Many globetrotting travellers now regularly carry a GPS (Global Positioning System) with them when they travel. These superb little handheld devices can be bought for as little as £100, though prices do go up to several hundred pounds for the most sophisticated machines. They show your position on earth in latitude, longitude and altitude, via triangulation from satellites orbiting the earth.

To those of us not blessed with a great sense of direction, especially when exploring a new city, these devices are a godsend. Just “Mark” the co-ordinate of your hotel for example, wander all day and then your little machine will guide you back home in the evening. If you know the GPS co-ordinate of the sight you want to visit, these little boxes can save you time by taking your straight there, as depending on conditions they can be as accurate as 10ft.

Though GPS's are a great piece of kit to have with you they are used in more serious applications. For example Padmassana recently went to a lecture on volcanoes and the lecturer described how GPS's are being used to monitor the height of the land in volcanic areas. The land rising if only by centimetres over a period can signify that magma is building up underneath and indicate that an eruption is more likely and hopefully give the authorities an opportunity to evacuate the area.

To those who already have a GPS, most will know about Geocaching. A global game of hide and seek using a GPS. Globie Tracey introduced Padmassana to this “sport” on a Globetrotters weekend away. On the website www.geocaching.com you type in your postal code (in countries that have this system) and you will be taken to a page showing “Caches” within a 10-mile radius. The Cache is normally hidden and usually has the form of a plastic box with some trinkets in. Most Geocachers leave something and take something. There is always a book to record your visit and sometimes a throwaway camera for you to take a picture. Once back home you can go online and record your visit, this allows the person who planted the cache to know how often it is being found or not as the case may be. Some caches are just one location, but many are a series of clues leading to a final cache. For example you may be given the co-ordinates of a church, where you have to look for a particular grave, then transpose a date of birth into another set of co-ordinates, which take you to another clue and so on.

In some cache’s you may be lucky and come across a “Travel bug”, these are small metal dog tag beetles with a number on. If you decide to remove this from the cache you must put it in the book. Once you get home look up the Travel bug online and see what its mission is, some want to reach a particular destination, others just want to visit as many places as possible. Your mission once you have discovered what the bug wants to do is to help it on its way by planting it in another cache, which hopefully helps it get nearer to its goal.

Since the first cache was “planted” near Portland Oregon in May 2000, the worldwide number of caches has increased to over 90,000 and are hidden in 199 countries. In the UK alone there are around 3000 hidden caches. In just one 7-day period in March 2004, over 64,000 caches were logged as “Found”, which goes to show what a popular pastime this has become. (Figures courtesy of www.fingertech.co.uk)

Now this is where we want all you Globetrotters out there to do your part. I am trying to put together a database of co-ordinates of famous sights and monuments, for example: Buckingham Palace in London is located at N51 30.101 W000  08.487. 

We are inviting you to take part in geocaching in your area – please take two or three readings to make sure they are as accurate as possible, then e-mail the following information 1) The site 2) The address 3) Its co-ordinates 4) Your name to gps@globetrotters.co.uk  Once we have begun to build a database it will be made available to all Globetrotters to enjoy.

By the way, Padmassana released a travel bug on Monday, April 05, 2004 in the UK.   The mission of the travel bug is as follows: to travel far and wide, but my dream is to visit Iran.  I would like to visit caches in England, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and finally Iran.