New Caches

There has been 6 caches published in our area during the last 7 days and I am sure Ecobake has already found them all.

GC9BGKD Radio Waves by Jonesof3 Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GC9BF65 Grit your teeth by Jonesof3 Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GC9BF5X Cache Windfall by Jonesof3 Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GC9BR7F Lets fence it, magnets are fun! by Hayley and the kids Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GC9BR7Q Track it down by Hayley and the kids Traditional D1.5/T1.5

Premium Member Only
GC9AWPM Cefn Y Meusydd Isaf by Ruthiejane Traditional D1.5/T1.5

CITO Update

We can confirm that the council have picked up all the bags but have left the road cone!

Bags have now gone but the cone is still on the wall

Thanks again to everyone who attended.

Glaslyn Ospreys Latest

For those following the Ospreys it has been a very traumatic week, terrible weather leading to floods, injury of the male, Aran, and the loss of the first chick.

The latest statement from Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife can be found here

Saturdays Unoffical CITO

Before the clean up

Firstly I must thank everyone for all their hard work, what a difference we made to this area, in just 2 hours we picked over 30 bags of rubbish and removed a fallen tree.

After the clean up

On Saturday afternoon 3 Usual Suspects and geocaching friends met up for an unofficial CITO litter pick around the Tesco area of Caernarfon. Even though in Wales 30 people can now meet up outside UK Geocaching is continuing its ban on all events. It was the first time we had all met up since March 2020. Once again the weather was on our side, after two days of dreadful wind and rain, with us nearly calling off the event, Saturday afternoon was dry and the sun shone. The area picked was not as bad as the previous clean ups, but we still managed to collect 30 bags! Mostly consisting of clothes thrown over the wall from the recycling bins in Tescos car park.

Cleaned and cleared path

Dave did a fantastic job in removing the fallen tree that has been blocking the footpath for at least the last 3 years. We had reported the tree to the council on numerous occasions but nothing was ever done.

Some of the bags waiting collection

With all the bags placed at the collection points ready for Gwynedd Council to pick up it was time for a well deserved pint……… or was it two!

Latest Update

New Caches

Sadly, there were no new caches published in our area this week. We will have to see what we can do for next week…………..

Litter Pick Saturday 22nd May

The weather forecast is looking OK for Saturday, cold but dry, a vast improvement on today! Due to cut backs Gwynedd Council is currently not issuing equipment, luckily we have a reasonable stock of pickers and bag hoops. The glove situation is not quite so good, we have some but they are not in the best condition so please could everyone bring their own gloves.

To comply with current Covid Contact regulations we will be asking all attendees to complete a register, name, address and phone number.

Hope to see you at the usual spot, the bridge above Afon Seiont (N53 07.825 W004 16.125) at 2pm.

Glaslyn Osprey Update

Latest arrivals photo Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife website

This week saw two eggs successfully hatch, all eyes now on the 3rd egg. Follow the latest news here

Reminder for ‘CITO’ 22nd May

A reminder that we will be ‘litter picking’ Saturday 22nd May commencing at 2pm, meet at usual spot on the bridge above Afon Seiont (N53 07.825 W004 16.125). This is an unofficial event as Geocaching UK won’t allow any meets currently. We look forward to seeing you all on the day, it has been a long time since we all got together. We will be complying with current Covid regulations as they stand on the day. Also might even sneak a crafty beverage in a pub afterwards :-).

Snowdon Lily

Gagea serotina (formerly Lloydia serotina)

The Snowdon Lily is one of the rarest plants and therefore most endangered plants in the UK. This Alpine plant is a relic from the ice age and is only found in the most inhospitable areas of Snowdonia.

Originally know as spiderwort or in Welsh, brwynddail y mynydd, rush-leaves of the mountain. The Snowdon Lily grows to 10-12cm high, as its Welsh name suggests it has rush like leaves, the flowers are white, veined, cup-shaped with six petals and a yellow/green centre. It grows on north facing inaccessible ledges and from the tiniest cracks in the rock out of reach from grazing animals. The lily flowers from late May to early July. It has evolved to self pollinate as even in the summer months weather conditions can be very harsh causing a lack of pollinating insects.

I feel very privileged to have seen the Snowdon Lily growing on Snowdon. The Tuesday walking group which I belong spent 3 years trying to find the Snowdon Lily, they followed many false leads to some very remote places before getting a reliable tip off. I felt a bit of a gatecrasher in joining them on their successful walk as I had not been part of the red herring excursions. We were all sworn to secrecy not to reveal the location as it is not far from one of the main walking paths on Snowdon. 

New Caches

Just two new caches this week:

GC9B20Z Stop At The Estuary by KANDRANDD Traditional D1.5/T1.5
GC9B21C Diwedd Marw by KANDRANDD Traditional D3/T2.5

GIFF 2021

Lights, Camera, Action! We are excited to announce that the Geocaching International Film Festival is back for another year of geocaching film fun! We hope to be hosting the film show on Saturday 20th November, times and venue still to be confirmed.

Osprey Update

I don’t know if you have been following the Glaslyn Ospreys but it has been quite a week with another female osprey, KS8’s, prolonged intrusion at the Glaslyn nest on 9th May 2021. KS8 was hatched on the Clywedog nest in 2018. A video summarising the days events can be found here

This weekend should see the hatching of the first egg, let’s hope there are no more intruders.

GPS Systems

GPS is now a part of everyday life, the ability to know exactly where you are on the planet was the dream of every navigator for millennia, now this is available at the press of a button. GPS is widely used in a variety of technologies such as mobile phones apps, cars navigation for both mapping and incident reporting, wildlife tracking which has yielded some interesting results for migratory birds and mammals and preventing crime by tracking desirable objects. This tech has only been available to the public since the year 2000 and has since become the most popular method of accurately establishing a location within metres. 

Introduction

A short history of GPS Systems

The first publicly available Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) was the USA’s Navstar GPS satellite constellation. This was a satellite-based radio navigation system owned by the United States government established in 1978 for the USA military and made public in the year 2000 by the Clinton administration. America’s newest GPS system is now just one of many that provide geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. Other GPS systems include Russia’s GLONASS, the European Union’s Galileo, and China’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System which offer varying degrees of accuracy, the Galileo system being the most accurate at less than 1 metre for public use and up to 20 cm accuracy for paying customers in 2021.

NAVSTAR Global Positioning System satellite
Artist’s concept of a NAVSTAR Global Positioning System satellite, a space-based radio navigation network.

How does a GPS work?

GPS systems use sets of dedicated satellites, called constellations, these are not stationary but are circling the earth so ‘rise and set’ twice a day, the satellites constantly send out signals, the GPS receiver listens for these signals they don’t transmit anything back to satellites. To determine the location of the GPS satellites two types of data are required by the GPS receiver: the almanac and the ephemeris. The almanac contains information about the status of the satellites and approximate orbital information allowing the receiver to see which satellites should be visible. After establishing what satellites should be available for you to get a fix, your GPS receiver requires additional data transmitted by each satellite, called the ephemeris, this data gives very precise information about the orbit and location of each individual satellite. The GPS receiver uses the ephemeris data to calculate the location of a satellite within a couple of metres and then by using the information that was transmitted to the GPS, your position can be calculated by triangulation using the delta in time signal transmitted and when it was received plus the location of the satellites. The ephemeris is updated every 2 hours and is usually valid for 4 hours, so If your GPS receiver has been off for a while, it may take up to several minutes to receive the ephemeris data from each satellite, before it can get a fix, this is known as a cold start. Obstacles such as mountains and buildings block the relatively weak GPS signals, this will ‘lengthen’ and therefore distort the time to receive the data or even give a false location. On a Mobile phone, there is an additional A-GPS mode which uses the cell towers to calculate the initial position of the user very quickly but with less accuracy, unlike pure GPS this may send information back to a server where that might be helpful to process position. Once the receiver calculates its distance from four or more GPS satellites, it can figure out where you are to approximately a 7.8-metre accuracy and depending on the system in use the accuracy might increase. Using GPS for locating a point of the earth is a key component for Geocachers in their quest to find caches, hence the saying follow the arrow.

Photo: ©GSA, ©European GNSS Agency
One of the Galileo Satellite Constellation

Tips and tricks
1 Having obstructions between the GPS and satellites causes issues where 3 – 4 satellites cannot be seen simultaneously, this is most often seen in cities and forests where accuracy quickly degrades.

2 Multi-path or Signal reflection occurs when the GPS signal is reflected off buildings or other objects, this can delay the time-clock signal sent out by satellite and cause a miscalculation again resulting in degradation of accuracy.

3 In the Northern Hemisphere Face the internal Antenna toward open Southern, SW, SE, in the Southern Hemisphere revers this, most of the satellites are clustered around the equator, this will make getting a fix and maintaining on easier.

4 Low batteries invariably cause issues with GPS systems, make sure that your batteries aren’t on their last legs.

5 When you switch on GPS after moving more than 25 miles or replacing batteries keep it in one position in the open air to allow the ephemeris data to update, it will get a fix far quicker than moving with it.

6 Keep firmware up to date, if there are any bugs in your GPS program an update will fix the issues. If there are more up-to-date base maps in GPS standalone system, an update will repair that, too. 

7 GPS systems are not infallible so use common sense and your Mk 1 eyeball to check what you are being told by the system matches reality, learn to read a map and research where you are going. Most Geocachers will have stories of reaching a river or cliff face and being just meters from a cache that could not be reached without retracing their steps and trying another path. 


Favourite Locations

Some areas have it all, great countryside and some of the best geocaches. If you have a favourite location and would like it to be included here, please contact us.

The Moseley’s Recommend Kentisbeare

If you are ever in Devon, you must visit a little village called Kentisbeare! This area is filled with fantastic geocaches placed by a geocacher called heartradio. 

We travelled to Devon for the Mega in 2017, but decided against camping on site because we dragged along a then 6 month old Moseley_Bach with us, so we stayed in a static caravan near Kentisbeare, and accidentally stumbled across these caches nearby. 

In this village and the surrounding area you can find traditional caches, multi caches, a devious mystery cache geo-[he]art, earth caches, letterbox caches and wherigos! And within these caches, there are Church Micros, Village Halls, Little Bridges, Village sign and a Fine Pair!

We spent days exploring the numerous paths and finding the varied containers and some near impossible caches. 

We had to message heartradio a few times for some help, and he always obliged. He passed us one day as we searched for a particular difficult cache and stopped to say hello!

We didn’t manage to complete his caches, and will hopefully return to the area one day to find more! 

Kentisbeare, definitely worth a geocaching visit. 

Kentisbeare Geocaches

Contributed by Lon Moseley, Welshgirl11

New Caches

We have 31 new caches published this week, all premium members only, that should keep everyone busy over the weekend. We have also included a couple of updates from this summers mega events.

GC98TR7 # 1 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1/T1 Traditional
GC98TT1 #2 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1/T1 Traditional
GC98TTR #3 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TV9 #4 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TVV #5 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TWC #6 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TWV #7 Hike or Bike HALO by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TXF #8 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TY0 #9 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TYE #10 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TYN #11 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TZ5 #12 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98TZR #13 Hike or Bike HALO by Fudgeman D2.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V08 #14 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V1T #15 Hike or Bike (Bodowyr Burial Chamber) by Fudgeman D1/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V1Y #16 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V2J #17 Hike or Bike HALO by Fudgeman D2.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V2Z #18 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V37 #19 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V3G #20 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V3P #21 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V44 #22 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V4B #23 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V4K #24 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V54 #25 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V5A #26 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V5M #27 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V62 #28 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V69 #29 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V6H #30 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1.5 Traditional
GC98V6W #31 Hike or Bike by Fudgeman D1.5/T1 Traditional

Update from London Calling 2021 Mega

I am not sure if any one is planning on attending GC8JAYF London Calling 2021 but here is the latest announcement from the organisers:

“There’s just one month left to pre-order bus geocoins and supporters packs!

These are going to be removed from the online store at the end of May, in order to give us enough time to order in the coins and other items. 

Geocoins are avaliable here: https://londoncallingnow.square.site/shop/trackables/2?page=1

Supporters packs are avaliable here: https://londoncallingnow.square.site/shop/tickets-and-supporters-packs/4

Don’t forget, if you’re coming to London Calling then you’ll need a ticket to get in. These are cheaper in advance, and are available here: https://londoncallingnow.square.site/product/london-calling-2021-entry-ticket/4

Update from Piratemania

Time to start planning your voyage and to book your berth!

Arr Buccaneers!
CAMPING FOR PM13 2021 
IS NOW OPEN
https://www.piratemania.org/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=17