BalticWalk 2006-2025

Welcome to the official Homepage of the BalticWalk!

Here you will find information about the Travel Bug Race BalticWalk around the Baltic Sea. You may have a look at the current status of the race and the rules. Also, you can take a close look at the participants right here on these pages. There are links to the official pages at Geocaching.com.
If you came here because you found a Travel Bug which is participating in this race, please go to the Geocaching.com Travel Bug tracking page (external!) and log your found.
Please have fun and enjoy this race! :o)

What is Geocaching?
Geocaching is like searching for little treasures all around the world. It is based on the Global Positioning System (GPS). For more information have a look at Geocaching.com (external link!).

What is a Travel Bug?
Travel Bugs are items which you can trace at the official Geocaching.com Travel Bug tracking page (external!). Detailed explanation are provided by the linked pages.

Entry procedure

Any Travel Bug without recorded mileage, which will arrive on or before March 31th, 2006, at fuesika will be accepted to participate in the race.
Instruction or goal tags on the Travel Bugs are encouraged, the race organizers will add a laminated tag with race track and a link to this race web page. If you send in a Travel Bug, that means you accept these rules.
As soon as a Travel Bug was placed in a cache (this will be until Aptil 9th) the owner will receive a note. Then the owners may log the drop on the geocaching.com-homepage of their Travel Bug.

front of tag

back of tag

Start

All Travel Bug racers will be placed in comparable caches within seven days of the start of the race.

Track

track

Start near Hamburg, Germany
Poland
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
Russia
Finland
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finish at any cache in Hamburg, Germany

Note: The track in the image is no demand. It is supposed to illustrate the race track and the order of the locations.

Rules

Each Travel Bug racer has to travel the race track in the order of locations mentioned above. A location is visited by a Travel Bug if it is logged in a cache within the location.
Each geocacher is allowed to move a racer only once. A move is the transfer from one geocache to another. Please do not move or hold more than one participant at a time.
Please give each participant a fair chance to win the race, that means please do not interfere. (An interference would be the placing of a Travel Bug in a cache rarely visited due to difficult access or special gear that is needed. We consider also "Member Only"-Caches as interference as they are accesible only by a part of the geocaching community.)
Please try not to hold on to a racer more than 3 weeks.
The racer that reaches Hamburg first wins.

Examples to illustrate the rules

What happens, if...

...a Travel Bug racer moves directly from Estonia to Finland?
The Travel Bug has to move to Russia and has to return to Finland once again after that.
...a geocacher finds a Travel Bug in a cache in Estonia, takes it to a cache in Russia where he logs the Bug in and out and drops it in Finland?
The Travel Bug has to move back to Russia and after that to Finland one more time.
...a Travel Bug visits a cache on the border of multiple countries/locations?
One cache can only count as one location. That means the cache is understood as part of the location which is the next one in the order to be visited. The Travel Bug has to be logged into another cache (within the borders of the next country on the list) to fulfil the task of the next location.
...a Travel Bug remains more than 21 days with a geocacher?
The owner of the Travel Bug can send a polite email to the geocacher to ask for a quick placement. We can't do anything about it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

It's a round trip race. Why do all Bugs start and finish near Hamburg?
We decided that a common start and finish location is better for all. The first TB reaching Hamburg again wins, and it's easy for everyone to see who is in the lead.

"All Travel Bugs will be placed in comparable caches within seven days... Why?"
First of all, caches that can hold 10, 15, or more Travel Bugs at a time are very rare.
We also want to discourage an all together trip of the Travel Bugs through the race track, so they should be separated as soon as possible. We will try to find comparable caches, but with an increasing number of participants it's getting harder. We'll do our best!

"Are there any other Travel Bug races going on?
You can find a good list on the pages on the Webpage TravelBugRaces.com.

"Travel Bug Etiquette"

This race is about speed! Because of that, any finder of a geocache is allowed, and encouraged, to help the racers travel. It doesn't matter if the geocache was found the first time or visited for the 100th time. Further, we encourage finders to take a Travel Bug even if you have no trading items at all, because they want to travel. (Of course in this case it would be very nice and good to all if you place something nice later.) Please only move or hold only one racer at a time!

Success to all the participants!!