Leisure tips - GEOCACHING
Hunting for treasure with a GPS device
Would you like to try an exciting treasure hunt right at your door? If so, geocaching is just the hobby for you.
You need a GPS device or GPS-enabled mobile phone, and then you can look for a treasure that someone else has hidden in an unexpected place. But it is also possible to look for the treasure using large-scale, precise maps. The GPS coordinates of the secret hiding places are published on the Internet, for example at www.geocaching.com. A logbook and several items can be found inside a waterproof container at the given location. When you find the container, you make an entry into the logbook and you can exchange the items or any one of them for something of equivalent or greater worth. If somebody has laid down a complete geocache series, you will also receive an instruction regarding the next hiding place.
Geocaching is an outdoor hobby, and the most important thing is that it gets you moving outside! It goes without saying that geocachers behave in a nature-friendly way and therefore - where it is possible - make use of footpaths and tracks. But at least for the last few metres it is often necessary to look near river banks, thickets, heaps of foliage and similar places.
More difficult geocaches lead though demanding terrain and often involve hard-to-solve puzzles. It can also be quite an adventure to recover the treasures, if they are hidden in a high tree or in a lake. But start with the simpler caches and go on from there.
Happy hunting!
