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Thread: Geocaching / Orienteering crossover

  1. #1
    Dartford_Orienteer Guest

    Default Geocaching / Orienteering crossover

    Hi Geocachers,

    I have an idea which I would like your opinion on.

    First the pre-amble.

    You might guess from my user ID that I am a keen orienteer. I've noticed in the past few months that some of our new members are keen Geocachers... which is the first time I had heard of Geocaching to be honest. I think it sounds like a great activity - getting people off their sofas and out into the countryside, and further than 100 metres from the honeypot site car parks.

    In case you don't know what Orienteering is, it's similar to Geocaching in that you must find fixed points in the countryside, which on the harder courses can be very difficult to find (eg deep within a forest or within some sand dunes). However the points are marked by a red and white flags with an electronic timing device to record your visit, it's normally a competitive timed sporting event, and we use maps not GPS (in fact the use of GPS is banned during the race, though some use it for logging their route).

    Orienteers range from super-fit athletes who run at a serious speed to family groups, walkers and joggers who just want a bit of fresh air, enjoy the activity and some socialising afterwards.

    Pre-amble over...

    I've got an idea for a special orienteering / geocaching crossover event - opinions on whether it would work welcome.

    Basically a typical small, local orienteering event involves competitors starting together to find as many checkpoints as possible in an hour. Instead of, or as well as, a map, competitors would download the GPS co-ordinates and use their GPS device to navigate to as many control points as possible, or as many as they felt like.

    Not sure what to call this. Definately not Geocaching as I'm sure you will all tell me this is very different from Geocaching. It would be registered for insurance and land use etc under orienteering, but I wouldn't call this orienteering as orienteering = maps.

    We find that many folk fear getting lost if reliant on a map so it might be a nice way of getting a bigger crowd at our local events. Also it might be a laugh for Geocachers to use their GPS at speed and to meet up at the end to compare routes (if it's a night event this would be in a local country pub).

    Anyway, what do you think? Any likely interest out there from Geocachers? Anyone know if someone somewhere has done something similar?

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Chippenham, Wiltshire
    Posts
    2,145

    Default

    Hi Dartford Orienteer and welcome to the site. This is an interesting idea and one that I'm sure will attract interst as a variation on both activities.

    As you say, it is quite different to both geocaching and orienteering but there may well be people involved in one who would like to try this. And no, I haven't come across this idea before.

    I'm not sure whether there are many geocachers who are fit enough / keen enough to compete at speed, unless you include the entry of dozens of waypoints into the GPS as part of the event; this would be a handicap for anyone unfamiliar with GPS.

    If you find some local geocachers then they can register the end location as a geocaching event (and pubs are very popular for these) which would be a good way to encourage some cross-over.

    Good luck with it.


    Caching since 2001
    Founder member of GAGB (2003)
    Committee (2003-2013)
    Chair of GAGB (2010-2012)
    Negotiator of 18 Landowner Agreements
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  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Wiltshire
    Posts
    5,520

    Default

    As Dave (The Wombles) says, it's an interesting idea, and I would think that it would attract some of the fitter cachers. Worth a try in my opinion.
    ​​Do not go gentle into that good night.
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (Dylan Thomas)​


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