Favourite no.5

Almost too much choice to pick a favourite from my fifth set of ten finds, but I eventually decided on this one, which has also been favourited by a couple of other cachers. I found this one in late June 2009, on the way home from a shopping trip to Nottingham with my daughter Eleanor and even my partner Joanne reluctantly dragged herself out of the car. It was a glorious day and the meadow was full of wildflowers, with the woodlands dappled in afternoon sun; it really was beautiful.

Second choice would be this cheeky one in the centre of Nottingham which caused me no end of troubles before I found it, even being muggled by a work colleague at 5:30 a.m. !!

Another cache that I just have to mention, is this controversial now-archived cache by Chesterfield cachers The Family Bu. The cache container was a huge pine cone hanging high in a tree. The FTFers (cats-eyes plus Worksop cacher angellica) combined to have one member climb the tree whilst the other two waited below for it to be passed down to them. When I, the next finder, saw the tree in question, I knew that there was no way that I was agile enough to climb it (although I did try!), so I had to look around for something to retrieve the cache with. It took about 20 minutes looking (really!), but I eventually found a long branch with a little Y shape on the end, so I could hook the nylon wire loop and ease the container from the tree, sign the log and then replace the cache the same way by sliding the branch through the top part of the Y-shape. I replaced the container exactly where I found it, and then took the branch back down the lane to where I found it (so as not to make it too easy for the next finder).

Later finders reported that they had knocked the cache to the floor, and when I passed by the tree some time later to bag another cache on the same lane, I saw that the tree was a real mess. The original branch that the cache was hanging from was now missing, the cache being much lower and the container appeared damaged. The Family Bu checked it out for themselves and wanted to remove logs from anyone that didn't climb the tree. This is unfair as it is an Additional Logging Requirement, which are now banned, although I can understand their anger at cachers damaging their cache and the tree it was hanging from.

Some Found It logs were removed from the cache page (some quite fairly, one cheeky cacher logged a find, but admitted that they hadn't signed the log and asked The Family Bu to sign it for them the next time that they did a maintenance check!) and various insults were passed about. Check out the surviving logs to see what I'm talking about; I like the comments about the lost dummy...