SurdiVisio is a well-known geocacher in the Sydney community (and beyond). Read his story how he has discovered geocaching and how being part of the deaf community is not a barrier in enjoying our shared passion:
Two things I like most about geocaching would be: the many new friends you make and those yet to be found. And exploring the adventurous world beyond your horizons. Rediscovering what you loved doing in your previous lives; Thrills of hunting unfound geocaches push you beyond what you once thought possible.
I first learnt about geocaching a long time ago in 2015, when I came across a newspaper article. I created my account and then forgot all about it. Three and half years later, my kids found one Blue Mountains geocache and asked me how to record their discovery. That was our first such log. And then nothing happened for 5 years. Family commitments, friends and work took priority. And nobody talked openly about geocaching in the deaf communities that I frequented.
My geo-induction took place when Sandra, my wife (now known as Graubunden) and I flew to Switzerland in June 2023. For her to surprise her old friends at a high school class reunion.
One of them asked the group to come along for a few finds. After ten Swiss geofinds over 2 weeks, we then explored South Korea like how others do: Trying local foods, city walks and meeting international deaf friends at a world deaf congress on the island of Jeju. We never thought about finding a geocache over there.
One month later, I realised that I hadn’t used my GC account. Slowly finding one or few occasionally. When the final “Wheel of Challenges” came out in September 2023, I wondered if I could get 1,000 points? Yeap!
What next? Daily finds? After 30 days, I realised that it is actually fun. Fantastic for our mental and physical health. We met some Western Sydney geocachers at Warragamba to find one of them celebrating their 10,000 finds. Cool … could I get 100 days straight?
Via social media, I reached out with interstate deaf geocachers and flew up to Capricorn Coast in Central Queensland late October to meet some of them. At my first Queensland geocache search, I noted that they spent ages trying to find the tiny geocache in a wall of long tree roots. As it was very hot, I was happy to spend 2 hours under the shade. Finally I got it. That evening I said nothing until they asked me where I geocached. When one of them found out, word spread fast. And yes, they got me to hunt some difficult ones as teamwork finds.
Given that we knew nothing about geocaching until by chance, I decided to spread the word publicly in the deaf & Auslan communities. I hosted a talk in Newcastle in January 2024 at the Australian Deaf Games, where a few local geocachers met up afterwards.
I then presented an AuslanX lecture “Geocaching – Science of Discovery” at the University of Sydney in August 2024 which had an international audience of 1,000+ viewers. In sign language only without voiceover or captioning.
We met more deaf geocachers at Adelaide and Canberra Mega events earlier in 2024 and I kept the sign language community updated via social media (but not often as I like, given that we’re out geocaching).
After reaching 366 days of daily finds, I was ready to stop my streak. And yet I didn’t, because Project-GC has statistics that some of us enjoy digging out. To discover how far can each of us push ourselves “just a bit more”. There have been some difficult climbs that I was comfortable to abort halfway for another day. Chasing lonely geocaches, including a memorable Riblit geocache that went unfound for nearly six years That alone took me five visits.
The real bonus of geocaching is that I rediscovered other simple pleasures in life. Long road trips, mountain and beach strolls, chilling out at picturesque scenes. Hanging off trees and bridges. Expanding our skills and equipment such as kayaking and abseiling.
What is it like being deaf in the geocaching world? It is both a blessing and a curse, but nothing is impossible. Let me give you an example: I scaled down a rock face only to greet bees halfway down. Right in front of me. Had to let them sting whilst taking care to reach firm ground below. Another scenario would be audio clips embedded in Adventure Labs and geocaches. Out there I was able to use other apps on my phone to transcribe or listen (e.g. via the textphone relay operators). Occasionally that was not possible, so we had to wait for another day after using different tools using laptops. Just like working on unknown puzzles.
The geocaching app makes it more of a level playing field for all of us, where we can exchange info via message centre, although some deaf geocachers prefer Auslan over written English. Fortunately we can get Auslan interpreters for some events for everyone to use.
With 2025 as the 25th year milestone of geocaching, Graubunden and I are planning to travel overseas for a month or so and we are planning interstate trips too.
I tell others that they don’t need a guide book as the Geocaching and Adventure Lab apps have all the necessary information!
=========
SurdiVisio (Andrew) – with 2,500+ finds across 1.5 geocaching year
