Chasing rainbows might just lead you to one of the most popular geocaches in Tasmania. Tessellated Pavement (GCT7VH) delivers cachers to a geological phenomenon. The rock along the beach has fractured into tile shapes. Snuva hid a geocache near this location in 2006.
A young geocacher explores the cache container
The difficulty 1.5, terrain 1.5 traditional cache rests in an area rich with natural beauty and creative names for natural formations, “… less than 10 minute return walk will take you to this natural pavement. Although this pavement doesn’t have a cafe, some of the names of rock formations will definitely have you thinking geologists think about food an awful lot!”
Names for other nearby geological sites include “The Devil’s Kitchen” and “Tasman’s Arch.” Geocachers can also explore the Earthcache “Walking on Nature’s tiles pavement” at the location.
More than 200 geocachers have logged a smiley on the cache. One cache who logged “Tessellated Pavement” writes, “Truly amazing what nature can do! The kids were so taken by this place they even took photos of the information boards so the can do a project on the pavement.” Another geocacher says, “What a simply amazing natural phenomenon. Looks like something man made. Nature even built in steps. And the view… Simply WOW. TFTC.”
View of the Tessellated Pavement
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.
If you would 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
Share your Trackable stories for a chance to win this rare and coveted Moun10bike Trackable. [Teile jetzt Deine Trackable-Geschichten mit anderen und habe die Chance auf diesem seltenen und begehrten Moun10Bike Trackable.]Trackable Week begins on Monday September 17th. Join Geocaching.com in celebrating all things Trackable on the Latitude 47 blog from Sept 17 through the 23. How far has the furthest active Trackable traveled? Who’s the 14-year-old who’s moved more than 25,000 Trackables (so far)? And who’s taking part in the Great 2013 Geocaching Block Party Travel Bug Race? Watch the official Geocaching.com blog, Latitude 47, for the answers to these questions and more during Trackable Week.
Explore the creative ways to experience Trackables and share your stories about Trackables Geocoins, Travel Bugs® or Promotional Trackables. You’ll have a chance to win a race and coveted Geocoin. You’ll also be able to take advantage of special discounts on Trackables and limited time special offers through Shop Geocaching and Geocaching.com Preferred Vendors around the world.
See you back here on Monday!
Mach mit, wenn Geocaching.com alle Trackables im Latitude 47–Blog, vom 17. bis 23. September. Wie weit ist der am weitesten gereiste Tackable gereist? Wer ist der Vierzehnjährige, der (bis jetzt) 25.000 Trackables bewegt hat? Und wer nimmt am großen Geocaching.com–Block–Party–Travel Bug–Rennen 2013 teil? Finde die Antworten auf diese Fragen und vieles mehr während der Trackable–Woche bei Latitude 47, dem offiziellen Geocaching.com–Blog.
Lies die unglaublichen Geschichten von Trackables, von Montag bis Sonntag, vom 17. bis zum 23. September. Erkunde die kreativen Möglichkeiten um Trackables zu erleben und teile Deine Geschichten über Geocoins, Travel Bugs® und Werbe–Trackables.
Du kannst auch von speziellen Rabattaktionen für Trackables und befristen Angeboten bei Shop Geocaching
Trackable Week presents a new story Monday through Friday this week about creative ways to experience Trackables. Geocaching.com Trackables allow people to tag and track an item from location to location. Trackables typically come in three varieties, Geocoins, Travel Bugs® or Promotional Trackables like the “Find the Gecko,” Geico campaign. (Watch a video on Travel Bugs)
See the bottom of this article for a place a share your Trackable stories, links to other Trackable stories and a limited time special offer for 30% of individual orders of Travel Bugs through Sunday September 18 (U.S. costumers only).
Okay, a quick background. When I do a major trip or head to a big event I try to find a “plush” Travel Bug to act as the trip mascot and it logs all or most of the caches to track my mileage for the event.
[Binrat’s log reads] Now, with Summer 2009 approaching I retrieved “Beaglescout” (TB211TD) with his jaunty Scout hat and backpack and the fun began!
Binrat and Beaglescout
Trip #1 – 8359.9 kilometers or 5194.6 miles (16 June 09 – 25 June 09)
This was an epic train, plane and automobile trip from Brockville Ontario all the way British Columbia and down to Oregon visiting such famous caches as Groundspeak Headquarters, Mission 9: Tunnel of Light and the Original Stash Tribute Plaque before returning home for a rest.
Trip #2 – 2,175 kilometers or 1,351 miles (01 July 09 – 04 July 09)
A fantastic trip From Brockville to Perce Quebec in the Gaspe Region by train.
Trip #3 – 1,591 kilometers or 988 miles (22 July 09 – 26 July 09)
A fun trip from Brockville to Windsor and on down to Midwest GeoBash in Ohio. My first time down to “The Bash” and together we met some amazing cachers and some very cool Travel Bugs.
Trip #4 – 1,873 kilometers or 1,164 miles (31 July 09 – 05 Aug 09)
Beaglescout and Bears
This was a major league epic trip that saw all of us drive from Brockville to North Bay Ontario then continue on to Cochrane to board the Polar Bear Express to Moosonee Ontario just for an Event. Beaglescout even took a trip down the Moose River to James Bay.
So, after four major trips, what has Beaglescout accomplished?
14,000 kilometers or 8.699 miles and visited Ontario, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Quebec, New York and Nunavut.
The Travel Bug tasted salt water on three different coasts(Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic), met many great cachers and had one fantastic summer of excitement.
P.S. Sadly, shortly after I handed him off he was picked up by a newbie/muggle and vanished never to be seen again, but I still remember all the fun including meeting [Lackey] Miss Jenn.
My dad (who caches as The Frito Bandito) and I (caching as vante) are in the middle of a good ole fashioned horse race. As my dad started becoming more and more interested in geocaching, I used to explain the different aspects of the game to him. When we got on the subject of Trackables, I told him how people held Travel Bug races and competitions. He liked the idea so we found a couple of plastic horses and hitched them up to a couple of Travel Bug tags.
He named his horse The Dark Horse (TBPTYQ), a race horse that is not known to gamblers and thus is difficult to place betting
odds on. I named my horse Lucky (TBQ93P), and claimed he can shoot lightning bolts out of his eyes.
My dad and I hid a cache as a finish line near a racetrack here in Michigan and called it the Winner’s Circle (GC276PV). It
was my dad’s first cache hiding experience and he has gone on to hide several caches of his own. My dad then took the horses to Texas with him and dropped them in a cache on April 28, 2010.
Dark Horse track as of September 16, 2011
We’ve had a lot of fun watching our horses race across the country. Each move prompts a phone call and race analysis. There have been a few stretches of time without any action, but it seems that just when one of us really start to worry that the race is lost, a fellow cacher will move our horse along with an encouraging word. Lucky has lived up to his name, once being pulled out of the back roads of Utah before winter hit and most recently being retrieved from a cache that was destroyed by Hurricane Irene four days later. So far he has traveled 3862.9 miles and was last in New York.
The Dark Horse appears to be on a more direct course. He has only traveled 1332.4 miles, but as I write this he’s stabled in a cache in Michigan less than 60 miles away from my home coordinates (dark horse, indeed!). My dad told me that it’s taking everything in his power not to drive down there and get it himself. Me? I’m hoping for just a little bit more luck.
Geocaching has been a blast for my dad and me. It’s a great excuse to spend time and to explore the world together.
Travel bugs and horse racing is just part of the fun!
Editor’s note: Both Binrat and vante will receive a set of Trackables for submitting their Trackable stories. Thank you to all those who submitted stories. Look for Trackable Week again on the Latitude 47 blog in coming months.
ADDITIONAL TRACKABLE STORIES:
Click on the image for 30% off Travel Bugs (US customers only)
Go on a mission to take the first geocoin in the world to another country and back
Check out a Travel Bug race with do-it-yourself tips
Trackable Week presents a new story Monday through Friday this week about creative ways to experience Trackables. Geocaching.com Trackables allow people to tag and track an item from location to location. Trackables typically come in three varieties, Geocoins, Travel Bugs® or Promotional Trackables like the “Find the Gecko,” Geico campaign. (Watch a video on Travel Bugs)
See the bottom of this article for a place a share your Trackable stories, links to other Trackable stories and a limited time special offer for 30% of individual orders of Travel Bugs this week only (US costumers only).
Here’s Thursday installment for Trackable Week:
The Center of the Trackable Universe
Groundspeak Headquarters cache
Groundspeak Headquarters, known as the Lily Pad, can be found in an eclectic Seattle, Washington neighborhood known as Fremont. The Fremont neighborhood is the self-described, “Center of the Universe.” While astrologically speaking, this is up for debate, Fremont may be the Center of the Universe for Trackables.
Green Travel Bug
Those that walk into the new Headquarters (and we invite all geocachers to visit) see a large treasure chest. The treasure chest could just be the epicenter of the Travel Bug world. Currently, the cache is holding 192 Trackables. You can see the whole list here.
Some have traveled just a few hundred miles and passed through the hands of two or three geocachers.
There’s one Travel Bug that’s put on enough miles to circle the globe and then some. Green Traveling Bug was released in 2005. The goal for the Travel Bug was simple, “Place in big enough caches that are the closest to any VW dealership across the nation.” Soon though the Travel Bug did what Travel Bugs do. It traveled cache to cache, and then traveled some more. It currently has more than 33,000 miles on its four little tires.
Green Travel Bug travels
The Headquarters cache is so extensive there’s even large Tupperware containers, inside the cache. One is where Travel Bugs with mission inside the United States rest between stops. There’s another Tupperware container Travel Bugs with international missions, and yet a third container for geocoins.
Groundspeak Headquarters cache
In the course of a year, thousands of Travel Bugs move in and out of the Groundspeak HQ cache. Here’s a quick list of what Lackeys have seen as Trackables: a giant bear poster, multiple bowling balls, a hand crocheted Signal doll, a hand crocheted hat and beard, a cinder block, a cane and an iron. They’re all Trackable. Each tells a story. Each person who touches and moves that Travel Bug adds to that story. Thank you for helping Trackables move and continue sharing their story.
What story does your Travel Bug tell? Have you ever had a Travel Bug pass through Headquarters?
ADDITIONAL TRACKABLE STORIES:
Go on a mission to take the first geocoin in the world to another country and back
Check out a Travel Bug race with do-it-yourself tips
Trackable Week presents a new story Monday through Friday this week about creative ways to experience Trackables. Geocaching.com Trackables allow people to tag and track an item from location to location. Trackables typically come in three varieties, Geocoins, Travel Bugs® or Promotional Trackables like the “Find the Gecko,” Geico campaign. (Watch a video on Travel Bugs)
See the bottom of this article for a place a share your Trackable stories, links to other Trackable stories and a limited time special offer for 30% of individual orders of Travel Bugs this week only (US costumers only).
Image holding the first geocoin ever created. (First geocoin video) But you’re not just holding it, you’re entrusted to take the first geocoin to another continent and let thousands of geocachers see and discover the coin. That’s exactly the mission Lackey Annie Love was given. This is her account of Geocoinfest 2011 – Europa.
Geocoinfest 2011 – Europa: Travels with the World’s First Geocoin
By Annie Love
Lackey Annie Love with the first geocoin
Alarms that go off at 4am are brutal. Knowing the alarm means you’re about to spend 13 hours on a bus doesn’t make that alarm any easier to take. Realizing that the alarm and the 13 hour bus ride mean you’re going to visit five countries and collect more than ten geocache icons in one day kind of makes it all worth it. This epic geocaching tour was just one aspect of Geocoinfest 2011 – Europa. Held in the beautiful German city of Cologne, geocachers came from all around the world to celebrate the geocoin. Little did they know I had the first geocoin ever created. More on that soon.
Tom Phillips and I had the pleasure of representing Groundspeak, the company the operates Geocaching.com, at the first European Geocoinfest. It consisted of a weekend full of amazing events. For me, this event meant that I got to finally meet many geocoin manufacturers and Shop Geocaching distributors that I’ve worked with over the past few years via email. It also meant that I got to meet thousands of geocoin or geocaching enthusiasts from all over the world.
After arriving in Cologne on Friday, I checked into my hotel and quickly headed out the door to get started in weekend fun. The organizers of the event were able to arrange special tours of the Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) for geocachers. The Cathedral, rich with history, had the honor of being the world’s tallest structure for four years in the late 1800’s. Tom, a few other geocachers and I had the privilege to take a special tour up to one of the high points in the Dom. It was here, that we took a group picture that would be my first Challenge completion. Pouring down rain and a rickety old elevator did not stop us from the amazing views of the city the Dom offers.
We then headed to the Friday night welcome event, which took place at a beer garden in the city. Tom and I had a great time getting first introductions to many geocachers.
Lackey Annie Love at the "Battling Annie" tank in Europe during a bus trip to five countries
Normally one might consider standing in a parking lot at 5am in the rain, watching people climb a lift with climbing gear to grab a doughnut for breakfast a little bit crazy. Geocachers know this isn’t crazy, it’s just part of the game. This is how Saturday started for me and about nearly 400 other geocachers. At 6am, our group boarded tour buses and headed off to find geocaches in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and The Netherlands. Definitely a highlight on the tour was finding my 500th geocache – which ended up being “Geocache” (GC40 – the oldest active geocache on continental Europe). I was also told early in the day that I was chosen to find GC2M8E5 – a geocache located on a Tank named “Battling Annie.” Naturally I would then need to climb up on the tank for a picture. One of our final stops of the day had us at the tri-country border of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. This stop included picking up trash at the border as part of a Cache in Trash out (CITO) event. It was definitely cool to be part of a group making a positive impact in not one, but three countries at the same time.
Annie's hand with the first geocoin
Following the bus tour, Tom and I were dropped off at the Saturday night meet and greet event. It was a great chance for people to come together and talk about their adventures of the day and show off their geocoin collections. Tom and I were asked to give a short speech on stage. We quickly decided that we needed to emulate the geocachers on stage just before we were introduced by planking on the speaker boxes at the front of the stage.
While on stage, I let everyone know the big surprise. I announced that Moun10Bike, Lackey Jon Stanley, had entrusted me with bringing the very first geocoin ever created to Geocoinfest Europa. Jon Stanley invented the geocoin.
When Jon asked me to bring something to Geocoinfest for him, I said sure. When I saw that it was the very first geocoin, I tried to say no. Losing my passport or my money on an international trip would be a bad thing. I knew I could not return to Seattle if I accidentally lost Moun10Bike’s most prized possession!
Within minutes of leaving the stage, my hand quickly became the most photographed hand in Germany. I’m not sure that anyone cared about having a picture of my hand, but they did want an image of the geocoin that started an obsession within the geocaching community.
Geocoinfest - Europa 2011
The sun was shining when the big event finally rolled around on Sunday. Geocachers came out in great numbers to attend the historic event in Cologne. People swarmed the vendor’s booths in order to see the latest and greatest in trackable designs. Plenty of space was provided for enthusiasts to discover or trade geocoins with geocachers they likely had never met before. This event has already surpassed last year’s Geowoodstock event in Carnation, Washington for attended logs. Unofficially, it may have been the largest geocaching event in history. I wouldn’t trade this experience or any of the others I’ve had thanks to the game of geocaching for anything.
I’d personally like to thank Groundspeak for giving me the opportunity to spend an unforgettable few days in Germany with around 5,000 fellow geocachers. I’d also like to thank the organizers of the event (Guido, Gunter, Martin, Oliver, Thorsten and Björn – click here to see the team) who spent months ensuring that the event would run smoothly and be enjoyable for everyone. These guys did a fantastic job!
Click here for 30% saving on Travel Bugs (U.S. Customers Only)
Check out a Travel Bug race with do-it-yourself tips
