A geocaching crew goes for 13 different icons in one day
This blog post was written by geocaching superwoman and Geocaching HQ employee, Annie Love.
If you are an obsessed geocacher, then you probably like to build your Geocaching profile stats such as “Most caches found in a single day”, “Highest altitude geocache”, or “Farthest away from home”. One statistic that can be trickier is an “Icon Run”, which is logging as many different cache types in one day as possible. But most geocachers, with a just little guidance and a full tank of gas, can bulk up their icon stats. Here’s how!
“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” —Doc Brown
Halong Bay is known as the most beautiful destination in all of Vietnam. There are no roads to the geocache Halong Bay Floater, only multi-day junk boat and kayak tours. This will allow you to maneuver emerald green waters between countless limestone karst formations. Talk about a D5/T5 adventure of a lifetime!
After hopping onboard your vessel, take time to marvel at the unique landscape filled with majestic Sea Eagles and the extremely rare Cat Ba Langur. Pro Tip: once you dock south of Ti-Tov (Titop) Island, kayak as close as you can to the coordinates then search for the cache from there. You’ll undoubtedly pass one of the countless fishermen who live in floating villages within about 579 square miles (932 km) of Halong Bay.
Although Halong Bay is a World Heritage Site, there are still locals that dump their trash in the bay. For this reason, it is important for geoachers to represent the tourism and geocaching communities well and show their best Cache in and Trash Out skills. If you have any questions, Cache Owner, thetourguide, has led thousands of people to this gorgeous location and may be able to answer them!
On a wonderful holiday we visited this place and found this cache. We love Vietnam and say thank you to the owner of the cache for showing us this place. Halong Bay was awesome and we meet some friendly people. We did a 3 day boat trip and had plenty of time.
Asia Adventure Tour!!!!! Amazing place. It is incredible, fantástic, magic…Found with my love Xuxu.mafas and our Portuguese good friends and Geocaching godfathers: Ladas112, scosta911.TFTC
We stayed anchored on a boat very close so we were able to hire a kayak and take a paddle to this cache, the waters here are mirror surfaced making paddling very easy and enjoyable. As we were paddling we saw a school of 5 very big fish swim past us.
Everywhere you look there are picture opportunities. TFTC
What has been the most exotic location that you have found a geocache?
Fish delivery!
Sea Eagle
Junk boats at dusk
Kayaking to the cache
Kayak is parked. Time to search!
Looking for the cache
Happy cacher
View from the cache!
Halong Bay on a sunny day
Floating fishing village
Continue to explore some of the most amazing geocaches around the world.
Check out all of the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching blog. If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, fill out this form.
Any serious geocacher probably has a list of geocaches they wish to find before they “kick the bucket”, so to speak. We’ll be doing an intermittent series dedicated to bucket list geocaches, and the first theme is, “Amazing Views.” We hope this blog post takes your breath away!
1. GC1FPN1 – München-Venedig / Munich-Venice / Monaco-Venezia Multi-Cache in Bayern, Germany D2/T4 What has 28 legs, spans 3 countries, and covers 560 kilometers (65,000 feet) of altitude? Why, this amazing Multi-Cache of course! Make sure to set aside at least 2-4 days to complete this life-changing journey from Munich, Germany to Venice, Italy.
3. GCVTH7 – Chimney Top Cache Traditional in West Virginia, USA D4/T4.5 The North Fork Mountain Trail offers a plethora of breathtaking views. According to the cache page, “If this trail is the best for scenery in the state (I think it is), then Chimney Top would be the golden crown upon this king of trails.” Gorgeous.
You want me to climb that?!
Breathtaking
Wow!
Hikeable in summer and winter
4. GC3QR3J – Arctic Circle Trail (K –> S) Multi-Cache in Greenland D5/T5 Only found 11 times due to the remote location and D5/T5 rating, this unique Multi-Cache is worth the effort. There are several adorable huts along the way to seek shelter, but make sure to pack in your own food and beverages since there are no stores along the route.
Camping along the way
A slight upgrade in lodging the next night
It’s so quiet above the valley
Stunning sunsets
Time to grab those hiking boots out of storage and get packin’! Special thanks to acadicus, eigengott, and Keystone for their wonderful contributions to this list.
Are there any amazing views you’ve visited while geocaching that you would add to this list? What about other “Bucket List” themes or geocaches you’d like to see featured? Tell us in the comments below!
Call me Geocache. Some time ago – never mind how long exactly – having little or no finds in my profile, and no particular geocaches to interest me on shore, I thought I would cache about a little and see the watery part of the T5 rating scale.*
What better way to fill out the Terrain rating on your Fizzy Grid than going underwater to find your caches? Grab your snorkel, SCUBA gear, and wet suits, then check out these awesome and inspiring underwater caches:
GC2W056 Hilma Hooker is located in Bonaire, just off the northern coast of Venezuela. The geocache is almost 30 meters (100 feet) underwater at an actual shipwreck. Some underwater caches have special paper and pencils to sign the log, but for this cache, you must write your name in the sand under the yardarm of the ship’s main mast.
Going for the dive cache!Gotta look out for muggles when “signing” the logHilma Hooker sank on September 12, 1984
The ex-USS Kittiwake was a Submarine Rescue vessel (ASR-13). She was part of the 6th Submarine squadron (SUBRON 6) home ported at the Destroyer-Submarine piers in Norfolk, VA. She was transferred from MARAD to the Cayman Islands Government in August 2009 and was cleaned and remediated in Norfolk, Virginia to become an artificial reef. This included substantial work including the removal of all hazardous materials (like pcb’s, asbestos, mercury, cabling, wires, oils, lubricants and a very long list). Additionally, all thin or loose materials that could break off during or soon after sinking were removed. The Kittiwake is possibly the ‘cleanest’ wreck ever to be sunk as an artificial reef.
Aha! GC4BAC0 Kittiwake has been found!Now time to sign the log.Oh the things you’ll see and do while SCUBAcaching!
Did you know there are freshwater lake sharks in Germany? Well, not technically, but there is a fake shark 30 meters (98 feet) below the surface near GCNQ40 Horka – Pumpenhaus. (You gotta admit that you were taken aback the first time you looked at these photos…) This Virtual Cache is, “…the cache owner’s revenge for all the climbing caches, which [he] will never reach.”
SHARK!!!! Oh, it’s only GCNQ40 Horka – PumpenhausEveryone’s safe. The shark was impaled by… a huge steak knife?This is the beautiful location for this underwater cache
But what if you don’t have all that fancy scuba gear or deep water submersibles? Well, we have a couple of other options for you.
Head over to GC3KG2M Father Thames & The Mermaid (AS TIDES GOES BY) in London, England and wait for the tide to go out. This geocache currently has 387 Favorite points, and you can see why; it’s clever and takes you to a memorable location.
GC3KG2M Father Thames & The Mermaid (AS TIDES GOES BY) is only accessible at low tideLondon Low Tide Truck TBI think I found it!
We got one last geocache that may, ahem, float your boat. GC2H5GD Winnepesauke bumblebee scuba is located about 400 feet from the shore and about 35 feet below the surface. This geocache is available year round by diving in the summer, and ice fishing in the winter. Really depends on your perspective on what’s more difficult.
GC2H5GD in the summerGC2H5GD in the winterAgain, GC2H5GD in the summerAgain, GC2H5GD in the winter!
Have you ever found a geocache underwater? How was it, or what’s holding you back from obtaining this type of cache? Tell us in the comments below!
*Deepest apologies to Herman Melville for this complete and very pathetic rip off of the opening passage to Moby Dick.
Geocachers celebrate 15 Years of Geocaching by embarking on a grand geocaching adventure
You may followed them here on the official Geocaching blog: Three brave geocachers recently embarked on a journey across the Alps on foot. Alexander Monsky (Berufsgeocacher), Tim Krüger (psycho_vm) and Benjamin Gorentschitz (MudMen_GER) finally made it across and have returned home feeling happy and exhausted.
