May 2011

05/30/2011  See Haddenham Roundabout Post

05/29/2011  See The Curse of the Hippo 

05/28/2011 GUIDING LIGHT

DNF - Grim, had a look for this on the way back from Zoomania with the kids. Felt very uncomfortable in the alley way, the fence was all broken and smashed up and there was bits of wire, glass bottles cans and worst of all condoms on the floor (I can't imagine the sort of person that might want to have sex in such a lovely location! Hmm actually I can and that's worse). Couldn't find the cache at the coordinates (In the middle of a field) or in the obvious places nearby and there was no hint so checked the logs. When I read in the logs that the coordinates were off by almost 30 ft I felt it was time to call it a day. Not sure if this is how the cache site normally looks like but in it's present state I'm sorry to say it is best avoided if you are not on a CITO mission, certainly not suitable for small children or the squeamish.

05/22/2011  Haddenham Round Again #7

Don't think the boy has ever been more excited to find a cache wasn't expecting it to be as big as it was and quite literally squealed with delight on finding it. TFTC and the series, that's enough for today but looking forward to coming back and doing the others soon.

05/22/2011  Ham It Up

This quick cache turned into quite the adventure. Firstly on walking in the wrong (smaller) gate clearly displaying no cycles on it we were confronted by about ten lads all with BMX's wielding shovels. They were digging up the path to make ramps "Looks like fun" I said to none of them in particular, yeah they said we're just making a new one here clearly revealed that I was not a woodland trust representative come to spoil their fun. Quite how lads of that age manage to walk of of the house with shovels is beyond me perhaps the council should build some BMX ramps at the skateboard park next door!

Anyhoo onto the cache, after missing the sign we had to back track a bit before starting coordinates in hand we went off for the first micro. After getting stung I don't know how many times and failing miserably to find the micro I was ready to give up. Thankfully the missus stepped up and saved the day finding one of the best micros we have found so far. Gutted not to have found it myself.

The last bit of the hunt was a bit tricky as well, seriously the last time I wear shorts doing geocaching. Thankfully the missus stepped up again diving into the bushes with securing the cache and taking 100% credit for the find. Good stuff and really good fun, right off to do some of the Haddenham Round again series. Thanks for the cache.

 05/22/2011  Haddenham Round Again #6

Did this with the family. Amusingly I found it before the others and with some slight of hand managed to place it in a ridiculously obvious place in front of them without them noticing. Took several seconds before my 3 year old daughter found it as they were all looking at ground level in the wrong area. TFTC

05/21/2011 See Morton Circle Post

05/15/2011  Tame Thame

Quickie on the way back from some more substantial hunts. Still took a while including finding a note in a bag saying thanks to Brian... random! I put that back where I found it... you never know. TFTC.

05/15/2011  A Church Too Far

Spot on coordinates, however, this is in dire need of maintenance, such a beautiful location and church and grounds are very pretty but the cache itself lets it all down. Sorry to say it's just a very wet box of rubbish and a sad finish to a nice walk.

 05/15/2011  Medieval Earthwork

Nice walk, bit on the steep side for the my three year old but the whining on the way up turned into delighted giggles as she found the cache first (First time ever) as everyone else says great views. TFTC.

 05/07/2011 You couldn't find Fern"Hill" or is it

Another DNF but this time much more progress.
Old age definitely taking it's toll found Micro 1 in about 30 seconds on the third visit after declaring to the owner that unless I was blind it was gone! I think there is a mindset to where caches are placed that is not obvious with only a few finds under your belt now a veteran of over 30 caches it's getting easier! White stick in hand we continued onto the next micro.
Micro 2 also found, much easier although we did get lost and ended up in a field of sheep and had to jump a fence and a small stream to get back on track (Lesson learned stick to the marked footpaths! Not all bridges are equal).
Micro 3 spent ages looking for it but didn't find it I'll try a few more times before declaring it missing ; ) More nettles than necessary. I must remember to wear trousers next time!
This is a great series and fast becoming a favourite not only for the beautiful woodland walks and bluebells but for the ongoing blunders and admittedly close proximity to my house, when I finally finish this it will no doubt become an all time favourite!

05/02/2011  See the Curse of the Hippo Post

05/01/2011 See Thame Micro Maddness Post

05/01/2011  The Killick - Never At Sea

Nice location must have walked past this hundreds of times! TFTC

Haddenham Roundabout

A very understated but excellent series and one of my favourites. This series consists of 8 caches of different sizes types and difficulties over a 1.5 hour walk in the area surrounding the village of Haddenham (The local mecca of good series and individual caches for me). It is a GREAT series for the kids mine loved it (although do note that there is a fair bit of walking on or near roads). Plus it has a great duck pond with really obnoxious ducks which is always a bonus (Take bread it will be demanded). Ample parking is available at the church green which is a convenient place to start this series, and later will serve as a nice landmark for navigation there are a huge number of other caches that you can pick up nearby some easy some really difficult. There really is a little something for every cacher in Haddenham!

From the owners description:

Coming from 'The Green' of Haddenham, walk into Flint Street and take the footpath there... continue on...

All caches were completed in the order below on the 30^th of May 2011 by myself and my two kids aged 3 and 5.

Haddenham Roundabout #1

Without a doubt my favourite series so far. It has a bit of everything, straight from the off a really memorable one. The location was easy enough to find after an amusing dash through a field of cows. Ended up checking the hint after the first 5 minutes which didn't help as it was obvious, after 20 minutes started checking the logs. Found it in the end but was not expecting it to be where I found it. If you check my profile you'll see another hobby that I was hoping to merge with geocaching at some point and this cache ended Up being right Up my street! Great stuff TFTC.

Haddenham Roundabout #2

Man that is one stinky hiding place! The kids were a bit vigorous when finding this one and the cache site has a few battle scars, sorry! Had fun with the pigs after finding this cache!

Haddenham Roundabout #3

Nice sized container. Thinking of creating a geocachers tool that can bypass nettles, this time next year Rodders! Anyhoo back in reality don't forget your umbrella it's a long run back over the field for it if you do... oops.

Haddenham Roundabout #4

I believe it was the seventh one I tried after checking the clue! Not in the obvious places. The field is full of deep cracks which the kids had fun avoiding and a train whizzed passed as we were heading over which they loved.

Haddenham Roundabout #5

Simply brilliant, I must have looked at that horseshoe ten times before I figured out it had a secret compartment. I have a great photo of us with the cache but don't want to do a spoiler... oops

EDIT: This is a favourite of cache of mine now mainly due to the good humour of cachers who came after me and carried on my evil in joke.

Haddenham Roundabout #6

The boy found this good sized cache, really enjoying the series and the kids are all smiles despite the longish walk and the weather which looks to be turning nasty .

Haddenham Roundabout #7

Nice and easy the boy found this one as well. Shame there is a bit of walking on the road coming up.

Haddenham Roundabout #8

Knew exactly what we were looking for but still took a good 20 minutes, shame that someone had decided to have a poo very near to the site (Unless dogs are using loo roll these days!) still even that could not ruin this absolutely brilliant series with a cache that was suitably difficult to finish off with. The boy opened it and dropped it with a squeal after finding a family of earwigs in it (I cleaned them out) this will be known as the "Scary cache" in our circles .
Not sure how to get back to St. Mary's from here. In hindsight the road might have been the best choice we opted for a very long walk through fields with long wet grass which effectively ended a very good days caching. It started to rain heavily half way back but for our efforts we were treated with a dear and lots of herons! Still I wouldn't recommend it the footpaths were not very clearly marked and has lots of stinging nettles, thorns and obstacles to avoid.
Best series so far by far.

Thame Moreton Circle

This series consist of a set of 9 micros (35mm film canisters) set on a circular walk from Thame and around Moreton, a length of about 2.5 miles. The going can be very muddy so good boots are a must.

Within some of the containers there is a set of values, which will help you find the “Thame Moreton Bonus Cache” which is a small cache containing a few goodies.

Please make sure that you take along a Pen or Pencil with you as the micros contain neither. Also please ensure that the containers are replace as found.

This was completed in three attempts as we went badly wrong the first time while accompanied by the full complement of team Dornorn on a lovely sunny day. The second attempt was just the boy and myself where we picked up 5 while doing another cache in the area on a very rainy day. The last two were picked up by again as the full team, normally I would have mopped up the last couple of caches myself but this is such a nice walk and the kids love it. I’ve left the dates complete with the logs. Try not to make the same mistake as us and pay attention to my comment on number 2!

04/25/2011  Thame Moreton Circle - 01

Nice circular walk one down nine to go! TFTC

04/25/2011  Thame Moreton Circle - 02

Went badly wrong here. Once you have the cache don't carry on the path to the right you need to go straight on.
I managed to go straight to number 6 from here... oops.

05/21/2011  Thame Moreton Circle - 03

This time we went the right way and found it nice and easily and as reward first to sign the new logbook, woot!

05/21/2011  Thame Moreton Circle - 04

That's the last one in the series job done.
Thanks for the cache and the series this is a great little walk and I'm sure we will be doing it many more times in the future. might even do them in order next time ; )

04/29/2011  Thame Moreton Circle - 05

Think I signed the wrong date... anyhoo two to go now on the Moreton circle (3 and 4).
Would have done them today but it's not great weather. The logbook is very damp.

04/25/2011  Thame Moreton Circle - 06

After much scratching of heads and a lot of back tracking and trying lots of different ways trying to figure out where we went wrong (see entry for number 2) we realised our error and made the best of a bad job skipping 3, 4 and 5 and heading to 7 from here. Will have to get them another day.

 04/25/2011  Thame Moreton Circle - 07

Muggles on bikes everywhere! No sinister ducks today... shame.

 04/25/2011  Thame Moreton Circle - 08

Yeah all right this bit was a bit muddy first bit of mud today though. Great hiding place not seen a cache hidden like this before. Still no sinister ducks but one sinister looking red kite which served to hurry the children along.

04/25/2011  Thame Moreton Circle - 09

That helpful map would have been really helpful if I had noticed it during the walk! Oh well with only a partial solution due to missing out a couple of the caches with this one found  it's only the bonus cache to go..

04/25/2011  Thame Moreton Circle Bonus

Using partial coordinates we found this cheeky little number without too much trouble. All in all this was a great walk in my local area that I was previously not aware of. Very child friendly until getting into Moreton itself which was likened to the M1 today due to the number of cars and bikes hooning around this otherwise beautiful sleepy village. I won't be able to rest easy until I find the other caches so I'll be doing them soon hopefully without getting lost again!. Took a Beaver TB left some fun things for the kids. Thank you very much for the cache and the trail itself.