Adu is a mad geocacher 😊 He has found over 3500 geocaches to date! It is absolute his main hobby and love .. after me 😊
Geocaching can be defined as a hunt for a hidden treasure using GPS co-ordinates. We started this activity at my suggestion in 2013. I had read an article about it, and thought it would be a fun activity for the four of us to do together. I thought it would keep us outdoors and active.
The first you thing you do is log a userid on www.geocaching.com. Then you can see what geocaches exist around you. You will be utterly amazed as they do exist close by and you never realised.
People who do geocaching can either find geocaches or place them or both. Each geocache has a physical log sheet that you must sign, and you must also electronically confirm that you have found the geocache. It is polite to add a comment thanking the owner for placing it. These comments can also be used to help others find the geocache. Some caches have a hint to help.
Geocaches are defined by three things; their size, the terrain and their difficulty. The size varies from micro to very large (the size of a large dustbin / trash container). The terrain depends on where the cache is (a 5 could be in the middle of a lake, or very high up a tree or on a cliff face). The difficulty is how hard it is to find the cache once you are at the spot, effectively how well its hidden. Once you are closer to the cache then you have to start looking.
Geocaches also have favourite points – similar to likes on Instagram. I find this useful as Adu will choose one’s with highest favourites for us to do together. We have seen some beautiful, amazing sites through this. We have found geocaches all over – in South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Lesotho and France.
Three photos are shown below to explain a little bit more about geocaching. The first shows a very clever geocaching container made by a friend of Adu’s Chris. Chris has a 3D printer. This is not a bird but a geocache 😊 The second one we found in France in 2019. If you look at the picture carefully you will notice the black rock out of place amongst the pebbles. This is the geocache. The last one we found last week in the South of France. The hint is “Gauche Droite, C’est Providence” Of course geocaching is also improving our French! The geocache is hidden in a small tube magnetically under the sign. Try it out – its great fun!
