Geocaching for beginners!

It's one thing knowing where north is by looking at trees, but these days many serious and sophisticated walkers use a GPS device to guide the way.* Although neither serious nor sophisticated, I'd been considering getting myself one of these for a while, ever since I'd heard about geocaching.

Basically geocaching is a treasure hunting game which involves the internet and a GPS device (though as we proved, having a GPS isn't actually needed). A geocache is normally a waterproof container of some description, hidden somewhere in the countryside. Information on its location will be posted on the internet and can be downloaded onto a GPS device so that others can then search for it whilst out for a walk.

The basic geocaching etiquette is that once found, the finder records their details on the log and returns it in the same place for the next person to find. Some geocaches contain 'treasure' too, in which case it's expected that the finder will take one away but also put something in its place.

So, armed with a fairly basic second-hand GPS device I'd acquired through Amazon, we set off on a familiar and flat walk around Catterall and Churchtown. The idea was that I'd get to grips with the GPS and on the way we'd find our first geocache, just along the A6 near the River Wyre. Working out how to use a GPS is more complicated than you'd think (or is it just that I'm getting older?), but with the help of a clue from the website (which we read but then inadvertently left behind), we nevertheless quickly found the geocache, hidden low down in a gap in the wall. Although there was a log inside, unfortunately water had got inside and it was a little too wet to write on (which didn't matter anyway as we'd forgotten to bring a pen too - amnesia is another sign of getting older!).

Looking at the geocaching website, it's amazing just how many geocaches there are out there, but without checking out the website you'd never know. Despite this abundance, there was only the one geocache on our route today, but now I've a little more knowledge about how to use the GPS, I'm sure we'll be finding others soon!

* Don't rely on a GPS device in place of a map and compass - it doesn't tell you what the terrain is like and when the batteries run out, it's useless.