All About The Numbers

It is one thing to know that South Africa currently has 14117 caches and say Egypt has 286. But how do they really compare if one takes their cache densities into account? The following map shows the cache density for the whole continent (and surrounding islands) with a 5km resolution:

CITO Weeks 2017

Film Festival 2017

Nelson Mandela Bay Annual Caching Weekend

The weekend of 24 to 26 February saw event GC6XE7Y, the 3rd annual NMB Caching weekend away, organised by PumTim and KitchenBoss. This year the event was held at the inniKloof camp site in the Gamtoos Valley.

Once again this event was well supported with teams arriving from Cape Town, the Garden Route and East London to complement a number of more local teams from NMB and its surrounds.

Approximately 40 new caches were placed in the area with a wide variety of cache types. As has become the norm at this event, it was possible to grab eight icons over the weekend.

Cachers started arriving early with iPajero, Strandlopers w&e and k j being some of the first to park their vans and put up their tents. Most of the rest arrived on Friday afternoon with some Cape Town teams arriving late after a full day’s caching en-route to inniKloof.

The main task for Saturday was to tackle the long walk to the inniKloof Waterfall cache (GC6BNN3). A good 7km (14km round trip) walk up a mountain, along the ridge and then down an almost vertical descent to a magnificent waterfall. Luckily the weather played along and we had a cool overcast day during a week that had seen temperatures in the upper 30’s.

On arrival we were faced with a D4.5 container hidden by plainoldgraham, but that was only second priority as the first priority was to swim in the cool water and admire the magnificent waterfall. The fit people found it as they left almost at the same time as the not so fit arrived at the waterfall. The group really got spread out. Farm owner John acted as a magnificent guide on the trail and made sure everyone got there and back safely. The walk is well worth your while with some magnificent scenery along the trail. The waterfall at the end is the cherry on the top.

While most of the group sweated their way to the waterfall some teams decided to rather cache locally. The Capetonians drove through to Port Elizabeth to grab as many caches as they could.

Both Friday and Saturday evening saw a huge fire being made in the communal fire pit and lots of caching stories were told over a few beers and glasses of wine. In fact, the few glasses of wine might have been the cause of the serenading of some of the chalets late on Saturday evening (or was it Sunday morning?).

Congratulations to the organisers. Another successful one. Looking forward to next year!


Article submitted by ChrisDen

Geocachers' Creed

1. Not endanger myself or others
2. Observe all laws & rules of the area
3. Respect property rights and seek permission where appropriate
4. Avoid causing disruptions or public alarm
5. Minimize my and others' impact on the environment
6. Be considerate of others
7. Protect the integrity of the game pieces

• Be aware of criminal elements, and avoid areas where your instincts tell you that it is unsafe.

• When engaging with officials representing the land owners, show respect. There are incidents in the past which have been racist of nature or dismissal of authority, disrupting the peaceful nature of the rest of the geocaching community causing a tarnishing of the game in South Africa.

• Do not claim a “First to Find” unless you did all the necessary work to find the geocache after it was hidden, and be sure that you were really first. Being there first is a challenge that people enjoy, so be honest about it.
• Because of the sensitivity of “First to Find” it is also reasonable for a geocacher to log a short online found log or written note to be transparent to others that they have been to the cache and found it.

• As the Cache Owner, be vigilant regarding any changes to the difficulty of the geocache. The listed values for the difficulty and terrain should reflect the reality of the geocache – and preferably should not change. For example, changing the puzzle in a mystery cache changes the experience that subsequent geocachers would have when trying to solve the puzzle.
• Log the geocache and trackable with the correct date.
• Do not share answers to puzzle caches. Some geocachers don’t want any help, and some may ask for small hints. Very few will want to find a cache without being able to follow the listed instructions in the description.
• If one can not find the cache, that does not mean that it is missing. Rather do not just replace the cache without the owner’s permission.

Virtual Rewards

We ended August with the exciting news that Geocaching HQ announced the release of Virtual Rewards, a project to reward some of geocaching’s great contributors, while also introducing a limited number of new Virtual Caches for the enjoyment of the entire geocaching community.  Read all about the details here.

Given that we haven't got many of the little smiley ghost icons that represent virtual caches in South Africa at the moment, this was very exciting news.  We are waiting in great anticipation to see who earned a reward and where they will use them.  There are already (at time of going to publication) 3 new virtual geocaches in South Africa, and hopefully many more on the way.  Catch the full list here...

Tripod the GeoDog

Tripod is a Miniature Japanese Fox terrier. Tripod as a tiny puppy of only a few days old was brought to our local vet to be euthanized after his mother chewed off most of his left lower hind leg. Instead of putting it down the vet decided to try for an amputation, not knowing if it would be successful on a tiny and young puppy as Tripod.

The day after the operation dolosC was at the vet picking up one of our own dogs. Hearing the vet talking about the tiny little puppy, dolosC wanted to know more and when she saw the tiny creature, there and then adopted the tiny puppy and brought it home. At home the puppy promptly became TRIPOD.

For the first week or so Tripod had to be fed both food and water from a syringe every two hours (day and night) and then every four hours etc. That meant that Tripod also had to go to work with dolos during the day and “pajama drills” at night. In the beginning it was touch and go to keep him alive, but the little guy showed great fighting spirit and every day he grew stronger and his little eyes showed a keenness to live.

Tripod grew up with his two Jack Russell friends Ruby and Buks which are only about eight months older than him. They play very rough with him and he has to stand his ground, which he does with a sharp little growl. Tripod is a little more careful around Jubal our older Jack Russell and very “catfoot” around Miloh our three legged (another tri-paw) cat.

Tripod functions as any normal dog would and he does not know that he is different. He plays fetch with his ball and runs very fast and can even keep up with Buks! He can swim the doggie paddle and has been knocked rolling by the waves at Kleinzee.

Tripod became a caching dog with his own Travel Tag (TB TRIPOD) and has travelled to Kimberley, Jan Kempdorp, Kleinzee, Port Nolloth, Ottosdal and Rustenburg and has cached with dolos all along the way. Tripod has become a regular at geocaching events and even shares the rooftop tent with dolos at sleepovers. Tripod has attended the Tswaing Crater Sleepover event and trotted most of the way during the hike. When Tripod gets tired dolosC puts him in her rucksack. His favorite spot remains on dolosC’s lap where he can give soft kisses to dolos.

Tripod also knows when it is time to jump in the car for a ride when we call him by his nicknames “Tri-Tri” or “Tritjie”, but he does not like his walking harness and prefers to be free to run around unobstructed. Tripod is definitely the most spoiled member of the dolos household and reminds dolos that one can overcome most anything with a bit of love, trust and will to succeed.

Article submitted by dolos

CITO Weeks 2016

Mega 2016

Cape Town 2016 (GC5YRDE) is the next South African Mega-Event. For the latest news and updates about this exciting event, you can:

• like the SA Geocaching Events Facebook group
• follow their Twitter Feed at @GeocacheEventZA
• visit the www.capetown2016.co.za website to register to attend the event and to get the full activity program. Early bird tickets and various items of Mega gear are already on sale and the Mega Geocoin will be shortly.

Film Festival 2016

The Geocaching International Film Festival is back for the fourth year in a row.

The GIFF 2016 theme is Story Worthy Moments. Groundspeak are asking you to think of your most noteworthy, most exceptional geocaching stories...and get them on camera.

Submit your film by August 1, 2016 for the chance to have it viewed by a worldwide geocaching audience.  Find out more.

Planetary Pursuit

Cache of the Month

Secret cargo aboard the Golden Cache was stolen by 5 cutthroat pirates. Mary Hyde, the captain, was furious and vowed to track down her treasure. She made notes in the ship’s logbook as to where she thought it was but tragically the ship sank one evening and there were no survivors. Mary’s notes survived although they are now in disarray. Will you honour Mary and help uncover the secret treasure?  

This month’s Cache of the Month is Mary Hyde and The Great Star of Africa, GC7E49Z, an intricate puzzle that places you in the centre of Mary Hyde’s predicament. After being nominated twice it clearly deserves the award. Congratulations to Spesbona on creating a truly memorable geocaching experience!
 

Do you know of a cache that is worthy of the title of Cache of the Month? Please nominate it for the GoSA Cache of the Month by emailing the details (name, GC code) as well as a justification as to what makes it so amazing. Please include as much detail as possible even if it does include spoilers to help us make an informed choice for the winner - if possible please include a picture of the cache as well.

From next month we are moving to some specific criteria for COTM.  In line with geocaching taking you to some amazing places, for May please nominate the geocache that you believe has the best view. June's COTM will be for the geocache with the best field puzzle.Please send your nominations to .

Mega Event?

The next big event planned is the 2018 Jolly Jozi Jol, GC7DAJM. We are trying to get this one Mega status, which needs 500 will attends to achieve that. If you will be in Gauteng on 29 September and will be joining us for the event, please log your will attend now so we can get this event up to Mega status.  At date of publishing we are already up to 267 WILL ATTENDS, so please check your calendar and book the weekend now.

CITO Week

CITO Week is happening from 21-29 April 2018.  Time to start planning your local CITO event as it needs to be published by 7 April.


CITO events published in South Africa are listed on the Groundspeak site here.

Cache Carnival Souvenirs

You still have just less than two weeks left to finish the Cache Carnival missions before they end on 14 April.  You can earn up to five souvenirs that are inspired by historic carnival locations like New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro by collecting points for attending events, finding geocaches with favourite points or earning favourite points on your own geocaches. Find out more about the details here.

But that's not all.  There is a special sixth souvenir available for attending a Creation Celebration event.  These are events to celebrate geocache creation and cache owners.  Find one near you here.

Event Update

Events are a critical part of the geocaching community.  It is where ideas are shared, newbies are introduced to the way that the game works, and many, many new good friends are made.  The stats forum has recently done an analysis of the events across South Africa, which shows that events are growing in popularity.

Last year 318 events were held across the country and events accounted for almost 18% of all caches published in 2018. There are several more interesting stats on how many attend logs are logged and how big events are on the forum page here.

Events range from a weekend camping and caching with fellow geocachers, to weekly coffee or breakfast events for regular groups to just catch up with each other.  If you are looking for an event near you, check out our website for the latest published events.

Cache In Trash Out Souvenirs

Cache In Trash Out® is an ongoing environmental initiative supported by the worldwide geocaching community.

Since 2002, geocachers around the world have been dedicated to improving parks and other cache-friendly places. Through these volunteer efforts, we help preserve the natural beauty of our outdoor resources! Geocachers around the world celebrate International Cache In Trash Out annually by hosting and participating in Cache In Trash Out Events in their local area. Events might be focused on litter clean-up, removal of invasive species, revegetation efforts or building trails. Together, we make an enormous positive impact. Did we mention that we also have a bit of fun while we're at it?

This year, Cache In Trash Out® souvenir moments will extend from just one week, twice a year, to two entire seasons. This year’s CITO dates are:

CITO 2019, Season 1
Friday, March 1 through Friday, May 31, 2019. That includes all of March, April, and May!

CITO 2019, Season 2
Sunday, September 1 through Saturday, November 30, 2019. That includes all of September, October, and November!

To earn the CITO 2019, Season 1 and the CITO 2019, Season 2 souvenirs, all you need to do is attend or host any CITO event during each of the two seasons, but remember you will only earn one souvenir per season.

Cache of the Month

CITO Weeks 2016

Leap Day

We hope you were one of the more than 220 geocaching teams that have already earned the souvenir on Leap Day by logging one of the 25 events across South Africa, and that you also managed to find a geocache sometime over the weekend for the other souvenir.

Check out some of the photos here.  If you have more photos to share, please send them to our webmasters.

Story Time

We are always on the lookout for photos from events or cool caches, as well as any fun, interesting, unusual or exciting geocaching stories to share with the geocaching community.

If you want to share yours, send it to us by emailing it to our webmasters.

Geocaching Apps

How would we survive these days without our smartphone apps?  Whether you do your app shopping on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, you are probably often looking for the best and latest apps to help you achieve something.

Like most activities today, Geocaching also has a variety of apps available.  Recently, Groundspeak announced that they are retiring their Classic App (read about it here).  This has forced many geocachers into reviewing which app they are using. We have put together our list of apps here; feel free to try them out.  Please let us have your reviews and thoughts on them, or give us others to add to the list that you also use by contacting our webmasters.

CITO Weeks 2017

Puzzle Solving

Project APE

Putting Sedgefield on the Caching Map

The Garden Route is a stunningly beautiful quaint stretch of the coastline we are privileged to be able to enjoy. Sedgefield is one of the smaller towns and, without stopping, one can very easily miss its magnificent tranquillity and authentic natural beauty.

BoazRuthFields regularly walks along the Swartvlei estuary picking up rubbish. As he walked he decided that he needed to share the beauty and uniqueness of the spot with others. He started by placing the first cache in a cave on the water’s edge (GC689QN) but then decided the best way to share the experience would be to place a Wherigo that takes you along the river banks. Combine that with a CITO and the environment will benefit as well. This then expanded into a caching day with a wide variety of caches.

As word got out the day became more popular and the pressure was on to place more caches and by the time the day dawned there were 2 events (one being the CITO), an Earth Cache, Letterbox, Mystery, Wherigo, Multi and 10 Traditionals (all new). This new 8 Icon day combined with a variety of high Difficulty and Terrain ratings resulted in cachers coming from as far as Cape Town and East London for the day.

The day (4 February 2017) started with a breakfast at the well-known Wild Oats Community Farmers Market. There were lots of familiar faces and some new ones. Approximately 20 cachers/teams attended. BoazRuthFields could not attend as he had been rushing through the night on the only available transport at the time, his bicycle, checking on all the caches and making sure all was good for the day.

After breakfast the cachers spread around but most followed the river picking up the new caches as they went. The highlight of the morning was the Kingfisher Creek Extreme cache (GC6ZYFB) that saw a group, with a ladder, in the middle of the river to retrieve the cache. After that one it was down to the beach and into some impenetrable alien bush on the top of the sand dunes.

A short break for lunch and then it was time for the Wherigo and CITO. At this stage it must be mentioned that the river mouth was still closed to the sea and after the rain the river was almost two meters deeper than normal.  Instead of an easy walk down the river bank the CITO and Wherigo was aptly named a “Wheriswim” by the caching group.

The locals must have thought the cachers were crazy. First a ladder in the middle of the river and then a swim down the river with one hand held high to stop the GPS/smartphone getting wet.

The Wherigo followed a story of an Epic Quest. The programming was unique and well thought out. The routing was fantastic.  Once completed the wet and tired group dispersed, either to shower and get dry or to cache some more.

Those that stayed over in Sedgefield met the following morning to do the Waterfall Extreme cache (GC6ZYGV). It was great to do this one in a group with the CO in attendance. It will be very difficult if you are on your own. Another amazing secluded beautiful spot shared.
Thanks to BoazRuthFields “The Sedge” is now on the caching map! Well done! It was an awesome experience enjoyed by all those that attended.
Article submitted by ChrisDen


Tjoklits on the pole - GC6ZYFB


The easier of the “Dune” Caches


CITO/Wherigo in the river


River crossing - GC6ZYGV


Team “Waterfall Extreme”

Planetary Pursuit Preview

Cache of the Month

Do you know of a cache that is worthy of the title of Cache of the Month? Please nominate it for the GoSA Cache of the Month by emailing the details (name, GC code) as well as a justification as to what makes it so amazing. Please include as much detail as possible even if it does include spoilers to help us make an informed choice for the winner - if possible please include a picture of the cache as well.

The nominations we have already received this year so far will also be eligible for the next month's award. Nominations for April must be submitted by 20 March for them to be considered.

From May we are moving to some specific criteria for COTM.  In line with geocaching taking you to some amazing places, for May please nominate the geocache that you believe has the best view.Please send your nominations to .

CITO Week

CITO Week is happening from 21-29 April 2018.  Time to start planning your local CITO event as it needs to be published by 7 April.

Big Events

The next big event planned is the 2018 Jolly Jozi Jol, GC7DAJM. We are trying to get this one Mega status, which needs 500 will attends to achieve that. If you will be in Gauteng on 29 September, log your will attend now so we can get this event up to Mega status.  At date of publishing we are already up to 189 WILL ATTENDS, so please check your calendar and book the weekend now.

Geocaching Weekends

There are several geocaching weekends coming up.  The first, over this weekend of 2 to 4 March is in Port Alfred, GC7H8H2 Annual event @ Medolino.

The next one is over the weekend 13 to 15 April at the Ezemvelo Nature Reserve near Bronkhorstspruit, GC7F4D7 Ezemvelo Nature Reserve - weekend April 2018.

The final weekend event currently scheduled is at the Tswaing Meteor Crater over the weekend 13 to 15 July, GC7H4NP Tswaing Crater Sleepover X, 2018.

Cache Carnival Souvenirs

On the 25th March 2019, the next special geocaching event begins, the Cache Carnival.  You can earn up to five souvenirs that are inspired by historic carnival locations like New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro by collecting points for attending events, finding geocaches with favourite points or earning favourite points on your own geocaches. Find out more about the details here.

But that's not all.  There is a special sixth souvenir available for attending a Creation Celebration event.  These are events to celebrate geocache creation and cache owners.  Find out how to find a Creation Event or host your own.

Cache In Trash Out Souvenirs

Cache In Trash Out® is an ongoing environmental initiative supported by the worldwide geocaching community.

Since 2002, geocachers around the world have been dedicated to improving parks and other cache-friendly places. Through these volunteer efforts, we help preserve the natural beauty of our outdoor resources! Geocachers around the world celebrate International Cache In Trash Out annually by hosting and participating in Cache In Trash Out Events in their local area. Events might be focused on litter clean-up, removal of invasive species, revegetation efforts or building trails. Together, we make an enormous positive impact. Did we mention that we also have a bit of fun while we're at it?

This year, Cache In Trash Out® souvenir moments will extend from just one week, twice a year, to two entire seasons. This year’s CITO dates are:

CITO 2019, Season 1
Friday, March 1 through Friday, May 31, 2019. That includes all of March, April, and May!

CITO 2019, Season 2
Sunday, September 1 through Saturday, November 30, 2019. That includes all of September, October, and November!

To earn the CITO 2019, Season 1 and the CITO 2019, Season 2 souvenirs, all you need to do is attend or host any CITO event during each of the two seasons, but remember you will only earn one souvenir per season.

Mega Planning

Cache of the Month

iPajero's trip across America

16 Years of Geocaching

Mega 2016

Cape Town 2016 (GC5YRDE) is the next South African Mega-Event. For the latest news and updates about this exciting event, you can:

• like the SA Geocaching Events Facebook group or follow them on Twitter at @GeocacheEventZA
• visit the www.capetown2016.co.za website to register and get the activity program. Early bird tickets and various items of Mega gear are available already.
• The stunning Mega Geocoin has gone on sale during April, order yours now from the Mega Team or from the Caching store or from the Capri Cache Store.

Film Festival 2016

The Geocaching International Film Festival is back for the fourth year in a row.

The GIFF 2016 theme is Story Worthy Moments. Groundspeak are asking you to think of your most noteworthy, most exceptional geocaching stories...and get them on camera.

Submit your film by August 1, 2016 for the chance to have it viewed by a worldwide geocaching audience.  Find out more.

International CITO^® Weekend

Puzzle Caches

Mega 2016

Muggled!