A geocaching adventure in King's Cross – in pictures

In February 2014, travel journalist Matt Carroll set out on a challenge to find three geocaches within five minutes’ walk of the Guardian’s offices in King’s Cross. His quest began on Regent’s Canal, close to the London Canal Museum. Photograph: Jaime P

The cleverly titled “Narrow Minded” geocache (named after the beautiful narrow boats moored on the canal) is hidden in a boat-shaped box. Geocaches are found using GPS coordinates; you can use a geocaching app on a smartphone, or a battery-powered GPS gadget, to take part. Photograph: Jaime P

If you get serious about geocaching you could invest in a battery-powered GPS gadget such as the Garmin eTrex. As well as providing exceptionally accurate location information, the eTrex displays information on terrain, difficulty, hints and descriptions - and it can be powered up with long-lasting Duracell Ultra Power batteries. Photograph: PR

Matt’s challenge was filmed for an exclusive Guardian video, made in association with Duracell. The first of the three geocaches Carroll was tasked with finding has a low difficulty rating on the geocaching website, but thousands of other geocaches hidden across the country are much harder to locate. Photograph: Jaime P

Inside a “traditional” geocache like this one, you’ll often find trinkets, as well as a logbook. Geocachers are invited to take a trinket as a souvenir, but only if they replace it with something of equal, or higher, value. Not all geocaches are this big – “nano geocaches” can be as small as a penny, and a virtual cache is about discovering a location, rather than a container. Photograph: Jaime P

Matt’s first geocache took only minutes to find. He accessed clues, as well as coordinates, using the official geocaching app from geocaching.com. A basic version of the app is free to download: premium membership gives you access to additional features such as exclusive geocaches and advanced mapping. Photograph: Jaime P

Using the geocaching app on his iPhone, Matt tracked the second of the three geocaches to Camley Street Gardens, a nature reserve run by the Wildlife Trust. Situated on the banks of Regent’s Canal, the reserve is minutes from London’s King’s Cross and St Pancras International stations. Photograph: Jaime P

Geocaching can take you to unexpected places – right on your doorstep. In the heart of London, Camley Street Gardens covers two acres of wild green space. It was created from an old coal yard in 1984 and now provides a natural habitat for birds, butterflies, amphibians and a rich variety of plant life. Photograph: Jaime P

Hidden in a quiet corner of the reserve, this is a large, easy to find geocache. Geocaching etiquette requires participants to keep their treasure hunting activities on the lowdown, so non-geocachers (or “muggles”) won’t know what they’re up to. This is easy to achieve in a quiet location like Camley Street Gardens – other inner-city locations present more of a challenge. Photograph: Jaime P

Signing the logbook inside geocache containers is integral to the hobby. Take a look at most lists and you’ll see the names of geocache enthusiasts from all around the globe: there are over 6 million geocachers playing the game worldwide. Photograph: Jaime P

The nearest landmark to Matt's final geocache is the historic St Pancras Old Church. Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley would meet in this churchyard before they were married; Thomas Hardy – who originally trained as a surveyor – moved several tombstones to the base of a tree to make way for railway tracks; and the Beatles shot the single cover for Hey Jude here. Photograph: Jaime P

Matt met experienced geocachers Hazel (left) and Louise to find out more about geocaching – and to get some clues on the elusive third geocache of the day. As geocachers are not allowed to hide caches in graveyards, Hazel and Louise advised Matt to search outside the church gates. Photograph: Jaime P

When you’re geocaching all day, running the app constantly on your phone can drain the battery. Duracell’s portable USB charger is an easy way to keep smartphones going for longer – and because it’s so small and light, it won’t weigh you down when you’re dashing from one cache to another. Photograph: Jaime P

Matt found the final geocache hidden just beyond the church gates. With over 164,000 geocaches to find in the UK (and over 2m across the globe), this is a hobby anyone can take part in. To get started, enter your postcode at geocaching.com – you might find there’s something hidden surprisingly close to home. Photograph: Jaime P