[dogmac]

I'd never heard of this before yesterday, but then suddenly it is everywhere in my awareness, and I did my first geocache today.

I can see this is likely to get hugely addictive.

So I'd love to hear from others who do this, and get hints. What kind of things do you leave? Do your kids like it? How many things would you hunt for in one day with your kids? That kind of thing.

Di

[ScrumptiousHobbi...]

I know a few people that do it and yes they say it is very addictive. We would like to do it, however we just don't have the time.

[jacqg]

YAYAYAYA!!!!!!!! Sorry just got excited as this is the first geocaching thread I've seen on EB.

My husband found out about caching through a friend and when he explained it to me I thought it sounded geeky and lame. Well, I found our first 5 caches and that was 2 years and over 700 caches ago.

In that two years we have also had DD1 and DD2. We find it to be a really family orientated activity to do together. There are plenty of caches in national parks, kids playgrounds, around cities and pretty much everywhere in between.

We use to live in Adelaide and found to many places we wouldn't never have know about and seen things we would have never seen if not for caching. Now we live in Albury Wodonga and are discovering the area through find caches in different places.

Not sure about how much you already know about caching dogmac, but each cache has a difficulty and terrain rating of 1-5. A terrain of 1 would be something that someone in a wheelchair could do right through to a level 5 which requires abseiling equipment, a boat, scuba diving equipment or something of that nature to get. When I was pregnant with DD2 I dragged DD1 in her pram up a mountain in pursuit of a cache but that's another story....

There are also different types of caches. Traditional caches where you are given a coordinate where the cache is. A multi cache where there are 2 or more places to visit. Mystery caches which involve a puzzle or something to solve to give you the coordinate of the cache.

We have met lots of new friends through caching. There are different event caches too.

So yeah..... I'm a geocaching tragic and pround of it.

Anyone want to know more or already are a cacher?? PM me or looking me!!!!!!

[PatG]

I'm a sporadic geocacher! I think it's a great activity for kids, gets families out and about and going to new/different places that may be quite close but have just never been visited. Or it can become part of holidays - if you go camping you look up all the ones near where you will camp or if you are driving long distances you can organise break stops near a cache to get everyone out in the fresh air for 15 minutes. A lot of caches are in parks so can be combined with using a playground or going for a walk etc. I love the simplicity of the idea and you can be as involved or uninvolved as you like.

As for things to leave - not smelly erasers! Ants like them. Stickers (buy a multipack lot from a discount store and get kids to choose which one to leave each time), small toys (kinder surprise, macca's type things), foreign coins, fridge magnets......

Lots for kids to learn from... Persistence, following instructions, technology, working as a team, being part of a community/respect, acceptance of failure (after the persistence bit!).

[Riversong]

I've been a Geocacher for a few years now (about 6 I think?) and love it. We don't have a car though so haven't found anywhere near the amount of caches we could have.
We often pick a suburb and catch the train there and walk along bike paths etc and look for caches.
Every time we go on holidays we find some caches to do.

I used to take my bike on the train and ride and do them but have DD now. We even bought a lighter pram so we can take it on the bus to get to more caches.
I've found caches on holiday in New Zealand and in a couple of states here.

I love finding new places that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. I saw some amazing places in New Zealand (with friends in a car) that I wouldn't have seen otherwise.
There's an excellent series on the Gold Coast spit (near Seaworld) that's great to do with kids if any of you are up here on holidays anytime. 20 caches to find in a 4km walk.

[dizzy-anne]

Welcome to the crazy world dogmac! Yes it is incredibly addictive. I, however, have managed to be an occasional, or holiday geocacher. I have been caching since 2006 however. My family are all obsessed - way more obsessed than me. Check out www.geocaching.com.au for some really fun statistics on your geocaching status - it has an obsession metre and all!

I love that it takes us places we wouldn't have gone before - even in your own neighbourhood. It's also a great fun thing to do with family or a small group. As for leaving swaps - just make sure of a few things: nothing edible or that will degrade with time; please swap for equal value, or even better - higher value - it's sad the rubbish some people leave behind while taking perfectly good items.
Also, make sure you rehide the cache where you found it - and hide it well so it doesn't get muggled. Oh, and when posting - be kind and thank the person who placed the cache - people go to lots of effort to place and maintain caches and it's nice to hear something a little personal and a thank you.

I don't have any kids yet but have been caching with various nieces and nephews - some love it, some don't... When they're little - we call it a treasure hunt - gets them going

Also - look out for events. There are a few national and local facebook groups, forums on the Australian website, and of course - you can just get updates for caches in your area. This will help you hear about events which are always fun and allows you to meet other nutters like yourself - it's one whole big secret world out there!

Above all - enjoy!!

[~mimo~]

so hat do you do? Go to a specified location and take a pic?

Who chooses the location?

[dogmac]

No, you have to go to the location and find a hidden box or something, and log that you have found it. Sometimes there are things in the box and you can take one and replace it with something of same or higher value.

And apparently you have to be careful to make sure no one sees you do it. Which I may not have succeeded at today.

[YodaTheWrinkledO...]

I'm a sporadic geocacher! I think it's a great activity for kids, gets families out and about and going to new/different places that may be quite close but have just never been visited. Or it can become part of holidays - if you go camping you look up all the ones near where you will camp or if you are driving long distances you can organise break stops near a cache to get everyone out in the fresh air for 15 minutes. A lot of caches are in parks so can be combined with using a playground or going for a walk etc. I love the simplicity of the idea and you can be as involved or uninvolved as you like.

agree with this. Our involvement tends to ebb and flow, so geocaching offers great flexibility in that regards. Our girls love it, but if we don't do it for a while, they're fine with that as well.

We always do it during holidays. Great way to get around a new place.

[SeaPork]

It has become a fun school holiday activity for us after I saw someone mention it in a thread a while ago.

There is an iPhone app as well that is quite good and makes finding out if there are any caches in the area really easy!