[Rule Changes]

Don't focus on past rules unless your aim is to post NAs on all those caches you've seen elsewhere. Which would be a bit weird tbo. Focus on the current rules and place caches that adhere to those. Think of why of all places you'd want to place a cache in a business and bring people there. Why on a military base. Also keep in mind that some of those old caches that are against rules required full permission and backup plans for backup plans, and were not simply approved by the reviewer. Thinking of a few caches in tourist infos on airports for example.

[collecting countries]

I decided to forget about Russia and got a better idea: inching closer to Central Asia now with Georgia in late May and Armenia in early November. Lets see if Azerbaijan is possible next year, or Saudi Arabia. So I guess there are still 4 new countries possible this year: Georgia and Albania, Estland and Slovenia

[collecting countries]

9 hours ago, funkymunkyzone said:

Yeah, I don't really recommend combining blizzards and popping out while in transit.  It was a bit silly.  I've also had plenty of in-transit cache dashes in fine (ish) weather - LAX, Oslo, Frankfurt, St Johns (rented a car and visited the most easterly north american cache), Houston.  I think the Frankfurt dash may have been my first visit to Germany, but I've been back a few times and collected all the states as well.

I so wish I could have done that when I had a stopover in Seattle. 4 hrs between planes and a EU passport with visa instead of an ESTA: not a good idea. Then the flight was delayed. Still not enough time. In the end I waited 9 *kitten* hours while I could have gotten into town. Argh!

[collecting countries]

17 hours ago, baer2006 said:

Yup, Central Europe is definitely the best starting point for getting lots of geocaching countries (which is why my current 19 are really not many), while @Goldenwattle's Australia must be the most difficult in that respect.

 

Anyway, I had a look at your impressive list of countries, and couldn't help noticing that you covered basically everything in Western and Central Europe ... except Switzerland. Just a coincidence, or do you have a personal grudge against the Swiss ?

 

Oh, totally biased against Switzerland. They speak strangely. Seriously, I stood on the bridge between Liechtenstein and Switzerland, and the closest Swiss cache was so close. But I want to visit a country properly and not just grab a cache. So I'm still looking for an opportunity for this but I can't decide on what to do. Switzerland is not running away.

[collecting countries]

38 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

That more than my 16 countries, but I am hoping to improve that soon.

Yeah, but I'm sure every country is totally something special if it's a bit more difficult. I mean, I just jump into my car, drive to St. Malo in France, take the ferry to Jersey and have a new country. And that's a high effort thing for me in Europe.

[collecting countries]

Ethical discussion on collecting countries.

I realized a few days ago that it's still possible to visit Russia: Go to Gdansk, take bus to Kaliningrad. Well, it's not that simple. Depending on your home country you need an invitation, insurance and visa, or you need to actually talk to the Russian ambassador to get this visa. In some countries it's not possible anymore at all. But it would theoretically be possible here. How you actually get rouble for your stay is a completely different matter as creditcards might not work. But it's possible. On that note, there are buses from Austria to Ukraine. Just saying.

Discuss

[Is signing challenge caches ahead of time and logging them later to maintain a streak against the spirit of a streak challenge?]

13 hours ago, LimpingGabriel said:

Good to know. I appreciate the feedback.

 

I guess a follow-up question is - when does the challenge cache find count as "found"? Is it the exact day you start meeting the requirements, the day you sign it, or the day you log it?

I don't log ahead of fulfilling the challenge, thus for me what counts is the date that I fulfilled the challenge and found the cache.

[Wheel of Challenges]

On 3/21/2023 at 9:40 PM, barefootjeff said:

 

Is there anyone else feeling souvenir challenge burnout? A decade ago when I started in the game, there was one promotion a year that typically ran for a few weeks during the northern hemisphere summer. Then in 2018 there was Planetary Pursuit in March, Hidden Creatures in July and the You Might Be... ones during the remainder of that year. 2019 had Cache Carnival, Mystery at the Museum and Streak Week. Then in 2020 COVID hit and, in what seemed a sensible move at the time, the promotions became longer to allow for people going in and out of lockdown, with the almost endless Wonders series. Finally we ran out of Wonders, but almost immediately had six months of Reach the Peak and then a whole year of Signal's Labyrinth, which was the same as Reach the Peak (accumulating leaderboard points with a different points table each month) except with a different storyline.

 

Just when I was thinking it's nearly over, along comes the six-month Wheel of Challenges. Come on, HQ, COVID lockdowns are over so we don't need these extremely long promotions any more!

 I basically ignore them, and hide the souvenirs that might turn up. Simples.

[collecting countries]

5 hours ago, MNTA said:

 

This is one of my bucket list trips. 5000 miles round trip for me (Portland). The last 500 miles up and 500 miles down the Dempster Highway on gravel load. Amazing Scenery. Can't wait and totally jealous. Do share!

 

Need to find a crazy co-pilot and the time to do it. 

500 miles on gravel? Wow! I felt unsure about the 30 or so km of gravel towards Potters Pond. I can't even imagine 500 miles!

[collecting countries]

Also got North Macedonia on my cache map. I will certainly come back because this seems to be a very beautiful country with still a lot of things to see that i didn't have time for. Maybe summer vacation next year. I think I found 14 caches and walked probably close to 50km in these 3 days. First day was fine, second totally sore and could not really get up a single step. Third day: same. Yeah. Still had a lot of fun and saw lots of marvelous nature, and a huge collection of brutalist architecture buildings.

[collecting countries]

Cache country 58 is a fact with finding a cache in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. I don't think I'll actually get a lot of caches here as most seem to be missing, but it's not about the numbers. 1.5 more days here and then I'll hop onto a bus to North Macedonia.

[Is geocaching decreasing in popularity?]

I've not hidden a cache in quite a while. the reason: it's rather saturated everywhere I live. All the interesting spots already have a cache and I don't want to hide an urban micro for the sake of hiding an urban micro.

[collecting countries]

On 3/5/2023 at 11:50 PM, colleda said:

I'm more than a little envious that you can do these short trips to visit and collect countries. Not possible where I am. Good luck to you.

 

Thank you. I love Europe as a continent and love living in Europe. I just don''t understand why some people want to end freedom of movement and take their country out of the EU. Ok, this is getting a bit political now, but still. It's just so easy to travel around and visit lots of countries, eat lots of yummy food and explore other cultures and histories.

[collecting countries]

1 hour ago, ChrisA33 said:

If you enjoy hiking I'd recommend the rila seven lakes. Found a few caches there as well and it's a nice daytrip from Sofia and a beautiful area.

 

Oh yes, totally! I was considering it to be honest but I've managed to get seriously injured (involving jogging and a cyclist) and a proper hike might be a bit too much. I'll certainly be doing a day trip to Rila Monastery and the UNESCO enlisted church outside of Sofia. And i have a hotel next to a spa

Um.. I also might have booked a flight to Kutaisi in Georgia. I'll likely hire a driver for a day for cultural sites and canyons, take a minibus to another town with gondolas as public transport, and spend two nights in Tbilisi.

[collecting countries]

If someone just like this ticks off Bulgaria and North Macedonia I feel obliged to do the same. Booked a very spontaneous trip to Sofia at the end of March for three nights, then will take the evening bus to Skopje and spend 4 more nights there. Rubbish caches in Sofia? Oh well, then it'll be virtuals and ECs only. Plus I'm considering a hike, and maybe cache options will be better. Besides, I like to visit places, do sightseeing, eat interesting food, and caches are a plus.

[collecting countries]

8 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I found 56 caches there. That was all there were at the time. However there are now 15 more caches and 3 ALs there to find. Maybe I should have another visit .

 

You know we're enablers here. So yes, you should

If anyone hears my plea: please, please anyone place a non-military base cache in Erbil, Iraq. I really want to visit due to the history, but keep on putting it off because there's no cache there,

[collecting countries]

Countries traveled to but not cached:

Before caching: China, Jersey, Bermudas, Florida
Before caching, just driving through in a bus: Andorra
No cache: Kazakhstan
Not able to leave airport, and hence no cache yet: Azerbaijan, Washington

[Ways to get to APE and plaque]

I once was stuck at the airport in Seattle for many, many hours due to a problematic connecting flight, and my creditcard company having issues. No money, no idea when the flight would leave, no way of getting at least one of the Trifecta.

[collecting countries]

wow, so many nice new caching countries for all of you! Congratulations.

Me, I'm currently grounded. I tried flying from a sprint, and it didn't quite work out. so... um... I'm healing a fractured bone right now. Also had to cancel my after-Christmas Baltic Sea trip due to this. Had a very local (short walk from my home) event, and that's all.

[Dashboard not fully populating]

Nope, still not working. Hard refresh does nothing. Deleting all cookies with geocaching in the name neither.

[What bag do you use for caching?]

Depends totally on the situation. When out and about walking or cycling I usually use a super old and super light arc'teryx backpack. I often have it in my car as well. When going somewhere for a few nights or by plane I usually pack my big Anvanda backpack and leave the stuff I don't need during daytime in my accommodation. Otherwise... might just be a simple shoulder bag, something in my jacket pocket, or whatever. Really, totally depends on the situation.

[Injuries Or Accidents While Geocaching?]

1 hour ago, jaysonC said:

I've had minimal injuries so far but some near misses. Most notably, while heading up to GC43 - the oldest cache in Europe - I took a bit of a scenic (read: dodgy) route up to GZ, and fell several times with the rocks, leapt a wall and slipped, scratched up my hands and legs in the process, and then got stung by nettles as I got back down to the track. I'm lucky I didn't fall farther or hurt myself worse as the hill face was quite steep. 

When you mentioned gc43 I thought you'd come down from the top I scrambled up after doing this cache for a Wherigo. Don't recommend, especially not when the vegetation is higher than you.

[Injuries Or Accidents While Geocaching?]

Ah yes, I have a new one!

Rain, cycling around, stop for a cache which seems to be on a fence in the middle of a cattle grid (well, on both sides of it). I very carefully walk over, still slip because rain and cattle grid is a poor combination, somehow end up with one foot between bars and fall on my nose. And then realize that my foot went in, but would not go out. So took shoe off, squeezed foot out, squeezed shoes out, cursed thoroughly. Gave up on the cache. The bruises are amazing though!

[collecting countries]

Another province in the Netherlands finished.
(I'm still missing some 100 municipalities in total but 6 provinces are now complete and a further one nearly)

[Fully themed challenge caches]

I'm still hoping to see an EarthCache challenge with a geology-themed final.

What makes me grumpy are challenges that are difficult, I work for and succeed, and then there's a challenge cache with a totally unrelated tree climb/angling/other T5 or D5 stuff.