Activity details

  • Approx. 45 mins
  • £
  • Outdoors / At camp
  • Teamwork
  • Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers

Activity outcomes

Look after your body by being physically active.

Learn to work better with others, achieve shared goals, and put the team first.

You’ll need

  • Access to the internet 
  • Weather appropriate clothing 
  • Pens or pencils 
  • Scrap paper 
  • Cache treasure items 
  • GPS devices or a device with GPS capabilities such as a smartphone 

Before you begin

  • Sign up to play Geocaching, which will allow you to search for nearby caches to find as part of your exploration. If visiting official geocaches, you may want to bring along trinkets and treasure to leave or swap with the cache contents that you find. These helpful guidelines on the Geocaching website give some guidance about what you should and shouldn’t leave in a cache. If there aren’t enough caches nearby to walk to or between, then you could create and place your own and either register them as official geocaches or use them as temporary ones for your group.
  • This activity probably needs to run across two sessions. Make sure you have enough leaders and helpers available to support the group and keep everyone safe in both.
  • You’ll need to set a start and end point for this activity. These could be different places or one familiar location, like your meeting place. Choose locations in proximity to the caches and landmarks that are in your local area. Make sure to set a time limit to your activity and a place to meet back. Each group should have means to contact the person leading the activity.
  • Carefully risk assess the area in which you run this activity, especially places where there’s tricky terrain or roads. Think carefully about your adult helper to young person ratios.

Run the activity

  1. Split into teams. Each will need a local map, a GPS device (either specialised or a smartphone with the Geocaching app/website open), writing materials and paper.

For the planning stages, a computer could also be used, with the Geocaching website open.

  1. Each team should search on the Geocaching website for nearby caches that they can find and then choose one. The person leading the activity should let everyone know the start and end points that were decided upon, so that groups can then plot a route on their map from their start point to the cache to the end point.

Each route should be short enough that it can be completed in one session. Encourage groups to think about passing landmarks that can help them find their way.

  1. Each group should note down coordinates for waypoints and landmarks that the route passes.
  2. When the routes are ready, groups should turn back to the Geocaching website and check the instructions for their chosen cache. There should be a page with advice on how to find the cache. This should be printed or downloaded so that the group walking the route can keep a copy with them as they go.
  3. An adult leader should check each route. When all of the routes have been finalised, each group should swap their route plans, waypoint/landmark coordinates and printed/downloaded cache instructions with another group.

As the routes may take an entire session to walk, it may be easier to leave it there for the day, and pick this up again in your next session.

  1. Everyone should stay in the same groups as before and follow the route they were given by the other group. They should examine and make notes on the route plan, especially if they might need to alter their course. When a team finds the cache, they could take a triumphant photograph or draw the contents of the cache and sign the logbook, before replacing it carefully where they found it.
  2. Follow the routes to the end point and meet back at the meeting place to see what treasures everyone found.

Reflection

By making your own caches, you’re creating gifts that you’ll never witness being received, but there’s still a thrill in knowing that someone will find your cache and enjoy the thrill of the search. Which do you think is more rewarding: discovering the treasure, or the journey you took through the great outdoors to reach the location of the treasure?

Geocaching is a great excuse to get out and explore. When hunting for your caches or placing your own, take a look at the environment around you. How does it make you feel? What wildlife can you spot? Geocaching is also a great excuse to get out and about for some exercise.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Adventure

  • This activity has specific rules and systems to make sure it’s managed safely. Take a look at adventure activities for more guidance. 

Outdoor activities

  • You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.

Hiking and walking

Road safety

  • Manage groups carefully when near or on roads. Consider adult supervision and additional equipment (such as lights and high visibility clothing) in your risk assessment.

Reproduced from the original post found on Scouts UK: https://www.scouts.org.uk/activities/cache-and-dash/