Hawmorfords get new Australian record

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binns1012
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Post by binns1012 » 20 September 06 12:00 am

Well done HawMorFords you do it your way and keep on enjoying what you do
good luck on your next escapade
regards Tony

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ZED!
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Post by ZED! » 20 September 06 10:59 am

WTG HawMorFords. :D

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djcache
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Post by djcache » 20 September 06 12:11 pm

Hawmorfords,

Since when did anyone say you cheated?

It is not unreasonable to question that which SEEMED extremely difficult. It happens in all sports in all corners of the globe in far more public forums than this one.

It is not unreasonable to discuss what is and isn't a find.

I'm sure you had a great day, and enjoyed Melbourne and that is fantastic.

At least I & shortly after Rhino asked the question, would you rather it was done behind your back?

If I was in your shoes - and I'm keen but not that keen - I'd be perfectly happy for others to question my methods and explain them. It would further the opportunities for others who are that way inclined to make similar attempts.

I'm not mean spirited, or an unreasonable person. I think those who know me well and many cachers have attended events I've run do, I think they would attest to the fact that I'm more interested in the development of geocaching and in particular rural caching.

If we can't question ourselves we might as well all turn off the computer and watch Neighbours. Life would be about that boring.

Sorry if I caused offence. Maybe I should simply have left the maths until after I asked "It seems extremely difficult to achieve, so how did you do it?"

After all running a 4 minute mile is EXTREMELY difficult too but it has been done though not by many.

DJ

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Post by crew 153 » 20 September 06 12:41 pm

Congratulations to the HMFs. After recently completing a similar day in Melbourne with Dak as tour guide (albiet, a little shorter and possible less committed), I can certainly appreciate the effort required by you and your guide in achieving this goal.

I think that I must take some credit in the event by giving Dak the training run to set up the route :D

Well done all. It is only a record for those who want to keep the statistics. Like any other statistic it can be changed for any criteria that you can think of but 100+ signatures in log books is a great effort.

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Post by Magpie » 20 September 06 1:55 pm

The cache that was not there?
Well, I guess they contacted the owner, who checked, found it not there and replaced it. THMF's then tried again and found it :)
I think it's a great achievement and the only thing that would lessen it in my eyes is if there was not at least one member of the team and preferably the whole team that was not present at the finding and signing of every cache.

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THENANKS
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Post by THENANKS » 20 September 06 3:03 pm

Magpie wrote:I think it's a great achievement and the only thing that would lessen it in my eyes is if there was not at least one member of the team and preferably the whole team that was not present at the finding and signing of every cache.
If the whole Hawmorford team was there they would just about need a minibus. :lol: There is a lot of them and all good people.

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Post by TeamTandoori » 20 September 06 11:55 pm

I'm sorry i agree with Djcache

Not only have I experienced the mess to clean up after the number chasers that come through and who have not properly replaced the cache in a rush to get to the next one, but I have been disappointed by the logs written when bulk numbers are found.

I think Djcache is right in saying that geocaching has become more of a numbers game instead of taking you on a treasure hunt to a new and interesting place which is the reason I and many opther cachers began the hobby in the first place.

We, as a team, have only found 70 caches in the past year and we are very proud of that amount and can remember every single find.

If geocaching becomes solely about numbers and hard to find caches I for one feel my family and I will very quickly lose interest.

Relax, remember to breath and take in the serenity as the world moves for no one.

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djcache
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Post by djcache » 21 September 06 12:51 am

A question if I may for those contributing here who have made numbers attempts:

In the case where you arrive at your chosen target and there are muggles nearby or even in the vicinity, or you have found the cache while unhindered by muggles but one then approaches and hangs around, what do you do?

If you weren't on the clock I'd hope that you would wait. (I know some of some Melbourne cachers who are on the nose in the caching community as they don't and jeopardise and have contributed to the loss of high class caches through their actions.)

Being on the clock changes the pressure to either find or return with a higher risk of cache loss later though.

Any takers?

DJ

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Post by THENANKS » 21 September 06 1:15 am

Hi dj,
I will tell you what we did just recently. We had our 5 and 8 year old boys out geocaching for the day. We were hoping for 20 . After a late start we knocked over about 25 in about 5 hours with lunch and travel from the other side of Brizzy. The boys wanted to have a go at the Qld record of 43 (at the time) but quit a few DNF's and muggles didnt help. We arrived at a local lookout and that night a fireworks display was on. The gps pointed to about 10 m from a group of teenagers sitting on a shed roof. My wife and oldest son walked up to within a few meters of the cache and realised it would be impossible to pluck it out undetected. They walked back to us about 20 m away and we drove away. Thats just bad luck. It would have been nice to get 1 more but not to be. For the record our troops got 34 in the day and had a ball. That might be a record for those aged kids in a family but lets not go there :wink: . We get a kick out of finding heaps , placing caches for others to discover and conquering tough finds. Its all good.

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Post by Biggles Bear » 21 September 06 8:45 am

djcache wrote:.............................. (I know some of some Melbourne cachers who are on the nose in the caching community as they don't and jeopardise and have contributed to the loss of high class caches through their actions.)

...........................................

DJ
Time for a 60 Minutes style name and shame session :twisted:
<P>
Image Image

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Post by team_diesel » 21 September 06 9:58 am

djcache wrote:A question if I may for those contributing here who have made numbers attempts:

In the case where you arrive at your chosen target and there are muggles nearby or even in the vicinity, or you have found the cache while unhindered by muggles but one then approaches and hangs around, what do you do?
When we cache, and that hasn't been all that often lately, we approach each cache the same whether we are trying to get numbers or just filling in time in our otherwise busy lives.

Our first priority is to protect the secrecy of the cache.
Second is to log our find.

During our two big days out we had a number of caches that we avoided because of muggles and either came back later or passed over all together.

Other times we have found the cache and wandered away to complete the log and then not been able to return the cache because of muggles. In these cases we take the cache with us and return later to put it away, and collect our golf ball.

In addition we also watch each cache found during the big days until it is re-found by others. Then we can take pride in not only finding the cache but also knowing that our actions did not expose the cache to additional risks from muggles.

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Post by rhinogeo » 21 September 06 10:01 am

djcache wrote:A question if I may for those contributing here who have made numbers attempts:

In the case where you arrive at your chosen target and there are muggles nearby or even in the vicinity, or you have found the cache while unhindered by muggles but one then approaches and hangs around, what do you do?

If you weren't on the clock I'd hope that you would wait. (I know some of some Melbourne cachers who are on the nose in the caching community as they don't and jeopardise and have contributed to the loss of high class caches through their actions.)

Being on the clock changes the pressure to either find or return with a higher risk of cache loss later though.

Any takers?

DJ
<p>I'll take you up on that DJ :)</p>
<p>Having found 44 and 58 caches in a day with Facitman (with 3 and 5 DNFs respectivley) I can happily say that al the caches we found were re-hidden as well or better than we found them. Further, on our 8 Feb 2005 day out we managed to confirm the existence or disappearance of caches feared washed away in the torrential rains experienced a few days before.</p><p>On both days if there were too many muggles around, we abandoned the cache and logged it as a DNF (e.g. my DNF log forPlayground #1A) or we spent a long time looking for it. Probably why we only managed to find 44 and 58 :roll:</p><p>Unfortunatley some geocachers don't seem to care if they are seen or not :x . They don't necessarily have to be<i> having a big day out</i>

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ZED!
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Post by ZED! » 21 September 06 4:17 pm

Interesting example rhino except the fact that the previous log is only stating a fact that is relevant to nearly every cache in existance and may have been more of an observation than admission of neglect.
Permit me if I may make an observation that you seem to overlook that they basically reported the cache had been muggled (for the second time this time the container had been removed altogether) Your DNF confirmed a 3rd muggling.

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Post by rhinogeo » 21 September 06 5:20 pm

nobodyZ wrote:Interesting example rhino except the fact that the previous log is only stating a fact that is relevant to nearly every cache in existance and may have been more of an observation than admission of neglect.
Permit me if I may make an observation that you seem to overlook that they basically reported the cache had been muggled (for the second time this time the container had been removed altogether) Your DNF confirmed a 3rd muggling.
<p>I concede that I may have inferred carelessness on behalf of the previous finder allowing themselves to be witnessed from their log when all they were doing was making an observation - my apologies to them if that was indeed the case. Notwithstanding, they could have removed the log book and contacted the owners, or even replaced the cache container and relocated it slightly. There is usually something that could be done to avert or minimise an ‘accidental’ find by curious muggles </p>

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ZED!
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Post by ZED! » 21 September 06 5:50 pm

I totally agree rhino, could have been handled better.

As for the numbers game, I'm a stats man, I can't help it and I am one for doing a few a day and have bagged lots of 10+ finds a day, usually taking the time to appreciate the surroundings but just walking down a bush track satisfies me. My best is 26 in a day although I think I visited 37 sites, I'm never in such a rush that I place caches in jeopardy and if required will endeavour to do some sort of maintenance. If not then I'll at least let the owner know via an email incase they fail (as it seems in that case above) to pick the it up from the log entry. The new 'Maintenance' type logs are quite handy but I like the acknowledgment received via the email reply.

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