Category Archives: Adventure

Beginner Series #5 – The Joy of a First to Find (FTF)

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It doesn’t take a new geocacher long to hearing within the community that we have our own language and our own acronyms. It can sometimes take a little bit of time to decipher the words…

TFTC (Thanks for the Cache)…

TOTT (Tools of the Trade)…

or maybe even SWAG (Stuff We All Get aka swaps)…

but there is one that is worthy of a bit more discussion… FTF (First To Find) as there can be lots of fun in chasing them.

Recently Jo Cox caught up with 999Hunter to talk through this concept that he knows of only too well. Below we share the interview in his own words.

Hunter can you first share with us when you started Geocaching and what got you into this crazy hobby we love?

Thank you, Ms President, for this opportunity.

Back in Jan 2016, we were looking for an outdoor hobby. Something that would keep my older boys happy, while my daughter could go to the playground. Geocaching fit the bill perfectly. The family sometimes still comes with me, the girls have their own accounts, and during our last family NSW holiday Son2 wanted to go night tree climbing and did most of Burden of Sisyphus himself.

For those that are new to the game, can you explain what a first to find is?

The name First to Find, kind of explains itself. It’s the first (person) to find a newly published cache. I’ve heard that in the old days the First to Find or FTF went to the person who actually first found the geocache container. Now it’s a bit more civilised and anyone who helped search a cache newly published and was there when the log was opened can claim “Joint FTF”. Out of etiquette, it’s often good to ask this question when there are 2 or more geocachers looking.

It is polite to log the FTF quickly when you can, but like caching in general, everyone does it their own way. I try to log a “Write Note” when I’ve returned the cache to let people know I’ve already been there which gives me time to write a nice log when at home. This is important as often there are many people that will race to find a new cache and some travel great distance to claim a FTF.

Why does the publication of a FTF get the geo-community excited?

A new geocache means the game is still expanding and there is a new geocache to find. We all have our favourite hiders and love it when they put a new one out, or it could be a new hider who soon becomes one of our favourites, or it might take us to a place we didn’t know about. For the “FTF Hounds” it means the race is on!!!

Personally, I’m not a social geocacher, which means most of the geocachers I’ve met in person have been when looking for a FTF, and some have become great friends.

Sometimes it even turns into a FTF party with lots of geocachers arriving and all searching together, enjoying the chat as much as the hunt.

For me, it’s not just thrill of the race, or the feeling when holding the logbook wondering if another name is already in it, it’s also seeing the geocache in its pristine state, just the way the Cache Owner first hid it.

And for those that love the numbers, what statistics are important for chasing FTFs?

Geocaching has a lot of numbers for the people that love statistics. Even if geocaching.com doesn’t count a FTF as a statistic, ProjectGC does. If you log a FTF with the tags {FTF} or [FTF] then ProjectGC can track your FTFs finds correctly. Then all the same statistics can be monitored – LGAs (Local Government Areas), Calendar and DT Grid, etc.

The stat that I am most proud of is my monthly FTF streak (that is at least 1 FTF each month) for 39 months, before the Covid lockdowns broke that streak. Nothing compared with Suscoe’s 90 months with a FTF however.

So can you explain a little about your own FTF Hound reputation?

I have a reputation? (heymissjo nods her head and smiles)

I’ve heard people calling me “The Hound” and I like it.

I guess, Hunter-Hound are similar, but it also comes from claiming that I’m not a FTF Hound for so long. For some reason people stopped believing me after 100 FTFs. On occasion I still claim I’m not a Hound and with over 4000 finds now, only 9% are FTFs.

However, there are other Hounds that deserve the title more than me.

The Welder when the mood strikes him seems to be everywhere. N0w0rries is always a threat. Anything near Cranbourne and Biggles1024 is the competition. Mornington Peninsula is becoming crowded with BFG, Brain and Deepsky24 trying to push me out. Not forgetting AHomburg, Day1976, PinkPiggy7 and SteMicMitSar and they are just some of the big the Hounds I compete with.

That is not counting Hounds in the North, or the Geelong crew who sometimes sneak a FTF on the east side of Melbourne and whose stats are just amazing. Sims_Family, Suscoe, AusFox, The Tritonz and Bushfire take 5 of the Top 10 Victorian FTF Hounds, and they can just stay over in Geelong thank you.

But for Victorians FTF Hounds, CovertHypnosis (C@H) has the most reported FTFs according to ProjectGC with 738 FTFs and all before 2012

What has been your most memorable FTF Hunt?

Now that is a very hard question. My first FTF obviously. TeamThommo was my local hound and would get everything, but she was on holidays, and it was a hard PinkPiggy puzzle that took a few days to solve.

Hounding at Mt Baw Baw above the fog, the wonderful beach locations, a sneaky FTF while on holidays in other states. My first D5 FTF – Eat Fruit: Apples solved 9 months after publication and when the CO heard I was going to my first real event baked an Apple Pie as a FTF Prise and everyone enjoyed a slice. It took another 12 months for the second to find. A Dirtbag FTF is always a memorable adventure, including a Night Tree climb during a gale, an old mine shaft and finding the amazing “Greg’s Rock” container. Exploring the Jewellers Shop Mine with the family where the parking coordinates were out, so we bush bashed the whole way there to explore the great mine. But the one that always springs to mind the most is a FTF in Bunyip. It started at 3am and by 4am I was stuck waist deep in the Billabong watching a shooting star. At 5am I found the wonderful final and got home by 6am after driving home naked. A change of clothes now permanently resides in the car.

Love your stories, thanks Hunter. If a new geocacher wants to start to chase FTFs what do they need to know?

A wannabe FTF Hound really only needs to know 4 things.

1. You need to know how to create an email notification on geocaching.com to alert you for newly published geocaches. An 80km radius is the maximum allowed distance.

2. You will fail to get more FTFs then you will find. So be prepared to find that dreaded name in the logbook, with no online log. Yes, I’m looking at you Day.

3. Learn who the local Hounds are, and if possible, their routine. To quote Sun Tzu “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight”. As an example, after running 3km from a train stop for a FTF, I discovered that that hound n0w0rries lived 3 blocks away. I ignore all FTFs in that area now, unless I know he is not around.

4. And the most important thing to know, Stay out of my territory!!!

Haha – love it thanks Hunter! Good luck with your future finds, not sure #4 will work…. but then I know the Welder pretty well too. Thanks for taking the time to sharing some of your tips to the newer members in our community.

Welcome to our new Geocaching Beginner Series!

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With another exciting Mega on the horizon and an influx of new geocachers within our community, Geocaching Victoria thought that it would be great to launch a new blog series – specifically for Beginners. I am sure that many of us have been in a conversation on a Monday morning, where you are asked what you did over the weekend….

“I went geocaching and ….” geo-what?

“Yeah I climbed some sand dune looking for…..” Tupperware?

“Drove a few hundred kms for a find….” insert look of disbelief here…..

But how often do you find that you spark the interest of someone that can see passed your geo-nerdiness and can appreciate the adventure, the opportunity for great family time but perhaps also the challenge.

As we count down to our next Mega, (yes in only 126 days) – we would love to introduce this crazy game to those whose interest is sparked, to let them in on our little geo-secrets and perhaps convert them from being a “muggle” to one of our own. Do we dare?

Recently I spoke to Tim from veevers12 who started playing the game in 2019, precovid and asked him how he got into the game and what advice he had for those curious about geocaching.

Hi veevers12, can you please share with us when you started Geocaching and what got you into this crazy hobby we love?

My daughter had a school geocaching excursion to Westerfolds Park in Templestowe in mid 2019. We had not heard of geocaching before then, so we gave it a try by looking at GC60BE0 Eltham Fire Brigade (now archived) after the kids had their swimming lessons at Eltham Leisure Centre. We soon wanted to find another, then another, then another, then we were hooked and we have been hooked ever since. We started with a basic membership, but on one of our early geocaching outings my daughter and I bumped into shack1961 who told us we would probably sign up for premium soon and never look back. She was right!

Some of the things we love most about geocaching are:

  • It gives us something really fun to do as a family.
  • It takes us to lots of different places and when we are at a loose end, instead of being bored, we go and find a cache.
  • We have met lots of really nice people. We love how people of all different ages and different interests are able to get along and talk about their adventures.
  • It connects us with other people, some of whom we may never meet, but who have interests in geocaching in common.
  • Every time someone posts a find log on one of our caches. We love reading every log, especially the ones with a story.

Okay so I am a little bit excited with your response, sorry total #geonerd here – I have to ask what is your favourite type of geocache and why?

We find this hard to choose as we like them all, however there are three particular types that we like. One is a good puzzle, another is a good gadget cache, and the other is any cache that takes us to a really nice secluded location. A geocache that does all three of these is the ultimate.


When you first started geocaching, what helped you learn more about geocaching (cache types, styles of hides, puzzles etc)

Quite often, it was other geocachers that we bumped into at caches or at events that have helped us with this, however most of what we have learnt has been from solving and finding geocaches of all different types and styles. We also looked at lots of geocaching videos on YouTube when we were stuck at home during lockdown. We particularly enjoyed the videos from West Virginia Tim.


Research is a great suggestion, what advice would you give a newbie geocacher just starting out?


If you can’t find a cache, don’t give up. Don’t ask for hints too soon as it is much more satisfying to go back to a cache multiple times and eventually find it than it is to ask someone where it is. If you can’t find it, check the hint, check when it was last found and read some of the past logs. If you still can’t find it, leave it and try again with a fresh mindset. If you can’t find it after multiple visits then message the cache owner (CO) for an additional hint.

Look for good areas to go geocaching. We looked for caches that had lots of favourite points when we were starting and they gave us lots of joy and helped us to get hooked (thanks Mister Doctor!)

We also recommend that you write a good log. Something more than ‘got it’ or ‘found’. This is much more rewarding for the cache owner who has gone to the trouble of hiding the cache for you. Try to log your finds promptly and try not to copy/paste logs too much.

Over the past few years, what has been your most memorable cache/cache adventure?

We remember most of them. There are a few that stand out. Winding Waters (GC367RT) was one of our first as it was in a beautiful location and we went back to it so many times with more and more ideas and tools before we finally managed to locate and retrieve the cache. My daughter really enjoyed our time at Hillcrest Hike (GC1CD5F) because it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. We also really enjoyed our adventure after the Community Celebration Event at Wangaratta when we decided to do the Wherigo 3MC Workout (GC8HWM6) because it just kept going and going. We bumped into The Easter Bunnies, who I went to uni with, who joined us for the adventure. We didn’t know when the adventure would end and by the time we got back to the car it was very late and very dark!

Thank you so much veevers12 for sharing your insights! Now for those of you that are new, or for those geocachers that have friends and family that are curious about geocaching – we have a brand new event scheduled which is perfect for newbies.

Geocaching Victoria is excited to announce a newbie event in the lead up to the Whittlesea Mega (GC9WXFY). This will be held at the Whittlesea Showgrounds on Sunday 28th August 2022 @ 10.30am. We encourage all those new to geocaching or curious about what geocaching is, to attend.

For those in the community who have been caching for a while, we would love you to tag a muggle and introduce them to this great game of ours.

Caching with our Geo-Dogs

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Hands up all you dog lovers out there!!

Who doesn’t love geocaching with our furry friends often affectionately referred to as Geo-Dogs or Geo-Pups. I know that since my Geo-Pup joined our family Ally became an integral part of our family, she often accompanies Ross and I on geocaching day trips or weekends away!

But caching with our Geo-Dogs does come with responsibility and I thought that I would share a couple of thoughts on some “Geo-Dog Etiqutte”

Geo-Dog Etiquette and Reminders

  1. When attending geocaching events with our dogs, they must always remain on a short lead. As much as we love our furry friends, not everyone is comfortable with dogs (large or small) and some in our community also have allergies to dogs. By keeping our dogs on a lead, it helps to encourage an environment where everyone is safe and comfortable to attend events. Leads should be short and not retractable so as to keep our Geo-Dogs close by our side.

  1. When it comes to dog training, we have a community with a whole lot of different expectations, so some general principles should apply.
    • Don’t let your dogs jump on others or on picnic furniture
    • Ask permission of the dog owner before you pat or hug a Geo-Dog (no matter how cute they are)
    • If meeting another Geo-Dog, ask permission of owner that your dogs can meet. Some smaller dogs or puppies may still be learning to be around bigger, well trained dogs.
    • Be prepared that dogs will poop and you will need to clean up after them

  1. Assistance Dogs (Service Dogs, Guide Dogs or Hearing Dogs) should wear their coats to signifiy to others that they play a special role in your life and that they are working. It is really important that we don’t pat an assistance dog, as they are trained to provide love and support to their owner. But they are working hard in their role and we should respect that.

  1. We can’t actually take our Dogs to all cache locations so it is important that we do our research before we take our furry friends caching! Some things to consider:
    • National Parks – Dogs are not allowed in most National Parks in Victoria. As a general rule, driving through a national park on a public road with pets in the vehicle are permitted, provided they remain in the car. But this is not always the case, so be sure to check and plan your journey ahead of time.
    • State Forests – Most State Forests are open to dogs, but there are a few exceptions. So be sure to do your research and confirm each location.

  1. If you are lucky enough to be caching with your Geo-Dog, be sure to give him or her a special mention in your log, because who doesn’t love a good shout out when you have done a good job helping to sniff out a geocache! Maybe even share a photo of your geo pups adventure in finding the cache.

Another Great Promo for Geocaching Victoria

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We were again grateful that ABC Victoria continues to show an interest in our awesome community. Recently Gavin McGrath, an ABC journalist contacted GVI President Jo Cox to learn more about geocaching, after his kids displayed an interest in geocaching.

This is the third interview this year, which we embrace, as it helps to promote this great game of ours and the regional communities that it extends into. For more information on this latest article, please see this link.

ABC Article link

Year 2021 in Numbers

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Secretly many of us are total nerds…GEONERDS! We love the numbers, the databases (GSAK, Project GC), pocket queries, caching stats, dates, finds, hides, logs, maps, FTF numbers, streaks, DT’s… the list goes on! The beauty of the game is that there is lots of ways to play, lots of challenges to chase and more than enough caches to keep us busy.

Despite much of the state in and out of lockdown during 2021, many of us still managed to get out and cache. But have you wondered how your numbers stacked up against others in the geocaching community?

In the spirit of fun, we thought we would share some of those numbers with you! Congratulations to those that made the list! Please note that Lab Caches are not part of the statistics listed below.