Tag: guide

London Calling 2025

What is a Block Party exactly?

Brian

Many of you will know that London Calling 2025 will be hosting a Block Party at Westminster Hall, instead of the usual Mega, that we held in 2021 and in 2023. However, some people are unaware of what a Block Party is and have asked for an explanation.

HQ hosted the original Block Parties in Seattle from 2011 to 2015. Only 5,064 geocachers received the Block Party icon during those years, which goes to show that it was a fairly exclusive activity. Geocaching HQ have offered the international geocaching community to host Block Parties to allow more people to earn this rare icon on their profile.

A Block Party is still an event, similar to a Mega, and needs to abide by the following criteria:

• Take place between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025.

• Qualify as a Mega-Event or Giga-Event.

• Have at least 300 Will Attends.

• Be at least 6 hours long.

• Highlight celebrating 25 years of geocaching.

On May 2nd 2000, GPS was made public; on May 3rd 2000, the first geocache was placed and the game was born. 2025 is the year to celebrate 25 years of Geocaching and London Calling’s Block Party falls on the very same weekend as the 25th anniversary of the first geocache being placed.

Inside Westminster Hall, you will find many fun and interesting stalls, including geocoins, trackables, merchandise, a creatively designed log book and physical Adventure Labs. If you haven’t done so already, please post your Will Attend as this will really help with our planning and organisation to make the event as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved.

London Calling 2023

A Guide to a London Calling Icon Run

Brian

You may or may not be familiar with a concept of a geocaching “icon run”. This is where you attempt to find as many different types of caches in a single day. While this was probably always popular, the addition of Project-GC’s “Diverse Cacher” badge in the badgegen section of the profiles there has certainly increased awareness.

In order to get the highest ranked “Diverse Cacher” badge, you need to find 11 different icons in a day. You can of course get more than that, and for the last couple of years, it was easier with Community Celebration events being around. But what’s better than trying to do that at a Mega – somewhere where you’ll immediately get an unusual icon from attending the Mega itself. So here’s our guide to 11 icons in a day in order to get you that Diamond badge on Project-GC, plus a couple extra at the end.

  1. Mega – London Calling 2023 (GC9MAXX).
  2. Event – LC23: The Marylebone Mystery (GCA2DMX) – Held after the Mega at the same venue from 6 pm to 9 pm.
  3. Adventure Lab – There are so many of these around in London that you can’t miss them. Let alone the 10 labs that will be available during London Calling 2023 and a further 10 available during The Marylebone Mystery.
  4. Traditional – Trafalgar Square (GC5A7DW) – nearly 3000 favourite points, and wasn’t available during the last Mega due to some works in the area.
  5. Mystery/Puzzle – There will be a new jigidi-based mystery cache going live just prior to the Mega near the venue.
  6. Multi – There will be a new Multi going live just prior to the Mega near the venue.
  7. Earthcache – Nelson’s Column (GC4X7V2) – if you’re going to find Trafalgar Square then you might as well do this and GC285PA while you’re there. However, in case you found them during London Calling 2021, this is the closest Earthcache published after the previous Mega: Sea Urchin… Westminster (GC9QBFN).
  8. Letterbox Hybrid – Space Invader (NOT 24/7. TB Hotel. High FP%!) (GC7QEJJ) – A favourite, and the final is very much a caching experience and is worth the detour. Just note the opening times on the cache page.
  9. Wherigo – There will be a new Wherigo going live just prior to the Mega near the venue.
  10. Virtual – The name is Sherlock Holmes and the address is … (GC891DN) – How could we recommend any other virtual given the theme? However, this one has been out since 2019, so in case you already did it, try Paddington Bear & Mr Bean (Leicester Square) (GC9P505) – as that’s only been out since February this year.
  11. Webcam – London – Beatles Abbey Road (GC6F12) – Of course.
  12. Locationless – Discovered while geocaching – Locationless Cache (GC9FAVE) – the only locationless cache currently available.
  13. Cache in Trash Out – Beach Clean Up (GCA3N4A) – This one for the serious icon runners, as you’ll need to start your day on the south cost in Brighton before heading back to London for the Mega. It’s between 8 am and 9 am.

Of course, this is only a selection of what London has to offer. If you’ve never been to London before and you want to do an icon run then concentrating on the area around the Abbey Road Webcam, the Mega venue and Trafalgar Square will net you the most icons in the least amount of time. Abbey Road is a short journey away for a couple of stops on the Jubilee line from Baker Street station to St John’s Wood station, and Trafalgar Square can be easily reached (again from Baker Street station) via the Bakerloo line to Charing Cross station.

If you fancy that Brighton trip, return off-peak tickets are from £14.50 as long as you buy in advance. Trains depart from London Bridge and Victoria Station. When coming back, we recommend coming via London Bridge as you’ll be able to change for the Jubilee line on the Underground and go straight to Baker Street direct.

Let us know in the comments how many you’re aiming to get, and how many you achieved!