Scooby Doo.....where are you?

To start the day off I had just enough time for a drive by Studio 16 - Aural Sculpture (by The Strangler) which I had DNF'ed before, today I found it straight away..... and then to get dropped off at one point, walk a mile and be picked up at another.

I managed to get:

• Weatheroak Wander: Gate
• The Lazy Cacher's Guide to Northfield Street Names
• B.M.Ex

All 3 caches were enjoyable but found quickly, the Lazy Cacher's guide being a mystery cache I had solved ages ago....Nice to have them all in the bag.

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Whilst attending the Brummie Meet last week these few caches had been published and there had been lots of talk about them since. The talk was very positive although Geohatter (the reviewer) did disable them at one point due to a complaint from a cacher that the caches didn't have log books in. The truth is that they did but they weren't inside each individual cache.
The cacher who complained to the reviewer was probably chasing the FTFs and realised that they had to find them all first, I won't say anymore as I don't want to spoil the theme of it as I enjoy everything Brett the c/o does.

The Scooby Doo Mysteries by mwahppets

http://coord.info/GC3FCYV

This is a set of 5 mystery, premium only caches, they are great family fun or done in a group like we did. You can walk 4 of them in under 2 miles and then reposition car for the last one.

All of BCC was out today to cache with other caching teams. We parked in the middle of Dickens Heath on a carpark behind Main Street (Approx coords N52 23.147 W1 50.175 from Memory Map) to meet up with The Strangler, Fantastic Finders!, matlou98, Family B, Dibboid & Mrs Dibboid.

As talking about these will definately spoil future fun I have decided to just add a few pics of the fun we had.

The caches:

• Scooby Doo                            http://coord.info/GC3FCYV
• Shaggy                                    http://coord.info/GC3FCZD
• Mummys the word                  http://coord.info/GC3FD23
• Soggy Bog Scooby                  http://coord.info/GC3FD2Z
• The Phantom Racer                 http://coord.info/GC3FD3Z 

The Mystery team on their way....pic by The Strangler

Playtime with Scooby

It was sooo scary!.....pic by The Strangler

Where's mummy?.....there they are!!

I didn't wobble much!

Yikes! What was that noise?

An absolutely fantastic time was had by all....and not just the kids..... and 1 other cache was bagged on route. Max's Spooky Pipes (nee Stye) by The Cuthies & Max

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Early evening a few caches were published not to far away so I thought as I hadn't had a drink I may as well pop out and take a look at them. I had a bit of a disaster downloading GPX file to Oregon as my pc crashed delaying me by around 10 mins......amazingly I still managed 1 FTF up against team maxtrev and AdamandBeckyChater.
There were 5 released and they were all drive by's... Pedmore Cache and Dash by Caspian317
All the caches were relatively easy but some thought went into 2 of them and they were slightly harder to find due to busy road.
I bumped into Clan Bryant at one of the caches and then saw them again at 2 others, it was fantastic to meet you both

I also ended the day making a bit of a muppet of myself.....Clan Bryant had just found a cache we were looking for and I said that I was just going to say hi to Mrs. maxtrev who was sat in the layby in her car.....well! I knocked on window and she pulled window down, it then took me a full 5 seconds to realise that this was NOT Mrs. maxtrev or even a cacher DOH!!!   I was so embarrassed, all she had done was pull in to make a phone call.....

A funny end to a fab day all round....

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Total smilies bagged today = 15

Down M5 in morning and Curry at night.

I had decided that today I wanted to have a go at part one of the new Animal Letterbox series, so I planned the morning caching around that area.
I started of doing a small loop of 5.

TEE OFF and others by Red Lionfish

http://coord.info/GC3494P

Well I arrived here at around 7am and parked just round the corner to attempt 5 caches, they are not actually a series but were all by the same C/O. Walk was 1.6 miles and took just under a hour. I did need a paf from Alan of the Vaughans for Tee Off but no problems with others.
Thanks Alan

The Workout

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I carried on to do a few drive by's by the cacher Team Karma which I enjoyed before moving on to do the Animal Letterbox Series.

Animal Letterbox Series by HKMHill

http://coord.info/GC3B7X4

All caches are Letterbox Hybrids in which you will need to find animal type and value for the Bonus. In first cache there are some sheets to take round to fill in the bonus info.

There are two parts to this series, I am just doing part one today as part two is in a different area.
All caches are in or near large trees with the exception of 7 which is magnetic, all small boxes containing Log Book, Rubber Stamp and Laminated card with animal picture and value (on reverse) for bonus, if you wish to record the rubber stamp you will need to bring an ink pad. This part (one) of the series is just under 2.5 miles, The walk is mainly on grassland and some crop fields. Some of the stiles are wired so not very dog friendly.

I really enjoyed this walk and liked some of the hides, it is great to get some more Letterbox Hybrids in my stats gaining 7 in total :)

ALS Workout

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I then moved on to do Gannow East and West, Young Growth and New Copse which I found no problem. I then did a few more of the 60 series as drive bys....numbers 9,8 and 7.

I then carried on to Bromsgrove to do a few caches with caching buddies Lucinda of The Turnbull Tribe and Julia of the Bedfords). I met them at Sanders Park and we did the 2 caches there.by darren 2000

http://coord.info/GC3504N

Julia getting stuck in!

Peekaboo hehe!

As you can see one of the caches was inside a fallen tree haha. We completed the caches and carried on to next port of call ..... Chez Roland by SOAPY Chickens  http://coord.info/GC3921Z

This was an interesting one haha but my trusted specialist equipment soon pointed out where it was, Julia went into retrieve as she had wellies on.

Next on the agenda was another SOAPY Chickens cache called Bromuda Triangle   http://coord.info/GC352P7
We had fun here and had an idea what to look for but couldn't find it, then as we chatted to a lady, I spotted something which ended up being the cache..... We did 3 more SOAPY Chickens caches before all returning home....at least for a couple of hours....

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On the evening we were meeting up with lots of caching buddies for a curry at 7.30pm, so Julia being Julia, forced me to go out earlier and bag a few caches first.......so she picked me up at 5pm and we made our way to do some more of Sedgley Stroll.
We did one drive by on approach and then parked up to attack a few caches.

Sedgley Stroll by Dibboid & Mrs. Dibboid

http://coord.info/GC3B8TT

We did most of this section but unfortunately had to miss Hook a Duck and Holly and Ivy. We did all this by torchlight as it was dark well before we got there.
We struggled on a couple but got there in the end and found all the ones we attempted.
It was magical on the top of the hill as we could see for miles, there were lights everywhere....we could even make out the ones in Droitwich.

We desperately wanted to get to Hook a duck but couldn't work out how to get there as there were no tracks on Oregon maps and it was difficult with torch....we decided to loop round and also attempt Illumination in which I had worked out final coords for just a couple of days ago. The cache was nothing to shout about really but the puzzle part was fine.

We enjoyed the caches set by Dave and Kaye (Dibboid and Mrs.Dibboid) and will be back again soon to grab some more.
BUT now we are off for a curry.
We bagged 1 cache during curry as one of the attendees Paul (blokiebloke) had place one just over the road. So we had a mass exodus and a huge joint FTF by 20 odd people.
We also bagged one on the way home which was another set by Paul, it was quite nice to have the rest of Basketcase crew with me too haha......

So total for the day was 42 finds, a great day

The Curry Addicts!

Sedgley Stroll

Sedgley Stroll - A Good Stiff one ;)

http://coord.info/GC3BC6M

Caches are all placed next to public footpaths

I had arranged to meet up with caching buddies Shan (Griswalds 'n' dogs), Andy (Citrus-Lizard), Louise (thehorde), Helen (Queen of Tartz) and Allun (Shropshire Seekers) for a spot of caching. Fortunately before we got there we received notifications of this new series by Dave & Kaye (Dibboid & Mrs.Dibboid).

I only had so much time as I had an hospital appointment but I managed to get 6 Joint FTFs with the team and also picked up a Greyboots cache on route.

Sunrise in Sedgley by Louise Pearson

I will have to go back to do the rest of the series, which was thoroughly enjoyable.

Sedgley Stroll Workout

Island hopping

Well well well what shall I do tonight, theres nothing on the TV and I fancy doing something different?
Well now this is different!! I got email notifications of 4 new caches in the Oldbury area placed by a friend, Paul., Well I can get there pretty quick as it's only 1 junction up the M5, so I downloaded them to the Oregon and set off into the unknown- I say this as I didn't read listings or take much info as to where they were.
As I was on the way I had a call off Dave (Dibboid) saying he was on the way to them.
I got there first so parked up at McDonalds and got prepared.

Kara & Kieron None Circular Circular series by BlokieBloke

http://coord.info/GC3AZ7H

There are 4 smilies up for grabs here plus one extra for the bonus, which wasn't published at the time.
You need to get the numbers out of 3 of the caches, which I  didn't do as I hadn't read description.

As soon as Dave turned up we knew where the caches GZ was, it was right in the middle of a traffic island, infact all 4 were. Luckily I went straight to the first one and we were in business, no torches required thank goodness. We bagged another before bumping into Becky and Adam (AdamandBeckyChater) who then joined us on finding the last 2.
At the last one Marcus and Debbie (Darlaston Duo's) had beat us to it.

We could not stop giggling at the cheekiness of these caches and the fact that they will be so hard to do in the daylight when the traffic is heaving.
Great fun.

4 caches bagged and 3 were FTF's.