Aladar123 plays geocaching

One more of these crosses along the road. This time the geocache was in a traffic sign, really dangerous to pick, for sure a no kids should go for it place. The geocache tied to the pole with fishing line. As we were to pick many roadside crosses this was on the map, we get there and it is in the middle of a roundabout, a two lane roundabout, on one of the most busy roads going out of town. Lucky for us one of the exits was closed (migth still be when you go for this geocache), so we parked at the exit, and then waited for minutes and some more minutes when we could run to the traffic sign. The a quick pick then sign and many cars passing by ... did not feel the more safe place on earth, but had to get this smiling :) A muggle free hiding spot. It is a way to make a hide stay long to place where no muggles would walk or cycle by and if they would, they for sure won't stay too long at the location. The cross. Did you know that a cross can be used to navigate ba...

Give me a reason to stop while driving 160km/h on the german highway. A geocache is a perfect reason, in most case you cannot park next to the container so that will also make you do some excercise. They say you have to stop regularly, move you body to stay awake and be alert. Nowadays I just try to have some geocaches on the route we drive, this one was one of them. The geocache under a brick. I have to say it was really nicely done, at first I just walked by the hide, but then as there was no trivial hiding place I started to look under different objects. Under some stairs... The location is well picked for this geocache, not many muggle would come around here and most of them might be here to maintain what is in the building, and they will be in a hurry so won't start turning objects upside-down. Not an object to stop to look at for sure. The idea behind geocaching is to see places you would not otherwise, but some places you won't find anything you reall...

In Hungary many geocachers started to mark all the roadside crosses with a geocache. As I'm driving a lot around in many countries I started to keep an eye open to these crosses. I knew there were a fews, but now that I look for them I had to see how many there are. Here is one of the hides below. The geocache The hides are mostly park and grab hides, which is fine, and many tourists love them as they are on the move and can just stop for a quick break pick a geocache and move on. The cross As I saw how many of these crosses got a hide I decided to find them and help in. I have a nephew in town who enjoys going out to find some geocaches with me each time I'm in town and have the time to go. First we headed south and picked some of the geocaches then back in the car and let's go towards small, off the main villages and find some crosses. I'll write a different post on the hides later, but it wasn't too difficult to find some for sure, almost if not all ...

On a long trip from the Netherlands to Hungary we took A3 in Germany. Thanks to the local geocachers there are more and more geocaches on the autobahn. On each trip we try to pick one or two. The geocahce taken out of the pipe. We stopped for getting a drink for my daughter and a coffee for myself. A quick check and this is my lucky day; there is a geocache at the end of the parking and as logs show it was found recently. A huge truck was shadowing the location so no muggle can see us. Not even the truck driver as his cabin was covered with curtains; must be asleep. Not much search was needed there was a green line going under one of the caps on the traffic sign. I quickly took it out and then signed and took the pictures. The container back in its hiding place. Then we were on the autobahn again... so the story did not end there... as I was driving the navigation started to tell me there is a traffic jam on the road ahead, ok show me... at next exit leave th...

Some low difficulty geocaches still can be challenging. My daughter needed something from the closeby outlet center, it was a sunny day and also a public holiday so what could go wrong? We drove to the outlet which was close to full and I mean it, seriously full. We got what she needed and then I picked this geocache to find on the way home. The difficulty level was low so I planned a park and grab. We arrived to the location and the park part was not a problem at all. There was this big old tree... must be the hiding place. I started to dig in then stepped away and I had lots of ants all over my arms... so started to feed on me or at least bite me. The geocache hiding in a hole. Usually this is the point when I dig more into the logs for further hints. One log suggested it could be a bit higher stating not all might reach easily. I geared up with a flashlight and tried to climb the tree. My daughter on the ground laughing, then worrying, then taking a few pics sending them t...

On sunny days going out to play geocaching even in areas where you might get wet is fun. At least I enjoy it, even with knowing thanks to the water I'll get sunburned a lot more. Add caption This geocache was another petling it was under water level but it was also dry, not only the logbook, but the container as well. I wish I had some area to hide similar one to this not much is needed a longer pipe, with a cap on both ends and mount in to something while most of it would be under water. Then you mount a chain to the cap of the pipe and to the petling or its cap and you are done. Simple but a bit more fun to find then a petling just mounted to something. The chain is over a meter long. The longer the pipe and the chain is the more fun, especially for the younger geocaching generation. I have a few geocachers in the area I'm hiding they are just in elementary school, and they go one by one, not every day just when the weather is better and the parents let them go or...

Some places are just not for everyone. Lots of people have some phobias. You can be afraid of height, different places, different animals, etc. A really common one is the spiders, I'm not too worried about them; knowing many of them could kill me, you can have to be careful and respectful, but many would just run if they see a tiny spider. This cache was the same technic as I found before, nice piece of branch with a hole and a petling glued in there, and then it was turnable but not detachable from a tree or other branch. The petling in the branch. One part I really enjoy in geocaching is finding newer ways of hiding the same object. One really popular is the petling or PET preform, it is used all over in Europe. As I also love to create geocaches I always try to duplicate the finds if they are any interesting, this is on my list to create. See the hide on this picture? And the webs? There is a tiny animal in the netherlands that creates webs on trees and then slowly t...

In some countries it is not allowed to hide geocaches under, in or around bridges. Lucky for us in the Netherlands it is ok to have geocaches all around these places. Close to where we live there are long series of geocaches with a bonus cache after you collect bonus codes from them and they are all around different bridges. Most of them are small brdiges just over some water that is separating different lands. This cache was placed next to a bridge over the A20 highway. The geocache taken out of its hiding place. This location we are driving by daily; especially when the warmer days come to the Netherlands. This road leads to my wife's favourite icecream place at Nesseland. The difficulty of this hide was low, terrain as well, it was not a problem to find it quickly. As you can see it was hiding in a pole of a traffic sign under a cap, for a muggle it would look just like a cap at the end of the pipe, nicely done. Almost in its place. From time to time people ask m...

Oh, this was fun ... when you start playing geocaching you try to go for the lower difficulty and terrain, then based on your experience you increase what you give a try. This one was around 3. When we got to the coordinates we first looked around, then saw that on the other end of the plank in front of us there is a tree. We assumed the container will be somewhere there for the higher difficulty level. The petling hiding under the plank. Of course I walked over the plank. Can you imagine how dizzy you can get if you walk on a narrow plank while the water below you is visibly floating? Most people would not even step on the plank to get to the other side, but I did, was fun once. The other end of the plank. After walking to the other side with my phone in my pocket my camera in my hand there was this small fence kind of construction. Why is that here? How do I get around? It is moving ... oh, nothing to hold on to to at least feel secure on this plank. So I lifted it a bit...

When it comes to creating geocaches it always comes to my mind what would I love to see out there. One of the biggest problem is rolling up the logs. Especially when they are old, being out and handled in not the best ways, etc. I saw many better solutions then just placing a rolled up paper in the pill capsule and then I cam to this solution with all combined. The pill capsule with the log roller. As you can see above the log is rolled up on a plastic roller and then has a piece of straw covering it and holding it together. Let me share with you how I made it. A 3D printer log roller, two parts. First thing is to find a template, or create one for the 3D printer and print it out. The one I used I found thanks to instagram, where weellu posted a picture of one and shared his blog post (which is in Finnish, but easy to read...) with the downloadable templates. You can find this in his blog on  the logroller . Feel free to download and share with the world, he dese...

Another sunny day in the Netherlands, you cannot skip these days they are not so common as in some other places. We got our foldable bicycles into the trunk of the car and on the way to a serie in some nice relaxed area with lots of nature. A petling behind the fence. This serie was placed with bigger distances between the geocaches, which is not the best if you are after statistics, but which is also no problem if you just want to enjoy an afternoon out in fresh air. This is what we were up to, get out of the house find some geocaches take some cool pictures. Parking It is cool when they create parking for the bicycles which reminds me the wild west with horse parking. As you can see our easy to fold geocaching bicycle parked, this is what we ended up using the most often. We do (did) have bigger bicycles, I sold mine, and we also have the bicycle holder for the hook on the car, but moounting that placing the bicycles on it and then getting them on putting back, getting...