How, where and with whom do you start your day? Fedde ten Hoeve (71) from Leeuwarden likes to go treasure hunting in his spare time.
“What is it with those caches of yours every time, what are they?” Seven years ago Fedde ten Hoeve knew nothing about geocaching. But his colleague at the time, he worked at the MCL, kept coming up with enthusiastic stories about the game she and her husband played. Fedde’s interest was piqued. He went along once and has been hooked on the game ever since.
“Geocaching is treasure hunting using GPS coordinates,” Fedde explains. “You look for so-called caches, which are often tubes, small boxes or rolls of film. It contains a piece of paper, a logbook, on which you can write your name and date. Sometimes there is also a small trinket, which could be anything. You always put a cache back for the next finder. Some require you to solve mysteries or puzzles first. The game has different levels, the highest being level 5. Then you sometimes have to climb trees or get into the water somewhere with waders. If I can’t reach them with my telescopic rod, I let those caches pass me by. Or I’ll go with someone who dares to do that kind of thing.”
Anyone can hide caches. “About 3.5 million are hidden worldwide! I have done three myself, in and around the Abbingepark in Leeuwarden. The condition is that the objects must be at a distance of at least 162 meters from each other.” Is that allowed? “Every municipality has its own rules. For example, you are not allowed to place ‘climbers’ here in Leeuwarden.”
The game is adventurous. “You enjoy being outside and you go everywhere! Beautiful nature, monuments.” It is also educational. “Many people hide treasures and mention fun facts about the location.” A kind of trivia. Good for the mind. And body. “Walking five kilometers at a time is not possible for me because of my physical condition. But if I do geocaching, I can easily manage that distance. Because there are stops, the sites. This is how I get my exercise in a playful way!”
Fedde has already left his signature in many places. “I recently went on holiday to Croatia. Along the way I played in Germany, Austria, Slovenia. Every time we stopped at a parking lot for food and drinks I went to investigate. Of course my traveling companions started to notice this: ‘Hi Fedde, is there another one here?’ I was recently in Giekerk, where 19 new caches were hidden. After finding 12 I had to stop: phone empty! The charging cable of the power bank was broken…”