What’s in our geocaching kit?

If you’ve thought about taking up geocaching it really couldn’t be simpler. Make yourself an account, download the app, check out the map, and off you go. If you want more details check out my family guide to geocaching here.

If you want to try geocaching you don’t have to spend anything, and you don’t have to buy any specialist equipment. Having said that, I carry the kids little geocaching kit around in my backpack all the time, in case we stumble across anything whilst we’re out and about. 

 

What’s in our geocaching kit?

1) Pens and pencils 

The most important piece of equipment as you’ll need them to sign the log book. 

2) Swaps

I’m not bothered about doing swaps, but it’s the children’s favourite part. They like rummaging through any of the bigger geocaches to see what treasures they can find, and what they might like to leave behind for someone else. These things need to just be small and not particularly valuable. Examples of what we’ve found and left behind includes marbles, small plastic toys, plastic ring/bracelet, keyring, painted rocks, stickers, headphones, Lego cards, as well as trackables.

3) Trackables

If we’ve found any trackables they get popped into our geocache kit once we’ve logged them on the app. This way we know where they are, we don’t lose them, and we can place them elsewhere at a later date. You can read more about geocaching trackables here.

4) Plastic zip top bags

If you’d like to be a helpful geocacher these can come in handy. If you’ve found a geocache that’s a bit soggy or leaking, pop it into a bag for a bit of temporary waterproofing. Just alert the owner via the app that this is what you’ve done, and that their geocache might need a bit of attention.

5) Spare paper

You can buy special geocache log paper, but we carry a couple of small pieces of normal lined paper in our kit. If we find a log is full, or has been spoilt by the rain, you can just start a new log on the fresh paper and, as above, let the geocache owner know via the app that it might need some attention. 

6) Tweezers

The micro logs tend not to hold much besides a small roll of paper. This can sometimes be a bit tricky to extract so the tweezers can come in handy to grab it. Also helps if you need to retrieve a micro container which has fallen down a crack, or somewhere it shouldn’t!

7) Portable phone charger

My phone battery seems to last approximately 30 seconds these days, before it turns itself off. If you’re working from the app, like I tend to, a portable phone charger can come in handy. Especially if your phone is whirring away in the middle of the woods trying to find a GPS signal.

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What am I missing? What do you take out geocaching with you? Let me know in the comments below.