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Try to cache up with craze

Angela Kelly
18/ 6/2008

AN ADVENTURE game which has millions of fans around the world is proving a hit in the north west.

Geocaching is a kind of hi-tech treasure hunt with GPS – the global positioning system that uses satellites orbiting the earth to determine the location of anything on the planet.

Individuals and groups set up caches – hiding places for small items – and share the locations with others via the internet. Others then use the GPS location co-ordinates to find the cache, or reward.

One site proving particularly popular is Tatton Park, Knutsford, where two hidden ‘stashes’ have been attracting excited visitors intent on finding them.

Although geocaching is a relatively modern phenomenon, miners and explorers have always hidden caches of food or equipment to use later. Geocaching itself is similar to the 150-year-old Letterboxing, which uses references to landmarks and clues embedded in stories.

When GPS became available for general use on May 1, 2000, however, it gave the activity a major boost, opening it up through the net to many more people. Today, more than half a million geocaches are registered on websites internationally, with geocaches placed in more than 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents – even in Antarctica.

If just getting the co-ordinates and finding the cache sounds easy, think again.

First of all, you need a GPS unit to navigate to the location you want. Some mobile phone now have this facility. You enter into it what is called a ‘waypoint,’ which is where the geocache is hidden.

Typical cache treasures are not necessarily valuable, but may hold personal significance to the finder. There is usually a logbook in which to put your details if you find the cache, a pen and pencil and sometimes a small gift. The real fun is in the hunt.

Tim Birtles, estate manager at Tatton Park, said: "Geocaching is ideal for people to explore the parkland in an entirely new and exciting way."

Peter O’Brien, alias PANDEMI (geocachers often have nom de plumes), set up one of the Tatton Park geocaches.

The 46-year-old Knutsford managing director got into geocaching a year ago, thanks to his three children.

It was a fun type of treasure hunt and a way of getting all the family out together in the fresh air, he explained.

"The Tatton Park geocache is actually in three parts, with each one providing clues to the next," he said. "It’s all linked to a fictional incident involving an ‘alien landing’ at the park in 1953 and takes people over two to three miles of the parkland."

Peter said that there are more and more people taking part in geocaching in the UK and that "everyone is about a mile from a geocache, with Cheshire and the north west particularly good places to go geocaching because there are so many caches to find."

Some caches are just simple boxes with a logbook inside, "but others are puzzles to solve," he added.

"The other on in Tatton is called The Cache Death of the UK. It was put there by a chap called the Pieman and involves a quite intricate puzzle."

People take part in geocaching for a variety of reasons, said Peter.

"Some do it to find as many caches as possible and record them. But it is certainly popular. I put a new one on our website (www.pandemi.co.uk) at 6pm one Saturday evening, and by 8pm someone had found it!"

Geocaching has certainly allowed Peter to appreciate his local area more.

"I’ve found places in Knutsford I never knew existed by going out and about geocaching," he said.

To find out more visit www.geocaching.com.