Pigeon Island (GCWBYC) reveals pirate lore on the Turkish shore of the Mediterranean. Geocachers cross over to Pigeon Island to discover an ancient fortress. It was used to defend against pirates in the 16th century.
The difficulty 2, terrain 2.5 geocache has collected the most Favorite Points in Turkey so far. More than 470 geocachers have logged a smiley by finding the small size geocache.
The cache owner, GB-Team, has some advice for avoiding muggles for those searching for the geocache. The cache page reads, “The location is not hard to find, I’ve posted some spoiler picts to help you. Search INSIDE the castle grounds. When attempting to retrieve this cache, make sure to look ALL around and check so NO ONE sees you, even the people ABOVE!”
The city is a stop for many tourists from around the world, including those traveling by ship. One geocacher who logged a smiley on the cache writes, “Our ship is in port for only a few hours today so went for an easy walk over to your GZ and found it no problems. This is our first cache here in Turkey and hope to find some more when we get to Istanbul tomorrow. Retrieved the Geocoin and will take it back to Canada. Thanks for placing a cache here. And Greetings from Canada.”
Cache contents with a view from Pigeon Island
Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the globe. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com. If you’ d like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.
WINNING CAPTION: "You must be at least this tall to find this geocache." Vyp’s wife
Geocaching can often be a search for what’s hidden in plain sight. Share your gift for clever captions in the 30th installment of our Geocaching.com Caption Contest. You could earn a barely coveted prize. What caption would you write for the picture above? The image was originally posted on our Geocaching.com Facebook page by Thorsten Skibba.
Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your geocaching username in all entries. Then, explore the captions other geocachers have posted.
Barely Coveted Prize
You’re encouraged to ‘influence’ the voting process (*nudge*nudge*). “Like” the caption that you think should win. If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers, your friends, and family to “like” your caption. Lackeys vote from the top finalists to decide the winner of the contest.
The winner receives the ‘barely coveted prize’ you see to the left, which may actually be quite coveted. It’s is a vintage ‘100 Years of Scouting’ Trackable.
Click the image to see the winner of this caption contest
More than a two dozen Lackeys voted to award the winner of the 29th Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. Click on the image at right to discover the winning caption from the last Geocaching.com Caption Contest.
Explore all the past winning captions by checking out all the Geocaching.com Caption Contests. If you have suggestions for Geocaching.com Caption Contest photos, send a message and the image to pr@groundspeak.com.
-The community celebrated the first International Geocaching Day!
Check out the 2011 Geocaching Year in Review video for a fun overview of these events and all the other geocaching happenings in 2011. (SPOILER ALERT: You’ll also see a Lackey transform into a Groundspeak Hamster. It’s magical.)
Share your favorite geocaching experiences from 2011 on the official Geocaching.com Facebook page. Happy geocaching in 2012 from all the Lackeys at Groundspeak!
Geocachers hoping to log a smiley for Salar de Uyuni (GC2M6GC) encounter one of the world’s largest salt lakes. Werwolfi created the difficulty 3, terrain 4 EarthCache at the beginning of 2011.
The cache page reads, “Driving across it [Salar de Uyuni] is one of the weirdest and most fantastic experiences anywhere on the continent, especially during June and July, when the bright blue skies contrast with the blinding white salt crust and in the rainy season they turn into a gigantic mirror.”
To log the cache, adventurers must explore the geological site and answer two questions on the cache page. The answers must then be emailed to the cache owner. A photo must also be taken at specific coordinates.
Travel to the salt lake region will take geocachers to an altitude of 3650m (11,970ft). As one geocacher noted, not all equipment can endure the harsh environment, “We had a great day on the Salar de Uyuni and the Islands, but the engine of one of our Land Cruisers gave up.” So far, at least six geocachers have made the voyage and logged the EarthCache.
Geocachers logging 'Salar de Uyuni"
Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the globe. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com. If you’ d like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.
A race to find a newly published geocache uncovers a century-old piece of family history. Laura and Danny geocache under the name Cachn’Zoom. The experience helped the husband and wife team from North Carolina connect family ties back to earliest days of the United States of America.
Laura and Danny know geocaching introduces them to new sights, experiences and friends.
Laura says, “I have met some wonderful new adventurous friends since I started caching. I’ve been rappelling, rock climbing, hiked for miles and miles, gone on ‘geo-road trips’, and seen more waterfalls in the past year than I have in the past ten years!”
But nothing could prepared them for a recent cache run on a newly published historical series of geocaches. Laura says it all started with a competitive flair. Laura writes, “I am notified when new caches are published. I don’t always make a mad dash for the FTF (First to Find), however on this day Danny and I were able to head out to try and beat a few of the ‘FTF hounds’ in our area. Gotta keep them on their toes!”
She says they had already claimed a couple FTF’s when they arrived at a cache in the series called, “Adam Cooper – Long Ago But not Far Away – Fairview.” The team wouldn’t claim an FTF on that geocache.
According to Laura, “Upon our arrival, we noticed our good buddy RobinMohawk already there. He had just signed the log and re-hid the cache and enjoyed watching us finish the search. Just as I was replacing the cache, I heard ‘Mr Cachn’Zoom’ say ‘I don’t believe it.'”
Danny by headstone of his ancestor
The geocache is hidden with permission near the burial site of a pioneer settler, Adam Cooper. Danny was exploring other tombstones when Laura says, “Danny proceeded to inform us that he had found the grave of a distant ancestor, John Lanning – a pioneer.” Lanning had died more than 170 years ago. Danny also found the marker for Lanning’s wife, Sarah Whitaker.
Laura says, “When we returned home he verified the discovery with the genealogy report of his family. John Lanning is my husbands ‘great, great, great, great, great grandfather’ and Sarah Whitaker is his ‘great, great, great, great, great grandmother’, on his mother’s side of the family.”
Ruth, Dare2Geocache, placed that geocache. She says she discovered some local heritage as well, “I had a blast researching our local history to create both the Fairview and the Spring Mountain historical series. We have so many “local treasures,” as I’m sure most communities do. [They are] places that people pass by daily and never know exist, or they never know the details that make these places so interesting.”
The story of Danny and Laura’s family discovery spread fast. She says, “Most folks are amazed and are surprised to learn we located this while ‘geocaching’. We would have never located this without geocaching.”
The couple just returned from vacation and are already playing catchup with local geocaches. Laura says, “Thanks to all the geocachers who keep this adventure going and growing! There were at least ten new caches published in my area while I was away for a week!”
Laura and Danny do not expect the discoveries to stop any time soon. She says they’re looking forward to, “hours and hours of more fun and adventure!”
