Geocaching started in 2000, when 24 satellites from around the globe had their selective availability removed allowing the accuracy of GPS technology to improve tenfold. Now anyone could precisely pinpoint their location or the location of items left behind for later. One GPS enthusiast wanted to test the accuracy by hiding a navigational target in the woods and posting the coordinates on the internet for others to find. Within days his stash was found and others began hiding their own containers and posting coordinates with the concept quickly spreading, to be later known as geocaching.

I was surprised to find that there are 166 caches located within 5 miles of my own house. Whilst many special handheld GPS navigator products are available to buy, I actually discovered that through my iPhone, Blackberry and Garmin Forerunner, I already owned 3 GPS devices allowing me to go geocaching.

After putting my postcode into the website I selected which caches to hunt for. The Garmin Connect site had a program to upload the details direct to my Forerunner but after an hour of unsuccessfully trying to export the details to my watch, I decided to just put the coordinates into my Blackberry which provided detailed topographic and street-level maps. The website also had some cryptic clues about where the caches were hidden at the location. The cache can be any type of waterproof container, one I was looking for was an ammunition box and the other a film container.

I decided to go for a walk in my local countryside and chose two locations on my walk. Both were described as easy terrain with a difficulty level of 1. The first coordinates I came across on my walk seemed accurate as the directions said it was opposite a pub and there was a footpath across from the car park, but it was overgrown with nettles and I wasn’t that committed to looking for the hidden treasure. I headed on towards the second location when a thunderstorm started and getting home became my first priority. So my first attempt at geocaching was unsuccessful.

However, today I was walking through my local park when I decided to just check if there were any caches hidden nearby, and there was. Getting to the location wasn’t a problem, although the cache did take some time to find as it was a tiny metal container hidden in a park bench and I’m sure I looked very stupid trying to casually look for a box attached to the bench. But success, my first cache!

Not sure I’m going to explore my local area for the 166 caches hidden near me, but I imagine it can be quite fun with children as they appear to be hidden everywhere from busy streets to secluded footpaths and with current new phones most people already own GPS devices. Also if you are visiting a new area of the country and you don’t know where to go for a scenic walk, it could be worth visiting the geocaching site as many of the cache detail pages lead you to unique views and describe nearby points of interest to look out for.

There seems to be quite a community of world-wide geocachers and if it means that people are encouraged to get active outdoors more, then perhaps the concept should be promoted. A wide range of GPS devices are available in both the UK and the US. For more information of geocaching visit www.geocaching.com.