GeosportZ coverage - Highlights package

[SamCarter]

We've nearly reached the end of the GeosportZ competition, a two-month-long event that has involved a wide range of geocaching "sports" to accumulate points for difficulty, terrain, cache type and cache size. To date, however, there have been only a few edited highlights and action replays appearing in the forums. Short of tracking the activities of the individual competitors, all of the amusing stories, epic adventures, tales of triumphs over adversity (or, at least, triumphs over poor GPSr reception at GZ), evidence of meticulous planning, and the accounts of tenacity and stupidity and obsessive-compulsive behaviour run the risk of remaining known only to the perpetrators and not their fellow competitors.

Well, I, for one, am wondering what antics everyone else has been up to!!

So, here's your chance to add your own report of your performance in the GeosportZ competition. Did the competition make you do something that was outside your comfort zone? Did something particularly funny/noteworthy/challenging happen? How on earth did you manage to find a tennis cache? Did you do all 30 events (if not, what did you leave out and why?)? How did you plan it to land on exactly 888?! What cache did you do as your maximum event score?

In short, we look forward to your personal edited highlights of the game ...

[svn07]

I would have to start by saying what a BLAST GeosportZ has been - and totally crazy. This was my first caching game and I had only been caching a month when it started. I guess this did make it a bit easier as I had more caches to "choose" from to meet the requirements .

I have just been back to look through what I logged to see what my highlights were...and it turned out to be a long list ! I had some great days out with new caching friends to achieve requirements such as heptathlon & decathlon, wrestling & 4x4. I did the 0808 req as my 100th cache (The Bunyaville Mob - classic K8'n'Co TOP cache). I went WAY OUT of my comfort zone to trek (with my 10 yo geoson, who is very proud of HIS achievement) for 4.5 hours to meet the 1500m and XXIX reqs (Maxmanus Challenge and Scrub) and ended up thigh deep in mud (very HIGH thigh if you know what I mean ) doing Canoe/Kayak ("P" - in Brissie's Breakfast Creek).

And it looks like Tennis wasn't as tricky as Gymnastics (according to the numbers logged for each). I had IQ3 - Spellbound on my to-do list (apart from geosportz) as part of a series. I was just looking at the cache description sitting there...and there were the magic numbers for Tennis ! As for Gymnastics - "Can you balance on a beam?".

I started the game with a sprint but as things progressed learnt that this was more of a marathon so became more calculating....then I decided that it might be FUN to try and log all 30 requirements for exactly 888 points.....and it looks like I might be the only geo-olympian to achieve this . This DID add some self-inflicted pressure (and I'm sure confirms the OCD!!!) - mainly with the maths of figuring out which caches would have me end up with the correct points - every time I logged something I had a minor heart attack that my figures were not correct . Also, the pressure of "MUST" find this cache (coz I don't know what the heck else will meet the requirement AND have the right number of points ).

Thanks to the organisers and congratulations to all the participants - WELL DONE!!!! Hope one or two of the lucky coin winners (you know who you are) let me hold their prize...just for a minute .

[SamCarter]

For me there were two particular highlights, both on the same day. The first was simply the fact that the 4x4 relay and the wrestling required other cachers in order to achieve them. I mostly cache on my own here in Victoria, so it was fun to organise a day with three other cachers (who I'd met briefly at best), for an enjoyable caching run out in Ballarat. This actually netted me my most-finds-in-a-day record to date (proving that I am moderately inefficient on my own!). We had a great day out, claiming quite a few of the categories in GeosportZ (and a good mixed selection of caches in general), and it was good to have company for the hunt (even though I quite enjoy caching solo too). Staging the wrestling was a bit of fun: fortunately the cache was large enough for three of us to have a good tug-of-war over, although the resulting photo suggests that Alansee is aiming a roundhouse left hook at caughtatwork and me in a clearly underhanded attempt to have the cache to himself (see GCWD9E).

The second highlight happened part-way through this run. It was only by accident that I realised one of the caches in the vicinity might be suitable for the aquatics criterion, so I packed a lilo with a vague thought that maybe someone would do it. As I was the only one who had also packed a change of clothes it was kind of obvious that -- common sense clearly being absent -- it was going to be me who ventured out into the murky waters of a rather large duckpond on a 12 degree Ballarat day with a cold southerly blowing. The guys were happy to sign the logbook when I had fetched the cache and to make further encouraging noises as I made a second trip to return it to its hiding place. Only fools and cachers will do such things for a smiley ... and the extra GeosportZ points that came from it being a terrain 5! (see GC19CCE).

I've thoroughly enjoyed the competition and the fact that it got me to try a few things that I might not have got around to doing until a bit later ... although I'll confess it's been a bit of a distraction as I've tried to figure out how to optimize my scores. I ended up getting closer to 888 than I thought I'd have time for, but I'm going to fall a bit short. Well done to those who managed the 888, and thanks to Cached, caughtatwork and facitman for the game.

[Richary]

My journey to 888 kept varying. Early on I had a work trip to Melbourne and Ballarat. So l took the opportunity to pick up a few lowish point caches (20s) that were available there but would have been hard to achieve at home (such as planted 8/8, human flight, animal flight). Well the points available closer were worse than where I would be travelling.

Next I hit the highest point cache available in NSW to me (Fear by Tangles) worth 67.5. There are only 2 higher value cache in NSW/ACT and neither was likely to be conquered in a weekend.

Conglomerate ACT which requires visiting another 4 first and a damn big hike, or Buckley's that seems to take at least 3 visits to the Warrumbungles.

That I have finished and am running 7th - all to interstate participants - shows there must be some higher value caches in other states (not suprised about the high number of SA people in the top 10 given some of the Zytheran and other caches there).

After that I started targetting a few that crossed different categories. Occasionaly frustrated by working Saturdays, bad weather, or DNFs that shouldn't have happened. So it was a constantly moving target. Was doing OK, then a work trip came up to Perth with about 4 days notice. Managed to enlist the help of a local team there to help me with the 5 point multi (though they were new cachers and I found all the points, it was still nice to have company) and also grab gymnastics with the word Vault in there that wasn't available close to home.

Back home with a bit of work to be done on the 2nd last weekend available. Headed to Gosford to grab a 64 point one that qualified that I had originally planned as Marathon then someone not involved in the game found it. So used it as the trigger for Decathlon instead. Then grabbed 48 points there for basketball, and on north. It was going to be a big weekend until I didn't find Telegherry Tantalizer which was worth 51 as Aquatics. Found another one for Equestrian worth 42 but I was still down on my 200 odd target for the weekend.

Luckily Bronze who owns TT offered a camping weekend up there last weekend so headed north again. The 51 points were tempting as I needed 61 to finish. So before the drive up looked at the points GSAK had calculated with the macro and found one that would give me the extra 10, then headed up to meet Bronze and head north for an easy find this time (without much help at all, I was too far up the hill before but still don't know how I missed it) and then a fun night camping, talking and looking at the stars. Grabbed a few drive bys on the way home thinking it was all home.

Came home to log the caches. What - the 10 pointer has now turned into 12.5 and would put me over! Since I ran the macro obviously the D/T went up by half a point or the container size increased a fraction. Drat - where is the closest 10 point one? A GA cache about 14km drive away towards Rouse Hill. So off for another quick trip yesterday afternoon to finish the thing off.

I'm not that fussed whether I pick up a coin or not (doesn't look likely) or the particular spot I finished in. The challenge was fun, to try and line up the points and high value caches. And manage the 888.

If the game hadn't been on I would have found more caches over the last 2 months. If the game hadn't been on I wouldn't have got around to finding wonderful caches like Fear, Triview II, Speelo 2, Stairway To Heaven, Air, Telegherry Tantalizer and so on. So the numbers may have been down (not that I am a numbers chaser) but the quality has certainly been excellent and very memorable. Actually it was a bit of a downer to just hit drive by's on the way back down from Newcastle yesterday after all the great experiences I have had doing it.

Loved the fun of it, and happy to have made it to the right total. A very nice caching experience.

[Zytheran]

After a slow start the competition gave me reason to put a cache out that I had been planning for many years, one that required rock climbing, or abseiling depending on your bent. And so it was that a large cache was sourced and a micro for the initial waypoint on the cliff. There is something that sharpens ones senses when abseiling off a single rope and a single tie off in a remote place where your mangled corpse might not be found for a while. And after the initial tricky bit and the harrowing slide/fall/tumble down the hillside below the cache (I could swear that hillside is more dangerous than the cliff) there was the climb back up another bit of serious terrain hauling a huge cache. And then a rather cool discovery which instantly sorted out where the final would be. It's amazing what you find when to go to places normal people are too wise to go to. Of course then there was the 5 star puzzle, something particularly special, something juuuuuussssstttttt doable.
After this start it was back to GSAK and the macro only to discover the points were not quite right because GSAK was rounding the fractional points. My bad.
Many a day was spent trying to find suitbale caches, not so easy when you're responsible for most of the high points caches in the state. However bit by bit a plan was forming however it all seemed to be resolving to some water based caches which was a worry as we don't own a Kayak...or a way of transporting it. Another month went by during which I managed to run myself down and crash off work for a week after pushing it way too hard with a cold. Yes children, you can do amazing things with 400mg of caffeine, and NO, your body wont love you for it. Hey, but we got the caches!
And then with new roof rails and a borrowed Kayak, the caches on the Torrens Lake were attempted. Now MiniZyth1 claims I "stacked it" however I recall only gracefully slipping into the evil black water up to my waist while trying to get back into the Kayak. She was too busy rolling around laughing at my "unco" attempts to notice what really happened IMHO. However it wasn't this little black duck screaming like a little girlie just because the next water filled tunnel was filled with icky flotsom, water rats and huge spider webs. (And probably bits of bodies)
And the final 85.5 points, a 5/4.5 or not, that was the question. (You can just assume the large / puzzle bit by now) In the end I decided it would be nice if this cache could be found as the terrain was a way cool climb and so a smaller cache was also done, enabling the final placement could be dropped down to a more reasonable 3/4.5 (and make life easier for Team Wibble who now have 3 months to complete it , and the previously mentioned 5/5, I believe.)
And so with one more puzzle design the task was complete. After coming 11th in the previous 2 years it looks like a more respectable result. And all it took was some abseiling, falling down hillsides, spots of free climbing both finding and placing large caches, kayaking and climbing trees in rather unsafe manners using over extened ladders. All good. Thankx to the organisers for some fun.

[Team Wibble]

Again, we really enjoyed the competition, as with previous years. Big thanks to the organisers for coming up with yet another interesting spin on geocaching. We really love the extra dimension these comps give to caching.

Apart from pushing our boundaries a bit and also giving us the incentive to find some caches that we might not otherwise have found, the strategising element was lots of fun too. About this time every year we learn several new spreadsheet skills which actually come in useful for other things, like, work! Amazing.

Looking back over our finds logged for the competition, our highlights were:

Having an extra incentive to put out a 5/5 cache we'd been thinking of doing for awhile.

Inching along a near vertical rock retaining wall above a creek that usually isn't flowing, trying to find a cache in an area where sat lock was practically non existent.

Climbing the inside of a clock tower on a busy road while a semi muggle friend who was along for the ride gave us that "look" (why on earth do you guys do this??)

Wandering through an eerily quiet pine forest and reaching GZ, and having that horrible thought that we must have calculated the coordinates wrong, because there didn't seem to be a feature or hiding place anywhere... and then finding the cachin in a clever and unlikely spot.

Managing to knock off three of the five stages of a multi whiles also completing an orienteering course - in driving wind and SLEET.

Plunging into the depths of a section of bush that would be a good place to hide bodies, and being confronted, and then followed, by a large German Shepherd dog, who seemed to have no owner and appeared to live there, more than 2km from the nearest road.

Driving up the South Eastern Freeway from Adelaide to Mt Barker THREE times before managing to find a cache that we had, indeed, stuffed up the coordinates for in our puzzle solution.

Walking up to a popular rock climbing area at 7am on a work day to avoid searching while rock climbers were present, and hearing Peregrine Falcons from a nearby colony calling in the early morning light.

Signing a long while holding onto the side of a cliff, knowing that slipping would result in serious injury (and it was wet and rainy!), but then after finding the cache and scaling the rest of the cliff, finding ourselves on top of a mountain with clear views precisely at the point that the sun came out.

Joining four other teams after an orienteering event in finding a cache, and remarking that as we were all both cachers and orienteers, we had crossed through the area of forest in question before, in search of something else other than a cache.

Finding yet another amazing, unknown, interesting spot right on the edge of suburbia thanks to a cache, and finding the cache with another team just getting back into caching after a long hiatus, and knowing that this sort of cache reminded them of what its all about. Oh, and wrestling with them for the cache.

Walking out along a water pipe, several metres above a nicely nasty looking patch of blackberries, and managing not to fall off.

Finding a cache that started with a requirement to climb a tree, and having the horizontal hail hold off until the point where we had to find the much less rain and wind-dependant final stage.

[Richary]

Congratulations Team Wibble on winning it. Very good work there!

Just noticed though that the top 3 teams all won due to high point hides - 90 points. 5/5 mystery/large.

I am happy to have a) just completed it; and b) come top in NSW in the game finding them. Even if I don't get a shiny new geocoin to celebrate! It was a lot of fun, and as mentioned before made me do some hard core caches that otherwise would have been on the back burner and were very memorable.

Next year will be different - I will need more hard core caches to meet whatever the organisers come up with! Which leaves a dilemna. Should I go and find them now for fun or wait in case I can use them for the next game and stick to drivebys?

Doesn't matter, managed the last big cache of the comp for #2000 combined totals GC & GCA, with only 10 points left to finish after that was easy to go and hit a GCA one close to home (so at least I claimed one GCA for the comp).

[Zytheran]

Again, we really enjoyed the competition, as with previous years. Big thanks to the organisers for coming up with yet another interesting spin on geocaching. We really love the extra dimension these comps give to caching.

Apart from pushing our boundaries a bit and also giving us the incentive to find some caches that we might not otherwise have found, the strategising element was lots of fun too. About this time every year we learn several new spreadsheet skills which actually come in useful for other things, like, work! Amazing.

Looking back over our finds logged for the competition, our highlights were:
<snip>

Hmm, wonder how many of those were mine... a few places seem familiar.
So Wibbles, that should have just about cleaned up my caches??
(BTW, there should be 4 more going out in November to help with the next competition. There's a a few gaps in the high points end of the scales. )

[Team Wibble]

So Wibbles, that should have just about cleaned up my caches??
(BTW, there should be 4 more going out in November to help with the next competition. There's a a few gaps in the high points end of the scales. )

Nope. Unfound from this year's lot stands at three. And we haven't solved the puzzle for any of them....

[red tag]

Instead of telling you a highlight I thought I would show you one.
Hopefully this link will take you to a video that I took while March Brown and I went by boat to a cache called Stuck in the Middle GCNHZJ

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=9DovlAA1sko

The boat was 2.4 metres in length and was 60+ years old.
Our voyage was over 6kms and there are a few other pictures attached to my log. We were soaked when we got back and my mobile phone never recovered from the saltwater but the experience was fantastic !

Geosportz was without a doubt a massive amount of fun and it was hard choosing which experience was the highlight as we had soooo many.

Also a huge thanks to all the organizers

[Team Wibble]

And the final highlight, a really pretty silver geocoin arrived in our mailbox today.

Thanks again to the organisers for running the competition and for the prizes! Some might say its a bit odd going to all those lengths for one small, shiny coin, but its totally worth it