Geocacher with the most countries

[+mmmPIZZA]

I was wondering, who has the most finds in different countries. According to Groundspeak, there are over 200 and I'd be amazed if someone has collected them all. But the most I've seen is a user with 71 (as of May 2016). Which is a lot. I currently have 10 (as of May 2016), which will be upped to 12 in two weeks time with a daytrip to Denmark. So the question is, who has the most countries? Could it be you?

[+narcissa]

On the very first page of forum posts there is a thread called "collecting countries."

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=307732

[+eigengott]

http://project-gc.com/Statistics/TopNumCountries

 

It doesn't give you the worldwide top list as you need to select a country. But you can try country by country.

 

For Germany I found https://www.geocaching.com/profile/?u=Flyingnick with currently 128 countries.

Edited May 30, 2016 by eigengott

[curlingfan11]

It definitely isn't me! lol 1 country!

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On the very first page of forum posts there is a thread called "collecting countries."

 

http://forums.Ground...howtopic=307732

 

I think that the participant in that thread with the most countries has around 60.

 

There is a projectGC statistics page called TopNumCountries that will show a list of users by number of countries in which they've found a cache but you have to select users from a specific country. According to that page, the user with the most number of countries that is from the U.S. is someone called diveduo with 102 countries. Then I tried users from Germany and someone called FlyingNick allegedly has 128 countries.

 

 

[+Ladybug Kids]

What Project-GC does not differentiate between is "collecting" countries and actually caching in countries.

 

There are some multi-caches and puzzle caches out there where the first stage coordinates might be built, say in the Solomon Islands, to determine the final location in Germany. Google Street View can be used to scope things out in the Solomon Islands and build the final coordinates in Germany without leaving the comfort of the living room couch. Because the cache's starting location is in the Solomon Islands, cachers who log a "found it" light up the islands, without ever leaving the continent of Europe.

[cezanne]

What Project-GC does not differentiate between is "collecting" countries and actually caching in countries.

 

 

Flyingnick however has not found any mysteries as first caches in a country and hardly any multi caches. Mostly traditionals and a few ECs.

Apparently someone in the airline business where finding caches in many countries is quite manageable.

[+hzoi]

We used to be in the top 10, at least according to the old It's Not About The Numbers site; so far we have 37. Since leaving Europe, we've slowed down on adding new countries to the list, and others have climbed up higher. I still look forward to adding more; living outside of the US for five years was very enjoyable, and I wouldn't mind doing it again.

[cezanne]

We used to be in the top 10, at least according to the old It's Not About The Numbers site; so far we have 37.

 

Right now 37 would not even suffice for the top 10 in Austria. 37 would put you on position 25 (together with 6 others), and the cachers with a really high number of countries

are from other countries. In Germany it does not even suffice for the top 249.

 

Personally I think that since project gc exists the competition has become much tougher.

Edited June 1, 2016 by cezanne

[+NYPaddleCacher]

We used to be in the top 10, at least according to the old It's Not About The Numbers site; so far we have 37.

 

Right now 37 would not even suffice for the top 10 in Austria. 37 would put you on position 25 (together with 6 others), and the cachers with a really high number of countries

are from other countries. In Germany it does not even suffice for the top 249.

 

Personally I think that since project gc exists the competition has become much tougher.

 

I liked collecting countries but I have never thought of it as a competition.

 

I'm not surprised the Germany has a lot of cacher that have found caches in a lot of countries. Living in Europe where one is surrounded by many countries within a weekends driving distance helps but my general impression from traveling to 27 countries in the last 10 years is that Germans seem to travel more that people from other countries

 

 

[+on4bam]

Right now 37 would not even suffice for the top 10 in Austria. 37 would put you on position 25 (together with 6 others), and the cachers with a really high number of countries

are from other countries. In Germany it does not even suffice for the top 249.

 

But then again, how many countries they "cached in" were added because they armchairlogged virtuals

Maybe countries should be counted as "found physical containers". I would loose 1 country too but at least I crossed into an Omani enclave from UAE. Plenty of people have a list of countries with 1 virtual found.

[cezanne]

But then again, how many countries they "cached in" were added because they armchairlogged virtuals

 

At least the find record of the person with the most countries looks very reliable, and some of the ones with many countries in my country are also known as travelling a lot.

Those that are known for armchair logging of some virtuals in my country are not among the highly ranked ones in terms of countries.

 

Maybe countries should be counted as "found physical containers". I would loose 1 country too but at least I crossed into an Omani enclave from UAE. Plenty of people have a list of countries with 1 virtual found.

 

Which does not say anything however whether they've been there or not. Some EC and virtual owners take care of the logs that arrive.

One can fake log physical containers just as well. It will always depend on the cache owners.

[+eigengott]

my general impression from traveling to 27 countries in the last 10 years is that Germans seem to travel more that people from other countries

 

Yep, it's hard to escape them.

 

In absolute numbers only the Chinese seem to travel more: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.DPRT But then there are a lot more Chinese than Germans. The numbers are interesting: more than 82 million departures from Germany - with a population of about 80 million. Of course note every German travels abroad every year, but many do so two or three times a year.

[+on4bam]

Which does not say anything however whether they've been there or not. Some EC and virtual owners take care of the logs that arrive.

One can fake log physical containers just as well. It will always depend on the cache owners.

 

I've seen plenty of profiles where the cacher has a lot of caches in Belgium, Netherlands, France and then just one in (for instance) Mexico, China, Argentina, USA.... Of course, no photographs posted as requested by the CO

Many virtuals have inactive CO's and those logs are not checked nor deleted.

Physical logs are easily checked for bogus founds, virtuals not so much (although most stick out like a sour thumb).

 

I was even asked by someone for the answers of a virtual we visited in Tasmania last year as he was never going to visit there (his words) and one of the answers was a trick question that's easily seen when you are there but impossible from the armchair. The cache is on my watchlist and it seems he still hasn't found the answers

[+on4bam]

my general impression from traveling to 27 countries in the last 10 years is that Germans seem to travel more that people from other countries

 

Yep, it's hard to escape them.

 

In absolute numbers only the Chinese seem to travel more: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.DPRT But then there are a lot more Chinese than Germans. The numbers are interesting: more than 82 million departures from Germany - with a population of about 80 million. Of course note every German travels abroad every year, but many do so two or three times a year.

 

On every trip you meet (or see/hear) Germans an Dutch... no matter where you go or how remote

[cezanne]

Which does not say anything however whether they've been there or not. Some EC and virtual owners take care of the logs that arrive.

One can fake log physical containers just as well. It will always depend on the cache owners.

 

I've seen plenty of profiles where the cacher has a lot of caches in Belgium, Netherlands, France and then just one in (for instance) Mexico, China, Argentina, USA.... Of course, no photographs posted as requested by the CO

 

But typically these are not the cachers who rank really high with respect to number of countries.

 

 

Many virtuals have inactive CO's and those logs are not checked nor deleted.

Physical logs are easily checked for bogus founds, virtuals not so much (although most stick out like a sour thumb).

 

Many physical caches have inactive owners too and if the log book is not checked, there is no difference at all.

Moreover, a high number of physical caches in countries with few caches have not been placed by locals and the log books never get checked.

 

BTW: Flyingnick has a single virtual among the first caches in a country - a cache in Nicaragua and there he posted a photo.

The same is true for the Earthcaches.

http://project-gc.com/ProfileStats/Flyingnick#Milestones

 

There are cachers out there who have other targets than finding many caches regardless of where.

[+on4bam]

Many physical caches have inactive owners too and if the log book is not checked, there is no difference at all.

Moreover, a high number of physical caches in countries with few caches have not been placed by locals and the log books never get checked.

 

BTW: Flyingnick has a single virtual among the first caches in a country - a cache in Nicaragua and there he posted a photo.

The same is true for the Earthcaches.

http://project-gc.com/ProfileStats/Flyingnick#Milestones

 

There are cachers out there who have other targets than finding many caches regardless of where.

 

First, I didn't say they are all bogus finds. No need to think I meant that.

Of course physical caches can have bogus finds too and that the CO's may no longer be active but it's a lot easier to do with containerless caches.

 

Most of the time people will have a physical find in a country they visited. Besides, sometimes fake logs on virtual are often done in batches (logged different continents on one day) making it all more obvious.

[+hzoi]

We used to be in the top 10, at least according to the old It's Not About The Numbers site; so far we have 37.

 

Right now 37 would not even suffice for the top 10 in Austria. 37 would put you on position 25 (together with 6 others), and the cachers with a really high number of countries

are from other countries. In Germany it does not even suffice for the top 249.

 

Personally I think that since project gc exists the competition has become much tougher.

 

Yup. It was neat while it lasted, but I knew it'd never last, especially after my job moved back to the USA. And really, since INATN only drew statistics for those who used the site, I know it didn't fully capture the caching community anyway.

 

On the other hand, this may have gotten more emphasis as challenge caches have proliferated. Back in 2009, when I left Germany, challenge caches were just starting to become popular. Before that, I don't think there was as much incentive. (Certainly, European cache owners had no qualms changing D/T ratings, which drove me crazy in my continued quest to fill my D/T grid.) When I left, I think I was the only one of my peers to have cached in all 16 Bundesländer, and I had visited many more countries. In the seven years since, though, most have caught up or surpassed me.