30 April 2020

Get fit for free – geocaching

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Have you made a promise to yourself be more active? Lots of us join a gym and plan to get fit, but after a few months we lose interest. There is another way! You don’t need to spend a fortune on gym memberships – you can get fit and have fun by doing loads of free outdoor activities across the county.

We’ve pulled together a series of blogs on the best ways to get fit for free. So if you’re up for getting more active, read on, and why not take a look at the whole series of blogs. Today we’re looking at geocaching – the outdoor treasure hunting game you can play anywhere.

Geocaching is a brilliant way to start exploring the outdoors and discovering hidden treasure. If you’re looking to add purpose to your walk in addition to looking at great views and getting fitter, geocaching is for you. Think of a walk with a treasure trail – and you’re pretty much there with geocaching, however this is not just for children – geocaching has a huge adult following so you won’t be alone, you’re joining a movement.

The purpose of geocaching is to hunt down small boxes known as caches hidden away on walks using a GPS enabled device – you can get started by simply downloading the official geocaching app onto your phone. Follow the co-ordinates of your chosen walk, connect the dots and solve the clues as you begin to hunt down the geocaches.

In the cache you’ll find a number of small random objects (no food items or anything of great value). If you take something from the cache, you need to replace it with an item of equal or greater value. Items placed in there need to be family friendly and suitable for the outdoors. Food items are not allowed! It will also contain a log book, so don’t forget to write about your find in there. Afterwards, write about your experience at geocaching.com – you’ll need to sign up for a free account which will give you access to some amazing geocaching tools and help you find your next geocache walk too.

Geocaching can take you around the world, there are literally millions of cache locations. There are nearly 20,000 caches waiting to be discovered in the south-east of England alone, which will certainly keep you busy if you’re looking to start a hobby! Caches can be found hidden anywhere, however they will never be buried nor cause harm to the land or wildlife – if you’re planning on putting your own geocache out there, make sure you’ve got permission and it’s not causing harm, damage or disturbance to the environment (no squashing nests or blocking rabbit holes).

Start geocaching and you’ll become part of an exciting community, and even better it’s completely free to get involved! You’ll quickly get the taste for this family-friendly activity as it’s suited to most age groups and abilities and you might just learn something new about your local area! Visit geocaching.com to get started.