Não são todos os geocachers que têm caches em homenagem... Mas afinal é o Special One...
I got the idea for this cache from a recent trip to Lisbon, where we were in our motorhome in the Monsanto Campsite, and one of the nearest caches was Prodrive Top 50 / #2000 a cache placed to commemorate his #2000 cache.
This was one of my most memorable caches - but probably for the wrong reasons as you can read in my log!
His cache has now been archived, but now Portugal's most prolific and active Geocacher is nearing #4000, and I thought in recognition of his achievement and his assistance to myself and Myriam in our less spectacular Geocaching efforts, it would be appropriate to dedicate a cache that he might approve in the Algarve.
Fiquei curioso com a referência à Top 50 / #2000 e fui ver a história que é realmente engraçada, entre "bird's hunters", "kill chickens and perform voodoo" e ramos enfiados nos olhos...
Part 1:-
Finally got to this cache late on Sunday evening, having renewed our acquaintance with the owner, ProDrive and ProDrive Junior at the Geochurrascada event, the previous day. We were camping at the Municipal site in Monsanto and just had to do this cache which commemorated a worthy milestone in the owners geocaching exploits. Not only having at that time achieved the 2000 finds,(now well over 3000) but also having had the time to compile a Top 50 list, and stimulate our interest in visiting some of these in future, as sadly we have only done a few, but were very pleased to have one of our own at No. 15!
This cache encourages us to share our own notable cache experiences, and having done it, I must say that this will always be one of the most memorable caches we have ever done, if only not all for the right reasons!!
We actually found it on the 3rd expedition, the first abandoned because of failing light on the 18th, after doing some other nearby caches. The second we were on our way to Geochurrascada on 19th, and had been picked up by Manchanegra, and again went into the forest, this time by car, but having redone the previous days' caches with him, we were again short of time and left it for another day.
Part 2 : The 'Found' Log:
On the 3rd occasion we arrived back at the campsite after a long hot day in Lisbon, and decided to try and find it from the lower road behind the campsite. This was moderately successful, but there were no easy paths up the hill from the jogging track, and the distance on the GPS started increasing as we passed below it. We then saw a steep, almost 50% bank going up, where it looked like youngsters had been sliding down, so we struggled up to the top and found a reasonable path heading in approximately the right direction. We eventually reached some more narrow paths, and as we neared the location, which we thought was in a very quiet, remote part of the hillside, a young couple came towards us from the woods - no GPS in hand. After they had gone, we found the cache which was fairly obvious, under a conspicuous (to geocachers) pile of bark and branches. We moved away to write the logs, when another person approached through the bushes and passed going downhill about 15 metres away! Getting busy!!
Then, right on the path an older man appeared with a younger barechested man behind him, and greeted us and started to explain that he was trying to trap songbirds. As he wasn't carrying anything this seemed strange, and the younger man looked very awkward! The younger man then started looking in the pile of branches where the cache had been, but neither had a GPS, so we thought it was lucky we had it in our hand. While we were there another young couple came along the path where Myriam was talking to the men, stopped and listened to what was being said, looked towards the cache location then turned round and moved away. They had no GPS in their hands either!
The two 'bird hunters' moved on and we wrote our log, and were just about to replace the cache when they appeared again. The older one then started a weird explanation about some people in the area coming here to kill chickens and perform voodoo, so we made our excuses and headed off in a circle, hoping they would go away. After 5 minutes we came back and found them in the same place.
We realised that as it was getting darker, we didn't want to wait to replace the cache where they were already suspicious, so we called the owner and explained, and he kindly gave us permission to drop the cache at another location and send him the new coords.
We quickly found a suitable spot, nothing special, but as I was bending down to put the cache under a rock, I felt a sharp pain in my eye, as a thorn from the bush had gone up behind my glasses, and scratched my eyeball. Lots of profanity and pain, but eventually I navigated back down the hill with one eye!!
Later with no improvement we went ot the Emergency department of a Public Hospital, and had some ineffective treatment, so the next morning, still suffering and not having slept, I decided to use my geocaching knowledge, and contacted Prodrive, (well he is the owner of the cache!!) to take advantage of his local knowledge of Lisbon and to see if he could recommend a good opthalmologist. He couldn't have been more helpful, and within an hour he had arranged an appointment for me at one of Portugal's top Ophthalmologists. The doctor was excellent, and soon had me sorted, and if anyone needs a similar recommendation for an eye doctor, then please contact me for the details!
Thanks to Prodrive for the memorable cache, and even more for the help and sympathy with my subsequent plight. That is what geocaching is about - meeting and making friends with others with similar interest all over the world. I will never forget this cache, and also - a personal record - this is the longest cache log I have ever written and the first time I have had to edit into two parts to avoid the 4000 character limit!!
e uma cache homenagem, cujo FTF é feito pelo homenageado, passado uma semana ainda tem mais que se diga
February 14, 2010 by prodrive
14H30M
#4010
Não poderíamos desperdiçar a primeira oportunidade para vir procurar e agradecer este inesperado e agradável tributo do Paul e da Myriam do Team Caracache. O ainda mais inesperado FTF a 200 kilómetros de casa foi a cereja no topo do bolo 
.
Assim que a cache foi publicada, o SUp3rFM fez questão de me notificar pessoalmente. Fiquei boquiaberto a olhar para o listing. Os owners não me tinham prevenido das suas intenções e a surpresa foi total.
Foi mesmo uma cache à nossa imagem, sem truques nem gaitinhas, num magnífico cenário que proporcionou um delicioso passeio nas escarpadas falésias da Praia do Camilo. Já o puzzle era dispensável 
. Valeu-me a ajuda do João do Team Hulkman que em menos de 3 minutos já o tinha solucionado 
.
Foi uma honra e um enorme privilégio ter sido homenageado com uma cache deste calibre numa zona tão bela do nosso país.
São estes pequenos gestos que aprofundam a nossa paixão por esta actividade e pelos Geocachers que fomos conhecendo ao longo da nossa jornada. TFTC.
Team Prodrive
IN - Nada
OUT - Cybil Symbol Geocoin
