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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

about terrorists the Royal Wedding and Geocaching!

86 replies

GypsyMoth · 19/04/2011 11:35

i am taking some teens down to London to watch Royal Wedding....

a bit worried about the terrorist thing now,i wasnt previously but i am now!! just niggling feelings really. but feeling more worried due to seeing on the news police apparently 'scouring' London looking for hidden bombs and weapons

However,if thats reassuring for everyone,it makes it worse for me.....as i know for a fact there are hundreds and hundreds of geocaches hidden across London!!

and they have been there for years! some large enough to hold devices or weapons or whatever!!

so,terrorists....its more possible in my mind now i've realised this.

AIBU????

OP posts:
mummylin2495 · 21/04/2011 09:08

just one more thing ,how do you find the clues as to the location of cache ? Do we get them from the internet ?

sfxmum · 21/04/2011 09:57

clues are on the site you can ask for more clues if you can't find them at first but usually the co ordinates and the more or less cryptic clue will get you there, most of the fun is in looking

mummylin2495 · 21/04/2011 10:01

well i am now going to sign up on that site.thanks for info !

mummylin2495 · 21/04/2011 10:43

I have now signed up and had a very quick look at the local sites.I have to say that what i read on some of them made no sense to me at all.How will i ever find anything ! There are loads of local places which we could actually walk to.Now all we have to do is work out how to use all the clues ! I want to start with the church.Its so lovely there but quite a large area. Wish me luck and i will repoert back if/ when we actually go and do it and find something Grin

Original poster
GypsyMoth · 21/04/2011 10:55

good luck mummylin!!

i LOVE your enthusiasm!!Grin

dont give up if you dont find it....do you have an iphone? my app takes me to within a foot of the cache.

OP posts:
mummylin2495 · 21/04/2011 11:05

no i dont have i- phone.but how will i make sense of the letters and numbers ? its like a secret language.I have part of the clue which was written in a code ,i sat and worked it out then clicked on decrypt and it was already worked out Grin Its the other things which i will get confused about i think.One example is W50 with a little circle but what on earth does that mean ?

mummylin2495 · 21/04/2011 11:07

gets into geo language .Thats what it is ,its the co -ordinates that i dont understand,i must be thick !

Original poster
GypsyMoth · 21/04/2011 11:10

ok. so you need a device of some sort. they are c-ordinates. the app on the iphone directs you to the cache,as you get closer it counts down the distance. you could do it with a compass i think,but i have no idea how to use one!

do you have anything with gps? i have only ever attempted one cache without gps.

do you have sat nav?

OP posts:
mummylin2495 · 21/04/2011 11:19

yes my dh has a sat nav.i too would not be able to use a compass.[ told you i was thick ] But what details do you put into the sat nav to start with ? i think im gonna be useless but i so want to give it a go

mummylin2495 · 21/04/2011 11:24

must go and do something but will check back in later.

glastocat · 21/04/2011 12:24

You put in the co-ordinates , its the string of numbers that looks something like this N51 37.438 W008 22.197. That will lead you to the approximate location of the cache, the accuracy can vary. For your first attempts can I advise you look for a regular sized cache which will be a container big enough to hold a notebook and pencil and maybe some stash. You can also get micros which are usually big enough to hold a log and small pencil, and nanos which can be the size of your fingernail, so MUCH harder to find (and IMO not so much fun, although I did find a brilliant micro last week, disguised as a bolt!). There is a UK geocaching board, where I am sure they are very helpful, maybe someone local will volunteer to show you the ropes? Ask away here too, I'm always happy to help a newbie. Smile

Original poster
GypsyMoth · 21/04/2011 12:27

glasto.....we have found a magnetic bolt before too! and a bottle top on theground with a test tube type thing attached pegging it down.....the 2 year old found that one after over an hour of searching!! we were Shock at him!!

OP posts:
glastocat · 21/04/2011 12:31

You just reminded me of one my mum found. It was a fake rock on a stony beach! She told me she did quite a bit of swearing when she spotted it! Grin. I think the clue was 'Rock'. Grin. Some people are fiends!

5ofus · 21/04/2011 12:37

Always trade up :)

Replace any items you take, with something as good or better.

Beware of the muggles.

Enjoy! Geocaching rocks Grin

mummylin2495 · 21/04/2011 12:49

what sort of things do you find in them. ? spoke to my dh just now and when i told him about the letters etc he said " oh thats easy " hmmph we will see.when he comes home and looks on the website he may not be so bloody cocky ! Im very excited about having a go at this.Oh well some of us have to go an spend a couple of hours at the garden center,its a hard life Grin

sfxmum · 21/04/2011 12:49

I think the most fiendish was one at the end of a hand rail by the river, there was a false cap end and the cache was inside

we have also found some behind false grilles and wall blocks

oldspeckledtam · 21/04/2011 12:50

On the back of this thread I signed up and took my 5 year old out. There is a one 15 mins walk from my door! Probably less, if I could read a map or understand co-ordinates. DD loved it.

mummylin2495 · 21/04/2011 12:54

Oldspeckeledtam.did you use a gps thing or did you manage without.the one i am going to try first is only about the same time as yours away from me[ walking ] did you find it and how did you work it all out ? right really have to go now ,my brother is here.

glastocat · 21/04/2011 13:04

We have the car GPS set up to go ping whenever we are within 1000m of a cache. blushes I don't read maps or understand co-ordinates either, I just put them in the gps.Grin

2rebecca · 21/04/2011 13:14

We go geocaching. We use a GPS though and if you wire it into the computer you click a button and the location saves into the GPS. Some of them have lots of clues and you have to input the answer at the end.
It's a fun addition to a day out. Can be frustrating though if it's an under a rock one and the place is covered in rocks.
My bloke doesn't get it at all. If I'm going for a run somewhere remote I'm often wearing a GPS watch and will plug in the coordinates of a geocache en route to make the run more interesting.
I don't bother with micros much, the kids prefer to find a box, preferably containing a traveller (coins and tags that you take from place to place).

rainbowinthesky · 21/04/2011 13:22

2rebecca - I've just started geocaching but have found my phone is pretty inaccurate. How much does a gps device or gps phone cost and are they better than using gps on a phone?

Original poster
GypsyMoth · 21/04/2011 13:25

think they start around £60....go up to hundreds!

we like going on the meets. some caches in a local forest get set up specially for the day

OP posts:
rainbowinthesky · 21/04/2011 13:28

Thanks, will now need to choose between a kindle, gps device or chanel perfume for my birthday!

5Foot5 · 21/04/2011 13:29

Great to see all the enthusiasm and interest this thread has started. We took it up 5 or 6 years ago and have had great fun with it.

Apart from the thrill of finding the cache it is also a really great way of exploring an area. We are keen walkers and thought we knew our area pretty well - however since we started geocaching we have discovered loads of new walks and interesting places.

Also whenever we go away anywhere or on holiday we take details of local caches as we find we get so much more from the area like that.

mummylin My DSis and her DS took it up recently after I mentioned there was a cache within about 100m of their gate. She hasn't got a GPS at all yet but has been managing simple ones by entering the coordinates into Google maps and then zooming in on satellite view to get a good idea where it is. That together with the clue has often been enough.

rainbowinthesky · 21/04/2011 13:29

Do the batteries on GPS devices last well? Are they far more accurate than using a phone? Can you input more than one cache location?