On October 9, you can earn a new souvenir by learning more about the Earth (aka geocaching’s game board). All you have to do is go out and find an EarthCache on International EarthCache Day!
EarthCaches don’t have physical containers, but instead bring you to a unique location and teach you a geological science lesson. To make the find, you’ll have to check the EarthCache’s description and answer questions based on where you are and send your answers to the cache owner.
Pte Curb, Afrika Rocks and ROTSIP, the three South African reviewers
We wrap up our Meet the Reviewers series this month with ROTSIP (aka Rodney Pistorius). Rodney finds geocaches as part of rodnjoan together with his wife Joan, and has been doing this since December 2005. A close family friend of theirs, “greengrass.j”, got a hand held GPS for use when participating in activities of the 4x4 off-road club he belonged to, heard of geocaching and started geocaching with the other club members. He explained geocaching to rodnjoan who decided to purchase a GPS and start geocaching. 10 years later, rodnjoan are one of the few South African teams to have more than 6 000 finds. Rodney was asked by Groundspeak in March 2010 to become a reviewer, and after agreeing, his profile ROTSIP (part of his surname in reverse) was registered. Retired from his full time job as an engineering and operations manager since 2009, Rodney participates in various activities (such as University of the 3rd Age and travel club meetings) in addition to the usual routine tasks associated with home, garden and pool maintenance when not reviewing. Reviewing takes up on average 30-50 hours per week of his time. We asked Rodney to share some of his experience with our readers: GoSA: What do you enjoy about reviewing? ROTSIP: All aspects are enjoyable. The checking of listings for compliance with the guidelines, interacting with Cache Owners (CO's), advising CO's on how non-compliant listings can be adjusted to get them compliant, providing links to relevant information on the Internet, explaining how information should be interpreted, asking questions to get a better insight that helps with evaluation, interacting with the other reviewers to establish a consensus of opinion about specific listings that have issues, regarding how they should be handled, asking the Volunteer Support group personnel at Groundspeak for advice and guidance when necessary, etc., etc. The least enjoyable aspect is the need to deal with friction that sometimes arises. GoSA: What advice do you have for new geocachers? ROTSIP: They should participate in geocaching for long enough to gain an understanding of the activity by finding existing caches, before considering placing new caches. (The guidelines recommend at least 20 caches). They should attend social events so that they can meet other cachers and interact with them and learn from each other by sharing experiences. They should read the rules and guidelines to get an understanding of what geocaching is about and how and why the various activities should be performed. They need to read and understand the rules and guidelines as well as the terms of use, before they 'tick the boxes' that confirm that they understand and agree to what is specified. Feel free to ask any questions that you might have. If I don't have an answer I will make the necessary enquiries to get an answer. GoSA: What advice do you have for geocachers who have placed a hide and are about to submit their listing? ROTSIP: Before submitting a listing, they should read the rules guidelines and terms of agreement, to ensure that the actual placement of the physical elements and the compilation of the listing complies with the requirements. They should provide sufficient information in a Reviewer Note (RN), to enable the reviewer to effectively evaluate all aspects of the cache placement, and the compiled listing. They should also ensure that the RN includes information that is specified as being required, for the specific type of cache that is to be submitted. GoSA: Why don’t you go for FTF’s? ROTSIP: Being First To Find is not that high on our priority list. It cannot be said that I don't go for any FTF's. As a player my wife sometimes asks me to join her seeking a FTF and in terms of our agreed 'Code of Conduct' there are no restrictions on reviewers seeking FTF's on Traditional type caches. There are restrictions on reviewers seeking FTF's on Mystery/Puzzle caches and Multi-caches because it might be perceived that a reviewer could have an advantage over other cachers, to find these, because of possible 'inside information'. On occasions when we are part of a group seeking newly published listings, we do sometimes log FTF's as part of a 'Group FTF' We checked how many geocaches had been published by Rodney, and more than 7 000 of the South African ones listed since 2010 were published by him, that’s a lot of reviewing!
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.
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EarthCaches started rather slowly in South Africa, with the first (GCPX24) being placed at the Vredefort dome in July 2005 by Team Bjbez. After approaching the geological society of South Africa and using the Johannesburg centenary geological trail as a starting point, Carbon Hunter managed to increase the numbers dramatically, mainly in Gauteng, and soon others were popping up all over the place as more geocachers started placing EarthCaches around the country.
By late 2009 there were 100 in South Africa – and now they are reasonably common across all southern Africa countries. The appeal of placing an EarthCache is that once placed and approved there is very little, to almost no maintenance, required.
The EarthCache Masters awards program is also very popular – with many local geocachers qualifying for the top Platinum status. However, with the distinct lack of large numbers compared to Europe and the US in particular – there have been only a handful of local geocachers who have reached the “Mica” Discovery level of 100 EarthCache finds – and the “Garnet” level (250+ EarthCache finds) remains likely to only a small handful of local geocachers – lead by the inimitable team iPajero.
As at August 2017 there are about 27 000 EarthCaches worldwide. There are approximately 380 EarthCaches in South Africa, and this gives local geocachers access to a little under 1½ % of the world's EarthCaches.
More info here about the EarthCache Masters program.
More info here about the EarthCache Discovery Awards (EDA)
GoSA AGM International EarthCache Day Geocaching International Film Festival Adventure Lab Caches
This year, the GIFF 2019 souvenir weekend will be from November 7 to November 17. That's right, GIFF 2019 will extend over two full weekends! We are already seeing some events published, as local geocaching communities start planning the popcorn for movie night to watch the best geocaching short films of 2019. Find out how to host your own local event here.
On October 11, you can earn a new souvenir for celebrating the geocaching game board. What’s that, you ask? The whole entire Earth! (and one lonely space station). All you have to do is go out and find an EarthCache on International EarthCache Day.
EarthCaches don’t have physical containers, but instead bring you to a unique location and teach you an earth science lesson. To make the find, you’ll have to check the EarthCache’s description and answer questions based on where you are. You can send your answers to the cache owner via Email or the geocaching.com Message Center.
Visit the search page to find an EarthCache near you, just set the filter to EarthCache and there you have them all.
The Mega 2016 organisers have just published their event, GC5YRDE Cape Town 2016. Help them achieve Mega status by logging your "Will Attend" so that they can get to the 500 required.
Follow the Mega Event Facebook group, SA Geocaching Mega Events for the latest news and updates.
Watch out for the Geocaching International Film Festival events from 5-8 November. There are already a few events organised around the country to watch the finalists. Find out more...
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