I have recentley found myself addicted to a new hobby. Geocaching. After I bought my Garmin Nuvi 200 at the end of last year, I wanted to use it for more than just driving around. So I signed up on Geocaching.com, which is a really great site, that lists all the geocaches around the world.
Well, what is a Geocaching ? Straight from the Geocaching website:
Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.
So armed with my Garmin Nuvi, I have set out and so far found 3 geocaches, hidden in and around my area. The Nuvi 200 isn’t the ideal GPS device for this hobby, but it does work. The Nuvi 200 is an “automotive GSP”, which will direct you to the genral area, but viewing the actual GPS coordinates, is quite tricky. I have put up a post on GPSBlog.co.za on how to use your Nuvi 200 for geocaching.
I have also since managed to get my hands on a Garmin eTrex H, which is a hand held GPS, that allows you to get right to the cache. This really helps when it comes to getting to the actual spot of the cache, and directs you in the correct direction as well as giving the distance to the cache.
This is a really exciting hobby, and with loads of these hidden spots all over, you will be greatly surprised how many are right around you without even knowing. Sign up on the Geocaching website to join the fun.
