You think they are mad? Maybe they are just playing a geocaching game.
The first informatik that came to me seemed to bequite absurd. Some people go to thenature, they walk, theyhike and use their GPS to check their coordinates. Don´t they have maps? I was told they do so because they seek a hidden treasure. That interested me a bit. Just a bit.
After a time and two child births I visisted a local museum as there was a programme for children. I was very suprised to hear that the museum wanted to present their geocaching game for children.
How does it work, this geocaching? Well, I think it quite differs whether you play a variation for children which might bequite primitive, or a game foradult/teenagecachers and supercachers as they call them selves. As I know the variation for children better I am going to tell you about that.
If you want to join a hunt for caches you should choose one.There are several caches active and you may find the list of them on geocaching.com. We decided to try the one from our local museum where each cachehunt was accompanied by a fairy-tale motivating children to hike and hunt.
The easiest are really primitive – you are given a fairy-tale, coordinates and you must find a cache. It may look like a box. After finding it you sign into a log book, put a stamp into your passport (if you need any for your game) or swap some treasure and hide the box again. You must be very careful not to be seen by any one and to hide the box just to its right place.
Then there are multicaches. It means you have to go through several stages where you gather information needed for final stage or final cache. Or would you like to try a mystery cache?
One day we set off to find our first multicache. It was nearby, maybe six kilometres from our home. When in the town we chose quiet ways with almost no traffic then headed for the woods. Children were looking forward to finding a treasure. They worked hard to answer the questions, count the windows and find the missing numbers. We were nearly at the end. The last thing to do was to find a no tetelling us where thet reasure was. But itwasn´t there. Some one must have stolen it and thusspoiled our caching hunt. These things happen sometimes. Can you imagine the dissappointed faces?
Now you know what geocaching is you may try it. It is a good fun and you may have a nice time with your friends. But even if you don´t join the club you no wunder stand how important it is not to move the caches away.
