Hide and seek

Today I went geocaching for the first time. I can aleady hear some of you asking, 'Geo what-ing?'

This is where you use a GPS device to track down a hidden container that is filled with various items. These include a log book, in which you add your name to a list of people who have found the cache.

I decided to have a go following a strange coincidence yesterday. In the morning I was reading about geocaching for the first time in my life, then just a few hours later our friends Steve and Helena were telling me about someone they knew who had tried it out themselves.

I just thought I was meant to give it a try.

It didn't exactly go to plan. I chose to stay relatively close to where I live, going on to the internet to pick up co-ordinates of two locations within a three-mile radius of my home, then setting off confident of success with my GPS-equipped iPhone.

The first location was Rodborough Fort (pictured) - more of a folly than a genuine fort. And I'm pretty sure I found the site of the cache. But after my hand had ferreted around under large stone slabs, encountering snails rather than a small container, I decided the cache had been removed.

So I tried a to track down a second location in woodland on the side of a steep hill. I was meant to find an old ammo box that was meant to be hidden by a tree near a holly bush.

I received lots of scratches, but no treasure. Ho-hum... I sought consolation from the nearby ice cream factory.

It was still good fun and good exercise. It was very similar to orienteering, which I used to take part in years ago - and used to love, I hasten to add.

This seems a reasonable alternative - as long as the cache is there to be found. Or maybe I was, after all, looking in the wrong places?