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Countries without any Geocaches?


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It seems that just about every country has at least a few geocaches in it. But it looks like I found two that do not (North Korea and Burundi). There are probably others that I do not know about. So if you know of any please list them here. Or if I am incorrect about North Korea and Burunid (or The Republic of Burunid if you prefer) then please set the record straight on that as well.

 

Once we have a list of countries without geocaches then we can set out to changing that. Someday every country will have a geocache in it. Not sure how any American will be able to set up a cache in North Korea but I am sure someone else might be able to.

 

I think there should be a special award for setting up the first cache in a country. Maybe a special geocoin or something.

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Yeah -- you just go ahead and change N. Korea.

 

Nice idea, but I am guessing the first one to place a geocache in N. Korea may just never be seen or heard from again. Then, we have another cache to ultimately be archived!

 

EDIT: P.S. Be sure to take your GPSr with you. Am sure it would help you arrive to your final destination -- a nice deep hole in the ground!

Edited by Gitchee-Gummee
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If you go to the Advanced Search page you can (fairly) easily search for "All geocaches" by "State/Country". All you have to do is select the individual countries and see what, if anything, is there. I did it a few months back... It's a good way to pass a dull evening when you've got no vital jobs to do and there's nothing on the TV. It'll only take you a couple of hours to compile your list. :ph34r:

 

MrsB

Edited by The Blorenges
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Well if you live in one of the other countries in the Axis of Evil then I am guessing you would be treated differently in North Korea than if you are from the USA. Maybe you get a bigger hole in the ground or a piece of card board to sleep on. Of course if you think creatively and pose as a foreign arms dealer you may be given access into the country.

 

Or maybe we just place the cache in the middle of the DMZ. Think of the adventure in getting that cache. I can see the cache page now "Extreme stealth is recommended as muggles are well armed."

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If you go to the Advanced Search page you can (fairly) easily search for "All geocaches" by "State/Country". All you have to do is select the individual countries and see what, if anything, is there. I did it a few months back... It's a good way to pass a dull evening when you've got no vital jobs to do and there's nothing on the TV. It'll only take you a couple of hours to compile your list. :ph34r:

 

MrsB

 

The country list that Geocaching.com uses is not complete. The two countries I listed are not on it. I am not sure if they list any countries that do not have any caches in them.

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If you go to the Advanced Search page you can (fairly) easily search for "All geocaches" by "State/Country". All you have to do is select the individual countries and see what, if anything, is there. I did it a few months back... It's a good way to pass a dull evening when you've got no vital jobs to do and there's nothing on the TV. It'll only take you a couple of hours to compile your list. :D

 

MrsB

 

The country list that Geocaching.com uses is not complete. The two countries I listed are not on it. I am not sure if they list any countries that do not have any caches in them.

 

:ph34r:

 

North Korea and Burundi (which is the country I thought you were referring to) are both in the drop-down list... as are many others that bring up no caches when you search.

 

MrsB

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It seems that just about every country has at least a few geocaches in it. But it looks like I found two that do not (North Korea and Burundi). There are probably others that I do not know about. So if you know of any please list them here. Or if I am incorrect about North Korea and Burunid (or The Republic of Burunid if you prefer) then please set the record straight on that as well.

 

Once we have a list of countries without geocaches then we can set out to changing that. Someday every country will have a geocache in it. Not sure how any American will be able to set up a cache in North Korea but I am sure someone else might be able to.

 

I think there should be a special award for setting up the first cache in a country. Maybe a special geocoin or something.

 

Last time this topic came up I did a search by country and listed all of the countries which had four or fewer caches. At the time there were 27 countries which had no caches.

 

See my previous post.

 

I have yet to visit a country without any caches but when I was in Ethiopia last year there were only 4 caches in the country at the time. I was actually within 1000' or so of one of them (which has since been archived) but didn't get the chance to look for it. I did find one of the 15 caches in Zimbabwe though and I may get the chance to grab one in Tanzania in the near future.

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Actually, I'm sure North Korea must have geocaches. Remember when the Maximum Leader explained how he'd managed 11 of 18 hole-in-one shots for his first attempt on a golf course?

 

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2006/12/29/no...an-tiger-woods/

 

kimgolf.gif

 

I'll bet he's just as good at geocaching. He probably walks right up to them (mostly difficulty 5.0 caches, of course) and finds them immediately without a GPS!

 

Then again, the chances of an average N. Korean playing golf are about as good as an average N. Korean being allowed to own a GPS. Some people are always more equal than others, especially where they're all equal, right?

Edited by ecanderson
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Wow.

 

Just wow.

 

Don't even try to get a GPSr into North Korea. They'll arrest you as a spy and you'll sit in a cell while Kim Jong-il tries to leverage more concessions out of the western world for your release, particularly after they have held their kangaroo kourt trial and sentenced you to death.

 

While North Korea may have its charms those will have to wait until the monarchy of the Kim family has fallen.

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Once we have a list of countries without geocaches then we can set out to changing that. Someday every country will have a geocache in it. Not sure how any American will be able to set up a cache in North Korea but I am sure someone else might be able to.

 

What makes you think we have the right to set out to change that. In many of the countries that do not allow Geocaching, Geocaching is not the most important thing that needs to be changed. :tongue:

  • Upvote 2
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While North Korea may have its charms those will have to wait until the monarchy of the Kim family has fallen.

That will most likely never happen.

 

Tell that to the Hapsburgs... Or the Romanovs... Or any other monarchy that has ever graced the earth. Eventually, monarchies either fall or else lose pretty much all of their powers, and the same thing will likely happen to the Kim Dynasty sooner or later

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Nice List NYPaddleCacher. It is a year old and so may have some changes but it is probably pretty good.

 

"Here is a list of countries with 4 or fewer caches. It was produced from the country select list on the Hide and Seek a Cache page.

 

Countries with no caches: 27

Countries with one cache: 18

Countries with two caches: 22

Countries with three caches: 16

Countries with four caches: 12

 

A lot of these caches have never been found.

 

Algeria 3

American Samoe 2

Anguilla 3

Armenia 3

Azerbaijan 4 (3 are disabled)

Belarus 1

Benin 0

Bhutan 1

Bonaire 4

Bouvet Island 0

Brunei 2

Burkina Faso 4

Burundi 0

Burxina 0

Camaroon 2 (both virtuals)

Central African Republic 0

Chad 0

Christmas Island 0

Cocos (Keeling) Islands 0

Comoros 0

Congo 1

Cook Islands 2

Democratic Republic of the Congo 1

Djibouti 3

Dominica 2

East Timor 4

Equatorial Guinea 2

Eritrea 1

Ethiopia 4

Falkland Islands 2

French Guiana 4

French Southern Territories 0

Gabon 0

Georgia 1

Grenada 3

Guinea 0

Guinea-Bissau 0

Guyana 3

Heard Island And Mcdonald Islands 0

Ivory Coast 0

Kiribati 2 (1 earth, 1 virtual)

Liberia 0

Macau 3

Madagascar 3

Malawi 2 (neither has been found)

Martinique 2

Mauritania 3

Mayotte 0

Moldovia 4

Monaco 1

Montserrat 1

Nauru 0

New Caledonia 3

Niger 4

Nigeria 2

Niue 4

Palau 3 (all earthcaches)

Papua New Guinea 3

People Den Rep Yemen 0

Pitcairn Islands 0

Reunion 1

Rwanda 2

Saint Helena 4

Saint Lucia 1

Samoa 1 (virtual)

San Marino 2

Sao Tome and Principe 2

Sierra Leone 1 (virtual)

Solomon Islands 2

Somalia 0

South Georgia and Sandwich Islands 1

St Barthelemy 4

St Eustatius 1 (earthcache)

St Kitts 2

St Pierre Miquelon 0

St Vince Grenadines 3

Sudan 3 (none of them found)

Syria 2

Tajikistan 2

Togo 1

Tokelau 0

Tonga 1 (virtual)

Turkmenistan 0

Turks and Caicos Islands 3

Tuvalu 0

US Minor Outlying Islands 1

Uzbekistan 4 (one of them an event cache)

Vanuatu 2

Vatican City State 2

Wallis And Futuna Islands 2

Western Sahara 0

Yemen 2

Zaire 0"

 

- NYPaddleCacher

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Once we have a list of countries without geocaches then we can set out to changing that. Someday every country will have a geocache in it. Not sure how any American will be able to set up a cache in North Korea but I am sure someone else might be able to.

 

What makes you think we have the right to set out to change that. In many of the countries that do not allow Geocaching, Geocaching is not the most important thing that needs to be changed. :unsure:

 

We change what we can change. And what makes you think we do not have the right to spread geocaching around the world. As long as it is not hurting anyone...

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Don't even try to get a GPSr into North Korea. They'll arrest you as a spy and you'll sit in a cell while Kim Jong-il tries to leverage more concessions out of the western world for your release, particularly after they have held their kangaroo kourt trial and sentenced you to death.

And besides, the GPS is maintained by the US military. North Korea considers the US to be "imperialist".

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Once we have a list of countries without geocaches then we can set out to changing that. Someday every country will have a geocache in it. Not sure how any American will be able to set up a cache in North Korea but I am sure someone else might be able to.

 

What makes you think we have the right to set out to change that. In many of the countries that do not allow Geocaching, Geocaching is not the most important thing that needs to be changed. :lol:

 

We change what we can change. And what makes you think we do not have the right to spread geocaching around the world. As long as it is not hurting anyone...

 

I assume you're checking all the other cache listing sites as well???

Groundspeak is just one - and those countries might even have their own version.....

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And, being a quibbler at heart, it depends very much on whose definition of what is a country you use... Many on that listing are not actual countries.

St Pierre Miquelon 0

for instance, is not a country. St. Pierre et Miquelon is an overseas department of France, and is an integral part of France. There is one cache there, and it is (properly) listed as being in France. (I researched this one since it is the closest cache in France. Now I just have to figure out how to get to Newfoundland!)

Other parts of France, erroneously listed here as countries are:

French Guiana

Martinique

Mayotte

Reunion

 

If you want to come up with a list of countries with no caches, you would first have to come up with a proper list of countries.

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And, being a quibbler at heart, it depends very much on whose definition of what is a country you use... Many on that listing are not actual countries.

St Pierre Miquelon 0

for instance, is not a country. St. Pierre et Miquelon is an overseas department of France, and is an integral part of France. There is one cache there, and it is (properly) listed as being in France. (I researched this one since it is the closest cache in France. Now I just have to figure out how to get to Newfoundland!)

Other parts of France, erroneously listed here as countries are:

French Guiana

Martinique

Mayotte

Reunion

 

If you want to come up with a list of countries with no caches, you would first have to come up with a proper list of countries.

 

Tell that to Groundspeak. I got the list of countries from the select list provided on the Hide and Seek a Cache page. Since I'm going to be working on a programming project for FAO of the U.N. I could use their official list of counties, but if I found the "Top of the Hill" cache (GCD4F2), the cache listing would list it as in a country called Martinique (I wonder what some of the cache stats programs would do...are they using the same list of countries as Groundspeak?)

 

When I went to St. Johns, Newfoundland a few years go I flew from Ithaca, to Newark, to Montreal, to Halifax, Novia Scotia, and eventually to St. Johns. St. Johns was a fun city. Although I was there on business I got to do some sea kayaking to some off shore sea caves during the height of Puffin mating season. That was before I started geocaching though but I did visit a spot where there is a virutal located.

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Wow, it's been 11 years since the last activity on this thread. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the only two countries remaining in the world that do not have any caches are North Korea and Nauru. The other "countries" on the list above are just territories of other countries. 

There used to be a cache on Nauru - it was active from 11/06/2010 to 12/12/2015 (GC2HWY5), but got archived because the site where it was hidden was closed to the public. I think it's definitely possible for another cache to be placed on the island eventually.

As for North Korea...no. Not for a very long time, if ever. There would probably have to be a second Korean war to reunite both Koreas or something. Geocaching might not even be a thing anymore by the time that happens. People aren't exactly taking vacations to that country anyway. 

I'd say it's still quite an achievement to have a cache in every country in the world except for one or two. 

nauru.JPG

northkorea.JPG

world.JPG

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I remember there used to be a cache (or listing at least) in North Korea, maybe a virtual at the DMZ, but my memory is foggy, and I don't see it mentioned upthread. When I tried to find it later, no luck. 

 

Anybody know the code? 

 

PS to the map above... I knew Australia had the worst lockdowns in the world, but... Yikes! 

 

Edited by Viajero Perdido
  • Funny 1
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5 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

https://coord.info/GC2F0R6

 

I don't see a reason why someone couldn't create e.g. a Wherigo that starts in North Korea and ends up wherever is convenient for them.

There are one in Vatican that is exactly that a Wherigo with the final across the border in Rome. There are also Mysteries.

 

So yeah someone from South Korea could technically create a cache in North Korea. The fact there are none I would be guessing is because Groundspeak forbid it.

Edited by Lynx Humble
  • Helpful 1
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51 minutes ago, mustakorppi said:

Or someone from Canada. But yeah, I didn't look at the regional wiki: https://wiki.Groundspeak.com/display/GEO/North+Korea

I wrote South Korea because it would have been less likely considered a Vacation Cache.

 

Thanks for the reference. I don't check it often because I don't even have a regional wiki here in Canada...

Edited by Lynx Humble
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8 minutes ago, Lynx Humble said:

I wrote South Korea because it would have been less likely considered a Vacation Cache.

That rule is supposed to be about the maintenance of physical caches. There's no maintenance problem if it's a Wherigo with nothing to do at the starting coordinates except go there to make the cassette give you the coordinates for the cache that's near your home location. No idea how much reviewers actually allow you to push the envelope with this kind of silliness.

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14 hours ago, Jacorp said:

Wow, it's been 11 years since the last activity on this thread. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the only two countries remaining in the world that do not have any caches are North Korea and Nauru. The other "countries" on the list above are just territories of other countries. 

There used to be a cache on Nauru - it was active from 11/06/2010 to 12/12/2015 (GC2HWY5), but got archived because the site where it was hidden was closed to the public. I think it's definitely possible for another cache to be placed on the island eventually.

As for North Korea...no. Not for a very long time, if ever. There would probably have to be a second Korean war to reunite both Koreas or something. Geocaching might not even be a thing anymore by the time that happens. People aren't exactly taking vacations to that country anyway. 

 

There are 5 official countries without caches right now.  NK is the biggest one, the others are Nauru, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Bouvet Island.  Good trivia question for your next geocaching party.  

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On 2/12/2010 at 9:02 PM, Harry Dolphin said:

And, being a quibbler at heart, it depends very much on whose definition of what is a country you use... Many on that listing are not actual countries.

for instance, is not a country. St. Pierre et Miquelon is an overseas department of France, and is an integral part of France. There is one cache there, and it is (properly) listed as being in France. (I researched this one since it is the closest cache in France. Now I just have to figure out how to get to Newfoundland!)

Other parts of France, erroneously listed here as countries are:

French Guiana

Martinique

Mayotte

Reunion

 

If you want to come up with a list of countries with no caches, you would first have to come up with a proper list of countries.

I am going to raise the same objection about Christmas Island, and Cocos Island. They are Australian protectorates, no passport required for visiting Australians, and the same customs and immigration requirements need to be met for non Australian visitors to these islands, as would need to be met for foreign visitors to the Australian mainland.  

  • Upvote 1
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22 hours ago, Jacorp said:

Wow, it's been 11 years since the last activity on this thread. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the only two countries remaining in the world that do not have any caches are North Korea and Nauru. The other "countries" on the list above are just territories of other countries. 

There used to be a cache on Nauru - it was active from 11/06/2010 to 12/12/2015 (GC2HWY5), but got archived because the site where it was hidden was closed to the public. I think it's definitely possible for another cache to be placed on the island eventually.

As for North Korea...no. Not for a very long time, if ever. There would probably have to be a second Korean war to reunite both Koreas or something. Geocaching might not even be a thing anymore by the time that happens. People aren't exactly taking vacations to that country anyway. 

I'd say it's still quite an achievement to have a cache in every country in the world except for one or two. 

nauru.JPG

northkorea.JPG

world.JPG

Geez, your world map is a bit sus. No caches in Qld, NSW, Vic, and Tassie is missing completely. Where have most of my finds gone? 

  • Funny 1
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On 10/31/2021 at 10:20 PM, Viajero Perdido said:

I remember there used to be a cache (or listing at least) in North Korea, maybe a virtual at the DMZ, but my memory is foggy, and I don't see it mentioned upthread. When I tried to find it later, no luck. 

 

Anybody know the code? 

 

PS to the map above... I knew Australia had the worst lockdowns in the world, but... Yikes! 

 

Forbidden Country 

 

https://coord.info/GC2F0R6

 

 

There  may have been one other but the cacher who was responsible for the DPRK cache wrote about it here:  

 

 

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The status of caches in some countries might be in doubt. The owner of an Afghanistan cache recently did a maintenance and wrote:

 

“Maintenance is really bad here at the moment, but it would be great if he survived here quietly and secretly and in 10-15 years "someone from the west" would log him again 😁 It will be interesting to see until then 🙋🏻‍♂️

 

That may be an understatement 

 

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7 hours ago, geodarts said:

The status of caches in some countries might be in doubt. 

There are some countries, which have non-archived cache listings, but where it's currently de facto impossible to find and log a geocache:

  • Syria: Has some traditionals listed, but all listings are locked.
  • Somalia: A single EC (https://coord.info/GC887N1), which seems to be inaccessible (according to a logged note).

And then there are many countries, which have only 1 or 2 caches listed, and where the actual availability of these caches is very much in doubt ;) .

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When my Virtual Reward was still under construction, I parked it at the DMZ, mostly to confuse and alarm the South Korean reviewer. :anibad: But then I moved it to Rheinland-Pfalz prior to publication.

 

So, all African nations and Pacific island nations (other than Nauru) now have caches? That's cool. The last time I went looking, there were several countries that still lacked one, and several more that only had a handful. But I think that was about ten years ago, when I was browsing the old search function on a particularly slow day at work.

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On 11/1/2021 at 5:35 PM, Bundyrumandcoke said:

Geez, your world map is a bit sus. No caches in Qld, NSW, Vic, and Tassie is missing completely. Where have most of my finds gone? 

Haha yeah, for some reason when you zoom out all the way on the map, it doesn't load in the cache icons in that map tile. If you look at the URL while browsing the map around Eastern Australia, you'll notice the caches don't show up once z=3 or less.

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On 11/1/2021 at 9:23 AM, GeoElmo6000 said:

 

 

There are 5 official countries without caches right now.  NK is the biggest one, the others are Nauru, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Bouvet Island.  Good trivia question for your next geocaching party.  

Those may be counted by Groundspeak as "countries", but they are not independent nations recognized by the UN. Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Heard Island and McDonald Islands belong to Australia, and Bouvet Island belongs to Norway. The latter 2 are completely uninhabited. West Island in the Cocos Islands, on the other hand, has an airport and a population of about 100. There is also another inhabited island about 8 kilometers to the northeast called Home Island that has a population of about 500 and can be reached by ferry. The airport has regular flights to and from Perth and Christmas Island, so it's pretty accessible for Australian tourists at least. I suppose someone who lives on the island would have to maintain any caches placed, and it's unlikely that anyone there has even heard of geocaching. But it is possible that there will be caches there someday just like in many other island nations. 

 

So, in terms of what countries are internationally recognized as actual, independent nations, there are still only 2 of those that remain cache-less: North Korea and Nauru.

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On 11/1/2021 at 9:23 AM, GeoElmo6000 said:

 

 

There are 5 official countries without caches right now.  NK is the biggest one, the others are Nauru, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Bouvet Island.  Good trivia question for your next geocaching party.  

Enjoyed your GIFF film "Got a pen?" by the way! It was my favorite one!

  • Upvote 1
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Also interesting in this context: Tokelau (an island governed by New Zealand). It has two caches listed (since 2016), but none of them has been found yet. So this is one of the very few (maybe the only one?) countries/territories in Groundspeak's list, where you could have a find, but so far no-one actually has one ;) .

 

 

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