The first wayoint is right across the road from where some work colleagues and I are staying for an “away week”. I decided to dash out during a break in the weather to try and solve this multi between meetings. But I was quickly confused because… this isn’t the way I was taught to do Roman numerals. I’d always been told that you should never have four of the same letter in a row, e.g. you should say XIV, not XIIII. Once I’d worked out what I was doing wrong, though, I was okay!
The second and third waypoints had me braving some frankly scary roads. The drivers here just don’t seem to stop unless you’re super assertive when you step out!
Once I had the final numbers and ran it through geochecker I realised that the cache must be very close to where I’d had lunch earlier today! Once I got there it took me a while to get to the right floor, after which the hint made things pretty obvious.
Great trail, really loved it. And just barely made it back before the rain really started hammering down. TFTC, FP awarded, and greetings from Oxford, UK!
Easy find while out for a ride, breaking in my new bike. Great ride, aside from the mayflies, which I must’ve ingested about a million of! As others have observed, the logbook has soaked to the point of disintegration and could do with replacement. Thanks though for a cache I’ve probably driven, walked out cycled past a hundred times before actually stopping to find it.
My GPSr dropped me next to a far older bit of architecture than the one that hosts the cache, but found after a short search. I’m staying nearby as part of a charity hackathon for a nonprofit I’m involved with, but came out for a walk and an explore while between other tasks. SL, TFTC.
My evening just freed up, so – weather-permitting – I might brave the sleet and cold and cycle out to this hashpoint this evening.
Expedition
Our dog had surgery at the start of the week and has now recovered enough to want a short walk, so I changed my plan to cycle for one to drive (with the dog) out to somewhere near the hashpoint and take her for a walk to and around it. Amazingly, I might have been faster to cycle: a crash on the A40 had lead to lots of traffic being re-routed along the exact same back roads that was to be my most-direct route, and on the local rat run through South Leigh I got trapped behind a line of folks who weren’t familiar with this particular unlit and twisty road and took the entire derestricted section at an average of 25mph. Ah well.
Out of laziness, I didn’t bring my GPSr or make a tracklog; I just used the Geohashdroid app and took a screenshot when I got there. South Leigh Common is pleasant, but it was dark, and my photos are all a little bit hard to make out! But the stars were beautiful tonight, and the dog loved one of her first outings since her surgery and enjoying running around in the long wet grass and sticking her head into rabbit holes. At 19:00 precisely I got within about a metre and a half of the hashpoint – well within the circle of uncertainty – and turned to head home.
I also took the time while there to update OpenStreetMap by drawing in the boundaries of the common, replacing the nondescript “point” that had marked it before.
Photos
Proof from Geohashdroid
Silly grins in the dark from a man and his dog
Long exposure, with flashlight on, showing the hashpoint and the Common beyond
Found with the elder geokid plus my mother and sister while on a layover in Preston to break up our journey from Aviemore to Oxford. We’re getting to visit quite a few some circles this half term, both old and new plus some old-but-restored, many of which have earthcache or virtual caches!
Thanks for the geology lessons and the interesting location. Answers sent already, FP awarded, TFTC.
Travelling down from Aviemore to Preston on a multi-stage journey back home to Oxfordshire, we stopped off at the visitor centre and took the tour of the wind farm. My 6 year old loves wind turbines and was really excited to see so many in one place and to get the opportunity to give one (turbine #42) a hug (pictured)!
The tour complete, I took a quick jog back to turbine #40 to find this geocache. As others have noted, it’s in bad nick – no container and damp log – but I was (barely) able to sign it.
Ruth, the kids and I love a good stone circle. This one’s in better condition than the one nearest our house (for which I’m CO to the Virtual, GC88ZY9!). We chanced it and counted the stones twice but luckily got two different answers – phew! – before proceeding to Long Meg. Loved the original carvings and quickly found the requisite more-recent addition; message to follow with the answer. Thanks for a lovely virtual.
A quick find while exploring the city after spending a few days meeting work colleagues from around the globe. Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK! TFTC/DFDC!
Carl Auer, Freiherr von Welsbach is, of course, best known as the inventor of the gas mantle, but he also isolated two previously-undiscovered chemical elements.
Saw the cache almost right away but had to stand around for a while pretending to read something on my phone while muggles passed by. SL, TFTC. Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK.
The second spectacular cache I’ve found from this CO. Absolutely amazing. Coordinates got me close, but it was only when I started looking around that I spotted something that didn’t look quite right and found the cache. Amazing work, FP awarded.
Superb cache, my favourite in Vienna so far. Love the design; I might try to make one like this back in Oxfordshire, UK upon my return! FP awarded.
Coordinates put me exactly where I needed to be. Fortunately I had exactly what I needed to retrieve the cache: it’s something I always carry when I’m caching anyway!
I’ve been in Vienna for a week to meet work colleagues, and today – our meetings at an end and still with a few hours before my plane leaves – I decided to come out and find some local geocaches.
At the GZ there were lots of good hiding places so I reached over and around. In a few seconds my fingers touched the cache. Great!
But then – disaster! As others have observed, the magnets in this cache aren’t the strongest and it bounced free. It fell a long, long way! I rushed across the road and down to the lower level to grab it. Luckily the cache container was unharmed, so I signed the log as I carried it back to up its hiding place. What an adventure!
FP awarded for the cool container and hiding place, and for the fun story you helped me tell. Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK. TFTC!
