Did you hear the story about "the dutch cakes" ? Some Dutch tourists 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 :-)

What is Geocaching ?

Geocaching is a new "treasure hunt" hobby which relies on the Internet, GPS, and peoples willingness to get outside, in the open air, away from their PC or Television - occasionally at least :-) It only started 18 months ago, in the USA, when the Americans switched off the deliberate error which had degraded the accuracy of GPS systems. Since May 2000, any cheap (e.g. £50) hand-held GPS receiver will pinpoint your position to a yard or two.

Dave Ulmer in the USA hid a box of "treasure" (a "Geocache") and posted the exact position (in latitude longitude) on a web site - challenging someone to find it. By January this year there were about 300 caches worldwide, and this rapidly increased to over 10,000 geocaches, with the numbers growing at over 10% per month. Of the million people who own a GPS in the USA, still only 30,000 know about Geocaching. In the UK there are probably fewer than 100,000 people who own a GPS and a few hundred who know about Geocaching - but these numbers are expected to grow rapidly. As more people participate, there will be more caches to find.

Geocaching may be the hobby that makes millions of UK consumers buy a GPS - bringing prices down - and acts as a boost to people getting "out into the country". Americans are already visiting UK to visit Geocaches located near tourist sites. Many businesses will benifit from this hobby, including Tourism and the good old Pub :-)

What does a Geocacher do ?

A GeoCacher will hide a container in an interesting location (historical, scenic, personal importance), and will post the GPS coordinates to a GeoCaching web site. The posting will include the latitude longitude coordinates, a cache difficulty level, a terrain difficulty level, and a description of the area and/or container contents. Other GeoCachers will seek the cache at the coordinates, and if they find it, they will take an item, leave an item, make a log entry into the log book, and then post an entry at the web site. If unsuccessful, they will just post an entry at the web site. Getting to the location is half of the problem, finding the cache is the other.

Why is Robin telling you about Geocaching ?

Hi ! I'm Robin Lovelock, and yes - I do have a vested business interest in Geocaching taking off in a big way Worldwide. But this is an indirect interest, in the same way that Pub landlords may benifit, or the UK tourist industry may receive a much needed boost.
As I say on the GEOCACHE page of my web site, www.gpss.co.uk,
" 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 :-) " My GPS Software has already been on UK TV over a dozen times (see ASONTV page) so I am no stranger to what good publicity can do. If ten times more people buy a GPS in the next two years, I have overseas partners who may benifit, and I may benifit also.

But this story is not about my GPS Software - it is simply some good news at a time when that seems rare. If you want to know more about Geocaching, please give me a call - I'm sure I can find someone to loan you their GPS while you give this hobby a try
- who knows: you may even get hooked on Geocaching yourself :-)

Robin Lovelock, Sunninghill in UK, October 2001.
22 Armitage Court, Sunninghill, Ascot SL5 9TA, UK.
Tel: 01344 620775. Email: gpss@compuserve.com Web site: www.gpss.co.uk