The iPad works surprisingly well.  It locates a geocache within a couple of meters of its hiding place.  A very useful discovery: the iPad fits inside my map case perfectly.  Now I have an easy way to carry it.  The touch screen works through the transparent waterproof face of the map case, perfect!  I'm not kidding myself that the map case is waterproof, but it should protect the iPad against light showers, at least.

I'd been vaguely interested in the idea of geocaching.  It was one of the groups available in our local U3A.  But I didn't want to spend real money on a handheld GPS device before knowing that the enthusiasm would last for a while.  Ahah!  I discovered that my iPad had a built in GPS.  Would it work in the field?  I looked up geocaching on the internet and found www.geocaching.com.  I was amazed at how many caches there were within a mile of home.  One was in the woods behind my house!  Oh, I've gotta look at this, thought I.  I noticed that it had a high difficulty and terrain rating, but I was sure I could manage.  I quickly solved the puzzle to get the co-ordinates.  I love puzzles :) Lots of nettle stings, bramble scratches and frustration.  Grr.  Perhaps I need to start on an easier one.  Found the free app from groundspeak and easily found all three of the easy caches within a mile of home.