Geocaching

There's a new sport in town, and it's called geocaching. You can play as a hider or a seeker. To be a hider, you create a cache by purchasing a waterproof container and filling it with a camera, a log book, and several inexpensive trinkets. Then you find a good place to bury it, note its position using a GPS receiver, and upload its coordinates to the geocaching site. To be a seeker, you visit the geocaching site, pick a set of coordinates, locate the cache, take a photo of yourself using the camera, add yourself to the log book, take a trinket of your choice, add a new trinket of your own, then bury the cache again for others to find. After a while, the hider retrieves the cache and uploads its associated pictures and log book to the web site. If you want to see which caches are near to your own location, visit the cache seeker page. I plan on playing geocaching in January, both as a seeker and a hider. When I hide a cache, I'll also post the GPS coordinates to my blog.

Comments

[Tzoid]

Hi Graham, welcome to Geocaching :-) It sure is addictive. But just to clear up a small misunderstanding: digging is not allowed. No need to bring a showel. Also, the camera is optional. In fact, most caches do not have a camera. I'd also recommend to find a few before you place one of your own. Happy hunting!

T

[Graham]

Thanks T, I've updated the entry to use "retrieve" instead of "dig". I also order the "Idiot's Guide to Geocaching" to help with the selection of GPS receiver, etc. I'm thinking about putting a cheap digital camera into the box so that others can look through the pictures when they find the box, and of course hope that noone takes the camera!

[Kytari]

What a fun idea. I may give it a whirl.