GeoMay8 Day.
May 8th is becoming informally known as Mates Day in Australia. In Australia, "Mateship" is a cultural idiom that embodies equality, loyalty and friendship. It is a concept that can be traced back to our early colonial times. The harsh environment in which convicts and new settlers found themselves meant that men and women closely relied on each other for all sorts of help. In Australia, a 'mate' is more than just a friend and is a term that implies a sense of shared experience, mutual respect and unconditional assistance.
Having said that, the term “mate” can also be used for the first time you meet someone, especially when you don’t know their name. For example, “Excuse me mate, sorry I bumped into you!!” or “Hey mate, are you geocaching?” or when someone needs help, “Hey mate, do you need a hand with that?”
For the last four years, on the 8th May, Calypso62 has held an event to celebrate one of the best things both he and I like about geocaching, the Geo-Mates one meets through this great activity. It’s a time when we can catch up with old Geo-Mates and make lots of new ones, and celebrate that friendship. As many of you have done, I’ve made so many great geo-mates all around Australia and a few around the world.
Come and join me for a GeoMay8 Day CITO in Glebe Park.
Glebe Park is a beautiful park in the centre of Canberra. It is a remnant of a hundred acres of land allocated by Robert Campbell to the Anglican Church in the early 1840s for use as a 'glebe', an area of land whose revenues contribute towards parish expenses.
Being in the centre of the city it attracts a lot of people every day, and this means a bit of rubbish around the area. Come and spend some time giving back to the communiuty and clean up Glebe Park. We will provide rubbish bags, gloves and hand sanitizer, and will arrange the disposal of all rubbish collected. There is free parking in the surrounding streets. We will have our Geocaching flag at the Rotunda (Posted Coords) so we can be found.
Hope to see you there Mate !