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Hi ! Only a few months ago I did not know what "Geocaching" was:
but when I found out I was quickly converted.
George Chung, near San Diego in USA, registered GPSS, and said he was
going to use it for Geocaching - so I asked what it was.
I rapidly became enthusiastic about geocaching because it has enormous
scope to popularise GPS to a much wider audience: this indirectly helps
my GPS Software business. It is also great fun :-) I've spoken by 'phone
to the most prominent players, and planted 32 caches in the south of UK.
This has provided invaluable feedback from everyone currently involved
in the hobby - most importantly from those who run the geocaching web sites
and those who actually visit the caches. I've teamed up with Tony Wale
to promote Geocaching in the UK and Worldwide, and we have a new web site
on
www.gpshobby.info
This site provides the
introduction to Geocaching originally on this page. It also suggests
guidelines to those running Geocaching web sites that may help them
cope with the number of geocachers rising a hundred-fold in the next
year or two. It provides an objective and non-commercial "big picture"
of geocaching - which you may not find on the excellent but competing
geocaching sites. This frees up this page, and others linked to it,
to concentrate on where Geocaching overlaps with GPSS or products
used for geocaching like software, hand-held GPS, and mobile 'phones
with geocaching support. More news on these topics soon.
Robin Lovelock, Sunninghill in UK, December 2001.
Make sure you pay a regular visit to
www.gpshobby.info
For information on GPSS-Geocaching visit the
GPSS Geocaching Software Page.
Press Release from Robin :
www.gpss.co.uk/news.htm
I am enthusiastic about geocaching because it has enormous scope
to popularise GPS to a much wider audience: this helps my GPS Software business.
It is also great fun :-)
I'm a great believer in meeting people face-to-face, or at least
speaking directly on the 'phone. It's often the quickest and most
direct way to find out what's really going on behind the facade
of a web site - not all are as "up front" about their owners as mine :-)
My most recent 'phone conversations were with Dave Ulmer, who started
it all when he planted the first geocache in May 2000. He has some
interesting ideas, including that sometimes the "place" is much
more important than "what's in the box".
In September there were 'phone calls
between myself Robin, Jeremy Irish and Bryan Roth
who own and maintain the geocaching.com web site (Grounded Inc).
Contact was also been made with Dan Foster, founder of TopoGrafix, the
software company behind EasyGPS, ExpertGPS, and PanTerra.
More recently there have been 'phone conversations with the
owners of two other Geocaching web sites: Quinn Stone of navicache.com
and Jeremy Hurst of geocachingworldwide.com
I understand that all these enterprises are even smaller in size
and resources than even my own small GPS Software business.
However this may change rapidly if geocaching takes off worldwide,
and the numbers of participants rise into the hundreds of thousands,
or even millions. These pioneers are to be congratulated on what they
have already achieved with skill, hard work and a significant part
of their own spare time.
The software described on the
GPSS Geocaching Software Page
enables
EasyGPS downloads from geocaching.com to be converted
into the simpler format used within GPSS. In the long term
it is possible that changes made to geocaching web sites and/or
GPSS will provide more elegant and "neater" solutions.
My priority now is to obtain user feedback from those Geocachers
who use GPSS.
The information below is now superceded by
www.gpshobby.info
but captures our first experiences of the hobby.
Note: our nearest geocache are now the ones that
we hid ourselves - see above :-)
A quick visit to
geocaching.com
shows that you need to know your lat/lon in WGS84 degrees,
rather than in degrees and minutes. Our home in Sunninghill,UK is
at 51 23.82 N 0 39.60 W (GPSS format 512382N0003960W),
so dividing the 23.82 and 39.60 minutes by 60 I get 51.397, -0.66.
I put this into the form provided, and the site comes back
with the list of closest Geocache sites.
We didn't fancy wandering around a graveyard south of us near Woking
in Surrey, but the church and pub west of us, along the Nine Mile Ride
caught my eye :-) I lived near here until I was about 5, and
think I can remember visiting that church as a toddler.
The information in the list, for this site included
"The Queens Oak" by Richard and Beth". Clicking on DETAILS
gave more information, including pictures, and the all-important
lat/lon:
So this went
straight into GPSS on the Laptop as 512210N0005170W.
However, to be safe, I also multiplied the 0.096 and 0.698
by 60, to convert to minutes, so my
THURAYA GPS/GSM/Satellite 'phone
could also be used (without the Laptop). This GPS only reads
out location in degrees, minutes and seconds.
So we were all ready for the hunt.
Maybe next time I will put a list of sites into GPSS.LOC
or a special GPSS GTX file.
NOTE: this capability to support Geocaching is now in v5.2 of GPSS
on the
GPSS Download Page.
Please also see
GPSS Geocaching Software Page.
The big surprise was when we opened the box and read
the log book at 1300. The previous couple (from Winchester?)
had been there only 30 minutes before, at 1230.
The couple before (from Holland?) were there at 1200 !
I could not believe how frequently visited these sites must be.
We left a couple of the latest
GPSS "FREE" CD
but did not take anything - this time :-)
We used the little camera in the box to take a picture of both of us.
I also took these pictures with my camcorder.
Did you hear the story about "the dutch cakes" ? The Dutch couple
left some cakes in the "Queens Oak" cache, and wrote that they would try and
find "The Molebowl" next. The Winchester couple took the cakes,
found the Molebowl cache first, put in the cakes, then hid in the
bushes - to watch the faces of a very surprised Dutch couple :-)
On the Monday Bank Holiday, June and I hid our first Geocache.
The "Virginia Water" Geocache is at N51°24.585' W000°37.187' (WGS-84),
or, in degrees, minutes and seconds, N51°24'35.1"W000°37'11.22",
or in GPSS 15 character format: 512459N0003719W.
The black plastic toolbox* is hidden under a large fallen tree,
a few yards inside
Virginia Water Royal Lake Park, from inside Blacknest Carpark.
The map below can be downloaded from the
UKDOWN page, used with GPSS, or just printed.
If you walk the few minutes from "The Robin" to Blacknest carpark, you will also
pass "Moss Cottage" where June lived as a girl - until Robin came
along :-)
Virginia Water has a large lake, perhaps two miles across,
but many more miles around it - if you choose to take a stroll:
Allow two or three hours for all the lake. Alternatively, go north
through the woods until the lake, then east as far as "The Wheatsheaf".
After "refreshments" there, make your way back for more at "The Robin" :-)
On the way to the Wheatsheaf you will pass landmarks such as the "Ruins"
and then the "Cascade" (waterfall). The Totem Pole is north, past The Wheatsheaf.
Five Arch Bridge
is in the west - not far from Blacknest Gate - just north of The Robin Pub.
We started with a tupperware box, but on 3rd September we put
in a larger black plastic toolbox, after one of the "finders"
reported there was no room to add "goodies" :-)
On Sunday 2nd Sep. June and I hid the "Sunninghill Victory Field"
geocache at N 51° 24.267 W 000° 39.507 (WGS-84) - see
www.geocaching.com
See "Geocaches hidden by Robin and June" above for all our hidden gecaches.
UK Geocaches hidden by Robin and June
In the few months since we found out about Geocaching,
we planted 32 caches and the details onto all three
geocaching sites: navicache.com, geocaching.com and
geocachingworldwide.com. Those on geocaching.com are
"archived" (hidden) but still available. You can access these cache pages via our
Lovelock Geocache page,
which also explains why they are hidden on geocaching.com.
Old "Robin & June Geocaching" Material
Choosing a Geocache
N 51° 22.096 W 000° 51.698 (WGS-84)
GPSS would guide us there, down to the last yard, by entering
`512210N0005170W
d
Finding the Geocache
Being guided to the location, at 512382N0003960W,
between pub and church was no problem at all
- see "Choosing a Geocache" above. We parked in
the pub car park - where we both had a nice drink afterwards,
and cheeseburgers cooked up on a barbecue outside.
There's June and myself on the left, within a few yards of the Geocache.
There's that very nice pub on the right. We will probably come back
again, since there are a few public footpaths we have not yet trodden.
I walked close to the Geocache spot carrying Laptop and GPS, feeling pretty silly,
since there were crowds of others at a wedding :-)
I will not tell you the exact location, but it was
pretty obvious and easy to find, in a tupperware box.
Hiding a Geocache
This Blacknest Carpark
cost £1.50 in English coins to enter. However, a few minutes walk
west is the free car park of "The Robin" Pub. I'm sure
the landlord will not mind you using his carpark, if you call in for a drink
or a meal afterwards ;-)
Here we are on the left, near the location, and on the right,
near "The Robin" Public House.
The box* was filled with logbook, Christmas cracker "goodies",
and GPSS "Free" CDs - and a camera (with flash) for finders to take
their picture - destined for this page perhaps ?
for details. This is at the opposite end of Sunninghill village
from 22 Armitage Court, where the corner of our front drive
is at N 51° 23.819 W 000° 39.593. The
Sunninghill village area is accurately mapped within the
GPSS Baseline