Size does matter
It’s Friday, thus nearly a geocaching WE. In order to get in the mood, I try to do discover a geocache near work during lunch time. Today, I searched Trainspotting 5 : L139 in Oud-Heverlee GC1AJXP, a cache near a railway mostly used for goods/freight train traffic. When those trains roar by at work, one can’t say anything understandable anymore. Anyway, after a steady walk, I discovered the stash rather easily, based on the additional hint. For some odd reason the last 20 meters had a lot of deviation (due to the trees?). I had the same problem last Wednesday. After I got rid of my braces at the orthodontist late in the evening, I didn’t want to go home immediately and wanted to do a quick cache nearby. But it took at least 10 minutes before I got any signal on my GPSr and the projection I did, pointed to a place that certainly wasn’t correct. After a couple of tries, I gave up. Better luck next time.
Yesterday, the author of the Trainspotting cache coincidently discovered my GC and TB Motel Afrit 24 GC1JK5Q cache. He had some remarks on the place and size of the stash. Comments like this are always welcome, certainly from a experienced person who has nearly 2500 finds. I fully understand his concerns and can agree with things to a certain degree. The main problem here is the carpool parking involved. This is an ideal place near a highway and thus easy to pick up. At the other hand, there aren’t a lot of hiding places available in such an open area with social control – for security reasons – in mind when built. And I don’t want to jeopardize the safety on the geocachers either. One never knows if somebody calls the police because somebody is acting strange in the ‘bushes’ and one finds a (military looking) box.
Like my geocaching mentor, he suggests to use a cellar container and I considered it the other day. There is one small problem though. I tried it with a small shovel, but the soil is rather solid, with a lot of bricks in it. Nothing one can fix quickly and using a full blown spade can’t be used unnoticed either. So the only solution I found is to extend the motel with an extra wing in the form of a container of the same size. As soon as I got in the mail, I’ll install it. This will provide room for at least a couple (depending on the size) TBs extra.
At the other hand, it’s a motel without luxury and where the guests don’t need to stay long. I know, it’s not ideal but it’s not a prohibitive objection either. Better opportunities with a next cache, I guess.
Speaking of. My mentor managed to solve the puzzle of my mystery cache and probably will do a tryout on the field one of these days. I will publish it right after I’ve heard and processed his remarks.
December 13th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Try wearing a yellow vest & construction hard-hat. No one would notice a person with a spade there. A good idea is to talk to local law enforcement and let them know that there is a geocache there. With all the surveillance nowadays, they may appreciate the information.
December 13th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Thanks for the tips. The parking isn’t owned by the local government though, but the Flemish government (and even that isn’t 100% for sure). It’s hard to get something done from them. I try to make to let them understand that there is a problem with a traffic light on a road, which causes traffic jams. After 2 years, the problem is still not solved.