Geocaching can lead you to see the world in a different way. The symptoms begin early. First you see a location and think, “there could be a geocache right there.” Next you see a a park or a familiar fence line and think, “I’ve found a geocache there.” Finally you see an inspiring location and think, “There should be a geocache there.”

And some geocachers go even further. They see a geocache hide and think, there’s no way I won’t get that. It doesn’t matter that it might mean dangling from a cliff, or climbing a tree or navigating into the darkness of a winter forest.

These are an extreme breed of geocacher. They search for geocaches with a terrain rating of 5. Not only do they enjoy the thrill of turning upside-down or wiggling into a small cave to find a geocache, they also enjoy sharing their geocaching adventures online. Geocaching can be dangerous, so make sure you always take the proper safety precautions. A good example is  the final picture of geocachers who brought a guard dog to a mountain top.

Geocaches have difficulty and terrain (D/T) ratings so you can make the decision before you even leave the house. The rating slides from a 1/1, which means the geocache is easy to find in a handicapped accessible area, to a 5/5, which means that after hours of exhausting physical work to get to ground zero involving specialized equipment like a boat, you’re still going to have a hard time finding the geocache. Find more info on the difficulty and terrain ratings.

Below you’ll find images posted to the Geocaching Facebook page of geocaches with terrain ratings of 4 or 5. When you see them, ask yourself, “would I make an attempt to find these geocaches?”

Still want more extreme geocaching? Check out Geocaching’s Extreme Multi-Caching video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXkTDMvEUX8]

They”re the muggles you never thought you”d have to worry about: seals. And for Pauline Driessen (Nekozoeki) placing a geocache near one of her favorite places on earth, the habitat for hundreds of seals, provided an experience she never expected. She says, “I”m a Dutch Flight attendant and I”ve stumbled upon the fun of geocaching a little under two years ago. I”m now 1097 caches in 41 countries further and it”s become a huge part of my (flying) life.”

The seals” swooping underwater ballet inspired Pauline. “One of my favorite spots in the world is the Cape Fur Seal Colony of Duiker Island, near Houtbay in South Africa. Every time my airline sends me there, I go down to dive with them. During one of these dives I met my dive master friend (and now cachebuddy) “Tomdog707.” Together we hatched a plan for a super cool underwater cache to show the rest of the (geocaching) world this awesome place!”

Weeks of planning, working with a marine biologist and exchanging emails with geocaching community volunteer reviewer ROTSIP paid off on one day.

Pauline says, “It was finally time to head back to South Africa for all the fun: First we As a consumer you have a right to dispute any item that you feel is incorrect on your free-credits-report.com report through that particular free-credits-report.com bureaus dispute process. constructed a seal proof container with dive slate logbook in the tool shed of my friend. Then we hiked up a mountain to hide evil seal bonus cache GC2Z8C9 “Gotta dive deep to reach the top!” and then the grand finale: time to install GC47Y71 “Cape Fur Seals and the Great White Mystery” below the waves.”

Pauline”s friend and photographer Olivia Anderson captured the geocache placement. So far everything had gone to plan. Then Pauline says crafting and brain storming the geocache sparked something with her new dive master friend, “So I met dive master Tom. Nice guy, had a fun diving, nothing more. Tom had never heard of geocaching but thought it was cool. Like old buddies, (we were) working on the geocache in the tool shed, hiking up a mountain to place the bonus cache, crawling in T5 caves and finally diving down to place the cache.”

Then she blurted something out, “Is it strange that I”m starting to realize I”m kinda missing you?” He blurted something back. Now the two watch the geocache listing together and plan time in South Africa for even more diving.

The good luck keeps rolling. A team of geocaching divers logged the FTF shortly after the geocache was published. They rewarded Pauline and Tom with great logs.

Geocacher paddawon writes, “I was feeling a bit rusty but followed AndyT1 overboard and down we went. The great white mystery was soon to reveal itself. We opened the fantastic container and signed the logbook… The seals were beginning to awaken from their slumber and get out of bed. Soon they were whizzing all around us…  All too soon we surfaced and gracefully clambering back on board the board. I think some of the seals acquabatics must have rubbed off. What a fantastic cache! A huge amount of time and effort has gone into the container and makes it all the more worth while. Thanks to Nekozoeki and Tomdog707 for placing the cache and getting me out here.”

Geocaching is partnering with the Great Urban Race for another year. The Great Urban Race, inspired by the TV show, The Amazing Race, is a fast-paced puzzle where your city holds the clues.  Teams solve puzzles, tackle challenges and race for cash prizes in this all-out test of smarts and speed. Sound like something you would succeed at? Absolutely.

“The explorative nature of Great Urban Race is a perfect match for Geocachers,” says Race Director Alyssa Breeden.  “We are excited to continue our partnership in 2013!”

This year’s Tampa event incorporated a geocache as one of the clue locations on the course. Once the geocache, “Turn About is Fair Play,” was located using the provided latitude and longitude coordinates, participants (also known as “Masterminds”) had to figure out how to open the geocache. Opening the geocache is required to get the clue and complete the challenge.

“Participants truly enjoyed the added challenges of the geocache clue as many are already avid geocachers!” says Breeden.  “Those who enjoy geocaching would definitely have a blast at Great Urban Race.”

The Great Urban Race staff has also released a large number of trackables complete with the logo through their travels across the country.  Keep an eye out for one in your city!