I have now received the 2020 Limited Edition Dartmoor Geocoins and will be very pleased to take your orders. Once again I created a poll in the Dartmoor Geocachers facebook group to see how much interest there would be for a 2020 geocoin and was pleased to see that there was just about enough support – many thanks!
This year I have gone for the silver colour as it seemed to fit in well with the grey theme of this year’s geocoin which is of The Thirlstone.
As promised when creating the poll I will keep the prices the same as last year:
1 x 2020 Geocoin – £14
1 x 2020 Geocoin + 1 x 2019 Race Geocoin – £24
2 x 2020 Geocoins – £26
The cost for 1st class p&p will be £2 for 1 or 2 coins and £3 for 3 or 4 coins. 3 or 4 coins will be sent 1st class signed for. These postage costs have not changed for 4 years despite annual increases by Royal Mail.
As a very special offer, I am offering 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 geocoins all at £10 each, if you buy at least one 2020 geocoin! There are almost no 2014 coins left and these will be £20 each, there is also a dwindling stock of 2015 coins and these are available at £17. However, for multiple purchases I will be pleased to offer a discount.
If you wish to purchase any of the coins, please let me know using either of the facebook groups or reply to this post at the bottom of the page. I shall be working my way through the orders in the order I receive them and sending out PayPal requests. I will require an email address, so if you know I don’t have yours please send it to me using an email to davidgmartin@me.com or using a private facebook message. If you have bought one previously or have signed up to this web site, I will have it already.
If you have any questions please leave a reply below or reply on the Dartmoor Geocaching facebook page: Dartmoor Geocaching
Many, many thanks to all who will be purchasing the 2020 Dartmoor Geocoin.
I have finally received the 2019 Limited Edition Dartmoor Geocoins and will be very pleased to take your orders. As you are aware, I was a little uncertain as to whether to produce a coin for 2019, but the poll I created was very well supported and I placed the order at that time.
Please note that these geocoins are the bronze colour and not the silver colour – they are always so difficult to photograph!
As promised when creating the poll I will keep the prices the same as last year:
1 x 2019 Geocoin – £14 (26 asked for this)
1 x 2019 Geocoin + 1 x 2019 Race Geocoin – £24 (16 asked for this)
2 x 2019 Geocoins – £26 (7 asked for this)
Also as promised, I will not be checking to see what you asked for, but I would ask generally that you all order at least what you did ask for. I would certainly welcome more for the geocoin race, for which I will soon be sending out the details.
The cost for 1st class p&p will be £2 for 1 or 2 coins and £3 for 3 or 4 coins. 3 or 4 coins will be sent 1st class signed for. These postage costs have not changed for 3 years despite increases by Royal Mail.
As a very special offer, I am offering 2016, 2017 and 2018 geocoins all at £10 each, if you buy at least one 2019 geocoin! This is to improve my cash flow, as I indicated earlier I am currently £800 down on last year. There is now only a handful of 2014 coins left and these will be £18 each, there is also a dwindling stock of 2015 coins and these are available at £16. However, for multiple purchases I will be pleased to offer a discount.
If you wish to purchase any of the coins, please let me know using either of the facebook groups or reply to this post at the bottom of the page. I shall be working my way through the orders in the order I receive them and sending out PayPal requests. I will require an email address, so if you know I don’t have yours please send it to me using an email to davidgmartin@me.com or using a private facebook message. If you have bought one previously or have signed up to this web site, I will have it already.
If you have any questions please leave a reply below or reply on the Dartmoor Geocaching facebook page: Dartmoor Geocaching
Many, many thanks to all who will be purchasing the 2019 Dartmoor Geocoin.
As many of you will have realised I have now received the 2018 Limited Edition Dartmoor Geocoins and should be able to start sending these out immediately.
You may recall that last year there was a dramatic increase in my costs of over 30% because of rising production costs and the very poor exchange rate. However, I only increased the cost by £1 for the first coin and actually reduced it if you bought more than 2. I am happy to offer these same 2017 prices to you for the 2018 geocoins.
Therefore the costs for 2018, 2017 and 2016 coins will be £14 for the first coin but only £12 each for ALL additional coins. The cost for 1st class p&p will be £2 for 1 or 2 coins and £3 for 3 or more coins. 3 or more coins will be sent 1st class signed for. These postage costs are identical to last year’s.
There is a dwindling stock of both 2014 and 2015 coins and the cost for these years will be £15. However, if you wish to buy a complete set of 5 coins the cost will be just £65 including p&p – a saving of £6.
As in previous years, if you wish to purchase a second coin to be entered in the 2018 race I will offer a £4 discount, so it will cost £10, a total of £24 for both coins, plus £2 p&p. But please, please do enter the race coins in the race! Each year there have been those who have bought coins at the reduced rate and never released them!
If you wish to purchase any of the coins, please let me know using either of the facebook groups or reply to this post at the bottom of the page. I shall be working my way through the orders in the order I receive them and sending out PayPal requests. I will require an email address, so if you know I don’t have yours please send it to me using an email to davidgmartin@me.com or using a private facebook message. If you have bought one previously or have signed up to this web site, I will have it already.
If you have any questions please leave a reply below or reply on the Dartmoor Geocaching facebook page: Dartmoor Geocaching
Many, many thanks to all who will be purchasing the Dartmoor Geocoins this year.
As already announced on facebook I have now received the 2017 Limited Edition Dartmoor Geocoins and should be able to start sending some out on Monday or Tuesday. Several people have already said that they would like one, but as yet I’ve taken no firm orders. They should make lovely Christmas pressies
Unfortunately, as I also mentioned, there has been a dramatic increase in cost this year as the production costs have gone up by 13% and this together with the huge difference in exchange rate has meant that the total cost has gone up by over 30%! However, the good news is that I will only increase the cost by £1, but if you buy two or more the price will be the same or less than last year.
The costs for all coins (whichever year you want) will be £14 for the first coin but only £12 each for ALL additional coins. The cost for 1st class p&p will be £2 for 1 or 2 coins and £3 for 3 or more coins. 3 or more coins will be sent 1st class signed for.
As in previous years, if you wish to purchase a second coin to be entered in the 2017 race I will offer a £4 discount, so it will cost £10, a total of £24 for both coins, plus £2 p&p. However, as promised, if you entered a coin in the 2016 race AND activated it AND released it, the race coin will be half price, so only £7, a total of £21 for both coins, plus £2 p&p.
If you wish to purchase any of the coins, please let me know using either of the facebook groups or reply to this post at the bottom of the page. I shall be working my way through the orders in the order I receive them and sending out PayPal requests. I will require an email address, so if you know I don’t have yours please send it to me using an email to davidgmartin@me.com or using a private facebook message. If you have bought one previously or have signed up to this web site, I will have it already.
If you have any questions please leave a reply below or reply on the Dartmoor Geocaching facebook page: Dartmoor Geocaching
Many, many thanks to all who will be purchasing the Dartmoor Geocoins this year.
This isn’t a formal review of Cachly, but an example of a day’s caching on a remote part of Dartmoor with an iPhone but no phone signal. Click on a photo to enlarge it.
I’ve been beta testing Cachly for some months now and have been amazed at the functionality available and the frequency of releases from the developer. My main interest though is to see how it performs when there is no phone signal, so all my testing has been done offline. To start you need to create an offline list of the caches you are interested in and this is a very easy process. The caches are either based around your current location or another location and they download in batches of 50 caches, with a large selection of search criteria. You obviously need wifi or a phone signal to download them! Once downloaded they can then be saved for offline use and you can save photos and/or maps with them and you get a warning of how much space this will take.
The caches I downloaded were my nearest 300 unfound caches. Interesting to see that my DNFs are shown with a blue sad face. I then drove to the point shown towards the south-east of the map from where I started my walk. The planned length of my walk was about 9 miles and I knew it would take the majority of the day. The first cache was InView Brown Heath and the single green spot next to Logs means that only the publish log exists – so maybe a FTF Tapping Navigate to Cache displays the map of the cache and the distance to it, in this case nearly 5km. The offline maps displayed are excellent and even at this scale show the main tracks, rivers and lakes etc.
It was a great day for walking but I was well aware that I had at least 6 hours walking and the iPhone battery would never last that long. So I carry an Anker charger but knew that it wouldn’t be needed until I stopped for lunch. I’m not certain if I am right, but I am of the opinion that the battery will last longer if the phone is in airplane mode, especially if the phone signal is very intermittent, so I always select that. This is Dartmoor so it was not surprising to see some Dartmoor ponies, but I didn’t immediately spot the little foal hidden behind its mother.
As I got nearer my goal I zoomed the map in and it showed a greater level of detail including footpaths that hadn’t been visible on the smaller scale. This certainly gives the level of detail required for caching in open and remote countryside such as Dartmoor. I also switched to the very well designed compass which seemed to work easily and took me straight to the cache. One criticism is that the map showing the cache you are navigating to, gives neither the name nor code of the cache.
On arrival at the cache I was very pleased, and relieved, to see that I was indeed FTF. Had I had a phone signal I could have logged a find then and there, but without one I could either write a log to be sent later or write a cache note, which I can then refer to later. This is a lovely spot on Dartmoor’s south moor, although many would find it rather featureless without any stunning views.
After my first to find at this cache I placed a couple of caches during which time I stopped for lunch. My iPhone battery had dropped to 49% charged but having connected it to the Anker it soon recovered to 68%. It is noticeable, however, that the battery seems to loose its charge quicker as the charge diminishes, so it goes much quicker from 50% to 20% than it does from 100% to 70%. I needed to charge the iPhone a couple of times more at future stops, but not whilst I was actually walking, so it wasn’t a huge problem. Not exactly native Dartmoor cattle, but the Belted Galloways are my favourite
By the time I had finished my walk I had completed 10.2 miles taking just over 6 hours. I had one further FTF, another find and I placed two new caches. Apart from placing the caches, I only used the iPhone throughout the whole day. I carried a Garmin GPS which was only switched on to check the iPhone coordinates when placing the caches, map and compass, which I never looked at, and a satellite tracker in case I had a problem. My iPhone was also running Memory-Map to keep a record of my track. It is very clear to me that the combination of iPhone, Cachly and an Anker charger, is all you need for the most remote and difficult walks, although map and compass backup is essential.
Once again I am pleased to say that there is demand for another Dartmoor Geocoin Race and you all seem keen to start it earlier this year. Many of you have already got your coins so as Easter is fast approaching I suggest we kick it off this weekend!
As in previous years, I don’t want a complicated set of rules and I am sure that everybody will play fair:
The same as last year, I am only going to count the number of miles travelled.
Please do not give coins to friends to take somewhere. All coins must be released into a cache to be picked up by anybody, not somebody known to you.
Only original Dartmoor 2016 coins can be used – no nasty proxies please!
Coins must start the race with zero mileage – if any mileage has already been recorded please delete those logs.
If you buy a second coin from me at a cheaper rate it MUST be entered in the race. A couple last year never got started which is not fair on others who paid the normal price for their coins.
Once again I will award 2017 Dartmoor Geocoins for the coins with the top 3 mileages.
Some things to consider which have been learnt from previous years:
You can get a really good start by placing your geocoin in a travel bug hotel. However, these could be more at risk than a normal cache. You also may want to avoid a cache & dash or place it in a PM only cache. However, after it has been retrieved you will have no control.
Take time to explain on the trackable page all about the race that it is in. Also include a photo of the geocoin (you can use my one if you wish). Also attach something to the coin itself explaining exactly what is expected of the finder. We have so many new cachers and many will not know what they should do when they find it.
Constantly track your coin and ensure that it is immediately logged when it is retrieved. Send emails to chase this up if it doesn’t happen quickly. Don’t let cachers forget they have it!
The geocoin will remain your property and you can set whatever goals you would like on the geocoin page. I would ask you NOT to remove the geocoin’s name but to add to it, e.g. it comes named as Dartmoor National Park 2016 Geocoin, so you could add Sue’s ….. to the front of it. That way everybody can still search for it and I can produce some race details.
If you haven’t already got a coin for the race please contact me by email at davidgmartin@me.com or add a comment below. If you have already bought one 2016 Dartmoor Geocoin I can supply a second one for only £9, but it must be entered in the race.
This little chap turned up at our event on New Year’s Day and Judy is convinced it reminds her of someone!
But what a day! For the third consecutive year we must have upset the weather gods for yet again it rained almost continually for the whole day. The photo right was taken by Graham as once again he negotiated flooded roads to get to us. Amazingly almost every single person who said they would attend did so.
As would be expected in such conditions the rain caused our Dartmoor rivers to be in spate and this photo by Mike Norton shows the East Dart at the famous Clapper Bridge, a couple of hundred yards from the hotel where we were holding the event.
From the 42 Will Attend logs we thought we may get about 80 people, but it would appear that we probably had over 90 (including our helpers)! What an amazing turnout. So, many, many thanks to everybody who braved the Dartmoor weather to get to Postbridge. Last year we struggled to serve 60 cream teas, but fortunately we had extra help this year and did manage to serve about 80 cream teas.
However, the most amazing aspect of the day was the unbelievable generosity of all those who attended. As you know I had set targets of raising £350 for the Devon Air Ambulance and £100 for the 2017 Devon Mega Event. Well, we blew them out of the water! Last year we raised a total of £337 – this year it was £553!!
Jason’s Cornish Cream Tea
The cream teas raised £233 and thanks once again to Caroline for selling the tickets, to all those who brought such a wonderful display of prizes and to everybody for buying the tickets – the raffle raised £225!
However, we were not finished. We then moved into Auction mode and after three preliminary auctions which raised £25, the highlight of the afternoon was a Blind Auction for an unknown box of caching goodies donated by our very kind and popular reviewer, Heather. We had agreed a reserve which I thought we may struggle to reach, but after starting it at £10 I was amazed to see it go up in £5 bids. I thought it had been sold at £50, but no, Andy had bid £55, but he was beaten by Bob who was clearly determined to win it for his wife Corinna.
I had already announced that all proceeds from the raffle would go to the DAAT together with two thirds of the cream tea money. The auctions were split according to the wishes of those donating the prizes and there was another donation of £10. The result is that the Devon Air Ambulance will receive £430 and the 2017 Devon Mega £123.
My last task is once again to thank everybody. Thanks for coming, thanks for being so generous in bringing raffle prizes, buying tickets and bidding in the auctions, thanks to my partner Judy, my sister Pat and her friend Ruth, to Sue (behind the bar) and her husband Mike (who did all the washing up) and to the Paul and Rosie landlords of the East Dart Hotel for allowing us to use the hotel whilst they were away on holiday – totally free of charge. In fact, once again there were no deductions and every penny taken (except over the bar) is included in those total amounts to be donated.
Once again we have organised an extra activity to coincide with our 2016 New Year Cream Tea Event which is being held on 1st January, 2016 at The East Dart Hotel, Postbridge. One more tor, but three less caches than last year, but a very similar format.
At about 8am on 1st January 8 new caches will be published on Dartmoor. These consist of two or three caches in each of 3 areas, plus the bonus cache. Of the 7 feeder caches, 6 are simple offset caches and the other one a very simple puzzle cache. Each of the 7 caches will contain bonus information for the bonus cache.
Three of the caches include a 2016 Dartmoor Geocoin as FTF Prizes
Yes, no fewer than 3 of the 8 caches have an unactivated geocoin as a FTF prize. I would ask that any caching group takes no more than 1 of these coins. Please do leave a second FTF geocoin to another group.
2016 Seven Tors Challenge Update As promised these are the tors that need to be visited: Rippon Tor – 1.4 miles (mainly paths – rest fairly easy) Laughter Tor/Bellever Tor – 3.2 miles (mainly paths – rest fairly easy) Rundlestone Tor/Hollow Tor/Foggintor – 2.9 miles (two thirds on paths, rest more difficult) Bonus cache – 0.4 miles(easy path) All distances round trips from and back to recommended parking. So a total of less than 8 miles with the majority on paths with many hints.
As last year, some of the caches will be listed on geocaching.com and some on opencaching.org.uk.
There is not a long list of rules, but please use ONLY ONE CAR for each group and do not swap bonus numbers with other groups.
So, how many are up for our Seven Tors Challenge? Please reply to this post to let us know if you will be taking part or to ask any questions.
Please note that you can participate in this activity without attending our New Year Cream Tea event and can attend the event without participating in this activity.
I am very pleased to announce that the 2016 Dartmoor Geocoins have arrived and as in previous years, they are stunning! I shall now be starting to ask for payment – details below.
As always the coins are very difficult to photograph – use normal room lighting and you get shadows from the camera, use a flash and the light reflects. This is my best effort so far, but I shall try again with natural light tomorrow.
I shall be working my way through the orders in the order I received them and sending out PayPal requests. I will require an email address, so if you know I don’t have yours please send it to me using an email to davidgmartin@me.com. If you have bought one previously or have signed up to this web site, I will have it already.
If you have only ordered one coin but would like an additional coin to enter the 2016 Dartmoor Geocoin Race, I can provide one for only an additional £9 – but it MUST be entered in the race, when that is announced.
If you haven’t already ordered a coin, they cost £15 for one, £28 for two or £24 for two if one of them is going to enter the race. These prices include £2 p&p.
As promised £100 will be donated to the Devon Mega Fund, plus an additional £10 for 3 orders placed with the Black Friday offer
If you have any questions please leave a reply below or reply on the Dartmoor Geocaching facebook page: Dartmoor Geocaching
Many, many thanks to all who have supported the Dartmoor Geocoins this year.
Have you joined the Dartmoor Geocaching Facebook group?
Please click here to join: Dartmoor Geocaching
Please note that you can click on any of the photos to see them enlarged.
The Dart’moor’s Double Dozen series is placed around the East Dart from Postbridge to the East Dart waterfall and back. Although almost all the caches are intact there were questions marks over several others around the route – so time for some more maintenance! But the first objective was the recent Finder-Man cache near the William Donaghy Memorial stone – not too difficult despite the gorse
For me, the most impressive structure on Dartmoor is shown on the map as The Sheepfold, although clearly it’s high walls indicate that that was not it’s original purpose. Evidently it was built as a Starch Factory by John and Thomas Hullett at the start of the 19th century but seems to have been another ill-conceived Dartmoor business which soon failed. I was brought back to this area to check on The Starch Factory cache which had indeed gone missing and is now replaced.
Not far from the Sheepfold is the Beehive Hut, another very impressive Dartmoor structure. Beehive huts such as this one were used by tinners and stone cutters to store their tools and also as a small shelter from the elements. My adopted cache, Beehive Hut, has caused many problems and once again it had appeared to go missing when a found log was recorded. For some reason the cache had disappeared from its proper hiding place and had been found on the open moor a few yards away. Fortunately I quickly spotted this and returned it once more to its rightful place.
My main concern for the day was the state of the streams and rivers. The normally innocuous little stream that runs near the Beehive Hut and feeds the East Dart looked far too difficult to cross at that point so I followed it down to the stepping stones and managed to cross there. However, the next cache to be checked was the one on the East Dart Island and there I decided that the East Dart was far too dangerous to be crossed at that point, so unfortunately I was not able to check this cache out. This cache has never gone missing and I very much doubt if it has gone missing now
Three more caches were checked on my way to the East Dart Waterfall, and despite several DNFs on two of them, all three were exactly where they should have been. Having seen the state of the East Dart I was getting extremely worried as to whether I would be able to cross it safely at the waterfall. If I couldn’t not only would it mean a longer walk back, but I wouldn’t be unable to check the caches on the other side of the river. This was the river near the Dart’moor’s Double Dozen 12 cache!
It doesn’t look to bad from this distance
It wasn’t immediately obvious whether it would be safe or not to cross the East Dart at the waterfall, but it was certainly going to be challenging!
From a distance the challenge didn’t look too bad, but it was a lot more worrying the closer you got
This was the challenge – close up!Right in the middle – no turning back now!
I have to say that this was the most difficult crossing I’ve had at the waterfall. The water levels were high, the river running very fast, the rocks were wet and very slippery. I was very aware that one false step could see me swept over the edge, so I proceeded very cautiously – much of the time keeping a three point contact with whatever I could reach!
Well, I made it to the other side and was very relieved to have done so. My adopted cache, Near the Waterfall, had gone, so was replaced. Never Say Never 6 had also gone, so another replacement. I made my way back down to the East Dart as I knew that DDD17 had gone, so once again a replacement!
In total my maintenance walk was just under 7 miles. I found one new cache, visited 14 of my caches, of which 4 were replaced, 3 received new logs, 1 was moved and the other 6 required no action at all. All in all another great day on Dartmoor
