In a secret celler under the Ground Speak HQ:
- Sir!
- Yes?
- Our agent, LetHvCryPer, reports spotting of an Urban Invasion in Sweden.
- What! When and where exactly?
- At 22:30 CET in central Linköping.
- Oh, yes. I can see why those brain eating bastards aim for that town with all those smart kids.
- Yes, sir!
- Are we sure that this is it? It's not one of those challenges again?
- No, sir! I believe this is the real shit. He have been tracking them down for months and finally he found their hiding place. He has also signed the report with that abbrev.
- What abbrev?
- TFTC, sir. That means it is a real finding.
- I see. Ok, let's send our best men from Area 51 to take care of this.
- Yes, sir!
- They sure need to get out now that Hollywood releases that movie about those teenage kid breaking into their secret storage.
- Yes, sir! I will see to that directly.
- Ok, carry on.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Looking for Mr (Bob) Goodbar
Don't know how many times I have wandered around the centre of Linköping, looking for strange figures connected to Bubble Trouble and Urban Invasion. No Bob, Bud, or Alien invaders what I could see. But as time went by I started to see things, things I would have just missed before. Maybe Urban Fantasy is right? Maybe there is a parallell world just among us that we don't normally see, unless they want us to see it?But I did not see what I wanted. I tried to phish for leads but the vision got no clearer. Finally I got the final clue that made me open my eyes and REALLY see. With an open mind you will see things you are not looking for.
Coming that far it was a piece of a cake to get the coordinates, or rather, the cold (-15) made me enter a shop to stand there and get some warmth. There was a time that the winter did not bother me, but that was before geoCaching (which seems ages ago). And it's the cold that is really biting me. I do really understand those who move abroad during winter.
But eventually I headed to make the logging. The place was matching its attributes so stealth required me to spend some more time outside just waiting for an opportunity. I even run into another cacher (fayoh) who asked what I was doing there. "Geocaching.", I said, " Need to get my daily dose." "What!" He exclaimed. "In this cold?" He shaked his head and headed for the warmth.
At last I got a chance to check out point zero. Testing the alternative hiding spots I drew a blank, and the cold was really starting to get at me. These after-work is not like the after-skiis, sitting in a nice and warm Alp bar, drinking warm toddies. Instead, running around in -15 with not enough to warm yourself; although the hands is what takes most pain.
So, eventually I gave up and got home. At home I started to make some Massaman Curry with Jasmin Rice. The recepie said to add some Piri Piri to taste if you wanted some spice. I had none so instead I had bought a Chili Mix from where I took a yellow short I did not know and started slicing. "Maybe I should remove the seeds?" I thought, and so I did, but first I wanted to try it to see if it was strong enough and just tasted a small piece. "Blimey that's hot!" I can still feel its sting several hours later. It seems it might have been a Scotch bonnet. So, just a half of that and no seeds.After food it was time to ask the cache owner about the hiding spot. It seems I was at the right place, and located the hiding spot, but the physical cache had gone to the fjords... So, a new physical cache will be put up soon. But waiting for that I log this as solved and found. I can add my signature to the new log book eventually.
At last I have found this cache that has been bugging me for so long. But still 60+ in Linköping to go before all question marks has been changed into stars. Next stop will be to go alien hunting....
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Solution to the battery problem
Yesterday I had made a plan; To solve my problem with the high battery consumption on my HTC Desire, let's get a backup phone. So I a visited the Net on Net store and bought a Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro (red of course...). Maybe it's a bit luxurious to buy a second phone, but as my HTC has a hard time charging I need to send it to service for two weeks and I can't stand being smart phone less for two weeks... (Has it come to this? Dependent on being connected all the time? Yup!) Didn't get round to pack it up, though, as I spent the rest of the day with my girl friend and dog.
Today I had another plan; To go on a caching trip to eastern parts of Östergötland. Had to complete that all-counties series. But I just had to fix this, and that, and install some programs on the new phone etc. So when it was time to go the time had passed... So I went Turfing a couple of hours instead.
Around 5 a clock the battery of the HTC run out... But the X10 could help out, maybe? Well, for c:geo, yes, but not for Turf which requires Android 2.x (and the Mini had 1.6). So I gave up for the day, I thought, and got on the bus. When I was close to home I just checked the e-mail on the X10; a new cache! The multi cache GN2NDEY Axel Brunskogs skapelser about an architect that has made some of the building in the "sten series". As it is a bit rare for new caches this time of the year (except for mine, that is) everybody will jump the gun, but this had not yet been taken. Hm...
But not only the phones had low gas, myself as well after walking around the town for 3 hours, feeling a bit tired. So I got back home, upgraded the X10 to Android 2.1, and made some food; wooked Chicken, vegetables and rice, with some semi-dry Apple cider. At 8 pm I checked the cache again. Still not taken, but some problems with the final step it seems, so several of the FTF wannabees had failed to get it. Well, might as well go and have a look, while Turfing some more.
During this Turf round I used the bike instead of going by foot. At one time here I managed to crash with the bike, and flew other the handlebar, and landed on the ground. Ouch! Had I had more speed I guess hospital would have been the next stop. And the helmet would not have helped here. Riding bikes during this time of year is to beg for trouble....
The Turf round eventually got me to the same parts as the Multi cache (Vasastaden), and I started to follow the steps. When I got to the penultima step the HTC d(r)ied again! I guess GPS + Spotify + c:geo + Turf is not a good combination :-) But now I could use the X10. Just had to configure that, install that, etc (as the phone is wiped when you upgrade its software.) Sigh... At least I discovered that ola&marie had updated the final step. Hm, maybe I will be first after all?
I steared towards the final spot. I had a good idea what the tall thing hinted at, and right I was. When I turned the last corner I saw a typical geoCaher: superchrist, so we joined forces and located the cache at last. So, a happy ending at last. If only I had found a FTF in January....
If I should say something of the X10 Mini Pro as a caching tool, I would say that it is too small. At times I feel that even the HTC screen is too small, and X10 has about the same size as a normal phone. The browser felt a bit slow; maybe it's the processor that is weak? But the keyboard makes it a good choice for logging in the field. The software included in the factory delivery was a bit crappish, but after upgrading it, and the OS to Android 2.1, I think it is OK.
So, what happended to the eastern trip? Well, I will save it for another day. Maybe next weekend.
Today I had another plan; To go on a caching trip to eastern parts of Östergötland. Had to complete that all-counties series. But I just had to fix this, and that, and install some programs on the new phone etc. So when it was time to go the time had passed... So I went Turfing a couple of hours instead.
 | |
| Someone had put a warming thing on the lion |
Around 5 a clock the battery of the HTC run out... But the X10 could help out, maybe? Well, for c:geo, yes, but not for Turf which requires Android 2.x (and the Mini had 1.6). So I gave up for the day, I thought, and got on the bus. When I was close to home I just checked the e-mail on the X10; a new cache! The multi cache GN2NDEY Axel Brunskogs skapelser about an architect that has made some of the building in the "sten series". As it is a bit rare for new caches this time of the year (except for mine, that is) everybody will jump the gun, but this had not yet been taken. Hm...
But not only the phones had low gas, myself as well after walking around the town for 3 hours, feeling a bit tired. So I got back home, upgraded the X10 to Android 2.1, and made some food; wooked Chicken, vegetables and rice, with some semi-dry Apple cider. At 8 pm I checked the cache again. Still not taken, but some problems with the final step it seems, so several of the FTF wannabees had failed to get it. Well, might as well go and have a look, while Turfing some more.
 |
| LFC ladies practices for the CL game against Arsenal.. Notice the finger; one advantage of digital pictures is that you can discard failed photos. But I did not notice my finger.. |
During this Turf round I used the bike instead of going by foot. At one time here I managed to crash with the bike, and flew other the handlebar, and landed on the ground. Ouch! Had I had more speed I guess hospital would have been the next stop. And the helmet would not have helped here. Riding bikes during this time of year is to beg for trouble....
The Turf round eventually got me to the same parts as the Multi cache (Vasastaden), and I started to follow the steps. When I got to the penultima step the HTC d(r)ied again! I guess GPS + Spotify + c:geo + Turf is not a good combination :-) But now I could use the X10. Just had to configure that, install that, etc (as the phone is wiped when you upgrade its software.) Sigh... At least I discovered that ola&marie had updated the final step. Hm, maybe I will be first after all?
I steared towards the final spot. I had a good idea what the tall thing hinted at, and right I was. When I turned the last corner I saw a typical geoCaher: superchrist, so we joined forces and located the cache at last. So, a happy ending at last. If only I had found a FTF in January....
If I should say something of the X10 Mini Pro as a caching tool, I would say that it is too small. At times I feel that even the HTC screen is too small, and X10 has about the same size as a normal phone. The browser felt a bit slow; maybe it's the processor that is weak? But the keyboard makes it a good choice for logging in the field. The software included in the factory delivery was a bit crappish, but after upgrading it, and the OS to Android 2.1, I think it is OK.
So, what happended to the eastern trip? Well, I will save it for another day. Maybe next weekend.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Surf & Turf
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| Turf in action |
I had to try it out... The idea is that you download the Turf app to your Android phone, and start it. Then you can walk around and you'll see read areas on the map. When you enter such an area, and stay there for 30 seconds, you capture it. This will score some points. Also you get a small amount of points for keeping the area.
So, a multi-player GPS game, with some chat possibilities, more of a capture the flag type.
This is like live geoCaching of sorts, but more conflict oriented I would say. You capture your turfs and hope nobody else capture them in turn. If you do you can recepature them etc. Areas which often are conquered score more points per hour. Guess it can be a good idea to Turf late at nights....
Another of those games that get you moving outside. Comparing to geoCaching, not that that is much of a point, I would say that this is very suitable for quicker hit & run, while geoCaching is more visit new territories and spending more time outside. So a good complement.
Turf started in summer 2010. The App is still beta, but it is free, so do try it.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Time for some weekend caching
As I sit here planing for a trip to place some more caches in my state series three new caches popped in, one of them 3 km from here! I guess I should go out, now... Have packed, and will head for Norrköping (and maybe Finspång, Söderköping and Valdemarsvik depending on the communications), but the 127 one in Norrköping I will probably not be even STF at.
Blue sky, sun shining, caching - what else could you ask for? Well, maybe no snow or ice....
Blue sky, sun shining, caching - what else could you ask for? Well, maybe no snow or ice....
Friday, February 11, 2011
Urban exploration in Mjärdevi?
If you read magazines or news papers you can sometimes find references to geoCaching. In the latest issue of Språktidningen, a Swedish magazin about language, had an article with the title "Coola ner! Engelska är okej." (Cool down! English is OK.) The conclusion in the article was that the large influx of English words into Swedish was not really a problem. Instead is was when we stop using Swedish that you have a problem; you risk loosing some domains. (For example geoCaching, if more people than me starts writing in English instead of Swedish. But this is my language of choice for publications through the year.)
One of the example words that they used was urban exploration. The first attempt to translate this was to "stadsutforskning" but that was regarded as uncool. Linus Salö instead suggests "urban utforskning". Sounds OK to me.
This example got me to think about two caches near my work: Urban Exploration Mjärdevi #1 (D3/T5) and Urban Exploration Mjärdevi #2-5 (D5/T5). These seem to be the "talk of the town" at events around here. They seem like caches that would be possible to log, although some equipment might need to be acquired? (Have to check with some of the loggers.)
Also, T5 caches is probably not a good idea to go after yourself. Is anybody out there interested to join forces on this one? When it gets warmer outside, that is...
Of course there is one more Urban Exploration in the vicinity, namely Matrjojska. Reading the logs from that I realize that this is far out of my league... Have to go through a climbing course to even consider trying to get that one. (Or by that jetpack, maybe? ;-)
One of the example words that they used was urban exploration. The first attempt to translate this was to "stadsutforskning" but that was regarded as uncool. Linus Salö instead suggests "urban utforskning". Sounds OK to me.
This example got me to think about two caches near my work: Urban Exploration Mjärdevi #1 (D3/T5) and Urban Exploration Mjärdevi #2-5 (D5/T5). These seem to be the "talk of the town" at events around here. They seem like caches that would be possible to log, although some equipment might need to be acquired? (Have to check with some of the loggers.)
Also, T5 caches is probably not a good idea to go after yourself. Is anybody out there interested to join forces on this one? When it gets warmer outside, that is...
Of course there is one more Urban Exploration in the vicinity, namely Matrjojska. Reading the logs from that I realize that this is far out of my league... Have to go through a climbing course to even consider trying to get that one. (Or by that jetpack, maybe? ;-)
Thursday, February 10, 2011
All around Östergötland
I am a bit exhausted after spending the last couple of evenings putting out caches around Östergötland. The reason for this is that I am making a series that have one cache in each county. So far I've placed one in Boxholm, Kinda, Mjölby, Motala, Vadstena, Ydre and Åtvidaberg. But it still remains to place in Finspång, Linköping, Norrköping, Söderköping, Valdemarsvik and Ödeshög. The reason for the haste is that my month bus card is running out this week, and bus/train is my choice of transportation.
I will do an eastern trip in a few weeks time, but Ödeshög still remains. That is a place that is a bit "off" when, so I haven't been to Ödeshög town to cache yet. I do have quite a few caches found in that county but that is all because of the event I wrote about in an earlier entry.
The caches need to be placed in the central town in each county. I plan to publish all 13 of them (and a bonus one) at the same time! So, still some work to do. All of them will be single step multi caches as well.
Of course, I also take the opportunity (sometimes) to place some other caches, and (almost always) make some caching on my own. The latest two days I haven't been home until 11pm so now I am taking a break from these trips. Another reason for that is that my smart phone (HTC Desire) need to be repaired as it have problems recharging itself (due to problem in the contact). Oh..... How will I manage to be "unsmart" in 10 (working) days?
I will do an eastern trip in a few weeks time, but Ödeshög still remains. That is a place that is a bit "off" when, so I haven't been to Ödeshög town to cache yet. I do have quite a few caches found in that county but that is all because of the event I wrote about in an earlier entry.
The caches need to be placed in the central town in each county. I plan to publish all 13 of them (and a bonus one) at the same time! So, still some work to do. All of them will be single step multi caches as well.
Of course, I also take the opportunity (sometimes) to place some other caches, and (almost always) make some caching on my own. The latest two days I haven't been home until 11pm so now I am taking a break from these trips. Another reason for that is that my smart phone (HTC Desire) need to be repaired as it have problems recharging itself (due to problem in the contact). Oh..... How will I manage to be "unsmart" in 10 (working) days?
Sunday, February 6, 2011
24 hours of geoCaching
As January was ebbing out I felt that I had to do something to keep my FTF streak going; 4 months so far of FTFs since I found my first one during the Smokestone event in September. Have not been hunting these actively but they have come my way since I have visited some events. Maybe I should have seen the signs when the e-mail notification, of a new cache just 8 km away, popped up one afternoon at work. "Oh... not that far!" So I jumped my bike and started let the feet work. This was "Harvestad", just south/south east of Linköping, near Landeryd golf course. I reached the spot, and joy - an empty log book! Did not see anyone until I was going back home when I could see a car, and a couple of presumed geoCachers jumped out. I suppose they were disappointed to be STF - but I was already on my way.
So, come January 29th and no FTFs for January. What to do? I enlarged my notification for the state, but no luck. Instead I decided to go to another event, namely the Ficklampsevent i Göteborg (that is, the first yearly "Flash light event" in Gothenburg). Sounded like it could be fun, and the only caches I had in the Västra Götaland state were from Borås. Tried to see if I could find any one to make a joint trip with, but closest one was Mr Smokestoner himself, and he had re-prioritized since writting the "Will Attend" log. "-Oh well, guess I have to go myself; I mean it's less than 300 km".
At the same time I got to adopt a cache just 30 km south-east, namely Brudklev just on the Kalmar state (Västervik county) side. This was a cache from 2002 that had been hidden by a familly in Germany. Also, I had some plans for hide some caches of my own. Taking this together, I decided I should rent a car, taking up on the weekend offers that exist. Did find a cheap one at Statoil (actually the station you end up on if you go for Made to Go) that just cost SEK 599 (about €60) for 24 hours, including free miles - just add fuel cost. Yeah, time to go a-caching!
I had booked the car from 9am Saturday morning (when they opened) and my original plan was to get back to Linköping around mid night, sleep some hours, and then deliver it to them at 9am Sunday morning when they opened again. As they closed for night at 10pm I definitly would not make it during the same day. Oh, yeah, an optimist plan if I have ever seen one.... as it would become appearent.
The trip started out fine with being on time. I had chosen a echo fueled Golf as it is being smaller one but still having lots of room for the driver. The plan was to go (south-east Linköping county) Sturefors - (county) Åtvidaberg - (cache in Västervik county) Brudklev - (county) Kinda - (county) Ydre and then head for Göteborg, or rather county of Mölndal, to be there in time for the event that started 5pm. Loads of time...
As I had that much time I could just as well log some on the way. The first stop was SJ01 Bridget Jones, the second oldest cache in Linköping (the first being a virtual at the University, which is also the oldest in Östergötland). It has been just out of reach when I have made my bike trips during my first months. Anyway, after driving as close as I could on the roads near Landeryd church, I could walk over the snow covered fields down to a cache placed in a beautiful place near a train bridge that crossed a river. Nice! Being winter made it easier to pass the fields, but other parts was harder. The time spent near the cache can be very relaxing, just you and the nature. I shot some photoes here which might catch a bit of that feeling; I'll try to add photos eventually.
Back to the car, and the next cache would be Owl Mountain, a cache without any logs for four months... This was placed on the other side of a river, so I had to pass a "max 3 tons bridge" with "only traffic with permit allowed" sign. Wont stop a cacher, will it. But the cache was a bit away from the road, placed on a mountain, so I had soon to part the car and walk the km to the spot. As I walked the road I did notice that this was an excellent day for outdoor activities as on the other side of Kinda Kanal, where Landeryd golf course is during summer, people were using the snow to go out nordic skiing. Looked nice, but I haven't been doing that for 30 years... Closing in on the mountain I realized that coming from the other way would have been better, as I met a car. I also noticed that the area was probably crowded with wood cutters and wood machines during working days, the tracks of this could be seen everywhere. But at least that made it easier to go in the forrest, at the same time being a bit depressing. Reaching the top of the mountain I was treated with a nice scenery of Kinda channel! (Pics to come?) Here I was lucky as the position of the cache had protected it from the wind, and it was easily accessible.
So, 2 hours had already gone, and still I haven't reach Sturefors! Better go there now. But I passed Ärlången on the way, and had some more nice scenery. Just forgot that I shouldn't trust the GPS too much and had to needlessly climb some icy walls. Reached Sturefors at last, a small town south east of Linköping. This was a place I had noticed having no caches! So, I put just outside the local church (Vists kyrka) and another one that hasn't been published yet. I also have plans from a few more but I will get back to that.
After Sturefors it was time to go to Åtvidaberg, the county south-east of Linköping county. Here I have been many times, but not since I started caching... So, time for some caches. Åtvidaberg is a typical mill community, that has been struggling with closing of their large employer, Facit. During the 70s, the local football team actually won Swedish highest division two years, and played teams like Chelsea and Bayern München. That might also be a reason why the mens football in Linköping never really had been any success... Of the caches I could recommend Gammeldags godis with its excellent scenery, and Kalkugnen for a bit of historic touch. I also placed a multi here that I will publish, soon.
At this time I had given up on my smart phone. It have been problem recharging it, due to a mechanical problem. When I got as far as this I had to turn it of to save the battery, as it refused to recharge in the car. I had loaded some 1000 caches from Östergötland, Kalmar, Jönköping and Västra Götaland states, but that was just the easy ones... Had no other choice than continue with a failing smart phone.
With time running out it was time to go for one of the main targets of this trip, namely Brudklev. Going for that it was time to leave the larger roads and head into the forrest inland. When I reached the spot the time was something like 2:30 pm... The place was a nice one, with a tragic history. Had to use the spoiler pictures on this one, maybe easier during summer? Winter caching is hard, but at least my feet could dry up some between stops.
When I left the spot the clock had passed 3pm. I really had to set course for Göteborg. As I had no map, except the one in the GPS, it was hard to tell the best way. I choose to head towards Vimmerby, and from there due west to Göteborg. Most of the roads until reaching road 34 for Vimmerby was max 80 kph, so it took much longer than expected. Actually I did not get near the event until after 7 pm! As I drove on the icy roads up to the sea near the event I met some cars, and when I got to the parking place I met some gangs going out in the forrest. It turned up I had missed all the action and almost everyone at the event had headed out in the dark forrest, bearing flash lights, head lamps, UV lamps, .... you name it. Well, not all of them. One of the organizers, and four other guys (TimTimGo, ildur, blaufish, and one more) sat around a camp fire, having a barbecue... So I joined that group and had a nice time talking about geoCaching.
Eventually the fire had died, and the first group had reached their target, so we split up, and I had to go on my own again. So why not cache some more! By this time, the clock was just after 9:30pm. I started to realize that my plan were a bit optimistic, to say the least. On the way back to Mölndal center I logged a quick one, where I met a gang coming from the event. Maybe I should have something to eat? Had not had anything since breakfast. But finding something in Mölndal close to 10pm Saturday night was not to be. "Well, maybe I could catch a hamburger on the way, in Borås for instance?" Just want to do some quick logs... I just did a pair or so, before heading back east towards Borås. Just made a stop on the way to get Ett populärt rastställe for driveby.
As I came to Borås I decided to go via Ramnaslätt and Tullen, an area I never did visit when I lived in Borås. Passing Bua-sjön I stumbled on Borås Ubuntu Cache at which you could have your own CD with Ubuntu! Time was close to midnight when I reached the McDonalds close to the Rv40. I thought they were to close 1am, but as I got in there 10 minutes to midnight they had started to put up chairs on the tables, and clean the floor, so I skipped that stop. Instead three quick ones on these parts of Borås I know quite well. During these there the clock passed midnight so this would be my first night caching! And still some way to drive before coming home.
Back on the road again, and next goal were to be the county of Ulricehamn, a nice little county between Borås and Jönköping. Before coming to the town I passed the little village of Hökerum, a place where some neighbors of mine had there summer house, so I had been around these parts before, but I had never noticed Bogastugan, and old wodden building by the river. With one logged in that county I could skip the town and go directly towards Jönköping.
Going from Linköping to Göteborg, I often make a stop right after Liared, where you can find two stations, and food. Heading the other way I noticed En vän på vägen and made a quick cache. But the winter, ice, snow and cold, had made the box stuck. To get it out I seemed to use to much force which broke the box. Sigh... I guess the time having passed 1am, and both my and the car fuel running low, could explain some of it.
Reaching Jönköping I had to refuel the car. Jönköping has quite a few interesting caches, but I was starting to get a bit tired so I settled for the broken cache above. I will return with spring (or summer) and make a real caching trip to Jönköping / Huskvarna.
So, instead I headed for Eksjö, a town I had passed on my way from Vimmerby to Jönköping. As I had not planned to go this way I had no GPX files loaded for these parts of Jönköping state, and a dead smart phone, so I just drove on. The reason for going via Eksjö is that that is the best way for Ydre county, in the south part of Östergötland.
Ydre is really forrest county, with smaller town. Even Österbymo, the central town, is small. But I had set my goal to get Brantefall, a cache out in the deep forrest... Well, not that deep. I passed quite a few farms and houses so people were living here. I found a good spot to park, I thought, on the top of a side road. Didn't want to block the way if there were to be any other cars here at 3am Sunday morning.... So, as I prepared to walk the 500 meters or so to the cache, I had to put some batteries in the head lamp. (This was the first time I were to use that.) But I was starting to run out of batteries... 4 AA for the head lamp, 2 AA for the GPS and no more. Well, the extra flash light had batteries but it used AAA. So, heading out into unknown territory with no extra batteries? I planned to use the flash light in case the head light were to consume the power, and keep the GPS, putting a waymark for the car. (Good move!)
Part of the way into the forrest was from snowy tracks made by wood cutting machinery or tractors, but eventually I had to head animal paths into the forrest. I did find a cabin used by hunters on the top of the hill that lead down to the cache. Here you could here the sound of a water fall! I set down and rested for a while, 3:30am a Sunday night, in the middle of the dark forrest. Isn't life wonderful sometimes! Lookating the cache I could head back for the car. Of course going the same way would have been a good choice, instead I choose a more difficult one, tredding across a swampy frozen territory, and wading through deep snow the last 100 meters, but at last I reached the car. At that time my mood had changed a bit and I started to reflect on what I was doing. Was this really such a good idea? Well, better get going so that I get home.
As I wrote above I was driving around forrest roads. One risk of doing this is that you can get stuck. Going out from the side road I had to gas a bit to get out. But heading the forrest roads I eventually reached what the GPS claimed to be the "big road" (that is open), at least I thought so when I checked the GPS. It turned out I had made a turn to early and ended up on a field that tractors had been driving around on. I should have stopped and gone rear, but instead I choose to turn the car around; I mean it looked like packed snow. Wrong choice! Having a two wheel driven car is not enough, so after going something like 300 degrees around the car got stuck and I could not get any further. The wheels just spinning. What should I do, 4am in the forrest of Ydre? (Actually I could see an industry not that far, so I guess I could get someone to help.) And no equipment that I could use...
Coming this far I could not give up. I tried to use full gas and go out and push the car. No luck. Eventually I realized that the car had easier to go backwards. So I put in the reverse and made the rear action. Yes! That worked and I go out of the field and back on the road. Ah... Next stop Österbymo.
Österbymo have no action a Sunday morning, so I could hide my cache there, the first in this town, without any mugglers watching. This cache has not been published yet but maybe next week.
The road for Kisa, capitol of Kinda county, was quite OK and caused no problems. The GPS showed no caches here but I seemed to remember one? Yes, I think there is only one in this town. As that is too little for a town of this size I decided to improve on that, but as usual, not published yet.
Instead I headed for Rimforsa, being in the north of Kinda county. There I did find a cache, Trollmor. (Swedes reading this will realize which Troll Mother this is if I say "O aj aj aj aj buff".) That is a place that you pass when you drive 34 south and probably think "This would be a nice place for a cache", and so it is. With that cache I have also logged caches in all 13 counties of Östergötland! Which was one of the major targets with this trip. So just 30 km to go before I'm home.
Coming this far, the clock had reached 06:15 am. Almost 3 hours before the car had to be returned. No use going home and sleep now so instead I got closer to home and logged some local caches around Linköping. The sun were to rise as well so it turned out to be a nice end to the caching trip.
Two of the last caches were actually mysteries, Challenge #002 - 100 founds and The Resistance Nest. The former could obviously have been logged 5 months ago. The latter had been solved for a month. One of RDun_Swe's caches, and a good mystery that is. Recommended.
The Resistance Nest was logged just before 9am, so after that I headed straight back to the station, where I could leave the car at the appointed time. So in all I had spent 24 hours out caching, with 800 km travelling in car. The number of caches logged was not very high, under 30, but at least I proved that I could stand such long going. Maybe I should go for a power trail in the future?
So, come January 29th and no FTFs for January. What to do? I enlarged my notification for the state, but no luck. Instead I decided to go to another event, namely the Ficklampsevent i Göteborg (that is, the first yearly "Flash light event" in Gothenburg). Sounded like it could be fun, and the only caches I had in the Västra Götaland state were from Borås. Tried to see if I could find any one to make a joint trip with, but closest one was Mr Smokestoner himself, and he had re-prioritized since writting the "Will Attend" log. "-Oh well, guess I have to go myself; I mean it's less than 300 km".
At the same time I got to adopt a cache just 30 km south-east, namely Brudklev just on the Kalmar state (Västervik county) side. This was a cache from 2002 that had been hidden by a familly in Germany. Also, I had some plans for hide some caches of my own. Taking this together, I decided I should rent a car, taking up on the weekend offers that exist. Did find a cheap one at Statoil (actually the station you end up on if you go for Made to Go) that just cost SEK 599 (about €60) for 24 hours, including free miles - just add fuel cost. Yeah, time to go a-caching!
I had booked the car from 9am Saturday morning (when they opened) and my original plan was to get back to Linköping around mid night, sleep some hours, and then deliver it to them at 9am Sunday morning when they opened again. As they closed for night at 10pm I definitly would not make it during the same day. Oh, yeah, an optimist plan if I have ever seen one.... as it would become appearent.
The trip started out fine with being on time. I had chosen a echo fueled Golf as it is being smaller one but still having lots of room for the driver. The plan was to go (south-east Linköping county) Sturefors - (county) Åtvidaberg - (cache in Västervik county) Brudklev - (county) Kinda - (county) Ydre and then head for Göteborg, or rather county of Mölndal, to be there in time for the event that started 5pm. Loads of time...
As I had that much time I could just as well log some on the way. The first stop was SJ01 Bridget Jones, the second oldest cache in Linköping (the first being a virtual at the University, which is also the oldest in Östergötland). It has been just out of reach when I have made my bike trips during my first months. Anyway, after driving as close as I could on the roads near Landeryd church, I could walk over the snow covered fields down to a cache placed in a beautiful place near a train bridge that crossed a river. Nice! Being winter made it easier to pass the fields, but other parts was harder. The time spent near the cache can be very relaxing, just you and the nature. I shot some photoes here which might catch a bit of that feeling; I'll try to add photos eventually.
Back to the car, and the next cache would be Owl Mountain, a cache without any logs for four months... This was placed on the other side of a river, so I had to pass a "max 3 tons bridge" with "only traffic with permit allowed" sign. Wont stop a cacher, will it. But the cache was a bit away from the road, placed on a mountain, so I had soon to part the car and walk the km to the spot. As I walked the road I did notice that this was an excellent day for outdoor activities as on the other side of Kinda Kanal, where Landeryd golf course is during summer, people were using the snow to go out nordic skiing. Looked nice, but I haven't been doing that for 30 years... Closing in on the mountain I realized that coming from the other way would have been better, as I met a car. I also noticed that the area was probably crowded with wood cutters and wood machines during working days, the tracks of this could be seen everywhere. But at least that made it easier to go in the forrest, at the same time being a bit depressing. Reaching the top of the mountain I was treated with a nice scenery of Kinda channel! (Pics to come?) Here I was lucky as the position of the cache had protected it from the wind, and it was easily accessible.
So, 2 hours had already gone, and still I haven't reach Sturefors! Better go there now. But I passed Ärlången on the way, and had some more nice scenery. Just forgot that I shouldn't trust the GPS too much and had to needlessly climb some icy walls. Reached Sturefors at last, a small town south east of Linköping. This was a place I had noticed having no caches! So, I put just outside the local church (Vists kyrka) and another one that hasn't been published yet. I also have plans from a few more but I will get back to that.
After Sturefors it was time to go to Åtvidaberg, the county south-east of Linköping county. Here I have been many times, but not since I started caching... So, time for some caches. Åtvidaberg is a typical mill community, that has been struggling with closing of their large employer, Facit. During the 70s, the local football team actually won Swedish highest division two years, and played teams like Chelsea and Bayern München. That might also be a reason why the mens football in Linköping never really had been any success... Of the caches I could recommend Gammeldags godis with its excellent scenery, and Kalkugnen for a bit of historic touch. I also placed a multi here that I will publish, soon.
At this time I had given up on my smart phone. It have been problem recharging it, due to a mechanical problem. When I got as far as this I had to turn it of to save the battery, as it refused to recharge in the car. I had loaded some 1000 caches from Östergötland, Kalmar, Jönköping and Västra Götaland states, but that was just the easy ones... Had no other choice than continue with a failing smart phone.
With time running out it was time to go for one of the main targets of this trip, namely Brudklev. Going for that it was time to leave the larger roads and head into the forrest inland. When I reached the spot the time was something like 2:30 pm... The place was a nice one, with a tragic history. Had to use the spoiler pictures on this one, maybe easier during summer? Winter caching is hard, but at least my feet could dry up some between stops.
When I left the spot the clock had passed 3pm. I really had to set course for Göteborg. As I had no map, except the one in the GPS, it was hard to tell the best way. I choose to head towards Vimmerby, and from there due west to Göteborg. Most of the roads until reaching road 34 for Vimmerby was max 80 kph, so it took much longer than expected. Actually I did not get near the event until after 7 pm! As I drove on the icy roads up to the sea near the event I met some cars, and when I got to the parking place I met some gangs going out in the forrest. It turned up I had missed all the action and almost everyone at the event had headed out in the dark forrest, bearing flash lights, head lamps, UV lamps, .... you name it. Well, not all of them. One of the organizers, and four other guys (TimTimGo, ildur, blaufish, and one more) sat around a camp fire, having a barbecue... So I joined that group and had a nice time talking about geoCaching.
Eventually the fire had died, and the first group had reached their target, so we split up, and I had to go on my own again. So why not cache some more! By this time, the clock was just after 9:30pm. I started to realize that my plan were a bit optimistic, to say the least. On the way back to Mölndal center I logged a quick one, where I met a gang coming from the event. Maybe I should have something to eat? Had not had anything since breakfast. But finding something in Mölndal close to 10pm Saturday night was not to be. "Well, maybe I could catch a hamburger on the way, in Borås for instance?" Just want to do some quick logs... I just did a pair or so, before heading back east towards Borås. Just made a stop on the way to get Ett populärt rastställe for driveby.
As I came to Borås I decided to go via Ramnaslätt and Tullen, an area I never did visit when I lived in Borås. Passing Bua-sjön I stumbled on Borås Ubuntu Cache at which you could have your own CD with Ubuntu! Time was close to midnight when I reached the McDonalds close to the Rv40. I thought they were to close 1am, but as I got in there 10 minutes to midnight they had started to put up chairs on the tables, and clean the floor, so I skipped that stop. Instead three quick ones on these parts of Borås I know quite well. During these there the clock passed midnight so this would be my first night caching! And still some way to drive before coming home.
Back on the road again, and next goal were to be the county of Ulricehamn, a nice little county between Borås and Jönköping. Before coming to the town I passed the little village of Hökerum, a place where some neighbors of mine had there summer house, so I had been around these parts before, but I had never noticed Bogastugan, and old wodden building by the river. With one logged in that county I could skip the town and go directly towards Jönköping.
Going from Linköping to Göteborg, I often make a stop right after Liared, where you can find two stations, and food. Heading the other way I noticed En vän på vägen and made a quick cache. But the winter, ice, snow and cold, had made the box stuck. To get it out I seemed to use to much force which broke the box. Sigh... I guess the time having passed 1am, and both my and the car fuel running low, could explain some of it.
Reaching Jönköping I had to refuel the car. Jönköping has quite a few interesting caches, but I was starting to get a bit tired so I settled for the broken cache above. I will return with spring (or summer) and make a real caching trip to Jönköping / Huskvarna.
So, instead I headed for Eksjö, a town I had passed on my way from Vimmerby to Jönköping. As I had not planned to go this way I had no GPX files loaded for these parts of Jönköping state, and a dead smart phone, so I just drove on. The reason for going via Eksjö is that that is the best way for Ydre county, in the south part of Östergötland.
Ydre is really forrest county, with smaller town. Even Österbymo, the central town, is small. But I had set my goal to get Brantefall, a cache out in the deep forrest... Well, not that deep. I passed quite a few farms and houses so people were living here. I found a good spot to park, I thought, on the top of a side road. Didn't want to block the way if there were to be any other cars here at 3am Sunday morning.... So, as I prepared to walk the 500 meters or so to the cache, I had to put some batteries in the head lamp. (This was the first time I were to use that.) But I was starting to run out of batteries... 4 AA for the head lamp, 2 AA for the GPS and no more. Well, the extra flash light had batteries but it used AAA. So, heading out into unknown territory with no extra batteries? I planned to use the flash light in case the head light were to consume the power, and keep the GPS, putting a waymark for the car. (Good move!)
Part of the way into the forrest was from snowy tracks made by wood cutting machinery or tractors, but eventually I had to head animal paths into the forrest. I did find a cabin used by hunters on the top of the hill that lead down to the cache. Here you could here the sound of a water fall! I set down and rested for a while, 3:30am a Sunday night, in the middle of the dark forrest. Isn't life wonderful sometimes! Lookating the cache I could head back for the car. Of course going the same way would have been a good choice, instead I choose a more difficult one, tredding across a swampy frozen territory, and wading through deep snow the last 100 meters, but at last I reached the car. At that time my mood had changed a bit and I started to reflect on what I was doing. Was this really such a good idea? Well, better get going so that I get home.
As I wrote above I was driving around forrest roads. One risk of doing this is that you can get stuck. Going out from the side road I had to gas a bit to get out. But heading the forrest roads I eventually reached what the GPS claimed to be the "big road" (that is open), at least I thought so when I checked the GPS. It turned out I had made a turn to early and ended up on a field that tractors had been driving around on. I should have stopped and gone rear, but instead I choose to turn the car around; I mean it looked like packed snow. Wrong choice! Having a two wheel driven car is not enough, so after going something like 300 degrees around the car got stuck and I could not get any further. The wheels just spinning. What should I do, 4am in the forrest of Ydre? (Actually I could see an industry not that far, so I guess I could get someone to help.) And no equipment that I could use...
Coming this far I could not give up. I tried to use full gas and go out and push the car. No luck. Eventually I realized that the car had easier to go backwards. So I put in the reverse and made the rear action. Yes! That worked and I go out of the field and back on the road. Ah... Next stop Österbymo.
Österbymo have no action a Sunday morning, so I could hide my cache there, the first in this town, without any mugglers watching. This cache has not been published yet but maybe next week.
The road for Kisa, capitol of Kinda county, was quite OK and caused no problems. The GPS showed no caches here but I seemed to remember one? Yes, I think there is only one in this town. As that is too little for a town of this size I decided to improve on that, but as usual, not published yet.
Instead I headed for Rimforsa, being in the north of Kinda county. There I did find a cache, Trollmor. (Swedes reading this will realize which Troll Mother this is if I say "O aj aj aj aj buff".) That is a place that you pass when you drive 34 south and probably think "This would be a nice place for a cache", and so it is. With that cache I have also logged caches in all 13 counties of Östergötland! Which was one of the major targets with this trip. So just 30 km to go before I'm home.
Coming this far, the clock had reached 06:15 am. Almost 3 hours before the car had to be returned. No use going home and sleep now so instead I got closer to home and logged some local caches around Linköping. The sun were to rise as well so it turned out to be a nice end to the caching trip.
Two of the last caches were actually mysteries, Challenge #002 - 100 founds and The Resistance Nest. The former could obviously have been logged 5 months ago. The latter had been solved for a month. One of RDun_Swe's caches, and a good mystery that is. Recommended.
The Resistance Nest was logged just before 9am, so after that I headed straight back to the station, where I could leave the car at the appointed time. So in all I had spent 24 hours out caching, with 800 km travelling in car. The number of caches logged was not very high, under 30, but at least I proved that I could stand such long going. Maybe I should go for a power trail in the future?
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Wet feet is something you get a lot in GeoCaching
During most of the winter I use the bus to get to work. For January the state bus company (Östgötatrafiken) compensated for all those delays this winter but deducting 10% on all their monthly cards. So I decided to go for the state express version, giving access to all trains and busses in the state! Good way to get out and cache....
As that 30 day period is coming to an end it is time to make some last trips. For today I choose Borensberg which is a place I have visited quite a lot but not for geocaching. It is part of the Motala county, and is mostly known for the crossing of Göta Kanal (the Gotia Channel). When it comes to GeoCaching I think that GCWE95 Akvedukten is most well known, I famed 5/5... Well, I had no plans going for any high terrains this time, just picking up some easy ones.
Another thing Borensberg is famous for, at least in the state, is Husbyfjöl market. Caching during that period is not a good idea as it is hard to avoid mugglers... At this time of year, the central caches was there for picking. I do recommend visiting Borensberg when the channel is open.
Borensberg included a nice bridge cache (Strömsbron), a fine pier (Piren) cache and a but of railway history in a quick multi (MÖJ 1, "Ankan"). The keeper of the pier spoke about Sea Eagles but I did not see any. Instead I managed to dropp the lid of the pier cache, and the pen, in the water... So this time I managed to loose someone else things... Not the first pen I have dropped, not even the first dropped into water.
I had planned to do a 3 hour caching before going back to Linköping. As the caching was good I decided to go for a mystery I had solved. Just 1 km to walk... But that was on a stony road covered with ice! So it was a bit of a struggle to walk that way. Well, managed to avoid slipping. When I got to the final location I took the always smart move of reading the logs. The latest one (December 25th) spoke about that it was lucky they brought a snow showel. I had not that kind of equipment. Also it had snowed since then so I could not find any tracks. Oh well, let's return in spring.
So, should I return the same way using the forrest road? Nah... I decided to go for the jogging track in the forrest instead, it was in the right direction. Luckily it had been prepared for nordic skiing (skate and classical) so it was not so bad. Getting close to the next cache (Vattentorn, yes! I like those) I had the coice of continuing the long way round, or to take the short cut. The short cut did not look that bad so I choose that one. Bad move. Stepping around in half meter deep snow is not my idea of fun. I realized that to next winter I really should get high boots for walking in snow (or snow shoes). The current boots are to low which means that some snow will end up in them, and making my feets wet.
After logging the Water tower I headed back to the bus stop. Had time to grab a Kebabrulle to eat on the bus; I deserved that after the struggle in the forrest. Got back to Linköping in time for the 18:30 hockey game between LHC and Luleå. Good game; tight, close, and exciting. A 2-1 win after loosing the shots (just 14 shots from LHC during the whole game) is strong. Norrena is really good!
So, in total a nice day, with wet feet. Did not remove my boots until 10 pm... The day ended on 399 found, so I save #400 for tomorrow!
As that 30 day period is coming to an end it is time to make some last trips. For today I choose Borensberg which is a place I have visited quite a lot but not for geocaching. It is part of the Motala county, and is mostly known for the crossing of Göta Kanal (the Gotia Channel). When it comes to GeoCaching I think that GCWE95 Akvedukten is most well known, I famed 5/5... Well, I had no plans going for any high terrains this time, just picking up some easy ones.
Another thing Borensberg is famous for, at least in the state, is Husbyfjöl market. Caching during that period is not a good idea as it is hard to avoid mugglers... At this time of year, the central caches was there for picking. I do recommend visiting Borensberg when the channel is open.
Borensberg included a nice bridge cache (Strömsbron), a fine pier (Piren) cache and a but of railway history in a quick multi (MÖJ 1, "Ankan"). The keeper of the pier spoke about Sea Eagles but I did not see any. Instead I managed to dropp the lid of the pier cache, and the pen, in the water... So this time I managed to loose someone else things... Not the first pen I have dropped, not even the first dropped into water.
I had planned to do a 3 hour caching before going back to Linköping. As the caching was good I decided to go for a mystery I had solved. Just 1 km to walk... But that was on a stony road covered with ice! So it was a bit of a struggle to walk that way. Well, managed to avoid slipping. When I got to the final location I took the always smart move of reading the logs. The latest one (December 25th) spoke about that it was lucky they brought a snow showel. I had not that kind of equipment. Also it had snowed since then so I could not find any tracks. Oh well, let's return in spring.
So, should I return the same way using the forrest road? Nah... I decided to go for the jogging track in the forrest instead, it was in the right direction. Luckily it had been prepared for nordic skiing (skate and classical) so it was not so bad. Getting close to the next cache (Vattentorn, yes! I like those) I had the coice of continuing the long way round, or to take the short cut. The short cut did not look that bad so I choose that one. Bad move. Stepping around in half meter deep snow is not my idea of fun. I realized that to next winter I really should get high boots for walking in snow (or snow shoes). The current boots are to low which means that some snow will end up in them, and making my feets wet.
After logging the Water tower I headed back to the bus stop. Had time to grab a Kebabrulle to eat on the bus; I deserved that after the struggle in the forrest. Got back to Linköping in time for the 18:30 hockey game between LHC and Luleå. Good game; tight, close, and exciting. A 2-1 win after loosing the shots (just 14 shots from LHC during the whole game) is strong. Norrena is really good!
So, in total a nice day, with wet feet. Did not remove my boots until 10 pm... The day ended on 399 found, so I save #400 for tomorrow!
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