Geocaching

BBAM
BBAM Forum Participant Posts: 15
edited April 2015 in Your Hobbies #1

We have our two kids with us all the time, 6 & 12.

A friend recommended we look at Geocaching as a bit of fun as we already enjoy walks and hiking.

It really is great fun, I must say I enjoy the hunt as much as the kids do. 

We use their app on our iphones but you can use a regular handheld GPS or similar.

For anyone not familliar I could best describe it as a worldwide treasure hunt where "caches" are hidden and GPS co-ordinates supplied on the website.

The caches are to be hidden in places of interest where there are great views or smoe other reward for going there.

www.geocaching.com.

 

Comments

  • onnilucky
    onnilucky Forum Participant Posts: 27
    edited February 2017 #2

    I'll be at the Camelford site from April 1st to have a go at the Compass series.

    Any other cachers out there done it, if so what are the pitfalls?

     

  • peegeenine
    peegeenine Forum Participant Posts: 548
    edited February 2017 #3

    There is also a social side to it aswell, with numerous camping events organised. The UK Mega event is in Devon this year with a whole weeks camping and events planned for each day. These are great events where you can get to know fellow cachers and share Geocaching stories.
    Geocaching is our main hobby and it keeps us fit and gives a bit more interest to a walk. Before we go anywhere we load up our GPS with caches and usually have walks planned for most days we are away. Some series can be really challenging but we don't like to give up and if we can we will return for ones we can't find. We did a great series last year were we had a list of items to take with us and on finding the cache we had to work out which item to use to get to the logbook.
    So far, we have found over 12500 caches. As there are around 3 million hidden throughout the world we still have a long way to go.


    Onnilucky, we are currently working our way through these puzzle caches and will be doing the Compass series when we attend the Devon UK Mega at the beginning of August. Let us know how you get on. Happy caching.

  • Bakers2
    Bakers2 Forum Participant Posts: 8,191 ✭✭✭
    2,500 Likes 1000 Comments
    edited February 2017 #4

    Nice responses. Once again the OP is old 27/4/2015. Why do these keeping coming to the fore without previous comments? No need to answer that 😉

  • onnilucky
    onnilucky Forum Participant Posts: 27
    edited May 2017 #5

    For Peegeenine

    I spent 3 whole days and 2 half days walking and managed to get round 270 of the Compass series.

    A lot of the lanes are only wide enough for small cars with very few places to attempt cache and dashing, I would imagine that cycling could be a risk because of the road width,  there's not many places to dive out of the way of oncoming traffic.

    I would suggest taking spare log sheets as quite a few were unusable and I used all mine up

    Good luck getting round but as the Mega will be on it could be quite crowded on those lanes

     

     

  • peegeenine
    peegeenine Forum Participant Posts: 548
    edited May 2017 #6

    Thanks for that Onnilucky, sounds like it could get very congested when the Mega is on. We have all the puzzles solved but will decide what we are doing when we get there and see what else has been laid on. Seems we would need to allow about 6 days to complete this so may not have enough time unless we extend our stay.
    We have just got back from Ashridge Farm CAMC site where we have managed to complete the Hatley Heart attack series and the Cambridge Cachethon series. We started these last year and it has taken us 5 trips here to finally complete these marathon series. We broke them up into managable chunks and drove (we have a car with us) out each day to a start point
    There are absolutely loads of caches in the area around this site but a car is required to get you out there. (There are, at the moment, 3 caching walks straight from the site)
    Happy caching.

  • DSB
    DSB Club Member Posts: 5,666 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 2017 #7

    I have this thought in the back of my mind that Rowena used to do Geocaching so may be able to help.  Mind you she may not have had much chance to get out to do geocaching since the arrival of Sam! 😂 

    David 

  • peegeenine
    peegeenine Forum Participant Posts: 548
    edited June 2017 #8

    We've just got back from 4 nights at Ashridge Farm, our 5th visit this year.( we don't normally do club sitessmile) There are just so many caches in the area it has got to be one of the best sites for geocachers. This trip we took our bikes as well as the car and did 2 cycle trips straight from the site down Ashwell Street, left out of site and all off road. For our 3rd cycle trip we loaded the bikes onto the car and drove to Manor wood car park on Letchworth Greenway. We found 100 caches and cycled 16.5 miles on the circular route mostly off road. On our last day we left the bikes on the back of the van and drove to Sandon, about 6 miles from site, where we did a 5.5 mile circular walk. We recommend this enjoyable walk with 36 mainly custom caches plus some others on route.
    We still have loads of caches to find in the area so will be returning later in the year after our geocaching tour down to the Devon UK Mega at the end of July.
    Our next trip later this week is to a geocaching camping weekend at Sacrewell Mill, nr Peterborough. Anyone going? I think there are some spaces, details at GC6Z0BM.

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