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Geocaching in Russia


nollscoffen

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I'm off to Russia on Sunday and, being the curious geocacher :D, already decided which caches I wanted to do during my stay. But I have one question... Is it legal to take a GPS unit into russian territory? If it is, do I need to declare it when going through customs? I'd really hate to have my eXplorist 210 end up in the pocket of some over-zelous customs employee... :cry:

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I remembered reading something about this on The Degree Confluence Project Website.

 

 

Clicking on Russia brings up this warning -

 

Country Notes:

You may want to review the warnings here before attempting to import or use a GPS device in Russia. Remember that your use of a GPS device is on your own behalf, and may carry risks.

 

 

And provides a link to this page. It might be somewhat dated but I would probably pass on Russia.

 

Info posted by the U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Consular Affairs 3/98

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Hi, I have spent almost two years in Russia, travelling back and there very often. There is NO PROBLEM with bringing your GPs or using it.

 

You do not necessarily want to be seen by police when hiding the cache ;-) Also, Russians (and not only them) are particulary sensitive when it gets to military objects, but as a tourist there is very little chance that you get close to one.

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I am from Russia. There is NO PROBLEM with using GPSr in Russia! Just take it with you when you come here and have fun searching caches.

 

The only problem - not much caches reported on this site and most of them in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. I don't know why but a lot of caches reported on Russian web site but not here. Why Russian community want to be isolated from the rest of geocachers community - this is the question I am asking myself all the time.

 

At May, 25, 2009 there are more then 5000 caches in Russia. If you could read Russian (again shame on Russian community) you may find a lot of caches all over Russia on www.geocaching.ru.

 

If you need further help please contact me (by the forum or direct) and I'll try to help you.

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I am from Russia. There is NO PROBLEM with using GPSr in Russia! Just take it with you when you come here and have fun searching caches.

 

The only problem - not much caches reported on this site and most of them in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. I don't know why but a lot of caches reported on Russian web site but not here. Why Russian community want to be isolated from the rest of geocachers community - this is the question I am asking myself all the time.

 

At May, 25, 2009 there are more then 5000 caches in Russia. If you could read Russian (again shame on Russian community) you may find a lot of caches all over Russia on www.geocaching.ru.

 

If you need further help please contact me (by the forum or direct) and I'll try to help you.

 

I used to work as a translator in the past and I have to disagree with you. The reason Russians have a separate website is because their native language is not English. The main reason for it is just to help local geocachers since there is a great deal with a language barrier. (again shame on Russian community) there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of for Russians not knowing English. Geocaching.ru is still related to Geocaching.com in some way, from what I could understand reading the website.

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I am from Russia. There is NO PROBLEM with using GPSr in Russia! Just take it with you when you come here and have fun searching caches.

 

The only problem - not much caches reported on this site and most of them in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. I don't know why but a lot of caches reported on Russian web site but not here. Why Russian community want to be isolated from the rest of geocachers community - this is the question I am asking myself all the time.

 

At May, 25, 2009 there are more then 5000 caches in Russia. If you could read Russian (again shame on Russian community) you may find a lot of caches all over Russia on www.geocaching.ru.

 

If you need further help please contact me (by the forum or direct) and I'll try to help you.

 

A year ago I visited Moscow for 5 days, had gps in my mobile phone and found one cache. Next time I will take my Garmin for sure.

 

In Moscow there is enough caches on geocaching.com site ; but outside almost nothing. I understand there is different site because of language, and with my very small skills I succeeded to find cache coordinates from geocaching.su site. They seems to let see coordinates without creating an account. Or is it so you find more caches if logging in to site ? Is it free of charge ? I also loaded a gpx file - but my software did not read it. I guess because of language again. But that´s small problem - the few caches on the way is easy to put in manually. Anyway, this gives motivation to learn russian so it´s not so bad. Even one traditional cache feels like big mystery to me :D

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I am from Russia. There is NO PROBLEM with using GPSr in Russia! Just take it with you when you come here and have fun searching caches.

 

The only problem - not much caches reported on this site and most of them in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. I don't know why but a lot of caches reported on Russian web site but not here. Why Russian community want to be isolated from the rest of geocachers community - this is the question I am asking myself all the time.

 

At May, 25, 2009 there are more then 5000 caches in Russia. If you could read Russian (again shame on Russian community) you may find a lot of caches all over Russia on www.geocaching.ru.

 

If you need further help please contact me (by the forum or direct) and I'll try to help you.

 

A year ago I visited Moscow for 5 days, had gps in my mobile phone and found one cache. Next time I will take my Garmin for sure.

 

In Moscow there is enough caches on geocaching.com site ; but outside almost nothing. I understand there is different site because of language, and with my very small skills I succeeded to find cache coordinates from geocaching.su site. They seems to let see coordinates without creating an account. Or is it so you find more caches if logging in to site ? Is it free of charge ? I also loaded a gpx file - but my software did not read it. I guess because of language again. But that´s small problem - the few caches on the way is easy to put in manually. Anyway, this gives motivation to learn russian so it´s not so bad. Even one traditional cache feels like big mystery to me :blink:

 

You don't need to make an account on geocaching.ru to see all caches. But if you need to log your visit of course you need to make an account (it's free of charge).

 

It's a little complicated to work with russian geosite as you need to know Russian but I'll try to help in some cases.

 

There is a map with all caches. For example, Moscow and Moscow region - http://www.geocaching.su/?pn=103.

 

Yellow dots on the map with letters T, П and B shows types of caches. T is traditional type. П is Multi-Cache or Puzzle Cache. And B is Virtual one. Well it's kind hard to find П or B type caches unless you speak Russian as you need to read carefully cache description. But for T type you don't really need to know Russian.

 

Well, let's pay attention to T (traditional) type of caches. Let's check http://www.geocaching.su/?pn=101&cid=5393. On the left site of the page you could find coordinates as well as some other information about the cache. The coordinates are WGS84. Bottom of rating stars you could see some red links. If you need to export coordinates you need to click on "ЭКСПОРТ ТОЧКИ" link. A new window showed up. Choose GPX if you need it for your Garmin device. But you need to choose "перевести в транслит" option as well or you'll get an error on your Garmin device if you don't have Russian symbols.

 

If you need help with geocaching.su just let me know and I'll make a short translation of description of traditional caches.

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Thanks a lot CheRny for help !

 

All clear, I found few caches for my trip to Ivanovo area. I´m afraid the program is quite busy, but one day we might have a chance to make some sightseeing in Suzdal. I have a translation program so no problem with discription, and I go with a local who can help also. ( If I can convince him to run after plastic boxes in woods ...:blink: Then I go in the site and make not found/found log also.

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Thanks a lot CheRny for help !

 

All clear, I found few caches for my trip to Ivanovo area. I´m afraid the program is quite busy, but one day we might have a chance to make some sightseeing in Suzdal. I have a translation program so no problem with discription, and I go with a local who can help also. ( If I can convince him to run after plastic boxes in woods ...:drama: Then I go in the site and make not found/found log also.

 

I´m back home and can report: no problems with GPS in Russia, no questions asked at airport security or anything. And found one cache from Suzdal also ! Next week I go again - and luckily there is several gc.com listed caches in Moscow.

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OMG! There were some problems? I didn't have any while buying GPS unit and even when policeman stopped my car to check documents. He has definitely seen my PDA with a map drawn on it, and it's okay!

Relax! ) No more "iron curtain-stuff". Time's changing. I've visited a nice cache in Moscow: GC1RV4M. Great views! I wonder why I'm still the only one who managed to get there. Yes, it used to be a military object, but now it's opened for tourists. You may encounter some soldiers in that area, but there's probably the only thing they can ask you for is to give them smokes. They don't care about anything else.

 

Besides, you can always find plenty of similar declassified objects on local geocaching resource, for instance this multilevel military bunker at http://www.geocaching.su/?pn=101&cid=1980 ;)

 

So my point is: if such places appear on the geocaching maps, then what kind of problems can happen with the authorities about your GPS device?

 

Best regards, Solpadein, Moscow, Russia. :)

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Well this is an interesting thread. I'm glad I didn't see it until I returned from Russia last week. I was in St Petersburg for 4 days where there are only about 5-6 caches. Unfortunately, there was only time to find the virtual as our trip was very highly organised. However, had I read this before I went, I may not have taken my GPS and wouldn't have been able to log my find. Luckily, I did and did.

 

;)

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