Pirates and Treasure Chests!

Pirate ducks found in geocaches worldwide
Pirate ducks found in geocaches worldwide

My little boy is crazy about pirates at the moment….and even more crazy about treasure hunts. So you can imagine how excited he was to hear about all the pirate ducks that have been travelling the world and hiding in real life treasure chests as part of the phenomenon of ‘geocaching’.

So what is geocaching?

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices such as mobile phones. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the cache (container) hidden at that location. Each cache contains a log book or log sheet where you can sign your name and larger ones often contain a variety of small gifts. The custom is that if you take something, you leave a gift yourself for someone else and then carefully replace the cache where you found it. You can find more information on geocaching and how to get involved HERE.

Ben's PeeBats Duck in Geocache
Photo sent in to us by the finder of a geocached duck
Geocaching Ducks by JaneL2008B - not sure when taken
Duck and log sheet found inside a geocache

One of our awesome members, Jane , is a big fan of both knitting and geocaching and has now hidden around 100 little ducks in caches around the UK. Obviously the items need to be small so Jane likes to make duck keyrings using the pattern by Shaz Peacock on our website and then attaches one of our tags to them. These are logged on the world map as “Ben’s Peebats”. For smaller caches she leaves tiny plastic yellow duck keyrings instead which are logged as “Pirate Peebats”.

Geocaching Ducks by JaneL2008 - not sure when taken
Some of Jane’s “Ben’s Peebats” keyrings
Tiny plastic keyrings
Some of Jane’s tiny “Pirate Peebats” keyrings, including Rincewind who has travelled the world!

“Geocaching is a real world treasure hunt.  It’s great, free, exercise and you get to visit some lovely places you didn’t know existed” says Jane.

“The lovely thing about leaving the ducks in geocaches is you never know when or where one will turn up on the map. Pirate Rincewind keeps appearing all over the place. In 2015 he travelled around Wales, England and Holland before ending up in Texas earlier this year. I know it’s mine because I can track him through the geocache site. I’ve seen the knitted ducks in use as bag charms and it always raises a smile.”

Piratemania3 2015 by JaneL2008
Jane’s pirate-themed ducks for Piratemania 2015

Last July Jane took part in Piratemania – England’s biggest annual geocaching event – which was being held in the Peak District. She made numerous pirate ducks which she left out in the open all around Bakewell, where the event was being held, with the LYD Project tags attached. Jane has made the instructions on how to make pirate eye-patches and neckerchiefs available online for those who would like to make their own versions.

Have you ever found one of Jane’s ducks? Are you one of our other members who likes to hide ducks in geocaches? Do you fancy giving geocaching a go? Let us know – we’d love to hear from you!

 

.

 

 

8 thoughts on “Pirates and Treasure Chests!”

  1. I found Pirate Peebats in a geocache on Hayling Island, Hampshire on 3 February2018. We will drop him off in another geocache. Thanks for the cache,

  2. Recently started geocaching… delighted to find a Ben’s PeeBats duck today – first I’d heard of this project. My father-in-law recently passed away in Australia, donating his body to medical science. This is such a lovely way to highlight the good that comes from such a noble gift. Thank you 🙂

  3. I received a Pirate PeeBat duck from Jane at this year’s Piratemania (2016) – didn’t spot any last year. He’s lovely and travelled around Shrewsbury attached to my GPSr. I Think I’ll leave him there to accompany me on my geocaching travels. I will treasure him!

  4. I found Broadsword Ben at Piratemania last year (2015) (logged as found) and will be taking him to the event this year ☺

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *