Geocaching in Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Geocaching in Charleston, South Carolina is often combined with a cruise or a tour of the Eastern United States. Geocachers come to the town both ways and we want to tell you what we experienced here. We certainly haven't seen everything, but experienced a lot!

We got our point for the state of South Carolina in Charlestown. A good option, we found.

Geocaching in Charleston: The Road to the City

We hadn't planned anything for our stay in Charlestown, hadn't booked an excursion. We just wanted to get off the ship and drift from cache to cache. Maybe look for a pedestrian zone etc.

When we walk off the ship, we are actually already in the middle of the city. Our first cache is not far away and the streets with churches etc are only 2 blocks away. We first go to the first cache and realize that we have landed directly in the historic old town. Well, actually there is nothing to say about the way from the ship. Down and straight into the historic old town or down and left along the sea. It doesn't need more.

Geocaching in Charleston: The Caches

As the first cache we have the Tradi Dueler's Alley, GC45CPQ on the program. He is D3 and is actually a bit shy before we hold a typical cache in our hands. As expected, the "other" size matches a nano, but the hint is confusing and unhelpful. Was it in the right place? In any case, after a 10-minute search, we were happy to finally be able to write our name in the logbook. The alley is really very nice, we shot some photos here before we continued on our way.

The next destination was the Virtual in Washington Park. Contrary to what we expected from the name Washington Park, a very small facility awaited us. The center point was quickly reached and the second answer quickly found. The first has something to do with a shield and angels - neither of which we found. Luckily, the answers have already been posted, so we'll just copy the year here. With a bit of luck it will be true. We are happy to be explained again where to find the angel…..

After our stroll on King Street we visit the cache All that Remains, GC29EPG. First of all, we are fascinated by the tree and the wall, how they grew together. Or what came first? After a short search, we found the clearly hidden cache here, which would have space for TB's, even if we wouldn't call it regular. In any case, the logbook is full, but more slips of paper are already piling up in carefully sealed bags. We donate a new piece of paper from the last hotel block and leave our TB stamp. Let's see who comes here next.

We slowly come back to the waterfront through many small alleys. There is the Earthcache Charleston Rocks!!! The Earthquake of 1886 our goal. We take the given walk and seek the answers together as best we can at Earthcaches. Some photos of the walls of the house will help with the answers, which we will only write from Germany.

Then we embark on a special challenge: a Where-I-Go abroad. That is not always easy. However, the WIG White Point Gardens – Battery Park, GC45F1A is right on our way to the next virtual and is definitely worth a try. When we start the game, we quickly realize that we are always offered 3 answers that are super easy to find on site. Even if the map at WIG didn't work well (although of course we had an offline map of South Carolina on the device), we always made good progress with the compass the few meters between the stations. Images in TIG clearly show what the next target looks like. And figures, fountains and cannons cannot be overlooked…. After starting on the trail, the WIG leads straight through White Point Garden, a destination that we had on the plan anyway as a tourist magnet. We get to the end with no errors and get the code to log. However, we cannot find the logbook – well described in the hint. That often doesn't seem to be the case. I hope we can come to an agreement with the owner. Such a WIG in the state of South Carolina would be great.

The way back takes us via the Virtual Old Exchange Building & Provost Dungeon, GC7B92R by Baker6clan. It's one of the newer Virtual and the site is quite touristy. You have to put together a solution word from a sign on the wall of the house. First I take a photo and think about putting the solution word together on the ship. But I still had a lot of time, so I had fun on the spot. 9th line, 18th letter, 3rd line, 5th letter, etc. All together resulted in a coherent solution word, which I wrote down.

Then continue with the experiences below!

Geocaching in Charleston: Sightseeing

As described in every guide book, we stroll up and down Kings Street. Here you will find many little shops that have been restored and trimmed back to old. A very beautiful area.

Almost automatically we come to the Charleston City Market, a market hall. At first we thought, as always, with market stalls of all kinds. But here in the historic old town, it's all about handicrafts. There are paintings, pottery bowls, spell cards, soap made from sheep's milk and much more. Here too: walking through this market hall is a beautiful experience. You can spend more or less time here and there is definitely a lot to see.

Geocaching in Charleston: The Experiences

Especially for geocachers it's sometimes the little things that stick in the memory and are worth more than any statistical point (although I didn't want to do without the state point South Carolina....). After the last virtual I walked down the street towards the ship and roughly along the sea. I noticed a tourist info, in front of it a typical Ami with white hair, braids and a friendly look. He saw me and said something like turn around. I probably looked pretty stupid, he emphasized his statement with gestures and slowly I turned around. Someone came along behind me and I wanted to catch up…. This "someone" asked if I was a geocacher - which of course I said yes. He asked about the virtual and if I had the solution. Until then I didn't know if it was also a cacher who just wanted the solution. But dutifully I said the solution word I had found. It's a good thing I didn't postpone investigating until later! I got a smile and was handed 4 buttons. It was the owner of the virtual who saw me and stopped his car to give me the buttons! How nice was that! I was really happy and after a very short small talk we both continued on our way. Yes, such experiences make geocaching for me. But there is more!!!

Back on the ship, my internet worked again and I saw the message from my boss that I should get in touch with Derek, he saw me today. Okay, my boss in Germany knows where I am, but who am I meeting in South Carolina? Then I didn't understand it anymore. Cleared up of course. Derek, or Bake6clan, has been friends with Daniel on Facebook for a while and they both found out that one saw me today. So the geocaching world can be that small! And believe me, when I think of South Carolina I will always think more of this encounter, of the buttons, of my puzzled face, why people in Germany already knew who I met, etc., than of the points for the caches found. THAT is what makes our hobby so special. So go outside, you can't experience something like that on the sofa!