Bushwalking and geocaching are a match made in heaven. Geocaching is a high-tech version of hide and seek – an outdoor treasure hunt using GPS coordinates on a handheld GPS or mobile phone. As well as being a highly addictive activity for adults, it’s a great way of getting children out on the track.
There are caches hidden all over the world, with roughly 80,000 in Australia (including over 100 in Lerderderg State Park alone!) Geocache locations are diverse: inside a log, hollow tree or disused wombat burrow; beneath a rock on a mountain summit; in the local park; behind a street sign or down a remote river embankment. Caches come in a variety of sizes and difficulty levels, from tiny magnetic caches as small as a finger nail (so challenging to find) to camouflaged boxes which contain ‘treasures’ for children to swap.
After navigating to specified GPS coordinates, participants attempt to find the hidden cache. As typical GPS receiver accuracy varies between 3 and 10 metres, this is where the fun really begins!
If you’d like to know more about how geocaching works and what you need to get started, there’s a brief video and plenty of information on this website.