How did you get into Caching?

[+Carlos & The Birdie Crew]

I'm always interested (at meets and such) in how other cachers got into the sport. I'd like to find out how more of you "discovered" Geocaching without a GPSr. Very few have them before they start, or do they?

 

My story starts with an interest in photography. I stopped one day to snap an old Irish Sea Ferry boat more or less abandoned near Flint in North Wales. Once home I trawled the net trying to find other pics of this ship at sea, in it's heyday so to speak.

I discovered a page called Rusty Duke via Yahoo and read with interest about the hidden treasure, it's loction being hinted at Rock 42. Now I remember that I was stood on Rock 43 to take my snaps so I got nosy, know what I mean?

 

Using the site I found Rusty Duke on I looked up a couple of local caches and were surprised how close they were. We tried to find the first few without a GPSr, and we did!! That was it for me (and my boys, soon to become the ever increasing Birdie Crew). We registered on something called Geocaching.com and and very soon bought a TRUSTY Etrex Yellow.

 

And that was it. Hooked! is the phrase, I believe.

 

We went back to the Rusty Duke a few finds later to find 43 and to thank the Caching Spirits that we have worshipped since.

 

I can only add that I (and the kids) have been learning ever since and have made some fantastic new friends (and I'm sure there's more to come).

 

So my short story is "out there".

 

What's YOURS??

 

Carlos (and the Birdie Crew)

Edited February 24, 2007 by Carlos & The Birdie Crew

[+Jimblonduk]

My sister and her hubby decided to sell the house and bought a narrowboat to live on.

 

Whilst trawling for 'boat-warming' presents, I came across a blog written by a couple in the same situation who had tried something called 'geocaching' while cruising the canals. I read the blog with interest, then borrowed my brother-in-laws GPS (he's a gadget freak) to give it a try.

 

I found this site and just about managed to manually get some coordinates in and off I went dragging Mrs JBUK (then Mrs JBUK 2B) with me. We found the cache very easily as it was in an open space with hardly any tree cover and thought "well, that was too easy" and couldnt see why so many people were hooked.

 

A few weeks later, we tried another cache where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong and that was what got us hooked, our first DNF. The challenge had been laid down and we were determined it wasnt going to beat us.

 

A few weeks after this we were to be married in St. Lucia .. but thats another amazing caching story

[+Haggis Hunter]

It's all Firth of Forth's (& the Sunday Posts) fault I tell you!!

 

[+LollyBob]

One of the girls I work with brought in a print out of a web page that she had gotten off her hubby who worked for a radio station. We had a TomTom at the time and tried to look for a cache on New Years day 2006. We didnt really know what we were looking for and really didnt understand the coords thing on the TomTom, so we failed to find the cache. We ordered a yellow etrex and went on the hunt for a local cache, we still had no idea what we were looking for. We hunted for ages when all of a sudden Lolly said "Whats this?" It looked like an old tin! Bob thought that he would take a closer look at the old tin. He unscrewed the top and pulled out some paper...UREKA!! Our very first geocache find. We had expected to find a plastic box not a tin, since then we have found out that it was a fuse canister. What strange objects people hide caches in

 

The amazing thing is we have no idea what we used to do before we discoverd geocaching. We spend all our weekends caching now, well apart from one when I insisted that the wardrobe we bought before we started caching had to be built! 13 months of seeing it wrapped up in the corner of the bedroom was a bit too much LOL.

 

The one thing that caching has brought to us is the stunning areas that we have been to looking for caches, I doubt that we would ever seen them if it was not for geocaching. We have one place that we want to cache and that is in Lossiemouth in Scotland, Lolly was brought up there and really wants to see it again. Maybe this summer we will get the chance to.

 

Now we had better get a move on if we want to get out caching today!

[+Sue and Bernie]

For us it was through cycling.

 

We enjoy long rides through the country lanes of Norfolk and Suffolk. It is dead easy to end up on the wrong route when travelling along windy roads with high hedges. I got fed up with constantly consulting a map. At work, then the RAF, some-one light-heartedly waved a clunky Garmin GPS at me as the solution (always carried by the aircrew in case they have to leave the "office" abruptly).

 

That started the seed, and the rest of the cliche - is history.

 

As a self-confess gadget geek, Bernie has now accumulated a Garmin SP 510D, Garmin Vista Cx (for the bikes and geo-geeking), TomTom 5 in a Ipaq PPC phone with two BT GPS units (one spare).

 

Why all that lot? The Ipaq and Vista are Bernie's companions when travelling on business, the easy-peasey SP510 stays with Sue.

 

The "D" in the SP 510D means De Luxe, the unit is supplied with City Nav software on DVD and can be unlocked to work with the Vista.

[+dino-irl]

I'll be the first (but probably not the last) to say that I saw Simply Paul's video diary on Countryfile.

 

Seems apt that I've just done a TV piece this week that is bringing in new Irish cachers

[The Red Kite]

I received an email from a friend in Florida who had come across it by accident. It was being promoted on a dieting site as a good way to get fit and lose weight. She sounded very excited by it and had already found a few caches herself. I checked out the link for geocaching.com and found there was one about eight miles away from me in the next town; easily accessible by train as I don't drive. I had no GPS at the time but went off a couple of days later and found the cache without too much of a search, using the clue. Still had to hunt around as the cache had been moved from its original location, but without a GPS that made no difference because I didnt know where it should have been to start with! It was not much of a cache, (full of water, weeds, rusty stuff and soggy paper) but I was still chuffed to have found it.

 

I decided that if I was going to do more I should get a GPS but funds were pretty tight. A shop in town had two Gekos that were end of range and being sold off cheaply, so I bought a 201 and went off a week later in search of my second cache. That was it!! I have been hooked ever since. My trusty Geko has taken me to some amazing places which I would never have visited before, or even have known aboout had it not been for geocaching.

 

As soon as I heard about it I told my family (Dancing Samurais) and they went off and did their first cache the following day. They have now completed over 300 and when they visit me here in Wales we go all caching together. They are collecting gadgets and are now premium members.

 

You could say caching has brought our family together. We have walked for miles, climbed mountains, discovered waterfalls (one of our favourite things), attended our first event within a few weeks of joining GC and met some lovely people.

 

Looking forward to more of the same this year - We're Hooked!

[+Team Incredible]

Mr Incredibles passion is gliding and he brought a Etrex to use while flying. Mrs I's brother then told us all about geocaching and how he had registered on the site, but was yet to find any caches . This was December 2004 and he was waiting for the warmer weather so he could do a few on his mountain bike. He still has to find one over 2 years later and refuses to disclose his username due to the abuse he knows he will receive from us Since the first walk in a forest a few miles from home, which we had never visited before, we have never looked back.

 

Mr Incredibles sister is now getting in on the act and is out this afternoon with the younger half of the team and our GPS, along with her kids trying to find a couple on in a local park. She has still to decide on her name but as her eldest son loves to stay over on a weekend and comes caching with us all the time, she may have no choice but to sign up

Edited February 24, 2007 by Team Incredible

[+scottpa100]

I had seen the article on CountryFile but did nothing about it. One half of Tango + Cache then went to the states as a guest to a wedding and when he came came back he was waxing lyrical about geocaching in the office. It turns out that one half of the Groovysushis who also works in the same office was a closet geocacher (geonerders we call ourselves up here!) So Tango + Cache and the Groovysushis were chatting away about geocaching. I overheard and said that I had seen an article on it oooo, 12 months previous on CountryFile. One lunchtime Tango + Cache took me to JUSTHEJOB cache by JustTheJob in Colwyn Bay, north Wales. We didn't find out but I loved it. It was an excuse to be outdoors, after the walk up the hill I realised I needed to get fitter and most of all, despite originally being an American idea, it is incredibly British! It is so eccentric! After much deliberation, decided to jump in the deep end and ordered a GPSMAP60CS. Expensive but I don't regret the purchase one little bit. My Dad joined me on the walks to get fitter too (and thus became Daddykins). And more people in the office have joined in too. Deb&Gaz and TynyMynydd are all geocachers too!

 

In fact it quite often is the topic of conversation on the Monday morning... "Where did you go? Have you visited X cache - did you find it?" etc.

 

Great fun!

[+John Stead]

I had a Garmin GPS45 for some time, using it for hill walking and logging waypoints at significant features of canals (including the St Helens Canal, Carlos) and saw an article mentioning Geocaching. I registered in February 2001 but at that time there were only 37 caches in the country and the nearest was over 100 miles away.

Then in April we visited my in-laws in Nottingham and I went off to find a cache (Mott the Hoople) near Loughborough. This was in a country park which unknown to me was closed because of foot and mouth disease as I found when I had to climb a gate to get out and found there was a £2000 penalty for going in! Still I found it and a few weeks later on holiday in Northumberland found 3 more and was hooked.

As the game grew there were events to go to and good friends to be made. Now I am very grateful to all those who have hidden caches in brilliant places I might never have known about otherwise - and a good few who I have cursed when I could not solve their puzzles.

But above all it is good fun and a good excuse to get out and keep myself just a little fit.

[+MartyBartfast]

When my father in law died I was given a stack of his old Walking mags, one of them had an article about other things to do while out walking, which covered such things as photography etc, and there were about 2 column inches on Geocaching along with the GC.com URL, I was intrigued and bought myself an Etrex for Christmas.

[+Spnoo]

I used to subscribe to ComputerActive magazine that ran an article on Geocaching, and being fond of gadgets this instantly grabbed my interest. I cycle a fair bit so this I thought would add an extra dimension to it. Signed up and discovered there to be a few within walking distance, and immediately set out to try and find my first, sans-GPSr. This first trip was a bit of a failure, so I scraped the funds together and bought myself an eTrex Camo, being cheeper at the time I bought it than the yellow. Soon after this arrived I found my first, a multi, and both me and my family have been hooked since

Unfortunately I've cached less since coming to university, due to a lack of time and transport, but I still get out as much as I can when I'm at home.

[Deceangi]

Funny just like Spnoo, I got into caching due to an article in Computer Active Magazine . But in my case it was the original article they ran on GPS which mentioned geocaching. Way back in 2002.

[+HazelS]

Oh Lordy - I'm a Countryfile convertee too....

 

I was still with my ex then, and he was a complete gadget freak, and we'd had a Garmin Emap for a while sat on the shelf - not really sure what to do with it.

 

So - we saw SP's frollics, looked online, and bingo - did 5 that 1st day and 9 the next... we were hooked after less than 24 hours!!

[+Guess Who?]

I was hill-walking with my Grandad (now Top Team "180") up Arenig Fawr, N Wales. When we approached the summit a couple of men (Wraggy) said are you doing the same silly thing as us, we replied no looking confused. They showed us the cache at the summit (Pandora's Box) and it all started from there.

 

Guess Who?

[+Yorkypudding]

I started caching after a friend of mine had seen the Countryfile thing and he told me all about it. I borrowed his GPS until my b-day in August. He dosnt bother caching anymore I dont know why?

 

Im still hooked but Im working too much grrr. I cant wait to reach my 1000 but I dont mind when.

A bit off topic but have any of you seen the Countryfile calendar, I get one ever year and the photography in it is great.

 

Yorkypudding xxx

[+Maple Leaf]

Countryfile for me too !

[+minstrelcat]

We'd had a GPSr for a few years before geocaching because Adam saw it in a branch of Cash Converters and thought it looked cool. First found out about geocaching from a link from bookcrossing.com but didn't do anything about it at the time. Then we saw it on Countryfile - not the SP one but one back in early 2003. The rest is history.

 

Lisa

[+4 Badgers]

I read an article in the Guardian Easter supplement last year which was covering things about what to do with the kids during the Easter hols. Geocaching was mentioned as 'something to do with teenagers / older children'. I was intrigued and logged onto GC.com to see what it was all about.

We did our first 16 caches without a GPS - starting in our local area and using Google Earth for reference. Then I thought long and hard about whether I could justify spending money on a GPS - was this just going to be a passing fad?

I took the plunge and bought an Etrex Legend on eBay (and took a day off work as soon as it was delivered, just to get out and give it a try!). I have to say I'm completely and utterly hooked - and suffer horrendous withdrawal pangs when I can't get 'out there' for a good walk these days. Bizarre, coming from someone who used to be a real couch potato! The remaining Badgers aren't quite so fanatical, but I've managed to recruit a team of equally mad mates at work and together we make sure we bag our fair share of caches in the area. I've even got my mum involved (and she's in her 70's)!

I just can't remember what life was like 'pre-caching'.........

[+alma]

my young nephew got me into it he came back from america with a gps and told me he had done a cache and you used this gadget to find them he told me all about caching i thought so what not for me then i looked on the web found the nearest one to me and did it thought not bad got a gps for my birthday which my wife thought was a waste of money as she thought i would never use it but 2 yrs on and 270 caches later im still going loving it and glad that my nephew went to america and told me about it or i dont think i would have heard about this great pasttime

[+TMM-Sarah]

We had been told about it by my Father-in-law (Thornproof) but had dismissed it thinking it would be expensive to get started. Then about 6 months later we bought Tom Tom for work purposes and whilst fiddling around with it we noticed it had the coordinates listed. That reminded us about geocaching and we set out to find our first cache (surprisingly successfully) and ever since we've been hooked!

 

Sarah

[+jennie.m]

I got a PDA (MIO p350) with gps for christmas, 'cos I like going walking, but my enthusiasm for map reading seems to outweigh my skills, and the Insignificant Other was sick of being threatened by irate farmers after I had directed us away from the footpath, saying "It's definatly this way"! Anyway, I had fugawi OS mapping software, and was going through the menus and found a option to "show geocaches in this area". I thought "what's a Geocache?" and clicked it....and here we are! (by the way, fugawi had to be returned as it's not compatible with p350, won't send waypoints to pda, so pretty hopeless for caching . I got memorymap instead.)

[+Sensei TSKC]

Had autorouting on the PDA - Street Pilot - but had heard about POI's on something called Tom Tom. Got it and downloaded the speed camera database. A few weeks later on a forum I frequented, they were talking about possible changes in the law in relation to using hardware (Road Angels) to detect speed cameras and the fact that it may become illegal.

 

The chat got round to users of Tom Tom. It was decided that TT users would not be affected as it was purely a database and not actively using detection. Another forum user then asked if the law changes would affect Geocaching. What!?

 

Googled, GC.COM'd and within minutes had signed up and logged my first cache - Fly-by. Went out without a GPSr as such and after 2 DNF's was under the impression that the 'physical' caches were indeed just a hoax until I did find one. The rest is history and I was hooked.

 

Oss!

 

[+drsolly]

I bought a GPS after I lost my magnetic compass in a field, and we couldn't find it when we retraced our steps. Also, I've far too often been unable to take two bearings to find my location; there's often not even one landmark to triangulate from. Researching which GPS to buy, led me to geocaching, and as soon as I read about it I knew it was the thing for us. And it is - a *lot* more fun than a book of roundwalks in the Chilterns.

[+The Flying Boots]

I was just surfing around the internet and Yahoo brought up a page about what to do if you're bored and Geocaching was suggested. We already had a GPS and walked a lot so it just tied into a lot of things we were doing already.

[+Alboy]

Iwas in a PDA forum trying to solve a TomTom issue I had. Another forum thread was about other uses of GPSs and the rest is history!

[+Matrix]

I was working for a company on a project and a GPSr was required so a Garmin GPS12XL was purchased 6 weeks later the project finished and the GPSr sat on my desk for about 6 months , One day whilst having a clearout I was about to throw it in the bin when I thought I wonder if there is another use for this thing so a quick google later and I thought thats a mad idea , that was in 2001 , but I didn't find my first cache until 2004 despite visiting the site on a regular basis , just didn't seem to have the time for one reason or another

[+The Bolas Heathens]

We had just moved to lovely Shropshire when Isaac and Freya's Grandpa read an article in the Sunday papers about caching. He thought it would be a good way of getting to know our way round our new area and also fun for the whole family.

 

We did our first 20 or so caches without a GPS. It was only when we tried one with a hint "behind the big tree" which was in a wood full of big trees that we knew we needed a GPS.

 

Thankfully Isaac's letter to Santa was read as a shiny new eTrex Yellow arrived in his Christmas stocking a week or so later.

 

The rest is history...

[+derrylynne]

I got into geocaching after reading an article in 'Computeractive' magazine. I found it such an interesting idea without thought I sent off for my first Garmin then mentioned to Lynne what I had in mind for us. (laughs). Lynne looked at me as though I was becoming some kind of anorak and at first really did not like the idea. Thankfully after a couple of trips out Lynne was as keen as me and Geocaching has now become a firm weekend and holiday pursuit. After all it's a terrific way to keep fit – visit different places – and make lots of new friends within the sport. Anybody reading this and not yet a Geocacher – Be warned Geocaching is seriously addictive – and good for your health.

[+BikerKats]

Friends of ours (the WereRabbits) asked us whether we had a GPS (yes) and had we heard of Geocaching (no) and could they borrow our GPS for a weekend so they could have a go. We lent them the gadget, looked at the Geocaching.com site and registered the following day. A week later we had found our first three caches, and have never looked back. I'd like to be able to get out caching more often, but real life gets in the way...

[+Tiger-Eyes]

I saw SP's piece on Countryfile and thought that looks like fun but did no more about it, then I saw another piece on my local news "About Anglia" and this rekindled my interest, I went on ebay and managed to get a yellow etrex and after 1 DNF i tried another cache which I found and then was hooked.

[+Gralorn]

Was out walking the dog when I noticed an ammo box hidden in the bushes, being ex-military was intrigued, so pulled it out and opened it. Gosh was surprised, full to the gunnel's with all the usual bits and pieces, TB's swops, instructions, log book etc. Took note of the web site and hid the box away again from where I had found it. Went online, found the site, read all about it and logged in my find. Now in third year with various gadgets and software, a keen better half as well so we are thoroughly enjoying it.

[+weston wanderer]

I've been a keen long distance walker for many years and owned a gps12, bought for my one and onlyattempt on the annual LDWA 100 mile event - I didn't complete but that's another story. I then bought a yellow etrex from a chap in New York on Ebay. He made a mistake, sent two and asked me to sell the spare which I sold to a fellow long distance walker. Months later I was walking with him and he told me he had bought the etrex for his daughter who was a geocacher. I went on the website that very evening and discovered there was a cache just off a footpath in our nursery. I found it, later adopted it and the rest is history!

[+The Mighty Shark]

I'll be the first (but probably not the last) to say that I saw Simply Paul's video diary on Countryfile.

 

Put this one down as my excuse too...lol. I'm glad I did as I love caching and would gladly do it as a full time profession if someone would pay me to do it.

[+BeetleDuo]

Just luck I guess for us. I was upgrading my PDA and I received some vouchers for free software. I looked at a few apps over a 3 month period then I tried Navio (by Tiny Stocks). I couldn't figure it out - what was this compass thing... made no sense? Reading around the app I stumbled upon Geocaching, looked into it, put in our postcode and "wow!" what is this! Our nearest was a L!zzardpower cache, off we went, tried it, and again and again...(you know what I mean if you have tried these ones on the Mersey)... is it possible to get hooked without ever logging one? We did.

[+Bambography]

I set up a personalised Google Home page which included the "Wiki How-To of the Day". (In fact it appears they are featuring it on the homepage today!) On the 2nd day of using my new homepage it featured the How to... GO GEOCACHING. After a quick read I was very curious but had no GPS.

 

2 days later a collegue 2 desks from me said "I discovered this thing called geocaching, have you heard of it?" He had a GPS so off we went for a search. Sadly due to the high buildings and poor GPS we didn't find it that day, but then having read the hint and having a think I went back one evening without GPS and found it quickly.

 

Hooked I was, and Hooked I am! Quickly converted my parents on a trip to the New Forest and more recently a friend and their 2yo daughter.

[+Midnight Ramblers]

My introduction to geocaching was only 4 months ago. I discovered it by accident whilst surfing for information about the Isis Adventure puzzle. I asked loads of people (including my parents who are ex-letterbox addicts) whether they had heard of it - nobody had.

We found our first one without a GPSr or a proper map. I consider that to be very lucky now. A GPSr was purchased within days. We went to the US a few weeks later and learnt loads there in the sunshine!

I am completely hooked and (like so many have already said) I cannot imagine what I used to do with my time. I cannot visit anybody without first checking whether I can find any caches close to them. I cannot spend my lunch break without visiting this formum just in case soemthing exciting has happened. I love the feeling of walking/driving past places where I know caches are hidden and watching all those sad people who have no idea what they are missing

We went to our first event on Saturday - what a lovely bunch of people.

My only regret - I have to come to work and cannot cache Monday to Friday (although the evenings are getting lighter ..... ).

Last week I introduced my parents to geocaching. Their GPSr is on order as we speak ...

[+SidAndBob]

I got an eTrex for a Christmas present in 2003 as I am into walking (and gadgets). It was the best present I ever had. It wasn't until March 2006 I was talking to a new friend who turned out to have a collection of the things. I was surprised, as I didn't have him down for a walker. The following weekend I dragged the rest of the family out to see if he was making it all up, and as they say, the rest is history.

[Nediam]

I found out about Geocaching via a Google search.

 

I was bored at home one Sunday and thinking of stuff to do. I remembered going on a few "treasure hunts" as a kid (the ones where you go round in a car and make a note of the number of trees here, the number in a phone box there etc, etc). So I had a look on the Internet to see if there was anyone still running them.

 

Unfortunately all that came up in the search was "proper" treasure hunts that had really difficult puzzles that would take ages to solve. I was looking for more of a "quick fix" type of thing.

 

Geocaching also cropped up in the search a few times so I had a look at the site. After spending a little while reading the info it looked like geocaching might be ideal (although it did sound a bit more U.S. based).

I had a go at finding "my nearest caches" by entering my postcode and was amazed to find over a thousand within a 100 mile radius (I had been expecting perhaps a dozen or so throughout the country). Even better was that there were 2 within a couple of miles.

 

I looked at what equipment I'd need to find them and was pleased when I found out that I'd already got all the equipment and mapping software that I'd require. The next day I printed off a couple of cache sheets and set off for the nearest cache. I found it quite quickly but the second one took a bit more time as it was getting dark. I really enjoyed the search and have been getting slowly hooked/obsessed ever since

 

I'm still using all the same equipment and software with the exception that I'm now using GSAK and GPXSonar to enable me to go "paperless"

[+gazooks]

I got started when a work colleague asked me if I had ever heard of geocaching as a friend of hers had mentioned it. I answered no and then we both dived into google and geocaching.com. I entered by post code and discovered a cache less than a mile away at the bottom of the village I lived in and the rest as they say is history.

I put an order in for a GPS 2 days later and found the said cache 10 days after that.

[+Westie Walker]

douglasf took me to do UV got a text message & cave trolls lair near sidmouth devon, I got cut bruised went caving, potholing, & mountain climbing over the 2 days it took to find the 2 caches. When you start with a 5/5 then you are either going to sit putting disinfectant on your wounds or are going to get bitten by the bug. Am still using douglasf's old yellow etrex & am now on 541 caches I still get a thrill when i find a cahe but with all of the London caches that I have done my 5/5 average did not last long.

[+Malpas Wanderer]

I had owned a Garmin GPS 12 for quite some time with the intention of doing some serious walking, some how never got around to the serious walking.

 

I also had TomTom probably ver3 at that time also not being extensively used. Whilst looking someting up on the TomTom forum found a reference to Geocaching not knowing what it was, Googled it and was soon hooked.

 

It fits my type of exercise, shortish walks, advised parking, and moderate brain work (except for those dastardly puzzles).

 

Also appreciate the knowledge gained from the well researched cache scripts.

[+Badgers Bounty?]

We discoversed caching whilst out for a walk with the dogs. Being a bit of a gadget freek I've had a gps for a number of years, I use it when out waklking in the Dales & Lakes. However on this occation we were out walking in our local town when I was asked by a total stranger "are you Geocaching" "geo--- what" I replied. After about ten minuetes talking to this total stranger who turned out to be Bill Seiko, we were totally intrigued. We continued on our walk and had everyone down as either a cacher or muggler (no in between) On returning home I typed in the web address I had been given 3 hours earlier by Bill. Although Bill had altready captured our imagination, once we had inputed our post code and discovered a multitude of caches around our home address we were hooked. For three days I didn't sleep thinking about hidden treasure and my partner was finding a minimum of 5 caches a night in her dreams. I had had enough and woke her at about 5am, "come on" I said "were of to find skitters woods". Now only 4 weeks down the line we have her sister and partner hooked and the kids cannot get enough of it. The only problem at the moment is my usually clean car is full of mud from dirty boots and wellies and my partner says it's costing a forture in washing powder cleaning muddy clothes, I say what the hell I re-found my childhood and I'm out treasure hunting!!!!

[+douglasf]

douglasf took me to do UV got a text message & cave trolls lair near sidmouth devon, I got cut bruised went caving, potholing, & mountain climbing over the 2 days it took to find the 2 caches. When you start with a 5/5 then you are either going to sit putting disinfectant on your wounds or are going to get bitten by the bug. Am still using douglasf's old yellow etrex & am now on 541 caches I still get a thrill when i find a cahe but with all of the London caches that I have done my 5/5 average did not last long.

 

I forgot you still had that. I need that unit back urgently - at least until I've causght you up again

 

-D

[+2202]

Had a Garmin for christmas but not knowing quite what to do with it until a month later saw Dan Wilson and Ben Pid night caching with Chris Packham on BBC South Inside Out prog. back in Jan 2003. The rest is history as it was them that introduced Simply Paul into it (thats correct isn't Paul?)

[+Whistlen]

Read about it in a HAM Radio magazine as gc'ing is very close to fox hunting. Then heard about it in a transit security course as gc'ing was used to show what could be looked at as being a possible IED. Just had to check it out then! Talked the wife into letting me get a GPS for a work related project dealing with a new radio system and she went for it. Just hit 300 with her the other day and have had the kids out with us as well many a time...they love it!

[+V70T5]

I had owned (and lost!) a GPSr a few years back when I started looking for ROC posts (see http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/roc/index2.shtml if you have no idea what they are!). My interest was more in just driving around and "finding them" rather than their historical interest. They are all near identical at the end of the day

 

Anyway... a few months back I was listening to a podcast at work one day and the guy talked about taking his kids Geocaching. He explained briefly what it was and gave the website link. The rest is history as they say!

 

I browsed the gc.com website for a while and drove to a few nearby cache sites semi-seriously looking for them. At that time I only had MS Autoroute with a USB GPS in the car. Managed to find a grand total of 2 out of about 6 we looked for.

 

I'm still very much a newbie, however I not have a fairly reliable PDA which runs GPS Tuner, plus I still use Autoroute (importing the cache co-ordinates as pushpin targets) so I can drive to the sites easily. Works much the same way as Memory Map, just a lot more basic mapping.

 

Very much addicted though and can see myself (and younger brother) spending a lot of time doing this!

 

Gavin

[+Haggis Hunter]

I had owned (and lost!) a GPSr a few years back when I started looking for ROC posts (see http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/roc/index2.shtml if you have no idea what they are!). My interest was more in just driving around and "finding them" rather than their historical interest. They are all near identical at the end of the day

I think this thread and subsequent bookmark list may interest you.

[+V70T5]

Thanks for the links Haggis Hunter

 

I found a lot of the ROC posts around this area, quite a few of them are exportable too. It's a bit of a grey area as far as permission goes as technically they were handed back to the local landowners, however I guess most of them won't be bothered unless they have padlocks. It does help that Scotland is free from trespass laws

 

You might be aware that most posts which don't have padlocks can be unlocked using a t-bar. I actually used two bent pieces of metal as its a very simply locking mechanism.

 

Leave only footprints, take only photos (and perhaps exchange something from the cache )

 

Gavin

Edited March 5, 2007 by V70T5

[+powerbook_fanatic]

In August 2004, I read a post on an email list related to one of my other interests - Route 66.

 

Someone had accidentally found a cache at the mid point of the Route in Adrian TX. They were asking what it was and if anyone knew anything about caching.

 

A fellow 66er replied and pointed people at GC.

 

I was intrigued and put my post code in expecting to find one cache 50 miles away and was stunned to see tens with a few miles. How could a technology based outdoor hobby have passed me by - we were keen walkers having done Hadrians Wall and other long walks and I've always worked in IT.

 

I quickly bought a GPS on eBay - a Magellan Sportrack - and found my first cache on Sept 8th 2004 - On the road to nowhere 'Aiggin' - and I'm pleased to see it is still there as well !

 

I was hooked and am still finding the plastic boxes after a few GPS upgrades and a couple of years !

 

I keep toying with the idea of combining the two interests and take a holiday caching along R66, If only to see if the first cache I ever heard of is still there !

 

Malcolm - The Powerbook Fanatic