Geolympix, the morning after...

Well we did it 11 icons in 11 hours.  Frodo was knackered and we finished the day off in a pub for our first meal of the day. Phew what a day, so much organised chaos, so much going on so many people introducing themselves to me (i am rubbish with names). so many people saying they saw me and so many people i never got to speak to properly which was a shame.

Did some recordings last night for a pod cast about the event, god i sounded so tired in it, just worried the recording isn't good enough, to be truthful now i cant even remember what i said either before i emailed it to the podcache show.

Today we are going to take it easy, need to sort my web page out slightly (once my new password gets sent to me) we wont be going out to do the mega series today but will probably pick them off over several weekends as they are only an hour away and there is plenty of caches for me and anyone wanting to come out with team text over the coming weeks in Swindon.  Therefore cheaper on fuel and closer to home  meaning more caching time too.

Hopefully we will be at the event tonight, definitely i will be at all the events tomorrow (busy day) and Wednesday before going back to work on Thursday for a rest lol.

The Geolympixs is here.... day 3

Up early today to travel near enough everywhere to ensure if i dont get 11 icons in 11 hours that my back up plan of 11 icons for the day is met instead.  We eventually got to the Banbury webcam meet to kick things off, Banbury didnt know what had hit them lol.  Then it was over to Kirtlington, with 2 icons down we managed to get another 4 icons taking me and frodo to 6.  We then went off to get the letterbox and then to a virtual taking us to 8 and then a multi we didnt find the first time round.  Once in Oxford we failed on a puzzle cache we thought we had solved but made up for it with another multi. At the event we got to the event we ended on 9 but luckily a rare moveable cuckoo cache was at the event and was the puzzle icon i needed for the day :) 

At the event I was recognised by many and congratulated on my recent achievement of being the first uk cacher to get 100 5/5s and third place internationally.  The podcast show asked me for an interview which will soon be out on their next podcast and an article for the geocaching magazine by Adam.

I also bumped into two groundspeak lackies who congratulated me on my achievement and as we spoke slipped one of their new trackables into my hand (forgot about these as I was going to ask for one anyway).  They remembered me from the Oxford event a year ago where i had been in hospital the day before having an operation and turned up looking like i had hamster cheeks.  They said they would both try some local caches and proceeded to download a pq on their phone app.

Many people came over to say hi and have a chat and figures was there after completing his 10,000th cache with an olympic torch trackable that looked ace.

Will be back over to Oxford soon for the cito later to put my icons on 11. already 5 icons through my second round but as there isnt anymore webcams in the area, flash mobs or mega events today i will settle for the above.

BTW i now have an offical slug survey card to help deal with the muggles when searching for caches, thanks Dr Solly they are a great idea. :)

day two of the geolympixs

After yesterday we decided for an easy day picking off some caches on the edge of Oxford before the geodoggy meet nearby.

A great day was had with lots of fun and frodo winning for waggiest tail and three times in raffle of which we declined one of them to allow someone else chance to win.

Now off to the camp event, see you there.

Day one of the geolympix... Friday..

Myself and frodo decided to do a couple of loops today of the geoolmpix mega series. on route we were able to solve a multi which was a nice size cache and found many steep hills around Turville, the home of Vicar of Dibley, Mr Tom and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which we hummed and sung most of the day).  One of the series we found someones lip moisturiser container close to the cache, being us we picked it up thinking it was the cache and realised it wasnt, but soon had the cache in hand.

A few caches later frodo goes running into gz to the cache (good boy) thinking he was going to bring the cache out i was suprised, as there was the flapping of wings as a game bird came flying out with frodo wagging his tail.

As we got to near the end of the series the heavens opened and down came a good downpour. luckily we found some shelter 100ft from the next cache, do we run for it or sit it out? we decided to sit it out and frodo enjoyed a nice long metre long stick to chew to pieces and a well earned rest.

GMS B 05  we were just about to get the cache out when a car pulls up, thinking they were caches we stayed still only to find a woman get out and squat showing her lady area to us and not even realising we were 40 ft from her, btw she wasnt attractive.

Next was what I will nickname the windmill series, the long steep walk up to the windmill that featured in chitty chitty bang bang.  The hill in itself should have been a T5 lol, this killed us so a well deserved break was required at the top and a good photo opportunity.

Further along we came across a very muddy section from recent rain, being the third cacher/group to walk along here this will probably become unpassable after the weekend festivities.  From here onwards we could here the quiet drone of the M40 motorway.

At GMS D 20 We had to wait till the farmer had gone past, like something out of the great escape, timing his movements as he cut the grass in his field, a quick run to gz with stamp in hand, stamp and run back. Frodo enjoyed this game but was less stealth.  A bit further along a squirrel decided to antagonise frodo who gave chase, but with his age the squirrel soon made up grown and up a very tall tree.

A very nice walk today, 12.8 miles covered, so in theory only 14 more miles over three rings (yeah right).  Frodo is now in his basket looking very eshausted,being an old dog we have to be very careful of the mileage with him and i think today we have over done it, so he might not be out tomorrow, we will have to see.

this weekends caching and geolympixs

I will be behind in blogging today's, in fact this weekends caching but by Monday or Tuesday I will have blogged about my weekend adventures.

366 Grid

18 July I was able to fill in my last square on my 366 days grid :) now need to at some point visit the 365 days of caching cache to claim it :)

First UK cacher to find over 100 5/5s.

On the 8/7/12 I became the uk's first cacher to get over 100 5/5's beating the americans by double and most other countries. Turns out I became third in the world at 5/5s which was my personal achievement.  Do i carry on? well I decided if im passing one then fair enough, but for now i want to concentrate on getting the T5's and filling in the last few squares on my D/T table.