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Thread: Geocaching Record Broken on Christmas Day

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Dec 2005
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    Reading, Berkshire
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    I've been given the greatest honour in being able to inform the Geocaching community, that today, Christmas Day 2005, a geocaching record has been broken. At 9pm on Christmas Eve, Moote (Milton) and Mongoose (Tony) set about a task to break the record for most counties cached in 24 hours. The record was broken at Saxtonbury Tor (GCMV2G) at approx 1pm. They are still going strong - who knows when they may stop, suffice to say there are 47 counties in all (this is not open to dispute). What a way to spend Christmas Day! All they could say in their defence on choosing today to do it was "The roads will be clear!". All I can say to them is "You absolute nutters" but most of all "Well done lads! Good on ya!" and lets see how far they get by 9pm this evening. :P :lol: Liane, The Cache Hoppers

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jun 2003
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    St Helens, Lancs, UK
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    Absolutely barking mad -- very well done Milton and Tony, proud to know`such fine nutters!
    Enjoy your caching!

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jun 2003
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    Chippenham, Wiltshire
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    Well done guys


    Caching since 2001
    Founder member of GAGB (2003)
    Committee (2003-2013)
    Chair of GAGB (2010-2012)
    Negotiator of 18 Landowner Agreements
    GAGB Friend

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jun 2003
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    Wiltshire
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    Wow! If you broke the record at 1pm I wonder how many you've done now... Well done indeed, Tony and Milton!
    ​​Do not go gentle into that good night.
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (Dylan Thomas)​


  5. #5
    nobbynobbs Guest

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    so what was the end total?????

    congrats to you guys.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jan 1970
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    Hi we did 27 in the end. A couple of DNF's and a lot of lessons learnt about how we could have done more.

    If that is we are ever stupid enough to try it again

    We initially broke the record accidentally at 1pm as we had done a cache at 3pm on Xmas eve.

    However the real start was at 9.30pm in Cornwall and we finished with an abandoned search at 9.30pm In Derbyshire. The path to the last one seemed to have been blocked.

    Cheers

    Tony

  7. #7
    moote01 Guest

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    Originally posted by The Wombles@Dec 25 2005, 07:16 PM
    Well done guys
    And I must give thanks for The Wombles for 2 excellent caches which we selected for our mission

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Jun 2003
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    Wiltshire
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    Twenty seven counties in 24 hours! That's quite amazing - congratulations to both of you!
    ​​Do not go gentle into that good night.
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (Dylan Thomas)​


  9. #9
    moote01 Guest

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    Posted originally on GC.com forums, posted here for people who rarely visit there.

    Moote's Story

    This story starts on May 1st 2005, when I went for an FTF on the cache Fallen Forest which had eluded several Cachers in the past including myself; I was up and out at 8am and after about 1 hour of searching I discovered the log had been signed by Mongoose39UK. Well I was really fascinated by this as I though no one could have got up so early so I filled in the log as follows:

    Found and signed, not sure what time mongoose39uk got there but he must be an insomniac!!! As I was there really early!!

    Well I think this got to poor old Tony who messaged me about this remark, we had a little chat and not much after that Subsequently I bumped into Tony on a few occasions and then I discovered the Geocaching Chat Room and got chatting more with Tony, also we started caching together quite a lot.

    As Tony said the trip was in planning around 6 weeks, and what Tony has penned is basically the background so I will not go over this ground, but start with a rough diary of the day.

    1 Cornwall Right side of Tamar

    We had just parked up near where the cache was outside a Pub, there were lots of noise and coming and goings, so Tony decides to move the car around the corner and under the Tamar bridges. Now let me tell you that Road Bridge is noise, so I said something to Tony about it and his replay was

    Should we go for it now and sod the kip

    Reply OK Then!

    At which point I jumped out of the car walked over to an obvious hiding place and pulled out the cache.

    2 Devon Take a break!!!

    Tony was filling up and without Tony knowing I just ran off at great speed and looked for the cache. I returned and directed Tony to the location which was not easy as we had to re-leave the complex to get back to the point. This was a great little hide and in a good location.

    3 Dorset suedi`s first

    Found this no trouble parked next to the footpath as the roads were quiet, we walked across the field and was met by a cliff, we fallowed the GPS and found the cache quickly. This really was a location that I would have liked to have seen in daylight.

    4 Somerset Home of the Cheddar Pink

    I'm not a nervous man, I'll rephrase that I was not a nervous man; until I was with Tony in the dark and fog coming down travelling along the usual Mendip roads. Now I know this area well as I have been Potholing there many time so I know that speed even in daylight is NOT a good idea Tony h34r:

    We pulled up in the Gorge and I was off out in a shot, Tony followed in a slower fashion but within 30 seconds I had the cache in my hand.

    5 Avon Blaise Hamlet (Bristol)

    Again I was on the seat of my pants with Tony’s erratic fog driving techniques but he got us there. We got out of the car to a pleasant sit of some moving pink running bottoms these were followed till we came to the entrance of the cache site, as it was late we sneaked and grabbed the answer to this virtual.

    6 Gloucestershire Glawster Central

    Now sometime after Midnight on Christmas day is not the best time to hang around a Shopping precinct, as we had drunks passing wishing us happy New Year!! But oddly enough the Police did not stop and question our bizarre behaviour one bit! Head torches on looking around this crossroads must have looked very odd, we then realised that we were slightly off course and found the real bounty and quickly worked out the answer to the virtual

    7 Herefordshire Hereford Travel Bug Stop

    The fog was thickening faster and faster, and as it did Tony insisted he drove better in these conditions by driving fast until a bend became visible, then heavy braking (That is how it felt anyway). We got to the cache location and again we were off in a shot, it was an easy find another good choice you might say then we were back in the car and off to ……………

    8 Shropshire Millenium Green

    Again the roads were thick in fog and this took longer than we expected. This felt like a long walk in and was down an unlit path but jogging got us there quickly and the cache was easy to find, it was a shame that the view was just of sodium lamps but I guess that is what you see in most places when it is dark.

    9 Worcestershire Austin Seven (Drive-By)

    Fog, Fog and more Fog, and the inordinately long time it took to get here was probably one of the stumbling points of the trip. This cache showed us all that England is about, a memorial to a great person, and what do we do as English? Tip rubbish everywhere, this really shows the country for what it can be and what it should not be like. We got this cache after a little thinking and were soon off to…….


    10 West Midlands Bikers Paradise

    We took 2 routes into this one; I ran across a field, Tony drove around, we met up about the same time! I knew the second option was the best, but then again I like caching on foot.


    11 Warwickshire ALPHA QUEST-G (Warks)

    A very quick drive by and the 1st of 3 Messe caches which we were about to do, all of which were very nice indeed in each of there ways

    12 Northamptonshire Banbury Run-12 (Northants)

    Good walk into this cache and coords spot on cache was gained quickly and the log signed.

    13 Oxfordshire Banbury Run-3 (Oxon)

    What a drive by, what a Town centre cache this was caching at it’s easiest but that is not to say it was not enjoyable, some of the best coordinates I have ever had, it put us next to the cache, Tony never had to leave the car for this, I think he liked that, as just after leaving Banbury he ask if I did not mind driving for a while, so Tony got his head down for half an hour as I trashed his gearbox travelling towards……….

    14 Wiltshire Coate Water (Wiltshire)

    The fog was clearing by the time we reached here, not sure how many times we went around the roundabout but it felt like it added another mile to the trip, but then again they don’t make roundabouts simple around the Swindon area.

    Nice walk in the park in the morning! Yes, but not when you have been awake for 24 hrs already! It is a nice location and worth a visit if you are in the area.

    15 Berkshire The Park is Unlocked (Berks)

    Another cache and dash, the area and park looked great but unfortunately sight seeing was becoming low on the agenda.

    16 Hampshire Ob-scure

    Lovely little church and the closest Tony and I got to God on Christmas day, great care is required when getting this cache, please avoid the graves.

    17 Surrey Gatwick Bug Hotel MK 2 (West Sussex)

    The cache appears at first to state that it is in West Sussex, but on closer inspection it is well inside the boundary of Surrey, you can check this on any mapping system as I did and you will see that it is wrongly marked West Sussex. Easy drive by with OK parking opposite, the road was a little busy though for a country lane.

    18 West Sussex Rowfant Mystery

    A good little walk to stretch the legs and the sun was out in full winter force, but I still required a good hat on my bald head, Tony just got on with it though and plodded up the path and got the cache just before I got to it.

    19 East Sussex Saxonbury Tor

    I think this was the best cache of the tour for me (no pun intended) I’m sure that some of the others would have equalled this but sadly they might not have displayed their splendour I the dark. It was a great walk up to the Tor and nice to see the Tower close up, we could not see initially the hiding place but after 5 minutes the GPS got a lock and the grab was on. Also the record had been broken this was around 13:30, the reason that we had broken it was because at around 15:00 the day before we had grabbed a cache in Staffordshire on the way to the starting point this cache was Staffordshire The Iron Mountain Travel Bug Motel which is big enough to fit a small child or elephant in!

    20 Kent Dartford Heath

    Nice battle though a typical South England Copse, great little place and right next to the M25, if it were not for various things like Red Routes and Southern Parking wardens this would make a Great TB Hotel. Well hidden and an excellent cache.

    21 Greater London FRANKS PARK

    This looks like a nice location, but yet again people see bushes as tips, what are they on? Took longer than expected as I had misread the spoiler, no I had read the spoiler to the next cache :lol: Got there in the end though and off we were to be charge a £1 to cross the Themes (Surely they could make it free on Christmas day)

    22 Essex Hanging around in Hutton (Essex)

    Very quick find and a good location, some people waved and beeped there horn as we were signing the log, I wonder if they were fellow Cachers?

    23 Hertfordshire WHAT'S THAT SMELL? (Herts)

    There is one persons cache’s that had to be done whilst on this trip and that was Mr Cache Placer himself Simply Paul, we all know of him from his TV appearance and also his copious Forum posts, and I’m glad that I did one, Now I can call his caches , No! it was a nice little location and is a great drive by. Tony found this whilst I was looking totally in the wrong location.

    Buckinghamshire a DNF Keyne for Peace

    We should have sacked this one 5 minutes after starting but we really wanted the find, silly as it was probably not the best time to look for a cache hidden in bushes and scrub.

    24 Bedfordshire Curious Beds 3

    A great cache in what looks like a great location, easy find in the woods even in the dark, harder to find the way back to the car though.

    We decided to sack Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk and concentrate on numbers, I think that plan worked for us.

    25 Rutland Blighty – Rutland

    We were also going to sack this one but as we were coming off the A1 I decided that it would be doable and off we went, the cache was just there lying by a tree, anyone could have seen it, even David Blunket. This was also Tony’s 600th cache, well done mate, Rutland is a lovely place and I have been here many times, and now I have grabbed its only cache.

    26 Leicestershire Limey n Aussie Fishing

    A quick drive though some of my old stomping grounds in Leicestershire got us quickly to the location and the cache was also grabbed quickly.

    Lincolnshire DNF Viking GC (Notts/Lincs)

    Well I thought that this would be easy as it was not far from Grantham, the birth place of the only woman I have ever truly loved (No I don’t mean Margaret Thatcher). We should have sacked this but it was becoming an obsession to find as we both know and respect John Stead, alas the dark and the bush cover made it harder than it probably is.

    27 Nottinghamshire Berry Hill Lock

    Easy find in off a busy road, Tony nipped back to the car for about 10 second and might have been roped into another British hobby involving car parks if I had not intervened with a shout of “Found it” at which the car that had just entered the car park sped off.

    Derbyshire Abandoned Search 400m from cache Dead Wait

    This was really a none starter, time ticking, footpath not visible and eye’s shutting, maybe another day

    Anyway off we drove to get back to the Manchester area, and in real children’s story book fashion I feel it must end like this.

    And then I heard my mummy shouting up the stairs Milton, Milton come on get up and see what Santa has got you for Christmas, I rushed downstairs to find that I had a brand spanking new GPS, “aggggghhhhh” I shouted I don’t want another nightmare like the last 24 hrs

    The End

    PS I hope all them links work

  10. #10
    The Hokesters Guest

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    Blimey - didn't know this was going on whilst we were tucking in to our turkey on xmas day :P

    I agree with my asteemed colleagues - you two are complete nutters! But I like ya!

  11. #11
    MCL Guest

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    Blimey and one of them was mine! Keyne for Peace in Bucks. And yes, finding it in the dark was not such a good idea. Should have gone for my alternative one "really Keyne" which is somewhat better lit at night and only a mile away..

    It has been found since so I know it is safe.

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