The tale of a trackable...

Do you own a trackable? Bugs and coins, they love them, we own them and then we release them to travel at the hands of many others who share our love of the game. I own 4. One, called Phylis Fairy was taken from a cache never to be seen again. One is a sticker on the back of my car, waiting to be discovered. Another, Psyco Sow is a "take 2" after the original was muggled in a cache in Australia. This one is now in Germany, after a brief but exciting safari expedition. And coincidently, I have another bug in Germany which has an interesting story to tell.

Ho-Humm belonged to my late husband. We released it as part of a travel bug race. It travelled well, went into Europe, moved around, and then went mysteriously missing from a cache in Switzerland. My German in not very good, but I could tell from the logs that it wasn't were it was supposed to be. I had forgotten about it and lost hope. And a few months after my husband lost his battle with cancer I got a very welcome message. A fellow cacher had discovered the bug in the hands of  a muggle and managed to talk them into giving it to him so that he could send it on it's way again. To date it has travelled some 15481.2km and been to some awesome places. I have no idea if it will ever come home again. And maybe, one day I will take a trip to Europe to visit it. But cachers are wonderful people and this is why I love this game.

Things that bite!!!

The are out there. Your turn over a rock and there they are - scorpions, spiders, ants, snakes and other little crawlies. What they are really doing is hiding from the sunshine. Waiting for their next meal. They don't want to hurt you - injecting venom uses up energy. Bites and stings to larger creatures (like humans) are a self-defense mechanism. Why would the want to use up all that energy unless their lives are in danger? But they do have a nasty habit of living under stones and in near little holes, which indecently are exactly where most geocaches are hidden! There are things that could bite while doing a geocaching tour in Africa, we discovered this little rock scorpion at our latest find. Take care out there. Turn rocks over carefully and always away from you.

Holidays....

It's creeping closer. Christmas is coming. Holiday season is almost upon us. What's on your wish list this year?
Maybe a new GPS to make finding those elusive hides more exciting. This time of year has always been about spending more time with family and loved ones.

Are you one of those lucky ones who are going travelling? The weather is now perfect for caching and safaris. Even more fun when somebody else is doing all the driving and hard work for you.

Another interesting link I found is Cache Face. A group of like minded people chatting about their favourite hobby.

31 days of Geocaching...

That's the plan. 31 days in August and the goal is to be active for all 31 of them, So who is taking part? Seeking, placing and attending - it all counts!
First off - are there enough caches in your area? And if not, are there enough places to hide caches? The reviewers are going to be pretty busy. Planning? I guess, like me, you start with the caches closest to home that have been on your "must get around to do" list! And then go further and further. Who knows where we end up by August the 31st!

Maybe what we need is some professional help. Maybe this is the perfect time to take that safari that we've been promising ourselves.

So what caches are we planning on placing? And is there going to be the usual rush of FTF seekers? Exciting times ahead by the looks of things!

TFTC - What's in a log?

Are you one of those people who simply write "TFTC" as proof that you were there? Personally, I think it's a bit rude and very impersonal. But it's seems to be the accepted way lately. I always like to take time to let the owner of the cache know what I think. I mean, they went out of their way to place it. Most of us are proud of our caches (at least we should be). And feedback, whether good or bad is always appreciated. It also gives other cachers a clue as to what to expect. "Great view" or "watch out for dogs/ticks/ muggles/etc" is always helpful. I like to try and get a bit creative with my logs. And I appreciate it when people do the same for my hides. And I'm not talking about those people out there who like to write whole essays on the hide, the hunt, the find and their life story. But a simple note on what they think of your cache, the condition in is in and anything else that they might find of interest is always appreciated. And if you are wondering what all those names and abbreviations stand for, those clever people at Geocaching HQ have it all explained.  I think next time I see a very good entry I am going to share it here. In the meantime TNLNSL - TFTC.

Open Caching

As the name implies, this site is free and open to everyone. Will it be as popular as Groundspeak? Only time will tell. Am I a member? Yes, I enjoy this game and I don't want to lose out! This site has far fewer rules and regulations. It's linked directly to Garmin. I am still exploring it and I will report back when I find out more about it.

Getting crafty with containers.

While waiting for Chrigi to return from his latest adventure I am sitting here thinking about what the "ultimate geocache hide" would look like. Lets face it, Geocachers have become very resourceful over the years. But living in Africa must surely push the envelope a bit. Caches get muggled, stolen, cleaned away, washed away and befall all manner of disappearing acts, much to our frustration and dismay. Recently I found a micro cache that we extremely inventive. The clue said "right under your nose" and indeed, it was. But it still took 20 minutes of hard looking. Looking on good old "google" I found some really interesting hides. I mean, who would expect a piece of discarded chewing gums under a table to be the "find" you are looking for? Very clever! And a dog pooh cache. Yup - that's been done too! Although around these parts I wouldn't be very keen on that - there is way too much of the "real thing" lying around!
So what would be the ultimate hide? Seasoned Geocachers are become very good at spotting the seemingly obvious and slightly out-of-place item. I guess I will have to keep on wracking my brains till I come up with something. As they say: "watch this space"!