{"id":29412,"date":"2025-07-28T16:59:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T08:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=29412"},"modified":"2025-07-28T22:55:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T14:55:19","slug":"ggps-and-geocaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=29412","title":{"rendered":"GGPS and Geocaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In October 2001 my Dutch friend Gerrit showed me the Garmin Etrex GPS he had just bought. Using it we walked to a nearby restaurant and he sent me our track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was immediately hooked and within a few weeks I had bought my own Etrex for 459 guilders (208 Euro). In the Netherlands I started using it to record walking and cycling trips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are two bicycle trips. The first one was a round trip from Amsterdam, September 2002, the other one, June 2003, taking our bikes by train to Culemborg, then cycling back to Weesp. Click on the image to see the webpage. In the webpage you can click on the blue dots to see the photos I took during the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There were no digital maps of Malaysia yet. I took my Etrex everywhere to record the roads I traveled, in that way slowly creating my own digital map. Left West-Malaysia, right the surroundings of Kuala Lumpur. Covering the period 2002-2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Around 2003 Malsingmaps<\/a> was created and developed, an example of Community Mapping<\/a>. I contributed some waterfall access roads ;-). Soon there was no need anymore to create and maintain my own map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2002 I discovered geocaching<\/a>. In this game\/sport you use a GPS device to find the location of a hidden container. And of course you can also hide a container yourself at a nice location. In both cases you report your find or hide to a website. Here is the page I published in February 2003 on my own website about geocaching. Click on the image to link to my site, where you can find more details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At that time worldwide there were more than 40.000 geocaches, but in Malaysia only a handful. My first geocache was at the Quartz Ridge<\/a> on 15 December 2002. The second one on 25 January 2003 and the third one on 6 February 2003. Click on the image below to view more hides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first two caches were found within a few weeks, the third one never at all. Here is the story. Coming back from hiding the Gombak river cache, I searched the Internet for more information about that river and came across a webpage of a guy named Khong. I decided to write to him and that was the start of our friendship, now more than 20 years. I told him about my two geocaches, he got interested and went to find them with his friends (without any help from my side!). One of his friends, Stephen Boey, a reporter of the STAR newspaper, wanted to write an article about this “new” game, so we went to the remote Berembun falls with him. It resulted in this article, probably the first time that geocaching was mentioned in the Malaysian news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In my first year of geocaching I kept track pf the goecaches hidden<\/a> (12) and found<\/a> (7). But after that year I lost my interest in the game, for several reasons. The main reason was that I became more busy exploring waterfalls and reporting about them on my website Waterfalls of Malaysia<\/a>. Actually, I placed several geocaches at waterfalls. Here are a few, Lata Berembun, Lata Kijang and the Tanglir Falls. Click on the pictures to view the geocache description. The Berembun and Kijang geocaches were never found, Tanglir one time. The locations were too remote, I archived them many years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lata Berembun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lata Kijang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tanglir Falls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Only one of these waterfall geocaches is still active, the Kanching Falls<\/a> geocache, hidden in December 2003. It has been found 49 times, about twice a year. The waterfalls are not far from Kuala Lumpur and can be reached by public transport. It is my favorite geocache in Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hid the geocache on 12 December 2003 at the 7th fall, during a visit with my friend Gerrit who introduced me to GPS in 2001. Here he is at one of the lower falls. The other picture shows the 7th fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The next picture shows me with the geocache in my hand. In the collage, I am hiding it between the roots of a big tree. The container is covered with a rock, to make it monkey- proof. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The pictures above were taken during another visit. When geocachers report that they can not find the cache, you, as cache owner, have to take action and visit the geocache. Often it happens that the geocacher didn’t search carefully enough, and the geocache is still there. But a few times the cache was indeed missing and I had to replace it. That’s part of the game and it was always a pleasure for me to revisit the Kanching Falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When geocachers find the cache they sometimes post photos. Here are a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Kanching cache represents for me the essence of geocaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n