Geocaching Australia

Hi,

I just noticed that an Earthcache has appeared in the Whitsundays named Whitehaven Beach.

I am confused how someone who doesn't live around here can set up an earthcache (i do conced that it is a quasi locationless) Does this mean i can pick a note-worthy feature anywhere in the world, obtain some appropriate information, and as long as i meet the criteria, i can register an earth-cache

Don't get me wrong, i think that educating people about our earth is a worthy experience, just the true concept behind the ability for someone who may never have been to the location themselves to set up these caches.

thoughts?

mm

At least the "hider" and "reviewer" are Aussies.

This looks less like an Earthcache and more like a promo for the camp grounds

Tell him what sort of sand it is? Can I guess?

How are they going to maintain it if they're not a local?!

I find This even more enlightening. At least he has a lot of finds under his belt, but earthcaches do stink of virtuals.

Remember guys - we liked virtuals.

We were upset when they took them away.

If wrote:Thanks Cached for the reminder One day soon I hope to claim an earthcache. Geology is fascinating

I believe that should be "geology rocks!"

Cached wrote:Remember guys - we liked virtuals.

We were upset when they took them away.

True, the only two caches I've logged in Beijing were virtuals.

Cached wrote:Remember guys - we liked virtuals.

We were upset when they took them away.

Who you calling "we", white woman?

I was overjoyed when virtuals stopped diluting real caches!

Bear_Left wrote:

Cached wrote:Remember guys - we liked virtuals.

We were upset when they took them away.

Who you calling "we", white woman?

I was overjoyed when virtuals stopped diluting real caches!

Some people have no consideration for those that live outside of the mainstream caching area - locationless is a way for those of us who where unable to access regular caches to stay involved - maybe someday you "city" guys will end up somewhere remote and then you might change your tune

And yes we did try geodashing - that just doesnt seem to work in the Pilbara!

The Pilbara. NOW there's a spot for an Earthcache or two

When is a Virtual not a Virtual - when it's an Earthcache!

This sucks.

You either allow virtuals as they were or don't allow any including Earthcaches.

They are springing up in East Gippsland at an alarming rate.

If any other practically brand newbie cacher put out 7 caches several hundred km from home I doubt they'd get approved. Even virtuals I was told need to meet the maintenance requirements.

These useless pieces of cyberjunk that are virtuals by any other name should too.

What is more if they prevent others from caching good locations they should be sent the same way as virtuals. (And I'm not sure where we stand with that...)

You can educate people about rocks with a traditional cache, or a multi, or a micro. Some of us have been doing it for years. Myself included.

But the time has come for Earthcaches to join virtuals in extinction.

Their popularity can be judged by the length of time they remain unfound for. I and others around here have FTF's sitting on our doorstep but interestingly no one has bothered.

DJ

The thing that gets me with many earth caches/virtuals is the often ridiculous logging requirements. I doubt that in many cases the cache "owners" have even completed the necessary requirements to log it.

Prior to geocaching, I had an interest in confleunce.org, which is much more like virtual caching. That lead me to geocaching in mid 2005, with a very sour first experience while in the UK.

My first geocache was a virtual in Greenwich, at the oh so famous observatory. I had my GPSr with me, had my camera, knew the "cache" was there, but because I had not payed enough attention to the cache page, and didn't get a picture of myself standing in a specific spot in a specific pose w/GPSr, I couldn't log it. All because some guy from the USA declared that he would piss all over the Greenwich observatory and mark it as his, and make you jump through his hoops to log the "cache". That made me lose interest, and put me off of caching for a full year before I ventured back to it and started logging real caches. I am certain others have similar experiences. At least I enjoyed the site for what it was, and didn't let the caching experience in any way impact on my enjoyment of my visit to the Observatory.

In regards to Earth caches, I prefer the Parks Canada policy for cache placement, where caches must not contain swaps (closer to a virtual), but must also be educational in nature about the location of the cache placement (ala "Earthcache"). There is still a real cache to find, as well as a log book to sign. It is less of a dilution to the "purity" of good old geocaching.

fehrgo,

4am

Another shiftworker??

I think comparing confluences with virtuals is being awfully unkind to confluences.

I know virtuals that were knocked back here as they were not within a maintainable distance for the owner.

I'm not a fan of virtuals, I was as a newbie a few years ago but with the exponential growth of caching I don't think retaining them would have been at all good for caching. The number of lame caches or micros springing up before people understand caching is scary enough without adding virtuals to the arsenal.

As for an earlier poster relating earthcaches to locationless caches, you still need to visit an earthcache site to log a find. It's not like earthcaches provide any benefit to the remote/rural cacher.

When I started caching there were about 2 caches in a 50km radius and maybe 25 in a 100km radius of where I was living. Earthcaches would not have helped, and I wouldn't have driven 40-50km to log a FTF on a virtual or an earthcache.

DJ



DJ

One thing I've been doing for about the last 6 moths is adding caches I used to get all worked up about into my GC and GCA Ignore lists, rather than go to the forums and complain about them..... I used to get bent into knots about certain caches and now I find I'm a lot more relaxed about it all...

Obviously TBTB at GC see them as worthwhile given they re-instated them after turfing them before...and plenty of people globally seem to enjoy doing them.

There are people all over geocaching forums who seem to think that geocaching must fit THEIR perception of how it should be done, and all other cache types should not exist.....

Ignore the 'undesirable' caches and get on with your caching lives...... it's that easy....