It seems there are an awful lot of grey nomads who are travelling in a parallel universe to each other. While the majority may look out of the window as they travel and see a pretty – but fairly empty – landscape, others see one filled with all manner of treasures and potential treasure-seeking adventures.
As keen geocachers, Michael and Helen Langley, are among those who see the potential adventures. And they think that non-geocaching grey nomads – or ‘Muggles’ as they call them – are missing out on some serious fun.
For the uninitiated, geocaching involves using a GPS or mobile device to hide and seek containers, called geocaches or caches, at specific locations marked by coordinates.
Helen and Michael love the ultimate hide-and-seek challenge of geocaching.
Caches can be found literally anywhere, with the cache sizes and types having an impact on hiding options.
Caches are rated in size, difficulty to find, and terrain. Michael and Helen first got into geocaching back in 2010 when their three children were still quite young.
Some geocaches can be fiendishly difficult to find.
“Going on two major road trips throughout Australia, geocaching provided entertainment,” said Michael.
“We would pull up at a park for lunch, someone would ask ‘I wonder if there is a cache here?’ … usually, after bringing the data up on the GPS, or map on the phone, there was!”
“Everything in a cache, other than the logbook, is referred to as ‘swag’,” said Michael. “These are usually trinkets of some sort for swapping and, generally, if you remove an item of swag, you’re expected to replace it with something else.”
All physical caches contain a logbook and signing the logbook with your caching name is required for logging a ‘find’.
Michael and Helen get away regularly on geocaching trips.
“Our usual routine is hitching up the van, heading a few hours from home, setting up in a caravan park or free camp, then heading out caching,” said Michael. “A normal caching day starts with a hearty breakfast in the van, we then drive out to find our first cache, and we’re usually driving back to the van ready for drinkies … we’ve been out all day!”
The couple’s favourite ‘find’ was at the summit of Mount Kosciuszko in February last year.
“This was part of a caching weekend organised by Geocaching NSW,” said Michael. “The Australian geocaching community is generally very aware of environment impacts and obtains relevant approvals in sensitive areas.”
While hiding and hunting caches is fun, so too is the parallel universe aspect of the hobby.
“Geocachers generally like to find, log and replace caches without detection by Muggles,” said Michael. “Trying to perform this task in a high Muggle area usually requires some stealthy skills.”
Michael and Helen – who have just celebrated their 12,000th find while on a trip to Tassie – say, ultimately, it is the friends they make that they most love about geocaching.
“Geocaching is a great hobby, whether you’re a couple or on your own,” said Michael. “We have several members of our local community who are single older ladies and they feel included and safe on organised caching trips … geocaching is a great way to meet people, we couldn’t imagine a life without caching.”
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