Geocaching is delightful because of the people who play it — adventure-seekers, makers, parents, astronauts and (sometimes) celebrities. Read their stories.
Download the PDF of the 31 Days of Geocaching calendar you see below. Collect the calendar-style souvenirs for your Geocaching profile one by one. Each date you log a “Found it” or an “Attended” you earn the souvenir for that date in August.
Mallorca (or if you prefer, Majorca), Spain is a popular vacation spot for people around the world—especially geocachers. This island in the Mediterranean has many top-notch geocaches with tons of favorite points. It’s also home to amazing beaches, warm weather, and the Geocache of the Week, Es Pontàs (GC20APF).
Geocacher Zumbat getting a little closer to the edge of the cliff than we’re comfortable with.
If your summer vacation includes a trip to the island, a stop at this difficulty 1, terrain 1.5 Earthcache is a must. Es Pontàs (the Earthcache) was placed by geocacher Thoto, who says, “To be honest I discovered the arch by accident some years ago…I love earthcaches and therefore I am always at least a little bit looking for possibilities to create new earthcaches. So seeing this beautiful arch creating an EarthCache was a must.” The actual arch was formed by natural processes over many years by water erosion.
Some of you may already recognize Es Pontàs. Aside from the Earthcache and a traditional geocache located on top, this natural arch is home to the most difficult deep-water solo (psicobloc) climb in the world. It can be seen being climbed by world-renowned rock climber Chris Sharma in the video below. For those of us who aren’t super-human climbers, there are easier routes to the top.
The geocachers who have earned their smiley at this spot have had great things to say and have left many favorite points. Geocacher meranCache said, “Majorca is an amazing Island with a lot of fantastic places to discover and 90% of the caches are worth paying a visit. I found beautiful hides on interesting places, in fantastic caves and on amazing beaches and bays with crystalline water.” Another geocacher, SaarFuchs, said “I really like geocaching when I spend my holidays in a foreign country, because geocaching is a quite cool tourist guide…Thanks for showing us this place – a really amazing arch! Thanks a lot for creating this cache and we send greetings to the owner.” Thoto, the geocache creator says, “I am happy about every positive log and favorite point I “earn”. I highly appreciate the feedback I get from the community for my contribution to the game. This makes me proud.”
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With summer in full-swing (for the northern hemisphere), trips to tropical locations are on the horizon for many geocachers. What’s your ultimate summer vacation destination for geocaching? Tell us in the comments.
Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.
If you would 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@geocaching.com.
Geocaching HQ staff are joining geocachers at Mega-Events around the world to celebrate and share the adventure of geocaching. One of the founders of Geocaching.com, Bryan Roth, a.k.a. Bryan, traveled from Seattle, WA to Lisbon, Portugal last June for the 13 Years Lisboa Mega-Event (GC42FFG). He says he was inspired to go by the exciting and growing Portuguese geocaching community and by other Geocaching HQ staffers who attended a Portuguese Mega-Event and raved about their experiences.
The Seeker awards.
After arriving in Portugal, Bryan did what any geocacher would do—look for a geocache near the hotel. There was only one problem: the geocache description was in Portuguese. However, this didn’t stop him from searching. Luckily, Boonieh& Cllydeh, some super-friendly members of the Portuguese geocaching community showed up. They helped Bryan find his first geocache in Portugal and decided to attend the Mega-Event as well. With a geocache found, it was back to the hotel before meeting the Geocacherzone Portugal team for dinner and then a good night’s rest before the Mega-Event.
Fraldinhas, the Mega-Event’s host.
The next few days brought tons of activities for geocachers from Portugal and many other countries around the world. In fact, the event gained so much popularity, there were a few stories on the local news channels about it. The Mega-Event host, Fraldinhas, with help from his parents, Xana and Nuno, and many volunteers, created an exceptional four-day event that included night caching, a Lisbon bus tour, a much-needed CITO Event (GC4BNP8), an awards ceremony, a traditional Portuguese singing group with a rendition of “Geocaching Portugal”, a number of meet-and-greets, “Bruning” with the local Geocaching Volunteer Reviewers, and (of course) plenty of geocaching. The awards, known as the “Seeker Awards”, were given out to geocachers in multiple categories, including Best Maintenance, Best Log, Best Cache and more. Bryan ended his trip with another Mega-Event Cache hosted by Fraldinhas, the Hike @ Belém, that featured a walking tour of a number of geocaches at historical places within Lisbon.
Bryan says, “It was truly an honor for me to attend this International Mega Event, spend time with so many exceptional geocachers and experience Lisbon, Portugal in such a unique way. I would thank all of the organizers for all the work they did to plan multiple days of fun geocaching activities for everyone that showed up. I also want to thank all of the geocachers who took the time to speak with me and make me feel so welcome in Portugal.” He would also like to give a special shout-out to Fraldinhas, Xana and Nuno for all of their guidance and support during his trip.
Check out some more photos from Bryan’s trip:
Attendees of the Hike @ Belem.“Bruning” in Lisbon. It’s kind of like planking, but on your back.The Geocaching ChoirThe 13 Years Lisboa pinboard. Can you find Bryan’s pin?Night caching in Portugal
A geo-dog with Schinderhannes. Photo by geocacher Glaubensbruder
Throughout the world, many people have heard the tale of Robin Hood. In case you haven’t, here’s a quick recap: an expert archer and his gang of merry men live in the forest, steal from the rich and give to the poor. There have been many movies made and even more books written about him. However, for this week’s Geocache of the Week, we’re going to get to know a man who is sometimes known as the “German Robin Hood”, Schinderhannes. In fact, you’ll even come face-to-face with this German literary hero when you earn your smiley for (the aptly named) Schinderhannes (GC23VXF).
To find this difficulty 1, terrain 2.5 geocache, you’ll have to travel deep into the Hunsrück mountains in the Rhineland. This is the area that Schinderhannes and his gang were known to hide out. While he is now known as a literary hero, this wasn’t always the case. Before his death, he was merely known as a criminal. It wasn’t until afterwards that incredible tales of his life emerged and he became known as a gentleman thief and helper of the poor. These tales became more widely known with the 1927 premier of Carl Zuckermayer’s play Schinderhannes.
A close-up of Schinderhannes. Photo by geocacher jtdd.
While the story is interesting, the actual craftsmanship that went into the container is where this geocache shines. One look at one of the more than 2,200 logs and you’ll see why this geocache have over 1,200 Favorite Points. Geocacher BenTien says, “what a cache !!! Really amazing – never seen something like this. It must have been a lot of work to create this one, and get it here to this beautiful location. Definitely one of my top favorite caches, so another well deserved FP.” “Extremely good cache. I will gladly share a FP on this one. One of the best caches on the whole week,” said geocacher camdan.
Unloading Schinderhannes.
You can tell from the photos of the installation, this geocache is the product of several geocachers coming together to create something amazing. If you’re looking to collaborate with other geocachers—on hides or finds—be sure to check out the Geocaching event calendar and our new “Events and Groups” tab on the Geocaching Facebook page. Have you ever worked together with your local geocaching community to create a geocache, solve a tough puzzle ‘cache or host an event? Tell us about it in the comments.
Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.
If you would 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@geocaching.com.
fredrikhast – Geocacher of the Month for June 2013
Geocachers from around the world congratulated their nominees and shared the wonders they offer the greater geocaching community. This time, all three nominees joined in on the discussion. They thanked the other nominees and talked about how amazing the geocaching community is—we agree.
Geocachers proved that the most important lessons can be learned from each other, even if we’re divided by international borders, language, or culture.
The three nominees for the June Featured Geocacher of the Month make geocaching a more welcoming adventure by vlogging about geocaching, creating geocaching events, crafting coveted geocache hides, and more.
The Featured Geocacher of the Month is named by Geocaching HQ after reviewing community input and blog comments. After tallying the sentiment, fredrikhast is officially named the Featured Geocacher of the Month for June 2013.
One comment shows fredrikhast’s commitment to geocache quality, “His caches always got that little extra! Great places, amazing stories and a lot of work and love put into his caches makes you feel fantastic when you have logged a “fredrikhast-cache”! I also like to say that I really enjoyed the events Fredrik and his teammates arranged!”
Fredrik has also created a popular geocaching YouTube vlog.
Fredrik will receive the earned, never for sale, collector’s edition Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Featured Geocacher of the Month hat and a certificate acknowledging his contribution, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. See a list of all the Featured Geocachers of the Month here.
The earned, never for sale, Geocacher of the Month geocoin (sun flare optional)
If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@geocaching.com. Every nomination must follow these requirements. Please include:
Your name, the name of your nominee, their username
A picture of the nominee
Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Featured Geocacher of the Month
Please inform your nominee that you have submitted them for the award. Nominations for Featured Geocacher of the Month are accepted at any time.
Congratulations again to fredrikhast for being recognized as the Featured Geocacher of the Month for June.
Meet some of previous Featured Geocachers of the Month
