Geocaching
What’s geocaching?
The worldwide phenomenon of geocaching can be seen as a game which is connected with sport and tourism. It involves searching for hidden objects (treasures, boxes) called caches, about which only their GPS coordinates are known. Ordinary GPS tourist navigation is used during the search. Geocaching is excellent motivation when someone wants to show others an interesting place at which they would not otherwise look. As enticement they use a treasure which they hide in its vicinity, they post the GPS coordinates of the hidden box together with accompanying information (a so-called listing) on the internet and then they simply wait and see who discovers the box.
How many boxes are in our area?
About 30 boxes (so-called caches) are hidden in our town and its surroundings. Searching for them is a fun way to find out something about the town’s history; you’ll familiarize yourself with its surroundings and other things of interest.
What does such a cache look like?
Probably the most commonly used box is one made of plastic (usually a microwaveable container), because it protects its content well against water, insects and other undesirable influences. However, micro-caches, about the size of a watch battery, are not uncommon.
What do the boxes hide?
The content of the cache is usually a pencil, logbook (a jotter in which the person who finds the treasure enters their name and, if they wish, leave a message about what they experienced during the search), various items, some which you can exchange for ones of equal value, while others may only be moved to another cache - one such type of item is called a travel bug, and its aim is to voyage from cache to cache, perhaps with the purpose of travelling around the whole world, and your task is to help it do this. For accidental discoverers, the box is furnished with a multi-lingual description of what geocaching is, with an explanation that leaving the intact box in the place where they found it will make many other people happy.
What are the usual hiding places where caches may be found?
You can find caches in nature, or in towns. For example, in nature they can be found in hollow tree stumps, while in towns they can be found in various alcoves.
Who is geocaching intended for?
Absolutely anyone who’s willing to accept the stipulated rules can devote themselves to geocaching. It will certainly interest those who want to brighten up their trips, into nature or elsewhere, get to know new places and people, and experience adventure. The geocacher must also have at least a basic knowledge of the technology with which they work, which is the internet and GPS navigation. However, for some caches, GPS is not necessary. Teenagers, adults and older people all devote themselves to geocaching. Wheelchair users are nothing out of the ordinary, and families with prams are commonplace.
How to recognize the difficulty of the cache?
On the internet, every cache has a so-called listing attached, which sometimes includes multi-lingual instructions, information about factors connected with the given cache - meaning a profile of the terrain in which the box is located, its accessibility, the approximate time necessary to conquer it, the size of the box, and also the coordinates. The difficulty is stated for every cache - terrain with difficulty 1 means the easiest, i.e. that absolutely anyone can reach the cache, be it wheelchair users or mothers with prams. Such information may be listed in text or graphical form - with the help of icons.
You can find further information at the following links:
