All in the <head> – Ponderings and code by Drew McLellan –

Geocaching

This weekend I started a new hobby – geocaching. I got Rachel a small GPS receiver for her birthday last week, and as we’d both fancied getting out into the big blue room a bit more, we thought we’d give it a go. It’s fantastic.

For those who’ve not come across geocaching, the idea is to use a GPS receiver to treasure-hunt a hidden cache by its coordinates. A cache is typically a plastic box containing a log book (to record your visit) and a number of bits and bobs like small toys and trinkets. These caches are hidden all over the globe. There’ll be some near you.

Once you’ve found a cache you make an entry in the log book and can take an item from the box, leaving an item of your own. You then re-hide the box where you found it. Visits are also logged on geocaching.com when you get back home.

Some caches will also contain items known as Travel Bugs. These are typically small toys with a dog tag attached. The tag has a reference number which is logged on the site. Travel Bugs try to cover as much distance as possible by moving from cache to cache. Once you’ve picked up a Travel Bug your try to move it to another cache, ideally some distance away from where it was found, although every step helps. Each movement is logged on the site so that the person who started the bug can plot its progress. These are fun.

I have to admit that it’s all pretty geeky. It’s also a lot of fun and gets us away from these damn screens for a short while at the weekends. So what’s not to like? GPS units retail from around £120, but can often be found on eBay as people tend to upgrade a lot. If you feel like getting some exercise this summer and seeing some of your local area, I definitely recommend it.

Unrelated, I was just chatting with Andy Budd. His site is down due to hosting mishaps, but he’s on top of it. If you’ve been missing his blog like me, it’ll be back soon.