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The Joys Of Geocaching


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Sue & I used to take long bike journeys through the back roads of Norfolk & Suffolk using the bog-standard OS paper maps. No problem - except having to stop every couple of miles to check you were taking the correct route. It really slowed down the whole process, stopping and starting, back-tracking because we hadn't taken the correct turn etc etc

 

We'd seen sat-nav in cars and, after a bit of research, discovered you could get one of the wee beasties onto your handlebars. That solve that problem. It is really so much better to wizz about with the box doing all the work, telling you how far to the next turn, which way to go and all the rest. It is surprising how much more fun it makes the journey when you are liberated from constantly refering to the map. You can enjoy the view and bimble leisurely on your way.

 

We then were led into geo-geeking through the GPS side of things and now, in the best British tradition of going full-circle, we now go cycling to go geo-caching!

 

We now have a Vista for the hobby and a Streetpilot 3 for the car. A sign of the times - our son now comes in and asks to borrow the GPS to go visiting for the weekend!

Edited by Sue & Bernie
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I was on holiday in California with my Girlfriend. One of the friends we were meeting up with there was toting a Garmin Legend and while we were walking about Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco he pulled out a sheet of paper with details about some item someone had hidden on one of the piers (kind of micro-virtual-cache, a coin stuck to a magnet) right next to the famous Pier 39. ;)

 

He asked me to take the GPS while he wrote down the details of the coin to claim his find. So like any other gadget freak would do, I walked up and down the pier with this thing in my hand watching the distance and my possition changing. I think my Girlfriend could see what was going on in my head ;)

 

I had the whole incident stuck in my head for about 7 months before I started too :D

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Some great friends from the north of Scotland, "Sssmokin!!" and her hubby Allan, came to visit us and to watch their daughter run in the 2003 London Marathon. When I went through to London to collect them, they dragged me over to Hyde Park to find a couple of caches.

 

The first one we hunted for had been archived since printing off the sheet :D but we found a nearby one in Kensington Gardens.

 

That got me hooked.

 

A few months later Nessie 1 and I returned the visit and did two or three caches in the far north. Next thing you know, we're on the web looking for a GPS and haven't looked back since.

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Whilst living in Italy about 4 years ago,a bloke who I was working with bought a Garmin GPS 12.After seeing how it worked and what it could do,it wasn't long before I bought one too.

 

I mainly used it to work out my ETA at the various places that I had to travel to out there.It was pretty usefull! When I arrived back in the UK,the need for me to use a GPS so much decreased.I'd use it on walks with my wife to find out the usual info.Whilst looking on the net for a decent software package to manage my waypoints,I stumbled upon Geocaching.com.....The rest is history!

 

The funny is that before I discovered the joys of caching,I hated walking just for the sake of it.Now I'm out every weekend except with a MagPlat instead of a Garmin

Edited by thunderbird30
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.... it's all George and Mildred's fault and they are 100%, soley to blame!!! :rolleyes:

 

They told misses M about about it and she then came home and told me ... well, to be honest i thought it sounded pretty cheesy!! So the next day i logged on to gc.com to do some research into this geocaching thingy only to find a certain Hornet fella had placed one in one of our favourite local spots. That night we grabbed the local OS map and went off on our first hunt to find Hornets cache ... a flicker of light was beginning to come on that this geocaching thingy could be sort of interesting!

 

The following weekend we went off with G & M for some "real" caching with a GPS - none of this OS map malarkey!! Having found spots on our doorstep we didn't know existed and had the chance to revisit places we not been to for many years the light was really beginning to glow bright!!! Three days later we became the proud owners of a Garmin eMap and have never looked back since.

 

On a side note we'd always been "urban explorers". We used to study OS maps for interesting features and things to go and have a look at. Later in life as we became lazy bone idle slobs we both started walking as a means of exercise so geocaching really did appeal once i'd got over the initial (and unfounded) cheese factor!

 

the rest as they say is hiiiissssttttooooorrrry!

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I found out about this "addiction" of ours while reading USA Today. There was an article about geocaching. I bought my Garmin GPS 12 the next day and found my first cache ( in Memphis. Tn) Bridges To Nowhere. Now, 999 caches and 3 years later, I have been in more parks, wilderness areas and other neat , beautiful out of the way places than in the previous 40 something years of my life! Also some of the finest people I've ever known. ( Especially the cachers in SouthEast Texas and Tennessee! :)

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I had a GPSr before I discovered Geocaching which I used whilst out walking. One day I was looking for somewhere to walk and was surfing the web and found GC.com. I made a note of a few caches and took my sister (ABSA) out on a hunt. I had no idea what to expect so took a trowel so I could *dig up* a cache!!!!

 

I found 3 caches the first day. At that time there weren't that many caches in the UK so travel distance tended to be a long way.

 

I love Geocaching and it has taken me to many interesting places. I also need the exercise!.

 

Andy.

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As I often bang on about, Sue & I use geo-geeking to provide interesting and diverse destinations for our cycling. We echo the stentiments of "Mustard Devil" above (I was going to say "we can relate to that" but that was far too colonial)!

 

Where cycling is the main thrust of our interest, we also find geo-geeking is a brilliant way of transcending the age thing.

 

This weekend we went south to visit some in-laws and found ourselve in charge of their two young daughters (our nieces). While Sue is patience personified and can endure endless games of Monopoly et al, I as a down-to-earth, middle-aged engineer find it difficult to maintain enthusiasm in such things (it was different when ours were young).

 

So in comes geo-geeking. With half-a-dozen caches loaded into the Vista, we took our two willingly charges off on a tour of their own locale... and like "Mustard Devil" notes, you see some really varied and interesting sights... and the girls loved it.

 

What else could get two girls, 8 & 13 out and about with two 50-year-olds? We were out in the cool, damp and overcast day and spent 4 enjoyable hours together and saw bits of Essex that we would never have encountered otherwise.

 

Great stuff!

 

P.S. "Mustard Devil? does that mean you have developed a taste for the real yellow stuff on your visit to Blighty (as opposed to the squeezy custard stuff that is purveyed in the US). Sad to say, I always take a tube of "proper" mustard with me on my trips over there. B)

Edited by Sue & Bernie
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About 6 months ago I was driving along a green lane near llangollan called the Wayferer and we came accross a box with a Visitors book and lots of little toys and bits. As we sighned the book, my friend piped up and said 'is that a Geocache'. he then went on to explain what a Geocache was and we just thought he was a very strange man.

 

3 weeks later i was on the net looking for "The Deganwy Castle Hotel" but instead found the Deganwy castle Geocache. Remembering the conversation decided to check out the site and did a search on my postcode. I was supprised to find a geocache less than 1 mile away, at an old castle that i have visited many times.

 

So we plotted the reference on my map and went to see if we could find it (No GPS at this time)

 

To our suprise we did. Got my GPS just after Xmas and started the real hunt on New Years Eve. That was it, we were hooked and 4 months, 115 Caches later, we still are. We just love it as it takes us to new places and we are never short of places to visit now.

 

We have since been back to the Wayferer green lane, where the real Wayferer cache is located about 100 meteres away from the one we found.

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Whilst living in Italy about 4 years ago,a bloke who I was working with bought a Garmin GPS 12.After seeing how it worked and what it could do,it wasn't long before I bought one too.

 

I mainly used it to work out my ETA at the various places that I had to travel to out there.It was pretty usefull! When I arrived back in the UK,the need for me to use a GPS so much decreased.I'd use it on walks with my wife to find out the usual info.Whilst looking on the net for a decent software package to manage my waypoints,I stumbled upon Geocaching.com.....The rest is history!

 

The funny is that before I discovered the joys of caching,I hated walking just for the sake of it.Now I'm out every weekend except with a MagPlat instead of a Garmin

and its because of you im now going into see clients with grubby shoes and leaves in my collar...

 

Ill give you credit, it's an interesting way to kill a couple of hours in a working day!

 

Garmin Emap..Best toy I ever bought! :):D:)

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Heard about it after a friend passed on an article on the bbc news site and knew we were into using gps for hiking. Now life’s mission to assimilate as many cachers as possible (not doing too bad so far), hmmm! should have bought shares :D

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We got into it when Andy bought a Gpsv to help us get around, read the bumpf that came with it, found the web site and the rest as they say is history, since then we have recruited a few others into it(George&Mildred, The Ollies) who have in turn got others into it(ChoccyM&M's, Pieces of Eight, Murray Mint, Squirrel, Fish&Baby Bear), the caching family tree seems to be ever growing! :rolleyes:

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Looking for a GPS for my iPAQ for navigating across Europe. Found www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk

 

They had a whole section on Geocaching with useful links.

 

Bought A GPS for the iPAQ and tried to use it on a local cache hunt but wasn't really suitable. More geared to directing you on roads. :blink: I did try some shareware with it but it would give direction but not distance to waypoint. :lol:

 

SO three weeks later I was back at the above site buying an eTREX summit (after trying on e-bay and watching people pay more than the retail price on aforementioned site- aren't people odd??)

 

So 2 GPS receivers bought in 3 weeks.

 

Still out there hunting for my first cache. Nearest one is a 10 waypoint puzzle, also under a lot of foliage so I have made a few return trips and I think I only have 2 more to go :rolleyes:

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