Having woken at 2.30am
and looked at the clock every five minutes for the rest of the night
I finally dozed off five minutes before the alarm went off. Over
brekkie I saw a geocache go live. There's no denying I got a little
bit precious over it. It was a direct replacement for a cache I'd
blogged about on December 8th; one I'd tried to adopt.
The cache at the time was
a rather good walk over some rather scenic countryside, but due to
the way it had been set up it involved three hours effort to only
increase one's geo-score by one find. I had a plan to replace this
cache with a series of (about) a dozen themed caches. Some
traditional caches and a multi-cache. A puzzle or two and a couple of
letterbox hybrids. I'd found somewhere not too far off the old route
which had a geological feature I could have used for an Earthcache,
and I even had the software for a Wherigo cartridge cache to lead
people along the dodgier parts of the route.
With the worst of the
winter's rain gone and today being a day off work I had planned to go
out today and get some geo-fixes along that very route to start
planning this new series with a possible go-live to co-incide with a
geo-meet over the summer which I would have hosted in Chilham. Seven
cache types in one day was the plan; but I left it too late, and
someone else got in first.
Oh well; it's not the
first time I've missed out on a location. The fault (if there is
any fault to assign) is entirely mine for not gettig my arse in
gear earlier. I'd had three months to do something. It's just a shame
that being mid-way between home and work made it ideally positioned
for me.
So I had a little rant on
Facebook. Perhaps I shouldn't have been quite so primadonna-ish.
Perhaps this lack of sleep is getting to me. Perhaps two and a half
years of ongoing hearings and court cases and tribunals have taken
their toll. Perhaps being on half the money I was on when I was only
half my age was preying on my mind again. Or perhaps my various
problems that aren't a matter of public record were still winding me
up.
Whilst I am one of the
world's greatest advocates of social media, it does have its
drawbacks. The entire problem with social media is that so many
people feel obliged to make comment on matters about which they have
absolutely no idea whatsoever. Still, those people that matter to me
know why I rant from time to time, and they either made the right
noises or kept quiet.
But a little on-line rant
from time to time is a good thing. If nothing else it lets me know
those people who shouldn't be on my friends list. And so I had a
minor cull. Those that felt they were being clever by making
smart-ass comments don't know me anyway, and have now got the chop.
Pausing only briefly to
get the car MOT'ed I grabbed my dog and we set off to Chilham. Me and
"Furry Face TM" parked up in
Bagham Lane and were soon on our way round the route. The route had
been mapped out with several waypoints; whilst useful I don't think
they were really necessary; the way was along easy-to-follow
footpaths. A bit muddy in a couple of places, but... let's just say
the dog didn't need a shower when we got home.
None of the hides were
"easy"; I only found one of the parts with less than five
minutes searching. Some of them were rather well hidden, but good
co-ords and hints taken together allowed me to find all parts; though
they did take some hunting out. There's no denying I came close to
giving up on a few of the hides. despite my better judgement I put
all back exactly as found, resisting the temptation to make them
slightly easier to find.
After a lovely walk of
three hours I had the cache in my hand and I saw a clean log book.
Smug mode - FTF!
What can I say about this
cache? I suspect that (like its predecessor cache) it will not
be done very often. Why? Because it's a multi, and people generally
avoid multis in favour of chasing numbers. Which is a great shame.
This multi-cache is a really well marked out (and easy to follow)
walk along some really beautiful scenery. Which is the very reason
why I wanted to make so much more of the route.
Once home I spent some
more time working on the presentation for the astro club until "My
Boy TM" came round and helped me make a
start in the garden. Now the rains seem to have abated somewhat we've
manged to get broken fence panels and the like into the car for a tip
run. We had a lot of broken fence panels; enough to make the back
garden rather inaccessible. It's now clear and I shall carry on out
in the garden later this week.
Being Tuesday the clans
gathered; this time in Somerset Road. As we walked up there I
couldn't help but look up at the clear sky. Last night when we had
the telescope evening planned it was complete cloud cover. Tonight
was a wonderful starry sky.
And with the clans
gathered we watched the cliffhanger of season four of Merlin. A good
episode; but it was a great shame that Sir Bigtits had to die. She'd
only been in the show for two weeks and had made an impressive
contribution to the storyline with her impressive assets. We will
miss her. And her impressive assets...
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