GEOCACHING. Ever heard of it? Nor had I until a chance meeting on the Isle Of Wight last year.

I think it is best described as a cross between hide and seek and metal detecting.

Essentially, the aim of the game is to find something that has been deliberately hidden by someone else, using some clever machinery.

While enjoying the IOW Walking Festival last summer I began chatting to a fellow hiker who also turned out to be a big geocaching enthusiast.

I had never heard of geocaching in my life but during our two-hour walk he told me all about the joys of this relatively new and rapidly growing hobby and encouraged me to give it a go.

Apparently millions of people are doing it – I felt like I was missing out.

A year on and the opportunity finally recently reared its head – so off I went.

Firstly, I had to acquire a GPS device, which I did in the shape of a Satmap – a clever little device that fits in your palm and is essentially a sat nav for walkers.

With this I would be able to track down a cache (the object that had been hidden) by inputting its co-ordinates into the Satmap.

To get the co-ordinates I logged on to geocaching.com and discovered that there are hundreds – nay, thousands! – of caches in Dorset alone.

So off I headed, following the directions my Satmap was giving me until I reached Meyrick Park – the location of the cache I had decided to seek.

After a bit of confusion and a pretty poor effort to get my bearings, I got close to where I thought I should be and started looking around in trees, under trees, on trees, behind trees... until finally I found it!

I was genuinely pleased to have discovered the cache, which was a tupperware container, and eagerly opened it up to find a little plastic football figure from the ’90s – genius!

Caches can range from miniature figurines or collectibles to an inscribed piece of wood or even a coin – basically anything you can fit inside the container.

As I found out, the pleasure isn’t so much in what you find, but in the finding of it.

Upon locating the cache you are then encouraged to log it on geocaching.com and share your story of how you found it.

Once you’ve done that, it’s on to the next set of co-ordinates and off you go again.

Pretty soon you’ll have a healthy portfolio of discovered caches and if you’re really taken with the world of geocaching then, like my globetrotting friend on the Isle Of Wight, you can start going further afield to more interesting destinations in search of international treasures.

So I can now claim to be one of the five million geocachers worldwide and I have to say the whole thing does intrigue me.

I can see how it could become an addictive hobby to those who like the latest technology and really enjoyed hide and seek at school.

At the very least it offers an opportunity to get outside in the sunshine and have a rummage around in nature.