Three for the price of one!

So I was out doing maintenance on one of my caches today. I'd been informed that it had got itself stuck at the bottom of a small sign post and was impossible to reach. I went with my trusty extendable magnet on a stick to retrieve it (as I had done only a few weeks previously!) and felt some resistance as I pulled it up. What should come up but three versions of the same cache which I have replaced over the years! Some very old log books there too! Replaced one with a clean log book and gave the other two to my friend to put to new uses. Well, that was a pleasant surprise!

Explaining Mega Events to Muggles...

Just got back from another great Mega Event in Bicton, Devon.

I've been asked a few times by my muggle friends what a Mega Event actually is, and, apart from saying "It's sort of like a festival for geocachers", I don't really know how else to describe it. Even then, I'm asked what we actually do when we get together!

So my friends and I came up with this list which I'm sure could be expanded upon (especially if you're a camping cacher!) but it should hopefully help clear up what it is we do at Megas!

1. We write a random word or words in a giant book, flag, wall, noticeboard, wooden cut-out etc.
2. Everyone you meet refers to you by this self-imposed random word(s).
3. You refer to your friends by this word(s) throughout the event and introduce people in this way.
4. If you're really lucky, you may actually get to know some real names, but you probably won't remember them, and they won't get stored in your phone by their real name!
5. We take close-up photos of people's chests, boobs, legs, arms, hats, backpacks, walking sticks, dogs and children. Seeking permission to do so is very much optional.
6. It's perfectly normal to chase after a stranger shouting "WAIT, ARE YOU TRACKABLE?!"
7. We buy coded scraps of metal then show them to one another.
8. We purchase used empty metal boxes and (unused) sample tubes.
9. We meet a six foot frog and have our photo taken with it.
10. Claiming a milestone at the Mega is desirable and holding a massive sign is the preferred way of celebrating because then everyone else can see our achievement.
11. We watch an ammo can be handed from one stranger to another. This is the climax of the event.
12. We'll put our hands in gross water so we can claim a cache that doesn't even have a log book.
13. We can be found wandering around a camp site for two hours or so, peering into caravans and windscreens, jotting down numbers and photographing dashboards and bumpers.
14. We also do this a lot outside pubs and on the road sides. It's easy for muggles to think we are overly-enthusiastic off-duty traffic wardens.
15. We try to do our bit for the environment by doing litter picks but when you have hundreds of people tackling the same spot, you tend to find little more than a cigarette butt.
16. We spend a lot of time looking at all the flags on the camp site and trying to read the codes on them.
17. It's a status symbol to wear a promotional T-shirt from a previous mega event, the older the better. Bonus kudos for a Giga, Maze, Block Party, Geocoinfest or Geowoodstock.
18. We buy coins that can't be spent and look at other people's. Some people collect these and are more than happy to show you their extensive collections from the boot of their car.
19. We feel cheated by the T-shirts that claim to be trackable but aren't.
20. Once we've torn ourselves away from the event venue with our new fake rock and T-shirt that has a witty but incomprehensible-to-muggles slogan, we will choose to drive down a variety of narrow B roads in convoy.
21. Driving down no-through roads is common practice, and vying for the same small layby with ten other cars is normal.
22. We'll wait in line to handle an old film pot and sign a tatty piece of paper by the roadside then wonder where it came from because the original finder is long gone.
23. Photographing said tatty paper is commonplace because the logs get full very quickly!
24. We'll drive miles to get a selfie with a rock because it's "virtual".
25. We stand in front of a random building hoping there's a webcam somewhere and wave at it whilst simultaneously trying to capture the moment on our smart phones. As a result, we are not looking at the camera when the photo is taken.
26. Once home we slightly resent the enthusiasm we had at the event because now we have to collate all our photos, scribblings and notes on our phones of trackable codes and enter them manually into Project-GC or GSAK to log them all.
27. No one remembers individual trackables they discovered, and quite often we never even saw the trackable in question - just the code printed on a piece of paper and handed to us by a stranger.
28. Logging caches and trackables is hard because they all merge into one big messy Mega memory and we end up writing "Found whilst at the Mega!" for all caches and trackables we found.
29. Logging the Mega itself is slightly easier than the side caches, but even then we struggle to find a new way of saying "Met up with lots of old faces and met a lot of new ones too. Thanks for the great event!"
30. We look fondly through our photos from the Mega but have no idea where any of them were taken.
31. When commenting about the event on social media, we have no idea who anyone is because they are using their real names.
32. We celebrate the fact we will get a small pixelated picture to show on our online profiles at the end of it. These are highly sought after and cachers will change their plans and routines to acquire them.
33. We become slightly more obsessed with our caching stats since returning home and once all caches and trackables have been logged, we update our caching profile and find out what new badges we've earned.
34. We need to find somewhere to keep the dirty day-pass wrist band, new cache containers we have no plans for and the souvenir brochure, which, although we will never read again (or indeed for the first time), it is still a piece of geocaching history and we will expect it to become a family heirloom.
35. A week later we begin to feel a bit deflated by post-Mega blues and cheer ourselves up by starting to plan our next Mega.