Thursday, April 30, 2015

Hidden Treasure: Part 2

Abigail, my geocaching heroine, has a better memory than I, and she reminded me recently that I haven't yet kept my promise to post pictures of some of the geocaches we've found.

In previous posts I've described geocaching as a quest to hide and seek treasure outdoors in weatherproof containers called geocaches. The geographical co-ordinates of the geocaches are posted on www.geocaching.com and treasure seekers download them onto a GPS (global positioning system) device, such as a smartphone, to find the treasure. However, the co-ordinates do not always lead to the exact spot, then you have to search for the geocache. Often it is camouflaged to blend with the environment e.g. a nut and bolt on a pole may actually be a little magnetic container. A friend circled the area of a geocache for quite a while before she found it—it was fashioned to look like doggie poop! The owner of a geocache will often include a clue on the website to help seekers find the container.

Geocaches may contain little trinkets or other items which can be taken if replaced with an item of similar value.

Geocaches include a logbook which the finder signs before recording the find on the geocaching website.

Ok, enough talking. Let's see some caches.

This is the first cache we found—a small plastic container hidden under a rock near a dam.




Here's the next one which we discovered a short while later in some fencing. Amazing what you can fit into one of those little containers which used to house a roll of camera film.




Here's an electrical fitting which has been cleverly modified. The round lid of the fitting is held in place by a magnet, and, when removed, reveals the cache inside







Let's take a look at the seed pod dangling amongst the other pods on a tree. Is it really a pod? Is that a lid hanging open?






And this tiny little magnetic cache only has room for a strip of paper to serve as a logbook.

Some caches at first appear to be small creatures like this beetle. Turn him over and you'll see he's just a toy concealing the treasure.


My favourite is this snail which we found in a crack in a rock in Ireland. When we pulled him out we saw he had a camouflage bag attached which held the logbook.


This one was rather scary, but we plucked up courage to investigate and found that the snake was just a toy.



However we have learnt to be very careful, as in the process of finding this one, we uncovered the scorpion below who was very much alive.


Abigail says that her favourite cache is the pirate chest, It's so big that you can stand on it, not much chance of missing this one! However it's chained and locked, you have to find the key to open it! Once open you'll see a skeleton guarding the treasure—pieces of eight, goblets, tiaras and necklaces.



There are currently over two  million geocaches worldwide and should you inadvertently find one, please replace it as you found it. Why not go to www.geocaching.com and sign up to join Abigail and me in our geocaching fun?

5 comments:

  1. Fascinating post, Ruth. One day I'm going to try geocaching :)

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  2. That's amazing, Ruth, that so many people would go to so much trouble to hide (and hopefully find!) all these treasures! It must be fun to do though and good exercise as well. I think you both deserve a medal for all your perseverance in these quests of yours.

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  3. I'm enjoying your posts on geocaching, Ruth Ann! Hubby and I also enjoy geocaching, and I've written a romance novella with geocaching in it. You're making me want to get back to the 3-book series I'd once planned with a geocaching club at the core.

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  4. Thank you for youir comments Narelle, Jo-Anne and Valerie. Geocaching is really fun, you get to see many interesting things and places which you would otherwise miss.

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  5. that is sooo cool! I've always wanted to do that...and then I didn't. Something to add to the list.

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