Economic Zone 13, commonly known as the Coast of Bays, encompasses 22 communities on the South Coast of Newfoundland from McCallum to Rencontre East with 20 communities in between. A key focus of the Coast of Bays Corporation, the Regional Economic Development Board for Zone 13, is to use geocaching, a new and exciting hobby that suits all demographics, as a way to increase tourism to our region. Currently, there are eight geocaches hidden along Route 360 and another 26 throughout the Coast of Bays region.

On April 13th and 14th, the Coast of Bays Corporation partnered with the Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation and hosted three “Introduction to Geocaching” workshops in the Coast of Bays. St. Jacques – Coomb’s Cove, Hermitage and Harbour Breton were the locations chosen for this series of workshops. They welcomed a combined workshop participant total of 32 people who had come out to learn all about geocaching. Of the participants, the facilitators got a special treat at the Hr. Breton workshop when Principal Terry Baker and 12 of his students from the Grade 3 Geocaching Club from St. Joseph’s Elementary showed up to take part.

The purpose of the workshops was to introduce the residents of the Coast of Bays region to geocaching and to get them involved. Geocaching, for those of you who do not know, is a new and exciting experience typically described as modern day treasure hunting using a Global Positioning System, otherwise known as a GPS. Basically, someone takes a container, fills it with trinkets and toys, hides it somewhere and places the coordinates online at www.geocaching.com where others will then take the coordinates, put them into their GPS and go find the hidden treasure. Geocaching is becoming quite popular and with just over five million geocacher's worldwide, it’s creating quite the buzz. Geocaching is becoming a new hobby for people and it is also becoming a new way to expand the vacationing experience. Geocaches are hidden all over the world and people who geocache don’t just do it at home; they do it almost everywhere they go. Some people actually plan vacations around geocaches or they geocache while on vacation, and for these reasons, the Coast of Bays Corporation is trying to expand the number of geocaches in our region to increase the tourist traffic to the region.

At present, the 26 geocaches hidden in the Coast of Bays region are located in places such as Rencontre East, Coomb’s Cove, Hermitage, Gaultois, Conne River, Pool’s Cove, and Milltown Head Bay d’Espoir. As well, geocaches are quite often hidden far away from any community, and in our region we have several near the Mi’kmaq Discovery Centre, as well as on Route 360. Our goal is to increase the number of geocaches so that tourists who want to vacation and geocache will see our region as a viable option. However, with just 26 at present and competing against places such as the Town of Gander that has more than 100 geocaches within its town boundaries and Grand Falls-Windsor, which has about 50 geocaches within its town boundaries, we have a lot of work to do.

Beyond getting more people involved in geocaching and simply getting more geocaches placed in the region, the Coast of Bays Corporation would also like to promote placing geocaches in areas of significance for tourists. This could mean placing geocaches near heritage sites, museums, walking trails, lighthouses, beaches, town halls (where they can get local tourism information), and any other area that our residents feel tourists would enjoy seeing, maybe even their favourite secret fishing hole (although I doubt that anyone will want to reveal this secret). By strategically placing geocaches, one not only places an invisible welcome sign for people to come and see these places of significance, but it also increases the potential for visitation to the Coast of Bays, which in-turn will help to improve our economy and create new jobs.

If you would like to get involved in geocaching, contact Cory Foster at the Coast of Bays Corporation at (709)538-3552 ext. 3 or via e-mail at [email protected].

In this photo are Cory Foster with the Coast of Bays Corporation (back left) and Chris Tuck with the Department of Tourism, Culture, and Recreation (back right) with the Grade Three students from Harbour Breton that participated in the Geocache Workshop.   Submitted By: Cory Foster