Geocaching - Free/cheap day out

yummymummy79

Just wanted to add this as a free/cheap day out idea as it's something I've recently discovered, although has been going on for years.

It's kind of like a treasure hunt where you search for 'caches' that people have hidden in your area. Sometimes you just add your name to a list of finders, some of them are boxes with little trinkets/tokens that you can swap and I think some have special cache coins but i'm not sure about those as not found one!

Took my son (6) out for the first time doing this on sunday with my friends and he loved it. We were out for about 3 hours, walked about 3 miles and he didn't complain once, in fact he can't wait to do it again! Anything that gets him excited about being out and about that is free too is a winner in my book!

You can get more info at www.geocaching.com and free membership gets you the locations that you can download to a GPS system or a new style smartphone, or I suppose you could try an old fashioned map/compass approach by printing off the info.

We'll be going a few more times in the holidays, both around where we live, and as an add-on to days out. We'll be taking a bag this time though with drinks, snacks, pen/pencil and little trinkets to swap in the caches.

jubarnes26

Hiya yummymummy, nobody has replied or commented on your post so I thought I would.

Fab hobby, been following my mate round for a couple of months and wasn't "getting it". As soon as I bought my GPS and we went out ourselves rather than following someone else we were hooked.

In todays materialistic world where everything costs a fortune I think it's great to have a hobby that is getting you back to basics, is free and that gets you out & about outside, walking, spending time together & discovering parts of your town and other parts of the country that you weren't aware.
Kids love it and it saved us a fortune over the hols, whenever we had a free day we popped out to do a couple or found a trail & went for a 2 hour walk.
Hope your still enjoying it.

Mark_Hewitt

Yep. I 'discovered' it earlier on this year having known about it for a couple of years before that!
We've had quite a few cheap days out with it this summer. Instead of paying a fortune for attractions etc, put together a few sandwiches and then head off looking for caches!

All you really need to pay for is the fuel, and even then there are 200+ caches within 5 miles of home!

For me it gives you a reason to go to places, and gets you out walking where you wouldn't normally do, it's like walking but with a purpose!

All this is ignoring the cost of the GPS equipment, but I use my iPhone I would have bought anyway so it's all good.

susieb

Been doing this almost 4 years now, we all love it especially the kids.

squack

I found one of these a while ago. A tupperware box stashed in a wall.Thought at first it was a lucky find of a dealer's stash of drugs or cash. How disappointed was I when I opened it to find a load of pens keyrings and other trinkets lol

BinkyTheHorse

I remember watching an item on Blue Peter on this when I was a kid, back in the 70's! I really wanted to take part but my mum wasn't interested

Thank you so much for this link. I've joined the site and have found out that there are loads near to us, so I'm looking forward to getting out with the children to find some caches (they are as excited as I am about it!)

osian

Have read about this before - sounds interesting as we go walking a lot anyway.

What's the cheapest way to get started? What equipment do you all use? Thanks.

susieb

I use a handheld gps bought second hand of ebay, for around £20, mines a garmin III, but lots use a garmin extrex. Also it seems popular with iphones now as well.

Doozergirl

Just wanted to say thanks to the OP, also the bump that got it moving again. What an MSE day! We set off at 4.15 setting ourselves a target of 6pm to prepare for a dinner party - we got back at 7.30pm wet but very happy adn could have gone on.

We went out today for the first time, finally invested in the Ordnance Survey map that I've been promising myself for dog walking and it was invaluable. Used the iPhone app as well which I'm not sure about it's accuracy but great for viewing clues and previous logs. It's fair to say we're not very good yet! - set off looking for a lot laid by the same person who was evidently quite good at hiding them as we didn't find any of theirs at all but another one that we walked past we found really quickly.

My 5 year old complained at the start but when we actually started hunting and for the next three hours!! she was quite happy. We met some interesting people along the way and had a great time - gives real purpose to a walk and our dog is shattered! :beer:

I was so surprised when I logged on to the site in the OP - as we live in the middle of nowhere I expected nothing but we are literally surrounded by them! There is one 300 yards from our house - haven't gone to that one yet - went a bit further afield today, but we will soon

Fab OP, thank you!

BensonBunny

Read about this before but couldn't justify buying the gps (although I would love one eventually). I've now got an iPhone, can I do everything needed with this? It sounds like great fun!

keigcf

Curiousity got the better of me, I had to have a look at what you were talking about!
After reading I thought yer right, there won't be any around here, but I was wrong, there are a couple within a couple of miles. I can see they are ideal for getting children out in the fresh air, good idea.:j