Dan Q
This checkin to GC4CFE3 Route Canal - Court View reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Battery was starting to get low on my phone, which I was using as my GPS and which I’d forgotten to properly charge before I left the office this afternoon, so I didn’t hunt for long… but I wonder if it might be missing, because that’s a few of us now that haven’t been able to spot it…
This checkin to GC3XVHG Route Canal - Plough View reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
A narrowboater had moored nearby and struck up a conversation with me as I parked my bike and sat on the bench near this cache. It’s a shame he was so friendly, because it gave me no opportunity to surreptitiously reach for the cache!
This checkin to GCN69F Never at Sea - Grog reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Took a diversion on my way home from work to try to get this and some of the Route Canal series. Unfortunately I failed at this, my first cache of the day, when I found that the location of the cache has somewhat turned into a building site – a bustle of workmen coming and going and where I THINK the cache is made inaccessible by a pile of construction materials. Shall try again another time.
This checkin to GLDTXPFT Route Canal - End of the Road reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
It’s been over a year since I’ve done a “serious” caching expedition, and the clue threw me for a while as I tried to dredge up an old memory of what it meant. Once I’d done that, it was easy… although I did have a moment of panic when I dropped the lid of the cache and (between batches of passing joggers) hunted for it on the floor, only to later discover that it had landed on my bike pannier rack.
This checkin to GLDTXPXH Route Canal - Wolvercote Lock reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
A quick and easy find as I cycled home to Kidlington up the Oxford canal.
Battery was getting really low now, so I decided that if I was only going to be able to manage one more cache between here and home, it ought to be a good one. GC3VJAT (“Duke’s Cut”) looked exciting, so I popped this cache back in its spot and sped off to the North.
This checkin to GLDTXP8T Route Canal - Oxford End reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Had to stretch to reach it! Nice cache.
Saw a rabbit skull while hunting in the wrong place.
This checkin to GLDT2A0Y Wreck this Logbook* reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Took my co-workers lizrosemccarthy and kateevery out on their first ever geocaching expedition, and this was their first ever find: what a great first-cache for anybody. Scrawled in the log, along with other vandalism which I’ll leave the others to describe. TFTC!
This checkin to geohash 2014-02-19 51 -0 reflects a geohashing expedition. See more of Dan's hash logs.
The edge of a field, south of Buckingham.
To commemorate the second anniversary of the death of my father – a keen hiker and cyclist, who was killed during a hiking accident while training for a trek to the North Pole – I thought the best thing to do would be to strike out somewhere random. And where could be more random than a geohash? This was also my first ever geohashing expedition, although I’d been meaning to do it for a long, long while. And so began the Peter Huntley Memorial Geohashing Expedition!
I cycled from Kidlington, near Oxford (in the next graticule over) via National Cycle Network Route 51, through Bicester and towards Milton Keynes. Early on, I had to ford a river which had broken its banks and flooded the cyclepath (and even saw a minnow swimming across the cycle lane – quite surreal!). Later, I had a minor whoopsie when I stayed on the cycle route too long and ended up in Steeple Claydon, on the wrong side of the Padbury Brook valley, but soon corrected it. I’d anticipated having to hop a fence to get to the hashpoint, but it turned out that the field – which had been left to fallow – didn’t have a fence, and I only needed to walk about thirty paces into it in order to reach the hashpoint.
In memory of my dad, I pulled out a drawing of him and drank a bottle of Guinness (his preferred drink after a long day’s cycle), and began to head back. But disaster struck! Somehow, raptors must have gotten to my bike tyre while I wasn’t paying attention, because it was completely slashed. Being that I was now at the furthest point from home in my planned journey, I pushed it to the nearby village of Hillesden in the hope of finding a shop that might sell me sufficient supplies to repair the puncture, but was without luck. I was now faced with a choice: I could continue pushing it home, and try to get to Bicester (a little over three hours walk away) before the bike shop there shut, or I could turn and walk the wrong way (away from home) towards Buckingham (only about an hour’s walk away), and hope that I’d be able to find supplies there.
I headed for Buckingham, but the students I spoke to when I passed the University campus suggested that there wasn’t a bike shop in town, but suggested a hardware store that might sell a bike pump (I’d since found a patch kit at a corner shop, although it was of course useless without a pump). But while looking for the hardware store, I discovered quite by accident Solstice Cycles, a wonderful little bike shop right in the heart of Buckingham (at the time, Google Maps on my phone had been completely unable to find me a bike shop at all). The man there switched out my inner tube in a jiffy (he agreed that it could well have been a raptor attack that had damaged it), and set me on my way.
Unwilling to add further to my diversion, I took a more-direct route back to Bicester, straight down the A4421, and I’m sure I must have agitated the motorists who weren’t used to seeing cyclists on such a major road. In Bicester, I ate the remains of my packed lunch before getting back onto the cyclepath home.
Total distance travelled: 57.75 miles; mostly cycled, but more than I’d have liked on foot. And a spectacular first geohash.
Wish you could’ve been there, dad.
This checkin to GLCDYQ4Z The Oldest Pub in Stirling reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found with fleeblewidget on the way to a nice beer with half of reaperfish. We’d have found it faster if we hadn’t met reaperfish, though, because he found this cache back in 2009 and was convinced that my GPSr was wrong when it pointed me pretty much exactly to where the cache was. Eventually, fleeblewidget and I (and the satellites) turned out to be right, of course. TFTC!
This checkin to GLCDYM4B A Stirling Sanctuary reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found with fleeblewidget while visiting my old friend (half of reaperfish), a local to this cache, for an evening of food and beer. A nice easy find, once we’d removed some of the wildlife that was clinging to the side of the cache! Didn’t have a pen with us, so I stuck a pair of googly-eyes onto the log: see photo of me holding the log with fresh eyes attached!
This checkin to GLCCC0DB Melting Mouth ~ Bath Time reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found with fleeblewidget while exploring along the lochside (and grabbing a few caches as we went), during a holiday to celebrate our anniversary. A very easy find during our little journey along the loch. fleeblewidget was getting tired at this point, and we’d both decided that we needed some lunch, so we resolved to find just one more cache after this one and then go and find ourselves some food in Kenmore.
This checkin to GLCCC0FF Melting Mouth ~ Another Scone Stop! reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found with fleeblewidget while exploring along the lochside (and grabbing a few caches as we went), during a holiday to celebrate our anniversary. A great little cache to end our adventure on, and go and find some lunch. Thanks for the series of caches (even those which, like this one, were a little damp!).
This checkin to GLCCC022 Melting Mouths ~ More Ben Views reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found with fleeblewidget while exploring along the lochside (and grabbing a few caches as we went), during a holiday to celebrate our anniversary. Gosh, it’s been a busy day for caching.
This checkin to GLCCC050 Melting Mouth ~ This One's For Enid reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found with fleeblewidget while exploring along the lochside (and grabbing a few caches as we went), during a holiday to celebrate our anniversary. Nice hide, and a fabulous spot that really does look like it could be a nest for faeries or pixies.
This checkin to GLCCC07V Melting Mouth ~ Cupcake reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found with fleeblewidget while exploring along the lochside (and grabbing a few caches as we went), during a holiday to celebrate our anniversary. fleeblewidget immediately saw the “big cupcake” and scrambled to it. Honestly: I couldn’t see the “cupcake” at all, even after she explained it to me. Doesn’t look like any cupcake I’ve ever seen!