Welcome to Geocaching
This is a short series of 3 geocaches intended to introduce people to geocaching. The geocaches are all along the Bo'Ness Harbour/Foreshore area.
This series was created because I recently tried to introduce someone from the Bo'Ness area to geocaching, and suggested Basic membership of the app as a good way to start. However I hadn't remembered how limiting Basic membership was in terms of which caches it allowed people to see and find, so I decided to create some caches in Bo'Ness that could be seen on the app by a Basic member.
I'm also going to explain some features of geocaching in each of the cache pages for the series.
Muggles
What's a 'muggle' and why are they a big deal? Borrowed from the world of Harry Potter the word is slang in the hobby for non-geocachers. They can pose a challenge to geocachers because if they are nearby when you are looking for a cache then they might be a bit alarmed/disconcerted by your activities. They are also a challenge because if they see you finding and handling a cache then they might take a look for themselves later, and not knowing about the need to replace the cache, they might remove it. Caches can go missing, and unfortunately it is not a rare event. Look out for the attribute icon (see an explanation of attributes in another cache in this series) stealth required, which usually indicates there is a good chance other people will be around when you at the cache location. Anti-muggle tactics include just waiting for people to move on, pretending to use your phone or tie your shoelaces, while discretely having a look about etc.
Hints
When you start out geocaching, you should use the cache hint available on the Geocaching app, and to be honest you will probably need the hint for many geocaches, even after you have been doing geocaching a while. Caches with no hint tend to have a slightly higher difficulty rating so probably won't show up to Basic members. Hints sometimes use caching slang/abbreviations, you can find a good list of these here. Common ones are 'MTT' (multi-trunked tree), BOT (base of tree), BRP (big round post) and GZ ('ground zero' - the cache coordinates). However if you are really stuck finding the cache there are sometimes additional pointers you can gain from looking at the logs of other earlier cachers who found it. These can contain unintended hints that sometimes you can use when you are at the cache site. So for example, if someone says in their logs 'I could only just manage to reach it up there', that tells you something about where to look. But looking at the logs can be a hit and miss so perhaps only do this as a last resort if you can't find the cache. An important thing to remember is to put the cache back per the hint, otherwise the next person will have trouble finding it.