Barking (N 51° 21.503 W 000° 03.365)

This cache is called Barking on Geocaching and was done by HouseOfDragons. It was quick to find the location, but took us about 5 minutes to find the cache which was cleverly hidden in the bushes, disguised as a branch, hanging off some fishing line. Alan and I decided to put the marble we took from the previous cache into this cache as the small pens we brought along would not fit. 

Forgot to take photos of the cache in the bushes as we were in a rush to get to the next one.

Completed on 30/01/2010

The cache with the marble we took from the previous cache

Map of the cache location

Dark Horse (N 51° 21.372 W 000° 03.556)

This cache is called Dark Horse on Geocaching and was the first cache Alan, JR and I did together. It took me about half an hour in the cold to get an application downloaded and installed onto my phone that would be able to direct us to the cache. Once we knew where we were going, the 3 of us headed off down a muddy trail. Thanks to the GPS position error, getting the exact spot was a bit difficult, but after much trial and error we worked out the spot we needed to look in. The cache is well camouflaged and I only found it purely by accident.

HouseOfDragons did an excellent job of hollowing out a small tree stump and hiding the small cache under it. The cache contained the usual log book and pencil, marbles and other bit and bobs.

We decided to take the large marble with us, but the small pens we brought with would not fit in the cache.

What this cache did was wet our appetite to find more :-)

Completed on 30/01/2010

The cache is hidden behind the log

And beneath it

The cache

Map of the cache location

Geocaching without a GPS

It is possible to go Geocaching without a GPS but rather difficult. We're spoilt with GPS devices telling us which direction to walk and how far we are from a cache, or even view our position on an electronic map.

Before May 2000 the American GPS system used Selective Availability to intentionally add an error of up to 100 meters - I knew first hand about this error because at the time I was writing software to track the position of fishing boats using GPS and Inmarsat-C for communication. Often large fishing boats in harbour would report back to the base station that they were docked 100 meters inland in the car park!

After Selective Availability was removed the GPS position error was reduced to 10 meters. This opened a whole new range of interesting and useful uses for GPS devices, like vehicle satellite navigation and more importantly Geocaching :)

In the photo:

• Compass
• Binoculars
• Ordnance Survey map (Biggin Hill Airport being highlighted)
  
• Zippo lighter
• Montb Blanc pen
• Smiths pocket watch
  

Introduction

What is Geocaching you might ask?

The definitions on Geocaching is:

"Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS device can then try to locate the geocache."

or

"Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online."

and the definition on Wikipedia is:

"Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container (usually a tupperware or ammo box) containing a logbook. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is most often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek", sharing many aspects with orienteering, treasure-hunting, and waymarking."