15 geocaches. 15 countries. 22 hours and 25 minutes. Geotrip ’17.

What is Geotrip’17?

In 2011, a group of geocachers from the Netherlands set a geocaching record when they found 15 geocaches in 15 countries within 24 hours. Six years later, a group of Finnish geocachers were up to the challenge to break this record. Harjus, Rimaju, Weellu and Wesbridge embarked on Geotrip ‘17 on April 15, 2017 from the Netherlands just a second past midnight. They reached their final destination in Poland at 10:25 pm the same day 22 hours and 25 minutes later, setting the new record!

In that time, the group travelled 2000 kilometers and found a geocache in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

Although they were going for a speed record, the Geotrip’17 team drove according to speed limits and took their time to find each cache and log them. In order to achieve this, they preselected low difficulty park and grab caches with backup caches.

How much time did they spend in each country compared to previous teams?

Earth Geofriends 2011 Time Tour d’Europe 2017 Time Geotrip ‘ 17 Time Geocache Found
Netherlands 00:00 00:01 00:00 GC4Y2FE
Belgium 01:26 01:08 00:36 GC6F8XY
Luxembourg 01:35 01:51 02:05 GC6FRQM
German 04:07 04:59 02:20 GC4N4W
France 01:57 02:49 03:16 GC6TPFZ
Switzerland 05:19 06:22 06:34 GC2D9A8
Liechtenstein 07:16 07:04 07:38 GC4J1RZ
Austria 07:32 08:11 07:51 GC6419N
Italy 09:59 10:00 10:35 GC1N1WA
Slovenia 13:29 14:00 15:10 GC2ZEK8
Croatia 15:32 15:50 16:20 GC6GAG3
Hungary 17:28 20:14 17:02 GC59XB6
Slovakia 20:13 20:01 19:36 GC2JZ9K
The Czech Republic 22:36 21:52 20:55 GC6J3HN
Poland 23:04 23:34 22:25 GC1G226

What was their route?

The team photographed each cache with a small flag from its home country:

  • Netherlands — GC4Y2FE

Congratulations Team Geotrip’17!

Ellis is a geocaching Lackey and amateur weekend warrior. Her passion for travel and adventure has taken her to remote villages in the Brazilian Amazon, ski mountaineering in the Andes in Patagonia and sailing the isolated islands of the Kingdom of Tonga. She now resides in Seattle where her daily adventure involves competing with traffic while bike commuting and making frequent side trips to the beautiful Cascades and Puget Sound. She loves incorporating geocaching into all of these activities!