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me N u

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    National Trust Geocaching Days - Cornwall

    in United Kingdom and Ireland

    Posted

    Hello

     

    I just received an email from the National Trust. They are organising some 'Try Geocaching' events at Holywell, Cornwall on 11th April.

     

    If you can help with the 'teaching/guidance' please contact Tom at 07891688165 or 01208 863821 or by email Tom.Sparkes@nationaltrust.org.uk.

     

    Also, if anyone has any GPSr handsets that could be borrowed for the event, it would be greatly appreciated.

     

    Thanks Ellie (Mrs me N u) :smile:

    Kuwaiti Caches

    in Arabian Peninsula

    Posted

    I know there is nothing we can do about it, but it was very frustrating for us when we visited Kuwait and out of 80 something caches listed, only about 10 were accessible to locals.

     

    It always seems strange to us that a member of the military transiting through Kuwait (or anywhere similar)and not actually "setting foot in the country" can find a cache and get Kuwait etc. added to their stats, but a resident of the country is unable to visit that same cache location!

    First day of the week

    in Website

    Posted

    We have lived in Saudi Arabia where the weekend is Thursday and Friday, making Saturday the 1st day of the week, but neighbouring countries (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, U.A.E. and Oman) have Friday and Saturday as their weekends so then Sunday is the 1st day of the week! In our mind there is no "one size fits all" 1st day of the week.

    Geocaching in foreign countries

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    We currently live in Saudi Arabia, about 18 months ago we were on a multi vehicle geocaching trip to Najran in the south, near the border with Yemen, on our way north we were stopped at one of the many police checkpoints (so far we had managed to avoid being stopped) they insisted that it was dangerous for us to be in the area - despite this being day 3! The checkpoint police contacted higher authority who insisted we have a police escort for the rest of our journey, in the mean time we were sat at the side of the road in full view of passing traffic, one of our group who speaks Arabic told the police what we wanted to do ie visit such and such an area (close to a multi cache) and camp there overnight, after about an hour they said we could do this, so off we went, by this time it was late afternoon but we pressed on, the cache was about 10Km off road across soft sand but we did okay and found the first part of the cache, at this point the police decided we could not camp here after all, we would have to go back to the local police station near the checkpoint, by this time it was dusk, we attempted to explain that it was not safe to drive off road in the dark but they insisted, we safely reached the police station to be told we could camp nearby, in the morning we awaoke to find another vehicle with 2 plain clothes police who had driven down from the next biggest town to the north (about 300Km away) overnight, again we explained what we were doing and they seemed okay, so we set off again with 2 police cars, lights flashing etc attempting to keep us safe, as it was early morning we had decided to attempt a difficult to get to cache in the desert (GCC52E) which is a LONG way off road, to their credit both lots of police were game and came with us - see our log photo - after returning to the site of yesterdays cache and finding 1 and DNF the other, we were back on the road heading north, lights flashing etc and stopping every 100Kms or so for a changeover as we entered the next district, every time we were sat at the side of the road for at least 30 minutes in full view - remember it was dangerous for us to be there!

     

    That night we were told to camp in a field close to a main police station,at about 9pm we saw several sets of police cars heading our way, and were told we could not camp here it is an area of "drug dealers and alcoholics" (both are VERY illegal in Saudi)obviously the day shift local police were not aware of this! The police insisted we go to a hotel, and asked us which one we wanted to go to - we told them we did not know the area, fortunately our car GPS indicated one about 40Kms away in the right direction, when we got there and as soon as we stopped, the police disappeared without even checking there was a room available, which fortunately there was.

     

    Next morning we contacted the local police to check in and gave them our itinerary, another trip into the desert, this time about 150Kms each way, with an overnight stop, we were passed backwards and forwards through various departments until we just gave up and went.

     

    From then on we were not stopped again, the whole trip was 6 days, we found 5 caches, DNF 1, were unable to visit 1 we had planned to visit and developed an earthcache, all in all an experience never to be repeated!

    How do I file a complaint?

    in Trackables

    Posted

    Is this the cacher who recently had a mention on podcacher podcast?

     

    We`re not sure exactly which episode, but there was a mention of somebody collecting trackables in order to break some kind of "record" - fellow cachers collected and passed them on in order to increase numbers.

     

    Each to their own we suppose.

    Caching in QATAR - any tips?

    in Arabian Peninsula

    Posted

    Not sure where my reply went, but I did answer last week - here's the edited version. We drove to Qatar from Saudi Arabia a year or so ago and had a great time caching.

     

    Highly recommended: Earthcaches! These were great, especially the meteor crater and Jassasiyah Rock Art.

     

    Not so hot: urban caches. These were in high visibility areas and as "white people" we stood out so much that even stealth wasn't an option. We did find some great urban caches that we did find - but we went on a Friday morning when no one was around (the weekend is Fri/Sat)

     

    Cincol is a great resource - take him up on his offer :-D

     

    You may want to pick up a copy of Qatar Explorer, it's packed with great information too. We took some time to explore the touristy bits too, the wind towers were great!

     

    Have fun and enjoy Qatar.

    Welcome to New Cachers in the Gulf

    in Arabian Peninsula

    Posted

    Hello from Riyadh!

     

    Unfortunately, our work week is Saturday to Wednesday, so we cache on Thurs or Fri. If you are here over a couple of weekends, please PM us or email at menugeocaching@gmail.com and we'll see if we can arrange a trip of some sort. Of note is that most caches around Riyadh (at least the good ones - as far as we are concerned) are in the desert and need a 4X4 to reach them. There are some urban caches, but not many. It is safe for westerners to be out caching in the desert - however, in the interests of safety, you should have at least one more car with you (just in case yours breaks down, gets stuck etc) For recommended caches, have a look at our profile - Mr me N u has marked some favourites.

     

    Drop us an email and we'll see how we can help you. You also might want to try the website www.saudigeocachers.com for info on geocaching/offroading in the desert.

     

    Regards, Mrs me N u

     

    Hi everyone, greetings from the UK. I was in Dubai a few weeks ago on business and found some caches. Went up the Burj Khalifa and got the earth cache at the bottom. Also did four geocaches around dubai marina. very nice indeed.

     

    I will be in Riyadh, saudi Arabia for work flying out Friday 8th of December, with free time on Saterday 9th. I was hopeing to get some caches saterday. Is there any caches you can recomend. Also is it safe for a westerner to geocache on their own?

     

    Any info / recomendations will be greatly recieved.

     

    Regards,

    Langerz

    Arabic/English translation help request

    in Arabian Peninsula

    Posted

    Hello

     

    We have posted a couple of Earthcaches in Saudi Arabia since the new regulations were introduced - and they are all in English. We weren't asked to post them in Arabic. Given that most cachers in KSA are European and don't speak Arabic, there didn't seem much point. I guess the reviewers agreed because we have had no problems posting Earthcaches in English.

     

    Ellie (mrs me N u)

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