Kayan Castle Ruins

Found this little tiger TB at the Kyan Gusuku, or Kyan Castle, near Uruma.

The Gusuku era here lasted from the 7th through the 15th century, so this castle is potentially 1300 years old. The skeeters were out in force, and I saw a flower that looked like it could eat a grown man. I had been to this cache previously, and spotted a habu coiled up in one of the rocks. No habus today, but I saw several centipedes, and the odd looking flower. My better half had the patience to come with me, but she didn't stray from the beaten path...she left that up to me.

When I saw the tiger TB, I just had to take it home.

Event Cache

There's an "event cache" coming up here on Okinawa. I will get the opportunity to meet some of the more experienced geocachers that hail from here. I'm eager to meet some of the very nice people that I've communicated with indirectly.

That's part of the beauty of this "sport." Everyone that I've met has been very nice, and I'm lucky to have known them. I hope this event carries the same weight.

Since I quit smoking in March, I don't need much of an excuse to go to a cookout, so this event is a no-brainer for me.

Here's to hoping that my fellow Okinawan cachers are all as nice as I think they are.

Okuma

This place is awesome. We spent the last five days there, and we didn't want to come home.

One cache was a find, and one is "off limits" due to construction. Oh well. The scenery and atmosphere make up for it.

Chibana Castle Ruins

My daughter and I stomped around the Chibana Castle ruins today (circa 14th century?). We had a good time, but there was quite a bit of climbing to do, and the ancient stone steps were pretty slick after this morning's rain. Being covered in a few hundred years of moss and mold didn't help either.

It was still neat to find the cache, and enjoy the view from the top of the castle. I'm surprised that this hasn't been made into an earth cache, since it is located at the point where the soil/stone found on the northern part of the island transitions into the southern soil/stone patterns. I'm not sure what those patterns are, but the sign at the place stated exactly that.

I was a little worried at first, since the description and hint had me looking in a specific spot that was empty, and there was some sort of discarded plastic container nearby. I thought that the cache had been muggled. Turns out that it was in fine shape. I dropped a GC and picked up a neat travel bug.

I'm glad that I looked at the hint before hand, since my GPSr got a little wonky under the heavy jungle canopy. A great time was had by me and little girl cacher.

More Bad Cache Ideas

Nobody ever said that you had to be intelligent to enjoy the game of Geocaching. It's a shame that some people cannot follow the very simple guidelines that are listed on the Geocaching website.



The guidelines for hiding a cache clearly state that one should not place a cache near schools, bridges, airports, government buildings, or any other areas that might be prime terrorist targets. If you worked at a government building, and saw two men placing an olive drab painted container in the bushes, what would you do?



The guidelines also clearly state that when using surplus ammo cans, one must paint over the military markings on the can. That's just plain common sense; but it's lost on some people.



Which of the below pictured ammo cans do you think would attract the most unwanted attention?



There continues to be stories in the media of bomb squads blowing up suspicious packages because Geocachers cannot read basic guidelines, or simply choose to ignore them.