Geocaching ftw

I think I may have found a new hobby.

Sunday afternoon, my sister and brother in law came round for the afternoon. Lucy recently got a new job near Ely and they've just found a house to rent. Theyll be moving fairly soon. Anyhoo, Toby has often mentioned this mysterious activity known as geocaching as something that sounds pretty cool, and he'd like to try. He and Lucy recently gave it a go, and having decided it was rather fun, suggested we go out and look for a couple of nearby points while they were over. We went (my parents, Lucy, Toby and I) and after some initial frustration located both points. I was hooked.

Geocaching is basically treasure-hunting for technophiles. You get given a GPS position and have to get to it using either your phone, or other GPS device. At this location somebody has cunningly hidden an item for people to find, or possibly a clue to the next location in a chain. Usually this is some form of waterproof container, varying in size from something smaller than a 35mm film pot to larger than a bucket. These containers are usually full of random objects that other geocachers have placed there, as well as calling cards and the requisite logbook and (usually) pen/pencil. The objects are of very small value, but usually rather eccentric, and the idea is not to take anything unless you leave something else of equal or greater value. Once you have found the cache, registered your find, and examined  all the random things people have left, the idea is to put the cache back exactly as you found it so that the next person can have as much fun looking for it.

On Sunday I mentioned to my good friend, pilot, walker and habitual mountain goat Mike that I had just discovered geocaching. He got rather excited, as he had heard of this intriguing activity before, but had never had an opportunity to give it a go. Upon establishing that it would be quite fun to give this a go together at some point, a plan was quickly formulated that Mike should visit me and we would have a go at some rural ones. This then became a ramble/geocache plan, and Tuesday/Wednesday were identified as the earliest we could attempt it. Both Mike and I being fairly keen to do things once we've decided to do them, having an impromptu adventure was fairly inevitable.

We cooked up a route that included six caches, one of which I had already found on Sunday, for practice, taking us over to Hoxne and back. In the end I reckon we walked about 15 miles. In total we located 5 out of 6 caches. I suspect the last one had vanished. Some of them were very cleverly hidden, and I applaud the guy who planted them.

We ended the day with a pub trip and chippy chips and excellent chat, and though I feel a little the worse for wear today (both from blisters, stiffness and slight hangover) I look forward to doing it again very soon.

I am even thinking about coming up with something small and knitted to leave in the larger caches I find, thus combining a third hobby.

If I do start doing it regularly it will hopefully help me to get a bit fitter again. Being unemployed makes me too inactive and it really bothers me.