The Cotswolds is a magnificent area of outstanding natural beauty with rolling hills, forests, blooming fields, and wildlife at each turn, so it will come as no surprise that this is a perfect spot for walkers.

There is an abundance of walking trails, pathways, and little towns and quaint English villages and towns to stroll through, but if you feel like spicing up your walking a little bit then why not try your hand at Geocaching in the Cotswolds?

If you’ve been off the radar for a while and haven’t heard about geocaching you’ll probably wonder what on earth I’m chatting about.

Basically geocaching adds a little more purpose and aim to your walk because it involves downloading the app, checking out what geocaches are hidden in your area, and going on a search to find them. People have hidden geocaches all over the world with location details for others to find, a bit like a treasure hunt.

Once you’ve got your app and decided which geocache you are going after you simply set off! Perhaps there is one close by to your house that you can walk to or maybe you need to hop on your bike first or jump in the car, Some may even need a boat to reach, Geocaches are hidden ALL over the world including cities, towns, villages, forests, lakes, mountains; you get the picture.

Going geocaching in the Cotswolds is a particularly picture-perfect place to get involved since the countryside is just so beautiful that not only will you enjoy the hunt you’ll get to see some of England’s nature at its absolute finest. Perhaps the geocache is hidden at the top of Broadway Hill with stunning views of the surrounding areas or maybe you’ll find yours is hidden deeply in the Forest of Dean and you’ll need to trek into the woodland.

Geocaching brings a sense of excitement and purpose to your walk and this is why it is also such a great activity to do with children of all ages. From little ones to teenagers, everyone can get outdoors and get involved.

Some geocaches are harder to find than others, if you have toddlers and small children or babies in tow then perhaps pick one that’s not going to take hours to find so that it holds the children’s attention. Older kids might like the challenge of a geocache that’s much harder to spot.

Once you’ve located your geocache make sure to make a mental note of exactly how and where you found it, as this is where you’ll need to return it it to.

Open it up and see what treasures are inside! There should be a log book so that you can write your name in it and the date you found it and you can see when it has previously been visited and by whom.

At this point, you can choose to take a treasure from the geocache and replace it with a treasure of your own. It is always nice to add something of equal or higher value to the container so try and think of something that the next people might be excited to find.

You don’t have to take anything from the container, the walk and the treasure hunt might be enough for you and that is fine as well, Just make sure you fill out the log book so future finders will know you’ve been there.

You may stumbled across a themed geocache, If everything inside seems to follow a theme then only add to it if your treasure fits the theme, otherwise just leave it as it was.

If you find an item that has a metal dog tag attached to it with the logo of a bug and a serial number, then this is a travel bug. These are designed to be taken away and moved to another geocache, so consider yourself privileged!

If you find that you fall in love with geocaching in the Cotswolds (many do I can assure you!) you may want to consider making your own to add to the treasure hunt.

There are many tips and ideas online about the best way to go about this which are really useful to have a look over but the most important things to remember are; selecting an appropriate container that isn’t going to leak, stocking up your geocache with a log book and some items of your choice (food is never a good idea as attracts animals), finding a location that geocaching is allowed, and hiding and logging your geocache so that people can start coming to find it!

It’s really fun to be able to go back and have a look at who’s visited it and if treasures have been swapped in and out.

If you’ve not been geocaching before then there is no time like the present and if you are geocaching in the Cotswolds then team it up with a nice pub lunch once your hard work has paid off and your geocache is found. Happy hunting!