Geocoaching

If you’d asked me exactly what geocaching was before I started researching it for this article, I’d probably have had to tell you to “Google it!”

For me, prior to typing it in Google, I guessed it was something to do with social media targeting, or else to do with mobile phone technology. I was sort of right, but not quite.

As it turns out, my guess that it was connected to mobile phones wasn’t a million miles away from the real answer: there is an official Geocaching app for both iOS and Android phones at geocaching.com. When I opened the site, it immediately told me that there are 605 geocaches in the Marbella area. I was surprised. For whatever reason, I imagined that this activity hadn’t reached Marbella yet, or that it wouldn’t particularly interest anyone here. How wrong was I?

WHAT IS GEOCACHING?

Quite simply, geocaching is an outdoor activity in which an item, or a container holding a number of items, is hidden at a particular location for GPS users to find by means of coordinates and other clues posted at a geocaching website.

It was first played in Beavercreek, Orgeon in May 2000, so it has been around for some time, and apparently is a modern version of the 160-year-old game letterboxing. I’ve never heard of that either, but there is an explanation of it at Wikipedia. I won’t bore you with the details here.

Text by Eleanor McKenzie