The Bounty!

Apart from the fun involved in actually going out as a Geocacher (click here for explanation) and finding the caches, there's the whole issue of 'the bounty'!

These are all known as 'Trackables' and have a dog-tag attached with a code inscribed on them making each one trackable. Whenever you find one, you go to Groundspeak and enter the code and you can view their full travel history. This one below is called a 'Geocoin' and is a lttle more rare than the others. You can buy these themed coins and then start your own on it's journey.

This beauty is called the 'Life is a Beach' Geocoin and we retrieved this at our local lake, which is called 'such & such' Beach, so although it's far from the coast it counts. The mission statement for this geocoin, is for it "to visit beaches around the world". It started out in 2007 in New Hampshire, it moved x10 during the year, travelling on through Massachusetts and Texas. It spent 2008 in Oklahoma moving just twice. We are planning on taking it with us to Chicago and we will place it on the beach of Lake Michigan.

This next group are known as 'Travel Bugs' and also all have their own dog-tag with a trackable code. We have purchased a few of these coded dog-tags ourselves and are about to start them out on their journeys, once we find a good key-ring to attach to each.

We found this last weekend at a local 'Travel Bug Motel' and I was attracted by the Celtic Cross (it's name), having some Welsh blood in me. This is one well travelled bug with passport!!

It was started in 2004 in North Wales (UK) and was then moved to Kansas (USA)!! During 2005 it returned to England, thereby already making 2 transatlantic flights! It then moved x7 in 2005 around England, Ireland and then back across the pond to British Columbia (CAN). 2006 was spent in British Columbia with four moves, but 2007 saw it really move around. In one year it moved x10 through British Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, South Carolina and then into Oklahoma!! 2008 it took a vacation in Oklahoma with just two moves and now we have it ready to send it on it's way into Texas. What I love about this one is it was started by a Brit' Gal and ended up in the hands of another over 4,700 miles away, 5 years later! And I had no clue of it's history until I got it home and tracked it, very cool.

We retrieved this one at the same 'Travel Bug Motel' and it is still a baby bug, started in May 2008 in Oklahoma and just having moved twice to date.

Finally here is our first ever Travel Bug that we are starting out soon. We have called it the 'Guardian Angel' and our mission statement for it is: "To travel from cache to cache keeping a watchful eye and protecting hand, over all the Geocachers that help me on my way". We will report back on it's travels from time to time.