Geocaching is a High Tech Treasure Hunting system and people from all walks of life take all over the world.
All you need to start is a free account at geocaching.com and a GPS device, I started off using my car TomTom One which you can enter co-ordinates into but although this did the job it did embarrass me a few times, you see - the purpose of this is to find the caches and not let the general public know what you are doing because there is always a danger that a person finding a cache who knows not what it is will take it away and spoil our fun.
The general public in the Geocaching world are known as 'Muggles' and we don't want any caches 'Muggled'
I would find the co-ords for a cache close to me via geocaching.com, enter those co-ords into my TomTom and set out to find the cache usually in haste..
(when you first open a free account you enter your home co-ordinates so that you can see whats near you)
Well, as I was wandering around following my TomTom's directions down footpaths in the countryside one day I got right on top of a cache and two other people just happened to be walking along the path in the opposite direction which of course is fine except my TomTom advised me at just the wrong moment "You Have Reached Your Destination".. Hmm, red faced I was.
Anyway, I quickly learned that I did want to pursue this 'Sport' - after all I had a reason to walk the dog as I was clocking up new finds each time I ventured out.
Here's my current banner from geocaching.com - this shows my stats:
So, I did some research and decided that I only needed a basic GPS machine so I found on ebay a garmin eTrex for £60, this is a dedicated machine and didn't speak to me at inappropriate times (well, not at all actually).
Ever since then I have been caching as often as possible - I like to go out with small groups of friends as this is a social activity.
I have planted two Geocaches of my own, I use good quality Ammo Tins as opposed to cheap Tupperware tubs that many seem to favour and this is because I want people to realise that I have put serious effort into my caches and this hopefully encourages the finder to replace the cache and hide it well for the next person to find.
When I started I lived in the West Midlands where I had my 'Spire View' cache, this was placed in the base of a huge oak tree which overlooked a local church spire - this cache has since been taken out of service as I no longer live close enough to maintain it.
At that time I was with my now Ex who is a singer songwriter, I decided to put together a Travel Bug for her and set it free.
As you can see from the image on the right, this travel bug was a promotional CD attached to a card explaining what this was - as this is a trackable item you need to buy a set of Dog Tags for each travel bug which as a serial number on it - You attach one of the dog tags to the Travel Bug so that the finder can verify that they do actually have possession of said travel bug.. once they log on Geocaching.com that they have custody of the Travel Bug they have to enter it's serial number.
This is a great system as you can track your Bug as it travels, and you can be sure that the person who claims to have it really does have it
The travel bug will pass from cache to cache, unfortunately this TB (from now on this means Travel Bug) was a bit too large for quite a few caches so moved quite slowly - as I said you can track your TB, here's a map of AbbySongs route before I retired it:
This TB's aim (as stated on the card) was to travel the World in search of a record deal - it did pass through Motown which is appropriate for the style of music this CD contains.
(You retain the other Dog tag for reference by the way).
I have since asked a member to return the main dog tag to me via post so I can create a new TB and send it out again as this original one has reached the end of it's life (well, it has covered a lot of miles over the years).
I have created a page HERE for finders of the new TB to visit should they wish (This is optional but they MUST log their find of any TB on geocaching.com) I may hold competitions on that page to add more interest as time goes by.
Once you have your free basic membership at Geocaching.com you can see my personal Geocaches on these pages:
Geocaching
Spire View