It has been a while since I last posted on here. It isn’t because I haven’t had nothing to say or no trips, far from it.
I run another site on cruising and that has been taking up my time. I have posted over there on two trips that I cached on.
You see I did a cruise last September from San Francisco to Sydney Australia for 24 days on the Celebrity Century.
This cruise allowed me to do the first cache placed in Hawaii on Oahu. This cache was not as easy but well worth the hike. This was followed up by a virtual called Wahine Hapai. This was special because it was Equinox and a special ceremony is held on that day.
You can read and see the photos on the Celebrity Century link above.
There was caching on Maui and Haleakala Volcano Earthcache. I mean it doesn’t get much better than this.
There was Bora Bora Tahiti and the shear beauty. The photos posted in the link above just don’t do it justice.
There was the arrival in Sydney and the caching around the harbour. Then there was the train trip up to a Lane Cove State Park to do Australia’s first cache called Lane Cove.
So we can discuss numbers, for me it isn’t amount of caches I have found but some of the unique places I have been. I have been lucky to travel around the world and cache in so many interesting places. For me it was 4 more countries and 1 more US State.
I no sooner returned from Australia and another great deal popped up where I could cruise around South America.
This cruise was a 14 Day cruise on Holland America’s Zaandam leaving Buenos Aries and arriving back in Santiago Chile.
There was some great caching in each and every port.
I said above about caching in Hawaii that it doesn’t get much better than this, I have to report I found a new high. We were off to do a cache on the Falkland Islands which required a 18.5 km hike. The cache was called The Narrows and it offered great views of the island. Now one should note that one doesn’t get to walk through a old mine field everyday and this was no exception.
Once we did the cache and left the area it was rounding the next corner that took us by surprise.
How many times do you run into a Penguin while caching?
There was a stop that I was looking forward to and that was Ushuaia Argentina. This was the southern most part of South America at least by road. When I did the southern most cache here and I was walking back to the ship it dawned on me, I have also done the northern most cache in Canada in Inuvik, NWT and now done the southern most cache on the road in South America. Just how many people can say that?
This trip allowed me to cache in 4 more countries bringing my total to 32.
Yesterday I passed my 8 year anniversary of Geocaching and looking back on it I have had a lot of firsts or highlights. I have completed a country. I have cached as far north/south on the road in North and South America. I attended the first ET Highway event that started power trails. I can say this that I am not keen with these as they have changed the numbers.
So for me it is how you yourself look at the numbers. I have done 105 FTF’s in a day set a personal high of 479 caches in a day.
Really what it comes down to is the people I have met along the way and around the world and the places I have been and seen. Trust me being in Istanbul on Friday afternoon to look for a cache with your 18 year old daughter when the call to pray has just happened is exciting.(well maybe not for her) There was getting a cache and slipping on shale to avoid a rattle snake that required a trip to the ER and surgery later. There was the time I was busy taking a photo with one leg in the car and one out and resting on the door when the car started moving down hill slowly. It doesn’t help when the passenger takes it out of drive and into neutral and it starts to go faster. We called this almost being run over by my own car.
Geocaching is about the places one can go and visit and learn. Today we see the park and grabs that really are just about the numbers. When I first started if you got 10 -15 caches in a day you were doing great. I have heard it said that if I can’t do 25+ I am not going out. Maybe this is why puzzle caches are a thing of the past?
All this started because a friend who cached called Nevgar took me on a cache to show me. So it is his fault that got me doing this.
Oh Yes my caching name isn’t Philatsea for nothing……