Monday 22 April 2013

Geocaching whilst on tour in your caravan

I've been geocaching for a few years now and usually combine a caravan trip with a few walks that involve a geocache or two.
Whether you visit caravan sites in Wales or England or camp sites in Scotland you have the chance to try something different, while you walk up and down those hills or through those forests.

Firstly - lets get this out of the way, what is a geocache?
This video will help you understand. Watch it then come back here to continue reading


A geocache is a game playable by anybody, that involves locating a hidden cache. A cache can be a small plastic box or large tin that is waterproof or even a tiny little magnetic micro-cache. Inside each cache is a log book or piece of paper that lists all the people who have already found it and the date they found it. Also, there are usually small toys or trinkets that you can take, but you need to leave an equivalent toy behind. i.e make a swap. There are also occasional trackables which you can take but need to log the details on the geocaching.com website.

Geocaching.com website and detailed explanation

A typical geocache container
On the website will be a history of the trackable item and goal that the item is trying to achieve. Such goals are, 'to be moved anywhere within the lake district' or 'to travel the most amount of miles' etc.
With all the geocaches that are out there and there are over 2 million worldwide you have to login on the geocaching website and make a comment about your experience. Say something that could be useful to the next person reading the comment that might encourage them to visit.
Ideally you need a gps enabled device to do the hunting and I use my iPhone with great success.
There are dedicated devices, but my 1 experience of one of these was that it was hard work, I prefer my iphone app.
 I go to an area and the use the app to find caches nearby. It's really easy.
The reason I like to geocache is that it can take you to places you would have never discovered without looking for the geocache.
For example, one of our first finds was in Garstang and we had just parked up on a car park in the town centre and I got out my iPhone and searched for local caches. There was one just half a mile away and we discovered a large park and river and some lovely views that we had no idea were there.We had a fab day out because of the search.
Some geocaches are quite easy to find and some are impossible. Either we can't understand the clue or it's been moved, who knows? Half the fun is trying to locate it and half the fun is adding another to your total geocache found tally. I'm up to 50 so far. I've just read this out loud to my and mother-in-law and apparently my wife doesn't enjoy them as much as I do. She just rolled her eyes at her mother, so it looks like I'm doing the next one on my own.
So that's it, have a look at the geocaching website and go for a new adventure.

Comment below if you decide to give it a go.
Thanks

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