Geocaching in the UAE?

[snailbandit]

Hi everybody! I'm a third culture kid; I currently live in Canada but I grew up in the UAE (where my dad currently resides). I visit Abu Dhabi once or twice a year, and would be interested in creating a geocache to place in my home city. Is this a good idea considering I am only there a few times a year - and thus won't be able to maintain the cache? My dad isn't familiar with GPS devices, so I am not sure whether he could maintain one on my behalf.

[+mpilchfamily]

Read the guidelines!!!

 

Note that any cache you place has to be maintained on a regular basis. With the location being so far away from you the reviewer would need a good plan of attack on how you intend to keep the cache maintained. Its best not to place caches so far away from yourself.

 

Edit: may have been a bit harsh.

Edited September 18, 2011 by mpilchfamily

[+Bear and Ragged]

It may be possible.

Your dad could look after it and do maintenance.

(He would have to be in contact with you, email is fine, so you can post any Temporary Disabled and Owner Maintenance logs and re-enable logs if needed)

He doesn't have to be GPS savvy, if you show him where the cache is...

 

Final decision is down to the local reviewer... May be worth sending an email, before hiding the cache!

[The Hearse]

Normally I would agree with Bear and Ragged however the local police in Abu Dhabi are hot on caches and you may need to warn your father off that he may need to engage in some nifty footwork. Note a well placed cache now may be a restricted area of the future.

[snailbandit]

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

@mpilchfamily Yeah, that was my main concern, especially since I might not be around to maintain the cache.

[+Carbon Hunter]

Contact one of the local cachers - I suggest Avanclan or UAE68 as they can be rather helpful.

[+Avanclan]

A group of cachers in the area look after a number of caches in and around Abu Dhabi that are not ours. As this is such a fluid expat comunity and cachers come and go, we put them on a watch list and do maintenance if and when errors are reported. All that we ask is that the cache is in a good location and well hidden. Send me an e-mail and we will take it from there.

Edited September 20, 2011 by Avanclan

[snailbandit]

Hi Avanclan! Thank you so much for your help. Maybe we can meet up next time I am in Abu Dhabi? Will have to let you know when!

[+cincol]

@mpilchfamily and Bear and Ragged. This is the Middle East guys - here we look after each others caches and regularly do maintenance on caches where the owners are long gone. The nature of expat life is that we stick together and help each other. The sheer lack of caches in the area leads to us welcoming ANY new cache(er) to our midst and will do anything to promote this wonderful sport of ours. Perhaps it is difficult for you to grasp the situation that we live in here. We will gladly drive 100km across unforgiving desert terrain to find a cache - yes ONE cache where somebody who lives in California as an example will have 2500 caches within a 20km radius of where they live. Achieving 100 finds here is a MAJOR achievement - albeit over a period of 5 years perhaps.

 

In short, we will do ANYTHING for a new cache in our midst. Maintaining for snailbandit shouldn't be a problem at all. Oh, and our reviewer supports us all the way as well. He is the greatest!

[+Carbon Hunter]

@mpilchfamily and Bear and Ragged. This is the Middle East guys - here we look after each others caches and regularly do maintenance on caches where the owners are long gone. The nature of expat life is that we stick together and help each other. The sheer lack of caches in the area leads to us welcoming ANY new cache(er) to our midst and will do anything to promote this wonderful sport of ours. Perhaps it is difficult for you to grasp the situation that we live in here. We will gladly drive 100km across unforgiving desert terrain to find a cache - yes ONE cache where somebody who lives in California as an example will have 2500 caches within a 20km radius of where they live. Achieving 100 finds here is a MAJOR achievement - albeit over a period of 5 years perhaps.

 

In short, we will do ANYTHING for a new cache in our midst. Maintaining for snailbandit shouldn't be a problem at all. Oh, and our reviewer supports us all the way as well. He is the greatest!

 

Agreed Cincol - when I arrived in the UAE - most the cachers were long gone - but their caches remained - it is just a fact of life for caching in places like the UAE/Oman/Saudi/Qatar etc.

 

It is similar to all those caches on US Armed Forces bases in Afghanistan, Iraq etc. I am fairly confident in saying that the original CO is long gone back home - but the caching community keep them active (the good quality ones at least).

 

Similarly for many other remote caching countries such as Nepal, Rwanda, Senegal, Columbia etc.

 

One of the joys and challenges of caching in the more remote areas of the world.