What is Geocaching?
Think back to your childhood. Do you remember playing hide and go seek? Now, fast forward into the future and you have a device that tells you where others are hiding, right down to less than an inch away from the hiding place. This is the game of Geocaching. Using today’s incredible technology called GPS, Global Positioning System, you are given the exact coordinates to where a treasure is buried. Your equipment: a GPS device. Your weapon: only your wits.
It was designed to give a GPS unit much more usage in daily entertainment life rather than using only when you are lost. Geocaching is a game where a participant can burry, usually in a box, some kind of item stored inside. And this participant can release the location using only its coordinates to Geocaching’s official website. Then, the players of Geocaching would try to find this buried box using GPS to locate the treasure. Once found, the players may take the item stored and, in exchange, leave something valuable--either valuable in monetary or memento--to replace the item taken from the treasure box. This treasure box is known as cache.
The rules of this game are simple. You take something from this cache and leave anything from your possession in the cache. And you should always report online as a form of blog of your experience. This journal can be a reflection of your experience, reporting missing cache or a comment on the item found. But do not spoil the fun by writing the ways to find the cache. Since it is an interactive game with people all over the world, your journal should be found where anyone can find it easily--either in Geocaching’s forum or your personal blog that is open to everyone.
There are variations to this game. Instead of simply finding a cache, you can have multiple cashes that the first one leads to the next cache and so on. I started my Geocaching 1 year ago when I observed, what I thought to be, a tourist looking around Lincoln’s memorial statue. As it turns out, a cache was hidden under Lincoln’s right arm. The seeker had to climb 2 feet to reach the cache. And this is another example of Geocaching. Some participants would lead seekers through various historical or landmark sites to give the area tour at the same time giving goals to seekers to find the treasure.
If you are interested in Geocaching, visit the current official website Geocaching. And a happy hunting!
