GeoGolf - Getting there is all the fun!

I've always been interested in other GPS related activities in addition to Geocaching. In the past I've signed up to many sites, some being alternative caching sites, but a few offer something slightly different. One such site was GPSgames. The site itself is a bit amateur, but I'm more interested in the ideas. I don't believe it's been developed much since I first looked at it six years ago and I doubt it has many users. There are a number of games, but the one that looked to have the most potential for me was GeoGolf. It's very simple. You give it the location at which you want to start and it will give you 9 or 18 holes. You also dictate the average length of the holes. The holes are laid out in a similar configuration to how you might find them on a golf course and the idea is to get as close to the location of each hole as you can, without breaking the law. You score points for how close you get to each hole.

If you're like me and believe that the vast majority of caches these days are just thrown down in random, uninteresting locations then GeoGolf may be for you. You can walk where you enjoy walking and there's no tedious searching for tiny, damp containers. Each course is unique, so you're not trampling the same ground that others have trampled, so it's much more environmentally friendly. As the searching is removed this removes the most damaging part of the game.

The day we chose to play our round was very overcast, so I didn't want to go far from home. I picked a random point near the centre of the Forest of Dean, keyed the coordinates in and hit the Create Course button. This created a gpx file which can be downloaded. I opened the gpx file in Memory Map (there are a host of free online sites that you could also use) and plotted the route that I intended to follow using the nearest available paths marked on the OS map. I uploaded the route and waypoints to my GPS receiver (and phone) and then went walking.

The tag line for GeoGolf is Getting there is All the Fun, and it's true. You are unlikely to get a fantastic final location because it's just a random spot that you are navigating to, but it easily equals most caches these days. Although we were walking an area we know very well we still found some interesting new things. We came across a circle of stones in the forest. The stones had been set out as seats. Each stone was heavily covered in moss, so they had been there for quite some time. It may have only been a couple of minutes from a path, but how many people will ever have passed this spot. Not many I'd guess. We also saw three or four deer running though the forest. That's not uncommon here, but you'll rarely see it from the main paths and cycle tracks.

We didn't do the last three holes as they were near a road, but I think that's the beauty of GeoGolf. You can make it fit your needs. If you don't want to wander off to the exact point that the hole is located, but you prefer to just pass on the nearest path then that's fine. If you don't like the look of one hole, then leave it out. Like geocaching, there is no prize for completing things as per the original intention, so just do what works for you. Providing you're not hurting anyone/anything then you'll come out the winner. Of course some people will only ever be happy if they get a smiley, but that's their problem.

Visit www.GPSgames.org to play GeoGolf.

Red circles are the holes. Dotted blue line is my planned route. Red line is my actual track.
The map is centred near 51°47.476'N, 2°32.737'W / SO 62465 10432.