Time to host an event...

I'm not a natural event host, I'm afraid. I think it's something I could get better at but I just don't normally have the time and resources required to make it a success. But I decided after the random meeting of geocaching tourists in Madeira last year that I would attempt to hold either a flash mob or a tourist-based event myself. My husband and I are going to be spending two weeks travelling across Canada soon and at the end of the stay we get some quality time in Vancouver and Victoria so I thought I'd seize the opportunity to host an event there. No need for a sit-down venue, or food. I'll just bring a log book, pen and some trackables and meet some brand new (and this time, English-speaking) faces. I think it'll be a lot of fun, and it makes my first event relatively stress-free. It'll be a while before I'm hosting Mega Events!!

Are you in Victoria on 2nd February this year? If so, please come to my 30-minute mini event "The British in Columbia"!

Forget satellites and balloons - this is how you tell the weather accurately!

It's a common enough reason why people like geocaching: "It takes me to interesting locations". Well I was only intending to nab Rickmansworth Weatherstone because it was in Hertfordshire, a county I don't think I've ever been to before, let alone cached in, and I read the cache description thinking it was one of those "here's an interesting nugget of history for you" types. If they're longer than two paragraphs, I don't tend to read them, to be honest, but this cache seemed to be a bit elusive. What was so special about this "weatherstone" that makes it very accurate? How does it work? The plaque will explain, the cache description promises. 

So I went to the location, and found the stone:

 

And how on earth does this work? What does the stone do? If it's so perfectly accurate at judging the weather, why does the Met Office not have one? Perhaps because it's less of a predictor and more of an observer:

Even so, I love it!

Prime Meridian in London

I have been planning this cache for ages, because how often do you get to get a cache which has neither E nor W in front of the longitudinal coordinates? To my surprise there was no container at GZ, just a rolled up water-proof log book wedged into a space that fits the coordinates. Well, it works!

Yes, I am still a sucker for views of tall buildings - good view across to the mini skyscrapers at Canary Wharf.