Objectives
At the turn of the year I was party to several facebook discussions on the subject of what targets people were setting for their caching during 2017. I generally don’t make plans, because I tend to cache opportunistically and have learned to be driven by whims rather than plans, but the discussion got me thinking. So here is my 2017 Caching Diary. Instead of making formal plans I’ve decided this year to just try to pick away at a number of different objectives, continuing last year’s theme of just enjoying my caching. There’s a number of things I’d like to work on, these being:
- Get my total finds up towards 10,000;
- Finish off some more English counties, and maybe the remaining Welsh ones if schedules allow;
- Colour in a few more slots on the Difficulty/Terrain Matrix;
- Attend one or maybe two overseas mega events, especially the GeoNord 2017 – Oxygen event in June;
- Attend the UK Mega in Devon (Devon UK Mega 2017), if holiday schedules allow.
Highlights
Key highlights of my geocaching year, in no particular order, were:
- My second Geonord event, held in July in Saint Omer.
- A trip to Belgium and France with Ami in April to attend the Brugse Beer Mega Event
- A family holiday near Barcelona.
- A mad dash down to Kent for a mega event.
- A long weekend in North Yorkshire with “the lads”.
Monthly Statistics
So here’s a monthly summary of cache finds:
- January – 66 finds
- February – 114 finds
- March – 102 finds
- April – 463 finds
- May – 2 finds
- June – 159 finds
- July – 137 finds
- August – 159 finds
- September – 86 finds
- October – 129 finds
- November – 68 finds
- December – 75 finds
Summary
So there we have it, my 2017 Caching Diary. So what did I actually achieve:
- A total of 1,560 finds, made on 63 different days
- Sixteen days ticked off my Shifty Fifty Challenge
- Three days with over 100 finds and 10 days with more than 50
- No new countries.
- A new record for most finds in a single calendar month – 463 in April
- 3 mega events, of which 2 were overseas
- A bunch of new entries filled in on the D/T matrix
- A visit to the English counties of Essex and Suffolk (at last)
- I attended my 100th event cache, counting all types such as regular events, megas, gigas and CITOs
A decent year by most reckonings.
