Wise_Old__Wizard

I'm new to geocaching (started last month) and am hoping to attend a local geocaching event mid-August to meet other cachers. But I'm not sure if I should be bringing anything, like pathtags to swap etc. As I'm new I don't have anything like that yet, so was hoping I can get away with baking some muffins and bringing them along to share, LOL! Any tips on attending my first event would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

There are also a lot of cachers that go out caching every day in order to maintain their find a cache a day streak. I would imagine that it they didn't do that they'd save enough money on gas for a bit of travel. For someone living in Europe it's relatively easy to travel to three continents and with 44 countries it's a lot easier to do find caches in N countries in Europe than someone in the U.S. I suspect that I would have to drive further to find 10 virtuals here than driving to 6 countries in Europe. I'm not rich by any means but I've found caches in 10 countries in Europe (24 total on 4 continents) but not while on holiday. I'm paid to travel for work and I believe that I've *earned* that benefit. Would be fine if you live in Europe, but try living in Australia - it's a long way from anywhere!

Thanks everyone. Just got back from Canberra. It poured with rain, it snowed, it blew a gale and it was freezing!!! However I'm pleased to say I was not deterred, and I got to see several of the city's landmarks and log 16 cache finds in the two and a bit days I was there. Great fun! TFTCs Canberra!

Yep, that will be the first cache I head for. I think I'll work out a route to collect a few caches, and make sure it goes by a few of those key landmarks on the way.

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I like walking, and geocaching is a good excuse to do plenty of walking in my spare time. I will check out some of those attractions and check geocaching.com to see if there are any caches nearby.

I must say I tend to agree with Greyroamer. I don’t mind a clever hide, but I am more focussed on the travel aspect, and am much more inclined to seek out a small or medium cache, rather than a micro/nano. I agree that crawling under things and putting my fingers into arachnid homes searching for a needle in a haystack is not fun. I also get frustrated if I need to revisit the same place two or three times to find these tiny caches – mainly because I’m tracking over old ground and would rather be visiting new places. I also like to leave swappables, which is not possible with the nanos. So while I do hunt for nanos, I am much more inclined to seek out other size caches and will spend a lot longer looking for them when they are well hidden.

I’m travelling to Canberra in mid-July (2016) for a conference, staying at the Novotel (on Northbourne Avenue). I will only have one evening and one afternoon free, and would dearly love to spend that time seeing any must-see attractions and also geocaching. I won’t have a car, so will need to be on foot or take public transport. Before I start doing a heap of research, I thought I’d ask if anyone with a knowledge of Canberra might be willing to impart some wisdom and suggest a route or a few key areas to visit to maximise sight-seeing and cache hunting opportunities. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

I can relate, in that I'm a newbie to geocaching, but I really appreciate the free app to let me get a feel for this new hobby before I decide to pay for premium membership. It has allowed me to find 15 caches (to date) and I've been actively reading through the forums and help pages on geocaching.com to ensure I can find out everything I can. I found a geocoin the other day, so luckily from my research I knew what to do with it. I'm thinking about hiding my own cashe at some point, but will likely wait until I have premium membership and my personalised swag items arrive (tiny badges with my logo on them - much cheaper than pathtags or geocoins). Loving this new hobby which is getting me back out into the fresh air and bushwalking again, but I must say that the free app has been an essential stepping stone for me into geocaching.