Geocaching with Seals

Pauline underwater seal geocache 1
Used with permission

They”re the muggles you never thought you”d have to worry about: seals. And for Pauline Driessen (Nekozoeki) placing a geocache near one of her favorite places on earth, the habitat for hundreds of seals, provided an experience she never expected. She says, “I”m a Dutch Flight attendant and I”ve stumbled upon the fun of geocaching a little under two years ago. I”m now 1097 caches in 41 countries further and it”s become a huge part of my (flying) life.”

Pauline aka Nekozoeki
Pauline aka Nekozoeki

The seals” swooping underwater ballet inspired Pauline. “One of my favorite spots in the world is the Cape Fur Seal Colony of Duiker Island, near Houtbay in South Africa. Every time my airline sends me there, I go down to dive with them. During one of these dives I met my dive master friend (and now cachebuddy) “Tomdog707.” Together we hatched a plan for a super cool underwater cache to show the rest of the (geocaching) world this awesome place!”

Weeks of planning, working with a marine biologist and exchanging emails with geocaching community volunteer reviewer ROTSIP paid off on one day.

Used withpermission
Used withpermission

Pauline says, “It was finally time to head back to South Africa for all the fun: First we As a consumer you have a right to dispute any item that you feel is incorrect on your free-credits-report.com report through that particular free-credits-report.com bureaus dispute process. constructed a seal proof container with dive slate logbook in the tool shed of my friend. Then we hiked up a mountain to hide evil seal bonus cache GC2Z8C9 “Gotta dive deep to reach the top!” and then the grand finale: time to install GC47Y71 “Cape Fur Seals and the Great White Mystery” below the waves.”

Placing the geocache
Placing the geocache

Pauline”s friend and photographer Olivia Anderson captured the geocache placement. So far everything had gone to plan. Then Pauline says crafting and brain storming the geocache sparked something with her new dive master friend, “So I met dive master Tom. Nice guy, had a fun diving, nothing more. Tom had never heard of geocaching but thought it was cool. Like old buddies, (we were) working on the geocache in the tool shed, hiking up a mountain to place the bonus cache, crawling in T5 caves and finally diving down to place the cache.”

Geocachers diving in to log the FTF
Geocachers diving in to log the FTF

Then she blurted something out, “Is it strange that I”m starting to realize I”m kinda missing you?” He blurted something back. Now the two watch the geocache listing together and plan time in South Africa for even more diving.

The good luck keeps rolling. A team of geocaching divers logged the FTF shortly after the geocache was published. They rewarded Pauline and Tom with great logs.

Geocacher paddawon writes, “I was feeling a bit rusty but followed AndyT1 overboard and down we went. The great white mystery was soon to reveal itself. We opened the fantastic container and signed the logbook… The seals were beginning to awaken from their slumber and get out of bed. Soon they were whizzing all around us…  All too soon we surfaced and gracefully clambering back on board the board. I think some of the seals acquabatics must have rubbed off. What a fantastic cache! A huge amount of time and effort has gone into the container and makes it all the more worth while. Thanks to Nekozoeki and Tomdog707 for placing the cache and getting me out here.”

 

The geocache is right about there... if you have scuba gear.
The geocache is right about there… if you have scuba gear.

April 1 – A New Geocache Size is Introduced

[Click CC for Subtitles]

It’s a small step for geocaching and even a smaller step for geocaches. Field tested and geocacher approved, a new geocache size has entered the adventure of geocaching. Just be sure to pack your magnifying glass, tweezers and a metric ton of patience. The new geocache size is named “T.I.N.Y.” It stands for Teentsy Infinitesimal Nucleic Yocto Geocache. Just how small are they? Take a look at this: . Right here: . Yeah. The T.I.N.Y. geocaches are smaller than that punctuation mark. Or this one: .

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paWCV5d5B4A]

Interested? Curious? Don’t know what Yocto means? There’s one way to find out. Check out the latest Geocaching Presents video: t.i.n.y. geocaches. Interested in purchasing a 100 count of t.i.n.y. geocaches? They’ve been sold out recently, but for a limited time you might find one in your Shop Geocaching order.

Go behind the scenes and watch the Dosenfischer T.I.N.Y. video.

Geocaching HQ has a history of releasing blockbusting geocaching ideas on April 1. Check out the Geocaching Workout Video you might need to practice before you search for your first t.i.n.y. geocache.

 

Geocache in the Great Urban Race

Great urban race logo 1Geocaching is partnering with the Great Urban Race for another year. The Great Urban Race, inspired by the TV show, The Amazing Race, is a fast-paced puzzle where your city holds the clues.  Teams solve puzzles, tackle challenges and race for cash prizes in this all-out test of smarts and speed. Sound like something you would succeed at? Absolutely.

“The explorative nature of Great Urban Race is a perfect match for Geocachers,” says Race Director Alyssa Breeden.  “We are excited to continue our partnership in 2013!”

This year’s Tampa event incorporated a geocache as one of the clue locations on the course. Once the geocache, “Turn About is Fair Play,” was located using the provided latitude and longitude coordinates, participants (also known as “Masterminds”) had to figure out how to open the geocache. Opening the geocache is required to get the clue and complete the challenge.

A geocache from the Great Urban Race
A geocache from the Great Urban Race

“Participants truly enjoyed the added challenges of the geocache clue as many are already avid geocachers!” says Breeden.  “Those who enjoy geocaching would definitely have a blast at Great Urban Race.”

The Great Urban Race staff has also released a large number of trackables complete with the logo through their travels across the country.  Keep an eye out for one in your city!

 

The Weather Channel Partners with Geocaching to Present “Prospectors”

Skip the extreme climates of prospecting and find the gems hidden on weather.com for your chance to win $3,000! Starting March 20, visit The Prospectors Facebook Page to get your daily clue to find the hidden gem and enter in the Find the Gem Sweepstakes.

Prospectors

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. U.S. Only. Ends 3/26/13.  Official Rules.

Watch the Prospectors preview

 

7 years, 327 DNFs, 2 Finds — A Real Challenge (GC1764C) Lives Up to Its Name

A little geocache frustration from geocacher The Wumpus, with Leaderdog and Tape Worm in the background, while on the search for A Real Challenge.

Editor’s Note: Updated in September 2013 with additional DNF numbers.

Another Editor’s note: Updated August 2014 to include the second find!

In this week’s Geocaching Weekly Mailer, we talked about logging DNFs (did not find). While no one yearns to log a DNF, they’re a necessary part of the game. DNFs can mean all sorts of things: the geocache has been moved, needs maintenance, or in the case of A Real Challenge (GC1764C), it could mean that it’s incredibly hard to find.

With 247 DNFs and only one find, A Real Challenge lives up to its name. In fact, it took nearly four years for the FTF. This geocache was hidden near Peoria, Illinois, USA by geocacher Fuzzy B, who set out with the goal of creating something he’s never seen before, which, with nearly 46,000 finds, is hard to do. “I have felt a little guilty that so many people have spent so much time searching for it,” he said when asked how it felt to be the owner of such a difficult geocache.

In the geocache description, Fuzzy B writes, “Please, to hold down the level of frustration, anger, etc., just put this on your ignore list, it’s not very findable.” But he goes on to reassure us,  “Yes, its there. It’s a shelter Cache, a log in a container. Cache is not in, on, or touching any part of the electrical equipment. It’s not on the roof, or under the shingles, nor the drip edge. Cache is exposed to light and air. Cache is within the footprint of the roof. There is NO reason to damage or destroy Park property.”

BransonAdventure after their find.
It's there somewhere...
It’s there somewhere…

A Real Challenge has only one find so far by geocacher BransonAdventure. “We found at 8:07pm, but waited to log so we could confirm with owner it wasn’t a decoy or mistake. All the way from Nebraska on vacation we extended the Eastward travel just for this cache,” they said in their log, “I will say we spent just a little under 2 hours looking when my husband found it and then to unroll the log, being so excited and shaking felt like it took about as long. The husband and kids did a little jig.” After the find, Fuzzy B came to meet the lucky geocachers.

Even if it’s a little discouraging, DNFs are an important part of the game. Just think, if all the people that had searched for A Real Challenge hadn’t logged their DNFs, the FTF wouldn’t have been as special.

There’s only one way to find out where this geocache is located, but in the meantime, we can speculate. Where do you think it’s hidden?

UPDATE, August 2014:

On August 11, 2014, a second intrepid geocacher made this nearly impossible find. This makes only two finds after nearly 7 years and 327 DNFs. Congratulations to wcs24fan for being only the second geocacher to conquer the odds and sign their name on the logbook. In their log, wcs24fan writes, “As the sun was retreating behind the clouds and beginning to paint them hues of various pinks, we were still searching for this well hidden treasure. Hope has a way of making one think they can achieve the unachievable. On this evening, for us, the unachievable was struck down as we made the find! Upon opening the container and seeing the log of the BransonAdventure team in the FTF spot, it was confirmed that we had found what we had hoped for. Excitement and elation bathed us for several minutes as we signed the log and pondered what we had just accomplished. The first to find in 3 years and only the second to find overall! Those feelings would travel with us for hours to come as we made our way through the winding back roads to the interstate and our way home. Thanks Fuzzy for giving us the hope that we could pull this off and the great adventure!”

Geocache owner Fuzzy B meets the only geocacher to find A Real Challenge, BransonAdventure.