Dan Q

Kind: Checkins

Dan Q found GC76AG3 Hauta – Tomb

This checkin to GC76AG3 Hauta - Tomb reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Found after an embarrassingly long hunt! After reading the hint I quickly spotted the correct hiding spot, but said to myself “no, it surely can’t be there” and moved on. Only on my third time walking past it did I think to actually try it, and sure enough, there it was! SL, TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK!

Dan throws a thumbs up outside a sea fort gateway.

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Dan Q found GC6TJ54 63# Levin kierros aka CITOn muistopurkki

This checkin to GC6TJ54 63# Levin kierros aka CITOn muistopurkki reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Third of three finds on this, my final morning here before my flight to Helsinki. Taking a brisk walk/slow jog up to Hotel Levi Panorama, but first, a QEF. TFTC, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK!

Dan prepares to jog up a wooden hillside staircase, marked with a sign reading: 'Hip Hop, Up We Go! 766 steps to Hotel Levi Panorama and Levi Summit'

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Dan Q found GCBBVQN Magic of Lapland

This checkin to GCBBVQN Magic of Lapland reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

It’s the final morning of my short visit to Sirkka. Having 90 minutes until I need to set off for the airport, I decided to come out for a quick geocaching expedition first.

Dan points to an adorable Lapland scene installed in a wooden box attached to a tree.

This was the first cache on my list, and I was so glad to choose it. A truly beautiful and well-maintained cache in a wonderful spot. FP awarded. TFTC!

[09:55 local time]

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Dan Q found GCBC09Z A Riverside Walk

This checkin to GCBC09Z A Riverside Walk reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

FTF after a delightful walk and a surprisingly challenging hunt!

When I woke this morning and saw a new semi-local cache, about when I ought to be getting myself and the geopup up anyway, I was intrigued. Bed called me back for a Sunday morning lie-in, but eventually I escaped its clutches and the geohound and I set out on our adventure.

Parking in Bladon was a challenge but we were fortune enough to find a residential road with a few spots up towards St. Martin’s Church. After that, and working out how to open the gate to the Community Footpath, we were on our way.

On a lead, a French Bulldog walks along a path towards a gate, which exists without a fence and even the path goes around both sides of it.
World’s most-pointless gate?

Passing the world’s most pointless gate and a heron finding his breakfast (both pictured), the doggo and I enjoyed our riverside stroll in relative peace and quiet, excepting the occasional jogger or dog walker that would come the other way. Eventually we found the bridge, stopped to enjoy the view a little, and then began the hunt.

On a reedy riverbank, a heron perches on a log.
The long, patient wait for breakfast to swim by.

Even with the hint and a strong idea of what I was looking for, this was a challenging search. I’ll bet my kids would’ve found the cache much faster than my ~15-20 minute search, but eventually I caught a glimpse of it, worked my way to it, and retrieved the log. Seeing it still blank, I claimed my FTF, and then had a brief panic when I discovered that I could no longer see it’s hiding place! A brief re-search and I’d found it again, but for a while there I was kicking myself for taking the time to return to the wall of the bridge to write my log!

Dan, a white man with blue hair tied in a ponytail and a goatee beard, crouches alongside and pets a champagne-coloured French Bulldog by a gate on a path through a managed forest. There are bits of plant on his clothes, especially his shoulders.
The dog was effectively zero help for this one.

Returned as found. TFTC, and for the lovely walk!

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Dan Q found GC2CWQ7 #036 Just Northamptonshire

This checkin to GC2CWQ7 #036 Just Northamptonshire reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

As a semi-regular at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention who likes to get up earlier then the others I share my tent with, I’ve done my fair share of early morning geocaching in this neck of the woods.

Of course: over the years this practice has exhausted most of tree caches local to Cropredy and my morning walks have begun to take me further and further afield. But this is certainly the first time I’ve walked to the next county in search of a cache!

A doe and her fawn stand alert in a harvested grain field, alongside a tower of cuboid hay bales, in the light of a summer morning.

Coming across the fields from Williamscot via Prescote Farm treated me to gorgeous rolling hills free fields of freshly-harvested corn getting picked at by families of deer, while the red kites above went looking for their breakfasts.

The final hill up to the GZ required a bit of a push for my legs which were dancing until late last night, but soon I was close and the cache was quickly found in the second place I looked.

In front of a gate with a 'cattle crossing' sign, Dan waves to the camera with a hand whose wrist has a Cropredy 2025 wristband.

TFTC. Oxfordshire says hello!

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Dan Q found GCAJH34 Jonah’s Oak

This checkin to GCAJH34 Jonah's Oak reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

My little tribe and I have, in some form of another, been attending Cropredy for decades: intermittently in the past, but lately with more regularity every year. For me, it’s coincided with the growth of our family: I’ve been attending with my partner and her husband approximately since our eldest child, now 11, was born.

As our group’s early riser, I’ve a longstanding tradition of getting up while everybody else lies in, to take a walk and perhaps find a geocache or two. Of course I soon ran out of caches in Cropredy itself and my morning walks now take me much further afield!

Last year I was very ill and had to be sent home from Cropredy before I had the opportunity to log this cache, but I’m back again this year and taking a moment at the Oak to reflect on those we’ve all loved and lost.

Jonah's Oak; a large and well-kept oak tree in the middle of a hedgerow, with plaques on and around it, with festival workings in the background.

Answers to follow as soon as signal permits. TFTC.

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Dan Q found GC8Z1F6 Church Micro 13672…Great Bourton ⛪️

This checkin to GC8Z1F6 Church Micro 13672...Great Bourton ⛪️ reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

My family and I have made a tradition of our regular attendance of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. There I – being the earliest riser of us – have in turn made a tradition of getting up early to find a nearby geocache on any morning that I’m up before the kids.

This practice has already eliminated all of the caches in Cropredy itself, and so now my morning walks take me further afield. This morning I opted to follow the footpath over the fields to Great Bourton to investigate the two multicaches commencing in the churchyard.

Having determined the coordinates for both and (unsuccessfully) attempting the other cache first, I was optimistic for a smiley face here. The GZ was easy to find – I’d stopped here to check my map on the way out! – and I was soon searching in earnest.

In the low-angled light of the morning sun, the shade of the thick leafy canopy made for challenging conditions, so I flicked my torch on and pointed it in the direction of the host object… and there, clear as day despite its camouflage, was the cache. Easy as pie! SL.

I was briefly tempted to re-try the cache I failed to find earlier, under the assumption that the container would look similar to this and the same technique might bear fruit. But I didn’t feel like doubling back twice more while my stomach was rumbling, so I carried on towards Cropredy to see whether any others if my party were yet ready for some grub.

TFTC.

Dan Q did not find GC91EH6 War Memorial #1,340 ~ Great Bourton 🌹

This checkin to GC91EH6 War Memorial #1,340 ~ Great Bourton 🌹 reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

My family and I have made a tradition of our regular attendance of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. There I – being the earliest riser of us – have in turn made a tradition of getting up early to find a nearby geocache on any morning that I’m up before the kids.

This practice has already eliminated all of the caches in Cropredy itself, and so now my morning walks take me further afield. This morning I opted to follow the footpath over the fields to Great Bourton to investigate the two multicaches commencing in the churchyard.

Solving for both was easy enough, and I opted to seek this one first, given that the other could become part of my route back to my tent. As others have observed, finding the right footpath was slightly tricky: it looks a bit like a communal driveway, to begin with… and then, for the moment at least, looks as though it might become a building site!

But I pressed on towards the target coordinates and soon spotted a likely host. I searched for a bit without luck, then hit up the hint: looks like I need to go deeper, I figured, and pushed into the foliage.

But after 20 minutes or so of searching all around the conceivable spots, I was still struggling. Plus I’d narrowly avoided kneeling in something truly gross and couldn’t face another round of crawling about under a hedge. And further, I realised I’d soon need some breakfast so I gave up on this one and made a move for the second. Maybe another year!