If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to read my ‘What is Geocaching’ blog post, which will help this post make sense.

So, I’ve piqued your interest, and now you are keen to get started in geocaching. The first item you’ll need is a GPS capable device. Although I’ve heard of some people who literally just use the satellite overlay on Google Maps to try and pinpoint the location before going out to find a cache, having a device that lets you know where you are in coordinates terms is far easier in my opinion.

For me, I’d heard of Geocaching before, however I wasn’t ready to go and splurge a few hundred dollars on a dedicated GPS receiver to try the game. I was lucky to find that there are dedicated applications available from the App Store for my Apple iPhone. I still don’t actually own a GPSr, and rely on my iPhone for geocaching. I’ve found over 350 caches this way, so I am testament to the fact this works.

The official Geocaching app from Groundspeak is an excellent app for the iPhone, and there are plenty of other apps available for other mobile devices as well. Search the web or look in the Geocaching forums to find one suitable for your device.

The next item you’ll need is an account on geocaching.com. It’s really simple to get going; create a free account by visiting this page. There are premium accounts as well, which give you extra features, however for a beginner, the free account is more than ample for your requirements.

Using the geocaching website, you can enter your home coordinates in your account details. This is really important, as it will allow the site to show you all the caches near your home. If you’re worried about privacy, you’ll be happy to know these details aren’t shared, but you can always do what I do, which is choose a landmark near my home as the coordinates I use.

Once all set up, you can search for nearby geocaches. You’ll likely be amazed at how close one is, and how many there are. For example, there are more than a dozen within a few kilometres of my home, and over 500 in the Perth metropolitan area alone.

You’ll find when you do look at a Geocaching listing, that there are some important elements to the listing. Firstly, look at the terrain and difficulty ratings. The terrain rating will give you an insight into what sort of environment the cache is hidden in (one star is nice flat and easy to navigate land, where five stars is likely to be somewhere normally quite inaccessible)

The difficulty rating will show you what the cache hider thinks will be the rating of difficulty finding the cache, with one star being really easy to find, and five stars means it may take hours to find the elusive container.

The next important item on the listing is the type of cache. Visiting this page will give you a better insight into what each type means, however I recommend that for your first few finds, you stick to ‘Traditional’ caches, which are the typical ‘hidden container’ variety.

Another often useful item is the Attributes. These are predefined terms that the placer of the cache can use to better explain the cache and its environment. Attributes include;

• Recommended for kids
• Takes less than an hour
• Wheelchair accessible
• Stroller accessible
• Dangerous area
• Snakes

Then, let’s take a look at the cache description. These are written descriptions provided by the hider of the cache to help explain the purpose of the cache, any meanings associated with the cache, and potentially a few hints to narrow the search.

Another great element of a cache listing is that some feature ‘Hints’, however these are encoded by using a simple code, to avoid people accidently reading them. The fun of finding a cache can often be reduced if you read ‘Under the gum tree, near the fence’. Hints are optional items to add when hiding a cache, so not all of them feature this.

To decrypt a hint, simply click on the ‘Decrypt’ link on the cache listing page. This will then display the hint, or use the decryption key also shown on the listing page to manually decrypt the hint.

All geocaching listing services link to a map. Geocaching.com for example, links to Google maps. By clicking on the map, you can zoom in/out, and it shows the hiding spot (called a ‘GZ’) overlaid using an icon. You can turn ‘Satellite view’ on, to see the actual terrain and nearby landmarks.

A good tip is to also read some of the recent logs. When you find a cache, you record that achievement on the website, so it adds to your ‘finders score’ and allows you to leave some feedback. In the next post, I’ll explain some of the terms used in writing logs, or speaking to fellow geocaching enthusiasts – it may seem like a secret handshake society without some insight!

You no doubt know what GPS is; that invisible grid of latitude and longitude brought to handheld devices using a global space-based network of satellites. It’s really handy for hikers and adventurers, and used as a modern navigation device by both sea and land based vehicles.

With the popular advent of the GPS network, Geocaching was born in May 2000, in Beavercreek, Oregon.

So what is Geocaching? Often called a ‘High tech game of hide and seek’ or a ‘Global treasure hunt’, Geocaching is a mixture of orienteering and good old fashioned treasure hunting, using a handheld GPS receiver.

One saying used is ‘A game where you use equipment which costs hundreds of dollars, to find useless plastic containers in the bush’. That’s actually quite a good summary, however it sure doesn’t tend to endear people to the game.

In a nutshell, players (often referred to as ‘cachers’) either hide a container or go out to seek other hidden containers, using the GPS coordinates provided on websites such as geocaching.com or the Australian based non-commercial version, geocaching.com.au.

Cache containers (such as the ones in the image above) can be anything from a tiny ‘nano’ cache only a centimeter or two in size, through to a large 44 gallon drum, etc. They are hidden in places such as under structures, in leaves at the base of a tree, or camouflaged to blend with the environment, such as pretend bolts, magnetic signs, fake rocks, etc.

Some caches involve simply finding the container, where others may have puzzles to solve, or multiple waypoints to find first. When you find a cache, you can swap items (normally cheap junk food meal toys), move trackable items (geocoins and trackables) and most importantly, sign the log with the date, your caching name and possibly a few comments.

Anyone can hide or find a geocache, provided they have the right equipment, such as a GPS receiver (known as a GPSr) or GPS capable mobile phone, and an account on a geocaching site as mentioned.

So, why would you geocache? That’s the hard one to explain to someone who hasn’t tried. For me, I find that it’s a great mix of geeky hobby, mixed with exercise, with bush walking and orienteering style tracking. I find that my kids really enjoy it, and gives us a purpose to go for a hours walk in the great outdoors.

Some people try it once and decide it’s not for them, which is obviously fine, however I found the more I tried it in the beginning, the more I started to enjoy it. We’ve found over 350 caches in the last 18 months, and have hidden more than 40 of our own – you could say it’s become quite an addiction.

Over the next few blog posts, I plan to try and demystify the game, and give you an insight into how to start geocaching, explain the terms that are used, explain some of the popular geocaching containers, and help you find your first cache.

I hope that you give it a go, and I welcome comments on what you thought, below. Good luck!