100th Cache!!!

This was logged on the 20th of June 2011

Thame Town Teaser [Oxon]

Not only my 100th cache, but also my last one in Thame (that is capable of being done at the moment) my caching started in Thame at St Marys so it seems fitting that I'm back here for the 100th. I have been doing this one on and off for the week. Starting on Thursday the 16th I spent a lovely morning in Thame. I thought I knew Thame really well I live nearby and spent much of my youth here but this series has not failed to surprise me with each step, I swear I must walk around with my eyes closed!! I managed to find all of the numbers up to P pretty quickly but I could not find the micro at St Marys. I left it for the day (I thought) and entered a DNF to let track my progress. Later that day at home I thought about it a bit more and decided to abandon the micro. After using Google and some local knowledge I found the next bit of the trail and I was off again to check for the next micro even though it was getting quite late. I hadn't realised but I was much further on than I thought and I spent a fair amount of time looking in a place that had been muggled (which was why the cache was deactivated). As I scratched my head I got an email from the owner of the cache. The first of many it turned out! Team Hippo are probably the most friendly and helpful owners I have ever encountered since starting this hobby. The email wasn't very detailed and certainly didn't tell me exactly where to look but it was more than enough to help me to find the micro at St. Marys, it was actually dark when I found it that night. I had left the grid until this point figuring that something later on would help with that giving it no more than a cursory glance. At the prompting of Team Hippo I took a better look and solved it quickly while lying in bed at about midnight (not that I was obsessing about it or anything). From there it was a wait until the cache was reactivated. This happened some time on Sunday and I flew out the door as soon as I saw it come up. I found the relocated micro without too much drama and carried on from there... which I won't go into so I don't spoil it for you. Suffice to say I needed several other tidbits of help from the owner and had a brilliant adventure involving often needlessly laying face down on the ground (planking?), a newfound mistrust of animals, stinging nettles, a crown of thorns, cannibalism, mud / water and near death. I will be actively looking for more team hippo caches I love the way this cache has stretched me, it has been annoying, challenging, and hard work but utterly rewarding and it never failed to make me smile and shake my head at the genius / evil of the cache owner and has been really funny in places it absolutely deserves it’s place as a special milestone in my caching history it’s safe to say this has permanently changed the way I look at caching as well as inspiring me to do my own someday. I can’t recommend this highly enough. Thank you so much for the cache and all of your help Team Hippo you are legends.

Thame Micro Madness

This is a series of 12 mostly tiny caches scattered all over Lee Park in Thame, Oxfordshire. They are ideal as separate cache n dashes or complete them all in about two hours (if you can find them all!). We did this series over a period of a couple of months and in no particular order I have included the dates attempted and found.

From the owners description:

If you are not a huge fan of small / micro / nano caches with no room for swaps, then I would stay clear from this series and only do Lee Park Micro Madness ONE. All the rest are TINY and have logbook only, some have a pencil but most do not. THESE ARE SMALL GUYS – and in some cases REAL SMALL. Please only use one line of the logbook and fit in what you can, maybe just initials in some cases... Also avoid this series if you are afraid of caching where muggles may see you...

04/27/2011  Lee Park Micro Madness 1

Way too many muggles had to wait for them to disperse, after that a nice easy find.
This was a cache and dash will be back to do the full trail sometime soon. TFTC

 05/01/2011  Lea Park Micro Madness 2

Nice and easy first place I looked.

06/13/2011  Lea Park Micro Madness 3

Had a nice walk around the estate here and found the wall was knocked down... overzealous cacher?

05/01/2011 Lea Park Micro Madness 4

Did not find. Had a long look around the ramps lots of muggle skaters. Spent a good hour there with the boy on his scooter enjoying the ramps. We'll be back to this area again soon geocaching or not might even get my skateboard out! Very nostalgic series and enjoying it very much.
UPDATE 06/13/2011 - Yay! very glad to be able to cross this off my could not find list. TFTC and thanks for maintaining a great series woowooneenor

05/01/2011  Lea Park Micro Madness 5

Nice little cache. Enjoying this series more than I thought I would. TFTC

04/30/2011  Lee Park Micro Madness 6

Nice little cache took TB. TFTC

04/30/2011  Lea Park Micro Madness 7

Bless this is so cute. Thanks!

05/01/2011  Lea Park Micro Madness 8

Losing track of which ones I've found now! Logging them as I go. TFTC 

06/13/2011  Lea Park Micro Madness 9

Feel a bit guilty as I tore a little bit off one of the bags while getting into this, its all fine but might revisit to put a forth bag on the cache. This marks the last in the series for me. Thanks again!

05/01/2011 Lea Park Micro Madness 10

Did not find. I also used to visit these places often as a boy very nostalgic. Got nothing from this one but some scratches spent a fair amount of time looking... No joy.

UPDATE 06/13/2011 - Second time lucky, much easier without having to worry about my little "helper" getting run over found this in seconds this time!

05/01/2011  Lea Park Micro Madness 11

Took a while but found it nicely tucked away. TFTC

06/13/2011  Lea Park Micro Madness 12

So tiny! Didn't even attempt to sign this but took a photo for evidence if required. TFTC

Chilterns Ramble

This is a series of caches located a mile or so north of Nettlebed in South Oxfordshire and towards the south west end of the Chilterns. The Chiltern Hills are a chalk escarpment that stretches in a south-west to north-east diagonal from Goring (Oxon) to Hitchin (Herts) but is most prominent in Buckinghamshire. The chalk ridge approximately coincides with southernmost extent of the ice sheet during the last ice age and its highest point is located in Halton Woods near Wendover. The Chilterns landscape was recognised as amongst the finest in the country and was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1965.

The Chiltern Ramble covers approximately 5 miles over quite hilly terrain and will take about 3 hours to finish (and a little more if you prefer a relaxed pace with lunch). Most of this series is dog friendly but unfortunately there are a number of stiles to negotiate if you wish to complete the series without relocating your car or retracing your steps. Please also note that at the time of placing there were some very muddy sections of footpath and good pair of walking boots is a minimum requirement. The intended route is from CR1 to CR16 although dog walkers may struggle with the stiles between CR10 and CR11 so may prefer to relocate to the additional parking location for caches CR6 – CR10.

All completed in the following order on the 11^th of June

Chilterns Ramble 1

A rather ambitious series for a fat knacker with two kids aged 5 and 3, regardless we forged ahead with the intention of completing the series in one fell swoop. Probably should have done some research first but throwing caution to the wind we headed off parking was the first hurdle we ended up leaving it at the top of the side road in front of the houses. We headed down the road and promptly got lost... yeah obvious now we should have turned down the right hand fork rather than going straight on. We found a little side turning and watched a remarkable aerial fight between a crow and a red kite. Anyhoo we found the first cache after a couple of fence hops. Not the most promising start.

Chilterns Ramble 2

A nice straight forward one, hid this a bit better as it was very exposed.

Chilterns Ramble 3

Both the kids had a good rummage for this one but couldn't find it. It's surprisingly well camouflaged even though it's just sat there. I found it very quickly which my boy found very suspicious.

Chilterns Ramble 4

Keen to prove himself after being blind as a bat on the last cache the boy found this one in double quick time. My daughter was much more interested in the beautiful pony in the next field.

Chilterns Ramble 5

Nice and straight forward starting to wonder if my phone is going to make it all the way around. Starting to actively save battery power... hmm might have to get one of those portable battery charger things.

Chilterns Ramble 6

Nice walk through the woods the kids heard a funny noise they think it could have been a bear I told them it was zebras.

Chilterns Ramble 7

Wow steep hill we thought we had found it hard going until we saw the cyclists. When you are peddling and moving slower than a walk is it really worth it? This cache was not in the obvious places and took us a little while to find.

Chilterns Ramble 8

More hill OMG when will it end! Oh there we go.

Chilterns Ramble 9

Nice easy one sent the boy in and had a little rest here.

Chilterns Ramble 10

The tree cover and many possible hiding places made this one really tricky. We had to use a photo posted by an earlier cacher which made it obvious.

Chilterns Ramble 11

Okay this is where a little bit of reading ahead would have saved us a long and exhausting walk and a telling off by a farmer. Whatever you do don't head in the direction of the next geocache there is a stile waypoint which you should instead head for. We took a direct route then turned right and headed up toward the houses before doubling back jumping several barbed wire fences and going down a scarily steep hill. The cache itself was easily found but I was really annoyed with myself for taking us so off route especially when we were already tired.

Chilterns Ramble 12

Very nearly went the wrong way again turned right to head up the hill but decided it wasn't up there and headed back down the kids were proper tired by then. Thankfully this was a nice easy find in the end.

Chilterns Ramble 13

Founds this in seconds great but obvious hiding place. I hid it a little bit better for the next cachers but is still really obvious.

 Chilterns Ramble 14

NOOO! More hill walking my 3 year old lost it about here insisting that I carry her. My 5 year old son lost it a little further up. May promises of ice cream and xbox playing time later we reached the cache location. Three likely places but my first guess found it.

Chilterns Ramble 15

Felt like we were heading onto private property but it soon turned out okay. The cache was an easy find and then MORE HILL'S! Having nothing else to promise we trudged on some of us more miserable than others The cache was a nice easy find.

Chilterns Ramble 16

Hang on this looks familiar! No red kites or crows this time but at least we knew where we were and the batteries on the phone / GPS were still working which is a testament to my battery preservation skills (Although I should have used some batter power earlier when we lost). With a cache in hand and laughs all round we gave ourselves a literal pat on the back and a sandwich hug with me as the filling for finding all 16 we headed home for a well deserved KFC, Ice cream and Xbox time SIX hours after starting this most epic of series (well for us anyway ). Thank you so much for the cache and the series we had a great day out finding all these and will recommend this series to everyone especially those with energetic kids .

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.

April 2011

04/30/2011 See Thame Micro Maddness Post 
04/30/2011 See Thame Micro Maddness Post 
04/29/2011 See Thame Morton Circle Post

 04/29/2011  On Top Halfway Between

Nice easy find the Geomate Jr led us right to it from the Moreton end. Lots of wildlife on the way dogs, rabbits, "baby cows", horses, crows, and many red kites. The boy proclaimed that he knew all about horse poo on the way there as he saw it on TV (What the heck has he been watching!). However the weather caught us out and we had to make this quick and run back up the path before the heavens opened (No farmers with tractors to give us a cheeky lift back sigh). Back in time for the royal wedding on TV found myself wondering if there was a geocache in Westminster (no horse poo that I saw...). Thanks for the cache.

04/27/2011 See Thame Micro Maddness Post 

04/27/2011  Mid Life Crisis (Oxon)

Cheeky little hide, water proofed it a bit as contents were a little damp.
Left TB (M ticked off). Thanks for the cache.

 04/27/2011  Motorway Mayhem M40 J5 [Bucks]

Little cache and dash on the way home. Nice camo
TFTC

04/26/2011  Motorway Mayhem M40 J6 [Oxon]

Ran out of GPS juice after doing the very lovely Lewknor Loop series, after a fruitless search in the rough area where I thought it might be I gave it up and went to the pub instead. I came back for this one on the way home today very quick with batteries and no muggles wondering what I was up to this time. There are two of these abominations in Lewknor! someone inform the village elders. TFTC

04/25/2011 See Thame Moreton Circle Post
04/22/2011  See Lewknor Loop Post

04/22/2011  Cache with a view (The Chilterns)

What a beautiful location the bluebells go on and on.
Did this just with the boy before heading down to Lewknor to meet up with the girls for the Lewknor Loop.
Thanks for the cache PS One of the lockable sides is broken might need some maintenance soon.
Dropped off Dads Seashell Geocoin.

 04/20/2011  Old SideTracked - Wheatley Abutment

Possibly the least glamorous location ever, I imagine the walk is nicer a bit further on once you get past the dog poo left by the irresponsible dog owners still very convenient for a quick find while shopping at ASDA for some bargain geoswag. Managed to get stung by a nettle even though there was ample room for both me and the evil weed to exist... nature in all its various guises clearly hates me. TFTC.

04/17/2011  Little Bow Peep

Great day out with a big troop of friends and family many of which were trying geocaching for the first time (Including Geo-serenity77). Really beautiful area and well worth a visit. The kids really loved this one, best so far without question. Took a "Dad's Seashell Geocoin" DWWNBB, not sure I can get it to the coast but at least I can put it in a cache that gets more traffic. I'll have to read up on it now just to make sure I do the right thing by it.

04/16/2011  Cutteslowe Park

Nice walk and had a great time with the kids with bikes, ducks, a play park, caged birds and ice cream whats not to like TFTC

04/16/2011  Old SideTracked - Tiddington

Found it took a second adult (the missus) to stop the kids running out into the road and she ended up finding it! The coordinates are a little off and can't make sense of the hint, other than that that it was pretty easy search the first place you think it should be no need to go near the road or do any climbing ; )

04/12/2011  Shire Hall to Shinfield Park

Added some FW merch while confusing several muggles by abandoning my car nearby and looking like I was up to something say hi to B3821 ; )

04/10/2011 You couldn't find Fern"Hill" or is it

Second DNF of the day. I am 100% sure we were in the right place scoured the area thoroughly but couldn't find it. At one point my son started digging which confused a passing muggle no end.  Still realitively new so not sure exactly what we were looking for, it's either missing very well hidden or in plain sight but not to a newbie. Sadly we got more nettle stings than geo caches today which can't be good. Will definitely be going back at some point as we were looking forward to the onward route.

04/10/2011 Old SideTracked - Tiddington

DNF Spent an age looking for this one lots of muggles and cars and nettles
gave up but might go back without the kids soon as this is near to where I live.
Looking at the terrain rating I think we were hopelessly lost!

04/09/2011  St Marys Church

My very first geo cache it was a real adventure with my two young kids.
Left some sweets and toys not sure if that's the done thing we are planning on collecting a better variety of treasures to leave next time.