Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.06.2013, Side 45

This modern form of a scavenger hunt via
GPS is played in more than 200 countries.
A German traveller introduced it to Bragi in
2009 and he has since looked for caches not
only in Iceland but also in Denmark and Nor-
way. “It takes me to places I have not been
to before and will keep on doing so,” he tells
me.
Let the games begin
After spending the night at a cosy summer-
house we hit the road early the next morning
equipped with a GPS. Bragi had downloaded
the necessary information beforehand from
the Geocaching homepage, which included a
list of caches hidden in the area and accom-
panying hints and tips on how to find them.
The first coordinates lead us to what
seems at first to be an unimpressive look-
ing waterfall just off the main road along the
fjord. Bragi had been here before. “We went
up all the way to the waterfall, but then re-
alised that we were on the wrong side of it,”
he says. “I have given up a couple of times
on caches but always try to go again.” This
time around he knows the way and we fol-
low him up the hill. The further we go, the
more impressive the waterfall becomes and
it turns out to be a hidden treasure in itself.
Bragi keeps a close eye on the GPS. “The
GPS is accurate by about five to six metres,”
he says. When we reach the given coordi-
nates it is time to search. We look in every
hole and behind every stone. As it is our first
time we are not really sure where and what
to look for. “The more caches you find, the
more you develop an eye for what could be a
good hiding place,” Bragi says.
After searching the ground back and
forth for about fifteen minutes we are trium-
phant. It is a small black film container that
had been hidden in a grass-covered hole. A
typical cache is a small waterproof contain-
er containing a logbook where geocachers
sign their name and date. Some caches even
contain a little toy or small note. Later on at
home Bragi will mark the cache as “found”
on his Geocaching profile.
We find seven other caches to hunt for
that day. The coordinates of each lead us to
interesting places along the fjord: remote
farms, waterfalls and rock formations. We
keep the most challenging cache for last. It
turns out to be a six-kilometre walk to the
hilltop of a small peninsula that is connected
to the main land by only a narrow stone trail.
After an exhausting one-hour walk over
rough terrain we are treated to an incredible
view over the fjord and mountain range and
an easy-to-find cache. Caches have different
difficulty levels and favourite hideouts seem
to be as far up as possible. We are exhausted
when we finally get back to the car and call it
a day.
Until next time…
The next morning we are greeted by bright
sunshine, we head to Sauðárkrókur where
the map promises a number of treasures. On
the way we take a small detour to discover a
smartly placed film container that can only
be found during low tide when it is not cov-
ered by water.
Once in Sauðárkrókur we get to see the
small town from very different angles. The
first cache offers a beautiful view over the
town and fjord while the next one takes us
down to the harbour where dried fish heads
are hanging from wooden rails. The smell of
fish is quite overwhelming and without the
lead of the cache we probably would never
have gone there.
The next hints lead us to the town centre
and to the cemetery. The latter turns out to
be a mystery cache, providing a false set of
coordinates with a puzzle. If you solve it you
get the final cache location. We solve the rid-
dle but then decide to abandon the search as
it is already late afternoon and we still have
to drive back to Reykjavík that evening.
Altogether we discovered six caches that
day and abandoned three. One we couldn’t
find despite an extensive search and another
one we were on the wrong side of a river. At
least the next time we will know where to
find them.
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45 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 8 — 2013
On Friday evening we set off
toward Skagafjörður where
we would spend the weekend
exploring. It wouldn’t be like
anything we had done before;
Bragi Jónsson, an Icelander
who certainly knows his way
around the island, would be
taking us geocaching.
“We went up all
the way to the
waterfall, but
then realised
that we were on
the wrong side
of it.”
“Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor trea-
sure hunting game using GPS-enabled de-
vices. Participants navigate to a specific set
of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find
the geocache (container) hidden at that lo-
cation,” according to geocaching.com.
These caches are hidden and maintained
by anybody in the geocaching community.
You can join the community by signing up
for free at www.geocaching.com.
The rules are simple: “If you take some-
thing from the geocache (or "cache"), leave
something of equal or greater value. Write
about your find in the cache logbook. Log
your experience at www.geocaching.com.”
What Is
Geocaching?