Geocaching

I stumbled across http://​Geocaching​.com at the end of last week and was amazed to see how much activity there had been right on my doorstep. The site allows you to search by postcode (as well as many other options), giving a radius in miles that you are prepared to travel.

As a non-​member you are given limited details but there is plenty there to tempt you into looking further. Free membership gives you more details about the location of the “caches” and full (paid) membership gives addi­tional benefits.

The Hunt

In extremely simple terms, the idea is to use a Global Positioning System (GPS) to find a Treasure (Cache) that has been hidden by a fellow player.

When a player hides a new Cache, they register and log the cache on the Geocaching website. From there, other players can pick up the coordinates and clues as to where the Cache is hidden and then head off with their GPS device to find it.

Once found, the cache is replaced in exactly the same position to await the next player. On return to their computer, the Hunter logs the details of the find and their exper­i­ences on the site.

The Rest Is History

Before the year 2000, the US Government “adjusted” the GPS network to make it less accurate for Civilian use. In the May of that year they decided to stop. This meant that all the existing GPS devices suddenly became a lot more precise in their meas­ure­ments. It didn’t take long for someone to come up with an idea for having some fun with this, and Geocaching was born!

Our First Outing

Having signed up on Geocaching​.com, we found that there was a cache hidden in the very estate that we stay. Since the weather wasn’t too bad yesterday, we thought we’d give it a shot. I do have a GPS in my phone after all.

The cache of choice was actually spread out across the estate. There were several clues that together revealed the final coordinates of the actual treasure (Multi-​Cache). Unfortunately, we were not successful, but we do know why! So we will be going back out to try again. (Well, I didn’t know that Latitude and Longitude can be Imperial, Decimal or even a mixture of the two!!). I do know now and I’ve also found a few phone and computer apps that should help as well. Nothing like a challenge!!

Family Fun

The Hunt on our Doorstep turned a simple walk into more of an adventure and event the kids didn’t mind that we hadn’t found anything. We will go back and we WILL find it. Then, we’ll practise some more on the other local Treasures. That should see us until we’re ready to take the Motorhome out an set our sites a little further afield!

Have a look at http://​Geocaching​.com, you might have some fun!!