Parson’s Garage – 2nd attempt

Early Sunday morning is a great time to go looking for geocaches in areas of normally high muggle activity, so we took advantage of this great time of day to go seek out some locations – starting with a place that had previously stumped us called Parson’s Garage (GCTA4K) by Shifter Brains.

As happens on so many second-attempt finds, we walked directly to the cache location and found the micro hidden in the very first place we looked. Signed the log and walked away wondering why it was so hard the first time around!

Wolfie checks up on some local history

Likewise with so many second-attempt finds it’s a great feeling to cross off another DNF that had been nagging us! TFTC.

Sydney 2000 – pure iPhone Geocaching

If ever there was a cache to prove how handy an Apple iPhone can be for geocaching, this is it.  Sitting at work two days ago, bored, I loaded up Grounspeak’s Geocaching iPhone App and did a search on the caches close to work – one of these being Sydney 2000 (GC10ZKX) - a micro cache by zebrafive . Let’s check out how the cache details look on the iPhone.

Cache details on iPhone

Note: the above image has been modified to protect the location of this cache.

As you can see, we have full access to the cache information – including complete Description, recent Logs – and the all-important Hint. Inventory details are also normally available from this screen – but this cache has no inventory.

Let’s now press the Hint button and take a look at the clue for this cache…

The cryptic clue revealed.

Okay – so now lets go back to the cache screen, and we’ll tap on the Map button to see it’s location in Google maps on the iPhone.

Google Maps Pinpoint to the Location

Note: the above image has been modified to protect the location of this cache.

When I switched to Google Maps view I could see straight away – not only was this close, but it’s also right alongside a road I drive down most mornings (Harris Street) – thus making it a perfect early morning park-and-grab cache at 4am with a guaranteed absence of muggles.

Let’s now tap the little red “Person” icon on the pinpoint and see what Google Streetview shows me.

The location - can you find it?

Hmmm… first of six, last of nine… something about ventilation. Many cachers reading this now have probably picked the right spot already! All that’s left to do now is physically drop by the location – which I did at 4am today.

Except for the fact it was dark, I felt like I had been there in person already and had already “cased out” the area where the cache is, and put the clues together – which was true, but I had done it in a completely virtual environment using only my Apple iPhone, so when I got to the spot I already knew exactly where to park and what to grab, and where to grab it from.  

The only thing left to do now was take a picture – again, with the iPhone - 

Grabbed cache. Signed Log. Returned cache.

It was kind of a eerie feeling being so familiar with the place before I even got there, and shows what a powerful tool the iPhone can be for geocachers.  If I’d needed too I could have also written this blog entry with the iPhone using my WordPress App – but it’s keyboard makes it an impractical tool for typing long documents.

I can then use the iPhone to brag about my find on Twitter, using the Twitterrific application to instantly notify our friends who follow @teamwolfie on twitter, and even share pictures of the find with our followers.

The only thing missing from the Groundspeak iPhone App is the ability to log your find directly from within the application – but there is always the option to use Safari on the iPhone to visit geocaching.com and log the find using that method.

This is one case where the iPhone has proved very useful – being the ONLY tool needed to plan, seek, locate, and photograph this cache. Yes there are times when the GPS could be better – in fact, I didn’t even need to use the GPS function to locate this find, however, this device is primarily an iPod and a Phone – but it’s amazing you can actually do so much with the Apple iPhone and I’ve grown to find it to an indispensable tool for my geocaching, and in 90% of cases is the only tool I need for a successful find.

And when I’m not using my iPhone for geocaching, I’m using it to listen to geocaching podcasts! It is truly my all-in-one device.

What is that Thing? (M3) – (2nd attempt)

I’m not a fan of having to work early on a Sunday morning, but being a train driver at Central Station in Sydney means that I do get a little spare time now and then to go exploring the immediate surrounds. So I took the opportunity earlier today to have another crack at What is that Thing? (M3) (GC1CGQM). This is the 3rd in a series of caches by bainsworld that were inspired by the movie The Matrix. The geocaches in the series are located around Sydney city in prominent places featured in the movie – this one, near a roadway under a stone arch bridge that featured in a rainy nighttime scene.

A familiar spot for fans of The Matrix

Since my first attempt at this micro cache I’ve learned much about caches – the various shapes, sizes, and places where they are best hidden, and I am developing my “geosense”, or the ability to think like a geocacher – to think about the surroundings, and hiding places. I had been thinking one specific place in particular that I really wanted to try on my first attempt – but I just couldn’t because I hate looking too conspicuous in busy public places, but this time – breakfast time on a Sunday morning, seemed to be an ideal time to give this another go.

I went straight to the place where I thought it would be, sat down pretending to wait for somebody while feeling around behind and under me on the object I was sitting at, and sure enough, I was right on top of it. Yes!  Such bliss!

Mission Accomplished

It feels so good to get a previous DNF checked off the list – this being the second of successful “second attempt” DNF’s now found felt even better. We’re looking forward to hunting down the other Matrix caches in the series soon.