Where did we go on a Wherigo Cache?

It was our final day on the Isle of Man today so we only had the morning to play before catching the boat back. The weather was still cold at around 3°C and the wind had picked up to a nice force 6 easterly just in time for the ferry crossing!

So as to continue increasing our record as far as consecutive days geocaching goes Morgan and I headed off into Castletown after breakfast whilst Anna helped her mum with her computer and packed the bags. we only had to do one geocache in order to increase our record.

Rather than go for a standard cache though we had our eyes on a ‘Wherigo’ cache. We’d never done one of these before and didn’t know anything about them but we’d seen it on the map and as it was close to us decided to target it today. In order to do it we had to first download the ‘Wherigo’ player app, then we signed in to the Wherigo.com website using our geocaching login credentials and downloaded the ‘cartridge’. In order to play the game each Wherigo cache haswhat is known as a cartridge. You download this and load it into the Wherigo app. The app then walks you through each stage of a route starting at a location that you find using GPS coordinates. As you arrive at the given location the app automatically tells you so and then either unlocks the next location or asks you a question based on some information that you can find at that location. Once you enter the answer to the question the next location is unlocked and you proceed to it using the GPS.

The cartridge we had downloaded was called ‘Balley Cashtel’ and was described as taking you on a short walk to some interesting places within then historic town of Casteltown. We started at the Old House of Keys and then proceeding to walk to a few other locations in the town answering the easy questions as we went. Most of the answers were on obvious landmarks and simple to find but interesting nonetheless. We won’t say where exactly they were as we don’t want to give the game away but there were 7 locations followed by a final cache. Once at the final cache we signed the logbook in the usual way and the Wherigo App provided us with a completion code that we were able to enter into the Wherigo.com website to log it there. We also logged it as a find on the geocaching.com website so adding to our totals there.

The whole thing worked well, although I think the Wherigo app could do with a bit of an update and some polishing touches. There was nothing wrong with it but it all seemed a bit basic and lacking in finesse. For example, when navigating to a location there is one screen that tells you to navigate to the next stage to unlock the question and provides you with information on how far away it is and in what direction. There is nothing else on this page. There is however also a map screen that shows you a pin denoting your current location and a pin showing you your target location. It would have been nice if the distance and bearing that you had to travel were also displayed on the map screen. The graphics and user interface were just a little bland too so I’m sure it could be made to look a little nicer.

It was certainly worth doing though and we’ll hopefully do some more soon. Although, there aren’t that many Wherigo caches near to us. Maybe we’ll have to create one of our own.

We then did a couple of other quick multi caches not far from Pat’s house in Ballabeg. The first took us on a walk along a muddy footpath where we first found a micro cache that itself contained the coordinates of a larger cache a little further along the path. The next cache was very similar comprising a micro that contained the coordinates of a small cache at Ballabeg Station.

It was then back to Pat’s house for lunch before heading to the boat and a crossing to the mainland. Morgan now wants to stop on the way home from Liverpool to do a cache in England and then stop again once we are in Wales so that we can say we have cached in 3 different countries in one day – we’ll have to see if we can be bothered once we start driving.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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