Geocaching

[gorionine]

I have heard of it so decided to check it. found 2 official sites

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It looks fab but I havent got any tracking device. Is there a pen and paper version at all, treasure hunt type thing?

I looked at the sites and found a coupl near us that I reckoned I could find without GPS because I recognised the locations - I was right - we did find them and whole family were very excited. So maybe look at what's local to you and see if you can work anything out?

If it is a location that you know well then you may well be able to find them without GPS.
If you look at the google maps on the pages, that can be enough to find them. It got a lot easier when I got a GPS though

I saw quite a few that rare really close to were a live in terms of name of place (local park) but how did you actually find it in terms of exact location? I thought it would be quite hidden (having to dig maybe?) what do you take with you (what sort of value) to replace the "treasure" you will be taking back?

I've only found two, but they were just little notepads rolled up inside a film cartridge, so I don't think you need to worry about treasure for most of them. They were under stones, so you can leave the spade at home!!

Some of them are pretty obvious.

You should not have to dig to find it ( there is a rule for geocaching that you should not have to use any thing like a spade to find the cache).
They tend to be in plastic boxes, of the type you would use for stroring food in, or metal ammo boxes.

Take things of limited value. The things that you will find in the boxes are usually low value childrens toys (IME anyway, or maybe its just the boxes I have found ) so things like a small toy car, small plastic toy etc.

You can tell from the size of the cache if it will have anything in it - if it is micro there wont be any swaps, small may have them.
It usually says on the website what sort of container you are looking for, and often what was in it when it was first left.

Thanks for all the info! weather seems reasonnably ni e today for us to give it a try (regardless of finding a treasure or not)