Geocaching is a great way to combine technology and exercise

Allow me to extol the virtues of geocaching. When I was first introduced to the activity a couple of years ago I baulked, shrugged and wondered what all the fuss was about. But now I know that it is utterly brilliant.

Geocaching is a mix between a walk and a treasure hunt that can be played in over 100 countries and has millions of players.

Essentially, Geocaching is an outdoor game of hide and seek with a bit of technology thrown in for good measure. It uses the GPS receiver in a smartphone, along with other navigational methods, to help find hidden treasures, called 'geocaches' or 'caches'. You might even find that there are a great number of geocaches in a town near you.

A typical cache is little more than a small waterproof container with a logbook and pencil inside it. When a geocacher finds a cache, they sign the log and return it to its hiding place. Some caches are larger, such as tupperware boxes that contain trinkets and small toys to collect and exchange.

The smartphone application (free on Android, about £5 on iPhone) uses the GPS built into a smartphone to find the location of nearby caches; they all have names and descriptions and other important details such as accessibility, difficulty and the like. Some require little more than walking to a location, looking around a bit and finding the cache, while others are far more difficult.

To give an example; in a cemetery in the Cathays district of Cardiff there is a cache that can only be found by collecting together a number of clues. This can be done using the free guide to the graveyard available at the entrance and by using some clues included in the geocache description.

By finding a series of specific headstones, you build up a set of GPS coordinates. When you've got the complete number, enter it into the geocache application on the smartphone and it will show you where the cache is hidden.

Geocaching is a great way to enjoy the outdoors while doing something a bit different. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has given it a try or plans to do so in the future.