+terratin Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Just wondering for those that travel with their work; what is your job? I'd probably love it in the future Aviation industry LOL! That helps Oil industry. If oil price is high it's paradise, if it's low it's layoff time if you're with the wrong company. Quote Link to comment
+raivis_s Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I also like collecting countries, plans for this year is geotrip to Hungary, collecting also some geocaches in Slovakia, and maybe also trip to China. I collect also on flag counter on my profile page, so please visit my GC profile page if you can, i can share you Latvian flag if you got this on GC profile, cache or TB page. TNX Quote Link to comment
+terratin Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Welcome here! Left a Qatar flag at your profile Quote Link to comment
+raivis_s Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 i got Taiwan flag, but anyway thanks, Qatar would be also great Quote Link to comment
+Andromeda321 Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Just wondering for those that travel with their work; what is your job? I'd probably love it in the future Astronomer. Speaking of, looks like I'm going observing for a week at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, in June. I was last in Arizona a decade ago, pre geocaching for sure, so yay new state for the stats! (Not on Kitt Peak tho as that's on an Indian reservation, I'll have to nab one while in Tucson.) Quote Link to comment
+Hyack Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Welcome here! Left a Qatar flag at your profile Come and visit my profile - would love to see some exotic flags on my flag counter --- Hyackman (Bruce) Quote Link to comment
+Hyack Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I also like collecting countries, plans for this year is geotrip to Hungary, collecting also some geocaches in Slovakia, and maybe also trip to China. I collect also on flag counter on my profile page, so please visit my GC profile page if you can, i can share you Latvian flag if you got this on GC profile, cache or TB page. TNX Come and visit my profile - would love to see some exotic flags on my flag counter --- Hyackman (Bruce) Quote Link to comment
+SageTracey Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I'm heading to the US next month for work so will get my first international caches then. A week in the Orlando area, three days in New York City, overnight in Washington state and then a couple of days in Indiana before heading home again. Also trying to convince geo-hubby that a cruise to New Zealand would be a good idea later this year. If you're going Orlando for a Disney vacation (I know that you mentioned the primary reason was for work) you're only going to find virtual caches within the disney parks. Caching in NYC can be quite a challenge with all the tall building interfering with GPS signals and blocking views to the satellites. There are some really good ones in central park though. If you're in Indianapolis, take a stab at one of Indiana Magic Mans Shelter caches. You probably won't find it but you can add your log to the long list of DNFs. An overnight in Washington might not give you much time but a visit to HQ is worth the stop if you have time. I'd love to visit New Zealand some day but if a cruise is in my future it would probably be something in the Caribbean where I could visit several different island (countries). Thanks for the headsup NYPaddleCacher. I won't be visiting Disney but it does seem as though many of the traditional caches in the area that I will be in are in need of maintenance so could be a challenging trip in regards to caching. Quote Link to comment
+SageTracey Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Just wondering for those that travel with their work; what is your job? I'd probably love it in the future Market research for audiologists. Quote Link to comment
+SageTracey Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 NZ is very cool though and I highly recommend it, but for what it's worth I don't know if a cruise is the best way about exploring it. So many wonderful mountains to explore! No, definitely fly in and grab a car, rental or otherwise, and explore. It's the only way. You definitely miss out on all the most amazing scenery on a cruise. I hear you but have to take others into account. Quote Link to comment
+TwoNomadicBrits Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I collect also on flag counter on my profile page, so please visit my GC profile page if you can, i can share you Latvian flag if you got this on GC profile, cache or TB page. TNX Ooooooooh not seen one of those before! I've just set mine up (with one lonely flag!) so click on me if you have a second as I'd love a Latvian flag I just left you your second Turkish If anyone wants a Turkish flag, let me know! or a UK flag and I'll switch the vpn on Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Just wondering for those that travel with their work; what is your job? I'd probably love it in the future Astronomer. Speaking of, looks like I'm going observing for a week at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, in June. I was last in Arizona a decade ago, pre geocaching for sure, so yay new state for the stats! (Not on Kitt Peak tho as that's on an Indian reservation, I'll have to nab one while in Tucson.) I don't know if there is a cache still there but there was one in Tucson near a bridge where thousands of bats come out at dusk and fly away. If you're not deathly afraid of bats it's really cool to see, but I'd go for the cache before the hundreds of people arrive to watch the show. I've also been to Congress bridge in Austin where there are even more bats than the bridge in Tucson. I was only able to find a few caches in Tucson near my hotel (which was right next to that bridge and a good place to stay if you're looking for a hotel) but those mountains to the east looked pretty inviting for a strenuous hike. Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I collect also on flag counter on my profile page, so please visit my GC profile page if you can, i can share you Latvian flag if you got this on GC profile, cache or TB page. TNX Ooooooooh not seen one of those before! I've just set mine up (with one lonely flag!) so click on me if you have a second as I'd love a Latvian flag I just left you your second Turkish If anyone wants a Turkish flag, let me know! or a UK flag and I'll switch the vpn on I promised someone that had a flag counter on their page I'd try to get an Ethiopian flag for their profile when I was there a couple of months ago but forgot all about it when I was there. There are no specific plans yet but I might be able to provide a Kenyan and possibly one from Uganda some time in the spring. Quote Link to comment
+Oxford Stone Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Just wondering for those that travel with their work; what is your job? I'd probably love it in the future Astronomer. Speaking of, looks like I'm going observing for a week at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, in June. I was last in Arizona a decade ago, pre geocaching for sure, so yay new state for the stats! (Not on Kitt Peak tho as that's on an Indian reservation, I'll have to nab one while in Tucson.) I sell software to the French market from the UK and as such am often taking the train under the English Channel. This inspired me to dream up http://coord.info/GC5G49W You're A Star, a multi with clues at either end of the train journey. After a spate of rude messages from Parisians accusing me of breaking the rules, it's doing quite well. Brazil holiday booked. Precisely 2 caches to go for. Quote Link to comment
+The Leprechauns Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Pleased to announce that Israel/Jordan is booked for March. As I said earlier that means Palestine is also a possibility, but I think I'll play that one by ear. It looks like there is one in Jericho, and one near Bethlehem towards the Shepherd's Fields, but I don't want to commit to anything yet until I'm there and can ask around about the situation at hand. I have never ever had occasion to post in this thread, but I'm excited to be able to do so now. I will be traveling to Istanbul, Israel and Jordan, staying for 13 days in the middle of May plus a a travel day on either end. (It means missing a Geo-Woodstock that's close to home, but them's the breaks.) I expect we'll be finding some of the same caches! I've already eyed those "Palestine" caches in Bethlehem and Jericho, both of which are on my group's itinerary. Our organizer says that we will skip those locations if there is a tense or active security situation, which is why I'm glad to have a tour company who puts a security officer on our bus. If we stop there, I'm definitely finding those caches if they are within walking distance. I will be traveling with a group of about 40 people from my church on an organized tour, but with some windows of free time for "shopping" which I will spend caching. When we are at a major tourist stop, I will either need to find virtuals and earthcaches, or break away quickly to find a physical cache. Any tips on finding caches when with a large group of non-cachers? Quote Link to comment
+Ambrosia Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Pleased to announce that Israel/Jordan is booked for March. As I said earlier that means Palestine is also a possibility, but I think I'll play that one by ear. It looks like there is one in Jericho, and one near Bethlehem towards the Shepherd's Fields, but I don't want to commit to anything yet until I'm there and can ask around about the situation at hand. I have never ever had occasion to post in this thread, but I'm excited to be able to do so now. I will be traveling to Istanbul, Israel and Jordan, staying for 13 days in the middle of May plus a a travel day on either end. (It means missing a Geo-Woodstock that's close to home, but them's the breaks.) I expect we'll be finding some of the same caches! I've already eyed those "Palestine" caches in Bethlehem and Jericho, both of which are on my group's itinerary. Our organizer says that we will skip those locations if there is a tense or active security situation, which is why I'm glad to have a tour company who puts a security officer on our bus. If we stop there, I'm definitely finding those caches if they are within walking distance. I will be traveling with a group of about 40 people from my church on an organized tour, but with some windows of free time for "shopping" which I will spend caching. When we are at a major tourist stop, I will either need to find virtuals and earthcaches, or break away quickly to find a physical cache. Any tips on finding caches when with a large group of non-cachers? It usually comes down to virtuals and EC's when with a large group. Unfortunately, in reality, you have to set your sites low. I'd just be upfront with them, or at least some of them, so they're amiable to your doing weird things. You may just get some of them to tag along and enjoy the extra curricular activities with you. Just make sure that you get one or two caches in each country, even if it's awkward. You don't want to regret that. I'm excited for you, glad that you can do that trip. All41 still talks about his Greece/Jordan/Israel tour from over 20 years ago. Quote Link to comment
+Michaelcycle Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Pleased to announce that Israel/Jordan is booked for March. As I said earlier that means Palestine is also a possibility, but I think I'll play that one by ear. It looks like there is one in Jericho, and one near Bethlehem towards the Shepherd's Fields, but I don't want to commit to anything yet until I'm there and can ask around about the situation at hand. I have never ever had occasion to post in this thread, but I'm excited to be able to do so now. I will be traveling to Istanbul, Israel and Jordan, staying for 13 days in the middle of May plus a a travel day on either end. (It means missing a Geo-Woodstock that's close to home, but them's the breaks.) I expect we'll be finding some of the same caches! I've already eyed those "Palestine" caches in Bethlehem and Jericho, both of which are on my group's itinerary. Our organizer says that we will skip those locations if there is a tense or active security situation, which is why I'm glad to have a tour company who puts a security officer on our bus. If we stop there, I'm definitely finding those caches if they are within walking distance. I will be traveling with a group of about 40 people from my church on an organized tour, but with some windows of free time for "shopping" which I will spend caching. When we are at a major tourist stop, I will either need to find virtuals and earthcaches, or break away quickly to find a physical cache. Any tips on finding caches when with a large group of non-cachers? I face this prospect a couple times a year but I have the advantage of being on a bicycle. I get as much information about the trip as I can ahead of time: hotel/lodging locations, specific attractions the group is supposed to visit along the way, optional activities (white water rafting, hiking, etc) and scheduled free time. I look for caches that appear interesting that are within walking distance from lodging each evening or nearby during any free time ( and I'm sure I don't have to tell you that I only target those that have recent finds given limited time) Be prepared to get up a little early in the morning to grab a local cache before breakfast if possible. I make sure the guides know that I am skipping a particular attraction to head in another direction for a cache or two that I am interested in and that I WILL be at dinner or whatever on time. I also sprint out early on some rides so I can cache along the regular route without falling behind and giving the guides angina. I have had some success in getting the guides interested in my interest so that one will join me on an off piste excursion (got a country added that way once.) I got the whole tour interested one evening after a few after dinner drinks when we all went out and found a cache in a medieval town in France. You may also find that another member of your group is a geocacher. I had that happen in China and it added to the fun because one guest with an offbeat interest could be considered an annoyance but two guest with the same interest (actually three since Susancycle also caches) will get some consideration. I enjoyed caching in Israel, I hope some day to get to Turkey and to Jordan. Good luck on your trip. Oh, be sure to look at openstreetmaps.org to see what maps are available for you to load in the GPSr before you go (even if you have overseas use of your cellphone, coverage can be limited in some parts of the world.) Use Wi-fi whenever possible to make sure that caches you loaded before leaving are still available (and you never know when you might pick up a fortuitous FTF) Quote Link to comment
+The Leprechauns Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Thank you to Ambrosia and Michaelcycle for the advice. I am pretty lucky because the pastor leading the trip is an archaeologist and biblical history scholar, and the second in command for our group -- an elder of our church -- is a geologist. I hope to interest the archaeologist in anything history-related (physical or virtual) and to interest the geologist in helping me with the earthcaches. There are no geocachers in the group but my roommate knows of my obsession and will go with me on side trips so that I'm never alone. I have already loaded the appropriate OpenStreeMaps on my GPS, and I've been pocket querying all the countries for a few months now since signing up for the trip. Shortly before departure, I will load all the ones I plan on hunting from GSAK into a bookmark list, and then pocket query that bookmark list so that I can download just the pocket query onto my iPhone for use with phone service/wireless internet turned OFF. Quote Link to comment
+raivis_s Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I collect also on flag counter on my profile page, so please visit my GC profile page if you can, i can share you Latvian flag if you got this on GC profile, cache or TB page. TNX Ooooooooh not seen one of those before! I've just set mine up (with one lonely flag!) so click on me if you have a second as I'd love a Latvian flag I just left you your second Turkish If anyone wants a Turkish flag, let me know! or a UK flag and I'll switch the vpn on Thank you, now you have first Latvian visit ) After 2-3 days, flag counter count again hit from my IP adress so I will hit my flag again ) wait for more visits These big size flags are great, do you know if I change the size of it in counter do I will loose all countries that I have collected, I am very afraid of it. If anyone else need Latvia's flag on flagcounter, please leave a reply Quote Link to comment
+raivis_s Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I collect also on flag counter on my profile page, so please visit my GC profile page if you can, i can share you Latvian flag if you got this on GC profile, cache or TB page. TNX Ooooooooh not seen one of those before! I've just set mine up (with one lonely flag!) so click on me if you have a second as I'd love a Latvian flag I just left you your second Turkish If anyone wants a Turkish flag, let me know! or a UK flag and I'll switch the vpn on I promised someone that had a flag counter on their page I'd try to get an Ethiopian flag for their profile when I was there a couple of months ago but forgot all about it when I was there. There are no specific plans yet but I might be able to provide a Kenyan and possibly one from Uganda some time in the spring. That would be awesome!!!! Those countries are rare very, I have never been to Africa. NYPaddleCacher if you are there in Kenya or Uganda, please visit our flagcounters I will be very thankfull I think TwoNomadicBrits also .... Quote Link to comment
+raivis_s Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I also like collecting countries, plans for this year is geotrip to Hungary, collecting also some geocaches in Slovakia, and maybe also trip to China. I collect also on flag counter on my profile page, so please visit my GC profile page if you can, i can share you Latvian flag if you got this on GC profile, cache or TB page. TNX Come and visit my profile - would love to see some exotic flags on my flag counter --- Hyackman (Bruce) Welcome on flag counter, first visit from Latvia Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Pleased to announce that Israel/Jordan is booked for March. As I said earlier that means Palestine is also a possibility, but I think I'll play that one by ear. It looks like there is one in Jericho, and one near Bethlehem towards the Shepherd's Fields, but I don't want to commit to anything yet until I'm there and can ask around about the situation at hand. I have never ever had occasion to post in this thread, but I'm excited to be able to do so now. I will be traveling to Istanbul, Israel and Jordan, staying for 13 days in the middle of May plus a a travel day on either end. (It means missing a Geo-Woodstock that's close to home, but them's the breaks.) I expect we'll be finding some of the same caches! I've already eyed those "Palestine" caches in Bethlehem and Jericho, both of which are on my group's itinerary. Our organizer says that we will skip those locations if there is a tense or active security situation, which is why I'm glad to have a tour company who puts a security officer on our bus. If we stop there, I'm definitely finding those caches if they are within walking distance. I will be traveling with a group of about 40 people from my church on an organized tour, but with some windows of free time for "shopping" which I will spend caching. When we are at a major tourist stop, I will either need to find virtuals and earthcaches, or break away quickly to find a physical cache. Any tips on finding caches when with a large group of non-cachers? Welcome to the country collectors thread, the friendliest thread in the forums. I wish I would have had more time to spend in Istanbul but I thought that the ones I found near Hagia Sofia would be fairly easy to grab, even with a group. You might want to contact omaggo, from Istanbul. He's posted a bunch in the All Nations forum. He even created a "Geocache Istanbul" patch that he'll give to travelers that have found a cache in Istanbul. CJ (from Russia) has also been to Istanbul a few times and might give you some suggestions. Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Pleased to announce that Israel/Jordan is booked for March. As I said earlier that means Palestine is also a possibility, but I think I'll play that one by ear. It looks like there is one in Jericho, and one near Bethlehem towards the Shepherd's Fields, but I don't want to commit to anything yet until I'm there and can ask around about the situation at hand. I have never ever had occasion to post in this thread, but I'm excited to be able to do so now. I will be traveling to Istanbul, Israel and Jordan, staying for 13 days in the middle of May plus a a travel day on either end. (It means missing a Geo-Woodstock that's close to home, but them's the breaks.) I expect we'll be finding some of the same caches! I've already eyed those "Palestine" caches in Bethlehem and Jericho, both of which are on my group's itinerary. Our organizer says that we will skip those locations if there is a tense or active security situation, which is why I'm glad to have a tour company who puts a security officer on our bus. If we stop there, I'm definitely finding those caches if they are within walking distance. I will be traveling with a group of about 40 people from my church on an organized tour, but with some windows of free time for "shopping" which I will spend caching. When we are at a major tourist stop, I will either need to find virtuals and earthcaches, or break away quickly to find a physical cache. Any tips on finding caches when with a large group of non-cachers? It usually comes down to virtuals and EC's when with a large group. Unfortunately, in reality, you have to set your sites low. I'd just be upfront with them, or at least some of them, so they're amiable to your doing weird things. You may just get some of them to tag along and enjoy the extra curricular activities with you. Just make sure that you get one or two caches in each country, even if it's awkward. You don't want to regret that. I'm excited for you, glad that you can do that trip. All41 still talks about his Greece/Jordan/Israel tour from over 20 years ago. I want echo Ambrosia's advice to keep your expectations low (in terms of numbers) but try to find at least 1-2 caches in each country. When I was in Dubai I DNFd the first two caches I tried to find. The same thing happened to me in Brussels. Fortunately I was able to find one cache in each country. Pick out a few caches that will have the highest likelihood for a find and read the recent logs to make sure that they've been recently found. When I was in Costa Rica in August there were three caches within a 1/2 mile or so of the hotel I was staying at and all three were obviously missing (two of them haven't been found for almost three years). Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I collect also on flag counter on my profile page, so please visit my GC profile page if you can, i can share you Latvian flag if you got this on GC profile, cache or TB page. TNX Ooooooooh not seen one of those before! I've just set mine up (with one lonely flag!) so click on me if you have a second as I'd love a Latvian flag I just left you your second Turkish If anyone wants a Turkish flag, let me know! or a UK flag and I'll switch the vpn on I promised someone that had a flag counter on their page I'd try to get an Ethiopian flag for their profile when I was there a couple of months ago but forgot all about it when I was there. There are no specific plans yet but I might be able to provide a Kenyan and possibly one from Uganda some time in the spring. That would be awesome!!!! Those countries are rare very, I have never been to Africa. NYPaddleCacher if you are there in Kenya or Uganda, please visit our flagcounters I will be very thankfull I think TwoNomadicBrits also .... Confidence level for going on the Kenya/Uganda trip is fairly low (perhaps around 10%) but I'll post here if it looks like I'm going and you can remind me about your flag counter. I was actually very close to buying my tickets for a Kenya/Uganda trip a couple of months ago but it fell through at the last minute and I ended up going to Ethiopia for 10 days instead. If I *do* go to Kenya/Uganda it'll be my 7th visit to Africa in the last seven years. Quote Link to comment
+TwoNomadicBrits Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 (edited) Welcome here! Left a Qatar flag at your profile Come and visit my profile - would love to see some exotic flags on my flag counter --- Hyackman (Bruce) I hit you with my Turkish flag Hyackman, noticed you didn't have UK so switched the VPN on and then managed to hit you twice because it didn't look like it worked on one devise so I switched to another and all of a sudden you had two!! Thank you for the Qatar flag Terratin - almost makes up for not having started caching when we went on holiday to Qatar in 2013 (ok, maybe not!!) Edited February 3, 2015 by TwoNomadicBrits Quote Link to comment
+TwoNomadicBrits Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 These big size flags are great, do you know if I change the size of it in counter do I will loose all countries that I have collected, I am very afraid of it. I chose the medium flags with more columns because I wanted it to go across the width of the page like the Project-GC stats (in an OCD tidiness kind of way!). I've just had a look at the site and you can modify it by making changes to the HTML code explained here: Modifying FAQ, although it warns you to be very careful!! Oh, and thank you for the Latvian flag... again we visited Latvia pre-caching so I doubt I will pick up any real caches there... but you never know! Best wishes Quote Link to comment
+TwoNomadicBrits Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I promised someone that had a flag counter on their page I'd try to get an Ethiopian flag for their profile when I was there a couple of months ago but forgot all about it when I was there. There are no specific plans yet but I might be able to provide a Kenyan and possibly one from Uganda some time in the spring. NYPaddleCacher if you are there in Kenya or Uganda, please visit our flagcounters I will be very thankfull I think TwoNomadicBrits also .... Confidence level for going on the Kenya/Uganda trip is fairly low (perhaps around 10%) but I'll post here if it looks like I'm going and you can remind me about your flag counter. I was actually very close to buying my tickets for a Kenya/Uganda trip a couple of months ago but it fell through at the last minute and I ended up going to Ethiopia for 10 days instead. If I *do* go to Kenya/Uganda it'll be my 7th visit to Africa in the last seven years. Thank you I never even thought of the effect of being overseas on the counter (obviously I did on the collecting countries for caches!). We are in Thailand at the end of the month where I hope to pick up at least a couple of caches (and will provide some flag counter clicks too). It will be the 9th country we've collected in 4 months of caching, but will be the last for a while. I really wish we still lived in mainland Europe Quote Link to comment
+TwoNomadicBrits Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Pleased to announce that Israel/Jordan is booked for March. As I said earlier that means Palestine is also a possibility, but I think I'll play that one by ear. It looks like there is one in Jericho, and one near Bethlehem towards the Shepherd's Fields, but I don't want to commit to anything yet until I'm there and can ask around about the situation at hand. I have never ever had occasion to post in this thread, but I'm excited to be able to do so now. I will be traveling to Istanbul, Israel and Jordan, staying for 13 days in the middle of May plus a a travel day on either end. (It means missing a Geo-Woodstock that's close to home, but them's the breaks.) I expect we'll be finding some of the same caches! I've already eyed those "Palestine" caches in Bethlehem and Jericho, both of which are on my group's itinerary. Our organizer says that we will skip those locations if there is a tense or active security situation, which is why I'm glad to have a tour company who puts a security officer on our bus. If we stop there, I'm definitely finding those caches if they are within walking distance. It will be fantastic! I stayed in Beit Sahur on a volunteering programme in 2012 (again, pre-caching), and I tried to work out from the listing where the Shepherds Field cache is in relation to the Shepherds Field (where the church is) that the tour will take you too. If it not in the same gardens/field, then it looks like it's on the same street but I can't tell how far from the location the tour will take you to. The Temptation cache in Jericho - arghhhhhhhhh (I might have to stop looking at this thread, although at least both of these have been placed after my 2012 visit!) I went there on my own - there is a fabulous view from the mountain. The gate series someone has placed around Jerusalem also look good for your trip - easy to find the gates if you get free time in the city Enjoy your trip and good luck with the caches Quote Link to comment
+Andromeda321 Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Pleased to announce that Israel/Jordan is booked for March. As I said earlier that means Palestine is also a possibility, but I think I'll play that one by ear. It looks like there is one in Jericho, and one near Bethlehem towards the Shepherd's Fields, but I don't want to commit to anything yet until I'm there and can ask around about the situation at hand. I have never ever had occasion to post in this thread, but I'm excited to be able to do so now. I will be traveling to Istanbul, Israel and Jordan, staying for 13 days in the middle of May plus a a travel day on either end. (It means missing a Geo-Woodstock that's close to home, but them's the breaks.) I expect we'll be finding some of the same caches! I've already eyed those "Palestine" caches in Bethlehem and Jericho, both of which are on my group's itinerary. Our organizer says that we will skip those locations if there is a tense or active security situation, which is why I'm glad to have a tour company who puts a security officer on our bus. If we stop there, I'm definitely finding those caches if they are within walking distance. I will be traveling with a group of about 40 people from my church on an organized tour, but with some windows of free time for "shopping" which I will spend caching. When we are at a major tourist stop, I will either need to find virtuals and earthcaches, or break away quickly to find a physical cache. Any tips on finding caches when with a large group of non-cachers? Oh, very cool, and welcome to the thread for exploring the big wide world via geocaching! (Btw in contrast, small world but you found one of my caches once, when my parents still lived on Foxhurst Dr north of Pittsburgh...) I've found geocaches before when on tours with others, and usually people are pretty cool with it and some are actually quite interested. One good icebreaker is before getting somewhere to fiddle with your GPS a little in public while the group is waiting, as then others in the group will inevitably ask what your GPS is, and you can explain about geocaching. Then when you see you're near one and say "excuse me" and step away a minute (which I've done sometimes when you realize you're in a square, say, and would rather find the cache quickly during a guide's narration) then people know what you're up to and you don't get questions then. Put it this way, everyone's got eccentricities that become apparent when traveling, and our tendency to wander off is a mild one so long as you don't get lost and disappear completely (as most people are more busy snapping photos than caring about geocaching). Beats the guy who stumbles back drunk at 2am for his eccentricity, you know? Otherwise, normal geosenses prevail, except the only other one that's sometimes important abroad is to remember you're much more likely to attract Muggle attention depending on the country. Not sure how it is in the Middle East- I suspect Israel might be fairly normal (I remember Istanbul wasn't much of a hassle) but touts in Jordan might be a different story. Ah well guess I'll find out, and it looks like the Jordan ones are likely to be virtuals/Earthcaches (as my main stops there are Petra and Wadi Rum). Anyway, I'll be sure to post how it goes now! Nice thing is I noticed my hostel in Jerusalem arranges a "best of the West Bank" day tour that goes to Jericho and Bethlehem, so I might opt for that over visiting Tel Aviv at the end, as I was sorta thinking of earlier. At the end of the day geocaches aside I'm primarily interested in history, so I think in the interests of time those sites win over a modern city. Quote Link to comment
+terratin Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 Welcome here! Left a Qatar flag at your profile Come and visit my profile - would love to see some exotic flags on my flag counter --- Hyackman (Bruce) I hit you with my Turkish flag Hyackman, noticed you didn't have UK so switched the VPN on and then managed to hit you twice because it didn't look like it worked on one devise so I switched to another and all of a sudden you had two!! Thank you for the Qatar flag Terratin - almost makes up for not having started caching when we went on holiday to Qatar in 2013 (ok, maybe not!!) That's an unusual destination for a vacation! Sure, there are things to see here and there, but I would not call it the classical holiday destination Next time you're around drop me a line or two. Then we can have an event or take you out cache, depending on the day of the week. Mrs. terratin Quote Link to comment
+terratin Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 (edited) Petra and Wadi Rum: we found quite a few traditional caches in both places! Though we had a private tour guide in Wadi Rum who knew about geocaching (and helped us to a FTF), and we visited Petra on our own. We almost rented a car to drive up to Petra (every traffic pales in comparison to Qatar), but found out taking a driver was not more expensive, but much more relaxing. Both places are really beautiful! Btw, there's a rather difficult EC in Aqaba, or so I'm told I guess Israel won't be an option for a while, unless we get new passports. Our Iran plans are slowly coming together now. Edited February 3, 2015 by terratin Quote Link to comment
+diosma1 Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 (edited) Does anyone use specialized websites to look random cheap flight deals, I found one from UAE to Phillipines for 54 cents once! Edited February 3, 2015 by diosma1 Quote Link to comment
Glory Hunters Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Does anyone use specialized websites to look random cheap flight deals, I found one from UAE to Phillipines for 54 cents once! I use skyscanner and kayak, it's always worked Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Does anyone use specialized websites to look random cheap flight deals, I found one from UAE to Phillipines for 54 cents once! I use kayak.com/explore and google.com/flights to find cheap deals. Both allow you specify a departure location, then shows prices for various cities on a map so on can easy see that if, for example, if I fly from one of the NYC airports (JFK, LGA, EWR) which destinations in Europe will be the least expensive. I might discover that looking at r/t flights form NYC to Rome, Italy would cost $896, but if I flew to Milan it would cost $745 r/t and then I could check the price of a r/t ticket via rail between Milan and Rome. The other site I've used occasionally is Matrix Airfare Search It's good for showing lots of difference options for connecting flights but once you've found the flights you want you need to use some other site for booking tickets. Whenever possible I try book the actual tickets using the carriers web site. Quote Link to comment
+Hyack Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Welcome here! Left a Qatar flag at your profile Come and visit my profile - would love to see some exotic flags on my flag counter --- Hyackman (Bruce) I hit you with my Turkish flag Hyackman, noticed you didn't have UK so switched the VPN on and then managed to hit you twice because it didn't look like it worked on one devise so I switched to another and all of a sudden you had two!! Thank you for the Qatar flag Terratin - almost makes up for not having started caching when we went on holiday to Qatar in 2013 (ok, maybe not!!) That's an unusual destination for a vacation! Sure, there are things to see here and there, but I would not call it the classical holiday destination Next time you're around drop me a line or two. Then we can have an event or take you out cache, depending on the day of the week. Mrs. terratin Quote Link to comment
+Hyack Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Thanks for the flags ... you have me started! Any & all flags welcome ... - Hyackman (Bruce) Quote Link to comment
+Hyack Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Welcome here! Left a Qatar flag at your profile Come and visit my profile - would love to see some exotic flags on my flag counter --- Hyackman (Bruce) I hit you with my Turkish flag Hyackman, noticed you didn't have UK so switched the VPN on and then managed to hit you twice because it didn't look like it worked on one devise so I switched to another and all of a sudden you had two!! Thank you for the Qatar flag Terratin - almost makes up for not having started caching when we went on holiday to Qatar in 2013 (ok, maybe not!!) That's an unusual destination for a vacation! Sure, there are things to see here and there, but I would not call it the classical holiday destination Next time you're around drop me a line or two. Then we can have an event or take you out cache, depending on the day of the week. Mrs. terratin Dropped you some Canadian flags - thanks! Quote Link to comment
+TwoNomadicBrits Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Thank you for the Qatar flag Terratin - almost makes up for not having started caching when we went on holiday to Qatar in 2013 (ok, maybe not!!) That's an unusual destination for a vacation! Sure, there are things to see here and there, but I would not call it the classical holiday destination Next time you're around drop me a line or two. Then we can have an event or take you out cache, depending on the day of the week. Mrs. terratin I know - we are random holiday-goers! We went on holiday to Kuwait to visit friends, and stopped for 4 days in Qatar on the way back because it was one of the few Middle East countries we had not been to. Thank you for the kind offer - let me know if you are in Turkey and I'll do the same Quote Link to comment
+TwoNomadicBrits Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 I've found geocaches before when on tours with others, and usually people are pretty cool with it and some are actually quite interested. One good icebreaker is before getting somewhere to fiddle with your GPS a little in public while the group is waiting, as then others in the group will inevitably ask what your GPS is, and you can explain about geocaching. Then when you see you're near one and say "excuse me" and step away a minute (which I've done sometimes when you realize you're in a square, say, and would rather find the cache quickly during a guide's narration) then people know what you're up to and you don't get questions then. Put it this way, everyone's got eccentricities that become apparent when traveling, and our tendency to wander off is a mild one so long as you don't get lost and disappear completely (as most people are more busy snapping photos than caring about geocaching). Beats the guy who stumbles back drunk at 2am for his eccentricity, you know? (snipped) Anyway, I'll be sure to post how it goes now! Nice thing is I noticed my hostel in Jerusalem arranges a "best of the West Bank" day tour that goes to Jericho and Bethlehem, so I might opt for that over visiting Tel Aviv at the end, as I was sorta thinking of earlier. At the end of the day geocaches aside I'm primarily interested in history, so I think in the interests of time those sites win over a modern city. Thanks to everyone who has given advice on caching with groups - we don't often take a tour but we have on a couple of occasions when time is tight and there's a lot to see. I like the idea of getting the gps out - I guess any other geocachers in the group will also identify themselves to you when they see it I had thought I would have to wait until free time at the hotel and just hope there was one nearby, but this has given me confidence that there is a possibility to cache as you go. Re Israel/Palestine - I would definitely opt for the West Bank trip. Although I did a lovely walk around the coast to Jaffa to kill my time there, it is a big city much like any other. Please post how your trip goes - I would love to go back.... but I just got a new passport and so I need to wait for a few years until it's nearly full again before I get a stamp that stops me going to places Quote Link to comment
+terratin Posted February 4, 2015 Author Share Posted February 4, 2015 Thank you for the Qatar flag Terratin - almost makes up for not having started caching when we went on holiday to Qatar in 2013 (ok, maybe not!!) That's an unusual destination for a vacation! Sure, there are things to see here and there, but I would not call it the classical holiday destination Next time you're around drop me a line or two. Then we can have an event or take you out cache, depending on the day of the week. Mrs. terratin I know - we are random holiday-goers! We went on holiday to Kuwait to visit friends, and stopped for 4 days in Qatar on the way back because it was one of the few Middle East countries we had not been to. Thank you for the kind offer - let me know if you are in Turkey and I'll do the same Wow, thanks a lot! Shame there don't seem to be any cachers anymore in Kuwait, outside of military installations. Which reminds me, we're going in just over two weeks. We need to decide whether to rent a car for some desert caching or not. Quote Link to comment
+Tricyclebob Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Is Wales a separate country or just considered to be part of the UK? Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 (edited) Is Wales a separate country or just considered to be part of the UK? The list of countries and territories that GS uses is based on the U.N. Geopolitical ontology, though there are several other standards lists of country/territory names (e.g. the ISO-3166 standard). ISO-3166 is an international standard which defines 2 and 3 letter codes (eg. the three letter ISO code for the United Kingdom is GBR) and a numeric code for officially recognized countries and sub-divisions and the UN Geopolitical ontology closely matches the ISO-3166 standard. Neither source recognizes Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland as distinct countries and includes them all as part of the UK. Edited February 4, 2015 by NYPaddleCacher Quote Link to comment
+Tricyclebob Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Thanks for that. Shame really. I wish I started caching years ago because I travelled on business to virtually all the countries in Europe and all of the Scandinavian ones and never found a one. Previously I have been to many others on the Atlantic side and several in the Med when in the Royal Navy before geocaching was a twinkle in the eye even. Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Thanks for that. Shame really. I wish I started caching years ago because I travelled on business to virtually all the countries in Europe and all of the Scandinavian ones and never found a one. Previously I have been to many others on the Atlantic side and several in the Med when in the Royal Navy before geocaching was a twinkle in the eye even. You're certainly not alone in that regard. Before I started geocaching I had only been in two countries outside of the U.S. (Canada and Mexico), except for a trip just before I started to Switzerland and Italy. Since I started geocaching I've been to 25 different countries (I wasn't able to find a cache in four of them), and ironically I still haven't found a cache in Mexico or Canada. Quote Link to comment
+Ambrosia Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Yeah, I missed three countries before caching (before it existed): US Virgin Islands, Belize and Guatemala. I don't anticipate ever going back to the last two, although I wouldn't mind visiting St. Thomas again. My husband has at least four more countries on top of that (maybe more, if my memory is faulty): Greece, Jordan, Israel and New Zealand. I also need to catch up on my states, since I've visited 49 of them, but have only cached in 38. I'm hoping to add a few states this year. Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Yeah, I missed three countries before caching (before it existed): US Virgin Islands, Belize and Guatemala. I don't anticipate ever going back to the last two, although I wouldn't mind visiting St. Thomas again. My husband has at least four more countries on top of that (maybe more, if my memory is faulty): Greece, Jordan, Israel and New Zealand. I also need to catch up on my states, since I've visited 49 of them, but have only cached in 38. I'm hoping to add a few states this year. I haven't been in as many states as you have but there are a few of them them that I've previously visit but not since I started geocaching. One of those states is Oregon and up until this morning I thought I'd be going to Portland for a developers meeting next month but my schedule is going be so busy over the next month and a half that my boss said that he didn't see how I'd the time to spend a few days away from my office and properly prepare for the meeting. It's not the first time I've had trip cancelled or delayed and so far my boss hasn't figured out that my workload is probably going to be pretty much the same six months or a year from now. Quote Link to comment
+terratin Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 (edited) I missed only two countries I think: China and Finland, though I only had a lengthy layover at Helsinki Airport, and the caches there are relatively new. Caught up with the other missed countries by now, which were all in Europe anyway. We're currently planning a Europe family visit trip.. well.. kind of. It will include visiting the International Earthcache event in Germany, and until the location is not published we can't do too much planning. But theoretically we'd fly to Frankfurt (not many direct connections from Qatar to Germany/NL anyway and FRA has most flights per day), drive to southern Belgium for a night for http://coord.info/GC40 then drive on to NL, then the event and my parents in Germany, and back to the airport. Of course, if the event turns out to be in Munich then we need to think differently Edited February 5, 2015 by terratin Quote Link to comment
+TwoNomadicBrits Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Thanks for that. Shame really. I wish I started caching years ago because I travelled on business to virtually all the countries in Europe and all of the Scandinavian ones and never found a one. Previously I have been to many others on the Atlantic side and several in the Med when in the Royal Navy before geocaching was a twinkle in the eye even. You're certainly not alone in that regard. Before I started geocaching I had only been in two countries outside of the U.S. (Canada and Mexico), except for a trip just before I started to Switzerland and Italy. Since I started geocaching I've been to 25 different countries (I wasn't able to find a cache in four of them), and ironically I still haven't found a cache in Mexico or Canada. Yup, definitely not alone Tricyclebob - I feel your pain! If I had been a geocacher from it's inception in 2000 (unlikely, but just supposing), I would have potentially cached in 65 countries as at todays date That is counting Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau (technically China), Palestine, Kosovo and Vatican City (unrecognised by the UN), excluding transit places where we didn't leave the airport (I don't count these as having 'visited'), and also assuming that I found at least one - or there was one to find! I'd been to 68 countries before I started geocaching in November 2014 - being in Europe definitely helps with collecting countries! ... and I'm a bit travel obsessive. Them's the breaks I suppose And now of course, I have a new motivation to go back to countries I've already visited. Quote Link to comment
Glory Hunters Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I think this has happened to all of us in my case, I've visited 29 countries overall, and have "only" geocached in 19 of them (recently added Slovakia and Hungary). Still missing: Belgium, Monaco, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia, Morocco, Ireland and... Andorra, which happens to be less than 2 hours by car from home (I hope to grab it soon, I just hve to find a full day to go there to find a cache in all provinces ). However travelling around Europe is quite easy and cheap, so I'm sure I will visit all of those again. I would be more concerned if I had visited USA, Mexico, Turkey, Argentina and Kosovo before I started geocaching. Luckily that was after discovering this great hobby Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Yup, definitely not alone Tricyclebob - I feel your pain! If I had been a geocacher from it's inception in 2000 (unlikely, but just supposing), I would have potentially cached in 65 countries as at todays date That is counting Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau (technically China), Palestine, Kosovo and Vatican City (unrecognised by the UN), excluding transit places where we didn't leave the airport (I don't count these as having 'visited'), and also assuming that I found at least one - or there was one to find! I'd been to 68 countries before I started geocaching in November 2014 - being in Europe definitely helps with collecting countries! ... and I'm a bit travel obsessive. Them's the breaks I suppose And now of course, I have a new motivation to go back to countries I've already visited. I had assume that Vatican City State was officially recognized but I just checked as site I'm developing which uses the UN geopolitical ontology and you're right. It's kinda of odd considering you can see it from a UN organization I've visited many times (FAO). I've got several pictures I've taken from the top floor at FAO which has a terrace that wraps around the cafeteria. It over looks Circo Massimo and has a nice view of the Colosseum and Roman Forum. The Vatican (with an official name of holy sea) is on the ISO-3166 list, and more importantly is included on the list of countries/territories that GS uses. For "counting" countries in which we have found a cache, GS does that for us on our Stats page and will count any country/territory for which they have assigned a countryID (which includes Vatican City/State). They have also messed things up with the Netherland Antilles, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten debacle but that's another issue. I don't count countries I have visited if I haven't left the airport either. If I did, I would have visited Kenya four times now. I'm on the fence about Norway. I *did* leave the airport terminal and have an entry/exit stamp in my passport but I didn't stray very far. Typically if I am going to have a layover in a country I have not yet visited I try to schedule my flights such that i have a layover long enough that I can get out and visit the city a bit, even if it's only for a few hours. On several trips I've scheduled an overnight layover, which meant booking a hotel for the night but, to me, it's worth the expense if I get he opportunity to check out the city a bit. Quote Link to comment
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