Geocaching...

johnrm

Guest
I have this down as a hobby and Norma was wondering about it, so here goes...

'Treasure hunting of sorts using your GPS to find the treasure'
Click here to see a 2min video on it YouTube - What Is Geocaching?

Pop coordinates into your GPS, navigate to the location, search for a cache, Take something, leave something, Sign the log.

Caches are located at a place of scenic beauty, historical, geographical or geological Point of Interest or general interest. There are over 1million caches and 3-4million geocachers globally.

All you need is a GPS, a desire to travel and see interesting places (so that covers most people here!) Once you have a suitable GPS, then it costs you nothing (Premium membership is optional and gives a few nice extras)

It ties in quite nicely with the camping thing, just be careful bringing a big rig down country roads!

I'll do my best to answer any questions on it here, but there are huge resources online.

Happy hunting!
 
Geocaching

We geocache too. :) . Not got a huge amount of finds as we just start at the end of last year.

It gets you to lots of places you would never know exist otherwise. A fun hobby but as you say difficult to be discreet with a motorhome (6 berth sundance!).

Even on your own doorstep you find out lots of new info / places. As there is a mega event coming up in Perth this year we are spoilt for choice within a twenty mile radius.
 
A friend of mine in the States is into Geocaching and it's one those things that I said I would give a go but never got around to it.
 
I've been interested in geocaching for years, off and on, and I'd recommend it highly.

It's often a mental challenge as well as being good exercise. And it takes you places where you wouldn't otherwise go.

Highly recommended :)
 
Started doing this about 6/7 years ago but never got back into it after having a heart attack & by pass. I used to use a Garmin GPS V but it must be easier with some of the newer GPS's. I could always use my Dell PDA with my bluetooth GPS & memory map software :rolleyes: just need to find the time but I'm just too busy (it really is time consuming being retired :D) so many other things to do.

Always wonder what happened to some of the 'treasures' we left in place of some we took :confused:
 
Have not heard of this game before but sounds interesting,
what sort of treasures do you find if anyhing at all and what would you be expected to leave.
or is it a case of just leaving directions to other places of beauty.:confused:
 
stoneroller said:
Have not heard of this game before but sounds interesting,
what sort of treasures do you find if anyhing at all and what would you be expected to leave.
or is it a case of just leaving directions to other places of beauty.:confused:
Click to expand...

The 'treasures' are low cost small items. There's always a log book to record your visit - and it's fun reading the earlier entries.

The locations of geocaches are best found by visiting Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site as mentioned earlier.

This site explains it all, and allows you to search for geocache locations all round the world.
 
It turns out there is a cache about a mile from me so may take a look.
 
This looks like a great thing to do with the kids, seems to be loads of caches near us.

What GPS would you recommend?

If possible I would also want one that I could load walking maps onto but we are not RICH some of the devices seem to be £500 which is too much for me, about £150 is all I would want to spend :)
 
BigG,

We just use the sat nav out of the van. It is not ideal but works :). We are considering which hand held to get but as you say the prices can get a bit silly.

Suggest you try it out before spending money.

Having said that the kids enjoy it a lot (well the 6 year old does the 18 months just gets taken along!). As for the adults - well as previously said it is strangely addictive :D.

You will probably find that you have walked passed umpteen caches already!

Give it a go - its is great fun

Wee-z
 
I'm glad to see the positive responses.
I have no vested interest in ANY of this, I just think it works well with camping.

There are many different types and difficulties of caches: urban and rural caches, woodland trails and summiting the highest peaks. There are simple cache'n'dash to complex puzzles which involve collecting clues and require substantial use of the grey matter!

There is a star rating system for difficulty and terrain, many caches are suited to Kids and Family and wheelchair users.

The hardware you use can be as simple as your standard SatNav, once you can enter coordinates and set it for off-road use. Even the most expensive GPS/SatNav have issues with the last few metres. The only place where a SatNav might be less-than-perfect is under heavy tree cover and with battery life, so you could find there is no need to buy anything! I don't have any affiliation with Garmin, but I have always used their stuff, I have successfully used a Garmin Nuvi 200.

...and there's an iPhone App for it too! (not used this myself)
Decide where you are going, print out the details for any cache you want to go to and head off!

As there are so many caches, there's lots of stuff you can do on your PC/Laptop/MobilePhone/GPS to manage caches, but this involves premium membership, no need to do this unless you find yourself getting addicted!

Geocaching is one of the reasons I got a camper. Now I can travel to locations and stay over at the drop of a hat!

Kontiki... you can use your Dell PDA to hold cache info so you can do 'paperless caching', with the bluetooth GPS you might be able to use it as your navigation tool too.

Stoneroller... There are 2 classes of items, Swaps and Trackables. Swaps are simple trinkets, rubber bouncing ball, mini-rubiks cube etc. The idea is 'trade up or even'. Trackables have a unique code on them, and some have a Goal or Objective, when you take one of them, you should place it in another cache per the Goal, or at least in the next cache you find.

As Wee-z has said, you will find that you have passed by LOADS of them unawares!

Have fun!
 
Wee-z said:
BigG,

We just use the sat nav out of the van. It is not ideal but works :). We are considering which hand held to get but as you say the prices can get a bit silly.

Suggest you try it out before spending money.

Having said that the kids enjoy it a lot (well the 6 year old does the 18 months just gets taken along!). As for the adults - well as previously said it is strangely addictive :D.

You will probably find that you have walked passed umpteen caches already!

Give it a go - its is great fun

Wee-z
Click to expand...

We will give it a go, we do a lot of walking anyway so like you i guess I have toyed with getting a handheld gps but I want one with maps, I like the idea of having the maps on my pc and then planning a walking route, Its not nessasary I know but I was a boy scout so I enjoy all that stuff as much as the walking bit :)

Which ones have you considered?
 
biggirafe said:
This looks like a great thing to do with the kids, seems to be loads of caches near us.

What GPS would you recommend?

If possible I would also want one that I could load walking maps onto but we are not RICH some of the devices seem to be £500 which is too much for me, about £150 is all I would want to spend :)
Click to expand...

I would suggest you consider an older handheld GPS device from Garmin for instance.

I have an elderly Garmin eMap which I used to use for Geocaching - they come with a very basic background map, and have a monochrome screen.

The GPS receiver is of an older generation, and less sensitive under trees etc, but perfectly useable.

I imagine these must now be pretty cheap on Ebay.

I now use a device made by Hewlett Packard - it's a Pocket PC with GPS.

It's called a Travel Companion.

This too is now a few years old, but I think it's brilliant. Others on this site use this too.

It has a colour screen, and memory card slot, and you can install software such as Memory-Map on it to use OS mapping.

That's what I've done.

When using the 'van, I have two devices in use - the TomTom to give me guidance (known affectionately as 'traffic bitch' or 'sat nag'!), and the HP to show me the OS maps on screen as I drive.
 
Gps

biggirafe said:
This looks like a great thing to do with the kids, seems to be loads of caches near us.

What GPS would you recommend?

If possible I would also want one that I could load walking maps onto but we are not RICH some of the devices seem to be £500 which is too much for me, about £150 is all I would want to spend :)
Click to expand...

I have just had a look at this one

Geomate Jr and Update Kit Your one stop geocaching shop

Don't think it does everything you want though as it is very much geo-caching based.

Try having a look at FINGER TECHNOLOGY LTD - Guide to purchasing a GPS receiver. which seems to give a pretty good description of quite a few different units.

Wee-z
 
The Geomate Jnr is a dedicated Geocaching device and is intended primarily for kids. It only holds coordinates for simple caches, and so may not suit if you get a bit more adventurous. It is no good for any navigation outside of Geocaching.

Most SatNav and/or GPS unit will have the ability to punch in coords. This combined with a little planning and few printouts is the least cost way to try it out.

I used to use a Garmin Quest which was perfectly good for the job, plus did all the navigating on the road as well!

Just this weekend, I Wildcamped then went Geocaching/Hiking up Benbulbin in Sligo for 7 hours!
 
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