Exactly 3 months to go to the official opening of Mega 2016 at the Wild Fig in Cape Town. The plans are all coming together and everything is on track for a fantastic weekend. There are many activities planned for the week before the Mega, on the Saturday and Sunday, and some activities for after the Mega as well.
Tickets are available on the Mega Event website as well as T-shirts and the attractive Mega geocoins. There is also a raffle for a Garmin eTrex Touch 35 donated by caching.co.za that will be drawn at the Mega on 1 October. Buy your tickets here. For the latest breaking news for Mega 2016 you can like the SA Geocaching Events Facebook group or follow the @GeocacheEventZA Twitter feed.
On 30 August 2001, Geocaching.com Founder Jeremy Irish activated the world’s first trackable, TB1 and thus began a game within a game: trackables. Today there are more than 2 million trackables traveling around the world - making friends, creating memories and patiently waiting to complete their mission.
On the 15th anniversary of trackables, Groundspeak are hosting a worldwide trackable race featuring the reincarnated Deadly Ducks and you are invited to enter!
The race will begin 20 July 2016 and end on 20 August 2016, but you need to register your racer by 17 July. Get all the details about the race and how to enter here.
The updated framework for Challenge Caches has been finalised, and new ones can be created again. Find out more about the new guidelines and listing requirements from the Geocaching Help Centre.
Last chance to submit your film as entries close on 1 August 2016 for the chance to have it viewed by a worldwide geocaching audience. Find out how to enter your movie.
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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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® 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.
Spesbona started caching on 4 May 2013 and found at least one cache a day until 19 January 2017. This streak of 1 357 days is the longest streak for any geocacher from South Africa.
While chasing the streak Spesbona has also managed to complete the DT Matrix twice and accumulate over 430 FTFs. The number of FTFs is impressive because on days that more than one cache was published they would only go for one and leave the others for a later day.
Doing one cache a day allows time for a decent log and Spesbona does spend time on writing a unique log for each cache. Their logs average 146 words and have plenty of pictures attached, over 4 000. Of course, there is an exception to this rule. Every now and again Spesbona goes on holiday to a location where there are large numbers of caches and has a splurge. On these occasions there will be some cut and paste in the log. In April 2015 they went on a tour and collected 968 caches for the month. The 2016 holiday was in July where they found 468 caches in the month.
We asked Spesbona a few questions about their geocaching adventure so we could share it with you.
GoSA: Who introduced you to geocaching? Spesbona: An old school friend, now living down under, posted on Facebook that she found a cache, and that got me interested.
GoSA: You started your streak from day 1 of caching. Was this a conscious decision or did it just happen? Spesbona: It was the proverbial like a fish to water scenario. Just liked it from day one. On the way to work, or back home would stop to try and find a cache. Only realised there is something like a streak when I got introduced to Project-GC. By then the streak was already 30 days strong. Just love statistics, coupled with a “mild” case of OCD, that was bound to lead somewhere.
GoSA: Your first cache was a puzzle, a type that lots of cachers avoid. Do you enjoy puzzles, and if so, why? Spesbona: Funny story. We started off with the GPSr I used in the car from work. Punched in the coordinates and we were on our way. Was a bit clueless. Did not know that you could pick the compass option, so we were more or less at a street address. It did not help that it was on a street corner. Had no clue what we were looking for. So actually, we could not find our first cache. Got back home and started reading up on other caches. Saw there was this puzzle one, and could figure out it was in the park, and it would be on the see-saw. That narrowed things down and it turned into our first find. Getting into puzzles at the start was daunting. People were doing it for a while and typically a new idea will build on an old one. So if you did not learn the ropes as they developed, you were in the deep end, and it was either sink or swim. Yes, I love puzzles. There are so many creative ways people find to hide the coordinates. It makes you think outside the box, and keeps the brain active. The best part is you can solve them at home, even during bad weather and in the middle of the night. To understand my feeling about puzzles, read my log on one of the first difficult puzzles I solved GC2T2E9 -The view at the top of the hill
GoSA: Were you ever tempted to log a cache on the incorrect day to save finding one for that day? Spesbona: No, that would be pointless. My OCD demanded a cache to be found. Besides this is an online game with a lot of people watching the stats. A bit silly to drag your own name through the mud.
GoSA: Why did you stop and why on such an unusual number? Spesbona: For a long time we have realised that one day it would come to an end. 1357 just seemed like such a nice number, and we could end on our terms.
GoSA: Did you physically visit a cache every day or were there some Earth caches or similar where you could log later to fill a gap? Spesbona: I know there are different ideas out there, but we log it on the day we visit ground zero. That way the statistics and the km’s travelled by the TB’s are all correct.
GoSA: Did you ever run out of caches reasonably close to home? How often did you have to drive long distances to fill a day? Spesbona: First let me just say that the Port Elizabeth community has been great. We started just at the right time, with a lot of new cachers, placing a lot of new caches. That is the only reason we could keep on going for so long. Yes, we ran out completely at some stage. When we went to sleep that night we had no caches left in Port Elizabeth. The next morning still nothing, but later in the day there was some new ones. So the streak continued. We would plan well in advance, and would do longer drives on weekends, visiting family or a tourist destination. Longest distance on one day, to find one cache, was approximately 1200 km. Luckily it was a work trip.
GoSA: What was the feeling you had when you woke up on day 1 358 and knew you were not going to do a cache even though there were still some available close to home? Spesbona: Peaceful and relaxed. The decision had been made.
GoSA: What are your caching targets now that the streak is over? Spesbona: Solving a puzzle a day. Only joking. Hopefully get to place some more caches of our own. That has been on the back burner for a while.
There is a new souvenir up for grabs on Saturday, the 11th of June 2016.
Initially this souvenir was only going to be available to Geocachers in the USA as it is related to a USA initiative called Great Outdoors Month. The Get Outdoors Day souvenir is part of a bigger initiative with the American Recreation Coalition and other US-based outdoor organizations to get more Americans outside during National Get Outdoors Month.
Given the interest expressed by geocachers all over the world in participating in Get Outdoors Day, Groundspeak decided to make the souvenir available to anyone who finds a geocache or attends an event (anywhere in the world!) on June 11, 2016.
Find out more here.
World Wide Flash Mob #13 is scheduled for the 4th June 2016. There are flash mobs organised around the country for this annual event, so keep an eye out for one near you. Find out more.
Remember to submit your film by August 1, 2016 for the chance to have it viewed by a worldwide geocaching audience. Find out how to enter.
One of the things that GoSA is trying to do is encourage geocachers to communicate with each other and meet each other. There are already many regional Facebook groups up and running, and we know geocachers have their own blogs to share their experiences with the wider community . The list we know about is on our website, if you know of any other Facebook groups or blogs, please share them with our webmasters so we can add them to the website.
Breaking News Geocaching International Film Festival Year End Geocaching Events
We are in the middle of the GIFF 2019 souvenir weekends, which is from 7 November to 17 November 2019. We hope you are making a plan to get to watch this year's movies.
1. GC3KM3K Da Vinci Code Gauteng 40 FPs 2. GC20XJH Ipanema Free State 39 FPs 3. GC2WJ2X Maps et al Western Cape 36 FPs 4. GC442JW TeamDJ's Puzzle Quest #4 Gauteng 34 FPs 5. GC3NMFK Wie-se Clock Gauteng 34 FPs 6. GC1WBRJ Longfinger Free State 33 FPs 7. GC3X44Z MEGA SA 2012 - The Needle in the Haystack Gauteng 31 FPs 8. GC3RQNP TeamDJ's Puzzle Quest #1 Gauteng 29 FPs 9. GC3WZBP See no Evil, Hear no Evil……..Speak no Evil?? Gauteng 28 FPs 10. GCV8C5 Lost Bomb Gauteng 27 FPs
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