30 Days & 30 Nights Challenge - Complete!

Well there we go - with over five days to spare I got my 100 caches for my first challenge cache! 64 Traditionals, 20 Multis, 10 Puzzles, 2 Virtuals, 2 Letterbox Hybrids, 1 Earthcache and 1 Event later and I can stop going out and doing dozens of caches at a time. Now just back to the 365 Days challenge... Hehehe.

FTF Geocacher Pathtag

Today I received a pathtag in the post. Here in the UK, they don't seem to be all the rage like they are across the pond. They're mentioned in pretty much every issue of the world's first printed geocaching magazine, FTF Geocacher. I am an avid fan of this Texan publication even though most of the articles have a distinctive American spin on the hobby. I mean when am I going to have to beware of bears when I go caching? Our "cache 'n' dashes" are their "park 'n' grabs" though, which is simple enough to translate (although I think our phrase is catchier!)

I was quite surprised that my article would even be considered for an American-audience magazine when I was writing about my 500th find up a wind farm in rural Wales but to my delight it was there in print in Volume 1 Issue 5. Four issues later and I find that my editorial on self-coined "georienteering" has also been published. Well, orienteering is fantastic and geocachers are likely to enjoy the hobby so I thought I would use this platform to introduce more people to it. I have since submitted two more smaller bits and perhaps they will feature in the next issue? I just can't help myself! I like writing and sharing stuff, hence this blog, so even if no one else cares, I at least feel like I've managed to arrange my thoughts!

As a literal token of his appreciation, FTF Geocacher creator and editor Keith Petrus (ckpetrus) sent me a path tag in the post (sorry, mail) which is now amongst my treasured trackables collection. It's not a trackable, but it looks a bit like a little geocoin so that feels like a logical place to keep it! Thanks ckpetrus! I'm really glad you like my submissions. I shall try to rein in my enthusiasm though and let others get a word in edgeways! LOL

Two legends' graves...

It wasn't until recently that I realised that both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of the Sherlock Holmes books, and Victorian nurse, Florence Nightingale are both buried in Hampshire. With regards to the former, I like the little touch that there is a pipe at his grave stone. It's elementary!



Florence Nightingale is buried with her family at a small church, St. Margaret's, west of Romsey. She grew up in the area and requested that she was buried there. There is a virtual cache at the location and the listing describes how she came to be there thus:

"Florence’s relatives declined the offer of burial in Westminster Abbey, as she left directions that her funeral should be of the simplest possible kind, and that her body should be accompanied to the grave by not more than two persons. She is buried beside her father and mother. The body was borne to the grave by six of her "children" of the British Army-sergeants drawn from the several regiments of the Guards. Her desire that only two persons should follow the coffin could not be fulfilled. The funeral arrangements were kept as private as was possible; but there was a wreath of flowers from people of every kind, age and degree, and the lane and churchyard were filled with a great crowd of men, women, and children, most of them poorly dressed." What an inspirational woman!

Industry at night

I don't know how unusual this is, but I love industrial structures. Well, as said below in my Spinnaker entry, I love tall buildings. But this extends to tall structures (e.g. cranes, towers, chimneys, pylons, masts etc.) and large structures (e.g. huge ships, huge bridges, huge mountains even). I can't help but gawp at industrial structures as they are usually large and spectacular, even if a lot of people think they're an eyesore (unsurprisingly I love wind turbines!) I love Port Talbot's steelworks, the cooling towers at Didcot, the oil refinery at Fawley... Well if there's one thing that makes huge industrial structures even more appealing to me, it's seeing them at night. I was so captivated by the sight I got this evening of the cranes at the docks in Southampton that I had to try and get a photo - not easy at night; could have done with a tripod! By the way, that eerie colour of the sky was less apparent in real life, but I think it looks pretty good, actually.

30 Days & 30 Nights Challenge

It's about time I stopped setting challenges and started doing one! Well, admittedly I am working towards my 365 days of caching, but that won't be finished until June (hopefully!) but then last night I was looking at a very popular local challenge, 30 Days & 30 Nights. I was going to put it off, but I figured why not go for it now? January is half empty on the caching calendar so I'm going to have to cache a lot this month anyway. Add to that the fact that I intend to get a lot of unusual cache types soon (Letterboxes and Virtuals), and there aren't many around here I haven't done yet, then I should combine getting them with qualifying for the challenge. I made a start on the challenge after work today, getting a measly 7 out of the required 100, but hey, it's a start...

Spinnaker Tower

Living only a few miles away from Portsmouth, I think it's a bit of a crime that I haven't been up the Spinnaker Tower already, to be honest. I've certainly seen it from enough cache locations over the last few months.

I am a sucker for a skyscraper. Admittedly the Spinnaker Tower is a skyscraper in the very loosest sense of the word, but you don't get any taller in Hampshire. My true skyscraper dreams will become reality when I eventually get to visit New York and Dubai. I've been so close to the latter it almost hurts!

Football-themed cache...

I knew I was looking for a football-themed cache and the only conclusion I came to was that it was designed to look like a football. I was therefore surprised to find your bog-standard Tupperware box in a camo bag. But alas, remove the log book and what should you find but a pitch with two Lego footballers playing!

Treasured Trackables

Now I'm not massively into geocaching trackables. I enjoy finding Travel Bugs and Geocoins in caches and moving them on if possible, and if not, then just discovering them. I have to admit that I haven't found nearly as many trackables in Hampshire caches as in Welsh ones, but I don't really know why. Perhaps I was more likely to be a FTF, STF or TFT in Swansea so I would see trackables trying to get moving quickly.

Anyway, while I like to send off a Travel Bug or two once in a while - with or without a mission - I've learnt that Geocoins are more likely to go missing and so I only tend to buy coins that I want to keep hold of now. I'm not a Geocoin hoarder, by any stretch of the imagination, but I have twelve coins (well, two are tags) which I will not be parting company with. Cachers are more than welcome to discover them, however. Below is my rather pitiful collection!



1. 100 Cache Finds: to commemorate a wonderful cache I did in the United Arab Emirates at the heart of a maze in the city. It was called Amazin' Abu Dhabi.

2. 250 Cache Finds: not a particularly exciting cache itself, but I remember that I found it during my first ever geocaching event, Mollyjak Gets Her Bus Pass!

3. 500 Cache Finds: I will never forget the cache this commemorates - Wind Farm Wilderness with cheesescones and cloudspotter.

4. 1000 Cache Finds: To commemorate the 2011 Mega Event in my old home of Swansea. Fantastic in every way.

5. South Wales Geocachers Geocoin: I thought this coin was beautiful the moment I set eyes on it. I was a bit late in getting hold of one, but thankfully Matrix managed to get hold of one for me. Superb - not letting this one go, although I've seen one out on an adventure.

6. Mega Wales 2011 Geocoin: Pretty self-explanatory. Thanks to Daidragon for this one.

7. Dai Dragon's Marvin Geocoin: Again, thanks Daidragon. A stunning coin - very weighty! - with a photo of his gorgeous owl, Marvin, on the back. I've sent another version of this coin out on its travels.

8. X-Files Geocoin: Found a coin of this design in a cache down the Gower. As an X-Phile myself, I really wanted this coin! The reverse design is based on the famous "I Want To Believe" poster of Mulder's. I asked the owner where they got their coin and was directed to a German website from which I got my own copy.

9. Jeremy tag: Not letting this one go! Geocaching.com founder Jeremy Irish gave me his personal tag at Mega Wales 2011.

10. Raine tag: In conjunction with the Jeremy tag, this was given to me by Raine, another Groundspeak Lackey.

11. iPhone Geocoin: Discovered a coin like this at Mushroom Mike's Caching Foray and loved the design. Waited until I found a cheapish one on eBay and snatched one up for myself. I love the fact that instead of Apps, there are cache types! I use an iPhone for geocaching on occasion so it's particularly App.ropriate :P

12. BadgeGen Geocoin: To say that I am interested in my geocaching stats is an understatement. I regularly go back to BadgeGen to see how well I'm doing and which badge to focus on next. When I found they sold their own Geocoin (with free global postage!) I ordered one in from Canada immediately!

FTF Trophy!

Thought I would be particularly generous this time round and leave an engraved metal FTF trophy in the Half-Jasmer cache for the first finder. I am just hoping that this one doesn't go and get muggled straight away like my Cache of the Day underwater one. Absolutely gutting, especially the time and money I spent on it. I also hope there's no reason why it can't get published. I'll be off at the crack of dawn tomorrow to hide it, anyway, so all should go well!

Half-Jasmer ammo can contents

Just received permission from the Woodland Trust to place my cache in their land! Now this is where I can start getting excited - I've found a suitable (I hope) spot for my huge ammo can, and today I got myself several "stocking fillers" for the finders, to lure them into taking on the challenge. Just need to get myself a big Geocaching sticker and perhaps a trophy for FTF, then I can sneak out at the crack of dawn and place it!

Half-Jasmer ready to go!

Yesterday I made the mad decision to go caching fifty miles away (as the crow flies, so actually further). Why? One cache. The First King of England, Bath is my nearest cache to home which was placed in December 2002. A gaping hole in my Jasmer table, December 2002 needed colouring in. Now all that remains is all of 2000 and most of 2001. Technically this is all still possible to colour in, but most of these are not in this country let alone near Hampshire. But the reason why I wanted to do my Jasmer all the way back to January 2002 is because I have grand plans to make a challenge cache using a very large ammo can as the reward and I thought I ought not to be a hypocrite.

To be totally honest, it's been great fun doing my Jasmer - it's taken me to some fascinating places and most of the caches have been very good ones (hence why they have survived so long).

My plan is for cachers who want to claim this "Half-Jasmer Challenge" to find at least one cache from every month from January 2002 to December 2006 inclusive (60 months). It's a tough challenge, but I have found examples of caches from every required month in and around Hampshire for my challengers to go after, should they need inspiration.

Here's a map showing such examples of possible cache locations:

So the only thing standing in my way now is finding somewhere to actually put this cache!

Blue belt!

Well it has taken a while but I've at long last earned my BadgeGen blue belt in Geocaching! If GSAK is a geocacher's stat heaven, then BadgeGen is their raison d'etre. It's just a very colourful checklist and every new badge earned feels like a little victory to simple people like myself! Here is our checklist/trophy room.

So with the publication of my 20th cache hide, I have now met the requirements for the blue belt in geocaching: 1000+ finds, 20+ hides, 3+ events attended.

These belts grade in the same way karate/judo belts do (white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, red, brown, black) minus the purple and red. To go up another level and get my brown belt, I will first of all need to find 2000 caches, so perhaps I won't be earning this for a few months yet!

Growing fungi

Thank you Lil and Fay - my fungi are growing in number and look excellent by my bed. :D

Seven snails sleeping

I think most geocachers have come across a cache with a snail asleep on it, but imagine my surprise when I found a film canister with seven snoozing peacefully. Well technically there were only four on the cache, and the other three were on top of those four!

The quintessential toadstool

I remember when I thought that toadstools that were bright red with white spots were just fabrication invented for children's illustrations and cartoons. Then I discovered the highly toxic fly agaric. I seem to see it all the time now (well, it's very conspicuous!) but it's amazing just how many different types of fungi we walk past all the time, even if we don't go traipsing through strange woodlands on a regular basis.

Stonehenge / Woodhenge

I decided to pay a visit to the internationally famous Stonehenge in Wiltshire today and get a virtual cache there while I was at it. Now loads of people have heard of Stonehenge, but how much do you know about Woodhenge? If you're like me, the answer will be "very little"! There was a virtual cache there too though so I decided to learn about that site as well. Obviously the wood has had years to rot away (4000 approximately - some of it even pre-dates Stonehenge) but the site has been rebuilt with concrete posts instead. It's not quite as jaw-dropping as Stonehenge, but it's still worth a visit.

The cache listing for Woodhenge tells us a little about the history of this place: "Unlike Stonehenge, there was no central [altar] stone although this particular circle had a much more macabre centrepiece. One and a half metres from the actual centre, the skeleton of a child of about three years of age was exhumed from the chalk, its skull cleaved open in what was almost [certainly] a predetermined act. This, according to experts, is one of the very few pieces of evidence of human sacrifice in prehistoric Britain."

To make the visit more atmospheric, I saw both Stonehenge and Woodhenge in quite thick fog.