Wild West part one the 5/5s and the Wild West caches

Off to Wild West, whilst not much caching on the Thursday we teamed up with jjm65 and footloose and frodo to go 5/5ing as we were only an hour from Exeter.

First cache was hidden well and spotted by Jacqui, I was prepared to get up there and search for it but after it was spotted I used my gear whilst they went back to the car to get their own gear. Cache signed by us all final hurdle being the first of the day. Even through on a tight time run we planned 5 5/5 s for the afternoon. The next one the tide was in so I got down, well most of the way on rope then climbed the rest unaided but couldn't get to the cache even through we could see it. The rope was just that bit short to get it from above and climbing from below encouraged the erosion so a safety call was called so left as no cache is worth killing yourself on.

We then skipped the next planned one and headed to north Exeter to get king of the swingers. The sign with info had been vandalised but once with some drinks in hand we found the information elsewhere and informed the pub what we were doing. Problem here was the amount of attention, whilst the cache can't get muggled we were able to introduce people to Geocaching explaining it was an extreme cache thus the equipment.  

Lastly we moved onto carpe cache, we had to solve the stereo gram to get first co ords and once here we took it in turns to go up with Jacqui bring quite quick for a beginner. Although she can't claim it till she has another 28 5/5s a reviewer said that such a requirement no longer stands and as she had signed the logbook she could claim it hmmmm.

Anyhow we were under attack from the pesky ants. These were huge red ones biting us and covering everything with themselves. We moved hastily to the next stage where we found the huge cache and was one of the biggest I've found. However these David Attenborough against red ants were infesting gz too, so  we didn't spend to long here, but our third successful 5/5 of the day. For the cache owner I have over 100 5/5 finds and was the first Geocacher to find 100 5/5 s and have featured in podcasts and the Geocaching mag. Footloose is on around 40 now so hope that info helps.

Saturday we did the new wildwest ring which was a pleasant walk with some good hides and the ones at the beach with one being very good, must remember to email the owners as I must have that as a cache ;)

This afternoon as I write this I'm watching the Vulcan bomber flying around in the distance for the nearby airshow.

Rosie's cache

After updating all caches I've found I decided to see where the four tb s were for the above cache.

Way land smithy, ridgeway at chain hill, hendred and chilton. 

So I decided to get the west ones first as if I ran out of time I could get the other two on the way to work.

At way land like with all of them it came back to me where the cache was. Ask me to describe it before going and I can never remember but as I pass a cache I can say there's a cache there.  

So with first one down I moved on to chain hill and after a walk found the cache, slightly further away to where I originally found it, call it the cachers dance as the cache slightly moves and moves over time.

Now getting dark and with two, yes two tb s I had already worked out the location but thought sod it lets attempt them all. Over to hendred and another quick find, all going well till the last one which had already gone.

Looking at what I had and where I had already plotted the cache to be I was only 100 ft out and still missing vital co ords so off to lambourn and armed with the clue I could see two likely spots, first no didn't look right next I was basically on top of it in the dark and there was the stump. A rummage around and it was in hand. :) so pleased as I didn't really want to go home empty handed.

However as I drove home I thought, what if one or even all of the tbs ended up in 5/5 caches? Surely then as you have been to four 5/5 caches that this one should be class the same? As many others around the country are for this reason? Let me know your thoughts

Thank you Lorraine for another great cache.

Geocaching woes

Today we went back to two dnf s the first was correct and after twenty minutes searching soon had it in hand. The second took us past a chapel that I never knew existed in Hagbourne and then the cache straight to hand, turns out the second one I had worked out wrong. 

We then popped over to steventon to do the series there. The first one sent us to the middle of a field, with no finds. Taking a permissive footpath out through Milton to the golf club we got stopped by a man shooting pigeons telling me it was actually private and the land had been sold recently. So back into Milton for a long walk around 1066 and rejoined it by sewage works where again we couldn't find the correct path and had to make our own path.  After this we were soon back to golf course dead end and found it. Pigeon shooter gone we followed the os map and could see it took us out to the nature or millenium park bit but soon ended up on a private road around the back of the golf course not happy we trundled on and eventually at the last but one found us close to someone's property to get one under a pipe.

Now I understand that often cache owners spend lots of time and money on series, but this one felt like no thought had gone into it as such just a case of there isn't a cache for a tenth of a mile better put one here, so rather than being chilled and relaxed I found myself annoyed compared to the two in Hagbourne which had been thought out.

However my other dpm camo jacket got a try out today along with another pair ofbootswhich both kept me dry so happy on that front.

Tarot card series

Out today at Sherborne doing kryfto s new series of 30 caches 9 miles. One dnf, one ftf near a bridge and 30 finds including a multi.

Near to Sherborne there was torrential rain but once parked at the church it stopped only to start up a mile into the walk. With much of the countryside at waist height it didn't take long for the waterproof trousers to soak through, even through my at surplus waterproof top did much better, my boots with holes lasting out till the last mile. It was only the second part that weather got better but only temporarily before the deluge returned.

So with not seeing anyone else out me and frodo carried on finding some great containers including a mouse and hand grenade. There was even a w c with a creature sat in it. Certainly a lot of time and money spent by the cache owner.

Although Wiltshire county councils footpath signs seemed to at times be non existent we still managed to get round, even after falling down a rabbits hole along the verge of the main road near the end.

Thanks to the cache owner on a great series.

Ps frodo did find a ball near the end

A cache should go up there ;)

A nice hide

Two many dnfs

WeWe went out to Hagbourne today after missing a tb we needed for a local cache. Thought I had solved the two puzzles which one was an excellent puzzle in its self. Nope first pointed us into a cricket pitch and second the clue was hanging around but we couldn't find anything after a finger tip search. The only one we found had spiders in the lid which was good but just before we got there we found an ideal spot for an extreme cache.

Caching in highclere

Out with frodo caching in highclere near Newbury today, after getting some drive by caches on some actually busy roads we found the problem to be some sort of local fete on. Once we parked up we did a lovely walk with some good caches including a tap and one well hidden in the roots of a tree. Many thanks to the cache owners for their hardwork.

Nook as a raspberry pi screen

Got my £29 nook through this week and followed some good online resources to jailbreak it using nookmanager.

Just a quick question to anyone who might know, but how do I put a vnc client onto it?

Afternoon of caching

Out marlow way today picking up the bikerz series, a small Star Wars series and the challenge caches placed by metal bijou which were well hidden and on such a lovely walk. There were just a couple we couldn't claim but made it to my 9000th cache with frodo. 

A lovely afternoon and also got the car booked in for air con to be looked at as I have a g65 high pressure valve failure open or short. From what I've read it shouldn't be more than a hundred squid. Lets hope.

Tomorrow there is a carnival in town and I've been dragged off to it

Time lapse with raspberry pi cam

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=SkQLOPKUtE8

After buying then winning a pi cam I thought I better get to work with it. Thanks to design spark.com who had already written a good script I was able to position the cam on the window sill from dusk to dusk taking a picture every ten seconds and over 9gb of pictures.

With mencoder and some terminal typing  I was able to make the pictures into a time lapse which I have uploaded to YouTube with the above link.

My next idea is to take pictures and layer them on top of each other ie time lapse the sky but get to show every vapour trail over say 6 hours.

If you know how I can do that then let me know, can't wait for camping this year.

2 ftfs

Today I wasn't up for much and when I realised the weather was better than predicted we shot off to do three caches of pebblesandco of which surprisingly we were second to find on the letterbox cache. On our journey up here we were following a suspiciously clean land rover with Tvp plates, it was unmarked but after getting the three caches we bumped into it zooming along the ridgeway, no doubt looking for the bank holiday raves.

Back to wantage and four hundred feet from my house was two new caches, both I thought would have been gone by now but to my suprise two first to finds and one in a place I looked at before; maybe they will start getting a bit more adventurist and extreme ;)