Dan Q couldn’t find GC4YR26 Welcome to SCGC: grab a ham sandwich or some pasta

This checkin to GC4YR26 Welcome to SCGC: grab a ham sandwich or some pasta reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

No luck despite an extended hunt. Pretty confident that I know where it is, but my fingers are neither slim nor nimble enough to retrieve it.

Dan Q found GCFEE8 Great America Station

This checkin to GCFEE8 Great America Station reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

I’m attending a conference next door so I stepped out at lunchtime – braving the heat! – to find this cache. I spent a while looking in all the wrong places but it wasn’t until I stepped way, way back that I spotted something that looked like it didn’t belong, and seconds later the cache was in my hand. (The thing it’s in contact with is painfully hot to touch in this weather, though!)

Greetings from Oxford, UK. TFTC!

Dan Q found GCRJA8 Double Secret Trailhead

This checkin to GCRJA8 Double Secret Trailhead reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

My first US cache: greetings from Oxford, UK. I’m over here for a conference and a little sightseeing and as I woke early this morning (my internal clock still thinks it’s in Britain despite my incredibly long day off travelling, yesterday!) I figured I’d walk from my hotel to the conference centre and pick up a couple of caches on the way. I made a cache of my own in a similar style to this, recently (GC86MHH/OK04AC) but yours is way more resilient-looking. SL, TNLN, FP for being my first cache on this continent (and for it reminding me of one of my own!).

Dan alongside Calabazas Creek

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Dan Q found GC29M68 Virgin Mary’s Guard

This checkin to GC29M68 Virgin Mary's Guard reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Found after a brief hunt. The hint had me searching on the wrong side of the hedge – this one is definitely best appoached from the car park, not the road, as others have observed. Greetings from the UK. TFTC.

Dan with a 30-foot statue of the Virgin Mary in the background.

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Dan Q found GC6A6R5 Six Summits Challenge #5

This checkin to GC6A6R5 Six Summits Challenge #5 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Second of the two caches I set out to find this morning after spending last night at nearby Wilderhope Manor to celebrate my partner’s husband’s sister’s wedding. This leg of the walk was especially beautiful, providing a fabulous view of the valley in the morning sunshine before the drizzle began, a little after 08:00. Cache was one of those where my geo-sense was tingling as soon as I was in the vicinity and the cache was soon in hand.

Cache’s pencil missing, found in bad condition nearby and returned to the container but I opted to sign the logbook with my pen rather than chance its structural stability!

Thanks for this and #6 in the series. I’d love the opportunity to return to the area and complete them all, but for now I have to get back to the Manor, have some breakfast, and begin my journey back to Oxfordshire. FP awarded for the care and attention that’s clearly gone into these caches.

Sunshine over the valley

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Dan Q found GC6A6RR Six Summits Challenge #6

This checkin to GC6A6RR Six Summits Challenge #6 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

After attending the wedding of my partner’s husband’s sister and their reception at the nearby National Trust/YHA property Wilderhope Manor yesterday, I woke up early this morning with an inclination to get out into the open air. Aftereffects of the previous night’s party still slowing me down, I hiked out to the cache location along the delightful Shropshire Way and found the container without difficulty. Cache is in great condition despite the recent weather. SL, TFTC.

Note #14917

The 5 year-old and the 2 year-old are playing at running a veterinary surgery (the 5 year-old’s department) and animal shelter (the 2 year-old’s department).

Annabel and John playing vets

The 5 year-old’s filled me in on the tragic backstory of this particular establishment: she and the 2 year-old are twins but were orphaned soon after birth. They were adopted by different families but then those families all died, too, and because everybody else in the world already had children there was nobody to adopt them and so they had to look after themselves. 67 years of schooling later, at age 15 (maths might need some work…), the pair of them decided, at the end of secondary school, that their shared love of animals meant that they should open a vet/shelter, and so they did.

When they’re not busy fitting collars for unicorns or treating yet-another-outbreak of canine chickenpox, they’re often found patrolling the streets and shouting “does anybody have any sick or injured animals?”. Except during naptime. Their work has a naptime, of course. (I wish my work had a naptime.)

It’s a tough job. Sometimes animals need quarantining in the safe. Sometimes you’ve got to fit an elderly crocodile with false teeth. Sometimes you’ve got a hippo whose owner says that it thinks it’s a duck, but thanks to your years of training you’re able to diagnose as actually thinking it’s a goose. Sometimes it’s a swan that won’t stop vomiting, or a snail that lost it’s shell and now has diarrhoea. It’s hard work, but the twins find it rewarding.

Imaginative play rocks.

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Review of Kidlington Green Gardens

This review of Kidlington Green Gardens originally appeared on Google Maps. See more reviews by Dan.

Basic green space unfortunately bordered on all sides by moderately-busy roads, giving the area the feel of a traffic island. Trees are decorated each Christmas, and cycle racks are available, but no other amenities to speak of. More a passing-through place than anything else.

Review of Gosford Hill [bus stop]

This review of Gosford Hill originally appeared on Google Maps. See more reviews by Dan.

No shelter or seating, but this is principally a “dropping-off” point for passengers coming from Oxford and so that’s fine. Bus stop is in layby to mitigate disruption to other traffic.

Review of Gosford Hill [bus stop]

This review of Gosford Hill originally appeared on Google Maps. See more reviews by Dan.

Shelter, but no seating. No digital display board, and it could really benefit from one. Bus stopping area is a layby in order to reduce impact on traffic. Rubbish bin, but no recycling facilities.