Found the location and the hint object, but a thorough search did not reveal the cache. I think it might be missing, and the
previous log (erroneously tagged as if it were found but clearly indicating in the text that it was not, and therefore possibly in need of deletion?) implies the same.
(I initially assumed the cache must be here because if its recent “found” log – this is why its important to log DNFs! 🙄)
Anyway, thanks to CO and keeper for this cache. Without it, we wouldn’t have come up to this beautiful spot in the first place.
The geohound and I braved an explore of this litter-filled GZ but couldn’t spot a cache among the copious detritus before the whiny little thing started fighting to get back to the warm
of the car and to the rest of her “pack”. Maybe next time we pass by this way.
An extended search over two visits today by the eldest child and I couldn’t reveal this one. Very frustrating, given that it’s clearly there somewhere (CO performed maintenance just
yesterday!). We’re staying in a cabin a little way downstream, so we might find another opportunity to search again tomorrow, weather-permitting. 🤞
QEF while stopped for a confort break on a long journey North from Oxford. The dog wanted to go with the others into the services, but had to stay outdoors with me and hunt for the
cache. Solid hint!
I’m leaving Ireland a day late, from the wrong airport, and with one fewer functioning arm than I anticipated. It’s been quite the ride. I’ll be glad to get home.
(for those that are concerned: I’ve damaged my shoulder, possibly while slipping down a hill in search of a geocache or geohashpoint; so, y’know, the usual reason I get injured… but
I’ve got some physio instructions I’m supposed to follow, and I’ll be okay)
My mum and I have been visiting Ireland on a geohashing & geocaching expedition. We’d spotted this shamrock shape but it wasn’t in our operating zone so we didn’t get a chance to hunt
any of them, until today’s journey up to Knock airport saw us take a comfort break nearby, and we figured we’d come find this cache, at least.
I’m at a crossroads. Literally, not figuratively.
Found this well-maintained cache with no difficulty at all: I thoroughly approve of a cache that is hidden just barely enough to not be muggled, but not so much as to inconvenience a
geocacher who’s sometimes in a hurry! Nice work, FP awarded. TFTC.
I’ve never much gone for ‘challenge caches’. Mostly they just bug me when I fail to filter them off my map and only end up realising that I’m arbitrarily disallowed from logging them
when I’m already out and about.
So imagine my surprise when, stopping in town this misty morning on my way to Knock airport after a week of geohashing/geocaching along the West coast with my mother, I discovered by
chance that I’m actually eligible for it. I’ve cached plenty enough to meet the virtuals count but I couldn’t for the life of me name the six countries I’ve apparently found virtuals
in. Apparently I have, though, according to the checker, so I parked nearby and walked out here to find the cache.
Shall I sign the log? Oh, wait…
It didn’t take long before I spotted something suspicious and pulled it, and lo and behold, it was the cache. The lid is absent and the logbook missing, so I tore a bit off a bus ticket
from my wallet and wrote the usual bits on that before returning the cache to its hiding spot.
Guess I’ll just write this here.
I’m still not a big fan of challenge caches, but I enjoyed this cache for what it is nonetheless. Might need a new logbook and possibly a lid, though!
Despite having been hidden as recently as 2022, this “feels” like an old-school cache. A non-trivial offset, a real scramble through the terrain to find it, and a generous-sized
container at the other end. Back around 2010 many more caches felt like this, and in a way I miss them: being able to find a quick-and-easy traditional cache on every street corner is a
quick win, but it takes some of the satisfaction out of the old days when you’d expect an extended journey and hunt.
That said, our expedition to this cache was perhaps quite a lot harder than it needed to be. There’s a few reasons for that. The first reason is that we didn’t start out until the sun
was getting close to the horizon, which made searching for the first part hard and the second part – by which point we were using our phones as torches – extremely challenging. Another
challenge came from that first part, which was not where it ought to be: we found it on the floor, rather than hanging as indicated, some metres away from the correct location, and
having lost *both* of its NFC tags. Digging through the leaf litter eventually revealed one of the tags, and we’ve left it stacked with the board, but without being re-attached to its
tree it’s going to get lost again the next time the weather turns bad. Worth a look!
It took a long time to find our target at stage one. It took almost as long again to decode its data into a usable format.
The next challenge came from the encoding of the NFC tag. It’s possible to encode an NFC tag so that it says “this is text”, but the CO has encoded it to say “this is a URL”. As a
result, my phone insisted in trying to open the coordinates as a URL (stripping all space characters from it as it did so), leaving me to reverse-engineer it back to coordinates. And
then remembering how to convert my GPSr from DDM mode to Decimal so I could enter the coordinates in the right format. But I managed eventually. And wow: the CO wasn’t kidding when they
said this was on the opposite side of town!
My mum and I rushed across to the new location. Thankfully our first guess as to the place where we’d be able to park our car was correct, and we pressed on into the woods in the fading
light, tripping over branches and sploshing through streams as we tried to find out way by our phone torches alone. Getting close, we spiralled out, hunting for the cache. Eventually,
not helped by the hint (there are so many candidates!), and fearing our expedition at an untimely end, we hit the old logs, and found that the photo in log GL1A022W8 by macadonis to be
extremely helpful: even in the low light, we could see a hinted object and – after a little debate about which way we should be facing it – soon had the cache in hand. Hurrah!
We must’ve searched at the base of thirty or forty trees before we found the right one.
We signed the (proper size) log book and returned it as we found it. Thanks for a wonderful adventure; FP awarded for the effort that’s gone in to
making a cache that simultaneously felt both “modern” (with NFC tags) and “old school” (with the high effort-to-reward ratio, the challenging terrain, and the difficult hides). If stage
1 could be re-attached to its host and perhaps re-programmed to expose text, rather than URL, data, this cache could go from great to spectacular. TFTC!
After a boat tour of the bay and a delightful late lunch, my mum and I came out here to find this cache as the last of three muggles present were packing up. TFTC!
Found by my mother and I while exploring the area. What a beautiful estate, thanks for bringing us here. Log slightly damp but usable. TFTC.
Greetings from Oxfordshire and Lancashire, UK!
Two of us hunted for about 10 minutes without any luck. We found a the host object without difficulty and soon found a man-made hook upon touch we suspect the cache might once have
resided. Eventually we had to give up and move on. Nice location, but might need CO attention.
Like many others before us, we failed to find this cache. Based in the hint, we’re confident we were looking in thir right place. A real shame for it to be missing, but my mum and I
enjoyed this piece of art.
QEF for me and my mum during our flying visit to the town. Attached is a photo of us about to enter the Konami Code and see if it gives us extra lives or something.
