Miscellaneous Forum

An unusual story this one....

While at work last saturday , I happened to glance out of the window to spot three suspicious characters loitering near a hedge across the road from my office. They appeared to be searching for something inside the hedge itself. After about 10 minutes they took some photos of each other ,then as they went to walk away , one of the guys placed a small canister deep into the leaves and branches of the hedge....and they were gone.
Being the nosey fellow I am , I crossed the road , put my hand into the hedge and picked out said canister. Taking it back to my office I opened it to reveal a pencil, two pin badges , and various other strange trinkets. Along with a sign saying ' GEOCACHE' . Now I was really intrigued , I typed the word 'geocache ' into google and discovered that this is actually a huge online .game played right across the world . The web adress is geocache.com and if you enter your own postal code into the site you'll probably find at least 10 of these canisters within half a mile of your home!!!!
Have any other VT ers heard of this ????
Has anyone

Yes - Heard of it and joined although I have not yet gone-after any "treasure" with any degree of application yet.
I joined after friends told me about it when I bought my car Sat-Nav.

When I get some time or when th egrandson is older I imagine I will take-part more actively.

Great fun!

I forgot to add that I DID return the box! Was surprised to discover how huge geochaching is worldwide!!

I wonder how different the world would be today if Captain James Cook was an active geocacher. "Thar be my next assignment, to find the canister hidden somewhere along the coast of Terra Australis Incognito. I'll dial up the coordinates using my sextant - arrrrrrrrrr!"

Bookmark. I am going to check. Thanks for the post.

I think there was a mistake in the post "The web adress is geocache.com " it is
www.geocaching.com, right?

Looks like fun, but I live in Jerusalem.
If I had seen anyone hiding a canister I would have called the police!

have to agree with una on this one. you saw three suspicious characters put a canister in the bushes and went to check it out? you're lucky you didn't get an unplanned visit to the land of your ancestors. 911.

Acording to their website...the world if FULL of those gadgets. I think I wouldn´t go there to check, but...not for safety reasons. It is just that I would have thought "it is not my business".

Maybe if it is something "big" and suspicuous people...

Quite right , geochaching is the site , and good point Lew , I was a little too nosey for my own good ( and safety!)

I know a lot of people that geocache on Saturdays or Sundays if it's a ncie day and they have nothing better to do. ...A very inexpensive hobby and much better in my mind than going shopping when you have the doldrums. A good activity for the whole family to do as well--little kids love the treasure hunt.

Modern GPS-based treasure hunt, geocaching is quite a big worldwide thing these days.
I've recently searched and found one just for fun and to see what it was. Nevertheless, a bypasser was suspiciously looking at me but I refrained from either explaining or aborting.

I took part to the first edition of the Caucasian Challenge Rally aboard the VT-sponsored wonder machine. This race and scoring system was based on geo-references to be found all the way from Budapest to Yerevan. Such locations also helped to avoid getting lost through remote areas. Very exciting.

I have a friend who is really big into them. He took me out on one when I was in Ohio. They are fun.

Yes, heard of it several years ago (quite popular in the UK, I think, esp with people who enjoy orienteering anyway) and it really quite appeals.

Not just now, but when I have more time available. I know how obsessive I can get. :-)

lol. Thanks for reminding me that coordinates hold the key to finding the x in marks the spot. I must have spent 3 hours, pacing one way 20 steps and then another for 20 steps. It was in a neighborhood park and thank goodness I had grandchildren, nieces and nephews with me trying to find the hidden treasure. We never found it and assumed that someone must have taken it. Probabaly a neighborhood watch person. Unless the one placing the treasure didn't know north from east. Have found others and it is a fun thing to do with your children or in my case, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. :-)

We, in VT, could do our OWN Geocaching!

We could all hide a "treasure" in our home town or in places we visit - then publish the clues in here! LOL

JOKING!!!!!!(or am I?)

Yes my friend thripence told me about it.... her son does this. On Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia.

It was very big about 10 years ago when GPSs became common, becuase many of the caches are nearly ten years old lots of them are missing, I had friends who used to do it, I wnet with my sister once, we didnt find the cache. Maybe now phones come with built in GPS it will become more popular again.

Just went to the website, G. There are about twenty of them right near my house! Fun.

I had never heard of it. Just went to the website and there are heaps in my town. Interesting concept but not sure if I will get involved at this stage.

Nice one Ems !! Spoke to a few people about it here in London and they are telling me its the next stage up from trainspotting!!!!

G, two of these things are in the park behind my house, only about a five min. walk. Makes me want to go over and see! Of course we have four feet of snow on the ground so that might make it a bit hard to do right now.

Go for it Em , you'll need notebook , camera , pen , snow plough and ..........oh yeah- GPS !

I checked my postcode and theres a few near me but most involve a bit of tree climbing!

Yes, have heard of it and even have a friend who "planted" a few of those canisters himself.
Martin

Thanks Martin , seems more people know about this than I'd thought!

I have heard of it but I have to agree with Una and other posters. In London, anyone seen hiding canisters would probably end up looking at a few armed policemen. Unfortunate, but that is the way of the world.

Having been brouught up in Northern Ireland in the 1970's I would definitely not be picking up random canisters hidden about the place.

Well, not to worry .I shant be putting my hand into bushes again in the near future!!

As far as I remember, you go to the web site, search on an area and then have to solve a few clues before discovering a location that you then programme-in to your GPS device.

Most seem to be hidden in accessible but quiet places - not where retrieval would cause inconvenience or disruption to others.

There is a certain "etiquette" associated with the finding and replacing of the "treasures"

I'm learning more about it every day! And I made sure I returned it intact .

John wrote:

>There is a certain "etiquette" associated with the finding and replacing
>of the "treasures"

So if it ever reaches Olympic status, they'd have to build in the "rules of engagement" and swapping of canisters (and therefore the treasures) would be outlawed. Can you imagine a whole bunch of very pi**ed off competitors looking for those correct canisters. I can almost see Tom Toms at 20 paces.

It seems I might have upset a few people on here by actually removing the canister from its hiding place while NOT being part of the game!