Cranendonck

Today we went for a couple of caches in the area Cranendonck. The first was (GCX8P7 - 't Landschapspark), a multi cache in the neighbourhood of Cranendonck Castle.

It was a walk that lead us through forest and meadow area.

Brego busy with a stick or it more likely a small tree.

We passed by a police dog training club and Toby had to take a look, we joked that he wanted to become a police dog, but that he would fail the gun-test because he doesn't like the sound of a gun.

At one point we visited a garden where a beekeeper club is showing bee-related stuff to visitors.

In this garden an insect wall is created, in which wasps sleep and nestle.

And at the end the reward of finding the cache. We logged it at 15:00 as our number 90. Inside we discovered a travel express coin which we didn't take because we could not contribute to its goal.

After this nice walk we had some time left for two shorties.
The first one involved a 1 Km walk in beautiful moorland (GCTT22 - TB1:De Kraanvogel), the first of a series of 5 caches about birds with a sixth bonus cache.

In this area big cattle is walking around, we could spot the droppings but we didn't spot the cattle itself.

We discovered the cache that was hidden in a bird-cage that was locked, and we had to find the combination of the lock. We logged this one at 15:45.

And the last cache of the day was a traditional (GC1E64A - 888 The number of MADpalace en de schattige zoeker) that was a wedding present for a cache couple that married August 8, 2008 (08-08-08). It took a while to find the cache, until one of us walk around and noticed the sound of walking on top of the cache-hide. We logged it at 16:45, time to go home.

Gnome Forest

With or niece and nephew we went for a cache in a Gnome Forest (GC1DCKD - POK - Hoogeloon). A short walk in a forest where we had to answer questions about gnome's.
The trip started at a chapel in Hoogeloon.

In front of the chapel was a chain with pins, rather fiery looking.

Here's a picture of Maria to whom the chapel is named.

At the chapel location we he had to find a couple of things that resulted in three numbers. With this numbers we could calculate the coordinates of the first way-point in the forest.
Here the team is in front of one of the information signs, present in the forest.

We had to find information and had to answer a couple of questions about gnomes.

And at the end we were able to find the micro that contained the logbook. We logged at 15:15 (#89)

Steensels Gang of Robbers

Our niece and nephew are staying at us for the weekend, and they wanted to go on a treasure hunt with us. We picked out a cache with an exciting story of a gang of robbers near the village Steensel (GC162Q8 - Bende van Steensel).
This week it snowed a lot so we were not certain that we would be able to find any of the waypoints, but we wanted to take a shot and see how far we could get.
This is the whole team except me at the beginning of the hunt, near the parking.

We had to find waypoints, where a little bucket was hidden which contained a paper that told a little bit more about the hunt and what we had to do next.

Sometimes we had to solve a little puzzle or something else.

The dogs also enjoyed the trip, because of the snow, and the cold sunny weather.
Here you can see Brego.

And here is Toby.

Here Mila is holding a box that we had to unlock.

The bears lead the way.

We had to walk through forest, and with the snow everywhere this gave beautiful pictures.

With the sun out there again a very nice environment to walk in.

Almost at the cache we got a clue that we were right, because the location was a little bit strange.

The cache-box, we logged at 15:30 as our number 88.

Tommy and Mila happy with their just discovered treasures.

Inside the cache box we found three coins that we exchanged with the two coins and one TB that we brought with us.
Next two of the coins we discovered.


And with this cache we earned the next banner:

Our own Trackable Items

Today we finally received a package from Germany that contained our very first own geocoins and dog tags.
We are now the proud owners of the following trackable items:

SchocoBearsFirst
Geocaching - All in One 2008, with team-name engraving
Foggy Silver


Lord Brego
The Lord of the Caches, EARTH Geocoin
Black Nickel


Tobold Style
Geocacher's Day Geocoin, Black Nickel


SchoCo's Fun Adventures
A Cache A Day Geocoin, Black Nickel


SchocoBears Lucky Black Sheep
Dog Tag.


Dogs or Bears?
Dog Tag.


Beside these we also are the owners of two travel express coins that we have to chain to something interesting, we don't know yet with what. So no photo's of those yet.

Saturday Caching

Today we had to cheer for a bearded collie agility team in Best. Before the boys needed their walk and since a new cache (GC1K37J - Valkenswaard Zuid) is hidden 1 KM of our home we decided to combine the two.
Very familiar this area, since we walk here very often with the dogs.
Today a horse thought we were very interesting and came over to us.

We discovered the cache-box at 13:15.

Inside the box we found two coins that we took and we left two TB's in their place.

Then we went for our agility cheering, and after that we had time to pickup a cache in that neighbourhood as well (GC166E2 - Rontelum Skon Orskot 3), for this cache we first had to visit a Chapel where we could find answers to some questions.

With the answers we had to calculate the cache location and we were able to discover this one at 16:00 as our 87th cache.

Content Menneke

We are following a pair of TB's that are needed for calculation of the begin coordinates of a cache. One of these was put in a cache not to far from our home, but we were on holiday so we couldn't get it. Today we returned and we decided to give it a go since the TB was still in the cache. The cache (GC12PC5 - Jasper's verjaardag) itself was a short multi that brought us to the forest in the border area of the Netherlands and Belgium, near where we live.

This is one of the many border poles in this area.

Part of the cache was another pole, and a horrific story about a high voltage wire that the Germans put between the Netherlands and Belgium during world war I.

We logged the cache at 15:15 and inside the box, we found another TB besides the one we came specially for. It was a bug and since we brought a bug from Germany we decided to exchange the two.

And here a picture of the TB we wanted to find.

Happy New Year

For the first day of the year 2009 we decided to take our bikes and ride to a castle only about 4 Km from our camping site. We could combine four caches on this short trip.

The first one we discovered was a mystery cache (GC1J176 - Geonopoly - Schlossallee), it was near the start of the multi-cache we planned to do. We logged this one at 14:00.

We went for a short multi-cache (GCPJDP - Moylands letztes Schlossgespenst), we had to find a little ghost (translation for gespenst).
Here are the boys with the castle on the back.

The G-x marks the spot.

Here's the ghost uncovered together with our team mascot.

The third cache was hidden on a cemetery very nearby as well, we did a quick check but couldn't find it so we decided not to search further because we don't like the idea of snooping around graves. It's just not our thing.
So we rode back to another cache that was exactly on the road we had to take (GC1D323 - Katharinas Känguru). It is of type mystery cache, normally you have to solve a puzzle at home and in this way find the coordinates of the cache. In this case it was more a short multi cache, first we had to visit a honorary statue for fallen soldiers during the first and second world war.
Here we had to figure out a couple of questions and with the answers the coordinates of the final cache could be calculated.

Then in the cache-box a puzzle was hidden that we had to solve and we had to mail the prove to the cache-owner.

We found the cache-box and logged this one at 15:45.

Inside we discovered a TB that we exchanged with one of the TB's on our possession, here' the bug together with our mascot.

Making our total of caches like this: