Category: Uncategorized

It is with a heavy heart that we share some deeply sad news with the WOGE community. Our long-time community friend, Walter_V_R of Deurne, Belgium, has recently passed away.

As you may know, Walter was a dedicated and welcoming moderator of the Fun & Games board at Google Earth Community. He was a true “map junkie”, eclipse chaser and satellite sleuth whose passion for geographic discovery predated this current platform by many years. He was a highly active participant in the original Google Earth forum, as well as in our WOGE forum.
Whether he was solving a complex, cryptic riddle, or gracefully managing the board to keep it a fun, welcoming space for everyone, Walter brought a brilliant mind and a kind spirit to our digital corner of the world. He truly loved the journey of exploring the globe from his screen.

He has also been one of the strongest players for a very long time, standing still at No.9 on the all-time top players list of WOGE.
(I looked it up: he posted his first answer here on July 11, 2012 and – sadly – the last one on October 11, 2025.)

He will be profoundly missed, both as a brilliant image analyst and as a major contributor to our community.

Please feel free to leave your condolences, favorite memories, or past puzzle triumphs shared with Walter in this thread.
All comments will be immediately approved.

Rest in peace, Walter. We hope you’ve found your final coordinates.

hhgygy & Ashwini

We’re thinking of starting a new reward for series winners 🎉

At the end of every series, the winner can submit a location puzzle of their choice (optional), and we’ll feature/post it in the next series.

If there are multiple winners, we’ll post their submissions one by one in upcoming series.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below — should we start this?

Thanks.

Ashwini

Our request to find folks to take over the game was a success. Long-time players Ashwini and hhgygy have stepped up and Paul and I are in the process of showing them the ropes.

Paul and I have two more contests then we will hand things over to Ashwini and hhgygy.

Please thank them for taking on this new role and give them the same level of respect you’ve all given Paul and I over the last 630+ contests.

Andrew and Paul

Por Cverascuderi – Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 4.0, Enlace

This week, we visit a country we’ve only been to a couple of times in the past. Behold Monday Falls — named from a compounded Guarani word meaning “to steal water”. As one site said, had this been anywhere else in the world, it would be surrounded by hotels, casinos, and whatever else you put near big waterfalls (I’m looking at you Niagara Falls, Canada). But, this is only about 30KM from Iguazu Falls, which sucks all of the air out of the room, tourist-wise.

To help combat this lack of interest, the local government changed the name of the feature from “Saltos del Monday” to “Cataratas del Monday”. No word yet if the throngs have relocated from Iguazu yet (I’m not holding my breath).

Those who found this spot, all before the hint:

• Martin de Bock
• hhgygy
• Eloy Cano
• Paul Voestermans
• Garfield
• Phil Ower
• Lighthouse
• Graham Hedley
• Zorro the Fox
• Angie CF
• Glenmorren

To help boost tourism, in June of 2024, the name was changed from a “small waterfall”. It is now known as a “waterfall” (without the small).

This is a quokka. They have a quirk of their facial structure that makes it look like they are smiling. They aren’t, but I don’t care — they are so amazingly cute.

Rottnest Island is one of a handful of places on earth to find quokkas in their natural habitat.

I’d say more about the island, but why? I can just post more quokka pictures.

(ok, clearly not a quokka, and not taken on Rottnest Island — it was taken at Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney — but since we’re talking about cute Australian animals, I coudn’t resist)

Those who found this place before the hint:

• Lighthouse
• Glenmorren
• Martin de Bock
• Phil Ower
• hhgygy
• Garfield
• Graham Hedley
• Eloy Cano
• Paul Voestermans
• Zorro the Fox

And after the hint:

• bernd

And to all of you who found it, I’d just like to add:

By Andrii Gladii – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Grimsey Island is a tiny spit of land about 40KM off the north coast of Iceland. It’s one claim to fame is that it (currently) staddles the Arctic Circle. Part of the Municipality of Akureyri, it is a relatively popular day trip by boat or air from that city in the same way that the 4 corners area of the southwest USA is a relatively popular day trip — the novelty of human boundaries.

In 2017, the Akureyri city government decided to place a monument on the island, an 8-tonne stone sphere called “Orbis et Globus”, along the line where the Arctic Circle crosses the island. Of course, with the tilt of the earth shifting ever so slightly, the location of the circle also shifts. To compensate for that, the city sends out engineers once a year to move the sphere to the circle’s new location (about 14.5 M north per year).

As mentioned previously, the island is pretty small, meaning that there are only so many 14.5 M increments available. In 2047, the Arctic Circle will move north off the island completely. When that happens, the plan is to roll the sphere in to the ocean for one last move.

Those who found this before the hint:

• Garfield
• Phil Ower
• Lighthouse
• Paul Voestermans
• hhgygy
• Martin de Bock

And after the hint:

• Zorro the Fox