Dan Q

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More than you expected?

You're reading everything on my blog - including, among other things:

  • Image notes (short, "Tweet-like" messages),
  • Image reposts (links to other people's work, sometimes with commentary),
  • Image checkins (records of places I've visited, often while geo*ing), and
  • Image videos ("vloggy" content).

That might be more than you wanted to see, if you're only interested in Image articles (traditional long-form blog posts). Click a link to filter.

Casa Ventola

This week, I’m living in a villa on a vineyard about 9km North of Tarragona, on the East coast of Spain.

Under nearly-cloudless skies and surrounded by trees and olive and grape-laden slopes, a stone villa and its outbuildings sit prominently under the bright sun.
Gotta say, it’s a pretty place to walk the grounds of.

A large part of our choice of location for this trip was, of course, the total solar eclipse that’s expected this evening, whose path of totality just barely passes over this spot before disappearing somewhere over the Mediterranean.

A red and orange sunset with beams reaching up over the hilly horizon of climatically- Mediterranean farmlands.
We tested by watching a couple of sunsets that, at the time of day the eclipse will occur, the sun will still be visible over the horizon.1

26 years ago, almost to the day, I blogged about witnessing the 1999 solar eclipse from Paris, where we were fortunate enough that Europe’s cloudy conditions on that day broke just in time for a midday totality and a proper “diamond ring” occlusion. I’m not confident I’ll ever see an eclipse quite so spectacular again in my lifetime, but I’m hopeful!

Obviously the eclipse is a primary deciding factor in our location this summer, but this family holiday’s about more than just seeing the sun vanish and hoping that it comes back out again.

A freshwater turtle swims close to the rocky shore of a blue-green lake, peeping its head above the water.
For example, we’ve also braved the August heat for a variety of outings around the area, such as to the beautiful botanic gardens of Parc Samà where we met this curious little turtle.

I’ve been out geocaching a lot on the mornings, for example, as is my way when visiting any foreign country! I’ve enjoyed taking advantage of being a naturally earlier-riser than most of my family, coupled with the cooler morning temperatures, to explore the hills and forests of this region. And look: I found my thousandth ever geocache!2

The one downside3 of our accommodation is the lack of connectivity. There’s no wired Internet here, and the hilly location and stone walls make acquiring a reasonable cellular signal… challenging.

Dan, a white man with a short 'goatee' beard and a blue ponytail, sits in the drivers' seat of a left-hand drive car with a laptop perched between his belly and the steering wheel, giving a sarcastic grin to the camera.
To look into a Three Rings issue this morning, I first needed to drive down the hill and around the valley a short way to get line-of-sight to a cellular tower, in order to get more than one bar of 5G signal and tether myself a reasonable Internet connection!

Anyway: it’s beautiful and bright (and scorchingly hot!) out here, and I’ve got my fingers crossed for clear skies in eight hours’ time. Here’s hoping!

Footnotes

1 Without clouds in the way, the prettiest pictures of sunsets occurs just after this point, of course. I’ve spared you seeing a photo of an unoccluded sun, which – depending on the brightness fidelity of your screen – you’d possibly need to wear special shades to look at anyway?

2 I know, I know: I’ve been geocaching for sixteen years – I “should” have found more than that by now. Well, I’m pretty laid-back about the sport, and often only target caches with a reasonable number of positive reviews or that are otherwise interesting to me. I’m not so-interested in making the “number go up” as I am in exploring interesting places and seeing cool things.

3 Or is it an upside? It’s certainly keeping my focus on the world around me and away from screens!

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Article posted at UTC on .

1 mention

Dan Q did not find GC65QKN Benvinguts a Mas vilet dels pins

This checkin to GC65QKN Benvinguts a Mas vilet dels pins reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

I spent a while looking at the obvious host, then checked the hint and moved to a series of alternate candidates. It’s probably there, but not somewhere I could find! Eventually I felt too hot and too visible to passers-by and decided to quit. Maybe another time!

Dan Q found GC8ZYPV AMAGATALL MAS CARGOL – Camps

This checkin to GC8ZYPV AMAGATALL MAS CARGOL - Camps reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

I’ve been doing what remains of the Ruta Pels Volants del Mars De Salort series of took a diversion to find this cache. The impressive host didn’t need a hint – she’s pretty easy to find!

The cache container is absolutely excellent. Amazing camouflage! It’s a shame this is my 1001st find and not my 1000th because I’d have loved to make this great container my milestone! FP awarded.

Dan waves in a bright forest.

Signed log and returned to its hiding place. TFTC/GPA, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK!

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Dan Q found GC6QV1F #17 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT

This checkin to GC6QV1F #17 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A quick and easy find in a now-familiar hide and container format.

And while perhaps not as memorable as my walk through the abandoned olive groves to find the damaged cache GC6QTTM therein, this find was memorable fire a different reason: it’s my 1000th cache found!1

Dan with his arms raised in celebration, alongside the superimposed words '1000th find'.

Struck a pose for a victory selfie to celebrate. FP awarded for the memories.

Footnotes

1 GCCOM might disagree with because it won’t count my finds on other geocaching platforms, but my record at danq.me/geo/stats is canonical.

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Dan Q found GC6QTTM #5 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT

This checkin to GC6QTTM #5 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

It’s increasingly looking like this series might be in need of some love and attention. With numbers 3 and 4 completely absent and a nearly two year gap since 5 was last logged – coupled with my bad luck so far this morning – I wasn’t optimistic of a find here.

I enjoyed the walk, though. This long-abandoned, now feral, olive grove is tranquil and calm. And when I got to the GZ, I was delighted to see the “top” of a cache container, exactly matching one seen elsewhere in the logs, protruding from under a rock. Hurrah!

A bottle top style lid, with Dan's name written in it, sits alongside some plastic shards on top of a rock.

Unfortunately, that’s almost all that’s left of the container. I collected it up onto its host rock, along with several shards of what were once its body: a sort-of memorial to itself. Then I wrote the date and my name on the inside of the lid, declared this the closest possible thing to a “find”, under the circumstances, and left my little shrine alone. Will it ever be found again? I don’t know.

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Dan Q did not find GC6QQXW #1 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT

This checkin to GC6QQXW #1 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A disappointing start to this morning’s walk. There’s an obvious host that I spent some your poking under without success, after which I turned to the trees to see if they could help. But no luck for me. Maybe on my way back to the car, time-permitting!

Dan Q found GC9D4V6 29# CAMINS DE MONTBRIÓ (PARC SAMA)

This checkin to GC9D4V6 29# CAMINS DE MONTBRIÓ (PARC SAMA) reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A quick find after a visit to the gardens with my family. Sneaky container: I like it. We’d accidentally parked the car almost next to the cache! Greetings from Oxfordshire, UK, and TFTC/GLA!

Dan Q found GC6QTWA #13 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT

This checkin to GC6QTWA #13 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Finding the cache was easy. Reaching around to pull it from its hiding place was harder! But soon I had it in hand. This has been a lovely morning walk.

Now I should have some breakfast and make my lazy children get out of bed!

TFTC/GLA. FP for the series in general (as experienced so far). And once more: greetings from Oxfordshire, UK!

Dan Q found GC6QV11 #15 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT

This checkin to GC6QV11 #15 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

I was glad if the shade provided by the trees along this delightful footpath. Working up a bit of a sweat out here! Had to break from the footpath and kick through some undergrowth to reach the GZ this time, but the coordinates were spot on and I soon had the cache in hand.

Logbook has been soaked but then dried out and is… crispy! Hard to write on! Might benefit from fresh paper!

TFTC/GPA, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK!

Dan, sweating, on a forest trail.

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Dan Q found GC6QTVF #9 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT

This checkin to GC6QTVF #9 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A quick and easy find once I spotted a likely hiding place. Starting to feel like I should have had breakfast before I set off! TFTC/GPA, and greetings from Oxfordshire, UK.

Dan Q found GC6QTVM #10 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT

This checkin to GC6QTVM #10 RUTA PELS VOLTANTS DEL MAS DE SALORT reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

My family and I are on holiday staying nearby. I came out this morning to explore and try to find a couple of local geocaches while the children were still asleep. This was the first.

I needed to walk around the GZ a few times before I saw the cache, with its vantage point over this beautiful valley. Then it was time for a quick scramble up the tree to retrieve it.

Signed log and returned to its hiding place. TFTC/GPA; greetings from the UK!

Dan points towards some bushes.
It’s over there somewhere.
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