Garden Tool Set

Geocaching: Starting Young

On a recent visit to family in North Lincolnshire, we thought we'd introduce our niece to the wonderful world of Geocaching. We mentioned Geocaching and that it is like a treasure hunt and that got Chloe's interest.

What surprised me in a way, but shouldn't have done because Chloe is intelligent, were the questions that followed. What size would the container be? What would be in it? Would there be any real cash? How does the GPS work?

I explained that cache is different from cash and is originally a French word that means a hiding place of goods or treasure. We also explained that caches can be different sizes and that depending on the size, there may be lots of different things stored in them. We didn't go indepth with the way the GPS works because we didn't want to detract from the fun. What 8 year old needs to know that the GPS uses a process of triangulation and requires 3 satellites for location with an additional 1 for accuracy to the clock to ensure that we don't get majorly misled! Heck, I don't even need to know that, I'm just an end-user, a game piece in the world of Geocaching.

Getting signal

The first cache was a nice easy find near the local Asda, which Chloe was able to locate while in charge of the GPS. She did a great job of counting down the distance and telling us which direction to walk. Unfortunately we didn't bring anything to swap, because there were some bracelets that Chloe liked the look of. Will remember swaps for next time.

Here's the second cache that we found. What a brilliant one to introduce kids to the world of geocaching with.

Here's Chloe having fun with the bubbles that were hidden in the cache container.

Chloe is a born cacher and was loads of fun to cache with and hopefully we can go caching again with her soon.