Combining orienteering and satellite navigation technology, geocaching brings treasure hunting into the 21st century. Ahead of Scotland’s first mega geocaching event, involving thousands of participants, Jack McKeown headed for the wilds of Perthshire to see what all the fuss is about.
The clouds close in overhead as I arrive in Broxden car park to meet Dave Walsh and Sue Roberts, and as we set off, a steady downpour begins.
Conditions are not ideal for tramping around the Perthshire countryside looking for cunningly hidden boxes, but this is Scotland and all you can do is make the best of it.
Dave and Sue are geocaching fanatics, volunteers who are organising the largest geocaching event to be held in Scotland, starting on July 28.
The hobby involves following a set of co-ordinates entered into a GPS device to a location, then using clues to find where a cache (usually a Tupperware box) is hidden.
The boxes contain a variety of goodies such as toys and crayons, as well as a logbook where visitors leave a message and the date they were there. They can take the box’s contents (apart from the logbook) but must replace them with items of the same value and then go online to leave a message about their experience.
We head out on a circuit round Little Glenshee. Many of the names for caches involve clues and Sue asks me to speculate on where Wriggly Tin might be found.
I’m still puzzling over it five minutes later when we round a bend and come upon an old shack made of corrugated iron on the edge of some moorland. Aha! I’m beginning to get into this.
We stop at a cache called Drum Harrow Burn. After parking the car we splash across a small stream into some woods. I’ve borrowed Sue’s handheld GPS device. An arrow points the direction we’ve to take and the distance counts down in feet until we’re at the spot.
A few moments hunting around uncovers a plastic box stashed underneath a tree stump a few yards from the path. I sign the logbook plugging this article and we dash through the rain back to the car.
My other hat is The Courier’s motoring writer and I’m road testing a Land Rover Discovery its go-anywhere opulence helps us negotiate the drab day in comfort.
“These are called ‘drive-bys’ or ‘cache and dash’,” Sue explains. “The caches are quite close to the road so you’re not out of the car for long. Other caches involve long walks but these are ideal for rainy days like this.”
Caches are rated in difficulty order of one to five. One is the easiest and should be suitable for children, the elderly and wheelchair users to get to. Five-star caches are quite the opposite, involving long hikes up mountains or arduous treks into ravines.
As a fitness fanatic who worked in outdoor education for years, these are Dave’s speciality. “I put a cache in Dumyat, in the Ochils,” he explains. “It involves fighting through gorse bushes, then an hour of scrambling to get to a gully.
“Since I put it there only one person has found it and a couple of others have been up and looked but not found it.”
Geocaching started life in America 10 years ago and its rules and governance stem from there. It costs nothing to participate in; all people have to do is set up a free account at www.geocaching.com which gives access to the location of caches in their area and all over the world.
Dave and Sue both got involved in geocaching two years ago and have since become addicted. “I started in June 2008 and by August I had found and set over 100 caches,” Dave says.
The scale of the pastime is quite surprising. At least 1000 little Tupperware boxes are hidden in Perthshire alone and there are over 8000 in Scotland.
A search on geocaching.com using my home postcode in Dundee reveals 275 results within a 10-mile radius. Widening it to 100 miles causes the number to leap to nearly 7000. According to the site there are caches hidden in Caird Park, in various city churches, in between Dens Park and Tannadice (this one’s called Spitting Distance) and even on or around HMS Unicorn at City Quay.
You can also use Google Maps to search for geocaches and get an aerial view of the terrain they’re hidden in.
Though a harmless activity, geocaching has accidentally generated controversy, particularly in the United States where cachers have been approached by police after being seen acting suspiciously. Several schools have been evacuatedand a number of caches have even been destroyed by bomb squads.
Fortunately the British public and authorities are a little more sensible and a lot less trigger happy than our cousins across the pond.
“I’m always careful not to plant caches within sight of schools,” explains Sue. “It’s better to be cautious in the society we live in it’s probably best if an adult isn’t seen rummaging around in the undergrowth near a school.”
“It’s definitely better out in the countryside,” Dave agrees. “I’m a dog walker, which is helpful because if someone spots me looking under tree roots in the middle of some woods they assume I’m looking for the dog’s ball or something.”
He adds, “It’s a good thing the dog can’t talk or he’d give me away.”
Those in the geocaching community call non-cachers “muggles” after the term for non-magical people in the Harry Potter series.
There are many variations on geocaching. One of the more interesting is called the travel bug. “It’s where you put an item in a box that you want to get to a destination,” Sue explains.
“A recent example was a little metal bear. A girl wanted to see if she could get it to travel from Perth to Germany. Each time someone found the cache with it in, they took it and moved it to a cache a little closer to the destination. The bear made it all the way from Perth to Bavaria that way.”
A series of large geocaching events is planned as one of the main highlights of the Perth 800 programme, celebrating eight centuries since the city was founded.
A week-long gathering culminating on Saturday will see several thousand geocachers from all over the world descend on Perthshire.
“Big Tree Country gave us £1500 to buy containers and fill them with some really good stuff. I’ve bought hundreds of containers I get a load of them every time I’m in my local store. They must think I’m a little bit mad.”
We spend the afternoon tramping about Craigvinean Forest, in the heart of Big Tree Country, and reach Pinecone Point. After appreciating the panoramic views (through patches of rising mist on this day) across the River Tay to Dunkeld, we hunt around until we find the cache that’s stashed a few yards from the viewing point.
I sign the logbook and we start back towards the car park, sheltered from the drizzle by the forest canopy.
Judging by the number of caches hidden around Perthshire alone, and the dozens of entries in every logbook, the activity is experiencing a boom in popularity.
“There’s no reason why it shouldn’t,” Dave reckons. “The technology is dead easy these days and everybody has it. You don’t need expensive equipment and apart from the cost of petrol it’s completely free.
“It’s great for families, dog walkers and it’s a sneaky way to get children outdoors and learning about nature without them even realising it.”The Mega Geocaching Event schedule:July 28: To the heart of it A guided tour and geocaching trail taking you on a gentle stroll through the heart of Perthshire Big Tree Country. You will be led past follies and waterfalls following in the footsteps of composers and poets, dukes and rebels, before reaching Pinecone Point, one of the best viewpoints in Perthshire. July 29: A Mega Day out in the Country You are invited to join a geocachers’ day out in the village of Braco, between Perth and Stirling. The event will be organised from the village hall which is an ideal base for cachers dropping by for refreshments, to meet other cachers, chat, and for walking from. The purpose of the event is to provide an enjoyable day’s caching in rural Perthshire, based in a location which is family friendly, with a selection of nearby caches including cache ‘n’ dashes, walks in the country, historical sites and good opportunities to see a wide variety of wildlife.July 29: Mega Adventure after Dark Pitmedden Forest, one of the darkest places around Perth, is the perfect location for a series of night cache challenges! The start time is 8pm when caching teams will head off around the forest at five-minute intervals. On the way you will encounter various tasks and challenges that just have to be done in the dark, before finding the final prize. Keep your eyes and ears open!July 30: Mega Woofy Event The Mega Scotland canine event will consist of a series of caches along a route in stunning scenery. There will be lots of caches, including canine-only caches and a few surprises. The event will rely on cacher and geodog working together, as all good caching teams do! All are welcome. Those without dogs will be able to team up with canine cachersJuly 31: Mega Kinnoull Walk A chance to explore part of Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park and learn a bit about the area. Your hosts the countryside rangers are a very enthusiastic bunch and are busy organising a route for you all to enjoy.For more information and to take part go to www.megascotland.co.uk To get involved in geocaching go to www.geocaching.com And for more ideas for things to do out and about in Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com/perfect