TODAY, August 20, is International Geocaching Day, a day to take part in the game of geocaching. It’s the 11th anniversary of the day. What on earth is geocaching, you ask?
That’s the question a man, accompanied by his young adult son, asked me when I was searching for a geocache on the side of the road as he paused from his evening jog. I told him to go home and Google it. He then asked, “Is it like Pokemon Go?”
I said, “Yes, similar.”
He nodded and said it sounded interesting.
I started geocaching years ago when I was still married. When my ex told me he was going geocaching, I was curious and begged him to take me with him on the adventure. We were living in Newcastle in Northern KZN at the time. We found some caches and marked our names down on the little papers inside the tiny pill bottles. We even found some gifts, and once, we found a gift that we had to somehow send to a cache in Germany. I honestly can’t remember what the object was or what we did to get it there.
In those days, we found out about geocaches in our area by going onto a website. Nowadays, you can use the website or an app on your smartphone. There is often a description of where to find the cache and a hint to help. Some of the more advanced caches require you to solve a puzzle first before finding out some information on it. We would then use a GPS to find the spot where the geocache is hidden – usually near our home – and try to search for the ‘stash’ that had been hidden by someone. Usually, the caches are found on trees, poles, fences, postboxes, statues, or anything else in a public area in your suburb. They have to be well-hidden from the general public (called muggles by geocaching fundis) and safe from the elements. Sometimes, they are put in a Ziplock bag, plastic pill bottles, or even in an old photographic film container. Other times, they are found in a bottle or just loose which isn’t a good idea. Inside the bottle is usually just a lined paper where you can write your name and the date you found the cache – so, yes, do take a pen with you.
You then go onto the app or website and log that you found the cache. You can rate it, review it, and comment or give suggestions on improving it. Occasionally, but I think it’s quite rare, you can find a tiny gift in the cache from the person who set up the geocache. It’s polite to take along a replacement gift to put into the geocache if you know you are searching for a gift one – it should tell you on the website.
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So, how did my geocaching excursion go after not having taken part in the game for years?
Well, I took my young adult kids with me to look for about four geocaches in Gillitts in the Upper Highway area in KZN. I had decided which ones to go to beforehand, and my daughter and I wrote down the descriptions and clues on paper so we knew what to look out for.
The first one was in a field on Horseshoe Road. The only clue was that it was in the ‘middle of the middle’. The grass in the field was overgrown and my kids didn’t feel safe about wandering into a field to look for something. We decided to move on to the next one. The next geocache was called ‘woof woof’ and was supposed to be near one of the utility devices – the GPS led us to a verge with about four Openserve boxes. We searched and searched around the boxes but had no idea where to find it. No luck on our second attempt. The plants and grass on the verge had grown over spots so we have no idea if the cache had been destroyed by the elements, stolen or we had just missed it.
We headed to the third one which was on a curvy road that made it difficult to find a place to park. I put my hazards on and parked partly on the verge. The clue was something about the middle one. The road had three chevrons so we looked around the middle one, and we found a tiny Ziplock bag with a strip of folded-up paper inside it. I wrote my name and the date on the paper, triumphant. Our first successful geocache of the day helped ease the frustration and disappointment we had started feeling.
Then we headed to a geocache on Meadow Lane. It was now peak-hour traffic, and people were driving and walking past, probably thinking we were weird as we searched around trees, poles, fire hydrants and road signs.
Geocaching isn’t for the socially anxious. You have to be prepared to look odd as people drive or walk past, wondering why you’re scrabbling around bushes and trees, searching for something. Some people even get suspicious and think you’re up to no good. The runner man and his son asked me if I needed help before I told him we were geocaching.
The clues given were too vague even though the cache was supposedly for newbies. So, we moved on to the next one which turned out to be the easiest one of the day. It was by the local postboxes and magnetic. My son found it in a moment. There wasn’t any space to write my name as it had been well-used – obviously one that most geocachers could find – so we put a new paper in it with the name and date.
The last one proved fruitless, so we headed home.
Was it a worthwhile excursion? Yes and no. We should’ve chosen a quieter time of day so we didn’t look so conspicuous, which then made us embarrassed and prone to rushing our search. But it was fun to get out and drive around the area. Gillitts, of course, is picturesque, even in the middle of winter. Some previous geocaching excursions were great fun, especially when you find most of them or come across an interesting one, or even solve a difficult one. I once went geocaching with a guy I briefly dated, and it was a good way to break the ice and get to know one another. We looked for geocaches around the uMhlanga Promenade. I would recommend that as at least you don’t appear to be a security risk like when you’re scrabbling around people’s verges.
Now, all I have to do is log the ones I found and maybe comment on the caches that proved a disappointment to me.
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What intrigues me about geocaching is the sense of mystery it creates, all the possibilities it presents, and the opportunities it provides to learn about an area. I think it would be a great idea to take part in the activity when you go on a holiday as a way to get to know the landmarks in the area and to drive around, sightseeing, but also with a purpose in mind. And you can notch up your achievements on the website – the more you find, the better – I’m guessing, are rewards there. One day, I’d like to make my own geocache. Now, that would be fun – you could keep track of the finds on the website.
If you decide to go geocaching on August 20 and you log a find on the website, you can earn the International Geocaching Day 2022 souvenir. Find the link here: https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2022/07/international-geocaching-day-2022/
The app is available on Google Play Store and is called Geocaching.
