All quiet on the Greek front

[+grimpil]

BTW I am based in UK.

 

I notice there is no even remotely recent activity on the Greece forum.  I have been caching only since early 2018 so on my spring trip to Greece (Athens, Peloponnese & Lesvos) I searched & found a few caches.  This really added value to my trip as I am mainly a hiker when on holiday & some of the caches took me to locations I would never have found as maps showing paths & trails are not covering many areas.  Having co-ordinates on my gps was reassuring to this solo traveller.  Plus it was fun to find caches in places I had previously visited many times, a highlight being my 100th find at what has always been a favourite spot on Lesvos at Perama Windmill.

 

If any Greek cachers read this I just wanted to say caching is a great way to encourage visitors to discover hidden corners of your amazing country.  Sadly the Greece does suffer from an overload of those who see it as a 6 month a year theme park with sun, sand & sea.  I have travelled widely on the mainland & on Lesvos & only wish I had started caching years ago.  But I will be back!  Efharisto polu!

[+grimpil]

Interesting.  People are lurking here but no-one is posting.  Perhaps everyone is concealed in a wooden horse, waiting to pounce!  Beware of gift bearers!!

[kourampies]

The active Greek geocachers that routinely go caching and hiding can probably be counted in one person's fingers. Most of the caches are hidden in Athens, which no Greek is going to visit in order to go caching. This makes people like me that live outside Athens able to go geocaching only when on vacation or on some other out of town trip, since we found the very few caches around our hometowns years ago.

 

Then there is how Groundspeak is forcing everyone to pay by killing the mobile app and api with their limitations. This is turning away all of the potential new players and most of the casuals.

 

And then there is the financial situation in Greece. Most of the people are unemployed or on super low wages (especially people under 35 that would have time and strength for geocaching). Anyone lucky enough to be employed works all day long and has no days off, and no money for vacations etc. Fuel prices are very high making one day trips hard.

 

It's a vicious cycle of no new caches hidden (since most are hidden by tourists, if they can overcome the away from home limitation), and there's no one to find them and maintain them. The few Greeks trying might lose interest since there are no more caches to find and noone to find their hides.

 

I absolutely understand what you are saying though, even with such a small amount of caches I have visited amazing places through geocaching that I would never otherwise known of. 

There is such a vast amount of beautiful places to see in Greece, ideal for geocaching. It's a shame there are no caches.

 

Edited June 20, 2018 by kourampies

[+grimpil]

Hi,

Well nice to hear from you.  I realise there are many problems in Greece & totally understand what you say (& I apologise for having to write here in English as my Greek is very limited).

 

I was surprised how many caches are on Lesvos as it is not a very touristy island & I enjoyed searching for them.  It did make me wonder how active the local based cachers might be as I did not expect the caches to have been hidden specifically for visitors to find.

 

I do hope things get better for everyone - my own Greek friends are very resilient but I know how difficult life is for them & the relative pittance I spend in Greece on my annual trips is a tiny drop in the economic ocean.

 

I hope the COs of the ones I found understand how much value they added to my trip.

 

Yiammas!

[kourampies]

The cache density of Lesvos is insane compared to the Greek average, it might be even denser than Athens. From what I understand almost all of the caches are placed by a single user (Mytilene team), and in my opinion they are hidden solely for visitors to find, since Lesvos doesn't have many permanent residents, let alone cachers.

 

Without going into details and speculations about the situation in Greece, whats really sad is how people have lost all will to do anything, including hobbies like geocaching.

 

I absolutely feel you regarding how much some caches and places add to a trip, and feel absolutely grateful to the few COs that hide caches outside Athens.

 

Enjoy Greece when you come back

[+feregios]

Φίλε Kourampies γεια σου.

Το geocaching είναι ένα ΔΩΡΕΑΝ παιχνίδι για όλους. Δεν χρειάζεται να πληρώσεις καμία συνδρομή για να έχεις πρόσβαση σε ΟΛΕΣ τις κρύπτες.

Το Πώς; είναι απλό, όπως δούλευε το σύστημα πολλά χρόνια πριν βγει η επίσημη App από την Groundspeak.

Μέσω του site και φόρτωση των στοιχείων σε μια gps συσκευή ή σε μια από τις πάρα πολλές δωρεάν εφαρμογές τρίτων κατασκευαστών στα κινητά.

(Δεν μιλάμε για εποχές που απλά οι ενθουσιώδεις geocachers έβγαιναν με εκτυπώσεις λόγω μη υποστήριξης των αρχείων από τα gps)

 

Στην Αθήνα τοποθετούνται συχνά νέες γεωκρύπτες από Έλληνες παίχτες , οι οποίοι είναι ενεργοί και όχι μόνο υποστηρίζουν τις κρύπτες τους , αλλά κάνουν και maintenance σε κρύπτες παιχτών που έχουν αποχωρήσει. Ίσως δεν τις βλέπεις λόγω των περιορισμών της original app.

Γενικά το μεγαλύτερο μέρος των ενεργών κρυπτών είναι από Ενεργούς Έλληνες παίχτες.

Δυστυχώς το forum έχει ατονίσει διότι οι νέοι παίχτες θεωρούν πιο άμεσο το FB κι έτσι τα λέμε στο Athenian Geocaching ή στο Geocaching Greece

Επίσης πολύ συχνά οργανώνουμε  events και τα λέμε από κοντά.

Θα χαρώ να σε δούμε σε ένα από αυτά..

 

Υ.Γ Οι Mytilene team  είναι Έλληνες πολύ-ενεργοί geocachers οι οποίοι έχουν βάλει στοίχημα να περάσουν τις κρύπτες της Κρήτης

Υ.Γ And as the friend @grimpil says "I apologize for having to write here in Greek as my English is very limited" .