treasure hunt

Cache and dash running

Monday, February 1st, 2010 | Geocaching, Running | No Comments

Yes I’m still running.. only 1K but it going good. I’m doing it between 3 and 4 times  a week and really enjoying it once I get out and get started.. that’s the hardest part!

Seeing as I’m doing a fair bit of geocaching at the moment I decided to combine this mornings run with a couple of very local caches. So off I went to the first one had a good look about but couldn’t spot anything, there were a few people about (muggles in geocache terms) walking dogs so I was very aware of looking a bit shifty.  Having given up the search I carried on to the next cache, at which point the GPS decided to play up. So I carried on running, I got to the end of the greenway and turned round to head back, half way back the GPS started playing again and I headed to wards the co ords. Actually not to far from the entrance to the greenway. I spotted the cache from the path straight away as it was slightly exposed however there were quite a few muggles around preventing me from retrieving the cache. Trying not to look suspicious I was finally alone and was able to retrieve the small box.

The log book was quite damp, but that’s to be expected I guess as it was placed right near the stream. I signed the log book and had a look to see what was in the cache.. Found a garfield travel bug (TB), but as I still have yesterdays Cow TB I left it for someone else.  I didn’t take anything to place in the cache as I was running so didn’t take anything out of either, not that there was anything I might have wanted in this particular cache.

With the second one being such a quick find I headed back to the first for another look.. Still no luck, the GPS was all over the place because of the tree/ivy coverage so I’m not even 100% sure I was looking in the right place… It must still be there though as someone logged finding it the day before!  Will have another try soon.

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Multi cache find in one go!

Sunday, January 31st, 2010 | Geocaching | No Comments

Well yesterday was the first multi cache find in one go… It was a lovely clear but cold day so a cache on the coast was the perfect choice.  I decided to pick an easy terrain one as the ground would still be very wet under foot and with the little one it makes life easier!  A picnic was packed and we set off to Bournemouth. The cache was located in an area we hadn’t really been to before so instantly there was the reward of some stunning views of the Isle of Wight Needles to the east all the way to Old Harry rocks in the west.

It nice to explore areas that might not otherwise see.  GeoCaching is a wonderful way to do this as you are not just aimlessly wandering around but you have a purpose and reason to go to a specific place.

This particular multi cache was on level ground so a nice pleasant walk, the clues were clear and the information was easily found giving the co ordinates to the final cache hiding place. Another reason for choosing this cache was that it was a toy swap cache which I thought would be fun for the little one. So on finding the cache the little one was delighted to find a box containing, among other things toy soldiers, key rings and marbles.  It was decided the marbles would be a good thing to take and we replaced them with a small pot of bubbles.

If you have never tried geocaching give it a go.. visiting geocache.com and go to the hide and seek section.. pop in your post code and see what’s near you! There is an enormous sense of achievement in finding a cache and even more if you do a multi and have clues to solve.

I was so excited about yesterdays find that I dreamt all night about geocaching and this morning I’m shattered!

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GeoCaching – first multi-cache find

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 | Geocaching | No Comments

For a while now I’ve had it in my mind about doing geocaching, as a way of getting out and about, seeing things or places you may not have seen before and of course exercise. But lack of a decent GPS unit with the ability to put in co ordinates held me back.  But since Garmin has been released will full touch screen ability for the nokia 5800 it’s now much easier to have some fun!

There are several different types of cache, but the most common tend to be the traditional cache, where by the co ordinates given are the location of the the cache and the you basically just have to hunt around and find it.  Or the multi-cache (offset cache) which I prefer as you move around to get to your final location cache. Either by working out clues to get the co ordinate for the cache or by finding smaller caches which gives you clues to the next cache and so on.

Having had one successful traditional cache find some time ago, I then went on to do a multi cache. This was still at a time when I didn’t have a decent means of putting co ordinates in to the Nokia 5800 and was unfortunately a failed find. Although a lovely walk and clue finding fun not finding the cache left me disheartened and I decided to leave it for a while. I’ve had Garmin fully functional on the 5800 for some time now but only on Sunday I decided to give it another go. I looked up and interesting multi cache on www.geocaching.com that was an easy walk along the Southampton City walls, the final co ordinates were deciphered from a set of 8 questions.. the answers of which could be found on information boards giving details of the walls along the walk.  Unfortunately there was some restoration work going on in one particular area that prevented me from finding the answers to two of the questions and thus getting the final co ordinates.  I had an idea where the cache might be but being in a relatively busy area I didn’t want to hunt around for it.

Returning home having failed again I set to finding the answers to the questoions on the internet. Once found they confirmed I was indeed thinking in the right area on Sunday so today I returned and found the cache fairly quickly.  Depending on the size of the cache depends what you might find, some caches are very small 35mm film canisters, other can be 1ltr boxes.  Today’s cache was a 0.33ltr box which contained the log book and a few things, most notably an Egyptian Cartouche like the one on the right in the picture below.

Egyptian Cartouche

The message with the cartouche was that it wanted to travel to Egypt and then back to it’s home and owner in the Isle of Man. I wasn’t sure if the cartouche was on it’s way to Egypt or on it’s way back.

The general rule of thumb with geocache finds is “if you an item from the cache, leave an item” However with travel bugs as they are called such as the Egyptian cartouche the object is to move it on as quick as you can.  Not knowing when I would do another cache and being unable to move it very far I decided not to remove the Egyptian cartouche.  Each travel bug has it’s own page that you can log or watch it’s movements, so when I got home I looked it up and it hasn’t made it to Egypt yet… Hopefully someone will find it that can take it further on it’s journey. I have decided to watch the cartouche and follow it’s travels.

Fingers crossed there will be many more successful finds!

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