Have you got the Geocache Bug?

If you're not the sort naturally to be inclined to go on long walks, then make it into a great game and join the geocaching craze!  If you've never heard of it, there's a whole secret world waiting to be discovered by you, and it starts just outside your doorstep!  Take the kids out to your favourite parks and open spaces and you'll almost certainly find hidden treasure waiting for you - even in parks that you thought you knew like the back of your hand.  The kids will quickly become addicted and you'll find yourself geocaching wherever you go.

Geocaching is a treasure hunt.  All over the country, in fact the world, are thousands and thousands of little treasure chests.  The majority are actually old film canisters (remember those?!) while larger ones might be small tupperware boxes.  Inside you will find little toys and often a pencil and a log sheet.  The idea is that you have to find them and when you do so, you are entitled to take one of the toys as a prize, but you must also replace it with something else for the next person.  Small prizes might be a coin, marble, plastic soldier, rubber creepy-crawlies,  or anything else.

How to find them?  These things are, quite literally, littered across the nation.  A central database has them all logged by GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude).  If you have a smartphone then go along to your app store and you'll find a variety of apps to help you locate and navigate to these secret hideaways.  Your mobile phone will help you arrive at the right place through its GPS system, you'll see your progress on an onscreen map as you close in on the cache.  Coordinates are accurate to a few metres, and caches have a hint that helps you find them, often describing a tree or bench where the container will be found.  Find out more and view the database of geocaches online at http://www.geocaching.com.