Good excuse to go into the big room...
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Do you find yourself sitting behind a keyboard all day, never going outside? Wish there was just some high-tech gadgety (possibly tax deductible) reason to melt off those excess pounds? Well, there is... http://www.geocaching.com[^] We've been doing this for a while and it's great fun. It's given me yet more reasons to be soaken wet and covered in mud buying a coffee at Starbucks to the shocked looks of the Caffein-istas (Apres-mountain biking used to be my only good reason for doing that!), sliding down a hill side into a river (yesterday), sneaking around in the bush at night (yesterday night), discovering places that I never knew existed right near my own house like the worlds largest golf ball, a pet cemetary, a high mountain lookout at the end of an overgrown abandoned fire watch tower road etc etc. Chances are, wherever you are reading this from in the world, you will find listed at the site above that someone has hidden a cache within walking / biking / short driving distance of where you are right now. On the other hand, perhaps you don't want to get up from your keyboard, but always wondered if there were any web sites for truly strange Aussies out there with too much time on their hands: http://ideology.geocaching.com.au[^])
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Do you find yourself sitting behind a keyboard all day, never going outside? Wish there was just some high-tech gadgety (possibly tax deductible) reason to melt off those excess pounds? Well, there is... http://www.geocaching.com[^] We've been doing this for a while and it's great fun. It's given me yet more reasons to be soaken wet and covered in mud buying a coffee at Starbucks to the shocked looks of the Caffein-istas (Apres-mountain biking used to be my only good reason for doing that!), sliding down a hill side into a river (yesterday), sneaking around in the bush at night (yesterday night), discovering places that I never knew existed right near my own house like the worlds largest golf ball, a pet cemetary, a high mountain lookout at the end of an overgrown abandoned fire watch tower road etc etc. Chances are, wherever you are reading this from in the world, you will find listed at the site above that someone has hidden a cache within walking / biking / short driving distance of where you are right now. On the other hand, perhaps you don't want to get up from your keyboard, but always wondered if there were any web sites for truly strange Aussies out there with too much time on their hands: http://ideology.geocaching.com.au[^])
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Do you find yourself sitting behind a keyboard all day, never going outside? Wish there was just some high-tech gadgety (possibly tax deductible) reason to melt off those excess pounds? Well, there is... http://www.geocaching.com[^] We've been doing this for a while and it's great fun. It's given me yet more reasons to be soaken wet and covered in mud buying a coffee at Starbucks to the shocked looks of the Caffein-istas (Apres-mountain biking used to be my only good reason for doing that!), sliding down a hill side into a river (yesterday), sneaking around in the bush at night (yesterday night), discovering places that I never knew existed right near my own house like the worlds largest golf ball, a pet cemetary, a high mountain lookout at the end of an overgrown abandoned fire watch tower road etc etc. Chances are, wherever you are reading this from in the world, you will find listed at the site above that someone has hidden a cache within walking / biking / short driving distance of where you are right now. On the other hand, perhaps you don't want to get up from your keyboard, but always wondered if there were any web sites for truly strange Aussies out there with too much time on their hands: http://ideology.geocaching.com.au[^])
Cool idea. Locally we have the Dartmoor National Park (quite a big park really, covering a large part of out entire county) and there is a similar type of thing going on there when the miltary aren't flying flags to say "live artillery training" during which it is advisable to keep to the safe areas. :rolleyes: People have hidden logbooks and items all over the moors and in the volcanic tors, etc, and you go around finding them (the last time I did it I used instructions to get to the area, not gps, but that may well have changed more recently as I haven't been hiking there for six odd years now). When you find them there is a little rubber stamp which you stamp onto a score card or note book. I would assume the idea was laid down by the park authorities because they take you to some of the most beautiful areas on the moors which you wouldn't otherwise find - like that valley with 1000 year old trees in it, or bogs that can swallow up a pony in under a minute. I can remember how gleeful I was when I pulled apart a small stone wall built over an old vent channel in the side of a tor to find a bottle of rather dodgy looking water and a logbook. To the unsuspecting eye it just looked like a pile of stones and moss, but I had found it! I got my stamp, left my mark in the log and boxed it in again. :-D Can you explain this bit though, from their FAQ: "Teenagers may also be able to apply trail cleanup as part of their community service time" Do all teenagers get compusory community service? Or is that just the ones that steal cars and mug old ladies? And if the latter, don't adults do it to? Or is just that the adults go to jail? :confused: J Cardinal wrote: strange Aussies out there with too much time on their hands Only in Australia would you find Extreme Geocaching! :laugh:
David Wulff
"I feel inclined to blow my mind, Get hung up feeding ducks with a bun. They all come out to groove about; Be nicer than fun in the sun." - Itchycoo Park (Small Faces)
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Do you find yourself sitting behind a keyboard all day, never going outside? Wish there was just some high-tech gadgety (possibly tax deductible) reason to melt off those excess pounds? Well, there is... http://www.geocaching.com[^] We've been doing this for a while and it's great fun. It's given me yet more reasons to be soaken wet and covered in mud buying a coffee at Starbucks to the shocked looks of the Caffein-istas (Apres-mountain biking used to be my only good reason for doing that!), sliding down a hill side into a river (yesterday), sneaking around in the bush at night (yesterday night), discovering places that I never knew existed right near my own house like the worlds largest golf ball, a pet cemetary, a high mountain lookout at the end of an overgrown abandoned fire watch tower road etc etc. Chances are, wherever you are reading this from in the world, you will find listed at the site above that someone has hidden a cache within walking / biking / short driving distance of where you are right now. On the other hand, perhaps you don't want to get up from your keyboard, but always wondered if there were any web sites for truly strange Aussies out there with too much time on their hands: http://ideology.geocaching.com.au[^])
Found a good one close to my place back home in Oz: "we were hopping the snake was still there and even bought the snake jigger. If the snake was still there you would increase the difficulty to 5 if it was poisonous and 3 if it was not. That would be a challenging cache." :laugh: cheers, Chris Maunder
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Cool idea. Locally we have the Dartmoor National Park (quite a big park really, covering a large part of out entire county) and there is a similar type of thing going on there when the miltary aren't flying flags to say "live artillery training" during which it is advisable to keep to the safe areas. :rolleyes: People have hidden logbooks and items all over the moors and in the volcanic tors, etc, and you go around finding them (the last time I did it I used instructions to get to the area, not gps, but that may well have changed more recently as I haven't been hiking there for six odd years now). When you find them there is a little rubber stamp which you stamp onto a score card or note book. I would assume the idea was laid down by the park authorities because they take you to some of the most beautiful areas on the moors which you wouldn't otherwise find - like that valley with 1000 year old trees in it, or bogs that can swallow up a pony in under a minute. I can remember how gleeful I was when I pulled apart a small stone wall built over an old vent channel in the side of a tor to find a bottle of rather dodgy looking water and a logbook. To the unsuspecting eye it just looked like a pile of stones and moss, but I had found it! I got my stamp, left my mark in the log and boxed it in again. :-D Can you explain this bit though, from their FAQ: "Teenagers may also be able to apply trail cleanup as part of their community service time" Do all teenagers get compusory community service? Or is that just the ones that steal cars and mug old ladies? And if the latter, don't adults do it to? Or is just that the adults go to jail? :confused: J Cardinal wrote: strange Aussies out there with too much time on their hands Only in Australia would you find Extreme Geocaching! :laugh:
David Wulff
"I feel inclined to blow my mind, Get hung up feeding ducks with a bun. They all come out to groove about; Be nicer than fun in the sun." - Itchycoo Park (Small Faces)
Yes, that's the idea exactly except that you use a gps to find the caches. The really cool part is finding places that you never knew existed in areas you've been to many times before. The best ones are all in places where there is something really interesting to see and usually only known about by locals so it's ideal for tourists. I've never seen teenagers on parole in all my time, but met some cool people. We have planted many caches and we always try to make them something of a challenge either mentally of physically as in the case of the one we just spent the weekend preparing which involved wandering around in the bush at night getting wet and stapling 3m scotchbrite reflective arrows to trees. I like the idea of the stamps and log book, that's sort of what we do now except in reverse: every cache has a little notepad in it and people write something in it when they finally get there. There is some pretty stiff competition to be the first one to get to a new cache. Our company sponsors our caches so we put in some pretty cool prizes for the first finders etc, but the whole idea is really trying to find it then enjoying the area that you would normally not go to for any other reason.
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Found a good one close to my place back home in Oz: "we were hopping the snake was still there and even bought the snake jigger. If the snake was still there you would increase the difficulty to 5 if it was poisonous and 3 if it was not. That would be a challenging cache." :laugh: cheers, Chris Maunder
I'd love to go geocaching in Australia some time, just as an excuse to get out and see the countryside and strange creatures, sweat like a dog in the heat then enjoy a nice refreshing cold one(s). Sadly, no poisonous snakes here on Vancouver island so it's not quite as challenging, but on the bright side my friend was stared down by a cougar last summer and had to abandon his camping gear and go back for it later so I guess there's always hope for that added adrenaline rush that you lose after the thousandth time of nearly falling off a cliff into the ocean. ;)