Kev goes caching

Dropped Sue at work then I was off up the A38 heading towards a bunch of caches near Derby (Black Widow country). I totally failed to find "Sidetracked Willington" (again) and have now officially given up on it!

I managed to pick up a few drive-bys then parked up and took a stroll along a chilly canal finding a few more on the way. A short drive brought me to another stretch of cache strewn canal. Not all the finds were straight froward but at least with an out and back course, you can have another stab on the return.

After these "mini-series" or power trails, I cut across country heading roughly back home. One cache I had to visit was Heron's Wood. At my Birthday Bash, I was given a LARGE travel bug which I was challenged to hide. This container swallowed the TB easily. I was on my way to this cache when a passing mountain biker asked if I was geocaching - is it THAT obvious?

I was very cold so I wound up my caching activities around one and made my way home, finally picking up Stokesy's Collector 4 cache, which is only 120m from home on the way.

Oregon Update

Browsing the Garmin website, I noticed that software version 2.70 was available. I plugging in and upgraded from 2.50.

No great difference it's mainly little bug fixes but no mention of my problem (with the Oregon - not the other problem!!!). However, I've turned tracking back on and so far (touch wood) it connects to the PC without any of the difficulties I used to encounter. Let's hope the firmware updat has fixed the problem.

Birthday Bash

It was two days before my actual 50th Birthday but it definitely felt like a real birthday party. We had loads of cachers turn up, luckily not all together or the conservatory would have burst at the seams!

Graham1875 came in telling me of a new cache which I had to go and find immediately. He handed me a printout but when I protested about a lack of GPS he told me that he had one all set up in the car. We traipsed into the carpark and with GPS in hand I followed the arrow to find a black bag propped up next to my Kiss Kiss cache. With some trepidation I opened the bag to find a bottle of whisky - luckily it didn't have a TB around the neck so I logged it as took - whisky, left - thanks.

This was not the only pressie, and please forgive me if I've forgotten any. I got another bottle of whisky, a geocoin from Stokesy and not one, but two cakes including a gorgeous Parsnip Cake from Jackie of Shank's Pony.

Someone passed around a showerhead to much amusement (I still don't get it).

The beer, as to be expected at The Griffin", was excellent and I was lucky to have one of those magic glasses that never seemed to empty - thanks to all who contributed to my subsequent hangover.

All in all a cracking night. I would like to thank all again for turning up and making it a night to remember.

On the road again

After my near-death experience with the, often fatal, man flu and the general yuletide malaise, I finally got out today and into the caching mindset.

There has been a bunch (not quite a series) of caches in Sheldon which I've been meaning to do for a while now so after dropping Mrs. Balders at work, I made my way to The Raddleys. The caches where all found without any problems although I had to be careful with one of them for fear of it falling down and being lost forever!

Then it was up the Cov. Road to Corley to check on one of my caches (Motorway Mayhem - Deja Vu). I'd had a couple of reports of series foliage clearance so went to check it out. The cache was hidden in the hedgerow and the hint used to read "behind the split tree". As you can see from today's photo, the tree has been split to ground level and it is out in the open. Amazingly, the cache was still there!

I've now moved it 20m away to what I hope will remain a move secluded spot.

From Corley, I nipped into nearby Nuneaton to bag "Don't Get Muggled" which was easily found. Of interest was the last signee, a certain HillHappy1. I gave him a call and had a quick chat and it appears that he's had more important things than looking for plastic boxes to concern him. It's nice to see Haydn back on the scene, his presence has been sorely missed.

Whilst in Nuneaton, I dropped in on my mate Birder1951 for a cuppa and a natter before picking up "Grandpa goes for a pint", in the dark, on my way home.

I've got the next two days with nowt to do - any ideas?