Geocaching

Caching sites:

geocaching.com | GeoX Forum | GeoX Website |

Other Pages:

Links Collection | My FtF list (pdf) |

Pictures

Germin eTrex legend GPSr Donard summit. (Photo:Mike Pringle) Caching essentials

Geocaching...

Mountain of caches

...how to describe it?  It's certainly a hobby - we collect things but we don't get to keep them. It's an outdoor activity, but we don't get to decide where we go. It's a competition, but nobody wins. Geocaching is sort of like a treasure hunt - but it's not quite that, either.

In principle, geocaching is quite simple: someone hides a small box somewhere. The box contains a log book (always), some small items of no commercial value (usually), and a card explaining what the box is for. That's the easy bit.

Once the box has been hidden, a page relating to it gets published on one of the dedicated geocaching websites. The most popular of these, by far, is www.geocaching.com. Caches have to comply with certain guidelines before they can be listed; these include criteria relating to safety, respect for historic and cultural sites and the environment. The web page contains, among other information, a navigational position. And THAT'S where the fun starts...

Equipped with a portable GPS - that's "Global Satellite Positioning"- receiver (Pics 1&2, left), we set off to try and find the box. That's the difficult bit. Once found - or "if" found - we sign the log book, perhaps with a comment on how we got on during the search, and we may swap an item in the box for another which we have brought. All done, and we replace the box exactly as it was found, ready for the next searcher.

Sound ridiculous, doesn't it?

That's what I thought.

Today, only seven years after its inception, geocaching has more than a million hobbyists worldwide. Its popularity - and the number of caches being placed - continues to increase at an extraordinary rate. I first became involved in the summer of 2004: stumbling over geocaching.com when checking out applications for my newly-acquired Garmin eTrex. The site told me that there was a cache not far from my home so, just for a lark, I went off to look for the silly thing.

That did it.

Since then I've found over 300 caches, and more than 70 of these have been so-called "First-to-Finds": the first person (or team) to discover and log the cache. The appeal of caching which led to these stats is hard to quantify. It could be that the hobby includes or entails all those things which I found interesting anyway: the outdoors, walking, wildlife, gadgets, driving round the byways of Ireland. It works for me.

The technology is a particular fascination. Extending my knowledge of marine navigation to GPS, I have now written several articles about it, as well as founding the GeoX discussion forum in 2005, which now has over a hundred active members.

On the following page(s), you will find a selection of geocaching links, compiled by the members of GeoX, and perhaps some of my own humourous (allegedly) articles which have appeared there and elsewhere.

            Click here to continue...