Celebrate International Geocaching Day 2018 at Lake Weeroona, Bendigo!
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Date: Saturday, 18th August 2018
Place: Lake Weeroona (shelter near carpark 2)
This will be an excellent opportunity for both new and more experienced geocachers to meet up with others and enjoy a social chat with like-minded people.
Please BYO food and drinks if you want to eat. There are BBQ facilities, tables and seating under the shelter. There is also a large playground for the children and vendors sell hot dogs, donuts, milkshakes, etc., on the other side of the playground on most weekends. There is also an ice-cream shop offering a large variety of flavors opposite the lake on the corner of Napier & Nolan Streets though admittedly it's probably the wrong time of year for that - for most people... but some of us love ice-creams all year round!
Note: Those who attend this event will also earn the official International Geocaching Day 2018 souvenir! Also, are you a newbie cacher attending your first event? If you enjoy geocaching and wish to take your membership further, you will be eligible for 1 month free upgrade to a premium membership. See me (claybol) at the event for the details.
History of International Geocaching Day:
On May 3rd, 2000 the first geocache was placed near Beavercreek, Oregon, USA by Dave Ulmer. The cache was a bucket and contained various items including videos, books, software, and a slingshot. Dave posted the coordinates to a GPS users' group on the internet and challenged others to find it with a very simple rule: "Take some stuff, leave some stuff." So the hobby of geocaching as we know it was born and many other enthusiasts followed Dave Ulmer's example by hiding containers for others to find. Today there are now over a million active geocaches in the United States alone and over 76,000 geocaches in Australia. To celebrate this wonderful activity, International Geocaching Day is now observed on the third Saturday in August each year. I have no idea why this date was chosen - probably something to do with it being summer in the Northern Hemisphere but there may be some other significance to the date that I wasn't able to find. However I do know that this date is important in other ways. For example Indonesian Independence Day falls on August 17th and is also generally celebrated by the Indonesian community in Bendigo (and elsewhere) on the third Saturday of August.
Source used: "The History of Geocaching" on the geocaching website.