/ Eric Schudiske /

“We Come in Peace” GC1DA0H GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – May 16, 2011

Tasmanian Night Cache "We Come in Peace"

Aliens, a lightsaber wielding possum, and a geocache that could save your life. That’s all in store for geocachers brave enough to attempt the Tasmanian night cache, “We Come in Peace” (GC1DA0H).

The themed Multi-Cache, with a difficulty 2.5, terrain 2.5 rating, uses a geocache as an alien intelligence test. Snuva hid the cache in 2008.

According to the cache page, if geocachers are cleaver enough to uncover the cache, they will be spared during an invasion. The cache page reads, “As a Schnauzer is easy to recognise but Geocachers can easily be confused with muggles, we are therefore making use of this medium to assist us in marking our intelligent friends the geocachers apart from the muggles, who will be vaporised one day when we can be bothered. Your part in proving your worthiness is simple: just trust us to take you on a walk in the dark. Yes, it must be in the dark.”

View from near the cache location

Geocachers use flashlights to lead them through a series of cache stages. They collect clues that eventually unveil the final location. The cache coordinates reveal a stunning view of Hobart, Tasmania. The last geocacher to log “We Come in Peace” wrote, “Great cache one of my favourites I have found in Tassie. TFTC.”

Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

 


/ Eric Schudiske /

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – May 5, 2011

The GPS Adventures Maze Heads to Nashville

The GPS Adventures Maze Exhibit opens May 28th at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville, Tennessee and runs through September 5. Attendees learn about geocaching, GPS technology and navigation while exploring a fun and family-friendly interactive maze. Those who log the maze will also earn the unique GPS Adventures Maze Exhibit cache type icon.

Before the doors open on the 28th, the Adventure Science Center will host a meet and greet event for geocachers. Groundspeak Co-Founder and President Jeremy Irish will attend the event to celebrate the Maze opening with the geocaching community. The event runs from 9am until 10 am, when the Maze opens. For future Maze locations, please visit www.gpsmaze.com.

/ Eric Schudiske /

“Edinburgh’s Royal Mile” GCKTYK GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – May 9, 2011

A view along the Royal Mile

Since 2004 geocachers have been guided on a tourist-friendly cache through the heart of Edinburgh. The Multi-Cache “Edinburgh’s Royal Mile” (GCKTYK) lifts the veil on nearly forgotten Edinburgh lore dating back to the 1600’s. Geocachers uncover stories of witchcraft, ghostly visions and a story of miraculous survival. The Multi-Cache has six stages along the famed Royal Mile, which hums with tourists from around the world.

The nano cache

The cache by marmal is rated a 1.5 difficulty with a 1.5 terrain. The cache container is a nano. The cache is among the highest rated in Scotland with 42 Geocaching.com Favorite Points. A geocacher from Germany recently logged the cache and writes, “During our time in Edinburgh it was a must to visit the Royal Mile and to search this cache. It was one of the highlights and the cache was located without any problems. T4TC!”

Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

A view along the Royal Mile

 

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

Na klar!- Of course! Lackeys Learn German

Lackey's German Text Book

Among the sounds of “good morning” and “how are you?” you’ll hear Lackeys (employees at Groundspeak) sharing a “Guten Morgen!” or “Wie geht’s?” when passing in the hallway. Is this because we have suddenly become fluent in German? Sadly, no, but we are trying! 18 Lackeys met twice a week for eight weeks to learn how to better understand and communicate in German. The Founders of Geocaching.com sat next to Lackeys who answer emails from around the world and other Lackeys who commonly communicate with German geocachers.

German language lessons at Groundspeak make sense. More than ten percent of geocaches located around the world today can be found on German soil. To see the incredible growth of geocaches in Germany, watch the YouTube video on this page. The video ends in 2009 when there were more than 118,000 geocaches in the country. Two years later, there are now more than 180,000 active geocaches in Germany.

After eight weeks of lessons, Lackeys moved from, “Mein Name ist….” (My name is… ) and “Wie bitte?” (Beg you pardon) to mostly understanding “Jeremy und Bryan kommen per Fahrrad vorbei.” (Jeremy and Bryan are coming by on their bikes).  Lackey Annie Love recently met some German geocachers in the Groundspeak lobby with some freshly learned language skills: “Woher kommen Sie?” (where do you come from?)

[youtube]LmbHcbF2XcU[/youtube]

Understandably Lackey’s are not fluent in German… yet. More German language classes are in the works.

As the global geocaching community grows, Groundspeak Lackeys strive to understand the local languages, culture and most importantly how to best serve local geocaching communities. You can choose to read the main sections of Geocaching.com in any one of eleven different languages. Geocaching unites more than five million geocachers around the world, regardless of whether they say “Hello” or “Hallo” or “Ahoj” or “Hej” or “Hola” or “Ciao” or “Bonjour” or “Olá” or “Witam” or “Tere,” we all say “Geocaching.”

 

 

/ Eric Schudiske

Groundspeak Weekly Mailer – May 4, 2011

Happy 11th Birthday Geocaching!

Can you believe that geocaching turned 11 years old this week? Neither can we! Geocaching has come a long way since the first geocache was placed on May 3, 2000. Here are some fun facts and a timeline of the history of geocaching:

• The first geocache was not called a geocache at all, but a “GPS Stash.” Although the original geocache is no longer in place, there is a plaque marking its location and a physical container with a logbook for visitors to sign.

• September 2, 2000: September 2, 2000: Geocaching.com launches. The site lists 75 geocaches worldwide.

• August 30, 2001: The first Travel Bug® is released by Jeremy. TB1 is a rubber ducky named “Deadly Duck: Envy.” Fun fact: The image on the Deadly Duck’s Trackable page is Photoshopped to replicate this mug shot of a famous Seattle-area entrepreneur and philanthropist in his younger, “wilder” days.

• September 30, 2001: Moun10Bike places the second Geocoin in a cache near Deception Pass, Washington. He keeps the first Geocoin in his personal collection. Watch him tell his story.

• December 31, 2007: Geocaching.com reaches 500,000 active geocache listings.

• March 8, 2010: Geocaching.com reaches 1 million active geocache listings. The number of listings on Geocaching.com has grown by 37% since then.

• May 3, 2011: There are currently over 1.3 million geocaches listed on Geocaching.com. They are hidden in almost every country in the world.

• May 3, 2025: The first geocache is placed on Saturn to commemorate the 25th anniversary of geocaching.

Okay, so the last one is probably not true. But it could be. How do you think geocaching will change in the next 5, 15, 25 years? Share your thoughts on Facebook.