GoSA Grapevine October 2016 - MEGA & EarthCache Day

MEGA 2016
EarthCache Day
Meet the Reviewers - ROTSIP

MEGA TIME

Mega 2016 is this weekend, and we hope to see many of you at this fantastic geocaching event. Keep an eye on the event listing and Facebook page to stay up to date with the latest news.

You also have until Saturday to put in a bid for the special limited edition Mega GeoCoin

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.

At long last, the finalists for the 2016 Geocaching International Film Festival have been chosen and the list of finalists is available here.

These films stood out above the rest for their creativity, production quality, and contribution to the global geocaching community. Attend a GIFF event from November 3-7, 2016 to watch all 16 films and earn the GIFF 2016 souvenir.

Want to organize your own GIFF event? Visit this page to find out more.

Meet the Reviewers - Part III

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.

{itpshare}

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.

Country	2002	2004	2006	2008	2010	2012	2014	2016
Angola	0	0	0	0	3	5	8	12
Botswana	0	0	0	0	1	2	6	9
Lesotho	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	4
Malawi	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
Mozambique	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	2
Namibia	0	0	0	8	12	19	22	25
South Africa	0	0	3	41	141	171	257	361
Swaziland	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	3
Zimbabwe	0	0	0	0	1	3	6	14

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

GoSA AGM 2019

As a formally created Association, GoSA has a responsibility to ensure that it complies with the governance requirements of its constitution. As such, this is a reminder that the Geocachers of South Africa Annual General Meeting will take place at 13 Norfolk Avenue, Craighall Park, Johannesburg on the 12th October 2019 at 3:30pm. The committee thanks BruceTP in advance for hosting the AGM this year. If you want to Skype into the meeting, please email us on to organise the details.

At the AGM, we will discuss what activities took place during the past year, and it is a formal opportunity for the members to contribute to the direction setting of GoSA for the next year.

We will also spend a little time electing members onto the coordinating committee to manage the running of GoSA for the period 2019-2020.

After the AGM, we will also host a social event, GC8E3YZ - GoSA Social, and more details are available in the listing.

International EarthCache Day

An EarthCache site is a specific geological location that people can visit to learn about a unique geoscience feature or aspect of Earth. Visitors to EarthCache sites can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage resources, and how scientists gather evidence.

Get ready to rock over the entire weekend of Saturday 12 October and Sunday 13 October 2019. Find and log any EarthCache to earn the International EarthCache Day souvenir.

Geocaching International Film Festival 2019

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.

Adventure Lab Caches

After all the recent activity with new Virtual Caches, we decided this month to highlight another "newish" aspect to Geocaching, Lab Caches. Although initially allowed only at Mega Events, recently Groundspeak has allowed for some lucky geocachers to also publish their own series of Lab Caches.

Lab Caches are an experimental geocache type that count towards your geocaching statistics and total finds. In contrast to other cache types, Lab Caches are not required to have a container and can also be located indoors. This allows Lab Cache owners to innovate and test new ideas to make geocaching even more fun.

Currently there are 3 Adventure Lab Cache series in South Africa:
• Greensleeves, with 8 locations in Johannesburg
• Exploring the Cape Town Waterfront, with 9 locations in Cape Town
• The Company's Garden, with 5 locations in Cape Town

To get the Adventure Lab app for your iOS or Android device, and find these Adventure Lab Caches, visit the Adventure Lab site.

Cache of the Month

October's Cache of the Month was for the best Earthcache. With 428 Earthcaches in the country (and counting), there's plenty of opportunity to learn about our local geology. We are proud to announce Bokkeveld Fossils, GC336KY as the COTM this month. A unique lesson with fossil hunting involved!

Don't forget that 12 and 13 October is International Earthcache weekend.

Next month we will be back to general nominations so please send your nominations for any cache that you believe deserves the title of Cache of the Month. Please send your nominations to .

Mega Merchandise

The GoSA Store still has some Jozi Jol Mega 2018 Silver Geocoins for sale, you can place your order online. We also have some stock of geocoins from the previous Mega events available. There is also very limited Jozi Jol Mega 2018 stock left, check the GoSA Store for details of what is left in stock.

{itpshare}

International EarthCache Day
Cape Town 2016 event published
Geocaching International Film Festival

International EarthCache Day

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.

Mega 2016

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.

GIFF 2015

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...

The West Coast Geocachers shared their International Geocaching Day experience with us, read about it here.

Share your geocaching stories

We are looking for your fun, interesting, unusual or exciting geocaching stories to share with the geocaching community. If you want to share yours, then send it to us by emailing it to our webmasters.

{itpshare}

GoSA Grapevine October 2016 - MEGA & EarthCache Day

MEGA TIME

Meet the Reviewers - Part III

EarthCaches

GoSA Grapevine October 2019 - Governance and Geology

GoSA AGM 2019

International EarthCache Day

Geocaching International Film Festival 2019

Adventure Lab Caches

Cache of the Month

Mega Merchandise

GOSA Newsletter October 2015 - International EarthCache Day

International EarthCache Day

Mega 2016

GIFF 2015

Share your geocaching stories