Nuevos souvenirs de países: ¡Próximamente!

¿Has planificado tu viaje de 2017?

Una de las mejores cosas del geocaching es que la gente de diversas partes del mundo lo practica de distintas formas.Para celebrarlo, durante las próximas semanas, cada semana, ¡vamos a lanzar cinco nuevos souvenirs de países!

Si ya has encontrado un geocaché en alguno de estos países, recibirás automáticamente el souvenir en tu perfil. Los souvenirs disponibles actualmente pueden encontrarse aquí. Puedes ver los que ya posees comprobando tus souvenirs en Geocaching.com.

Permanece atento al anuncio del  primero de los nuevos souvenirs de países en el próximo boletín semanal de Geocaching.

Neue Länder-Souvenirs erscheinen demnächst!

Hast Du Deinen Urlaub für 2017 schon geplant?

Eines der besten Dinge an Geocaching ist, dass es weltweit von vielen Menschen auf unterschiedliche Weise gespielt wird. Um dies zu feiern, veröffentlichen wir insgesamt fünf neue Länder-Souvenirs in den nächsten Wochen.

Solltest Du bereits einen Geocache in einem dieser Länder gefunden haben, erhältst Du automatisch das entsprechende Souvenir in Deinem Profil. Eine Übersicht der bislang erhältlichen Souvenirs befindet sich hier. Um zu sehen, welche Du bereits erhalten hast, wirf einen Blick in Dein Profil auf Geocaching.com.

Sei bereit für die Ankündigung der ersten neuen Länder-Souvenirs im nächsten wöchentlichen Geocaching Newsletter.

Nouveaux souvenirs de pays : c’est pour bientôt !

Avez vous planifié vos voyages pour 2017 ?

L’une des choses les plus cools avec le géocaching, c’est qu’il se joue tout autour du monde de tant de façons différentes. Pour fêter ça, nous allons créer cinq nouveaux souvenirs de pays chaque semaine dans les semaines à venir !

Si vous avez déjà trouvé une cache dans l’un de ces pays, vous recevrez automatiquement le souvenir sur votre profil. Les souvenirs actuellement disponibles peuvent être trouvés ici. Vous pouvez vérifier ceux que vous avez déjà gagnés en vérifiant vos Souvenirs sur Geocaching.com.

Restez à l’écoute pour l’annonce des premiers nouveaux souvenirs de pays dans la newsletter Géocaching de la semaine prochaine.

Horka Pumpenhaus — Geocache of the Week

Virtual Cache
GCNQ40
by Horka – Pumpenhaus
Difficulty:
5
Terrain:
5
Location:
Horka, Germany
N 51° 15.817 E 014° 14.897

Geocaching is an emotional game. There’s the elation of finding a cache after a prolonged search. The frustration of searching and searching for a cache that never turns up. The surprise of a cleverly disguised container, the anticipation of a highly-favorited gadget cache. The despair of losing a trackable…the guilt of losing a trackable. The pleasure of a good conservation with fellow cachers, the anticipation of hiding a new cache, the thrill of racing for the FTF, and of course, the terror and bewilderment of encountering a shark in the middle of a lake in Germany.

2016-11-23_8-15-14
Wait…what?

Yes, bewilderment and terror are commonly experienced emotions when searching for GCNQ40. This Virtual Cache is under murky waters in Horka Lake, which was once an old mining quarry. Now filled with water, the former quarry is a popular spot for scuba divers because of its unusually high visibility.

The old quarry that is now Horka Lake.
The old quarry that is now Horka Lake.
2016-11-23_8-24-33
If a tree falls in a forest, and the forest is underwater, will it make a sound?

In addition to the many natural elements that make for an interesting dive—the underwater forest, for example—the lake abounds with strange objects that were either placed there by divers over the years or are remnants of days when the lake bottom was a quarry bottom.

Someone took a long detour on their ride to work today...
Someone took a long detour on their ride to work today…
An old old pumphouse that was once party of the working quarry.
The old pump house that was once party of the working quarry.
An old wetsuit?
An old wetsuit?

Virtual Caches are a grandfathered cache type, which means no new Virtual Caches can be created anymore. A Virtual Cache is about discovering a location rather than a container. The requirements for logging a Virtual Cache vary—you may be required to answer a question about the location, take a picture, complete a task, etc.

In order to claim the find on Horka – Pumpenhaus, you’ll need to swim to the posted coordinates, then dive 30m down. At that location you’ll find a white object inside the old quarry pump house. Describe the object or take a location of the pump house to prove you were there.

Rocky1210 on the dive.
Rocky1210 on the dive.

When the Cache Owner, Laird McKai, first placed this cache in 2005, it was probably the first underwater cache in Germany. The CO was a Master Scuba Diver, for whom geocaching had a familiar appeal.

After every dive, you write a log and keep a record. Under water you have to find your way using a compass and sometimes you might try to find some sunken boats, such as the Coreolanus, which I dived to in Croatia. So diving is not to different to geocaching. Why not combine both?

The Cache Owner, Laird McKai, in an old diving helmet.
The Cache Owner, Laird McKai, in an old diving helmet.

So… what about those sharks from earlier? Fortunately for geocachers and divers, the sharks aren’t real (though they look realistic from afar). They were placed in the lake by the nearby dive school. The cache gallery abounds with diver/shark selfies.

Geocacher $miley is a bit too close for comfort.
Geocacher $miley is a bit too close for comfort.
Michao Team goes in for a close-up.
Michao Team goes in for a close-up examination of the shark’s dental situation.
Imagine seeing this from afar.
Imagine seeing this image from afar.

After eleven years, this Virtual Cache is still bringing joy (and fright!) to geocachers with the necessary scuba certifications and gear. And the Cache Owner is happy to still have it around. His advice for other cachers? “Enjoy your hobby, enjoy good quality caches and try to make others enjoy as well your cache you place by trying to make your caches special and memorable!”

Which begs the question, what’s the on-land equivalent of a full-size rubber shark?

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.