Geocaching

July 2, 2009

geocaching Geocaching Almost all of you might have played hide-n-seek or treasure hunt in your childhood years and might have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and adventure of the game. Growing up doesn’t have to necessarily mean losing the joy and excitement of going on a treasure hunt or playing the age-old hide-n-seek games. You can play it the adult way; Geocaching using sat navs. This is a high-tech treasure hunt game that can be played by the adventurous lot anywhere across the world.

To understand Geocaching, one needs to firstly understand what is meant by the term geocaching. It is a combination of two words; geo short for geography, and caching which indicates the process of hiding a cache. Cache is referred to a hiding place for concealing and preserving things.

geocache Geocaching The game starts of with a geocacher hiding a geocache anywhere in the world. There are certain points to be taken into consideration while placing a geocache. These geocaches are to be placed in waterproof containers and it must include a log book, a pen, and some sort of treasures. The exact location is determined using GPS technology and this information is shared online with millions of users. Anyone can go out on a treasure hunt and try to locate the geocache after getting the information about its co-ordinates from the internet. You can set-out on the treasure hunt with the help of a hand-held satellite navigator that supports geocaching functionality. The GPS system gets an accurate fix from the satellites that include information about the altitudes, latitudes and longitudes. Anyone on a geocache trail can record their feats in their logbook as well as online.

geocaching-sat-navs Geocaching The geocaches may not carry high monetary value, but they definitely hold oodles of personal value. The products placed as geocaches can be almost anything ranging from antique coins, old currency of the 15th and 16th century, CDs, rare books, etc. There are three major rules that are to be followed by anyone whoever participates in this treasure hunt game. Firstly, the finder must leave behind something of equal or higher value while taking anything from the cache. Secondly, you need to record the details of your findings in the logbook. And finally, you must log your experience in the geocaching website. Also the cache should not be moved from the original location, the rights exist only with the owner. However if you have a better location for placing the cache, you can note it in its logbook.

Types of GeoCaches : - The geocaches can be classified into three major categories. Most of the geocache variants fall into any one of these kinds.

Traditional : This is the basic type of cache that includes a logbook, and some trackable item. The major difference between a traditional cache and the others is that the cache will be found at the specified co-ordinates and involves only one stage.

Multi-Cache : As the name suggests, it involves more than one stage in geocaching. There can be many intermediate points where one leads to the other and the final point contains the logbook with the cache item.

Mystery or Puzzle : This involves the finders to be able to correctly decode the mystery and puzzle information in order to find the location of the cache. It can involve one or more stages.

geocacher Geocaching Problems Encountered while Geocaching

Although, this is legal, there may be a few problems when one sets out on this type of treasure hunt. Many a times, cachers have been questioned by police when they find them acting suspiciously. Sometimes the cache may have been placed on private property. This invites trespassers. There have been a few issues in cases where the cache has been placed in schools and the teacher or student happens to find it. Sometimes the cache may be mistaken for bombs and have been destroyed by the bomb squads leading to a missing cache when the finder tries to locate it. It may also be mistaken to be a drug stash.

Apart from these few issues, geocaching is definitely a fun-filled outdoor game that can be enjoyed by people of all age groups, who possess an adventurous sat nav with geocaching facilities.

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