collecting countries

1.7k · June 5, 2018

Just got back from another epic trip adding a few more countries to the growing list.

The reason - being best man at a mate's wedding in Canada (not a new country for me, having spent quite a lot of time there over the years but only having 1 cache find there!)

So built an itinerary that went: NZ to UK via LAX, up to Isle of Man (new), back to the mainland and then across to Ireland (new), and then on to Canada where I got 3 new provinces for me. Then it was on to Iceland (new) and then Svalbard (new) via Oslo where I grabbed half a dozen caches walking from the airport. After an amazing time in Svalbard it was back to the UK and down to Guernsey (new) and Jersey (new) before back to London and home to NZ.

6 new countries and a whole bunch of associated souvenirs added, taking me to 76 countries total. It's getting more difficult to find countries that are new and not too difficult to get to, but I suppose that is the fun of the challenge - if it was easy, I probably wouldn't bother...

7.3k · July 4, 2018

We are about to head out to SE Asia. We will be spending most of our time in the Philippines (but mostly on an island with only three caches). The rest of the countries that we are visiting, we will be spending only a short time there. The other countries are Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, China (Hong Kong), Singapore, and a week and a half in Western Australia.

We really haven't spent very much time planning this trip, we are very caught up in moving right now. It's major crazy times right now. :wacko: We'll be mostly flying by the seat of our pants, which is a new one for us.

14k · July 5, 2018

On 7/4/2018 at 4:05 AM, Ambrosia said:

We are about to head out to SE Asia. We will be spending most of our time in the Philippines (but mostly on an island with only three caches). The rest of the countries that we are visiting, we will be spending only a short time there. The other countries are Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, China (Hong Kong), Singapore, and a week and a half in Western Australia.

We really haven't spent very much time planning this trip, we are very caught up in moving right now. It's major crazy times right now. We'll be mostly flying by the seat of our pants, which is a new one for us.

How much time to you have in Singapore? If I recall, it takes about a half hour on the train from their airport to the central city but if you have the time it's worth visiting. You can also just stay near Changi and there are a few caches near the airport or if you have time, you can take a boat over to Pulau Bin island, rent a bicycle and find a bunch there. Don't forget the Butterfly Garden cache, a traditional in the airport.

Where are you going in Malaysia? I went from Singapore directly to Sarawak region (aka Borneo) to a nice little town of Kuching.

I picked up countries #28 (Kenya) and #29 (United Kingdom) on my most recent trip. There is a decent possibility that I'll be going back to Kenya in November and that I can combine it with a conference in Gaborone, Botswana. I didn't do as much geocaching as I had planned in Kenya. I had originally planned on visited the Karura forest park which has quite a few caches but a meeting got rescheduled and jet lag got in the way. I was only able to stop at two locations where there were caches during the 9 days I was in the country. One of them was in Masai Mara reserve (while on a 3 day safari). We stopped for a bathroom break and to pay the entrance fee (our driver did that) and I jumped out and started to walk towards the cache there. I got to within 20 feet when an armed guard stopped me and said I couldn't go any further without an escort. As we were about to continue the drive another guard said he'd take me across the bridge across the Mara river (which, apparently is full of crocodiles and hippos, thus the requirement of an armed escort) but we didn't stop on the way back through. The cache was apparently "20 steps from the start of the bridge". My only find was an earthcache at the Great Rift Valley overlook.

7.3k · July 6, 2018

17 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

How much time to you have in Singapore? If I recall, it takes about a half hour on the train from their airport to the central city but if you have the time it's worth visiting. You can also just stay near Changi and there are a few caches near the airport or if you have time, you can take a boat over to Pulau Bin island, rent a bicycle and find a bunch there. Don't forget the Butterfly Garden cache, a traditional in the airport.

Where are you going in Malaysia? I went from Singapore directly to Sarawak region (aka Borneo) to a nice little town of Kuching.

We're spending a little over 2 days in Singapore. We're only going to be in Malaysia for several hours. Just enough to get out of the airport say we saw it.

Thanks for the recommendations.

14k · July 16, 2018

I finalized all my travel plans for a trip to Belgium in August. I'm participating in a technical workshop and it's scheduled such that I'll have a free weekend during the workshop. I've done just a little geocaching in Belgium but there are a few in the town in which I'll be staying (Hasselt) and I'll have some free time in Brussels as well. Over the weekend I'm going to take the train from Hasselt to a little town in Luxembourg (Ettelbruck) just to stay overnight in a hotel and hopefully find a few caches. If I do, it'll be my 30th country and the 15th country in Europe. I've also got an overnight layover in Dublin both directions and might try to grab Europe's 1st.

July 17, 2018

Annoyingly I only discovered geocaching in 2014 after having travelled to many countries on holiday, particularly USA and Canada. If only I had started caching earlier, I would have probably had at 12-15 US states on my countries list by now!!

We do enjoy going on cruises and I usually manage to get one or two caches in each place we stop at, so can easily add a few more countries during each holiday.

4.6k · July 17, 2018

1 hour ago, Gatwick Girl said:

Annoyingly I only discovered geocaching in 2014 after having travelled to many countries on holiday, particularly USA and Canada.

Same here, not only a lot of US states (including AK and HI) on trips from TX to IL, NV to SD, but also BC and AB. Then there's a bunch of countries too and three states down under. Then again, there's still a lot out there (but I very much doubt we'll get to any US states again).

This year we'll add Argentina and Falkland Islands and we're still looking for a possibility to add Luxembourg, only a measly 250Km from home.

10.1k · July 17, 2018

3 hours ago, Gatwick Girl said:

Annoyingly I only discovered geocaching in 2014 after having travelled to many countries on holiday, particularly USA and Canada. If only I had started caching earlier, I would have probably had at 12-15 US states on my countries list by now!!

I've been to 47 states, but only geocaches in 29.

July 19, 2018

Just got back from a trip to Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea, adding 4 countries to my list. There were many options for caches to find in the more touristy areas and I was able to use my iPhone to locate them. There is no country souvenir for Indonesia, however. Does anyone know how to ask HQ to develop one or to check when it might be produced?

13.7k · July 19, 2018

6 minutes ago, mamabluefairy said:

Does anyone know how to ask HQ to develop one or to check when it might be produced?

Sure, just click on the "Contact Us" link on the bottom of this, and most site pages (caches too).

1.3k · July 20, 2018

On 16/07/2018 at 7:59 PM, NYPaddleCacher said:

I finalized all my travel plans for a trip to Belgium in August. I'm participating in a technical workshop and it's scheduled such that I'll have a free weekend during the workshop. I've done just a little geocaching in Belgium but there are a few in the town in which I'll be staying (Hasselt) and I'll have some free time in Brussels as well. Over the weekend I'm going to take the train from Hasselt to a little town in Luxembourg (Ettelbruck) just to stay overnight in a hotel and hopefully find a few caches. If I do, it'll be my 30th country and the 15th country in Europe. I've also got an overnight layover in Dublin both directions and might try to grab Europe's 1st.

Just back from Denmark and Sweden. Spotted your name when flicking through the logbook of a cache in Malmö!

July 20, 2018

Like Funkymunkyzone, we have also just returned from Svalbard where we collected 11 caches. As Svalbard is a Norwegian territory we expected to gain a Norway souvenir and, just maybe, a souvenir for Svalbard itself. But no, nothing! It doesn't put us off caching while travelling though!

July 20, 2018

Not every one has enough money to go more than a a few hundred miles from home.

4.6k · July 20, 2018

11 minutes ago, Jayeffel said:

Not every one has enough money to go more than a a few hundred miles from home.

Correct. I consider myself very lucky to have been born in a developed country and to have been paid decently. The more we travel (I traveled since I was 7) the more we realize how lucky we are. Wherever we go we try to use local services (stay in B&B instead of multinational hotel, local tour organizer for trips) in order to support the local economy.

OTOH, crossing borders and collecting countries from where we live is easy. The Netherlands are just over half an hour away, France is about an hour, Germany is less than 2 hours and Luxembourg just over 2 hours. Even London can be reached by high speed train in 2 hours.

14k · July 20, 2018

2 hours ago, Talpa europaea said:

Like Funkymunkyzone, we have also just returned from Svalbard where we collected 11 caches. As Svalbard is a Norwegian territory we expected to gain a Norway souvenir and, just maybe, a souvenir for Svalbard itself. But no, nothing! It doesn't put us off caching while travelling though!

As much as I would like to get a souvenir for finding a cache in a country I have not previously visited, this thread is called "country collectors" and is more about finding caches in and visited different countries.

14k · July 20, 2018

1 hour ago, on4bam said:

Correct. I consider myself very lucky to have been born in a developed country and to have been paid decently. The more we travel (I traveled since I was 7) the more we realize how lucky we are. Wherever we go we try to use local services (stay in B&B instead of multinational hotel, local tour organizer for trips) in order to support the local economy.

OTOH, crossing borders and collecting countries from where we live is easy. The Netherlands are just over half an hour away, France is about an hour, Germany is less than 2 hours and Luxembourg just over 2 hours. Even London can be reached by high speed train in 2 hours.

Its' definitely a lot easier to collect countries if one lives in Europe. Those that have been reading this thread for sometime probably remember andromedaNNN. As a college student she somehow managed to visit 30+ countries, basically because she made traveling a priority. Although I don't live in Europe, I've managed to find caches in 14 European countries. I don't consider the fact that I can travel as frequently as I do for work as lucky, but because I've earned the benefit through developing my skills and reputation for a long time and have chosen to work in a place that considers a global impact to be a priority. Sure, not everyone can afford to travel, but if you make it a priority and work towards achieving that goal you're going have more success.

4.6k · July 20, 2018

1 hour ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I don't consider the fact that I can travel as frequently as I do for work as lucky, but because I've earned the benefit through developing my skills and reputation for a long time and have chosen to work in a place that considers a global impact to be a priority.

It's still being lucky. Imagine being born in some 3rd world country. It would be a lot more difficult if not impossible to "work your way up" than when you're born in a 1st world country close to all methods of education with all professional possibilities.

2.7k · July 21, 2018

12 hours ago, on4bam said:

Correct. I consider myself very lucky to have been born in a developed country and to have been paid decently. The more we travel (I traveled since I was 7) the more we realize how lucky we are. Wherever we go we try to use local services (stay in B&B instead of multinational hotel, local tour organizer for trips) in order to support the local economy.

OTOH, crossing borders and collecting countries from where we live is easy. The Netherlands are just over half an hour away, France is about an hour, Germany is less than 2 hours and Luxembourg just over 2 hours. Even London can be reached by high speed train in 2 hours.

Where I am I can drive 7 hours north, 7 hours south or 10 hours west and still be in the same state!

6.8k · July 21, 2018

1 hour ago, colleda said:

Where I am I can drive 7 hours north, 7 hours south or 10 hours west and still be in the same state!

Yep. I grabbed a dozen or so while in New Zealand a few years back, but apart from those I'm yet to get any outside New South Wales. Even Lord Howe Island, some 700km off the coast, is still part of NSW.

4.6k · July 21, 2018

5 hours ago, colleda said:

Where I am I can drive 7 hours north, 7 hours south or 10 hours west and still be in the same state!

I used to have car like that.

14k · July 21, 2018

20 hours ago, on4bam said:

It's still being lucky. Imagine being born in some 3rd world country. It would be a lot more difficult if not impossible to "work your way up" than when you're born in a 1st world country close to all methods of education with all professional possibilities.

Being lucky is achieving some based purely on chance. I was born in this country because my great, great grandfather chose to immigrate from Madeira to the U.S. He didn't just close his eyes and throw a dart at a map and have it hit Hawaii. I understand that some have opportunities that others don't but it still takes some initiative to pursue opportunities that are available. Yesterday I delayed my vacation to meet with someone, originally from Zimbabwe that now owns a company in South Africa. We have worked with him for a long time, and the meeting was about potentially collaborating on a project funded by the world bank involving Malawi, Botswana, and Mozambique. There's a good possibility that I might travel to Botswana in the fall and that's not based on luck, but because we've developed a long standing professional relationship with him and his company. He's specifically interested in working with me and our department because we've developed a system which meets the requirements of the project. Plus it was really good to see him again. We've worked together long enough that I consider him a friend.

4.2k · July 21, 2018

22 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Sure, not everyone can afford to travel, but if you make it a priority and work towards achieving that goal you're going have more success.

There's truth in that. My grandmother came from a working class family in the UK and found ways to travel. She initially travelled to France by enlisting in the army (WW 1), and then after the war made it to Australia on a working holiday. She married and stayed, but although married to a lowly paid worker (station hand, which meant he worked as a farm labourer for those that didn't know what that was) , my grandmother still managed to take several holidays back to the UK. She did dressmaking from home and saved. She visited a few other countries too.

I have met people who have lived next to another country and never crossed the border to visit the other country. I quote, "It's too difficult."

Edited July 21, 2018 by Goldenwattle

14k · July 21, 2018

10 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

I have met people who have lived next to another country and never crossed the border to visit the other country. I quote, "It's too difficult."

Ironically, although I've found caches on 4 continents I live about 3 hours from the Canadian border but have yet to find one in Canada.

4.2k · July 21, 2018

27 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Ironically, although I've found caches on 4 continents I live about 3 hours from the Canadian border but have yet to find one in Canada.

LOL, the person I was quoting, "It's too difficult." , actually lived less than 50kms from the Canadian border. She said this to me, when I had travelled from Australia to the USA and crossed backwards and forwards over the border several times. If she had said she didn't want to go to Canada, okay, but to tell me it was too difficult :rolleyes:

July 21, 2018

2 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

LOL, the person I was quoting, "It's too difficult." , actually lived less than 50kms from the Canadian border. She said this to me, when I had travelled from Australia to the USA and crossed backwards and forwards over the border several times. If she had said she didn't want to go to Canada, okay, but to tell me it was too difficult

I was camping up in northern Washington one weekend before I came home I decided I had to pop over the border to get another province. Now have Quebec & British Columbia.

Was going to grab a lunch, walk around a bit but the weather that day was lousy so I grabbed two PNG caches right across the border along the water, zipped over to the duty free store and back across the border thirty minutes tops.

Guess I raised some flags with the US customs folks and I was grabbing a few caches and the weather was lousy, they proceeded to select me for secondary inspection. The whole process took longer than I was in Canada as I had camping gear in my car. I almost asked if I could walk over to the peace arch for the virtual cache there but decided to not press my luck.

Would I do it again. Heck yeah, but definite hassle. I get reminded of the experience all the time as it's my most northernly cache.

4.4k · July 21, 2018

52 minutes ago, MNTA said:

I was camping up in northern Washington one weekend before I came home I decided I had to pop over the border to get another province. Now have Quebec & British Columbia.

Welcome to Cana- come again soon. :lol:

A story, just to pad this post out a bit. Years ago some friends and I crossed down into Montana at a sleepy crossing. The US agent didn't even take her boots down off the counter in her little hut, just waved us right through. Those were the good old days. It was the weekend before 9-11.

4.6k · July 21, 2018

6 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Being lucky is achieving some based purely on chance. I was born in this country because my great, great grandfather chose to immigrate from Madeira to the U.S.

You were lucky twice. Your great great grandfather chose the US, and it was easier for him getting in then

As for collecting countries, we drove into the Netherlands today via Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau. There are Belgian 31 enclaves there so we crossed borders a few times making the car GPS show max speeds for the Netherlands, Belgium, Netherlands, Belgium..... every few 100m. :wacko:

We started a multi in the Netherlands, did a few WPs, made a sidetrip to a Multi with a few WPs in Belgium, then WPs in the Netherlands to the cache in Belgium only to continue back into the Netherlands for the remainder of the other multi.

We only notice crossing the border if there's a border "pole" or by looking at traffic/street signs. No "real border" for many years now.

14k · July 21, 2018

5 hours ago, on4bam said:

12 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Being lucky is achieving some based purely on chance. I was born in this country because my great, great grandfather chose to immigrate from Madeira to the U.S.

You were lucky twice. Your great great grandfather chose the US, and it was easier for him getting in then

You're missing the point. Saying "you're lucky" dismisses the effort, expertise, and experience one may have. My great great grandfather didn't get on a boat and travel around south america to go to hawaii just by chance. It was a choice, and I suspect an arduous journey. The job that I have now, that provides opportunities to travel, wasn't something that I drew out of a hat and was given simply because I pulled the right ticket. I had to interview and compete for the position 20 years ago, and having about 20 years of experience in that line of work had more to do with why I got the job rather than luck.

I remember the first time I visited Europe and took the bus from Geneva, Switzerland and Chamonix, France. I think the bus slowed to about 20 miles per hour when it went through the border.

14k · July 22, 2018

7 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

A story, just to pad this post out a bit. Years ago some friends and I crossed down into Montana at a sleepy crossing. The US agent didn't even take her boots down off the counter in her little hut, just waved us right through. Those were the good old days. It was the weekend before 9-11.

In Gananoque, Ontario there's a little marina on the St. Lawrence river. We walked down to the dock and saw a kiosk where someone arriving from the river by boat could fill out an immigration form and drop it in a box. The kiosk was unattended. I have actually been to Canada quite a few times (only once after I started geocaching). When I went to Newfoundland we flew from the U.S. to Montreal, then to Halifax, and then to St.Johns. Someone else from where I work was attending the same meeting and didn't have a photo id when we landed in Montreal. Somehow he was able to continue the journey all the way to Newfoundland. Apparently we were also supposed to retrieve checked luggage in Montreal but it wasn't very obvious. All of our bags still made it the Newfound and they just did a hand check of the luggage before we left the airport. Last time I flew from Montreal (from Iceland) to the U.S. I was able to go through U.S. immigration/customs in Montreal. Apparently that's available in Toronto too.

4.4k · July 22, 2018

17 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I was able to go through U.S. immigration/customs in Montreal. Apparently that's available in Toronto too.

Right, virtually all flights from Canada to US have you going through US formalities on the Canadian side. "US preclearance" it's called. From a few other places too, Ireland I think.

Notice I said virtually. For a midnight flight to Houston, I found the door locked and the hall deserted at the usual place for US preclearance. I sat down and waited, waited... A passing employee told me to go to the regular international gates. That was a surprise, but I suppose it makes sense; if there's only one flight at that hour, it wouldn't make sense to staff that entire separate section of the airport. (It has a separate departure lounge too, full of people already officially in the US. The place is buzzing in the morning.)

14k · July 22, 2018

4 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

28 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I was able to go through U.S. immigration/customs in Montreal. Apparently that's available in Toronto too.

Right, virtually all flights from Canada to US have you going through US formalities on the Canadian side. "US preclearance" it's called. From a few other places too, Ireland I think.

I'll be flying back from Dublin in a little over a month so I can check if that's the case when I do. The US preclearance in Montreal was really nice, even though my boarding pass was stamped SSSSS, which meant I had to "suffer" extra security. That consisted of a quick hand pat down and about 30 seconds of hand checking my carryon. That was much better than having to go through immigration in Philadelphia, which not only seems to take longer than other international airports but also requires coming back through TSA security to get to ones departure gate.

4.6k · July 22, 2018

7 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

You're missing the point. Saying "you're lucky" dismisses the effort, expertise, and experience one may have. My great great grandfather didn't get on a boat and travel around south america to go to hawaii just by chance. It was a choice, and I suspect an arduous journey. The job that I have now, that provides opportunities to travel, wasn't something that I drew out of a hat and was given simply because I pulled the right ticket. I had to interview and compete for the position 20 years ago, and having about 20 years of experience in that line of work had more to do with why I got the job rather than luck.

In those days it was probably lucky to get there, there may have been hazards along the way or at least, getting to your destination was less of a certainty than is now. But again, YOU were lucky because he took the risk. Imagine being born in N-Korea, tough luck if you would like to travel. The point is you need luck in where you are born (nothing you can do about that, that's why a nationality is such a random thing). I guess all things being equal if you were born in some Nigerian village life would look a lot different than it does now.

And yes, crossing borders in Europe has been easy for a long time, as a child when into France we were "waved through" most of the time, getting into Spain meant queuing for at least 30 minutes, showing our passports but still being waved through. These days we don't even slow down anymore and cross borders at 120Km/h. We used to have small bags of Gulden and French Francs just in case we like to cross into Holland or France all of a sudden on a Sunday. It's a lot easier now (although prices went up after we got the Euro).

July 24, 2018

On 20/07/2018 at 1:39 PM, NYPaddleCacher said:

As much as I would like to get a souvenir for finding a cache in a country I have not previously visited, this thread is called "country collectors" and is more about finding caches in and visited different countries.

Thanks for the welcome NYPaddleCacher!

5.7k · July 24, 2018

Looking forward to adding to our country count now that we're living in Europe again. We did a pretty good job of coloring in the map, at least for western Europe, but there are plenty of opportunities left. We should hit our 9,000 milestone this year, and I'd like to do it in a new country. Only question is which one...

1.4k · July 29, 2018

Starting the countdown to the "Next Big Trip". Theoretically possible to get 9 new countries. 7 should be straightforward, 2 are unlikely but just maybe....

14k · July 30, 2018

On 7/29/2018 at 5:00 AM, Gill & Tony said:

Starting the countdown to the "Next Big Trip". Theoretically possible to get 9 new countries. 7 should be straightforward, 2 are unlikely but just maybe....

Which new countries will you be visiting this time? I had a meeting just before I left for a week long vacation (got back home last night) with someone that proposed some training (I'll be doing the training) that would take place in South Africa. Although I've been to South Africa twice previously I suggested that the training take place the week prior to a conference in Botswana I've been invited to. Turns out he was planning on attending the conference there as well. I'll probably be having some discussions this week about it but there's a fairly good possibility that'll I may be visiting Africa for the 8th time in October/November. There are very few caches in Gaborone, Botswana (where the conference is taking place) so I might have to plan a trip to one of the nearby game parks which has a few caches.

July 30, 2018

recently grabbed country 35 (Portugal), in two weeks I am off to Greece and Ireland for holidays. Hopefully they will be my 36th and 37th countries

14k · July 30, 2018

30 minutes ago, Arnàutil said:

recently grabbed country 35 (Portugal), in two weeks I am off to Greece and Ireland for holidays. Hopefully they will be my 36th and 37th countries

If you're going anywhere near Dublin while in Ireland you may want to try and get "Europe's First". It's located in Bray Head, which can be reached by train from Dublin then a bit of a walk. I may try to get it when I'm there in a few weeks.

1.4k · July 31, 2018

12 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Which new countries will you be visiting this time? I had a meeting just before I left for a week long vacation (got back home last night) with someone that proposed some training (I'll be doing the training) that would take place in South Africa. Although I've been to South Africa twice previously I suggested that the training take place the week prior to a conference in Botswana I've been invited to. Turns out he was planning on attending the conference there as well. I'll probably be having some discussions this week about it but there's a fairly good possibility that'll I may be visiting Africa for the 8th time in October/November. There are very few caches in Gaborone, Botswana (where the conference is taking place) so I might have to plan a trip to one of the nearby game parks which has a few caches.

We start with 2 days in Dubai (UAE) before heading to Cape Town We spend a while in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania before heading to Egypt and finishing in Jordan. It should be easy to get at least one cache in each of those countries. The tricky bit is Victoria Falls. We spend 3 nights in a hotel in Zimbabwe, so that should be easy. We aren't scheduled to go into Zambia, but there is one cache on the bridge (currently disabled due to people claiming finds on a bit of fishing line). If I get time and if that cache is enabled again, I might get it for my only Zambian find. One day is a cruise on the Chobe River and a game drive in Chobe National Park (Botswana). Depending on where the tour takes us I might be able to get one there (but I'm not wandering off in case a muggle lion is sitting on GZ).

14k · July 31, 2018

11 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

We start with 2 days in Dubai (UAE) before heading to Cape Town We spend a while in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania before heading to Egypt and finishing in Jordan. It should be easy to get at least one cache in each of those countries. The tricky bit is Victoria Falls. We spend 3 nights in a hotel in Zimbabwe, so that should be easy. We aren't scheduled to go into Zambia, but there is one cache on the bridge (currently disabled due to people claiming finds on a bit of fishing line). If I get time and if that cache is enabled again, I might get it for my only Zambian find. One day is a cruise on the Chobe River and a game drive in Chobe National Park (Botswana). Depending on where the tour takes us I might be able to get one there (but I'm not wandering off in case a muggle lion is sitting on GZ).

Where in Kenya and Tanzania will you be going? Ironically, I spent 5 days in Zambia (in Livingstone) but didn't find any caches in Zambia but crossed the border into Zimbabwe (we were able to get visas at the border) because in the dry season there isn't much water going over Victoria falls on the Zambia side. When I went there was just on cache in the park on the Zim side and one or two in the town of Victoria Falls. Now there are a couple of dozen. There are still very few on the Zambia side though. The only cache that was there when I visited is that virtual but there are now a couple of ECs nearby.

It looks like there are a fair number of caches in Chobe. I hope you have better luck than I did when I visited Masai Mara in Kenya. I had to DNF the only cache we stopped at after been stopped by an armed guard that said I couldn't proceed onto the cement bridge where it was located without an escort. I got to within 20 feet of the cache but no further. I looked like most of the other caches in Masai Mara were along road that safari vehicles normally take so hopefully it'll be the same in Choba. For my possible trip to Botswana in November I'll be going to Gaborone and from what I can tell only has 4 caches in the city.

1.4k · August 2, 2018

On 7/31/2018 at 9:48 PM, NYPaddleCacher said:

Where in Kenya and Tanzania will you be going?

We start at Tarangire NP, then Ngorongoro crater, Amboseli National Reserve, Lake Nakuru NP, and Maasai Mara. We are on safari for 10 days total. Should be plenty of time for caching, but actually getting to them may be an issue. I'm not expecting to do a lot. One in each location would be good.

14k · August 2, 2018

10 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

We start at Tarangire NP, then Ngorongoro crater, Amboseli National Reserve, Lake Nakuru NP, and Maasai Mara. We are on safari for 10 days total. Should be plenty of time for caching, but actually getting to them may be an issue. I'm not expecting to do a lot. One in each location would be good.

Good luck. We didn't stop very often in Masai Mara and the only place we did where there was a cache was at one of the entrances but I wasn't able to go to GZ without an escort (crocs and hippos in the river nearby). I considered going to Amboseli, mostly due to the view of Kilimanjaro from the camps there, and if I get back to Kenya I want to go to Lake Nakuru for a chance to see Rhino (the only one of the big 5 I haven't seen) . I was only able to get 1 cache in Kenya at an earthcache on the way back to Nairobi. However, Masai Mara was amazing.

1.4k · August 2, 2018

We are going on a fully escorted tour with Scenic Tours, so it is 5-star all the way. But that does mean we have limited time to nip off and grab a cache or two. Mind you, I don't want to go too far on my own, not being top of the food chain there.

I hope I can post some pics as good as that one

August 3, 2018

On 30/7/2018 at 8:09 PM, NYPaddleCacher said:

If you're going anywhere near Dublin while in Ireland you may want to try and get "Europe's First". It's located in Bray Head, which can be reached by train from Dublin then a bit of a walk. I may try to get it when I'm there in a few weeks.

of course it's in the plan

August 5, 2018

We have a cruise (New) booked in September which will take us from Vancouver BC to Tokyo Japan (New) by way of Alaska (USA isn't new but Alaska is). After 11 days in Tokyo we will fly to Hong Kong (New) for a 17 hour stopover. From there we will fly to Mauritius (New) for at least 3 months and most likely six. The rest of our lives will be taking turns picking locations to live at in three or six month increments. The Mrs. is gunning for Portugal and possibly Montenegro (blasted schengen zone rules!) My first choice will likely be Nepal.

Very excited to add new countries that we have cached in. We have never been to Asia or Africa before. Also we are respectively 2 and 4 countries short on a couple challenge caches so with a little luck and a short jaunt planned to hit Reunion Island France (New) from Mauritius will (luck withstanding) be the four we need.

August 6, 2018

On 22-2-2013 at 9:44 PM, Andromeda321 said:

Gee, if only Amsterdam was a city with some sort of party reputation...

No really sounds like a good event, let me know when you're in town and we'll work it out! (I also had no idea there were 14 universities in the Netherlands.)

I work at one of them, let's party together!

August 6, 2018

Love collecting countries, too! We just found our first trackable and I took it to take along with me on my next trip. We live in The Netherlands, and I'll be going to my school reunion in Singapore soon. So looking forward to dropping the trackable there! I just hope that IS what I'm supposed to do with it, though..

AND that I'll find a nice place to drop it. Any tips?

2.7k · August 6, 2018

23 hours ago, Kreftelaer said:

Love collecting countries, too! We just found our first trackable and I took it to take along with me on my next trip. We live in The Netherlands, and I'll be going to my school reunion in Singapore soon. So looking forward to dropping the trackable there! I just hope that IS what I'm supposed to do with it, though..

AND that I'll find a nice place to drop it. Any tips?

Good luck finding a large enough container in Singapore into which you can drop the TB. From memory, there are many, many micros and a lot of Mysterys too. There is a cache in, I think, Terminal 3 of Changi Airport that can take small trackables.

Edited August 7, 2018 by colleda
spelling typo

1.7k · August 7, 2018

Well, living in New Zealand, *everywhere* is far, far away. I think most of the countries I have cache finds in are at least 24 hours flying away. If I try to drive to the next country, I won't get very far before my car gets very wet.

What's my travel secret? Okay, I work in the aviation industry, and that helps, but honestly it doesn't help much and in fact for my last trip, I only saved a few hundred $ using industry discounts, and all but 2 of the flights were commercial fares.

No, risking a bit of a "let them eat cake" moment, my secret is to not add up the costs - just do it and worry about the money afterwards! (And no, I'm not rich or excessively well paid either, just dedicated to the cause of working to live, and experiencing everything I can during this incredibly short time I am on this planet)

4.6k · August 7, 2018

46 minutes ago, funkymunkyzone said:

And no, I'm not rich or excessively well paid either, just dedicated to the cause of working to live, and experiencing everything I can during this incredibly short time I am on this planet

Carpe Diem. Live like every day is your last

There's no reason to try and be the richest person in the graveyard

collecting countries

Recommended Posts

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment