This checkin to GC23P6J Badge Cache Capel Madog reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Glad to hear you found it, cardi88, and that it’s still there (after getting a series of DNFs, I was worried it might have been plundered!). Maybe I should step the difficulty up by a half-star.
Looking Back
On this day in 2003 I wrote a short blog post about a very important event in the lives of two of my friends. This was the end of the week during which Fiona came down to visit us in Aberystwyth: the week where she first met Kit in person. And the week where they became a couple.
In my blog post at the time that it had been a long time since I’d seen Kit so happy. Normally a reasonably controlled and sedate young man, his mood this week could be better described as “bouncing off the walls”. He’d had a hard few months of unemployment, and the contrast in his mood was spectacular. I also noted at the time that I’d never seen Kit so loved-up: the closest I’ve ever seen him to that sickening lovey-dovey phase that many new couples go through was at about that time.
Kit wrote about the event, too, in his usual charming style; almost downplaying the significance of this awesome event by starting the post with a deadpan explanation, “Well its been an interesting few days. Somewhat busy too – which explains at least partially the lack of posts.”
Looking Forward
Kit & Fiona married in October 2004, and the same folks who’d been around when they first got together made a spectacular road trip all the way to the North of Scotland for the wedding. They still live in Scotland, and we see a lot less of them than we would like. They came down to Aberystwyth early this year, though, and introduced us all to geocaching, for which nobody has yet forgiven them.
This blog post is part of the On This Day series, in which Dan periodically looks back on years gone by.
This checkin to GL3X4Q1E Windows in the West reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
I got a call from reaperfish this evening, who had come out looking for this cache but had some problems finding it. We worked together: me from my desk with maps, photos, and the cache description, and him in the field (literally) to find this cache, and he insisted that he be allowed to write my username in the log, too. So here I am. Not sure I deserve the credit for this, but TFTC: I hope to see it “in person” someday (after all, I now know the area like the back of reaperfish’s hand)!
This checkin to GC24CMJ Cyfarchion gan The Blorenges. reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Thanks for a fun evening, everybody! Sorry I had to dash so early – hope you all kept the party going and had a brilliant time.
Was great to meet so many of the local caching crew, up until now who I’d only known by their usernames on the logs.
This checkin to GC24CMJ Cyfarchion gan The Blorenges. reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Have a few travel bugs I’ll be bringing along…
This checkin to GL3JA7CW Barking up the Wrong Tree reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
I was just on an Easter Egg hunt up in the woods, when pacifist_049 (who was hiding my egg) gave me the clue that my egg was hidden “near Barking Up The Wrong Tree”, so obviously the best way to find my hidden egg ws to pull out my GPSr and first find this wonderful, devious little cache. TFTC.
This checkin to GL3J9DE3 Coast Path Caper reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Came up here for a walk and, while on the way, thought I’d check if the cache (which I failed to find after it’s recent muggling) had been replaced. It had! I checked in the “obvious place”, which I’m guessing is where it used to live, and then a brief search later, found it. TFTC.
This afternoon, like last year, we took the opportunity to spend Easter Sunday hiding one another’s Easter eggs in the woods and then running around looking for them.
For some reason, this year Rory didn’t want me to be responsible for hiding his egg (something to do with his eventually being found up a tree, last year), so I ended up hiding Adam‘s, instead. I didn’t even put much effort into it: just propped it on a branch. This turned out to be a bad hiding place because Adam walked right back past it on his way back from hiding JTA‘s egg.
Paul, meanwhile, hid my egg. He did a pretty good job of it, too, and eventually had to give me a couple of clues. “It’s near Barking Up The Wrong Tree,” he said, knowing perfectly well that this was a geocache that I hadn’t yet hunted for. I pulled out my GPSr and found the cache, and then started looking for my egg in the vicinity.
In a particularly special bit of hiding, Rory managed to hide Matt P‘s egg so well that he himself couldn’t find it again. Eventually we all had to help hunt for Matt’s lost egg. Rory had helpfully taken a photo of the egg in it’s hiding place, but this photo was ultimately useless because it depicted nothing more distinctive than “a wood”, which we were unable to see for all of the trees. I suppose that if we were trying to get to a particular spot and then ascertain that we were in the right place, it would be useful, except for that fact that being in the exact right place would probably have been pretty obvious by the time we were standing on top of an Easter egg.
Finally, Adam basically “tripped over” the hidden egg, and all was well.
All in all, it was a fabulous afternoon out, and a great way to work off all the calories of Ruth‘s most-excellent Easter lunch (and just in time to be able to scoff down cakes and chocolate later in the afternoon).
In other news:
This checkin to GC255Y6 Theta reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
I, too, had thought on ocassion about putting a cache here, but changed my mind after seeing what the weather can be like. Took a look today, no luck. Sbhaq n zntarg, ohg ab pnpur.
This checkin to GL3G28QA A Tight Squeeze reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found with restlessboy and fleeblewidget after an extended search: not in the most obvious place! Met thebuttonmushroom and hunted with her, after which she gave us a hint on “Cardiff’s Bouncy Bridge, which we’d taken a quick look for and failed to find earlier in the day.” Nice container! TFTC.
This checkin to GL3G29YC Cardiff Rivers #4 Taff-Ely-Rhymney - City Hall reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found with fleeblewidget and restlessboy. Nice little hide! No picture in the cache, though (or did I misunderstand the description).
This checkin to GC1RGNM Cardiff,s "bouncy" bridge reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Despite a hint from thebuttonmushroom, STILL didn’t manage to find this elusive cache. Rainy and full of muggles, so gave up. A hint on the page would have been nice!
This checkin to GL3FWKWW PC-001 Costly Culvert reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
The ninth cache of the day for fleeblewidget and I, this wonderfully well-concealed cache wasn’t even on the same side of the road as we started looking on, thanks to GPS signals scattering off the trees. Great cache.
This checkin to GL3FWM7G CAT1 - Bridge2Bridge - The Pool reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
On our way back from the excellent “PC-001 Costly Culvert”, it began to rain, and we considered just going straight home… but then we noticed a few more caches on the way and we couldn’t resist hunting for one or two more before we called it a day. This cache was the tenth of the day for fleeblewidget and I, and we needed the hint before we worked out where we were looking. A very imaginative cache, I’m very impressed!
Don’t be put off by the civil engineers building… whatever it is they’re building… at the moment, they’re not in the way and they’re not really paying attention to people looking for geocaches.
Also; this cache probably ought to have the “public restrooms nearby” attribute, as there’s a toilet right next to it!
This checkin to GL3FWMQ0 Sidetracked - Wallingford reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
The eleventh and final cache for the day for fleeblewidget and I. By now the rain had really started to fall and it had begun to get dark, so our search was a little more frantic than usual. Found the cache with little difficulty, but the log is pretty much soaked and part of the… “mechanism used to hide the cache”… is damaged and it may not last much longer: urgently needs maintenance.
TFTC; looking at the locomotives in the nearby engine yard was the perfect way to end today’s expedition.