Gackt's Geocaching Journal

Saturday 27th October

Got the chance to look for a few caches today, yay!

Started the day with a check on my latest hide whilst my eldest son was at football practice in South Cerney. All was well, but I had another reason to check the area out as another cache container had been found by the first few finders. Sure enough I found that one quickly. How I never saw it when I hid mine though I have no idea. I looked through the contents to check out everything in there; turns out it is a Cistrail hide. I popped a note into the container to say that this one was not my Geocache in case others find whilst looking for mine.

I still had plenty of time before the footy practice finished and so drove off to Thames Path - Ashton Keynes I had found a multi here some time ago, but that one has gone and this traditional had was a recent replacement. The cache was a quick find and so I still had a little time left.

The closest cache to where I was that I hadn't found was T-bone Terror. I was in two minds as to whether I should go for another look. That cache was my nemesis. The night it was published I drove out for a cover of darkness raid to try and bag the FTF, but no joy. I have paid many subsequent visits, met up with other people there too having a look, but have never had success. Nearly a year passed now since it was published. I decided to go have one more quick look.. and it paid off! Yes! Finally! It really is very cleverly hid.

My finding luck ran out this afternoon though. I had to pay a visit to Stroud and so took the opportunity to look for a couple, but had no success there. One I have had a DNF on previously, and today I didn't do any better. The other was a simple puzzle which I solved ages ago which should of been a relatively quick grab today, but no.. it was muggle central and I had to abort the mission. Never mind, got T-bone Terror under my belt today and so I shouldn't be greedy ;D

Thursday 1st November

Great to meetup with Electric Sparrow and stanolli, first time since Lord Maythorn's Ciren event which was all the way back in April. Plans were made for the attempt I shouldn't sound so negative, I mean the day we will actually do Earnanæs, þæs wyrmes denn. Feeling both nervous and excited at the same time at this moment


Saturday 3rd November (early)

A freezing cold walk before work, out for a quick check on cache "Harebushes Wood - The strange tree" to see if a trackable was still in there. It wasn't, but I found the answer to where it had gone.

Popped by my "Cirencester St Michael's Walk" cache to do a check on that one too as it was on route. Didn't do a full check on it as there were many muggles about, but I could see from a certain angle that it was still tucked away where it was supposed to be

Sunday 11th November (early)

Took a little drive out to Long Newnton to take Roxy for a walk and do a check on my Terracache out there A Silent Tribute (TCHXI), although not from the same war as remembered today, it still seemed a fitting day to a check on this one.

A crisp and frosty morning, but nice and sunny too. I managed to find one of Rothallo's caches near a pillbox which I hadn't found on walks around there previously. Will write up the short walk later on for the CacheWalker Walk's section.

Also stopped at Crudwell on route to have a go at one of Lord Maythorn's Ford series. That one was a nice quick find. One of the worst jokes ever in the online log prior to mine.

Friday 16th November (early)

Just as expected, added to my usual insomnia the thoughts of today didn't make for a very restful time last night. Anyhow, the excitement is now pushing the tiredness to one side. Less than 7 hours to go!

I have downloaded Brave Sir Robin from Monty Python's Spamalot to play whilst making the descent



Only initial disappoint is that it would of been nice to be attempting this one as a milestone. Am nearly at 700, but not quite there.

Saturday 24th November (late)

Heavy rain and wind forecast for the whole day. I left it to late to see if it would ease, but it never did. In fact it seemed to get worse as the day went on. Although I had quite a memorable geocaching time last weekend, I hadn't actually logged a 'find' for the last couple of weeks, and so I was determined to get out there and find a couple whatever.

Not wanting to drive far in those conditions, I was quite glad that I had a few local ones unfound. I parked up at the recommended parking for Lord Maythorn's Sister Wood caches, changed into my wellies, and made my way in. I had found a few of these previously, including the first one, and so headed on straight to the second in the series. Most of these caches are of a good size, which helped me a great deal in the fading light.

Noticed a few fallen trees in this wood. They are tall trees, and their roots just do not seem to be man enough for them. I had initially thought that this was an ideal place to look for a few caches with the current weather, and indeed the trees were sheltering me somewhat from the elements. But after seeing some of the fallen, I wondered how safe I actually was.

The darkness rapidly enveloped me as I reached the second cache, but I decided not to leave my little outing at that one. With Sisters Wood now completed, I headed back the way I had came to the car, then headed south down towards Ragged Hedge Wood. This was the most blustery part of the walk being out in the open for about quarter of a mile, and the wet started creeping through my clothes. On a positive, one of the single LED high power torches I had bought in from China for 99p including postage, that I was trying out for the first time properly tonight was lighting my way remarkably well. A second positive was that as soon as I entered the wood I found the next cache fairly quickly. Three finds in a row, that's good for me

After totting the numbers up in my head, I realized the next cache would be my 700th. I couldn't turn around and go home now could I? The next one took me some time to find though, it was far from being as easy as the previous ones. For a start I had to wait for a black lab and it's owner be out of sight, and then it still gave me quite a search. But I was really pleased to find and finally hit a milestone this weekend. It has taken a long time to get there as my cache finding rate has slowed dramatically the past few months.

Did I celebrate by turning back to head home to get dry? No, a search and successful find for just one more before I did that

Monday 3rd December

Had the use of my Dad's car this morning as I am using it to pick them up from their trip away a bit later today. Made the use of it to give it a run, as it has been standing for some days, to have a go at cache published just last night. Only a few miles out of the town, I would be happy to cycle to it in the summer, but on a dark miserable morning like today on the main road.. I don't think so.

Black Stripe 2 was a quick find, and right near a water course culvert too ;D I will be back to that one sometime soon.

I did notice the hider actually does not have any finds. They also did not put any clues. I was slightly hesitant about going out to this one because of, but had no problems finding. I wonder if it is a known geocacher's second profile. Who knows. Well the CO knows of course. I didn't have success at the the other new cache belonging to them which was published last night also, but I only had the briefest of looks for that one.

Wednesday 19th December

Geocaching is an addiction, and I am getting quite jittery not being able to feed my habit adequately. Work is eating me alive. Find rate has dropped to one cache a week. Hopefully the new year will give me a little personal time.

Happy to see my secret Santa present got to where it was supposed to ok, and the one sent to me got to me on Monday too Haven't opened it yet though.

Thinking about entering the Birdie's Peach Jar Challenge 2. If I do, I think it will be the first time that I will have ever bought a plastic fruit jar.


*there's something about writing this blog that is making me feel I am starting to sound like Adrian Mole.