How to Hide a Cow Omelet
Whether you're planning your first hide or already have several in the series,
this page covers everything you need to know to create, place and promote your own Cow Omelet.
Our aim is to keep the series fun, creative and open to everyone while preserving the original idea.
1. NAMING YOUR COW OMELET
Every Cow Omelet Starts with an Anagram!
Take the name of a town, village or city and rearrange its letters to create a new name.
The funnier or more unusual, the better!
To keep the series recognisable, we suggest using this format:
Cow Omelet: Your Anagram
Examples:
-
Cow Omelet: Bath Rugs (Tasburgh)
-
Cow Omelet: Bat Con (Bacton)
-
Cow Omelet: Can Bot (Bacton)
-
Cow Omelet: An Honest Poo! (Hopton-on-Sea)
Your anagram must use exactly the same letters as the original location.
No adding letters, leaving letters out or changing letters to make a name fit.
Spaces, punctuation and capitalisation can be changed.
Remember, COW OMELET is itself an anagram of WELCOME TO!
2. WHERE SHOULD A COW OMELET BE PLACED?
The original idea is to welcome geocachers to a town or village.
Wherever possible, place your cache close to a genuine "Welcome To" sign, or recognised Village entrance sign.
Ideally, the sign should be visible from the cache location, creating a clear connection
between the cache, and the place being welcomed.
What if the ideal location isn't suitable?
Existing caches, suitable hiding places, landowner permissions and safety considerations
can affect where you hide your cache.
If a suitable spot cannot be found beside the sign, a little further into the town or village may be reasonable.
Where possible, stay along the same approach road and keep the original sign visible.
The important thing is to maintain a genuine connection to the welcome sign or entrance.
Can a location have more than one Cow Omelet?
Absolutely! Some towns and villages have several welcome signs marking different entrances.
Caister-on-Sea in Norfolk, for example, has several signs welcoming visitors from different directions.
Some locations can also produce multiple anagrams.
BACTON, for example, can become BAT CON or CAN BOT.
Where possible, use different anagrams for multiple caches around the same location.
There is no need to number them let each cache have its own identity.
3. GIVE YOUR COW OMELET SOME PERSONALITY!
We'd love every Cow Omelet to have its own artwork on the cache page.
A ridiculous anagram deserves an equally ridiculous picture!
You don't need to be an artist, and you don't have to use AI.
You can draw your own picture, use design software or try an AI image generator such as ChatGPT.
Step 1 — Find your anagram
For example, TASBURGH becomes BATH RUGS.
Imagine a cow enjoying a luxurious bubble bath, surrounded by fluffy bath mats and rubber ducks.
Or perhaps a cow attending a bat convention!
The more imaginative, the better.
Step 2 — Create your artwork
Describe your idea to your chosen image generator or create it using your preferred drawing tools.
Experiment with different ideas until you have something you like.
Try this ready made prompt
Copy the prompt below into an AI generator and replace the details in square brackets.
IMAGE PROMPT
Create a colourful, highly detailed, funny cartoon illustration for a UK geocaching series called Cow Omelet.
The cache is called "[YOUR ANAGRAM]" and is based on the town or village of "[YOUR LOCATION]".
Feature one funny black-and-white cow acting out the meaning of the anagram.
Make the scene imaginative, humorous and slightly ridiculous.
Include a large rustic wooden sign displaying "COW OMELET", with the cache name "[YOUR ANAGRAM]" underneath.
Work a geocaching container, GPS or other geocaching equipment into the scene.
Include an omelettte somewhere in the picture as a nod to the series name.
Use bright colours, detailed scenery and a fun, polished storybook-cartoon style, with plenty of amusing details to discover.
Step 3 — Add it to your cache page
Save your finished image and upload it to your Geocaching cache listing.
Your artwork can give your Cow Omelet its own personality and make the listing more memorable.
Don't just give your Cow Omelet a name — give it some personality!
4. THE COCO TOOLKIT
Cow Omelet Cache Owners
Welcome to COCO — Cow Omelet Cache Owners!
Whether you've hidden one Cow Omelet or several, you're helping this wonderfully daft series grow across the country.
We've put together useful resources to help owners promote the series and encourage others to get involved.
Spread the word
We'd love cache owners to include a link to this website in their cache descriptions. Not everyone who finds a Cow Omelet will know there's a whole series behind it.
Feel free to copy the following wording into your listing:
Part of the Cow Omelet Series!
Visit the Cow Omelet website to discover how to place your own Cow Omelet, explore the series, view statistics and find profile badges.
https://cowomeletseries.wixsite.com/home
You can use this wording as it is or adapt it to suit your listing.
A ready-made HTML version has been provided below for owners who prefer to use the source editor in their Geocaching listing.
<hr>
<div style="text-align:center;">
<h3>Part of the Cow Omelet Series!</h3>
<p>
Visit the Cow Omelet website to discover how to
place your own Cow Omelet, explore the series,
view statistics and find profile badges.
</p>
<p>
<a href="https://cowomeletseries.wixsite.com/home">
<strong>Visit the Cow Omelet Series Website</strong>
</a>
</p>
</div>
<hr>
Series statistics
Curious to see how the series is growing?
Explore the Leader boards and Map section of this website to see the available information and total of caches in the collection.
Profile badges
Proud to be part of the series? Why not add a Cow Omelet badge to your Geocaching profile?
Visit the profile badges section to see what's available.
KEEPING THE SERIES OPEN TO EVERYONE
The Cow Omelet Series has grown thanks to the enthusiasm and creativity of geocachers across the country.
We'd like that to continue.
There are no numbered caches, no allocated locations and no requirement to seek approval from the people maintaining this website.
We're not here to introduce unnecessary restrictions.
This guidance is simply intended to preserve the original idea while allowing everyone to contribute.
All caches must comply with the usual Geocaching guidelines, including obtaining any necessary permissions.
The aim is simple, welcome geocachers to somewhere new, encourage creativity and have fun!
HAPPY CACHING!
Thank you to everyone who has placed, found or supported a Cow Omelet.
Find a welcome sign, get those thinking caps on, create an anagram and see what wonderful nonsense you can come up with.
Where will your next Cow Omelet take you?
