WHETHER you need to run, walk or drive to complete the find, geocaching is not the latest phase, but rather one which has been around for several years that is slowly building more and more in popularity.
President of the Geocaching NSW Association, James Finger, Sydney, said geocaching is a free to play hobby which involved finding hidden containers hidden by other players at a point of interest, whether it be historical or picturesque.
“Players publish GPS coordinates on the website for people to find the container,” Mr Finger said.
“There's usually an explanation note, a log book and a pen to sign it once found, then people then log on to the website to record what they've found and it lets the person know you found it.”
Mr Finger said geocaching started around early May 2000 in Australia.
“Its big rise in popularity was in five years, when you generally needed an expensive GPS unit to participate and people weren't really that keen on spending the money,” he said.
“Because most smartphones now have GPS's built in and a number of geocaching apps available, it’s easier to stumble across.
“People are more aware of GPS technology with Google maps and a lot of geocaching activities rely on the technology.”
He said 10 years ago nobody really knew about the geocaching hobby until smartphones arrived with GPS capable technology.
“Geocaching is a very flexible hobby with any ability level, and it's not competitive,” Mr Finger said.
“There are 14,000 geocaches in NSW and 2.8 million in the world, so you are never too far away for geocaching.”
He said when geocaching first started out it was biased towards 20 to 30 year old males who were heavily into bush walking and orienteering activities.
“The hobby started out very seriously in outdoor areas like national parks, was something of a walk to find them and took some navigation skills in regional/bushy areas, but now some are hidden in very central locations,” he said.
“We get a lot of retirees – grey nomades involved, they find tens of thousands of them, they've got the time and the energy keeps them active.
“Its got a massive following.”
He said geocaching can be wheel chair friendly and is of interest to young families who can take their kids on the proverbial treasure hunt.
“There are different ratings to different interest levels,” Mr Finger said.
“You can take kids on a treasure hunt or a three day hike through the Blue Mountains, but young families are very popular as it gets them outside.”
Jessica Frecklington
Markets writer and special publications/group advertising features journalist for The Land newspaper.
Markets writer and special publications/group advertising features journalist for The Land newspaper.
