Geocaching

Geocaching is a very exciting, interesting and sometimes challenging game (or sport, however you want to see it). The essence of it is to search and find hidden “treasures” with the help of a GPS receiver and the Internet. It’s sorta like a high-tech version of paper chase.

In detail it works like this: Someone hides a little box (usually Tupperware or ammo boxes) with a logbook and some items, usually trinkets and little gadgets, somewhere he thinks is an interesting or noteworthy spot. This can be in a forest, in the middle of a city, on a cast away island, even in Antarctica. Then he or she puts together a little description, ideally with some kind of story and posts the exact coordinates where the box is hidden and uploads it on the Internet, for example on Geocaching.com

Other geocachers can later look up the description on the Internet and enter the coordinates into their GPS receiver (GPSr) and go searching for the box. When it is found, the geocacher can log his visit into the cache’s logbook along with some nice little stories. When he gets home, he can go the the cache’s description online and make an online logentry as well. This way the owner of the cache knows that is was found and everything is ok (or he has to perform some maintenance in case something is damaged).

This is the most basic and also most popular type of Caches. There are many variations, like Multi-Stage Caches, where you have to find several hints on the way, not knowing the cache’s hiding place right away. Another type is the virtual cache, without a physical container or a webcam cache where you have to get in front of a webcam an let it take a picture with you in it. There are many more variants you can discover.

It is a fun adventure game for everyone where you can discover beautiful places, you otherwise would not have seen. You can go geoaching worldwide in nearly every country in the globe from , , the , , even Africa and South-East-Asia. Geocachers are everywhere, you can recognize them by a GPSr, a stack of printouts and sometimes their bumper sticker ;-)

My Gear

  • Garmin GPSMap 60 GPS receiver: The most important thing for caching. Nice and tough rugged. It can display maps, hold up to 500 waypoints and has a special geocaching mode.
  • TomTom 5 PDA Car Navigation: Great to find your way to the cache before you hit the dirt trail. You can upload your cache database as points of interests (POI), which makes it very convenient to get closest to the cache, as you can get by car.
  • XDA Mini S Pocket PC Phone: This phone is great. I just got it. I put Cachemate on it and I have always my complete cache database with me, in case I want to do some spontaneous caching. Also it is good for taking spoiler pictures
  • Panasonic Lumix FX-9 digital camera: A wonderful digicam, really small, great pictures. I often take it with me caching to take some pics of my finds and the lovely spots I discover.
  • A pair of sturdy leather gloves: You can get those in any home store, great for gardenwork, even better for caching, especially if you have to search in a pile of leaves or in mud.
  • A Sigg Water bottle: These Swiss made aluminium bottles are great, because you can take any kind of drink, even carbonates ones.
  • A scientific calculator: Ok, normally a standard calc is sufficient but sometimes you are surprises how creative and mathematically incline some cache owners are.
  • A personalized Stamp: All right, I am lazy. But it’s a great timesaver when signing logs and I am sure not to forget to write down my name.
  • An outdoor first aid kit: In case I hurt myself, which has fortunately not happened to me yet, at least nothing except some thorn scratches.
  • Anti bug lotion: Especially in summer not only the cacher has fun, but also the mosquito and ticks. While the first are just annoying, the later are dangerous for health, since the can transmit boriliosis and FSME. So protection is important.
  • Some trading goodies: It is always nice to have some little items you can put into a cache for the next finders.

 

My Software and Tools:

  • GSAK: To me the best cache database tool on the market. Besides you can export the DB to any kind of formats, including TomTom POIs, Cachemate, MapQuest, Oziexplorer and many more.
  • Cachemate: My favourite for PDA use. I used it on my old Palm III and I am now using the Pocket PC version on my XDA.
  • SpoilerSync: Downloads all spoiler pictures of a GPX File of geocaching.com. You can store these on your PDA.
  • MapQuest: If you use Garmin Maps you can look at the maps and upload them to your GPSr
  • Google Earth: Since Google has improved the image quality throughout the world dramatically, you can often check out the cache’s surroundings before you even get there.
  • Webcam Formular: Some real nice geocacher provides an online service for webcam caches. Before you go off caching, you enter the webcam cache you want to do and your mobile number. When you are in front of the cam, you just call the server via your mobile and it recognizes you number and emails you the current snapshot of the webcam.