Weekend Workouts Blog Post Two: Geocaching
What on earth is Geocaching? It’s a treasure hunt with something for everyone! Using map coordinates and a GPS enabled device or smart phone, you can find a geocache (container placed at specific map co-ordinates) near your home, in the city, in the bush or even in Antarctica! Geocaches come in all shapes and sizes too. You can find a tiny little one as smaller than your fingernail, or a huge geocache with exciting 'treasures' inside. It can be as easy or as hard as you like to make it. You can drive up to your geocache and spot it from the car, they may be at your local park, at the end of a long hike, underwater or on the side of a city street.
Image source: www.geocaching.com
To go Geocaching all you need is a GPS device or a mobile phone with a GPS function. Go to http://geocaching.com.au/
Choose a geocache:
- Click on the map for your state, move the map to your home location then select a geocache. OR
- Enter your post code in the Postcode search box and click 'Search Now'. OR
- Enter your locality in the Locality search box and click 'Search Now'.
Then:
- Choose any geocache from the list and click on its name.
- Enter the coordinates of the geocache into your GPS device or load the geocache name into a geocaching app on your smart phone.
- Use your GPS device of smartphone to navigate yourself to find the geocache. GA Cacher for Android Geosphere for Apple
- Sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location.
- Log your adventure online. (optional)
Geocaches are rated according to a scale that measures their difficulty to find and terrain where the cache is located or the terrain you need to traverse to get to the geocache site.
Finding a difficulty 1 geocache should take only a few moments, a difficulty 2 or 3 may take you 15 minutes to an hour searching for the geocache, whereas a difficulty 5 may takes some weeks of puzzle solving.
A terrain 1 geocache should be able to be found by someone in a wheelchair or crutches whereas a terrain 5 may require abseiling, tree climbing or other specialised skills like diving!
Geocaches also have a size ranging from nano through to large and all sizes in between.
Finding a nano geocache, which can be smaller than your fingernail, can be a significant challenge, a small is around 200ml and may take a little while to think through where it may be hidden, whereas finding a large, which is generally 20 litres or larger, shouldn't be too troublesome at all.
When searching for your first few geocaches, choose a traditional geocache type where the difficulty is low, the terrain is low and the size is small or larger.
You should also check the latest logs from the geocache page itself to make sure that there are no unattended issues with the geocache and that it hasn't recently been reported as missing.
Be environmentally conscious when searching for a geocache. You may be searching in some creature’s home. Do not rip or shred the area. Be gentle and kind to the environment.
Geocaching is a great way to get out and about and have some fun while being physically active; it can be done as a solo mission or with a group of friends or your family. Just keep safety in mind at all times. We recommend you go in pairs or bigger groups. If heading out alone, let someone know before you go!
Has anyone tried Geocaching before?
In this Week’s Exercise News
“Physical activity: Exercise hope for treatment of tumours”
Edith Cowan University recently revealed the impact of exercise on reducing tumour growth, but until now patients were told to avoid putting stress on tumours.
But the research reveals the exact opposite could be true, particularly for patients in advanced stages of cancer.
Nicolas Hart from ECU’s Exercise Medicine Research Institute is encouraging patients with bone metastases to change their exercise regime.
Dr Hart said clinical evidence suggested up to a 60 per cent “survival benefit” in patients with advanced cancer that had metastasised to the bone who exercised.
West Australian, 8/4/2016, page 9
