Geocaching
Geocaching is a relatively new hobby / sport which started in America and has quickly spread to cover most of the world. The first ever cache was placed in America on 3rd May 2000. There are currently approximately 56000 caches in the UK alone. Further information about geocaching and a list of caches can be found at geocaching.com (opens in a new window)
I first came across geocaching whilst looking for information on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) on the internet and thought 'This looks like it could be a bit of fun' I soon found a cache which was only 1 mile from home and went out to search for it (on November 12th 2003). We found it fairly quickly and from then on we were hooked and now try to have some caches to find whenever we go out on birdwatching trips and holidays.
Geocaching involves searching for hidden caches which have been placed by other geocachers. A cache is a container of some description (a 35mm film can will suffice) which contains (as a minimum) a log book so that finders can record the fact that they have located the cache. All finds are subsequently logged officially on the geocaching web site, this site also has details of all the caches that exist throughout the world. All geocachers have a nickname by which they are known to the web site and fellow geocachers. Our caching name is birder1951 which was originally registered just for me but my wife decided to join me and we became a team - the name seemed appropriate so we kept it.
I have always had a fascination for simple statistics and soon found other people had them on their profile pages - this led to searching for programs and sites that could be used to generate some for us. The results of these are shown on the page below.