The GIGA, the biggest caching event I have so far been to, and it really wasn’t a very exciting event, it seemed more like an event planned to be much smaller that got out of hand.
I guess the basic fact is that there was just nothing ‘special’ about it, when I think of all the effort we put into the 2018 UK Mega it seems we were organising a totally different type of event.
I guess in the end I can sum it up that we didn’t go to the Giga, we went to Hamburg and attended the Giga while we were there. And Giga’s are becoming more frequent, where in the past couple of years there has only been one per year now there is another one on May 18th in Berlin
4th May 2019 – ☠ DGS Day 2019 ☠ GC8605B – cache #4691
The Dirtbag Geocachers Society’s get together to mark their anniversary, and they got special dispensation to have this event on the same day as the Giga (although it was at 8:00am and 20km from the Giga site
Dirtbaggers like to stay in bed !
Where was everybody ? only 15 DBG in attendance at their own special event.
I went with Jen – one of only 3 UK Dirtbaggers and the only one who got up in time for the event – Coinkezza where were you ? ? ?
It was a good start to Giga Day though 🙂
4th May 2019 – Akropolis GC3HWB – cache #4692
We were staying at a nearby Airbnb for the Giga so picked up this cache on our way to Krupunder station to go to the event
4th May 2019 – Project Hamburg – Im Wandel der Zeit GC77777 – cache #4693
Jen and I were lucky in that the Veddel station opposite the Giga site was on the same train line as Krupunder so we didn’t have to change trains in the city just went straight there, where we met up again with the other Yorkshire attendees (and friends from over the border) Kerry, Alison, Matt, Zoe, Sam, Clare, Jeff, Rich, Roger, Sarah, Stephen etc.
We didn’t spend long at the event but went round the city finding the Lab caches. Hamburg is an interesting city and we had a good time exploring
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache Sandsacke – cache #4694
There were another 10 lab caches put out for Saturday, four of which were at the Giga site.
Judge the weights of the bags of sand and put them in order
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache Petling Memory – cache #4695
Petlings are the formers from drinks bottles, and make waterproof containers
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache Seefahrtsknoten – cache #4696
Knots !
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache Logboat – cache #4697
The log book for the Giga was this boat – which was also the Lab cache
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache Feuerwache Veddel – cache #4698
The fire station held the clues for this one
4th May 2019 – IBA-DOCK GC2X50A – cache #4699
This cache overlooked the Lab cache.
The Giga committee had been round all the local caches and instead of the normal well hidden container there was a large notebook zip tied in reasonably plain site, ready for the crowds
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache Goldhaus – cache #4700
A gold painted house in the middle of a brick row, almost Klimt like as it shone in the light
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache Bronze Skulpture – cache #4701
A non-functioning fountain with a bronze sculpture in the centre
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache Zombeg Turm – cache #4702
The Zombeg (or Zombeck) Turm are actually air raid shelters… where in the UK we dug into the ground the Germans build round structures with reinforced concrete cones on top, the structures shape would deflect away the blast wave and shrapnel
4th May 2019 – Hamburg – The City of Bridges VI GCKZDX – cache #4703
A random cache that we were walking past and saw several people signing the log, so we signed it as well and then found it was this puzzle cache which none of us had looked at prior to the event.
4th May 2019 – Zombeck-Türme auf der Hamburger Veddel GC7G7XM – cache #4704
Another of the Air Raid shelter towers… another cache nearby
4th May 2019 – Transportation Infrastructure GCHQP9 – cache #4705
A cache in the middle of a rail bridge over the Elbe, fortunately there is a nice wide footpath as well as the rail tracks
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache U-Bahnstation Elbrucken – cache #4706
The newest station of Hamburg’s underground… is well above ground level !
4th May 2019 – U4 Elbbrücken GC81460 – cache #4707
There seems to be some confusion even among the locals as to whether the concatenation of Elb & Brucken should have one b or two…
The cache was the usual scrum of people grabbing the cache while getting the details for the lab cache
4th May 2019 – Vltavský prístav GC1PTNZ – cache #4708
A Czech cache in Hamburg
4th May 2019 – idema GC1T0YB – cache #4709
Another random puzzle cache that we saw people signing so joined in, and then worked out which cache it was !
4th May 2019 – Samstag Lab cache Historiche Hafenbahn; – cache #4710
The historic railway Engine had a Lab cache…
4th May 2019 – Sanella GC16ED8 – cache #4711
… and also a traditional cache
4th May 2019 – Adventure Lab cache St Jacobi Kirche – cache #4712
Once we had done the loop of Saturday (Samstag) Lab caches we had some refreshments (well they were included in the Giga entrance price) and headed back into the city centre… as well as the 20 Lab caches for the Giga there were some of the new permanent ‘Adventure’ Lab caches to find, the Hamburg series is based around the historic churches in the old part of the city.
Reminds me of a favourite Magnum song ‘How Far Jerusalem’
4th May 2019 – Adventure Lab cache St Petri Kirche – cache #4713
There is also a trad cache 240 feet up the spire of this church, but unfortunately we were too late to go up and find it
4th May 2019 – Freitag Lab cache St Petri – cache #4714
The same church was used for a Friday lab cache as well
4th May 2019 – Ireland meets Hamburg GC604WR – cache #4715
Every city has an Irish bar somewhere…
4th May 2019 – St. Nikolai GC7B7ZZ – cache #4716
A bit like Coventry Cathedral, this church just has outer walls and a huge tower – they go in for huge towers in Hamburg..
But the church also has a virtual cache…
4th May 2019 – Freitag Lab cache St Nikolai – cache #4717
…a Friday Lab cache…
4th May 2019 – Adventure Lab cache St Nikolai Mahnmal – cache #4718
… and an adventure lab cache
4th May 2019 – Adventure Lab cache St Katherine Kirche – cache #4719
Another old church with a tall tower
4th May 2019 – Lückenfüller I: Speicherstadt- und MiWuLa Blick GC396V1 – cache #4720
This cache had been disabled for the Giga )local cachers didn’t want queues of people at the hiding places for their caches) but it hadn’t been removed (some of the cachers had taken theirs away and publicised it as being so on the cache pages) So this one was still there and had a crowd
4th May 2019 – Freitag Lab cache Speicherstadt – cache #4721
This was the only Lab Cache that wasn’t quite right, the coordinates were about 30 metres from the bridge with the statue and plaque which gave the answer
4th May 2019 – Elbphilharmonie GC7B7KN – cache #4722
The Concert Hall in Hamburg is a startling looking building, and the best thing about it is that the public atrium is about 8 floors up and has a walkway all around. (So I walked all around, twice once by myself and once with Jen)
The virtual cache requires you to stand at the far end of the walkway and take a picture of yourself and the view
4th May 2019 – Freitag Lab cache Elbphilharmonie – cache #4723
A piece of the Berlin Wall… in Hamburg
