oliantoine

Hi, swedish cachers! We plan a roadtrip through south sweden this summer. We will enter through the oresund bridge, follow the west coast until Henån, then go to Malung then Orsa, then we will go to Stockholm passing by Upsala, and finally down to DK. Are there specific geocaches we absolutly should not miss along this route? Or geocaches that deserve a small detour? We are a family with 3 children being 3, 7 and 10, so T5 caches are not really appropriate. Thanks for your answers and greetings from Belgium!

Hi, Could anyone registered to the NL forums on geocaching.be forward this to an admin? I tried sending this report through the "contact" section on geocaching.be, but I received a 500 - Internal Server Error. Thanks, oliantoine -------------------------------------- Hi, dear maintainers of the geocaching.be website and forum! Since 2 days, it looks like the french-speaking forums are unaccessible. When browsing to : http://www.geocaching.be/ipb-fr/index.php I get an error code : Fatal error: Call-time pass-by-reference has been removed in /home/geocache/public_html/ipb-fr/beheerder/applications/forums/modules_public/forums/boards.php on line 58 Thanks for having a look at this, and thanks anyway for the good job done maintaining this website for the Belgian community! :-) Kind regards, oliantoine PS : I tried to send you this report through the "contact" section of geocaching.be, but I received a 500 - Internal Server Error.

Hi, One suggestion for improving the GC.com website : when you edit a past log for which you previously recorded some action for your owned trackable objects (typically "visited" logs), the trackable objects action combo boxes at the bottom of the page are not updated with the current status - they are reset to "No action". If you select "visited" again, then you generate a new entry in the TB's log. When editing a past log, TB status should be taken into account. Thanks for the great job maintaining GC.com for us, anyway!

Does anyone else see plenty of unpublished caches in the middle of the oceans? I can see this using both Chrome and Firefox.

Bonjour, Il n'est pas vraiment possible, ni indispensable, de maintenir un listing du contenu d'une cache. Seul certains objets (voyageurs, ou trackable en anglais) possèdent leur propre numéro de suivi et permettent un suivi via le site web ou les applications. Pour le reste, certains placeurs renseignent le contenu initial de leur caches, et certains trouveurs indique ce qu'ils ont pris ou ajouté, mais il n'y a aucune obligation de le faire. Bon géocaching et salutation Belges!

To answer the question : it is a worldwide fact, as soon as the game gains some popularity in an area. But the game is open to anyone. To those who look after quality caches, nice trips and unbelievable landscapes, and to those who run about the numbers. Both groups make their day the way they play the game, there should not be any issue about that. Now the real question is : how you (and me) find your way through that impressive quantity of caches? How to find quality ones? By filtering on cache size and area, then by looking at fave points and at online logs. A useful preparation step to keep a great experience afterwards in the field. I do agree your remark on CITO and on abandonned containers. CO are responsible for their cache, their maintenance, and they retrieval if they archive it.

Squirrel conspiracy!

If you do not find a cache, log a DNF on the cache page. You might be advised by the cache owner. As other ones mentioned, try starting with small and regular sized caches, not micros. Keep trying, once you find one you're addicted!

I agree as well. Most of the time containers are full of swags when they are placed, but they quickly drain out as they are visited by people who take stuff without trading. It is a pitty but as owners there is nothing we can do other than re-filling the caches from time to time. Recently I placed a big container (3 liters) full of quality stuff (music CD, toys, pencils,...). After two weeks I went for a maintenance tour on my caches and I sadly found a nearly empty jar. I play geocaching with my two kids (6 and 9). They always travel with their small backpack full of swags, and they immediately get used to put stuff in when they find empty caches.

Yesterday I went to a cache located near a "remarkable tree" (I do not know if this exists worldwide but here in Belgium there is a directory of such trees). Homeless people were camping under the tree, they seem to be there for a while now. I immediately cancelled - don't want to get into troubles - and posted an additional note on the cache page.

I recently learned something : don't pee in the wood ! In the past, I found a yellow truck. Another time, I had to choose : Landing or take-off?

That is also what I do... and what my own children decided to do as well. Good idea. Will do. You're correct. But TB and coins hosting takes part to the cache attractiveness. Most of the time, when I take a TB or a coin out of a cache, I replace it with another one when it is relevant for the trackable mission. If not possible, then I log a "discovered" and let it in place. That is a very diplomatic way. I didn't thought at it. Good idea. No I don't think the cache has been muggled. It is completely invisible from any path, you must know what to find to discover it. Moreover, when I went for a check, the cache was properly hidden. I don't think muggler would have done the effort to re-hide the cache. Thanks for all your answer, guys!

I am pretty angry... I recently published a series of 12 traditional geocaches, plus a bonus mystery one. I wanted to make the series attractive, not only because the caches are placed all along a wonderful 10km walk in woods and on country roads, but also thanks to a big bonus cache full of good swags. I spent quite a decent amount of money to fill in the 3 liters bonus cache with toys, music CD, colored pencils boxes, and with a big trackable. Then, I flagged this cache as kid friendly, and I put an explicit note on the cache webpage, to ask people to trade fairly. Since then, the series has been logged by 4 finders, all adults and well-known cachers in the area. Yesterday I had a little check tour on my series. To my sad surprise, the bonus cache was nearly empty. There only remains the log book and eventually the two smaller toys I placed. They took everything! Without putting any small swag back in the cache! I am really frustrated. I am used to cache with my two little boys, and I know how they can marvel at a big cache full of good stuff, and how such an empty box can disappoint them after a long walk. This is why I wanted my final cache to be a real treasure for kids. What should I do? Contact them privately? Post a note on the cache webpage? These geocachers are known to be very good ones, some of them created lots of caches in the area, and they put kind comments on my cache pages. I do not want to offend them, and above all I do not know if four ones helped themselves in my cache. For sure, at least one of them decently traded my TB against another one, but the next cacher took the new TB for free. I also do not know if I will refill the cache, and how to avoid such seizing in the future? Any advice? Thanks, oliantoine

How accurate were the GPSr coordinates? I suppose that info is available somewhere on your Etrex. I am not used to handheld GPSr as I have always cached with a smartphone (nearly 200 finds, never have any accuracy issue). If you own a GPS-enabled smartphone, maybe it is worth comparing their relative accuracy. Maybe your Etrex is defective (although nearly never used).

It might be a solution if reviewer could advise you about the offset you must apply to your cache, telling you e.g. "move your cache of at least x feet/miles in y° to z° direction", without giving you any hint on the potential unknown cache location.

No... NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! (battery drained)

30 seconds? Every time you log a DNF, the cache owner gets an email AND your log shows up on other cacher's GPSs. Although it may technically be correct to log a DNF if you only searched for 30 seconds, I would say logging it is a waste of everybody's time. +1

The last DNF I logged was because the cache location - a hole in an old tree - was occupied by a bee swarm. I went to that cache with my children, and that could have been pretty dangerous for them! I did not want the next seeker to have the same issue, and I wanted the CO to be aware of his cache being beegled (bee-muggled). That kind of situation is one of the best reasons to log a DNF.

Who asks for permission to place a cache at the base of a tree down a country lane???

... the best FTF prize I won was a new nail polish bottle (the only time my wife was happy I went out geocaching ) Other ideas include : LED flashlight or headlamp Compass Knife Ticket for a free beer at the corner bar Gold medal Gift card to local store Anything very relevant to the cache location (local specialty, artwork,...) In my sense a FTf prize does not always need to be costly. It can be funny or anything the finder can keep as a souvenir.

I have got the same problem with my sons. Currently only the oldest one has got his own account, so I solved that quite easily using two different web browsers : I log for myself under F*reF*x and I log for my son under Chr*me. I keep both opened and switch/copy/paste amongst them. Yep a "multiuse visit recorder" button would be nice!

It is normal to encounter a couple of DNF at the beginning... The posted coordinates are (should be) fairly accurate, generally a couple of feet. Your GPSr precision can greatly vary with the weather, the tree coverage,... The best advice I could give you is : when you are approaching the cache location (< 50 feet), stop looking at your smartphone screen, look around you instead! Search for hints, tracks of previous cachers, unusual thinks, potential locations,... Trust your instinct and the more cache you find, the easier the next one will be to find!

Hi stijnhommes, Welcome to the geocachers community! I am not really near Rochefort but from somewhere near Liège, so difficult for me to help. Nonetheless, a couple of little advises : - Select your first caches based on T/D rating. I do not know which one you did not find, but maybe they were high-rated ones - Look at previous logs on the cache page, they often contain precious hints - Once in the field, be patient and look carefully all around you. Do not search only for the cache, but first for previous cachers tracks. Then, search for unusual things like a pile of stones or of bough, something that has nothing to do there. Also, think at where you would hide the container if it was you own - Do not trust your GPSr. When you are around the cache location, stop looking at your GPS screen, and look around you! - It is only a matter of practice. When thinking back at my first couple of finds, for which I sometimes looked for more than half and hour, I would be now able to point out the container location within seconds! Keep on caching, I am sure you will gain a lot of experience and become a great hunter! oliantoine

I don't think so. People consider as trash : actual trash, broken items,... not homemade suff. IMHO such homemade gifts, even if not great art pieces, won't be cleaned out of the box.

Here in Belgium, french-speaking part, the quality of the caches content is not always so good. Unfortunately. We rarely find trash in containers, but it is common to find broken toys, and poor containers that help deteriorating their own content. I cache with my children, and they really love to find cool swags. It is their reward for the effort, as a couple of miles of hiking is sometimes a great achievement for their little legs! The older one, who is 8, took the habit to refill the cache from his own backpack when he judge its not attractive enough! But on the other hand, we do not buy new toys or stuff to put in caches, we always recycle old-but-good-shaped toys and cornflakes swag to geocaching stuff.