by ten, and these were the ones we found:
For our wedding anniversary, we returned to the city and went on a little cache-a-thon. We managed to find five out of five for the day. They were:
Another nemesis has been crossed off our list. El Guarda has been found! Mr S took his sister (a recent convert to geocaching) for a bit of local caching. El Guarda was the first stop for the morning. While we were there a fellow cacher by the name of jkcourtz joined the hunt, and made the find. It feels good to have taken another cache off our to-do list.
Meanwhile, Shoes Junior has accompanied us on our caching trips, and is closing in on 50 finds. His pram has served us well by providing cover while we search. We'll hopefully be at a local event in a couple of weeks, so more people can discover his Travel Bug.
We've now got one less active cache, as we had to archive Weekend at McBurney's. It was attached to a slippery-dip in a park near our house. The local council deemed the slippery-dip unsafe, and had it blocked off for several months, so we removed the cache and disabled it. Eventually the slippery-dip was replaced, but it was plastic and didn't have any metal supports, so our magnetic nano was useless. We're on the hunt for another spot to place it.
In March we're heading north to Coffs Harbour for a family holiday. There's a pretty good chance that some caching will be done as part of the trip. Hopefully we'll update the blog before then.
We mentioned in our last post that we were off to the South Coast for a holiday, and we had a lovely time down there. Of course we did some caching, which included our first EarthCache. Our find count increased by ten, and these were the ones we found:
- Saddleback
- No flies on me
- Kiama Little Blowhole
- Quality
- Life's A Beach
- My 505
- Radium
- VH-USU
- Flip It
- Don't Fence Me In!
For our wedding anniversary, we returned to the city and went on a little cache-a-thon. We managed to find five out of five for the day. They were:
Another nemesis has been crossed off our list. El Guarda has been found! Mr S took his sister (a recent convert to geocaching) for a bit of local caching. El Guarda was the first stop for the morning. While we were there a fellow cacher by the name of jkcourtz joined the hunt, and made the find. It feels good to have taken another cache off our to-do list.
Meanwhile, Shoes Junior has accompanied us on our caching trips, and is closing in on 50 finds. His pram has served us well by providing cover while we search. We'll hopefully be at a local event in a couple of weeks, so more people can discover his Travel Bug.
We've now got one less active cache, as we had to archive Weekend at McBurney's. It was attached to a slippery-dip in a park near our house. The local council deemed the slippery-dip unsafe, and had it blocked off for several months, so we removed the cache and disabled it. Eventually the slippery-dip was replaced, but it was plastic and didn't have any metal supports, so our magnetic nano was useless. We're on the hunt for another spot to place it.
In March we're heading north to Coffs Harbour for a family holiday. There's a pretty good chance that some caching will be done as part of the trip. Hopefully we'll update the blog before then.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Mother's Day caching
After having a nice breakfast at a local cafe, we headed off to do some Mother's Day caching. We picked four local caches, two of which were in a park which we didn't know much about. With the weather looking a bit threatening, we wanted to be able to get back to the car in a hurry if we needed to, and these caches all had parking close by.
It was a successful trip, with a 100% success rate. Shoes Junior enjoyed the whole trip, but was really happy at Tennis Anyone?. We're lucky that he enjoys being outside in the fresh air.
After getting on a bit of a caching roll recently, we're hoping that we'll get to 200 finds by the end of the year. We've got a four-day trip to the South Coast next month, so hopefully we can grab a few caches while we're away. There's also a chance that we'll be going to New Zealand in October, so we might have the chance to add to our international caches.
It was a successful trip, with a 100% success rate. Shoes Junior enjoyed the whole trip, but was really happy at Tennis Anyone?. We're lucky that he enjoys being outside in the fresh air.
After getting on a bit of a caching roll recently, we're hoping that we'll get to 200 finds by the end of the year. We've got a four-day trip to the South Coast next month, so hopefully we can grab a few caches while we're away. There's also a chance that we'll be going to New Zealand in October, so we might have the chance to add to our international caches.
WWFM V
Recently we attended the Sydney World Wide Flash Mob V (WWFM V). Ms S wasn't able to attend the fourth WWFM last year, so was quite excited to be able to attend the fifth. We got to Luna Park in plenty of time, and fed Shoes Junior while we were waiting for 10am to arrive. When we saw the blankets being spread out, we headed over and joined in. The event probably didn't have the impact it could have, because Luna Park didn't open till 11am. It was good to see quite a few cachers there being part of this world-wide phenomenon.
There are plans for another WWFM later in the year, and we'll try and be there.
There are plans for another WWFM later in the year, and we'll try and be there.
Our Easter caching trip
We spent a couple of days in Canberra over Easter, and managed to fit in some caching around visiting friends. There are a series of caches at some of the rest areas along the road between Sydney and Canberra. We did some of them during our last trip, and managed to find a few more this trip. There are still a couple to do during our next trip south.
One cache we were happy to find was On Target. As we said in our log, third time lucky with this one.
The main aim of the trip was to find some of the puzzle caches that Mr S had spent several weeks solving. We've only found a couple of puzzle caches, and we figured that this was a good opportunity to increase our tally. There were 27 in total that Mr S had solved, but we knew we wouldn't get to all of them. We managed to find two of them - Canberra Karst and Budgie's Science Homework. There were a couple of others that we had a quick look for but couldn't find. Mr S needs to check his solutions to those. Plenty more to keep us bust next time we're in Canberra.
We finished the trip with a total of nine finds, most of which were on the way down and home. We're lucky that Shoes Junior enjoys travelling in the car and we can combine geocaching with travel. It gives us an excuse to break up the drive and grab some caches on the way.
One cache we were happy to find was On Target. As we said in our log, third time lucky with this one.
The main aim of the trip was to find some of the puzzle caches that Mr S had spent several weeks solving. We've only found a couple of puzzle caches, and we figured that this was a good opportunity to increase our tally. There were 27 in total that Mr S had solved, but we knew we wouldn't get to all of them. We managed to find two of them - Canberra Karst and Budgie's Science Homework. There were a couple of others that we had a quick look for but couldn't find. Mr S needs to check his solutions to those. Plenty more to keep us bust next time we're in Canberra.
We finished the trip with a total of nine finds, most of which were on the way down and home. We're lucky that Shoes Junior enjoys travelling in the car and we can combine geocaching with travel. It gives us an excuse to break up the drive and grab some caches on the way.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Another one off the to-do list
On Sunday, Mr S took his sister out for her first geocaching experience. The trip didn't get off to a good start, with DNFs on the first two caches we looked for - Shape Confusion and Mr. Cache. Both of them had quite a few places to look in, and we were on a time limit. We'll try for them again.
Luckily we were able to find the third cache on our list - High Adventure. This was a DNF from last year that Ms S was adamant that Mr S wasn't to go back and look for alone. So when there was interest from Sensible Sis in going caching, this cache immediately went on the list. It was a bit of a scramble up the steep slope, and there was a bit of luck involved in the find. Mr S happened to look under a rock and spotted the container. High Adventure has the highest terrain rating of the caches that we've found so far at 3.5.
We're going to Canberra at Easter, and Mr S has been busy solving some of the puzzle caches down there. At last count he's solved 27 of them, but we don't think we'll get to all of them (not with Shoes Junior with us anyway). So far we've found two mystery caches, and we think we'll be able to add to this tally after our Canberra trip.
Luckily we were able to find the third cache on our list - High Adventure. This was a DNF from last year that Ms S was adamant that Mr S wasn't to go back and look for alone. So when there was interest from Sensible Sis in going caching, this cache immediately went on the list. It was a bit of a scramble up the steep slope, and there was a bit of luck involved in the find. Mr S happened to look under a rock and spotted the container. High Adventure has the highest terrain rating of the caches that we've found so far at 3.5.
We're going to Canberra at Easter, and Mr S has been busy solving some of the puzzle caches down there. At last count he's solved 27 of them, but we don't think we'll get to all of them (not with Shoes Junior with us anyway). So far we've found two mystery caches, and we think we'll be able to add to this tally after our Canberra trip.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Canberra caching
We headed down to Canberra on Saturday for a visit with friends and family. Naturally we'd planned to do some caching during our visit. Mr S had spent a few weeks solving some puzzle caches (there are quite a few of these in Canberra). We managed to grab McForest on the way down, which was where we discovered that we'd left the geobag at home. This meant that we didn't have anything to swap, so we had to include "TNLNSL" for all our finds.
We left Canberra on Sunday morning with a list of 18 caches that were along the road home. Most of them were located at the rest areas, so they were fairly easy finds. Our greatest achievement was going unintentionally paperless and finding Remembrance Driveway - Gordon. We had the co-ords loaded into the GPSr, but didn't print out the cache info, so weren't really sure what we were looking for. Luckily Ms S was on the case, and pointed Mr S in the right direction.
Our tally for the day was six, and our total of seven for the weekend brought Shoes Junior's total finds into double figures. Not bad for a fifteen week old baby. Unfortunately we didn't get to look for any of the solved puzzle caches, so they're on the list for the next time we're in Canberra.
We left Canberra on Sunday morning with a list of 18 caches that were along the road home. Most of them were located at the rest areas, so they were fairly easy finds. Our greatest achievement was going unintentionally paperless and finding Remembrance Driveway - Gordon. We had the co-ords loaded into the GPSr, but didn't print out the cache info, so weren't really sure what we were looking for. Luckily Ms S was on the case, and pointed Mr S in the right direction.
Our tally for the day was six, and our total of seven for the weekend brought Shoes Junior's total finds into double figures. Not bad for a fifteen week old baby. Unfortunately we didn't get to look for any of the solved puzzle caches, so they're on the list for the next time we're in Canberra.
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
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!
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
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!
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