GC1HA7W: Motorway Mayhem - Deja Vu

Found on 2009-12-27 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Team Balders
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 2)
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1HA7W

This cache marks the end of a months caching drought for us! I don't know what it is about Christmas but things just get busy and before you know it you're gorging yourself on roast dinner with turkey and Terry's chocolate oranges.

We did this on a drive back through Corley to my mums house in Bedworth. Good location for a quick Cn'D, also had 2 TBs but sadly due to the small size of the container they wouldn't fit in.

Dipping Rav4 TB.

GC1HZX7: Astley micro

Found on 2009-12-27 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Barking Frog
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1HZX7

After the muddy adventure of the last cache (Seeswood Search GC2103E) I was just barely able to convince Mrs Fitz to stop for this last one to make it #200. As we parked on the grass opposite I asked her if she wanted to search with me and she replied rather sullenly only if I looked up the hint before we got out the car.

Well, it was quite an adventure making our way across the road in the dark I can tell you - we really had to concentrate on listening for cars as well as looking out for the tell-tale headlights. Took a while to search for this one in the dark as the coords were a bit fuzzy and seemed to point to the log that looks like a bench out front. I let the wife search the location whilst I was looking elsewhere but her normally sharp geosense had failed her on this occasion and I found it when she moved over and let me get in.

Thanks for the adventure! Dipping Rav4 TB.

GC2103E: Seeswood Search

Found on 2009-12-27 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Hillhappy1
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC2103E

We were now headed back home to Watford after a few days with the family in Bedworth so this was the 3rd cache of the day but 2nd night cache after Bring on the Clowns (GC226RE).

We were driving via Arbury Road and looking at the GPSr I could see it was going to be 1/2 a km so maybe half an hour, so it wasn't much to convince the wife to stop and do this one. However, picking the middle of the night in the middle of winter is not the smartest time to do this cache.

Parked in the suggested location and worried a bit about leaving the car but it proved ok in the end. We headed down the logical footpath thinking this was probably going to be an easy trek, but then the footpath abruptly ends and leads you into a giant muddy field! It was my stupid idea to follow the stream around the edges of the field so we got out feat and jeans thoroughly muddy and soaked through. Not so much a problem for me wearing worn out boots, but for my wife who cried out "I'm not wearing the right shoes for this! These are my best boots!" Being the good sport she is, she was happy to carry on, it was a bit late now anyway since they were already caked with mud.

Then I finally had a lightbulb moment and decided to try the middle of the field which wasn't so bad, it was wet but the ground didn't suck you in with squelches as you moved over it - also we avoided the hazard of the electrified fence which my wife was kind enough to point out before I grabbed it for balance.

After crossing into the next field and going through one more muddy patch we finally made our way towards this nicely placed cache. It was a beautiful night at least, clear sky and the moon providing much of the light for us. We could see the outline of the trees on the horizon of the next field, unfortunately we don't have a good enough camera to capture the moment - but there's an idea for next Christmas!

Took the Florida Travel Bear TB, unfortunately, due to the small size of this cache I was unable to leave any of the TBs I had with me, but it was an enjoyable trek nonetheless! TFTC!

GC226RE: Bring on the Clowns

Found on 2009-12-27 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Hillhappy1
Size: Small (Difficulty: 2.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC226RE

Arrived at my mums house on Christmas Day and in the evening I managed to steal some time to check out caches in the local area. Surprised to see this puzzle has appeared nearby so I knew I had to have a go at it - which didn't prove too difficult in the end, we even managed to guess a couple without Going Out Or Getting Lost If Not Good ANSWERS.

Anyway, did this one in the dark, parked at the beginning of the road which it outside a farm where I used to deliver a paper on my paper round. This used to be the hardest part of my paper round because I'd deliver all round Collycroft estate, then I'd have to cycle or walk all the way up Coventry / Nuneaton Rd to deliver one paper to this farm and one to a house across the road. I even remember when Bermuda was just a waste ground before they built the Cinema, Fitness club, pubs and restaurants. It was quite exciting for us Bedworth folk at the time, especially since I was still a teenager and still didn't have a car. Yeah so this cache brought back some memories oddly enough.

Anyway, you can tell the hider of this cache is real clown.... thanks for giving me and my wife a cache that made us laugh. [:o)]

Amazon Wishlist

Well, just in case you were feeling generous....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/1MURBITZMDZV1

OpenStreetMap for Short Trips and Holidays with GPS

Last week I took my wife to Prague Where we enjoyed the Christmas markets and caught up with our Czech friends.

I had brought my Garmin along with Western Europe maps installed looking forward to trying out a few of the caches there. To my surprise, but more to my ignorance, The Western maps do not seem to extend as far as the Czech Republic, so there I was looking at a blank map background.

Thankfully, I did manage to pack the trusty netbook, and the hotel had a free wired Tubes connection so I fired it up and got looking for an OpenStreetMap image file.

A few minutes of googling and I was able to find this site, which provided a free routable gmapsupp.img file of the Czech Republic. Simply connected my Garmin, renamed the original gmapsupp.img and replaced it with this one and we were up and running with routable street names in no time!

the OSM wiki actually maintains a list of Garmin download sites around the world, which is perfect if you're ever planning a short/holiday trips and don't want to fork out for expensive proprietary maps.

I hadn't really got interested in the OSM project before now, but I must admit, it makes me feel like getting my GPSr out and contributing if I find some spare time.


View Larger Map

GC18YJ0: Tancici Dum / Dancing House

Found on 2009-12-05 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Luckyn
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC18YJ0

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Our friends Radek and Marcie were visiting from Eastern Czech Rep. for the day brought us to the Dancing House and I noticed there was a cache here!

Really like the architecture of the city and this is a such a unique and twisted building!

Great cache container too - not a micro, though was a bit concerned about the loose magnet and the cover which looked as though it would pop off at any moment (but it seems to hold).

I had a TB to leave but one of the old log books was too large and taking up room so I took this out and now have it my possession - will email the CO.

IN: Catamaran TB
OUT: Logbook

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1F804: Haskova rodna hrouda

Found on 2009-12-05 at 20:00:00
Placed by: flyalot
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC1F804

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Last cache in Prague on the way back to our hotel.

It's amazing what places you are unaware of when visiting a foreign city, thanks for the history write up (I used Google translate).

Cache was easy to find under cover of darkness. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCT7GM: United Islands of Prague No.6

Found on 2009-12-05 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Dorcadion Team
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GCT7GM

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Our last day in Prague. Our friends Radek and Marcie visited us from the Eastern side of Czech Rep. for the day. They took us over the West side of the City to see the views and we showed them this geocache and explained the sport.

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCYYE5: Old Limnigraph

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Mel-Man
Size: Small (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GCYYE5

[font=Trebuchet Ms]I was a bit confused at first because I thought we were looking for a small size container, but this was soon located after using a bit of geosense.

Thanks for showing us an interesting building and a bit of history, log was a bit damp.

Dipping Catamaran TB (too big to drop), TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC10677: #1 Reynevan w Czechach / Bohuslavsky spital

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: RaRoch
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC10677

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Last one of the evening. GPSr took a while to settle but did eventually take us to the right place.

Not so pleasant hunt for this cache, it evaded us for a while until feeling around Mrs Fitz finally laid her fingers on it.

FYI, your En hint translation is garbled, but good work on translating the description. I have never heard of Reynevan but at least it helps to make sense of the placement of this cache.

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC14WV8: Terezka

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: termiter.cz
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC14WV8

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Very interesting out-of-the way bit of Prague history! It's too bad that this fountain is not well kept, but at least the original is safe.

The cache didn't elude us for long, like the camo job on this! A large tourist group turned up just as we were signing the log so had to wait a while and use stealth whilst replacing it.

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC189E5: Prague bridges 1 - Karluv most

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Benjo5
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC189E5

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Another good camo effort on this one. Easily found by looking for something that seems slightly out of place.

Thanks for the write-up on the history of the bridge. I remember watching the floods of the river a few years ago during that bad winter. It's nice that this bridge has been standing all these hundreds of years and is a testament to the effort and work of the original builders.

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC19TTC: RIVERSIDE

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Mistr Dp.man
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 2)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC19TTC

[font=Trebuchet Ms]GPSr was sending us all over the place until it finally settled next to the sign-pole. We looked around the wall and any holes we could find but found nothing.

Then I suggested to Mrs Fitz we try another place, since we've done a few caches like this now - and it turned out to be another cleverly hidden cache, but these no longer escape us now!

Didn't see any of the TBs listed. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1AHY3: Stavovske divadlo / The Estates Theatre

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Mistr Dp.man
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC1AHY3

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Took us a while to find this one as the batteries were low in the Garmin and it was sending us all over the place.

A quick look at the hint and a bit of thinking, soon had the cache in hand.

Thanks for showing us the Theatre and the bit of history behind it![font=Verdana]

GC1GZK1: Prazske legendy - O kostlivci s hrebem v hlave

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: M+B adopted krtekgps
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC1GZK1

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Found this one on the way to the castle, we didn't venture in to search for the skeleton however as it was getting a little dark and we still had some places we wanted to visit.

Another great story that we wouldn't have known about, if we get the chance we may come back to explore this more.

Cache was extracted easily enough. Few lurkers around but they didn't really notice us or what we were doing. It's easy to pretend you're looking at the information board! TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1WAB7: Jindrich a Maria

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Mel-Man
Size: Small (Difficulty: 3.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC1WAB7

[font=Trebuchet Ms]

[

We attempted this one last night, but didn't realise it was actually in the tower itself! Amazing because in the UK I know a cache like this would never get published, bravo!

We paid at the door and took a trip to the top too see the view of all Prague. We then made our way down the steps and started looking once we got below the restaurant level. However, this was tricky with little info to go on for us English speakers.

It was then that I wondered if the hint had been lost in translation, and so we headed back up the steps and after a little searching in the right places, located the cache!

On the way down we checked out the large nativity scenes that had been created with all the tiny models - such a great display.

IN: Garmin Visit UK GC, Moscow Russia Ingot GC, Speedy Slug GC.
OUT: Nothing

Thanks for bringing us here!

FOR ENGLISH SPEAKERS: Out of courtesy I will offer a better English translation of your hint encrypted here if that's ok:

]

Above restaurant level, not under.[font=Verdana]

[This entry was edited by _TeamFitz_ on Friday, December 11, 2009 at 1:49:43 PM.]

GCF496: Cache my Czech (Prague)

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: CARGOLAX
Size: Virtual (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GCF496

[font=Trebuchet Ms]I've been to Prague 3 times and I still haven't figured out why people come up and touch the dog and the boy who seems to be falling into the waters..... it would be nice to have a write up on this cache page!

FWIW I think all the tourists touching these spots are daft and have always refused to do it myself. I always think wouldn't it be funny if someone came along overnight and washed and scrubbed the whole plates so there was no shiny spots anymore?

Anyway, I think I'll google that now and find out what's going on here![font=Verdana]

GCKN5P: Vaclavak / Wenceslas square

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Bludicka & Pitr & Jita
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 4 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GCKN5P

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Found easily, a few roamers around but much trickier to put back.

Great view of Wenceslas Square. I took watch and made sure none of the lurkers were looking whilst Mrs Fitz replaced the cache.

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCVNTM: Prague Tribute

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Saman
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GCVNTM

[font=Trebuchet Ms]We bought our tickets but decided to view see the video before going up which filled us in on the great history of of the Charles Bridge, I never realised the significance of the number of crabs, King Charles motivation for building the bridge and the importance of St Vitus.

The cache was not too difficult to find, great view from here, I have been up the tower before but never realised there was a cache here before I started Geocaching.

Didn't see the GC listed in the cache, sorry.

IN: Dave & Jens Prague GC
OUT: Nothing
Dipped: Camo Duck TB, Teach Me History (just too large to leave)

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCWH1A: Smallest House of Prague

Found on 2009-12-04 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Mel-Man
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GCWH1A

[font=Trebuchet Ms]This was much more difficult to find than I think is intended.

The GPSr was leading us all over the place, till it finally settled on the right spot, however, we didn't have much time to search as a group of lurkers came out of the nearby pub for a 20 minute smoke and chit chat.

We waited up the road, thankfully they didn't notice us and as soon as they were finally gone back inside we headed to the spot and shortly after found the cache. Nice to see another non-micro container but still a bit too small for the TBs we have with us.

Interesting house, shall have to google for more about this one. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1GC4H: Prazske legendy - O Lokytkovi

Found on 2009-12-03 at 20:00:00
Placed by: M+B adopted krtekgps
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC1GC4H

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Ahoy! from England.

Found on the way back to our hotel. Interesting legend, it's nice to learn something they don't tell you in the tourist brochures, thanks for sharing it.

Also clever hide, but didn't evade us for too long. Thanks for the Cache![font=Verdana]

GC1W8GA: Ucastnici zajezdu

Found on 2009-12-03 at 20:00:00
Placed by: MajcoS&MilikS
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC1W8GA

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Ahoy! from England.

_TeamFitz_ are visiting Prague for a few days, first time visiting together as a married couple. Staying in nearby Hotel Lunik.

Mrs Fitz understands a little Slovak, but unfortunately we don't get the film references - did this place feature in a scene?

Anyway, after a short hunt, we used our geosense and were able to locate the cache. It helps that we've seen a few like this now.

First cache in Prague/Czech Rep. Thanks for the Cache![font=Verdana]

GC6F37: Prague, Stare Mesto

Found on 2009-12-03 at 20:00:00
Placed by: John Stead
Size: Virtual (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GC6F37

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Found this one whilst we were visiting the Christmas markets in the square.

Had the GPSr on and was doing the tourist thing whilst watching for nearby caches and realised we were standing very near this one. Helped that I had my Cacheberry at the ready for the clues.

Email sent to CO with answers. 3rd time in Prague but first time I've done caching here, love this city particularly in the winter time and the Christmas decorations and celebrations are great!

TFTC! Dipping Canadian Tourist.[font=Verdana]

GCZT10: Maskaron

Found on 2009-12-03 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Mel-Man
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Geocaching.com: GCZT10

[font=Trebuchet Ms]This one was spotted by Mrs Fitz quite quickly.

We had just come out of St Giles from a Christmas concert on some very small and hard pews, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable concert.

Had to run your cache page through Google translator to get the history. Very interesting, thanks for the time you spent on writing it up.

Also a nice hide, enough for a geocoin, but I left the geocoins at the hotel doh!

Thanks for the Cache![font=Verdana]

911 Pager Stories

Anyone checked out the 9/11 Pager data on Wikileaks yet?

I must admit, I'm curious, so I downloaded the 27mb text file and did a quick grep on it for "WTC".

I then found an interesting personal message, so decided to grep for that and found the following piece of dialogue, if you can call it a dialogue. I've redacted some parts to protect identities, but the whole messages are available at Wikileaks.

2001-09-11 XX:XX:XX XXXX [XXXXXX] C  ALPHA  (14)GMA.  Xxxxxxx's father works in the WTC.  I may drive her home.  I'll keep you posted.  This is really f'd up.
2001-09-11 XX:XX:XX XXXX [XXXXXX] C  ALPHA  (15)So that you know Xxxxxxx heard from her dad.
2001-09-11 XX:XX:XX XXXX [XXXXXX] C  ALPHA  (16)80-CALL XXXXXX WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE AT XXX-XXX-XXXX.
2001-09-11 XX:XX:XX XXXX [XXXXXX] C  ALPHA  (17)How are you doing? Did Xxxxxx hear from his Dad? Tom 884-2168
2001-09-11 XX:XX:XX XXXX [XXXXXX] C  ALPHA  (18)81-I AM HOME SAFE. CALL ME LATER. -XXXXX.
2001-09-11 XX:XX:XX XXXX [XXXXXX] C  ALPHA  (19)82-I GOT IN TOUCH W/ XXXXXXX, FINALLY. SHE'S OKAY. SHE WAS ON THE TRAIN AT THE WALL ST STOP WHEN THE EXPLOSION HAPPENED. XXXXXX.

A small personal story in the midst of a great tragedy, overlooked by the eyes of the world.

I'm sure there's more to dialogue missing from this one, but it's just a taster of what is to come I'm sure when they've finished data-mining and crunching it.

It would be interesting if someone stumbled across messages regarding WTC7, which was pulled collapsed at 5:21pm EST. ;)

GCRK67: Bridge 148 - Old Fishery Lane - Grand Union Series

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCRK67

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Nice camo job!

[b]Mr Ben[/b] had already laid his hand on this cache before I even knew what was happening. I've seen one hidden like this before-- actually I think it was another one of your hides!

Saw [i]Oh England My Lionheart TB[/i], it is with Mr Ben now. Last cacher needs to log out the other TB!

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCRK6B: Boxmoor - Grand Union Series

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCRK6B

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Too easy!

As [b]Mr Ben[/b] read out the cache description I pointed and said, "try that", there it was!

This was the last dry cache we did before it started to pour. I took a picture from the bridge. Saw Romin Ruari, Mr Ben has him now.[font=Verdana]

GCRZBH: Magic Roundabout Mayhem Mk 2 (Herts)

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: NickPick
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCRZBH

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Ha ha [b]Mr Ben[/b] was convinced I had the wrong spot but after a bit of fumbling around I laid my fingers on the cache.

I've seen a funny German joke about this roundabout(s), I can't paste it here, too big, and to translate it doesn't quite do it justice but the punchline is basically something like "Der spinnen Englisch".

In German, "spinnen" naturally translates as spinning (as in spinning around a roundabout?) but it's also used as slang for crazy/mad. [:I][font=Verdana]

GCTKN3: Motorway Mayhem M25 J19

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCTKN3

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Found easily enough with Mr Ben.

Nice midsize container, shame that the swag seems to be plundered from here, and shame about the memorial too. Quite slippy round here this time of year, glad I didn't fall in.

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1J594: Hemel Hempstead Plan B

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1J594

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Yep. Still pouring with rain.

[b]Mr Ben[/b] found very easily, extracting the log was a little bit trickier. At least in the rain, even if the roamers do take an interest in what you're doing they don't care to stick around and watch.[font=Verdana]

GC211PH: Gade Race

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: philipnros
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC211PH

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Last one of the day with [b]Mr Ben[/b].

A pleasant time discussing past caching adventures, significant others, careers, careers that could have been, politics, football...

Thoroughly enjoyable day of caching, blame me that we didn't do the nearby multi as well, just too wet, getting too dark and I was now too tired![font=Verdana]

GCRK5Y: Bridge 150 - Grand Union Series

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCRK5Y

[font=Trebuchet Ms][b]Mr Ben[/b] was just too quick to dive into the nearest tree and so I got to this one just as he caught up! [:D]

Some nice swag in here, if small. I traded a spinning top for a NSD Powerball keyring - alas it doesn't do anything but it is loose inside so you can kind of rattle it and it makes a tiny noise like the larger real powerballs make. I don't really know because I've never tried one but maybe I'll look out for them now, so hey corporate freebies do work!

Thanks for this part of the Union Canal series, it was here, soggy and wet, that we trailed off for some caches up Leighton Buzzard road.[font=Verdana]

GCRK65: The Fishery - Grand Union Series

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCRK65

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Another nice looking pub you brought us too! Too bad we got some cachin' to get done.

Had fun with this one, I went to search one area and [b]Mr Ben[/b] searched the other. I then walked over to where Mr Ben had been standing for some time conducting his search and spotted it immediately, he was standing right in front of it! [:D]

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC11M4M: bones 22 (hunton)

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: bones1
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 2)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC11M4M

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Tricky hide this one - despite being fairly visible when standing in the right location.

Teamed up with Mr Ben to do a few caches and decided to hit this one on the way to Hemel. Spotted after thrashing about in the bush for a good while. Log was damp.

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1H523: Pig Lyd's Birthday Cache '08

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Pig Lyd & Reverend Mark
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1H523

[font=Trebuchet Ms][b]Mr Ben[/b] and I were now thorough drenched as we approached this one this afternoon.

"Must be in the church graveyard" I posited as we approached from the West. Mr Ben had printed out all the caches onto paper before we left so he was pretty much designated cache pilot for today.

As our GPSrs led us nearer to the church door, I hesitated, "is this a multi? It's leading us right to the church..." Mr Ben checked his papers and then confirmed that indeed it was a tradition and after a few moments he had it in his hand!

TFTC! took catamara TB, didn't see GC.[font=Verdana]

GC1J587: Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1J587

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Found easily by [b]Mr Ben[/b] whilst I was still puzzling over the reference.

Lovely gardens, too bad it was in the pouring rain, but our spirits weren't quite dampened yet.

Yep those Canada Geese are very eager![font=Verdana]

GCD659: HM4 - A gate to nowhere (Herts)

Found on 2009-11-21 at 20:00:00
Placed by: The Hornet - adopted by vw_keychain
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCD659

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Found with Mr Ben at the start of a day of caching.

Driven past this one a couple of times but didn't realise how easy it was going to be. Coords a little off.

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC214A2: Stonegrove Park

Found on 2009-11-18 at 20:00:00
Placed by: johnab7
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC214A2

[font=Trebuchet Ms][:D][:)][:D] FTF [:)][:D][:)]

Was sitting at my PC when this one popped up 5.3 miles from home so I turned to the wife and proclaimed "Let's go get a FTF!"

10 minutes later I was headed to the car, with a very sulky wife in tow. Mrs Fitz was very unhappy, partly because she hadn't finished her meal but I was adamant I was doing this and she didn't want me to go out alone in the dark so...

20 minutes later we were parking in Mill Ridge just round the corner.

So now, at this point I realise not only did I forget a pen, I also only brought my bicycle lights, one white LED which was fine, and one red which was a little more difficult for hunting. But eventually after searching all over I laid eyes on the camo and retrieved it.

Good camo, nice size container, and hurray for a pencil! There was a conciliation prize after all for Mrs Fitz in the form of the Silver Jubilee Horse Brass which seemed to cheer her up a bit after scratching her hand on the gate, so we traded for a mini deck of cards.

Took FTF pin badge and the camo duck TB but this is not activated....hmm?

I got assurances in the car on the way home that Mrs Fitz still loves me, but doesn't like me very much....

"See, it was worth coming in the end!" Said I as she fondled the horse brass in her hand.
"No." Was her reply.

TFTC! [;)]

Dipping the trusty Rav4.[font=Verdana]

[This entry was edited by _TeamFitz_ on Monday, November 30, 2009 at 1:43:35 PM.]

Twitpic from the Command Line in Linux

I've just put together a short script for automatically taking a webcam pic then uploading it to Twitter.

Yes, I know what you're thinking, no I don't know why either. I had help from other places that I found through googling. Here it is in case you want to try it out:

#!/bin/bash

# Script to automate posting of webcam images to twitpic

IMGDIR="/location_to_save_webcam_pics"
STAMP=`date +%m%d%Y_%s`
IMG="$IMGDIR/"webcam_""$STAMP".jpeg"
USERNAME="twitter_username"
PASSWORD="twitter_password" # Don't forget to escape special chars with "\"
MESSAGE="Webcam snapshot, `date`"

# Take picture from webcam
TAKE=`streamer -o $IMG`
echo "$TAKE"

# Upload to twitpic using curl
curl -F "username=$USERNAME" -F "password=$PASSWORD" -F "message=$MESSAGE" -F media=@"$IMG" http://twitpic.com/api/uploadAndPost

I really need to find a way to post code on blogger. The next step is that this script can be added to a cron job and made to feed random pics at intervals.

I'm now trying to think what other interesting things I can send to twitter from Ubuntu?

GC1TK6P: Narrow Minded

Found on 2009-11-10 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Matthew-h
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1TK6P

[font=Trebuchet Ms]After having a tooth implant put in, I disobeyed the advice of Mrs Fitz and everyone at the clinic to do a spot of caching before I went home, and I'm glad I did as I got to fully appreciate this cache during daytime!

Not many lurkers about so was fairly easy to make the grab. However after taking some photo's and replacing I noticed a couple of older roamers on the opposite bank looking over with some slight interest. They headed into the museum so I assume it won't be disturbed.

Very creative indeed, and well hidden in an excellent location. Left GeoGem but did not see the other coins. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1YC39: Kings Cross Lighthouse - Nano

Found on 2009-11-10 at 20:00:00
Placed by: loobcom
Size: Other (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1YC39

[font=Trebuchet Ms]I was in Kings Cross today for a dental implant at the research clinic where Mrs Fitz works.

Ignoring the advice of Mrs Fitz and all the dentists, I decided to do a spot of caching before heading home for a rest (I lost a lot of blood but felt fine).

Got in front of the lighthouse, waited for GPSr to kick in, but it was almost useless thanks to the London effect on GPS. Can't believe there's a lighthouse here and never spotted it, I wonder how it got there - or perhaps it's been placed there for when the Thames bursts its banks? [;)]

Anyway, walking around the 'island' for a bit I started to look up and down in the usual places, trying not to attract attention of all the roamers and the herds in their cars and buses.

After stopping for a brief moment to consult the cache description again, I looked up and there it was! Waited for traffic to move and bish, bash, bosh log signed.

Looks like there's room for one more sig on the log then it will need replacing. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCMNVM: Camley Street Gardens

Found on 2009-11-10 at 20:00:00
Placed by: jonnytuna
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 2)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCMNVM

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Disobeying advice of Mrs Fitz and dentists at the clinic after losing a lot of blood to a tooth implant to do a few caches around Kings Cross before heading home. Perfect opportunity since I work in London but would never manage to make it here on a lunch break.

Fantastic little nature reserve hidden away where you'd never guess. Had to use the hint as my GPSr was telling me to go much further off the path than I the description stated.

Took Garmin Stonehenge Coin and another mysterious TB - rusty key and log book - that seems to have lost it's tag. Left Buldozer TB, did not see any other coins or TBs in the cache.

Thanks for bringing me to this place![font=Verdana]

GCMRZA: Can't Stan More Electronic Warfare

Found on 2009-11-07 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Jo & Andrew
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCMRZA

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Beat Mrs Fitz to finding this one but it wasn't really a challenge - cache was laying out on the ground in the open in front of hidey-hole.

I noticed that other cachers have reported finding it out like this and I also noted a few bite marks on the side of lid... I used my impervious logic to put 2 and 2 together and conclude that a crafty squirrel or some other creature of the forest must be sabotaging your hide. Either that or he's wondering how this annoying big object keeps moving back into his hideout?

Took a story CD and pirate stamp, left a Guinness and other laynards. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCMRZW: Can't Stan' More Common

Found on 2009-11-07 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Jo & Andrew
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCMRZW

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Took a very long time searching for this and the hint just didn't make sense... not helped by the fact that using my Cacheberry I had read the hint for the other Can't Stan More cache! No wonder the hint didn't make any sense!

Found by Mrs Fitz again. She had spotted it then called me over to see if I could but I was a complete failure, she had to point it out to me.

Greatly impressed to see a regular sized container but sorry to report as other finders have that the cache was swimming in very dirty water. We CITO'd some of the soggy unreadable paper and plastic gloves (who keeps putting these out there?). Maybe a lock n' lock container would prove more sturdy?

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCTZ7K: Stanmore Trail - 3

Found on 2009-11-07 at 20:00:00
Placed by: Johny English
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCTZ7K

[font=Trebuchet Ms]We had been down by the A41 scouting an area for the Ghost Stations series and decided to stop off in this park to grab this cluster of caches. Forest floor is very mushy this time of year with all the wet leaves.

Let the wife lead with the GPSr and we did a bit of a drunken bee dance till I decided to get the Blackberry out for some clues and, as always happens just as I get Cacheberry started, Mrs Fitz called out "Found it".

Nice little cache, noted the extra coords and will have to come back for the rest of the trail.[font=Verdana]

GC1GZ3T: Not a Standard cache

Found on 2009-10-30 at 19:00:00
Placed by: The Bellringers
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1GZ3T

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Grabbed on the way from a bug drop at Short Back and Sides.

GPSr was suffering 'the London effect', but managed to settle on the right street at least after walking around the area bit. So had to rely on the hint.

Went for what seemed the only place it could be and after feeling around for a few minutes laid my fingers on the cache. Keep forgetting how difficult it is to sign the log and fit it back in these little blighters, and I've got 3 of them myself!

TFTC![font=Verdana]

Firefox Ubiquity and Geocache GC Code search

I really like Mozilla's new Ubiquity extension for firefox.

It's like having a command line for the web. I can't see too many users adopting it as the command line is too scary for most casual and Windows users (even though, ironically, it's easier to use).

However, since it's an open platform I thought I'd have a go at my first firefox extension. I'm not a software developer and outside of building MS Access DBs in my youth, I haven't really done much development. So although it's pretty basic, I'm quite proud actually!

But I did manage to come up with small command for searching geocaching.com via coord.info.

Subscribe to it here: http://gist.github.com/234537

I'd welcome anyone who would wish to extend it as I'm not really hot on javascript.

Hopefully it will provide some use to a few geocachers maybe.

Edited 14/11/09: Accidentally deleted the first gist. Added new link.

GC1XRK7: Coal Post #53

Found on 2009-10-25 at 19:00:00
Placed by: bones1
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1XRK7

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Tricky one to find but reread the hint and broadened the search. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1XRKG: Coal Post #54

Found on 2009-10-25 at 19:00:00
Placed by: bones1
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 2)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1XRKG

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Kind of came at this from the wrong direction. Parked in Tom and Barbera's street but then we walked down onto Batchworth Lane and quickly realised it was the other side of the treeline. Fortunately there appeared to be a couple of large holes in the side and we were able to cut through and bushwhack to the footpatch then back quickly locate CP54.

Finding the cache however proved a little more tricky. We only had one headtorch as Mrs F had left hers in the car. Didn't rely on the GPSr, instead started hunting round for hinted location but had no success for about 15 minutes. Then Mrs F took the GPSr and decided to give it a go, she quickly called me over the GZ and together we spied the obvious place.

It helps that we've seen one of these types of hides before. Getting good at spotting things that look more intentional than they should. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1XRKM: Coal Post #55

Found on 2009-10-25 at 19:00:00
Placed by: bones1
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 2)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1XRKM

[font=Trebuchet Ms]I have no idea why it takes us so long to get our a**es in gear all day but this was the start of another evening of night-caching for _TeamFitz_.

Easy find, after dodging traffic. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCXVBQ: Comedy Classics #3 (The Good Life)

Found on 2009-10-25 at 19:00:00
Placed by: currykev
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCXVBQ

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Found between doing CP54 and CP53!

Must admit, The Good Life was a bit before my time but I do remember the repeats on TV. Wasn't sure which house but can now see from the gallery.

Can't believe where teh cache was located, I'd up the terrain for that one. Had Mrs F climb on my knee to grab then the hysterics when she realised she'd put her hand through the spiders web of the large beastie who was guarding it.

TFTC! Dipping Rav4 TB.[font=Verdana]

GC1KWA9: Raan Away's Nano

Found on 2009-10-24 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Jason_Grant
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1KWA9

[font=Trebuchet Ms]W00t! Found after so many DNFs. Spotted by wife was being guarded by a pretty evil looking arachnid. Do we get poisonous spiders in the UK? This one looked pretty badass and his friend nearby seemed to be having a midnight snack!

TFTC! Dipping Rav4 TB.[font=Verdana]

GC1PPDH: The Night Mail

Found on 2009-10-24 at 19:00:00
Placed by: drsolly
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 2.5)
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1PPDH

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Solved this one last Friday after a number of stops and starts on the mini railway. Decided to do it tonight since I was out late with the Watford Street Angels and had a big lie in this morning, Mrs Fitz went shopping and I didn't get the chance to do any caches during the day.

The first task was to convince Mrs F to actually go night-caching with me. The conversation went something like:

"Let's go night-caching"
"Aww no, can't we just wait till tomorrow after church?"
"No, I've got one I want to do and it's a night-cache, it can only be done at night, with firetacks"
"Umm"
"Look I can do this one alone"
"No, I'll come but I only want to do this one"

Task complete!

Onto the cache. Parked up in the street nearby and got my headtorch on whilst Mrs F used my bicycle LED torch. As we were approaching the entrance Mrs F spotted the sign for the Burial Ground - what the heck? Where are you taking us?! This set her on edge whilst I chuckled.

By the third firetack we were having trouble spotting them, so I suggested we go back to the car and get the big torch which would be much stronger. So we made our way back to the car. Got the torch out, turned it on... Oh batteries are almost flat. Guess we're just going to have to rely on our instinct.

Headed into the woods and it wasn't too difficult to find the waymarks. Sometimes we needed to spread out or go forward a bit till the next shiny spot was in range but generally easy. Of course Mrs F was a bag of nerves, leaving me to be the brave one. She wasn't too bad as long as we were moving, but when we got stuck and had to look around into the darkness for the next firetack she began to loose her nerve.

"Don't worry," I said "No-ones going to be out here". I continued offering support and suggested that at times when I was scared I used to recite Psalm 23 to myself, "Shut up!" she wailed, "just don't talk".

I can't remember how many firetacks we had gone past but at one point I was doing a 360 and I saw 2 bright LED lights staring back at me from about 25m. Then one blinked off and on again, it was then I realised it was a fox who was obviously as puzzled as I was to see him!

I think after we had passed the gate, Mrs F had started to calm down and was enjoying herself. She had spotted most of the firetacks with her eagle eyes. but later we found ourselves losing the trail. We got to a point where we just couldn't find the next firetack. We'd even tried walking on ahead some considerable distance but ended up coming back and then trying to explore the remaining area.

Mrs F did well to hold her nerve, I think the passion to get the cache had taken over nerves over having to stop and look around. After finding ourselves at what seemed like a dead end, I decided to switch gears and suggested we look for a cachers trail. It was then we left the obvious path and started heading towards an open area which wasn't a path but certainly traversable. Suddenly Mrs F called out "I see it!" and there it was - 2 firetacks.

Impressive large cache. Left TB and GC, sweeped up all the other Travellers, otherwise TNLNSL.

Thanks for all the hard work on this one, well planned, well thought out and very fun in the end.[font=Verdana]

GC16Y72: The Clock Tower

Found on 2009-10-21 at 19:00:00
Placed by: maxkim
Size: Not chosen (Difficulty: 4.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC16Y72

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Finally got you! [:)][:)][:)]

I'd visited about 3 or 4 times over the last few weeks and circled this island so many times - I even took photo's on my camera phone to examine later at my desk. So yesterday after thinking I has sussed it and failing yet again it was time to call in backup - Mrs Fitz, the other half of _TeamFitz_ to see if she could spot it.

I can't believe I've eyed this thing suspiciously on every visit but simply assumed it was a normal part of the surroundings. Ironically it was only with the full _TeamFitz_ present that I suddenly had a lightbulb moment and thought - why would it be positioned there?! Reached out, and it indeed proved to be a fake - soon had the log in our hands.

Speaking of hands, Mrs Fitz's hands were particularly grubby as she'd made the same mistake as me on my last visit [:D] and tried another similar type of object on another side of the tower which looked suspicious but indeed proved to be real. But for a while there I really did think that was the cache and was puzzling over how to extract the log.

This is certainly a brilliant hide, first time I've seen one like it and gives me some twisted ideas for future caches. I wouldn't quite say it's in full view but it's definitely visible and there's no need to use your hands to feel for it - or get your hands all grubby either.

Beast of spider guarding the door to the tower. Took a picture from the camera phone but somehow the light reflected of its back and made it seem even more fearsome.

Very difficult, very deserving of it's 4.5 stars but I think this should be a traditional, I avoided it for a long time thinking there was more of a puzzle to be worked out. Oh and this is [font=Trebuchet Ms][b]Find #150![/b][font=Verdana][font=Verdana]

GC22E5: A Meating place for Martyrs

Found on 2009-10-21 at 19:00:00
Placed by: McDeHack
Size: Virtual (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC22E5

Quick CnD on the way to the tube station with Mrs _Fitz_. Didn't take long but nice to get to know a bit of history here - liked the cache name too, very appropriate.

Got back home and you wouldn't believe but they were showing Mel Gibson's Braveheart on TV that night!

Dipping Canadian Tourist GC, will log it out later (don't currently have it on me).

GC1Z2N7: Under The Viaduct And Inside The Lock

Found on 2009-10-20 at 19:00:00
Placed by: loobcom
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1Z2N7

Decided to grab this cache after a third failed attempt to find The Clock Tower nearby.

I a bit to hasty grabbing the hint as I spent an unnecessarily long time searching the wrong doorway. I actually was using the flash on my camera phone to sneak photos behind the gates and then examine the image to see if I could see it. It was only when I consigned to failure and started walking back to the office that I spotted another doorway and then it was quickly found. [:P]

Quite a few roamers about and a few odd looks here and there but I did my best to look intentional and fiddle with my phone whilst they passed by. TFTC!

GSAK and GPSBabel

I run Ubuntu and predictably there's a derth of support for Geocaching on Linux based systems. It's not that there isn't open source alternatives - it's just that they're not quite designed for caching.

A truly great piece of shareware for Geocaching on Windows is GSAK, but there is no official Linux version and after 21 days you get a nag screen unless you pony up for the registered version. So imagine my surprise to find that GSAK relies upon an open source technology called GPSBabel to do the actual leg-work of exporting data to your device from your OS.

Basically GSAK is the glossy database that goes over the top - and it is a fine tool don't get me wrong. Anyway I found a way to make GSAK work on Linux, by replacing the gpsbabel.exe file with an executable script named "gpsbabel.exe". The original info I got from the GSAK forum provided by alancurry.

alancurry's script didn't work exactly, I had to make some tweaks:

#!/bin/bash
case "$1" in
-i)
gpsbabel -i garmin -f usb:0 -o gpx -F "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/gsak/Temp/babel.gpx"
exit 0
;;
-N)
gpsbabel -N -i xcsv,style="$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/gsak/GSAK.STL" -f "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/{username}/Application Data/gsak/babel.txt" -vs -o garmin -F usb:
exit 0
;;
*)
;;
esac

I then saved this script as "gpsbabel.txt" in "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/gsak/".

Right now, after using it for 100+ days I'm getting bothered by the nag screen ('The GSAK Spouse'), but I'm not going to pay and register it and there are a few reasons for this:

• The developer appears to have no intention of supporting Linux.
• Since it's buggy under wine (crashes often) I only use it to load PQs and export them to my GPSmap 60CSx, I don't save the data - I usually wipe it and start over each week.

So now I'm thinking of finding a quicker way to access the GPX file from the command line, order it like GSAK does and then export directly without having to load up a buggy, nagging GSAK UI.

If I find a way to make it work, maybe I'll post it as an open source project and invite others to contribute. I'll need to if I was to try and build a GUI since I know nothing of GUI development.

Other Blogs...

For anyone who's interested, I have a few other blogs that ocassionally update. They can be seen by looking at my profile or just follow the links here...

Saturday Morning Coffee - started after I got married to document our wedding trip and honeymoon.
Incredible Humans - My first attempt at creative blogging. I was just playing with filters in Gimp one day and found a way to turn a photo into a comic panel effect. Then I heard about Lewis Gordon Pugh, and sort of came up with this idea.
Stories Cut Short - My second foray into creative writing. Kind of a shortcut to writing novels - a bit of a "what if" collection. As in, what if the greatest stories never got told because the protagonist did something stupid, or got killed, or didn't do something at all?

I also can be found at Identi.ca, the open-source alternative to Twitter. Though I may re-open my twitter account some time.

GC1C6RB: Twenty Four ! (Bucks)

Found on 2009-10-17 at 19:00:00
Placed by: nottheactor
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 3 / Terrain: 2)
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1C6RB

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Solved Friday (16-10-09) after a little bit of thinking and then the lightbulb went on.

Trouble is, depending on how you approach the problem, which tools you decide to use - if you do use a tool to make the job easier/quicker then you may find, as I did, that you have at least 3 slightly (fractionally) different sets of numbers.

I finally did find the number that fit the equation and had the coords noted down.

Parked on the road nearest to the cache, which was still some distance hiking, though I suspect there may have been an easier way to this one. It was late in the afternoon and just before we found the cache it turned into night caching. I had forgotten my head torch but thankfully had my bike torch in my rucksack so we were able to sign the log and examine the contents. Not that D needed the torch to simply stick her arm in a dark hole to retrieve the container.

Literally had to fight bushwhack through thorns and branches to get to GZ. Obviously we hadn't come from the right direction but I couldn't really see what would have been the right direction. Nevertheless exited from the opposite direction which gave us much less confrontation from the brambles.

Took Hanna Charity GC and left Elementary/Cobra GC's. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1P6EQ: At Your Convenience - Little Chalfont

Found on 2009-10-17 at 19:00:00
Placed by: drsolly
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1P6EQ

[font=Trebuchet Ms]A 'convenient' cache n' dash on the way to Twenty-Four ! after completing Geocaching Robot Arm.

Parked in the convenient car park and waited for some young lurkers playing a version of hacky sack which entails kicking a tiny rubber ball into the corner of the car park and catching it as it bounced back. Obviously unconcerned for about the number of cars in the car park and potential for dings from their game.

After they departed was able to park up close and go look. GPSr was leading me a bit astray. D found it whist I was busy bushwhacking through the nearby hollybushes.

Log is extremely damp and brown. Was able to sign it but recomment this is attended too. I think it's not quite ready for a 'needs maintenance' log but maybe it will soon?

Dipping Rav4 TB and oh, thanks for the umm.. education.[font=Verdana]

GC1P9GC: The Geocaching Robot Arm

Found on 2009-10-17 at 19:00:00
Placed by: drsolly
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 3.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1P9GC

[font=Trebuchet Ms]The other half of _TeamFitz_ was getting quite tired now from all the driving and bad directions from me. But she persevered, well done to her.

Doing this paperless as usual, didn't have a clue of the area or where to park, orignally parked on teh road closest to the cache but soon realised this was not the optimal place to approach from. Soon found a parking spot to the south and was quite surprised at the surrounding location. Nevertheless we managed to avoid getting injured since it was late in the day.

GSPr started to bounce as we got nearer to GZ, but after walking a bit beyond, then realising where we needed to go the ammo can was soon found. Great location and some interesting trees and I see someone has left an informative plaque nearby which explains coppicing.

Too bad all the generous swag has now deteriorated in quality, however was able to trade a DVD movie for the wind up torch.

Also took Bagel Deojii TB and left the Erzgebirgscoin GC.

Once again thanks for the interesting challenge, solved Thursday whilst my sister-in-law watched. Was a bit of a cross between the turtle navigation program when I was at school, and the grabber machine that they have in service stations and seaside venues. Have to say tin-man had me stumped but not for long![font=Verdana]

GC1R3WD: Fishpool Fumble

Found on 2009-10-17 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Lois
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 3 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1R3WD

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Well the other half of _TeamFitz_ was desperate to come to St. Albans for some some shopping so we decided to check out this cache we'd logged a DNF for back in July.

Armed with the extra knowledge of just how devious these types of hides can get found it straight away. It helps that we've now done one like this since our first visit. Sneaky, sneaky.

Funnily enough I spotted the thing that is in full view on the last visit too, but at that time I didn't think to investigate it more. Now _TeamFitz_ knows better!

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1MPY9: Church Micro 464 leverstock green

Found on 2009-10-17 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Bones1 (no 33 cache)
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1MPY9

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Nice little cache n' dash on the way back from St. Albans shopping.

We parked opposite but headed into the graveyard at first, expecting this to be a graveyard cache, but we were wrong, so we hopped over the wall and there it was.

TFTC.[font=Verdana]

GC1MPYG: Bones 32 The Post

Found on 2009-10-17 at 19:00:00
Placed by: bones1
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1MPYG

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Another sharp break, quick U-turn and park on the side of the road for this quick CnD.

Liked the sneaky hide. Some guy looking over at what we were doing from one of the local houses.. was that you Jeff? Couldn't tell.

Dipping Rav4 TB, TFTC![font=Verdana]

GCM44J: M1 J8 Motorway Cache Break (Motorway Mayhem)

Found on 2009-10-17 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Alibags (with a little help from her friends!)
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCM44J

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Did this on the way back from St. Albans - headed towards Amersham as I had some solved puzzle caches I wanted to find.

First ammo can we've found, sadly looks like the latch is broken. Well hidden. GPSr was leading us about 10m into the nearby field but the hint was good enough.

Dropped Pirate TB, didn't see Jamtubs TB. TFTC.[font=Verdana]

GC143RE: Short back and sides

Found on 2009-10-08 at 19:00:00
Placed by: frozboz
Size: Small (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 2)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC143RE

[font=Trebuchet Ms]GPSr sending me everywhere due to what I call the 'London effect' - worse than a forest full of trees.

First it lead me right in front of the office building nearby, and for about 10 mins I dodged muggles leaving work shining my keyring light into the foilage there. Hints weren't helping at this point obviously until I read them over again slowly. Then I moved up the path to the gardens.

Once again I tried applying the method described in the hints and came up with nothing. I headed down into the gardens to get a look from the other side of the wall and found a homeless guys stash hidden under there. Decided to make like a tree and split before homeless guy came back - did not TNLNSL.

I was about to call it quits when I took another look over the road and it dawned on me where I was going wrong. Perhaps this is because it was already really dark so it wasn't immediately obvious.

Tried several spots in this ivy mullet, now taxis had turned up at the office buildings but the drivers didn't seem vaguely interested in what I was doing. Still couldn't find the cache - even applying now both methods described in the hints.

Once again I was about to give up when I decided to have one last try and broaden my search - found it almost immediately - I'd say that your methods described for finding the cache are now wildly off, but it's probably moved along from its original location - there are obvious signs of the visits from other cachers too.

TNLNSL. Last cache for this evening, better get home now as the other half of _TeamFitz_ calling on my mobile wondering where I got to.

I was half expecting the anti-terror squad to turn up since I don't know how many security cameras I was under tonight carrying an electronic device, a large backpack and going back and forth looking under handrails, walls covered with ivy, fences and outside office buildings.[font=Verdana]

GCGBGB: Last Delivery (London)

Found on 2009-10-08 at 19:00:00
Placed by: purple_pineapple (adopted from Jessex)
Size: Other (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCGBGB

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Decided to take a little diversion on the way out of work to do some caching. Funnily enough this is the first cache I'm doing since changing my name, but missing the other half of _TeamFitz_.

Had to rely on the hint as GPSr had the 'London effect' and was zinging me over to the wrong end of the park. Quick and easy find, took Pirate and Croc TBs.

Nice park, didn't see much of it though as night had already fallen by time I did this - few muggles though which is a plus.

TFTC.[font=Verdana]

Wes Fitzpatrick Attempts to Lasso the Hydra

I've enjoyed my experimentations with social media so far, but have found it's gotten rather out of hand and beyond my control. It's important to have an online presence, but there needs to be some kind of focus which draws it all in.

Contrary to popular theory, there are quite a few Wes Fitzpatricks out there on the interwebs and I don't want the casual googler to become confused. I have no idea what the other Wes Fitzpatricks will make of this blog, particularly if it rises in search ranking. Not my intention of course, my intention is only to collate the bits that belong to me and of course reduce confusion.

This is the first post, I started it late and I'm a little tired. There's a lot more I want to say and a lot more coherently, so I'm not sure if this post will stay.

GC1ZGG6: Coal Post #52

Found on 2009-10-05 at 19:00:00
Placed by: bones1
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1ZGG6

[font=Trebuchet Ms]~*~ FTF ~*~ [:D]

Well I've been seeing these Coal Posts popping up all over the place and was in the mood for the hunt. Got the notification on my BB on the tube heading home so I quickly changed, grabbed my GPSr and loaded the coords and headed out.

What I didn't realise is that the wife left me with an empty tank, so the light was blinking yellow as I raced for this one but I decided not to stop for petrol and glad I didn't now. Parked in Rofand Rd first but I don't know the area and couldn't see a footpath so I ended up driving round to Sandy Lodge Way and approached over the tube lines.

Very dark, had my head-torch on, got to GZ and was confused for a moment - but I didn't read the description properly. At this point I decided to call and leave a text message for the wife.. in case they need to find my body later I told her I was headed for Coalpost 52.

Anyway, reread the description - thank God for mobiles and EDGE - and quickly located the large rusty Coalpost, it was then only a short time after that I got the cache!

Signed the log, noticed the other coords written on there - is this for some kind of bonus? Anyway as I was taking some pictures lo and behold I saw another flashlight approaching and guessed it might be a cacher. We did the secret geocaching signal and it was of course [b]TrainSPLOTer[/b].[font=Verdana]

Also trod in dog poop again, I don't know how I do it but I'm a magnet for the stuff. GZ now fully saturated with the smell due to my wiping and spreading it all over in a frantic attempt to remove the substance from the sole of my boot - sorry about that.

TFTC!

Dipping Rav4, it got me there in time and on fumes!

GC118F6: Gray's Inn

Found on 2009-10-03 at 19:00:00
Placed by: goldpot
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC118F6

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Found in the evening whilst doing the tourist thing in London with my sister in law.

Quite easy to identify given the title hint but on finding the container it contained a mischievous message which had us scratching our heads and wondering if this was some kind of puzzle or joke.

Thanks to Goldpot for confirming we found this one! Didn't sign log for obvious reasons.[font=Verdana]

GC1D3FT: Poetry Please - St Giles-in-the-Fields

Found on 2009-10-03 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Superdale
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1D3FT

[font=Trebuchet Ms]As I was approaching GZ I noticed 2 muggles one sitting on the bench and the other on the concrete slabs behind stood up and looked at me as I approached. The second muggle then spoke and it turns out he was another geocacher (zetolas) who had got there 5 minutes ago.

We both searched around for a few minutes before coming to the conclusion it was where the muggle was sitting with his headphones on eating lunch. We sat down nearby and talked and waited till the muggle finished his lunch then took off, and it was then spotted immediately.

Swapped TBs and Geocoins with [b]zetolas[/b], will 'drop' Cornish Bear TB and Snappy The Thai Croc TB for the mileage.

Also dipping Prague GC.

(Edited for: Wrong date)[font=Verdana]

[This entry was edited by fitzwesley on Sunday, October 04, 2009 at 11:16:15 AM.]

GC1KKMR: West End Trail - Back on the grid.....

Found on 2009-10-03 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Firelanterns
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1KKMR

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Fairly easy one to spot, but tough retrieval. Like the previous finder, I found browsing the services of the nearby shop useful whilst I made the grab.

No fan of the the TV show or the NWO but definitely a large building with lots of interesting symbols on it - certainly one for conspiracy theorists.

Dipping Canadian Tourist GC.

(Edited for: Wrong date)[font=Verdana]

[This entry was edited by fitzwesley on Sunday, October 04, 2009 at 11:17:03 AM.]

GC1N1QH: Last Man Standing II

Found on 2009-10-03 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Iron Man
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1N1QH

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Very bold hide, found by my sister-in-law who is visiting from Canada as we were headed to Covent Garden for drinks.

What's funny is that she had stopped to look at this before we moved on and I assumed my GPSr was leading me to the alley just beyond and round the back. But the GPSr then decided to play nice and lead us right back onto the street at this point my s-i-l had a lightbulb moment with the title and it was then found very quickly! [:P]

(Edited for: Wrong date)[font=Verdana]

[This entry was edited by fitzwesley on Sunday, October 04, 2009 at 11:18:23 AM.]

GCG42B: aiii que dolor

Found on 2009-10-03 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Gorka115
Size: Virtual (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCG42B

Came into London today with visiting sister-in-law so she could do the tourist thing. I was quite nerded out by the time I reached this cache as we had been to the British Library and had been looking at some of the 1000+ year old texts there as well as some of the ones written by people who lived in London 100-200 years ago.

Dropped off s-i-l at British Museum and anyway, didn't realise I was about to be given another history tour!

Definitely a productive area, maybe something in the water in these parts? It's astounding that over 100 years ago all these intelligent and artistic minds lived in one place and literally changed the world with their ideas and inventions... and what does London produce now? Egotistical popstars, desperate Z-listers and a celebrity obsessed culture. Where did it all go wrong?

GC1HQ2M: Stay Main Rd

Found on 2009-09-26 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Womble&Gobbi
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1HQ2M

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Another easy find, great location! Thoroughly enjoyed cycling around this park today and seeing all the watersports as well as all this fine weather we are having. Cycling through dog-poo I enjoyed not so much. I don't mind dog walkers, I just wish they would scoop it up and not leave it for others to 'discover'.

TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1HQ2Y: Anyone for Polo

Found on 2009-09-26 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Womble&Gobbi
Size: Small (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1HQ2Y

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Easy find - in the first place I looked straight away.

Shame there was no water polo on when we turned up, would have liked to see a game in progress like the previous loggers.

TNLNSL TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC1HQ3X: AquaSplash

Found on 2009-09-26 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Womble&Gobbi
Size: Small (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1HQ3X

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Our first time at the Aquadrome after living in Watford for 2 years. Decided to cycle down here - perfect day and unnaturally warm, sunny weather for this late in Semptember. This beautiful place, reminds me of Mainau, near Kontanz, DE.

Cache was a bold hide, visible from the path if you know what you're looking for! Lovely location though, me and the wife picnic'd on the table and benches nearby. Log was a little damp, we had a spare sandwich bag, so we wrapped it in that.

Took the Cornish World TB and left Dschinni TB. TFTC! [^][font=Verdana]

GC1HQ43: Sign of the Times

Found on 2009-09-26 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Womble&Gobbi
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1HQ43

[font=Trebuchet Ms]Yep, read the title and spotted the location, wife dashed over there before I had a chance and had already spotted it, but left it for me to retrieve.

TFTC.[font=Verdana]

GC1H9M7: Gobbi's Birthday Cache No 2

Found on 2009-09-26 at 19:00:00
Placed by: womble&gobbi
Size: Small (Difficulty: 2.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1H9M7

[font=Tahoma]Second find of the series. Nice to see a bigger container round these parts.

Second one beaten to by the wife too. We are now starting to get a bit competitive. TNLNSL.[font=Verdana]

GC1H9KM: Gobbi's Birthday Cache No1

Found on 2009-09-26 at 19:00:00
Placed by: womble&gobbi
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1H9KM

[font=Tahoma]Decided to cycle down the the Aquadrome today. We were intending to attempt the Chiltern 100 but yours truly was out late last night in my alter ego as a Street Angel in Watford town centre.

Nice little hide found easily by the wife. TFTC![font=Verdana]

GC4E4B: 16th Century Pub (Central London)

Found on 2009-09-23 at 19:00:00
Placed by: The Wombles
Size: Virtual (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC4E4B

Another easy lunchtime cache, found without the aid of GPSr.

Didn't stop for a drink as I was on my own, but my sister in law is in town next week from Canada, and wants to visit a traditional English pub - I don't think you can get more traditional than this!

TFTC!

GCTK2V: Avenue to The Mansion

Found on 2009-09-20 at 19:00:00
Placed by: mafiu
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCTK2V

Spotted quite easily, found a little bit more difficult. I jumped in from the wrong direction and got stung, whilst my wife made the retrieval from a much more sensible position from the other direction.

Beautiful area with nice vistas. TNLNSL TFTC!

GC1XP0V: Bucks/Beds/Herts Border-ing on the Ridiculous #21

Found on 2009-09-20 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Sinclair of Rosslyn
Size: Not chosen (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1XP0V

Thanks for the great BBQ, first event and it was good to meet and converse with a few cachers from the area!

GC1VED3: 3rd Chiswick Centenary Camp - Wolves Cache

Found on 2009-09-19 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Hubert Martin
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1VED3

Decided to do a little night-caching after visiting friends in Chiswick.

Arrived at 10:40pm. Kept setting off the security light of the house opposite whilst we bumbled around the gate waiting for Garmin to pick up the satellites.

Nice quick cache n dash - found the spot right away as we walked up to it with our torches.

GC1VECV: 3rd Chiswick Centenary Camp - Ravens Cache

Found on 2009-09-19 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Hubert Martin
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1VECV

Nice little ego stroke after failing the Bulls Cache.

At this point we must have been noticed because a beam of light was shining down on us at the corner of the field from the farmhouse, where 4 horses had now gathered.

We pressed on up the path and was quickly found in the most obvious place by the wife. On the way back one of the horses freaked us out when he decided to put his foot in one of the metal troughs and make some noise!

GC1VEC8: 3rd Chiswick Centenary Camp - Curlew Cache

Found on 2009-09-19 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Hubert Martin
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1VEC8

You'd think a dark lane in the middle of nowhere would be perfect for skulking around looking for a hidden micro, but this was even more difficult than the last 2 due to the fact muggles were leaving a party at the house nearby and taking a long time to do it.

Thankfully, it was not difficult to retrieve, take back to the car, sign the log and replace.

Thanks for the series - we'll be back for that pesky Bulls Cache.

GC1XDXX: Chorleywood House 4 - Chess Valley

Found on 2009-09-12 at 19:00:00
Placed by: High Beeches
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1XDXX

Love places like this by the water, took some pictures but only on my BlackBerry unfortunately as we forgot the camera. Very funny sign near the cache (well, funny but poignant message). http://mobypicture.com/?6kto3a

Great swag items here, rare to see such a well stocked cache, well done! I swapped a keyring soldier toy for the noisy putty, since the little boy in me couldn't resist - but it will probably end up in the hands of my nephew.

Also took Heart for Children TB and left Mini Adventure TB.

GC1XDX2: Chorleywood House 3 - Water Wheel House

Found on 2009-09-12 at 19:00:00
Placed by: High Beeches
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1XDX2

No stings and scratches, as you say. Easy find this one. Quite enjoying this walk as it appears to be quite tame so far and there is little need for bushwhacking or getting all stung up - which appears to be a frequent hazard for us on these types of trails.

I must say that the quality of swag here is quite good. Can't remember if my wife traded for a keyring torch here or at the one back at the Swillet.

Anyway T4TC, onto the next.

GC1W8J0: The Swillet

Found on 2009-09-12 at 19:00:00
Placed by: High Beeches
Size: Small (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1W8J0

Came here after Old Shire Lane cache. Nice hide, found by the wife again. Lovely park and a lovely view in the early sunset, cheers.

GC1W8HE: Old Shire Lane - Open Air

Found on 2009-09-12 at 19:00:00
Placed by: High Beeches
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 2)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1W8HE

[Found quite quickly by the wife.] I don't know why I always pick the wrong side of the tree [Had to walk by dozens of fresh cowpats on the rocky path down to this one.

TNLNSL T4TC]

GC1XDWV: Chorleywood House 5 - Woodland walk

Found on 2009-09-12 at 19:00:00
Placed by: High Beeches
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1XDWV

[

I knew I shouldn't have polished off half a tub of Ben and Jerry's Caramel Chew Chew last night. Really feeling it as we climbed the hill to this last one.

Got to GZ and found the cache quite easily, though we suspected that it was not in the place it should have been - so we checked your hint and realised it wasn't, see encrypted log below:

]

Cache was in one piece and good condition with camo'd bag as described (no maintenance needed) - but lying on the ground in plain sight just under the holy branches. Signed the log and hid it in the interesting looking stump with a hole at the top - which I assume is the one you originally hid it in.

[

Thanks for a great series and introducing us to this park. It reminds me of another estate back home near Coventry called Coombe Abbey, and if you're ever up in the midlands sometime you and your folks should try it out.

T4TS Fitzwesley+D.

]

GC1W5DF: Chorleywood House 1 - Anyone for Tennis?

Found on 2009-09-12 at 19:00:00
Placed by: High Beeches
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1W5DF

Decided to head north from Phillipshill Wood to do this one after a couple of caches by High Beeches.

Parked on the opposite side of the road in the great looking woods, didn't realise you could drive in here - still no-one got ran over.

Nice little hide for the first of the series. I was looking in the right area but wrong place. Whilst I was preparing to roll up my sleeves and stick my hand in, wife spotted the cache above my head!

TNLNSL T4TC! Didn't see Canada Key tag which is a shame since my wife is Canadian.

Dipped: Rav4 TB.

GC1W5D0: Chorleywood House 2- Pink Chestnut Avenue

Found on 2009-09-12 at 19:00:00
Placed by: High Beeches
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 2)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1W5D0

In my first log of this series I mentioned I'd just come from your caches in Phillipshill Wood, didn't realise this series was yours too.. aah I'm a bit tired!

Anyway nice walk to this second cache of the series. Wife was in charge of the GPSr and I'm not quite sure how she got us there but she did eventually. Checked around the path at first, then went into the meadow, finally spotted from the meadow side so back round to retrieve.

Definitely is a beautiful meadow, even now in Autumn.

TNLNSL.

GC56DD: The London Rainbow Cache 1 - Red

Found on 2009-09-11 at 19:00:00
Placed by: rodz
Size: Virtual (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC56DD

GPSr still playing havoc between all the tall buildings, but the directions were fairly intuitive.

Large tourist group being directed by a guide nearby GZ. Funny, I find geocaching in London doubles up as a tourist guide - written by locals with much more tidbits and knowledge than a paid guide could offer! Well, maybe...

Uploaded image as original link broken.

[This entry was edited by _TeamFitz_ on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 6:08:25 AM.]

GC1KKRK: Flonopoly Cache 16 - Fleet Street

Found on 2009-09-09 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Firelanterns
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1KKRK

First Flonopoly cache! [8D] So many of these caches all over the place it was only a matter of time before I had to start the series!

Found on lunch, GPSr at 20m accuracy! Quite a few places this cache could be hidden going by the hint, but as I stopped to check CacheBerry I glanced down and could see the thing that did not belong. Pretended to shimmy my shoes whilst talking on my mobile and made the grab.

Getting quite good at faking conversation on the phone now if I do say so myself.

T4TC!

GC1KJ9Q: Flonopoly Cache 8 - Euston Road

Found on 2009-09-09 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Firelanterns
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: London, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1KJ9Q

Okay, I didn't realise this was disabled but I found it anyway! It even had the trademark Flonopoly logo/number clue in the micro so had to be it...

I grabbed this as I waited to meet my wife at Euston Station. Anyway, I don't know if a satellite fell out of the sky today or something but my GPSr has sure been acting weird. Never actually took me to GZ, was bugging out and pointing all over the place, at one point my accuracy was at 200m so I had to rely on the hint!

I cased the area up and down and determined it couldn't be on the street itself so I took a little detour out the way and quickly spotted it as I walked past the spot glancing down. Quick grab, didn't realise a muggle was sitting in a car who noticed me, but I don't think he knew/saw what I actually grabbed and didn't seem too interested. Muggle in car was still there when I had to go, so I had to create a little diversion to get this back in place, I dropped my bag and pretended to be looking for something, his head was mostly turned away though.

T4TC. My 2nd of your series, not expecting to do another one so soon...

GC103J9: bones20 cheslyn gardens(hm1)

Found on 2009-09-06 at 19:00:00
Placed by: bones1
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC103J9

Well, not knowing this area well and only living in Watford for 2 years, we attempted this one last week and came from the big park to the North, not realising the gardens were separate from the park we ended up bushwhacking to the boundary fence of someone's backyard. By the time we found out the proper entrance it was closing up.

So this evening we came and saw these nice gardens, a little oasis tucked away off the road in the middle of the suburbs. Enjoyed a nice walk through the park. Coords were a few meters off for us, so we needed to use the hint, but then it was quickly found.

GC1E7MJ: Gin's Cache

Found on 2009-09-06 at 19:00:00
Placed by: G0N
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 3)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC1E7MJ

Very quick CnD for a map fulla smiley faces!

Muggle in the garden next to the cache was washing his plants and gave us a few odd looks but didn't see us retrieve or place. Very plucky location which no doubt gives the local neighbourhood watch some justification for their existence and something to write down in their notebooks.

Dipping Rav4 TB.

GCP5M8: Hornet's Hide 23 - Sam's Squirrel Quest (Herts)

Found on 2009-09-06 at 19:00:00
Placed by: The Hornet, Maintained by Belplasca
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 2)
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCP5M8

Came back to finally strike off our earlier DNF, but was glad to know it wasn't down to our lack of geosense.

Nice little hide, love these woods, I think there needs to be more caches here so maybe I'll think about planting one. Took Mini adventure TB, Left Beavers Red Lodge TB.

GC13R4J: M1 Watford Gap - Cache and Dash Southbound

Found on 2009-09-05 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Saddlesore1000
Size: Micro (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC13R4J

Nice little CnD on the way home from visiting family. Did this one at night with flashlights. Big hairy beast of a spider was guarding this one, thankfully wife was able to distract him while I snatched the cache.

Thanks for the history. Nice bit of trivia: I also read somewhere that when the services first opened in 60's, people from the North driving to London tended to easily get confused by the name. Thinking they were now quite close to London, they were surprised to find they were actually still 100 miles away from Watford.

T4TC, Dipping Rav4 TB.

GCVPYV: M1 Toddington Services Travel Bug Hotel

Found on 2009-09-05 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Roberts-tribe
Size: Regular (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 1.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GCVPYV

Easy cache n' dash on the way up to the Midlands to visit family. Great size container, too bad it seems all the tradeables have been plundered, but good for TBs. Great morning for this cache and no mud whatsoever - all dry.

Took 2x CZ Pig TBs and left Cachers Paradise Fan. Didn't see World Travel GC.

T4TC.

GC17GEC: 4) Ashley Green Walkabout - Haresfoot Farm

Found on 2009-08-30 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 2.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC17GEC

Not too difficult - another cool cache container. Great views, this walkabout only gets better. Time for jonwills wife to have a go at using the GPSr, who then asked us to "walk this way"... so we did some funny walks, not sure if the cows were amused. Decided to take the farm route to the next one.

Took the TB.

[This entry was edited by fitzwesley on Monday, September 07, 2009 at 3:23:50 AM.]

GC17GE9: 3) Ashley Green Walkabout - Harriott's End Farm

Found on 2009-08-30 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 2.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC17GE9

jonwills geokids found this one, can see they're already developing a strong geosense - and this is the first time they've done it.

Another nice find filled with goodies, for the kids anyway. Great view. The clouds are providing perfect weather for this hike.

[This entry was edited by fitzwesley on Monday, September 07, 2009 at 3:23:18 AM.]

GC17GE5: 2) Ashley Green Walkabout - The Holly & The Ivy

Found on 2009-08-30 at 19:00:00
Placed by: Alibags
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1.5 / Terrain: 2.5)
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC17GE5

Found with jonwill + wife + geokids. Presented little difficulty, nice camo on this one. Took geocoin.

Great walk up to it but we seemed to go round the long way around the field. Geokids did swaps. Feeling good about this series so far.

[This entry was edited by fitzwesley on Monday, September 07, 2009 at 3:22:34 AM.]