Non-Events

Non-Event Events

I’ve hosted over 100 geocaching events over the years, of all sizes, types and themes, and in many different locations. These have been here in the UK, mainly focussed around my home city of Lincoln, but across the country, maybe when I’m on holiday or visiting a new area. Sometimes I’ve held events in another country, when I’ve been away with work or volunteering. I enjoy meeting cachers wherever I go and have held dozens of my imaginitively titled ‘Tentmantent on Tour’ events. Reading in PinPoint about Explorer_Olway’s experiences of hosting overseas gatherings reminded me of some of my own less successful attempts to do the same.

The event that didn’t happen…or did it? (GC540ND)

In 2014 I was undertaking some voluntary work in Malawi. This was my second visit and so I knew the lay of the land and had identified a suitable venue in the nearby city of Blantyre towards the end of my stay. It was to be part of the WWFM XI. However, a couple of months into my stay I had a successful online interview for a job back home in the UK and had was required to start asap. At this point, not a single cacher had indicated that they would attend my event, so I didn’t archive it but just returned home and then archived it a few weeks later. No one attended but the event was still live- did this event happen or not?!

The only cacher at the event (GC7J3FB)

I also have held an event that only I attended. Well, three actually, including CITOs! While staying with Rainbow Kel in Zambia, I decided to hold another WWFM event on the bridge over the Zambezi at the Victoria Falls. This is a huge tourist destination, attracting visitors approaching from both Zambia and Zimbabwe. The bridge is technically in Zambia on GC.com and so many visitors to Zimbabwe visit Kel’s cache on the bridge as quick way to claim they’ve cached in Zambia. So, there should be plenty of attendees, yes? No! I waited among the milling tourists for the full half hour, GPSr round my neck and in a caching T shirt, but not a single cacher approached. That makes me FTF then, surely…?

On my way home from that trip, I had a ten-hour overnight layover at Nairobi in Kenya. I’d investigated the possibility of getting a taxi from the airport to the nearest cache at a hotel in the city, but research told me that this was probably not a safe thing to do at 2am! Instead, I looked into the possibility of holding an event. I found a café at the airport that was ‘landside’ and with an entrance outside the security fence. It took me a while to persuade the local reviewer that others might realistically attend at that time, but eventually they relented. As the day approached I was, once again, the only person to have logged at ‘Will Attend’. I just had to remember not to follow the ‘transfer’ pathways, exit through to arrivals and that was it. There would always be the risk of a hold up when re-entering through security, but with 10 hours to play with, a short event and only a few hundred feet to travel, I was confident that all would be well. 

As we started our descent to Nairobi, I needed the loo, but the seat belt signs were on and I was stuck! By the time we’d landed, crossed the tarmac and entered the terminal building I was desperate! I followed signs to the nearest gents, without noticing where I was heading. When I emerged, having taken my ease, it dawned on me that I’d headed through into the airside of the airport- it was too late! I asked the staff but they said that I was not now allowed to go back through to arrivals. I wasn’t sure that this was true, but there was no arguing with them!

I spent the 10 hours sleeping on my rucksack on the floor of the airport, 280 feet from GZ of an event , MY event, that no one attended, not even me!

CITOs in China (GC5R71E and GC6CM42)

For two consecutive years I spent a few weeks working in the Chinese city of Baoding. The city was grey, dirty, made of concrete and with few redeeming aesthetic features, other than the delightfully friendly people. Litter was everywhere, bins overflowed and no one really seemed bothered. I decided during each visit to hold a CITO near my place of work, partly because there was a CITO souvenir up for grabs and partly because I wanted to ‘do my bit’. Given that there were no caches in the whole city, I thought it unlikely that I’d get any attendees, but you never knew. Local workers and shoppers watched me bemusedly as I filled several shopping bags with litter. I started to worry that I was breaching a communist party rule by putting someone out of a job. Both times I was alone…

Other attempts to hold events in far-off locations have been more fruitful, with good-sized gatherings in Hong Kong and Ireland, but I’m still amused by my non-event events in Africa and China!

Andy Wright

April 2023