Geocaching

Over Easter, we went away in the caravan with some friends and had our very first taste of Geocaching. I’ve heard of it before but until you actually get involved, it’s hard to understand what it is all about. The friends we were with had done some research into how it works so we kind of tagged along with them. It was a great introduction into how it works.

We have now registered with the Geocaching website as 3kidsandacaravan.

What Is Geocaching?

To me, the best way to describe it would be as a kind of treasure hunt. You use GPS co-ordinates (so you need some kind of GPS/navigational system) and clues to find small containers that have been hidden by other participants.

You use the Geocaching website to locate where caches have been hidden by other participants. Some containers are large enough to hold small treasures and if you bring something to put into them, you then have the option of taking something out. The ones we saw had an assortment of small toys.

There is a log book which you fill in to record your visit. We didn’t do this ourselves (our friends did) as we hadn’t yet registered a user name on the website.

Here is a photograph of the very first geocache we found:

It’s lots of fun and a great way to explore places you might not find any other way. We’re looking forward to including geocaching as part of our big trip activities.

Caches are categorised into varying degrees of difficulty so it’s an activity that suits a wide range of age groups. Then of course, you can delve into the world of creating your own caches for others to find. I think we’ll leave attempting that until we get back from our big trip. By then we should be well experienced and have a few more ideas on what you can do. I already have a few ideas for places we can put them.

If anyone out there is experienced in this, I’d love to hear your tips and experiences.