I know quite a number of people who go out geocaching on a regular basis, and have always been intrigued about the whole thing. It’s one of those past times that has been on my list to try for a little while but I’ve not actually got around to it. I guess I liken it a bit to post box (or letter box) hunting in Dartmoor – as a kid I loved hunting out the little boxes containing stamps in and around the various Tors.
Geocaching is an any-day, any-time adventure that can take you to amazing and beautiful places. Or even just a place in your town that you’ve never been before. There are two million geocaches worldwide.
It dawned on me the other day that there are probably geocaches along the trails I love to walk along regularly, or even close enough to my office for a lunch time explore, which would be a great introduction. I downloaded the free version of the app (Geocaching), and low and behold, hundreds of dots appeared in and around Lincoln. Excellent! I’ve no idea why I haven’t ticked this one off my bucket list before now! A bit of an oversight for sure.
I headed out from my office for a quick walk with the app open on my phone and within about 100 metres it had buzzed with a message to say I was getting close… I hunted around in amongst lots of people enjoying their lunch break and found a teeny little geocaching box with a log book inside. I dutifully signed in, put the slightly soggy paper back in the box, and moved on. I’ve no idea what the guys having a picnic on the lawn close by thought as I giggled to myself. Who cares!
From there I walked a little further towards what is now a very iconic roundabout in Lincoln. The geocache has apparently been here a little while, but will now be more popular thanks to the development of the area. Now there is supposedly a lot of secrecy involved in geocaching which means I’m not supposed to tell you the exact location of the ‘treasure’ or what it looks like… the photographs are a bit of a spoiler although not quite, you’ve still got to find the box.
After my first two finds the other lunch time I’ve since discovered a handful of caches up in the village where I live, and a couple along my favourite trails. It’s been a great excuse to get me out and about to enjoy my local countryside – another think to get my legs moving and my eyes working.
I don’t know if I’ll be geocaching every weekend, but I am enjoying exploring the little nooks and crannies of my local area – somewhere I thought I knew really well. It’s a great way to explore and the perfect activity to get you off the sofa and out and about on a Sunday morning. I can imagine it’s also a brilliant way to explore somewhere new; it gives purpose to an evening walk and can even create an entire day of exploration if you wish.
For more information about Geocaching (worldwide), and to sign up and get started, head over to Geocaching.com. The full version of the app is £7.99 but there is a free one to get you started (has limited geocache GPS markers).
If you’re interested in what else is on my bucket list, make sure you’ve got a few minutes to spare – it’s long! If you can help me with anything on my list, or think I can help you with anything on yours, please get in touch.
Dragons And Fairy Dust
This has been on my to do list for some time now but still not got round to it. I really must do
Splodz
Mine too – once I actually created my account and downloaded the app it was so simple, a little embarrassing it’s taken so long to tick off my list.
Sam Taylor (@SofaDodgerUK)
How interesting – we live in a very remote part of Cornwall, so it was a bit worrying to have strange people wondering around, looking very suspicious a few years back. It took a bit of googling to understand their explanation!
Splodz
Ha ha I have heard some funny stories about geocaching, and there is definitely a safety warning that goes with it, but it’s just a bit of fun after all. I can imagine I looked a bit odd to onlookers hunting around for the first cache – I wonder what they thought?!
Cheryl Pasquier
You’ll soon be totally hooked ! We’ve had some great adventures and discovered lots of local places we never knew 🙂
Splodz
I thought of you as I downloaded the app. Do you use the full version for your days out?
Kezzie
So cool! I really want to do some more! After finding the geocache accidently yesterday, I totally want to go again!x
Splodz
Get out and explore!
Shell Camping with Style
We’ve literally just started too. It’s a great way of having an excuse to explore each time we visit a new area. We are total newbies and on our 5th cache. Very addictive!
Splodz
Oh hello fellow newbie! It really is a great way to explore a new place, we’ve also found it’s good for finding new little places close to home. Although I’m not sure why a cache owner would delete our log/comment from their cache on the website; not quite sure what we did wrong there, seems a bit mean!
Alison Wakefield
My hubby wants to do this I had never heard about this till he mentioned it and wants to do one here in Brittany France so watch this space.
Splodz
Oh excellent – let me know how you get on 🙂
TEN TINY THINGS TO DO OUTSIDE TODAY > SPLODZ BLOGZ
[…] Geocaching is a great way to get outside with purpose, even if you haven’t got many minutes. Start with the ones really close to your home, then move onto the ones close to your friend’s homes, maybe even a sneaky lunchtime search from work. There are three within five (ish) minutes’ walk of my house, which gives me one a week for the month. Some are much harder to find than others, that’s the point, but it’s all about the search. Or if you want something similar but different… Pokemon Go is still a thing. […]