Geocaching - 21st Century Treasure Hunting
As a spotty-faced schoolboy in the swinging sixties a hike into the great outdoors, and especially the mountains, was a challenging and solitary experience. Out there on mist shrouded hills, in rain that resembled a Japanese war film, my only companions were my trusty Silva compass and an Ordnance Survey map. I wasn’t much good at arithmetic, but boy could I set a map, calculate bearings, visualise contours in my head and identify featureless landmarks with ease. These were skills that served me in good stead through my climbing career, from army cadets to raging blizzards on Mont Blanc in winter. It was all done without the aid of today’s must-have techie gizmos like Sat Navs, Google Maps, and iPhones.
Fast forward to 2011. In a technology-hungry world it is all so different. Your average nerdy teen today will almost certainly have two TVs, an Xbox, a laptop and iPhone - and that’s without ever leaving the bedroom! Even my ageing mother can work her mobile keypad like a concert pianist when looking for the latest knitting pattern. So when my twenty-something son produced a GPS (Global Positioning System) device whilst we were out on a father–son bonding ramble in the Beacons recently, I began to act like one of those grumpy old Luddites.
He told me that the GPS device, which resembled a yellow Mars bar with a fancy screen, did everything and more my map and compass could do and with great accuracy. Then he asked if I was familiar with ‘Geocaching’. I scratched my head in wonderment. As we walked he explained this new phenomenon. By the end of the ramble this crusty old sceptic was, however reluctantly, hooked. Perhaps it was the overgrown schoolboy in me.
Geocaching is a relatively new leisure activity. A hand-held GPS is used to navigate to hidden containers known as geocaches, which can be secreted anywhere in the world. A geocache is typically a plastic storage container containing a logbook with pen or pencil, and perhaps some other items. The finder updates the logbook with the date they found the cache and signs it with their geocaching user name (follow the link to the geocaching website at the end of this article to find out how to get a user name). Larger geocache containers may also contain items for trading, usually small toys or trinkets of little value.
Any geocacher can create a new cache. Having secreted the container with its contents, the geocacher enters the cache coordinates on the geocaching website. Now the cache is available for anyone to find, followed by recording their success and comments on the website.
If additional items are in the cache finders may remove them and place them in another cache. The only rule is that the items must be replaced by something of equal or greater value. These little treasures range from a small key fob or old charm trinket to unique numbered geocoins. The fun is in moving the finds between caches. Some travel all over the world.
Most caches are in rural areas. Embarrassing difficulties may arise with urban caches if you are thought to be hiding drugs or stolen property!
Having grasped the fundamentals of the GPS, my hill-walking took on a new dimension. It wasn’t long before I was off to test this new-found slant on my regular weekend outings to the Black Mountains.
I set off on a long hard slog up an expanse of moorland just north of Llyn y Fan Fach, armed with a list of possible caches. After some screen scrolling and a short wait as the GPS sought out satellites to lock on to, I was pleasantly surprised that there were three caches within a mile or so of my deserted position. I entered the coordinates into the GPS and was soon tentatively off on the track of my first cache. Thirty minutes later I arrived in a vague rocky hollow. It didn’t seem to be an obvious hiding place. After a bit of uncertainty, wandering about and double checking of the GPS device, I homed in on some broken boulders. I made a short search fearing that my arithmetic was awry and my faith in the device was misplaced, but to my delight and surprise there it was secreted deep in a cleft in the rocks.
It was quite weird and exhilarating in this vast tract of open wilderness to open a plastic sandwich box and see bright shiny objects. Shades of childhood excitement at discovering hidden treasure of all sorts came flooding back. Having duly logged my details in the little book, I read in the log that two weeks before an Australian visitor on his trip round Wales had been here and deposited a kangaroo key fob he had brought all the way from Canberra in Oz. Wow, I thought! Having placed my Monopoly top hat token in the box and taken the kangaroo fob, I put the container back in its place and left.
It was hard to believe that the simple satisfaction of finding a plain container of meaningless artefacts could fire up such boyish curiosity and excitement in a man of 63! This is a part of the attraction of the compelling pursuit of geocaching, hunting down markers left by others and vice versa. Shades of childhood in my third age perhaps - who knows?
More fun was to come when I got home and logged on to the official geocaching website to declare my find. To my amazement, three weeks later I received an email from a geocacher called Brad, who informed me he was in Alaska on a world travel trip and it was he who had left the kangaroo fob high in the hills near Llyn y Fan. I marvelled at the surrealism of this ‘Time Travel in a Box’.
I have had many exhilarating experiences all over the UK on my geo treasure hunts since. I have made many penfriends and met new friends throughout the geocaching community, from school teachers to brick layers. I take comfort in that fact that here at last is one techie bit of hardware that I can seriously say does truly unite people and not divide them.
There are many more exciting aspects to geocaching than I can relate here. It is an infectious outdoor activity that can enthral individuals, groups of friends, and families alike. To find out more about geocaching and how to get started click here.
Carl Ryan
