James Galvin

Today I discovered that Sam, at work, is a geocacher. I was amazed that I had never heard of this activity before - the global GPS cache hunt. Its like a secret society of Boo Radleys who hide little treasure boxes throughout the world, and give, on the internet, the GPS co-ordinates for clues that will lead to the cache. There are hundreds of these caches in Ireland alone, and Sam himself has located around 14 caches in Dublin.

The cache itself is usually a box, well hidden under stones or in some secret location, with a log book and some trinkets within. If you discover the cache, you sign the log book and can take souvenir out of the box if you want, although it is recommended that you replace it with an item of your own. The whole concept was fascinating to me, so I asked Sam for a real example. Dublin Castle was the one he gave. Somewhere in the walls of Dublin Castle, unknown to the hundreds of staff and tourists that pass by its hidden location every day, is a secret cache. Occasionally a geocacher will have targetted this particular quest, and following the clues, may or may not find the box and leave his signature.

Each cache is marked with a level of difficulty, and an indication of how difficult the terrain is. Having quickly looked over the website, it seems this is a popular family activity, so there is advance warning given if the cache is going to be located inside a volcano or something. I was slightly concerned about the prospect of saboteurs… people who go around stealing all the caches, or planting explosives or unsavoury material inside of them, but this doesn’t happen at the moment. One of these days, some geo cacher is going to be diagnosed with a terminal illness and inside the cache will be the keys to his Ferrari. It is rare that caches are discovered by the public, but the cache owner returns occasionally to check on it.

Here is a sample of the clues from a random Irish cache:

1. Go to the location above. You will find an unusual piece of art by Doug Ross. It was erected in 19A8. Make a note of this decade as you will need the answer for the final cache. In order to find the coordinates for the next stage you need to obtain the following information: The title of the piece has how many letters? Call this answer a and go to N53º 04.110 W006º 12.a65

2. At this location you will see a sign post. A famous film was made around this area. How many letters are in the title of the film? Call this answer b and input it into the following coordinates in order to be able to move forward to the next stage: N53º 03.(b-5)16 W006º 11.166

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7. You now find yourself outside a pub in the heart of the village. Either call in for a pint of the black stuff or make a note of the phone number hanging on the sign outside, 01 281?247. Call this answer C. You will need this for the final cache location.

8. Almost there! Go to N53º 03.950 W006º 13.457. You should see a two digit yellow number. Take the second digit and call it D. You can now input the final cache location numbers A,B,C & D collected on your trip around the reservoir to find the final cache and it’s goodies!

What a great hobby. Sounds like an entertaining way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and you get to see lots of places that you never would have visited otherwise. Many of the caches are placed in locations that the instigator would deem to be remarkable… perhaps there is a great view, or an unusually shaped tree.

I’m going to turn my head and never look at geo caching again, because I generally don’t do half-measures when it comes to hobbies. If I got hooked on geocaching, I would be looking for caches all over the world, and planting my own caches in the most ridiculous places. I have been to some inaccessible places in the past - on Fastnet Rock for example, or on a glacier on a remote island in Patagonia - and I would struggle to resist hiding my own caches in these places. I would be climing cliff faces and lodging the little box into a falcon’s empty nest, or securing it inside some submerged wreck. Tip: don’t try it at an airport.