Located the furthest south of all the Baltic states, Lithuania’s sandy beaches, enchanting castles and cobblestoned towns combine to make this country an ideal place for geocaching — and now, it has the added distinction of being the latest addition to the geocaching country souvenir collection!
To celebrate geocaching in Lithuania, we’ve pulled together this list of five awesome geocaching experiences you’ll definitely want to add to your bucket list:
This EarthCache takes you to the most famous national park in Lithuania, which is also listed as a UNESCO site. Here you will find sand dunes and lush forests jutting out into the Curonian Lagoon.
Photo by geocacher bolyak.
“What a place. The true magic of nature showed here. And tonight’s lighting was perfect. A beautiful sunset in the west and glimmering lights from the cities in the east. The wind on our back walking upwards was perfect.” — Team Davidsson
Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius, is known for the city’s Old Town. Here you’ll find impressive architecture dating back to the 13th century, like the cathedral near this geocache. While you’re there, you might also want to check out GC1Z4H6.
The Vilnius Cathedral was first built in the 13th century, but has been rebuilt and restored many times since then.
“Wow wow wow! I liked this one very much. I didn’t expected it in such visible location, very well masked! Thank you for the great cache.” – SNlEGS
After visiting the Vilnius Old Town, you can catch a view from above at the Gediminas’ Tower, pictured in the new Lithuania souvenir. This tower has become a symbol for Lithuania.
From the Gediminas’ Tower, there are spectacular views of the famous Old Town in Vilnius.
“Found on our Baltic Cycle Tour with cb_caching. Wonderful place with fantastic panoramic view, best to visit in the morning sun…” – Geolej
This series of geocaches will take you on a tour of Lithuania’s border towns. Be sure to bring your passport, as some of the geocaches will take you into Lithuania’s neighbor countries, Russia and Belarus, which are outside of the European Union.
Photo by geocacher valdisj at one stop on the series, GC5CV3C.
“Thank you for guiding us to this church: when coming closer, we have noticed a professional orchestra was doing their final check for this night’s concert in this church. We used the opportunity to listen to Edvard Grieg’s music and went for the cache later.” – TheWinterClan
Visit the city of Kaunas to soak in Lithuanian art, culture and history. Be sure to make a stop at the Kaunas Grand TB Hotelto swap out a trackable!
Located nearby: the Kaunas Castle and another great geocache (GC58XD1).
“WOW! Once [the muggle] left, we found the key and opened the mysterious door. The geocache idea – amazing. Thanks to the hider for such an exciting treasure!” – Raccoons. Casimir
We’ll unveil one new souvenir every week until all FIVE are officially released and awarded by mid December. Learn about last week’s new souvenir announcement, Slovenia, here.
Perfekte Geschenke für die Geocacher in Deinem Leben zu finden, ist wie das Finden eines Geochaches – beides beschert Dir ein Lächeln. Die gute Nachricht: Wir haben genau das Richtige für Dich. Bei einem unserer internationalen Vertriebspartner findest Du die perfekten Geschenke für Deine Geocaching-Freunde.
Dieses Mal möchten wir zur Weihnachtszeit ein besonderes Lächeln auf Dein Gesicht zaubern. Für eine begrenzte Zeit erhältst Du ab einem bestimmten Mindesteinkauf von einem teilnehmenden Händler kostenlose grüne Travel Bugs® in limitierter Auflage. Dabei kannst Du je nachdem wie viel Du erwirbst mehrere kostenlose Trackables bekommen (solange der Vorrat reicht)!
This article was originally published in the Portuguese “GeoMagazine.”
Group shot at the beginning of the trek
I had heard August is the worst time of year to travel to Japan. So what did I do? I scheduled my two week holiday in Japan at the end of August. Naturally, the only reason I’d do something so silly is because of geocaching. I also wanted to climb Mt. Fuji and the window for doing so safely falls right around this time.
After cashing in airline miles for a free ticket to Tokyo, I started planning my big adventure. I knew I’d need help from locals over there, so I reached out to every contact I knew in Japan. After some months of planning, I decided to join a group of local geocachers at GC5VHCG — A CITO event that would take place on Mt. Fuji. Every year a group of Japanese geocachers makes the trek with the goal of giving back by cleaning up trash on the mountain.
While you can climb to the top and back in a day trip, the group wanted to catch the sunrise on top of the mountain, so it would be an overnight adventure for us. We left Tokyo by 8am and were at the trailhead at 11am. There were 11 of us total. Even though only three of us spoke English and I only knew four words of Japanese, we had little trouble understanding each other along the way.
Taxi drive up to 5th station, the trail head
We started off on the trail and were welcomed by the greeting of “Konichiwa” from every climber we passed along the way. Since the climbing season is very short on Mt. Fuji, there were plenty of climbers heading up and down the mountain. The clouds were low and a mist was falling, so we weren’t treated to great views in the first few hours of our trek.
Approaching one of the many stations on the trail
The Fuji climb is broken up into stations, which provide naturally good rest points every 45 minutes. We started at the 5th station (2400 meters) on the Fujinomiya Trail and had booked a hut at station 9.5 for spending the night. The goal was to reach this station around 5pm, have dinner and head to bed early. We’d get up before dawn and finish the last half hour of the hike to the summit to see the sunrise on top.
I’ve done a lot of hiking over my lifetime and I must say, it’s very rare to run into places that will sell you snacks, water, or even beer mid-hike! Each station on Mt. Fuji did just that, along with providing other climbing gear, souvenirs, or just a warm, dry place to rest. For 200 yen (€1.50), you could even use a vault toilet.
Group dinner/break at station 9.5
Most of the climb feels like you’re walking on a Martian landscape. Everywhere you look, there’s beautiful red and black volcanic rocks and soil. We took the shortest, steepest route up the mountain. Some consider this the easiest route as I learned other routes tend to be filled with so much loose rock or scree that every step you take, you slide down the hill.
At around the 8th station, the higher clouds lifted and revealed a spectacular view of the side of Mt. Fuji and a never-ending sea of clouds. These are the types of views that make it all worth it.
When the dense fog cleared, this was the incredible view
We reached station 9.5 (elevation 3250 meters) on schedule around 5pm. From here, we could see the Torii (traditional Japanese gate) at the top. I could almost reach out and touch it, we were so close! After getting settled into our hut and having a nice warm meal with beer, we settled in for the night.
In the middle of the night, I woke up to sounds of the wind and rain outside our hut. I worried that this storm wasn’t going to go away by the time we were to make our summit attempt.
My worries became reality when the heavy gusting winds and rain were still there at 5am. The workers at the hut warned us that conditions were only worse on top and that it would not be safe for us to summit. My heart sank. We had worked so hard and were so close. With all the planning and effort that went into making the trip and climb possible, getting turned around by bad weather was very hard to take. But safety must come first.
Sunset outside our hut on the mountain
Sometimes on an adventure you don’t win the “prize” you originally set out for, and that’s okay. The journey you take, the friends you’ve made, and the memories you keep make it all worth it. Now I just need to figure out when I can go back and try for the summit again. I told my new geocaching friends that I would be back someday. After all, the geocaches on the summit are still up there waiting for me!
Ab sofort kannst Du das neuste Ländersouvenir zu Deiner Sammlung hinzufügen: Litauen. Ein Land voller mittelalterlicher Schlösser, Sandstrände und, natürlich, einer Fülle an Geocaches. Bei Deinem Besuch in Litauen, solltest Du nicht die folgenden Highlights verpassen:
Geh entlang der Kurischen Nehrung spazieren. Diese lange Sanddüne trennt die Kurische Lagune von der Ostsee.
Reise durch die Städte entlang der litauischen Grenze und folge dabei dieser Geocaching-Serie.
Suche nach einem Geocache in Litauens Hauptstadt Vilnius, bekannt für ihre mittelalterliche Altstadt.
Pssst … Ländersouvenirs sind virtuelle Kunstwerke, die nach dem Fund eines Geocaches in bestimmten Ländern in Deinem Profil angezeigt werden. In den nächsten Wochen werden wir drei neue Ländersouvenirs bekannt geben.
6 verrückte Tipps für alte Geocachebehälter
Um den Findern fortlaufende Freude zu bringen, erfordern Geocaches fortlaufende Liebe, Pflege und Wartung. Für Geocache-Besitzer kann das bedeuten, dass sie das Logbuch austauschen, kleine Tauschgegenstände nachfüllen oder auch mal die Dose austauschen (Oh man!).
Doch keine Angst: Du kannst jetzt Deine alten Geocache-Behälter mit Stil in den Ruhestand schicken! Auch wenn sie nicht mehr Deine Logbücher schützen, heißt das noch lange nicht, dass Du sie nicht auf kreative Weise “upcyclen” kannst. Hier findest Du sechs Möglichkeiten, wie Du die gebräuchlichsten Geocache-Behälter wiederverwenden kannst.
Dann überprüfe doch mal, ob Dein Geocache Wartung benötigt: Niemand mag ein triefnasses Logbuch!
This geocache is the kind that brings you to a place you would probably never have otherwise heard of or visited. Set deep into a forest on Slovenia’s northern border, this multi-cache will take you on a hike in the woods past old mining artifacts, culminating in an old manganese mine dating back to the 19th century.
The mine itself is still accessible via two entrances — but use caution. And if you’re not comfortable going inside the tunnel, there’s plenty of lovely nature to explore nearby. Plus, if you find this cache, or any cache in Slovenia, you’ll earn a shiny new Slovenia country souvenir.
This cache was the first to be awarded the Geocache of the Month award by the Slovenian Geocaching Club.
What the cache owner has to say:
What sorts of things will a geocacher find while on this multi-cache tour? On the beginning of the path, you can see water slide between the two dams and an interesting springs of the stream Javornik. At the upper dam on the information board find the coordinates of the manganese mine. Do not forget to look the ore below an information board on the entry of the 200 year old manganese ore mine.
Why did you want to bring people to this location? Beautiful nature, walking in silence, without other visitors. Historic mine in which it is still possible to enter, but only a few – 10m.
What can you tell us about the history of the manganese mine? This mine was just one of many manganese mines in Slovenia. Manganese ores were processed in Jesenice ironworks. From this ore it was in Jesenice ironworks under the leadership of ing. Lambert PANTZ in 1872 that, for the first time (in the world), that blast furnace was used to produce manganese iron. The Industrial Company Kranj was awarded with the gold medal for extraordinary innovation at a global industry exhibition in Pennsylvania on the hundredth anniversary of the United States.
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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.
Perfekte Geschenke für die Geocacher in Deinem Leben zu finden, ist wie das Finden eines Geochaches – beides beschert Dir ein Lächeln. Die gute Nachricht: Wir haben genau das Richtige für Dich. Bei einem unserer 
Um den Findern fortlaufende Freude zu bringen, erfordern Geocaches fortlaufende Liebe, Pflege und Wartung. Für Geocache-Besitzer kann das bedeuten, dass sie das Logbuch austauschen, kleine Tauschgegenstände nachfüllen oder auch mal die Dose austauschen (Oh man!).
Location:
