/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching Steps into North Korea

Warren Rieutort-Louis, rieuwa, in North Korea at the "Monument to Party Foundation"

A geocacher named Warren Rieutort-Louis, rieuwa, stepped foot where few Westerners ever walk. GPS devices and cell phones are not allowed. Geocaching doesn’t exist there.

Warren says, “It’s obviously a destination that is off the beaten path and travel is heavily regulated but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Fewer than 1500 Western tourists visit it every year.”

Warren’s journey to North Korea was arranged through a tour company based in China. The voyage began with Warren emptying his pockets of items which rarely strayed from his side. There were no cell phones or GPS devices permitted on tourists in North Korea.

But Warren wanted to keep a piece of something that has helped guide his personal exploration over the past four years. He brought along a Geocaching.com Travel Bug. He named the Travel Bug, “Asia Explorer.”

It was a momentous gesture. Geocaching.com Travel Bugs have spent more time in space, than in North Korea.

A Travel Bug is a trackable tag that you attach to an item. This allows you to track your item on Geocaching.com. The Travel Bug is moved from geocache to geocache around the world. You can follow its adventures online.

Warren says, “I knew beforehand that there were no geocaches in North Korea, but I still wanted to take a Travel Bug with me as a symbolic item.”

Warren geocaching with his sisters

A friend introduced Warren to the real-world treasure hunt of geocaching in 2008. He says, “[My friend] only found a few geocaches, but when he told me about it, I instantly knew I would love it. Wherever I am, I try to grab a few caches, whether it’s here at home in the US where I’m currently a graduate student in electrical engineering  at Princeton, or in my ‘real’ homes, the Netherlands or southern Portugal, or in my travels.”

Warren decided to explore one of the least traveled countries in the world with his family in summer of 2011. Their private tour took the geocachers to remote North Korean villages. The Travel Bug could not be placed in a geocache and wait for another geocacher to move it along, but Warren says the Travel Bug may have helped crossed cultural barriers.

He says, “The day I took the picture with the Travel Bug in front of the ‘Monument to Party Foundation’ in the capital Pyongyang, I noticed a look of surprise from the guide who toured with us for two weeks. She was my age. I explained to her the concept of geocaching, and she found it absolutely fascinating. She couldn’t believe that people would carry these from cache to cache around the world.”

Travel Bug, looking over the Taedong river

He says the rest of his travels through North Korea offered, “…an informal opportunity to develop closer bonds with the population, and to discover awe-inspiring cultural, natural and architectural richness of the country. Overall we discovered a warm people, infinitely curious about the world outside.”

He says while the Travel Bug didn’t log any kilometers, it now carries a rich experience in a rarely traveled country. “It’s a unique glimpse into a society that we would find hard to understand its existence… without witnessing it.”

Warren says his other Travel Bugs have traveled the world. “I love traveling, so how could I not love Travel Bugs? I have five around the world at the moment, including my North Korea one, having traveled a total of over 40,000 kilometers.”

Warren geocaching

He hopes his “Asia Explorer” Travel Bug will make a return trip north of the 38th parallel. He says, “And who knows, maybe one day the Travel Bug will be able to head to North Korea… I am sure there will be a day when we will be able to introduce wonderful things like geocaching to our North Korean friends, whilst they share with us their cultural richness.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

5 Geocaches in 30 Seconds – Geocaching.com Presents

Check out five creative geocaches in just 30 seconds. Click on the video below. See what your next geocache find might look like. Learn new ideas when hiding your next geocache. Share the video when your friends ask, “What am I looking for when I geocache?”

[vsw id=”OW9bi5_b-Wc” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Creative cache container

Most of the cache containers in the video are available through Shop Geocaching. Which number geocache did you like best?

The geocaches in the video were placed either for demonstrative purposes or used with cache owner permission. Interested in seeing more creative geocaches? Check out this Geocaching.com Presents video.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching.com Caption Contest 31 – Win a Barely Coveted Prize

WINNING CAPTION: I pass here every day, but I never noticed this spot. - Irisvo

Geocaching can often be journey that involves extreme persistence and potentially a few dozen layers of clothing. The cache you see pictured above is one of the northern most geocaches in the world. It’s located where winter reigns most of the year.

Share your gift for clever captions in the 30th installment of our Geocaching.com Caption Contest. What caption would you write for the picture above? “The geocacher was disappointed to find the only swag in the cache was an ice maker.” The winning caption earns you a barely coveted prize.

A coveted, "barely coveted prize"

Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your geocaching username in all entries. Then, explore the captions other geocachers have posted.

You’re encouraged to try to ‘influence’ the voting process (*nudge*nudge*). “Like” the caption that you think should win. If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers, your friends, and family to “like” your caption. Lackeys vote from the top finalists to decide the winner of the contest.

The winner receives this coveted, ‘barely coveted prize’ you see to the left. It’s a rare unicorn-rainbow Trackable.

Click on the image to see the winning caption from this contest

More than a twenty Lackeys voted to award the winner of the 30th Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. Click on the image at right to discover the winning caption from the last Geocaching.com Caption Contest.

Explore all the past winning captions by checking out all the Geocaching.com Caption Contests. If you have suggestions for Geocaching.com Caption Contest photos, send a message and the image to pr@groundspeak.com.

/ Eric Schudiske /

“Triglav 2864” GC14N3H GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – February 27, 2012

Logging Triglav 2864

Learning some quick Slovenian may smooth your long hike to reach this Geocache of the Week. The cache page for “Triglav 2864” (GC14N3H) shares a couple Slovenian phrases to offer other your fellow hikers as a courtesy. It reads, “When you meet or pass somebody say ‘dober dan’ (good day) or ‘zdravo or zivjo’ (hello).”

Geocachers may also need the phrase, “How far to the top?” The  difficulty 1.5, terrain 4.5 geocache sits high atop a Mt. Triglav. The hike to the geocache and back can take two days.

The peak of Mt. Triglav reaches 2864m (9390 ft) into the cool central European air. The mountain is highest in all of Slovenia and graces the country’s flag.

Geocachers are advised to bring safety gear for the aggressive terrain and extra clothing to adapt to the shifting weather on the mountain. The cache page offers this warning, “Never underestimate the extremes of mountain weather. Check the weather forecast before you go and plan and equip accordingly.”

View from near the cache location

Hikers plan their trips  months in advance. The best time to climb begins in July. More than two hundred geocachers have taken the challenge to find “Triglav 2864” since TeMpL Team hide the traditional cache in 2007.

Some geocachers say they overcame fears to find this cache, “So far the hardest cache. I am very glad that I finally decided to [go] up. I do not like heights too, so for me it was a really powerful experience. We had nice weather and it was a very nice view. Thanks for a nice, big cache.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

Cache container

If you’ d like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – February 15, 2012

Here’s a multiple choice geocaching question: The adventure of geocaching goes well with…?

A) Extreme Biking
B) Swimming
C) Zip Lining
D) All of the Above (and more)

If you chose D, you’re right. And you can find geocaching along with these activities at Wild Canyon Games.

Wild Canyon Games is the ultimate team-based adventure race competition. This weekend event pushes adults to challenge themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally. Teams of adventurers compete in various events, including a triathlon (biking, swimming, and running), adrenaline activities like zip lines and a ropes course, and an intensive geocaching course. The geocaching course at Wild Canyon Games has teams competing to find the highest “point total” worth of geocaches in a limited amount of time. You better train hard and plan your course well if you want to win this geocaching competition – it includes 350 geocaches hidden over 170 square miles.

The Wild Canyon games adventure race gives teams the opportunity to strive for a common goal. Our team of Groundspeak Lackeys had so much fun at last year’s race that we are sending two teams this year. Join us at this amazing event in Oregon, USA. Registration is almost full, check it out at www.WildCanyonGames.org!