{"id":69745,"date":"2019-09-17T10:25:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T17:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/?p=69745"},"modified":"2019-09-17T10:25:50","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T17:25:50","slug":"finding-friends-at-belgium-mega-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/finding-friends-at-belgium-mega-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding friends at Belgium Mega-Event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Geocaching HQ staff attend dozens of Mega and Giga-Events around the world, shaking hands, sharing stories of adventure, and of course, geocaching. Cindy P (<\/em>Frau Potter<\/em><\/a>) is Director of Community at Geocaching HQ. She recently traveled to Belgium to attend the Welcome to Belgium Mega-Event. Here\u2019s her trip recap.<\/em>
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There is a common saying among geocachers: \u201cThe best finds are other geocachers.\u201d I experienced this first hand at the Welcome to Belgium<\/a> Mega-Event (GC7TT10<\/a>) in Rotselaar, Belgium. The event, hosted August 31, 2019 by Birre\u2019s Camper Friends, has grown over the years from a group of geocachers who travel with motorhomes, caravans, and tents. As the group of friends grew bigger and bigger, they decided to host their own Mega-Event. This year, about 100 motorhomes arrived from all over Europe for the event, along with geocachers that participated just for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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The Mega-Event organizers thought of everything. The weekend was packed full of activities\u2014newly published creative caches, geo-bingo, evening barbeques, after-dark Adventure Labs, a CITO (Cache In Trash Out\u00ae) at a nearby park, workshops to make your own trackable coins, and even a performance of a Belgian geocaching band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To start off my weekend, the organizers of the event made sure I made some new friends. I was paired with two geocachers who sign logs as Team DNF (Deutsch-Neiderl\u00e4ndische Freundschaft). GEOrgCACHING and Geokars met through geocaching but come from Germany and The Netherlands. Their friendship reminds me of so many others that are formed through geocaching. The game breaks down borders between countries and gives us something that we easily share in common\u2014geocaching!
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One of my favorite moments caching was when we nearly DNF\u2019ed a cache because we didn\u2019t have the proper equipment. We bicycled to the next cache where I met a woman carrying the proper equipment\u2014a fishing pole. Thankfully she agreed to return with us to the cache and I used a modified fishing pole for the first time as a cacher. It was great fun and I\u2019m grateful for her generosity.
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Birre<\/a> and Birre\u2019s Camper Friends<\/a> are well known in the community for creative caches. One of my favorites from the weekend was High Voltage<\/a>, a very cleverly constructed and surprising cache. 
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The day after the event, Birre hosted two workshops for geocachers who wanted to make their own creative geocoin. 
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I made so many new friends at the Welcome to Belgium event. Many promised to visit for the Geocaching HQ Anniversary Celebration<\/a> in 2020, so I\u2019m happy to know that we\u2019ll meet again. Thanks to Birre and Birre\u2019s Camper Friends for such a fantastic weekend!\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geocaching HQ staff attend dozens of Mega and Giga-Events around the world, shaking hands, sharing stories of adventure, and of course, geocaching. Cindy P (Frau Potter) is Director of Community at Geocaching HQ. She recently traveled to Belgium to attend the Welcome to Belgium Mega-Event. Here\u2019s her trip recap. There is a common saying among…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":69755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-69745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/d3mo08i005h0zn.cloudfront.net\/blog\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Welcome_to_Belgium_Mega_vFINAL_Blog-Mailer_800x450.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/feed\/podcast\/inside-geocaching-hq-podcast","embedCode":"

Finding friends at Belgium Mega-Event<\/a><\/blockquote>