What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is an outdoors, GPS-based, global treasure hunt. Participants (geocachers) use a GPS-enabled device (most often a phone) to navigate to, and find hidden containers, called geocaches (sometimes shortened to just 'caches').

There are over 3 million hidden around the world! Almost 18,000 of them are here in Queensland; the very first was placed in October 2000 in Karawatha Forest. Check it out here! There's a good chance you've driven or walked past a few every day without knowing.

Getting started is easy. You can sign up for a free account at geocaching.com, and by installing the Geocaching app. You do not need to be a member of Geocaching Queensland to get started.

The premise of the game is quite simple. Geocachers can hide a geocache out in the public outdoors and record the co-ordinates. Then, they are published as a listing online. All other players then can choose to look for that geocache, by navigating to the co-ordinates and looking for the hidden geocache.

Geocachers are creative people, with geocaches hidden in local parks, urban areas, up mountains, along creeks and almost any kind of terrain and public space you can imagine. Geocaching attracts people from all walks of life; families enjoying the treasure hunt, adventurous thrill seekers, travelers hunting across wide areas - and more.

When a geocacher finds a geocache, they sign the logbook with their name and date, and they can log the find on the online listing. This means every geocache gets a list of who has visited, and each geocacher has a record of all the geocaches they've found.

Geocaches can vary a lot; in their size from as small as a fingertip, through lunchbox-sized containers to repurposed ex-military boxes. Sometimes, custom-made geocaches too.

And they vary by their type. The most basic being hidden at the co-ordinates listed (called a traditional), multi-caches that require visiting multiple waypoints, mystery geocaches that you have to solve a puzzle at home before venturing out.. and several other types to explore.

Each geocache listing will give you a bit of information about the geocache; the difficulty (an indication of how hard it is to find), the terrain (how much of a challenge it is to get to the co-ordinates), the size, and some description of the area. If you're lucky, there'll even be a bonus hint.

There's a lot you can know in the depths of geocaching knowledge. But we suggest you just get started; sign up, download the app, and start looking for the closest to home. Pick a traditional with a low difficulty and terrain rating for your first.