“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.” — J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
If you’ve ever read any of the Harry Potter books or seen any of the movies, you’ll know non-magical people are called muggles. You may also know in the geocaching community, muggles are non-geocachers. This is not the only thing that geocachers and Harry Potter lovers have in common. They both share the same excitement in creating magic and discovery in everyday life. Now, you too can discover what it’s like to be a Hogwarts student while on the epic Multi-Cache journey to find Harry Potter’s Abenteuer.
The journey begins just 60km north of Frankfurt, where the cache is located in the picturesque hills of the Lahn valley. There, you will embark on a series of 18 stages that are each inspired by a different scene of the Harry Potter books and movies. Each stage was designed in detail by the cache owners, blackschneck, also known as Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
One such stage invites you to embody the appearance of Harry Potter himself with a Gryffindor scarf, broomstick, round eyeglasses, and wand. There is so much detail to this cache that there are certain items that must be carried from one stage in order to complete the next stage. Because of this, only one team of 2-4 people are allowed to find the cache per day. To prevent multiple teams on the same day, there is a calendar to schedule your visit. Before you come, the cache owners will email you with all the information you need for your magical experience.
In their words:
Ever since we started to cache we’ve always wanted to make a Harry Potter inspired cache. Because we are big fans of the books and movies. After two visits to the original movie sets in England, we started getting ideas how we could make it happen. We’re extremely happy to see all the positive feedback in the logs by old and new Harry Potter fans. They give us new energy to keep repairing and improving the cache. And now it’s your turn to come and explore Harry Potter’s world in Hessen.
Things to take with you:
There is not a short log on the cache page, but AR-Team’s thoughts on Harry Potters Abenteur summarize the experience well:
We had thought we were normal cachers, as Harry believed he was a normal boy. At least we thought that until the 11th of August when the owl letter reached us and called us to play GC6ACTD —Harry Potter’s Abenteur. The trip to the magical land of the Harry Potter cache was an unforgettable experience for us. Like Harry, we jumped into the adventure, which brought us to many different spectacular stages where we fought against beasts, classmates, and fabulous creatures. At the starting coordinates we arrived at the land of cachers, witches and wizards.
At each stage, we were surprised with how the dedication and detail that was put into this cache and all of its stages. Awesome. After a good 7 hours we completed the amazing cache and we will always remember this experience.
We find here is a magical cache of the category “exceptional cache – exquisitely recommended”! And the bar is truly raised to a new level of quality. Thank you blackschneck for the endless effort and time that has been put into every single detail!
After 5 km (3 mi), 18 stages, and a 6-10 hour re-creation of the magical wizarding world of Harry Potter, you will surely want to sit back and enjoy some butterbeer. Now grab your broomstick and wand and be on your way!
Continue to explore some of the most amazing geocaches around the world.
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You’re on a geocaching roll, earning smileys left and right. With so many finds piling up, it’s tempting to post a TFTC and leave it at that…
(Cue the screeching halt.) Before you do, give us a chance to convince you otherwise.
Late last year, we announced the exciting news of how a group of Seattle-area geocachers rescued the muggled Mission 9: Tunnel of Light APE cache. We also offered the geocaching community an opportunity to suggest ideas for what should happen next with this renowned cache.
More than 9,000 geocachers responded to our survey! After considering all feedback, we have four options for the final vote. Now it’s time for you to decide the fate of Mission 9: Tunnel of Light. The idea receiving the most votes is the one we’ll implement. Simple as that!
Here are the ballot choices:
A few of these options would require exceptions to Geocaching.com guidelines. For example, it’s very rare for a cache to be unarchived, especially after a long period of time. However, this is an extraordinary situation for which we feel that exceptions can be made, especially with the support of a community vote.
The voting is open until March 5, 2017. One vote per person. Visit the ballot box here and make your voice heard!
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost
To say this Geocache of the Week is reached by the road less traveled is an understatement. Located in eastern Europe’s Bulgaria, the cache is at the highest point reachable by car in the country. After crawling up the steep switchback, you will start the search for the appropriately named cache, Car challenge.
There are several ways to approach the cache. By car, by foot, or by bicycle. Whatever way you get there will be quite treacherous because the road is both steep and very old. By car and bicycle, you must take a switchback road that was built during the Second World War. Warning: This location makes the World’s list of dangerous roads so please be prepared and take a reliable vehicle with you.
The road was created to serve the construction of hydropower dams and reservoirs. The existing water reservoir (hint: the cache is nearby) is at the highest altitude in the Balkans (2,394 meters/7,854.331 feet).
By foot, you can either walk up the same road or hike through gorgeous mountain scenery on a 3-5 hour hike. You can also stay overnight at the picturesque Ivan Vasov Hut, named after the famous Bulgarian novelist, Ivan Vasov.
In the summer, the road serves as a track for cycling and running races. From the starting point just a mile up the road, there is nothing but you, the road, the mountains and the geocache on the summit. The cache itself is in great shape and has plenty of space for you to drop off or pick up a trackable at this breathtaking spot.
Testimonials:
Unexpected TTF – Thank you for a very nice cache (especially in Bulgaria measures) in beautiful mountains of Rila. I came for it by Jeep as I would never use my own “ordinary” car, although I have seen some other people climbing up there with a Peugot 30, so I guess it could be done…. T4TC!!!
Mur3na11
Finding this cache came as a little bonus. We went to close the summer season with a 4 day route through Maliovitsa, Ivan Vazov, the Seven Rila Lakes and back. We left an entire day to hike around Ivan Vazov and decided to go to the peak. I borrowed a GPS to record our route of the entire vacation in Rila and when I looked at the screen I saw that there was cache I had never found. What a nice surprise! We took a trip to look for the cache and the search was crowned with success.
Thanks for the cache!
TFTC!
Emo & Nati
Emil Petrov
By cache we reached the Ivan Vazov hut. The entire valley from the hut to the array of Kali is incredible. I recommend the pedestrian option, although the cache is dedicated to the road. Thanks for the great and well-packaged box 🙂
Hellla
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.
