Geocaching?

[Poly Hive]

Anyone on here take part?

PH

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

I did a few years ago when it first got started in the UK, they can take you on some nice walks and the kids loved swopping the treasure items...

 

[WelshPaul]

I used to aswell, havent for a long time though.

 

[drstitson]

The UK scene may get sick of finding cut comb in the boxes!!!!

 

[For want of a better word]

The UK scene may get sick of finding cut comb in the boxes!!!!

Hiding a "box" in a very contaminated Arsenic calciner was the best one yet!

The clue was hidden by misspickle!

 

[hedgerow pete]

I used to do it alot with the kids as in wales there are hundreds but then again we used to see a lot posted for birmingham as well.

why ? are we of with a pocket full of toys polyhive

 

[Hivemaker.]

We have a lot of squirrels around here, that spend a lot of time doing this Geocaching.

 

[drstitson]

not busy enough already PH?

 

[Poly Hive]

Well we go to different places and like to walk the dogs, not as much as they like being walked so we thought to dip a toe.

PH

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Proceed with caution - many of the farmers round here are not fond of people poking around their land.

 

[Poly Hive]

No worries gbh Wales is not on our explore list.

Ph

 

[Storm™]

My folks and friends are obsessed with it. I have avoided it so far as have other things to be getting in with. But I know more about it than I should.

Boxes or caches cannot be placed on any private land without the land owners permission. If you do it will not be published. If you wing it and you are found out you're account is destroyed. Part of the reason I have avoided it, so many rules. However it is quite fun. I used to letterbox and it's similar. My brother makes really elaborate caches. It's well worth it. It's not too Clicky round here and they hold annual events in the UK. Where everyone meets up and go caching, and show each other their coins. I had some made for my folks last Christmas. On the geocaching German coin shop. Supplied them with photos and they laser etched the pictures on. Brilliant quality.

The next meet is up north somewhere. It's usually a camping affair. Although the folks tent is a 3 double bedroom thing with carpets and heating - glamping apparently.

Caches come in (from memory) 4 sizes. A cache, a micro, a mini and a nano. Each one smaller than the other but also harder to find. A set of GPS co ordinates are obtained when The cache is placed. You use these to find it. Easier than it sounds. Some custome made hideyholes are things like a magnetic snail shell. Or a sprig of fake grass.

A GPS is essential. No doubt some on her do it and will refute this but the alternative is a car satnav or iPhone app for geocaching. Neither is accurate enough and judging by the vitriol that I hear about such people using only these devices to place the cache I would invest in a GPS. If you use these to place out a cache, and no one can find it and complaints arise, yOur cache will be removed from the database.

It's a world wide thing and there are moves to get one on the moon. There is one in space. And there are a few only reachable using a deep sea submersible. It's a fun sport and believe me it's a sport (I've helped them find a few on Coastal paths) , mums nearly broken her hip, been run over on the moors and my brother has walked into mines on dartmoor. Quarter of a mike underground walking across flooded shafts and up to his waist in water to reach these things. I stood guard recently when he went into a cave and rummaged around in the rubble on his belly. So it can be as easy as a gentle walk from the car on a motorway lay-by to using a boat to reach remote hidden sea caves (my brothers next set to get In his kyak) hope you enjoy PH.

They have a Facebook page and a couple of forums.

 

[kazmcc]

There are supposed to be two in my local park, but I can't find the damn things. I own no GPS devices and refuse to buy one just to find them, although I walk through everyday to and from school and it bugs me wondering where they are lol

 

[Storm™]

My brother has several in our town. They are atatched to the backs of road signs. All cleared through geocaching HQ and transport section of council. They are micros. All it looks like is a bolt. A shiny bolt. But it's screwed into nothing. Held on by very powerful neobidium? magnets. Anyway yank it off and unscrew the bolt head and inside is the guest book. Then you go home and log it. There is also one near where I worked. Every so often you would see a couple of people looking shifty walking along with sly looks at a GPS. The secrecy is to not attract the attention of muggles (civilian non geocachers) in case they find it and destroy it. It happens quite alot. Quite often if the cache is standard size you can place gifts in it for: first to find, or swapsies. So in my folks there were crystals. But in some you take something and leave something. It is very interesting. Along with the GPS coordintes clues get published. Some of these have to be solved in order to get the GPS co ords. I helped my brother with a cookie monster programme. You had to type a type of buscuit. There were 14 to find spanning years. Get one right and you got him doing his nom nom nom noise. Get one wrong and he sang a song .... LOddly lol. Others I have helped him with was someone used an old Druidic cypher to encode the clue. Others use degree level maths equations. Other still use it as a way to remember a lost loved one. It's very self regulating round here and it's very well done. They also do it at night. You could go in the day but find nothing. At night though the forest will light up with fire tacks or luminous tacks and lead you right there.

As time goes on people's imagination is running wild. See told you I knew too much lol.

 

[victor meldrew]

" No officer . I'm not casing the joint, I'm Geocaching honest "
VM

 

[sputnam]

We've been doing it for a while and are obsessed. All walks are now based around caches. Don't have a dedicated GPS device, but use my mobile phone which has a GPS chip.