FTFs / Birthday / London

I got up for work this morning (I know, money grabbing so and so) and, as usual, I checked the inbox. There was a block of caches so I clicked on the first one and discovered that it was only 2.9km away. I had to bide my time as I'd promised to drop Sue off on my way out so it was 07:45 when I got my sweaty palms on the box. Would Stokesy have beaten me? With some trepedation, I opened the book and found that it was blank. I checked the other end (I've fallen for THAT one before) but it was still virginal. The Team Balders stamp was brought into action.
Chancing my luck, I went for "MotorwayMayhem M6 Toll - Toll View 2". Success again - two FTFs before breakfast. I also managed to pick up "Heavens Above - Holy Trinity" near Hatton on the way to work in Leamington Spa.

Some may have noticed that, I have submitted a listing for my 50th birthday in November (link). It will be at The Griffin, near Shustoke, where we held the successful "Almost Valentines Day Cache" back in February. I hope that eveyone doesn't go out and buy me a Garmin Oregon 400!

Talking of Cache meets, I'm expecting to see a new listing for the Brummie Meet 2, which should only ba about a month away. Who was it who said that they would do the next one?

I'm off to that there London on Thursday, taking advantage of another cheapo coach ticket. Looking at the Google cache map around Victoria, I think that I may venture to the east, mainly along the river. With a bit of luck I could break the 2,100 barrier! As of today (28/9/08) I'm on 2076.

A bucket of Fun / Free Maps

On our way back from work in Bedford, today, The Strangler and I stopped off in our lunch break to do a cache near Towcester (Where's Roger). I'd picked up a large TB and needed a large cache to put it in; this one fitted the bill.

However, on reaching the cache we found the large container full of water. This was a shame as the cache contained a lot of good stuff including a computer mouse, a CD-ROM drive, Video tapes etc. etc. all of which were ruined. Dave and I dried the bucket as best as we could but most of the stuff we had to CITO.

An interesting website, which I came across, tonight, is Open Street Map. To quote the project, "OpenStreetMap creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways."

The project relies on Joe Public going out with a GPS and collecting data which can be uploaded to the site and used to edit the world-wide map. I downloaded the UK section and stuck it on my Oregon. Some areas that haven't yet been mapped are, obviously, blank but some areas are more detailed than the £150 Garmin topo-maps. Generally there is a lot more footpath detail and a lot of pubs! I'll need to look into this project and upload some local data (my street isn't on there - YET!)

On the Brummie Cut series, I need to get out before the weekend and replace YELLOW - possibly with a magnetic. I'm also planning on doing some of those busy busy caches on Sunday. I've also got another London excursion planned for October.

Oregon - in the mode

I'm still finding my way around the Oregon. I've been getting a bit frustrated especially when the compass needle refuses to point anywhere but straight up. I've tried changing all sorts of setings but still the same. Then in a flash of inspiration I went to the Profiles page and selected GEOCACHING. (I had previously just customised the recreation profile). The needle behaved properly - nice.

After my evening's caching around Sutton I selected home and asked the unit to plot a course. It calculated a route STRAIGHT home, totally ignoring the roads. I then switched to the AUTOMOTIVE profile and I got a proper road-based route on a 3D road map. I tried the compass and the old straight ahead pointer was back.

So, tonight, I've discovered what the profile page does and the unit is back on my good gear list.

Back home, I plugged the Garmin into the PC and went to GC.com. I chose Access My Field Notes and uploaded my list of found caches to GC.com. I was then able to select each in turn and was taken to the logging page with the notes taken on the trail automatically entered. It makes logging post-caching a lot easier than before my lovely wife bought my new toy.


We're off to Preston on Sunday so, hopefully, we'll grab a few caches en-route. I must get a lead for the Oregon to power it from the car which will keep the backlight on all the time instead of dimming after a few seconds.

Peak District - Aug / Sep 2008

Got back yesterday from our romantic interlude in the Peak District. It was our 25th wedding anniversary on Wednesday and we also reached 2000 caches.

After our celebrations on the 30th we drove up to Glossop on the Sunday, picking up a couple of caches or so on the way. We stayed at a lovely little cottage on the outskirts of Glossop within walking distance of the Snake Pass.

Most mornings, I let Sue have a lie in whilst I nipped out and bagged a few local caches before returning to our love nest for breakfast. We'd probably pick up a few more caches while out and about in the day. We didn't go cacheing mad but managed 58 finds during the week.

Sue, bless her, bought me an anniversary present - a Garmin Oregon 200. The geocaching features are very good so I've been having a little play with my new toy. Still early days but I've splashed out and got some topo maps for the unit which look very snazzy. The maps are better than Memory Map in one way and that is that the Oregon can navigate to any waymark, geocache or POI (of which there are thousands). It's not just a point on top of a graphic, like MM, but the unit "knows" what all the bits of the map are.


I'll post a blog about it when I've had a bit more time using it.

I spent an hour or so, last night, logging all the finds. I had logged around 20 caches before I realised that I'd got the wrong dates!!!

Finally, talking of technology, I've ditched Vista (it is crap, after all) and upgraded to XP Pro. Luckily the new laptop came with a driver disk and everything works - and SO MUCH faster.