Simply put, geocaching is an entertaining sport for the whole family where you find hidden 'treasure' using a handheld GPS unit together with information obtained from the geocaching website. This information allows you to get close enough to the hidden cache to be able to find it. Participants of the sport place geocaches in areas, hiding them for others to find.

Some caches are very easy to find whereas others require complicated tasks or problems to be solved before the location of the hidden 'treasure' is revealed. The cache can range in size from a tiny nano-cache to tupperware boxes and old ammunition boxes. The cache will always contain a log book for you to record your visit and depending on the size of the cache you will find items to trade. All a visitor is asked to do is if they take something they should leave something in the cache for others.

What is a hand held GPS?

A handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) is an electronic device that utilises a series of geostationary military satellites to determine your approximate location on the planet. It is usually accurate to approximately 6-20 feet. It gives co-ordinates in a number of different formats but the Longtitude and Latitude format are the ones used for geocaching. Geocaching is probably the only sport where you get to use £12Bn of military hardware. Some units have altimeters, electronic compasses, voice navigation and built in mapping depending on the cost and complexity of the device. Basic models can be obtained for as little as £80.

You don't need know all the technical features of the GPS system to play Geocaching. You only need to be able to enter a "waypoint" (the latitude and longtitude) of where the geocache is hidden. The GPS will then guide you to your objective but once there you will need to use the Mark 1 Eyeball to actually find the hidden cache.