I have no idea who first told me about Geocaching, but I liked the idea right from the start. Rather than try to explain it in my own terms, here’s the description from their website:
Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.
It’s pretty easy to get into, especially if you’re equipped with an iPhone – you simply register an account at their website, then buy the geocaching application (about £5.99), and you’re ready to go! You don’t need an iPhone of course – almost any GPS receiver will work – but the iPhone is a nice way of looking up caches whilst out and about.
Anyway, we found our first three caches last weekend down in the Isle of Wight. We perhaps should have chosen a different cache for our first attempt, as it turned out to be in a graveyard, and we felt a little shady walking around the graves, looking for the geocache, but not really knowing what we were looking for. But finally we found it – a little film canister containing a log roll!
We found our second cache on top of a very windy hill, about an hour later. It was a multi-cache, meaning it had multiple waypoints that we had to find. At the first waypoint, we had to solve a (fairly easy) puzzle in order to find the co-ordinates for the second waypoint.
We aren’t fancy enough to have a stamp yet, however we did draw a little map of Australia against our log entry.
We got lucky with our third cache, as it contained a trackable item – a little stuffed monkey with a dog tag around his neck. We can follow his journey around the world as people log him in and out of caches! He hasn’t travelled too far yet – only 117.5 miles – but I’m sure he’ll be racking up the miles very quickly. We gave him a new home today; I wonder how long before someone else picks him up?
Anyway, so far geocaching has been top fun, so now I’m on the recruiting drive to try and get more people into it. So sign up, and add me as a friend!
6 comments
So it’s kinda like being a scout again?! I love it! I also have a little boy right here who thinks it’s VERY cool (I just had to read your post to him). He wants to know where you hid the monkey so we can find it…! This may become a new weekend past time once BH#3 arrives and we (meaning I) am more up to traipsing round the country side
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heh I read this and it made me think of XKCD’s Geohashing — which is apparently used for Geocaching >:) anyway sounds like an interesting idea.
I think Meegs is going to use this to convince me that she needs an iPhone! Of course I would need one too, just in case the first wasn’t working.
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Hey! Was it a coincidence that you guys did this? It is a LOT of fun
I am looking forward to my next day-after-drinking geocaching challenge 
M&M: You guys should definitely get into it – I’ll bet there’s a huge Geocaching community in Sydney! Please tell O that we buried the monkey in the New Forest, which is about 1.5hrs drive south-west of London. You can follow his progress here – looks like he’s still there, waiting for you to collect him!
Rocan: You and Kir have no excuse not to get into it! You both have iPhones!!
Vii: Well, can’t say we were doing it as a day-after-drinking exercise but if anyone was going to find a way to make it more challenging it would be you
I read about geocaching in the Ramblers magazine a while ago. It’s right up my alley of activities, I will definitely start once we have the technology!