Last Thursday, I went to bed a bit upset: I was not able to find the two caches I wanted to do while in Athens. The first one was in an area that was closed for the evening, and the second one was unreachable without someone noticing me at that time. On Friday, I woke up one hour before, to be sure I would have the time to find another one not far from my hotel before going to the airport to take my flight back at home. After looking for 15 minutes, it was time to go back to the hotel if I didn’t want to miss my flight, but I wasn’t able to go back in Canada without at least, having one geocache behind my belly. I gave myself five more minutes, and surprise; I found that very tiny cache. I found it; it makes my day, I was now able to get back at home…
What this story is all about? It’s something call geocaching: it’s basically a treasure hunter game for the 21st century. Some people hide containers from really tiny, to big one all around the world: those could be hiding under a park bench, with a fence, under a rock… They can be right in front of you without you noticing it. People hide those in the city, in the forest, everywhere. Others, have the pleasure to try to find them, but also, find them without having others noticing it: if it was the case, some malicious people could move, remove, or destroy them. It’s a good way to have fun as there is this accomplishment feeling you get when you find one, like when I was desperate in Athens, and finally found it. There is also this “spy feeling” of achieving a mission without people noticing what you are really doing. It’s really something interesting, and all you need to play is a good GPS (you can use a phone to find the caches, but it will be harder), a pen, and some time to find those caches: once you get the geolocation, they can be everywhere, and everything! The treasure? The opportunity to sign your name with the date you find the cache on a small paper call log file. You can also, after, on your geocaching.com profile, brag about the caches you found. As you can see in the images below, I did caches in many places, but I’m also a beginner as I didn’t find a lot yet. There is a lot more about geocaching than signing the log file, but I’ll let you learn more about it yourself.
If you are a geocacher, add me on geocaching.com, and if you aren’t, try it! With geocaching, I have the pleasure to visit cities (even discovering my own), and feel like a spy that is looking for a real treasure. Who doesn’t need a bit on fantasy in his life?
