Dan Q

Kind: Checkins

Dan Q found GLGNMRRK Where are all the apples?

This checkin to GLGNMRRK Where are all the apples? reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Didn’t plan on geocaching today, but after I ran early on my journey into London for a meeting at Westminster Abbey, I thought I’d come out and find this one. Didn’t have my GPSr, but my phone managed to deliver me to exactly the right spot for a reasonably easy find. TFTC!

Dan Q found GLGNNFWF Jeremy Bentham

This checkin to GLGNNFWF Jeremy Bentham reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

My meeting at Westminster Abbey finished marginally sooner than I’d expected, giving me time to find one more London cache before getting on a tube at St. James (and eventually onto a bus back to Oxford). I opted for this one, and spent a little while looking at exactly the hiding place while I waited for a man having a smoke right in front of it to finish and wander off! Bit of a tight squeeze out of and into the hiding place, but not a hard find. TFTC!

(My 300th find!)

Dan Q found GLGJ74TY villaflou

This checkin to GLGJ74TY villaflou reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Je parle un peu le français. Je me excuse pour la rédaction du présent en anglais.

I have been staying in La Tania on a ski holiday with friends and family. This morning, I fell and her my neck, so I thought I’d take a break from skiing and do some geocaching instead. The hike down the valley was hard in the fresh dump of snow, and I wished that I’d brought snowshoes! Or poles! Our even a rope! I routinely found myself wading through knee-high snow, and I’d ocassionally have to traverse drifts that came up to my thigh. I was very glad to reach the convenient break point of La Nouva, where I stopped to chat to a small yappy dog before pressing on.

Villaflou itself is beautiful: I especially love the cute little chapel at its heart. I spent some time investigating the wrong thing, looking for the cache, before eventually working out where it might be. Only the 5th person to find it!

On the way back to La Tania (an even more arduous hike by a different route that I thought would be easier but truly wasn’t) I was distracted by two French ladies calling me over. They were lost, having taken a wrong turn, and – perhaps as a result of them being 4 and 6 months pregnant, respectively – were finding it very hard to push themselves up the mountainside against what was now ocassionally waist-deep snow. Naturally I came to their rescue, using my GPSr to lead them up to the path they sought: a further arduous journey of pushing, pulling, digging, and crawling until we finally reached the outskirts of La Tania and they were assured of their safety.

Four hours of hiking in snow, sometimes up to my waist and rescuing two lost hikers makes this perhaps the hardest I’ve ever worked for a geocache. And I loved it.

FP awarded. SL. MPLC/TFTC!

Dan Q posted a note for GC5H8YX Boundary Brook: The Mouth of the Brook

This checkin to GC5H8YX Boundary Brook: The Mouth of the Brook reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

So pleased to see that this – an extension to my favourite series within the Oxford ring road – exists. Looking forward to an expedition to it as soon as I can manage it. I suspect that my friend lizrosemccarthy might beat me there though: she might even get FTF, as this cache is almost on her doorstep!

Dan Q found GLG6FQM4 Constellations 9

This checkin to GLG6FQM4 Constellations 9 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

The last stop of presquevu and I’s Constellations adventure, as #10 wasn’t showing on my GPSr (as it was out of service the last time I synchronised this area of the county) and the eleventh, #12, eluded us. Glad we found this one, though: our coordinates were about 14m out but the hint set us right and we soon had the cache in hand. Thanks!

Dan Q found GLG6FQ40 Constellations 4-9

This checkin to GLG6FQ40 Constellations 4-9 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

As presquevu continued our adventure around the Constellations series, we got close to this cache… only to find that we were not only in the wrong field, but on the wrong side of the road! We found ourselves a gate (and a great possible hiding place for a cache!) and made our way across the road, where we found a likely-looking footpath to get us to the GZ. But alas, as others have noted, the footpath came to a gradual halt and looks like it’s been out of service for some time.

We made our way back to the road and there found a convenient spot at which there was a gap under the fence. We slid under (unconcerned in our already-muddy state about getting a little extra dirt on us), found our way to the location, and quickly found the cache. Not a bad hiding place, all things considered… but perhaps the description and/or hint need updating to reflect the fact that it’s not so simple to get there, any more!

 

Dan Q found GLG6FMEM Constellations 4

This checkin to GLG6FMEM Constellations 4 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Glad to see the “danger” and “no kids” tags on this one, but presquevu and I were surprised to see that it, like the others in this series, recommend that they’ve visited on a clear night! Being out here at night, on foot, sounds to me like a good way to get hit by one of the many cars and trucks on this busy and dangerous road!

Like some others – according to the logs – we spent some time on the wrong side of the road with this one, and when we eventually opted to take the hint it didn’t help us much until we’d already given up and were about to walk away. Found the cache in the end, but that felt like a lot of effort and a great deal of danger for the payoff!

 

Dan Q found GLG6FNFT Constellations 6

This checkin to GLG6FNFT Constellations 6 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Excellent container: one of the best I’ve seen of its type! The lid for the container had been forced on backwards by a previous finder and way slightly stuck, but we managed to pry it loose (and returned it, of course, reassembled correctly). Despite the fact that it hadn’t rained for a couple of days, presquevu and I had already found ourselves slipping on some of the muddier slopes, but nothing could have prepared us for the muddy deluge at the nearby truck turning spot! We splashed through and found ourselves more than a little mucky, for it, but the walk was worthwhile nonetheless.