Sunday, July 07, 2013

Geocaching!

We have a new obsession - geocaching. To use the official definition - "Geocaching is a free real-world outdoor treasure hunt. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using a smartphone or GPS and can then share their experiences online."

We're just using my phone as the GPS with the official app. We headed out yesterday with the plan to find 2 caches.

The first location is only a few minutes from our home at this lovely wetlands area. I've actually walked in this area before with a friend but it was Billy's first time there.




We spent over an hour looking for the cache but to no avail! However, we did get up close and personal with a mob of kangaroos who decided to bound past about 5 metres away from where we were.


Eventually we gave up and headed off to the 2nd cache. Our bad luck continued - we were walking to the spot when my phone battery died. We had a quick look around where we thought it might be, but didn't find anything.

We headed home disappointed...

Undaunted, we went back out today. We went to the 2nd site first and found the cache easily. That cheered us up!



While we were there, we decided to play tourist in our own town and went for a ride on the mini train around the lake :)



After our success, we headed back for the original cache and found it within a couple of minutes - and yes, we had been searching very close to it!

We're already planning our next search! It's great fun, good exercise, out in the fresh air and we get to see some lovely places. What's not to like?!


2 comments:

jugglingpaynes said...

Some day I will get a GPS so I can participate in Geocaching. Question: Do you keep what you find, or just look at it and put it back for the next treasure hunter? I've gotten mixed response about this.

Peace and Laughter!

Kez said...

I just use the GPS on my smartphone - seems to work just as well.

It depends on the cache - some are just log caches where you sign the log and leave it in place, but some are swap caches where you can trade a trinket - so far we've left slinkies, those hi-bounce balls, and pens. And have taken a variety of things like a toy soldier, toy car etc.

I think you'd love it, Cristina!