Midweek geocoin discovery

Canadian Forces Geocoin


Mpumalanga Cache Adventures travelbug

Popped in to the Taff Travelbug exchange to log the Canadian Forces geocoin. By nature I am a fairly anti-militaristic individual. But I am fascinated (judging by the caches in Iraq and Afghanistan) that geocaching seems to be a bit of a hobby for some members of the armed forces. Nice little icon on this coin as well!

Picked up a TB from South Africa that is part of a race.

Around the world in 80 caches

Around the world in 80 caches geocoin

I just had to pick this one up when I saw it in the Taff TB exchange! No time to blog at length, but this coin (which I think originated in Austria) forms part of a wider geocaching game among a group of cachers...

The coin has also set me off humming the theme tune of a popular 80s cartoon which was a big favourite of the other Dr Tortoiseshell...

Blog Action Day: Aral Sea

Just realised I need to do my bit for "Blog Action Day" by posting on any environmental issue. If there's one issue that does spring to mind, it is the tragedy of the Aral Sea, which is reported here by the BBC.

125th find!

"Craiglas Limekilns"

"Rheidol Valley View"

"A-Road Anarchy A487 Here's Looking at Ewe" (125th find!)

"Cwm Rheidol Oaky Pokey 1"

"Cwm Rheidol Oaky Pokey 2"

"Cwm Rheidol Oakey Pokey 3"

"Cwm Rheidol Oakey Pokey 4"



"CWM RHEIDOL BONUS" (Multicache)


"Wanganui, New Zealand" Unite for Diabetes Travelbug

"Geocoins through the ages - Ancient Egypt Geoocoin"


Brief one for now: but here's a photo of the "Geocoins through the ages" geocoin, in front of the historic Craiglas limekilns near Llanrhystud.

Midweek Machinations

"Caerphilly Common" (Traditional Geocache)


"Motorway Mayhem (M4 J36)" (Traditional Geocache)


"KenfigTwitchers" (Traditional Geocache)


Geocoffee Geocoin


"Sackless Santa"Travelbug


Blogging on the home 'pooter this evening, which is infuriatingly slow at typing blog postings for some reason. So, I'm going to leave this post as a simple list of geocaching activities of the last week, in much the same vein as Sion Barry lists his breakfast items and walk into work.

Gruelling week just gone, which involved a couple of driving commutes to work. Buoyed up by Radio 2, some gallows humour at work, and the overriding emotion of joy thinking about small tortoiseshell!

The chance of some brief geocaching encounters - combined with Tues. night football - was a compensatory factor in this seemingly unending week. Did Caerphilly Common before football, M4 J36 after football, and Kenfig Twitchers on the second commute. Just a brief note on the Geocoffee Geocoin, which is a "resident" coin at the M4 J36 cache near Bridgend. One of the cutest geocoins I've seen! Also nice to tick off "Kenfig Twitchers" at last, a glaringly obvious cache which has been nagging me almost from the start of this insane hobby.

Ceredigion cache and dash

"On the Bog" (Traditional Cache)


"Gwesty Nyth Barcud" ('Kite's Nest Hotel') (Traditional Cache)


"Ambhata, India" Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug


"Henrietta Hippo" Travelbug


"Here's to the 22nd" Travelbug


Quick dash up to Ceredigion over the weekend - managed to knock off two caches that have been on the hitlist for some time. "On the Bog" is a microcache situated in a telegraph pole on the property of "Twm y Tonnau", a fellow Abercacher who lives at Ynyslas. Nice to tick this one off, near my old stomping ground.

I helped name the "Gwesty Nyth Barcud" travelbug hotel (in Cwmystwyth) and so I was very glad to tick this off as well, and discover the travelbugs therein.

Briefly called in to complete the cache that remains unsolved from my earlier geocaching trip to southern Ceredigion this year - but to no avail...next attempt November...

...swiftly back home to watch the climax of the epic France-NZ rugby match.

Cat blog 8: Tabby and white

@ Bryn Awel

Cat blog 7: Black and white

@ Bryn Awel

So Farewell then, Hamadryad Park

2 x Travelbugs ("Rosa", "Ernie")


Today I pulled the plug on my third geocache, the Cardiff Bay travelbug and geocoin exchange, at Hamadryad Park in Cardiff Bay (having already archived my "Cathays Park" and "Cute Coot"caches).

The reason for my decision is that I will soon be unable to maintain the cache. I had thought of placing the cache up for adoption with "Scanker", but the council have mowed away all the scrub that used to offer some protection to the cache. In fact, the cache has probably only survived due to the kind discretion of the council mower operative.

"Crazy the cat" travelbug in the heyday of the Cardiff Bay TB exchange

I have retreived all the trackables inside the cache, which now means I am the proud holder of a giant "Ernie" Sesame Street toy - which I shall be moving to another cache as soon as I can! I have also retreived my "mini seashell coin" which was resident at the cache and has proved popular with visitors.

I shall also be using the container as the basis for a first cache at my new location...

Surprise autumn bonanza

Taff Travelbug and Geocoin Exchange (Traditional Cache)



Joshua Tree National Park geocoin


Blackpool Tower geocoin



Logbook geocoin


Kansas sunshine 2007 geocoin


Canadian Benchmark geocoin


Best of British geocoin


Signal the Frog (Nov. 06) geocoin


Wales Geocoin


"Inuyama, Japan" Unite for Diabetes Travelbug


3x Travelbugs: "Science is fun", "Jox Hairy Sporran", "Woody's Colorado Adventure"


Browsing on the geocaching website I was alerted to a new cache just north of Cardiff City Centre. It was hidden in the hollow of the tree by Sirclimbsalot. The new cache will be his local base for dumping his bugs and coins from his various adventures. Needless to say I was like a child in a sweet shop logging the various trackables.

In amongst the loot was the Blackpool Tower geocoin which had eluded me some months ago, although the coin itself did not quite match up to the icon. The same could be said of the Joshua Tree coin - lovely icon, ordinary coin, albeit named after the Joshua Tree National Park in California.

A pity that this cache came a bit late for me - at one point it would have been my "local"! Nevertheless it was nice to stroll down the Taff Trail on a crisp autumn day and think of old times.

Newgale Earthcache

"Beach Berms" (Earthcache)


Over the weekend I collected only my second ever "earthcache". My previous one was back in March when I visited Kimmeridge Bay. "Earth caches" are similar to "Virtual caches" in that they are existing landmarks, rather than hidden containers.

A few years ago, there were so many "earthcaches" and "virtuals" cluttering up the geocaching scene that new ones were prohibited (although ones created prior to a cut-off date were allowed).

This earthcache was Newgale Beach and was entitled "Beach Berms". In order to claim the cache, I had to take a picture of a pebble on the berm and explain why it is that larger pebbles occur at the top of "berms". The other Dr Tortoiseshell is holding the GPS and pebble in the photo below.