So what is this geocaching all about

'We are meeting up with the Moneypenny's  tomorrow to go geocaching.' my wife announced one Saturday
'What on earth is geocaching?' I replied
'It's a treasure hunt using a smart phone app' and so it was, on a damp Sunday morning that I was introduced to an activity that would become a major part of our lives over the next year.
We met just outside the town centre with our mobile phones loaded with an app downloaded from http://www.geocaching.com/ Clearly The Moneypenny's had done this activity before and the two children were raring to go. '
First of all you choose a 'cache' to find from the site, Tina explained 'and then using the app let the compass guide you to the hidden treasure'
Off we went, and as luck would have it, (or a quite word from Tina to her two children) our son found it. From that moment on he was hooked, and come to that so was my wife. They pulled out the little scroll of paper and excitedly signed us in.
'Is that it? I asked, as I have to admit that I was not so impressed, we seemed to spend a lot of time trying to look inconspicuous when members of the public walked past and covered about 600yards in an hour and a half to find two or three caches which are no more than plastic boxes hidden in the undergrowth.


As time has gone on, we now spend a lot of our spare time planning routes around geocaches and walking in the countryside with a GPS device in our hand taking two paces one way and three in another, rummaging in undergrowth, being stung by nettles, climbing trees and up to our ankles in mud. It was only recently that upon reflection that I realised how much I was beginning to enjoy this activity as much as my wife and son. As caches available to find in our home town have dried up we have had to expand further afield.  I generally trudge along at the back, with my camera in hand taking photographs of the flora and fauna of new these new found pastures, whilst the other two scamper off to hunt for the next secret location.
And there lies the attraction for me, firstly I get to spend a lovely day out in the fresh air with my family and secondly I have visited parts of Hertfordshire that I would otherwise have never seen. More importantly, it gets my son away from the computer and out exercising.
We have even planned holidays around geocaching; There seems to be two kinds of cache hiders, the ones who like to invent clever ways to hide their caches, and the kind who love the countryside and take great delight in sharing their favourite view, walk or a secret location. Organisations like The National Trust lay trails with information about the history of the local area.
I cannot get as obsessed as my family about finding a cache; they will make return journeys to ones we could not find, but I will go out on my bike with my son to pick up a new one on the other side of town.
A year and a half on we have found just short of a 1000 caches and counting.