Month: October 2023

News & New Caches 110

Another very quiet week for new caches, just our Christmas Dinner event:

GCAFM95 Christmas Dinner – Nosh & Natter 63 by 9 Usual Suspects

Where: Tafarn Yr Afr/Goat Inn, Glandwyfach, Porthmadog LL51 9LJ
When: Saturday 25th November
Time: 7.30-9.30pm or when the last person leaves
Dress Code: Anything Christmas

At last our Christmas N&N venue is booked and the event has been published. Please log ‘will attends’ asap as we need to confirm numbers. We are also now taking food orders, last day for menu choices is Friday 17th November. See menu below:

Event Reminder

GCACRX3 Geocaching Halloween Event at The Bryntirion Inn by martin&lindabryn

Whether you’re looking for tricks or treats, this Halloween bash at The Bryntirion Inn is the place to be.

When: Saturday 28th October 2023
Where: The Bryntirion Inn, Llandderfel, Bala
Time: 7pm – 11pm

GIFF 2023

Geocaching have released this short trailer to advertise the films at this years GIFF:

To see all the films in full and enjoy a cinematic fun afternoon join us for:

GCAED06 GIFF 2023, Geocaching International Film Festival by 9 usual Suspects Event D1/T1
Where: Talysarn Community Centre, Station Road, Talysarn, Caernarfon LL54 6HL
Date: Sunday 19th November 2023
Doors open: 2.00pm
Film showing starts: 2.45pm approx, duration approx 1 hour.
Venue closes: 5.00pm 

Refreshments will be available and there will be cake!

9 Usual Suspects 29 Series

Some of our caches in our 29 series are getting increasingly difficult to maintain so we will be archiving all except the 3 Church Micros and the TB hotel from 31.10.2023. The series has been very popular since its publication on the 29.2.2016.

For everyone that has completed the series Lon designed a profile badge.

Copy and paste the following text to your profile page:

<a href=”https://imgflip.com/gif/148sl8″><img src=”https://i.imgflip.com/148sl8.gif“/></a>

We are planning to place a new series on leap day 2024………..

News & New Caches 109

We must apologise for the lack of recent posts. Since our last post there have been two caches published:

GCAF0GC Church Micro 14959…Tremadog by Meltdiceburg Earthcache D2/T1

GCAE3K0 Y Foryd – Bioamrywiaeth/Biodiversity by Prifysgol y Plant – Children’s University 
Traditional D1/T1

Event Reminder

Don’t forget it is N&N this week…..

GCAEY11 9 Usual Suspects – Nosh & Natter 62 by 9 Usual Suspects
When: Wednesday 25th October 2023
Where: Parc Snowdonia, Waunfawr, Caernarfon, Gwynedd LL55 4AQ
Time: 7pm to 9pm or when the last person leaves

International Earthcache Day 2023

GCAEC35 9 Usual Suspects Return to Cwmorthin, Tanygrisiau by 9 Usual Suspects Event D1/T3.5

Another International Earthcache Day and our 3rd visit to Cwmorthin. Such a beautiful place, always a pleasure to return and discover more of the valleys secrets. We must give a big Thank You to Jen our event secretary for taking care of the admin. As always there was plenty of geochat and good humoured banter as we discovered/rediscovered the earthcaches before heading back to the car park for drinks and cake.

Christmas Dinner

We can finally confirm Christmas Dinner for Saturday 25th November at the Tafarn Yr Afr/The Goat Inn, Glandwyfach. The event is in for review and hopefully will be published before our next post.

Geocaching HQ 25 years Celebrations

2025 sees the 25th anniversary of Geocaching. We had expected there to be a 25th anniversary event or Block Party in Seattle but Geocaching HQ have made an announcement to confirm that there will be no big celebrations in Seattle or at HQ.

News & New Caches 108

Two new traditional caches have been published since our last post:

GCAENRJ Milly’s Place by bobwedge Traditional D1.5/T1.5

Premium member Only
GCAEJ1C Modern Art/Pile of Bricks by Glaslyn1 Traditional D4/T2

Wheel Of Challenges

Today is the last day of the Wheel of Challenges, Teamwork souvenir challenge. To qualify for the easy earn 100 points and the hard 1,000 points, you can keep track of your progress on your leaderboard. Unlike other challenges Ad Lab stages do not count as a ‘found it’ log.

Thankfully this is the last in the series of the Wheel of Challenges, but I am sure it won’t be long before Geocaching HQ present us with another equally mundane series of challenges!

International Earthcache Day 2023 Souvenir and Event Reminder

This year International Earthcache Day is Saturday 7th October, any earthcache logged on either the 7th or 8th will qualify for the souvenir. To earn the souvenir visit the physical location of an EarthCache, complete the logging requirements to receive both a smiley and the 2023 souvenir.

All non-Premium EarthCaches are open to everyone throughout the weekend on the Geocaching® app from 11:00:00 UTC on Friday, October 6, until 10:00:00 UTC on Monday, October 9.

Photo Andy YnysMonBirders

GCAEC35 9 Usual Suspects Return to Cwmorthin, Tanygrisiau by 9 Usual Suspects Event D1/T3.5

Where: Cwmorthin, Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog
When: Sunday 8th October 2023
Time: 11am to 11.30am

We will meet up in the car park for the event, around 11.30am we will head up the hill to discover:

GC8AGBJ Rhosydd Crazy Stones…. by treboR nosnwoT Earthcache D2/T4.5
GC8AGQC Rhosydd Vesicles….. by treboR nosnwoT Earthcache D2/T2

Adventure Lab Map Update

Have you discovered the new “Play nearby Locations” map feature?

While completing an Adventure Lab I think we all have passed by a stage of another Adventure Lab. This can be very annoying when visiting a new area with many Adventure Labs, you are often forced to retrace your steps to complete the next Adventure.

Premium members using the Adventure Lab® app can now view nearby locations from different Adventures right on the map. This will help plan routes so that you can collect all stages from several Adventures, thus enabling completion of all nearby Adventures in one outing.

To turn on the new feature, first make sure you have the latest version of the app: version 1.15.0. Then visit your Profile in the Adventure Lab® app and tap on the “Premium features” option. Toggle on “Play nearby Locations”. Next time you use the Adventure Lab® app open an Adventure and on the map will appear all local stages of other local Adventures.

Sycamore Gap

The demise of the beautiful Sycamore tree has been in the headlines all week, an act of pointless vandalism that we will never understand. The tree enhanced the beauty of the area, something that cannot be replaced.

Of course there is a geocache here and it appeared in Dave, Cwm DJ’s, favourite 10 caches (to date)

‘No. 747 – Crag Lough (GCJ3QF) – THE SMILEYS – 24th June 2015
I’ve not ventured as far as many of you have & my favourite, out of the few I’ve done outside Wales, was while walking a 3 day walk along the central section of Hadrian’s Wall. Situated at Sycamore Gap, made famous for its scene in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner as Robin Hood.’

Photo by Dave showing the tree in all its glory.