Macavity, the cat, pictured here at Silvermine earlier this year, is a nomadic "travel bug" who is using the new global sport of Geocaching to travel the world.
To do Geocaching, you just need a GPS. You find a nice spot somewhere on the globe and leave a little "treasure" hidden there. It can be some stickers in a tupperware, or a pack of cards, or a travel bug like Macavity - whatever catches your fancy. You then log on to a special site and record the GPS co-ordinates of the "treasure cache" and other geocachers are welcome to use their GPS to locate the treasure themselves. They can take the treasure, but have to replace it with a treasure of their own.
Travel bugs like Macavity get to travel from one cache to another - and they often have a goal of some kind, as set by the original owner. For example, Macavity the Cat's goal as stated on the web site is to "meet and be photographed with some of my cousins and travel to New Zealand, before returning home."
Macavity started off in Devon in SW England in July 2002 (two years ago), and then made his way across multiple UK caches, before going to Germany - and then an adventurous leap to a cache on Lion's Head in South Africa. Russel, my good SA friend, retrieved him from a cache on Silvermine, knowing that Ally and I would be passing through Cape Town on our way to Australia, and could help Macavity get closer to his Kiwi dream.
Russel then showed me how to use a GPS (very easy indeed actually) and lent me his. On our stop off in Rottnest Island in Western Australia, Ally & I went off on an adventure to find a cache - and located one at a lovely spot on the coast, next to an historic gun battery built during the 2nd world war. We left Macavity there and only a few weeks later,another geocacher moved him on to another cache on mainland Australia. Then, just a month or so ago, (excitement of excitements), he arrived at the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. Hooray for Macavity!
There is a web site where Macavity's journeys are logged (a compulsory part of the geocaching game is logging your finds). People can also upload pictures here so there are numerous pictures of Macavity in different parts of the world with a startling array of cats.
Macavity's next step will be to make his way back to the UK where his original owners will probably take him out of circulation - or maybe send him on another exciting journey!!
I am very keen to start this fun sport myself (there are many, many caches in the UK). I plan to purchase my GPS soon - you can get good one for just over a £100. Geocaching is yet another example of how new technology opens up new and exciting pursuits. This entire game is flourishing due to two now ubitquitous tools - the GPS system and, of course, the world wide web.
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