Adventure labs: a new era for geocaching or just a passing fad?

Every time I’ve opened the adventure lab app recently on my phone there seem to be more and more green balloons popping up on the local map. Just over a year ago there were just a handful of adventure labs in the East of England, today there are dozens, as creative cachers everywhere clamber to get the opportunity to create one.

 

Traditionally, lab caches were mostly only available at Mega events. Last autumn, after more than four years of geocaching, I still hadn’t found a single lab cache, but suddenly had the opportunity at the EU Geocoin mega event in Manchester. There were 30 to be found, and some were incredibly innovative, testing new tech, whilst others were a tour of the city or general knowledge quiz questions.

 

Since the arrival of the dedicated Adventure Lab App, more and more lab cache creator credits have been dished out. Consequently, just a year later I have now found more than 128 lab caches. 

 

What’s interesting about this fast growing cache type is that it’s pretty much a virtual caching experience. There’s no tupperware box or tiny nano to find in a set location, instead you often find yourself on a walk about tour of a town, visiting various landmarks and looking at existing physical features to find details to input into the app. 

Once inputted correctly…and that can be a challenge at times with some needing capitals or numeric or written numbers…the app dings and a message with lots of stars pops up congratulating you on your find. But is this a real geocache find?

 

Looking at lots of geocaching forums recently, it appears cachers have rather mixed opinions about them.  Whilst still adhering to the location based core element of geocaching, some feel they aren’t real geocache finds and actually choose to delete them from their ‘true’ geocaching finds.

 

There also seems to be a few grumbles about the new generation of labs not being true to the original lab cache criteria, of enabling geocachers to trial and experience new innovations, like new technology. Perhaps this is why the new generation of labs were re-named ‘adventure labs’, which is more fitting with what they have become - virtual tours of a particular aspect of a town or location.

 

Others seem to complain about armchair logging, something this cache type seems susceptible too. Even if you reduce the radius of when a geocacher can log a find, to the minimum of 20 metres from GZ, some still manage to log them from the comfort of their armchair half way around the world. But I suppose there will always be those tech savvy people who can find ways to do clever things like this. 

Personally, I feel if you’re going to cheat the game in this way, there’s not really much point in playing it…where’s the enjoyment factor?

 

So far, my own experiences of adventure labs have for the most part been very positive. Like the core game, they take me to places I wouldn’t otherwise have gone to, and they make me taken notice of things that I probably wouldn’t have seen without them. Hence, they still fulfil one of the key aspects that I love about geocaching. 

I perhaps don’t get quite the same enjoyment as discovering a sneakily hidden container, but in place of that, many adventure labs are more educational than the physical container cache types, so I usually learn something new, which I love. 

Plus, they've been great to find during all this Covid business, as you're not physically touching anything that might be carry any nasty germs. 

In my view they are a true geocache find, and I hope they're around for a longtime to come. They add a different aspect, and are just as enjoyable as an Earthcache or Virtual. But that is just my view!

 

This week, too show my appreciation of the huge efforts cachers have been going to, setting all these new lab caches, I made a concerted effort to get out and find some more. 

Our first foray was to Norfolk to complete Poshrule’s Wimbotsham Wonka, Denver Dodder and the great Denver Adventure Lab caches. Both walks around Wimbotsham and Denver were really lovely, taking in some lovely scenic routes across country.

 

The adventure labs were also great. I actually did three of them by car as they were a little spread out along the road to the big sluice gates, but they really captured five interesting landmarks in the village. 

The Windmill was particularly beautiful and it was nice to return to the sluice gates and admire the huge river stretching out in both directions.

 

The other set of adventure labs I picked up this week, were up in Norfolk again, this time in Swaffham. 

Set by Lucinda1904 they focused on the filming locations around the town that were used for the TV series 'Kingdom'. A very clever idea, and whilst I’ve not watched the programme myself, I really do love visiting film and TV locations, being a bit of a film and TV addict.

 

It was a really nice length walk around the centre of the market town, visiting a variety of buildings and collecting information for each lab answer. I really enjoyed it, and had no problems calculating where the bonus cache was…although I ran out of time to go and pick it up, so will return for it soon.

As soon as I finished the lab caches I headed off on the brilliant Swaffham Loops series. This was another great walk, with nice wide dry tracks and I even came across a McDonalds at one point, but managed to refrain from going in. 

 

The caches were cleverly hidden, some even up trees, and there were some really nice customs along the way. These included sticks under hedges that blended in very well; a clever brick cache on a small footbridge; and nanos in stones. 

But my favourite had an intriguing hint about 'walking the plank'! I was intrigued and on arrival found a giant fallen oak (I think), which I clambered onto and walked along it find the cache hidden in a tree quite a few feet above a large dip in the copse. 

Luckily, no slips or accidents this time...I am a bit accident prone when caching and I returned home with a haul of over 40 caches. 

 

This week I found out  that I have been lucky enough to receive a credit to create my own set of lab caches. I’m very, very excited and have lots of great ideas buzzing around my head including a slightly alternative idea to the usual town tour. More on that next week.