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

Looking Back At 2016

As we approach another year, we felt it was important to highlight some of the achievements over 2016.

Firstly, we need to highlight the great work done by the Cape Town Organising Committee for Cape Town 2016, the 3rd Mega Event held in South Africa.  Feedback from everyone who attended was very positive, and we think the entire team that put the event together needs a round of applause for their successful Mega.

GoSA also had several successes, the Facebook Page and Website are getting more visits and hits than ever before, and we are regularly being contacted through the GoSA website to be interviewed by the media, or to share geocaching experience with newbies or people interested in Geocaching.  We even had some committee members on the radio this year.

Looking Ahead To 2017

 

Até breve. Boa viagem Katarn1977.

Article submitted by ChrisDen


Katarn1977, King James VII and roadrunred on the way to KwaDuma



L to R Katarn1977, PipiBibi and Shefetswe. Spesbona at the back in the Secret Chamber


L to R Katarn1977, roadrunred, ChrisDen and plainoldgraham after conquering Kompasberg (in the background)

YES, it is a Mega Event!

The 2018 Jolly Jozi Jol, GC7DAJM is now officially a MEGA event! The event takes place on 29 September and must definitely not be missed! Stay tuned for updates and news from the organising committee as we count down the days to the event - less than 90 days to go!

Who are family Behrens?

This month we have a special feature from the caching team, family Behrens! For those of you who don’t know about their amazing geocaches, they reside in Cape Town and have acquired quite a reputation for their hides. To date they have acquired over 1 500 favourite points!
First off some Geocaching history:
family Behrens (Jamie, Candice, Nate and Adam) started geocaching on 21 October 2012 with our first find being African Tides. This was after 3 DNFs and nearly giving up on this silly idea that my wife had come up with, but we kept on and after the first find we were hooked. Just 7 days later we placed our first geocache hide – Silvermine River Cache which is still active today.

At some point the FTF bug got us and we managed to grab a few over the years. The coin and TB bug also got us and we have over the years got some lovely coins that have some really good memory’s attached to them.

• We have placed 9 cache types including CITO events, regular events and a virtual. We are not big fans of Earthcaches but do like them and have persevered to become Platinum EarthCache Masters.
• In January 2015 we were awarded the Geocachers of the Month by Geocaching HQ.
• On 18 July 2015 we completed our DT Matrix with lots of help from our caching friends as without them we would never had got to do this.
• On 29 February 2016 we completed our 366 calendar.
• On September 28, 2016 we were awarded Geocache of the Week by Geocaching HQ for our cache Intersect 2.0.
• On the 1st of October 2016 we attended our first Mega Cape Town 2016 and we hit the milestone of 1000 favourite Points received on Owned Caches on the 4th of October 2016.
• In 2018 the Cubs (Scouts) implemented a geocaching achievement badge and Adam was one of the first to get this badge. I have since been working with First Fish Hoek cubs, teaching them about geocaching and taking them out geocaching (with lots of help from Adam).

I often get asked the following 3 questions regarding Geocaching:
What made you decide / want to make creative and unique geocaches?
We were very lucky to start caching in the Deep South (Fish Hoek) and this area has some lovely caches and some very interesting ones.

Some of our early finds were caches placed by Paddawan. You may know him for his Shipwreck series, but he has also placed a number of other well-hidden and creative caches.

One of our early finds was one of his caches in Simonstown (part of the Shipwreck series). This cache was a micro hidden behind a sign board. But what amazed me was that Paddawan had taken the time to come and measure up and cut some square tubing to fit in behind the sign board to hide the cache in. Unfortunately the cache was archived, so I am not giving anything away.

Straight away I liked this type of hide and knew I wanted to find more like this. A few finds later we found another creative hide from Paddawan, we were hooked. I knew that I wanted to place hides that I would want to find and by now had found some ‘not so good’ hides and did not want to do that.

So, this got me going with the creative hides.

Where do you get your ideas?
This is a very hard question to answer, the short answer is everywhere.

What I do is walk around the shops, mountain or even at work looking at everything thinking could that be or be used in a geocache. Then when I do see something that looks interesting I start thinking about how I can use it. I also use the internet to get some ideas and then using what I have found and seen, I start my planning. Often my ideas change as I am making the cache. Something that started as the ‘hide’ may end up been part of a bigger hide. Sometimes I take two ideas and make them in to one big hide. The key is to always be looking and asking the question to yourself – can that be a geocache?

I also decided to try keep making different hides, this way it keeps me thinking and that way challenging myself to find something new. I also like to try keep doing it better if I can. So often I will go back to a hide and remake it a bit better or just improve it in some way. I also find that the listing is some thing to be creative with. For this I often look to movies and series for some ideas.

How do you get your permission to place your geocaches and find the location?
After spending weeks, sometimes months making a geocache it is nice to know that it is going to be in a good spot. We do work a bit backwards as most people find a cache location and then make the cache. We make the cache and then find the location.

How we go about this is we drive around looking at the potential places (we often have places in mind). The cache guides us most often. Once we have found a location we then work on the permission. We have sometimes got permission for a location and decided that the cache is not the right fit and then made a new cache for the approved location. Some places are easy as you can find someone on site and ask to talk to the owner / management. I find that after a 5 min chat about geocaching and what you want to do most people are happy to help. In other cases you need to go home and do some research about the place you want to use and perhaps get a phone number or email address. In every case I get the permission in writing. This often takes a few weeks but it is all worth it in the end.
Article submitted by family Behrens

Hidden Creature Souvenirs

Cache of the Month

This month's theme was Best Golden Oldie and we received some excellent nominations.

The opinion of the committee was mixed but after much deliberation it was decided that South Africa’s oldest geocache is July's COTM. GC185, Sentinel View, placed on 18 January 2001, sits in Silvermine Nature Reserve and commands amazing views of Hout Bay. On top of this, it is a large container that has stood the test of time and should definitely be on every cacher’s bucket list!For the next several months the COTM will not have a specific theme. Caches that have been nominated so far this year (from January to April) will be eligible again. Please send your nominations to .
 

Big Blue Switch Souvenir

Three Million!

Film Festival 2017

Border Camping Weekend

The Camping Weekend 2017 Areena Riverside Resort (GC6ZWE2) event was held from the 24th to the 26th March and is the third camping weekend that has been held in the East London area, with the first being way back in February 2009, Camp & Cache by iNokia (GC1KVK9).

The weather for the weekend did not look too promising as we woke up to rain on Friday morning but fortunately by mid morning it had stopped and it held off for the weekend. Kingrobert from Port Elizabeth had arrived on Wednesday, then slowly the rest of those attending arrived. In the meantime two potjiekos pots, one a lamb and bean pot and the other one a chicken and mushroom were being prepared on Friday for those attending the camping weekend. Although there was a little rain in the evening this did not dampen the spirits as everyone huddled under the awning and gazebo to share the potjiekos. The one pot was scraped clean and precious little left in the other so it appeared that it was enjoyed by all. After much geocaching talk and socializing every one retired for the night to get some rest for the day that lay ahead.

On Saturday morning the two teams from Port Elizabeth, Kingrobert and NaviMate, one cacher from Pretoria mart514 and nine local teams got together to solve the 20 Geo-Art caches that had just been published. Firstly we must say a big thank you to Pte Curb for reviewing and publishing the caches as requested. As geocachers we are deeply indebted to our South African reviewers who devote so much of their time to ensuring that we have the pleasure of enjoying geocaching. The Geo-Art series was based on two of East London’s historic claims “The world’s only surviving Dodo Egg and the discovery of the prehistoric Coelacanth”. Once the puzzles were solved the teams departed to find these geocaches culminating in finding the Dodo Egg and the Prehistoric Coelacanth final bonus caches. From the logs it can be seen that much fun and learning was experienced by the geocachers. Quotes from two logs “Lots of time and effort went into this Geo-Art and we are so lucky to have such great historical finds in our back yard” and ”Plenty of research and preparation for this very informative and historical significant series and the first Geo-Art in East London.

On Saturday evening a communal braai was organized and while we waited for the coals to be ready we were treated to an amazing fire-dance display by teams Monti’s Adventure and Jou Doring. Monti’s Adventure also produced and handed out some great wooden geocoins/tags commemorating the weekend. Thanks too to NaviMate who sponsored bottles of water for Saturday’s geocaching and pineapples to enjoy with our braai.

Sunday morning saw another 15 caches published, 10 in the Insect Series and 5 other, so it was a quick pack-up to get on their way to find these caches.

In conclusion I think this local WhatsApp post sums up the weekend that was had by all “It was such a fun weekend with cool caches. Thank you team iPajero for organizing, catering, hiding and making this weekend all in all FANTASTIC”.

Article submitted by iPajero

All About The Numbers

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

International Geocaching Day

Lost Treasure of Mary Hyde

2017 Nelson Mandela Bay Geocaching and PEG Awards (GC75BR4)

• Traditional Cache of the Year was a runaway victory for GC69XG7 - Puzzle Containers 6 - Nursery Rhymes by jtomcat16. This being the most popular type of cache placed it is no wonder there were almost 20 nominations.
• Mystery Cache of the Year was another victory for jtomcat16 and GC6KC9X – Puzzleception. 2016 seemed to be the year of the Puzzle and with 9 nominated caches it seems that jtomcat16 has a bit of a cult-following.
• Multi-Cache of the Year had 11 local caches nominated but in the end GC6KE7A – SMAUG by GeorgeC12 was the eventual winner. This D5/T5 cache was a popular choice amongst voters and should be a MUST DO on any geocachers list. It has also been awarded 100% Favourites/Premium Logs. An achievement unequalled by some of the best caches around.
• Letterbox Cache of the Year was awarded to the ever-popular Katarn1977 for one of his farewell caches GC6TB0C - Donald Trump. Set up at the foot of the Lady Slipper mountain outside of PE, this cache deserves a visit.
• Earth Cache of the Year only had 4 nominees and interestingly showed that local Geocachers are not big on this type of cache but the closely contested award went to GC6JXPW – Sundays River : Source to Sea by ChrisDen.
• Wherigo Cache of the Year had 3 nominations and was won by GC6BD5X - Forensic Science: Case #GC6BD5X by Erenei (For Authorized Personnel Only) the local Whereigo expert. PE has some fantastic Wherigo caches and geocachers who place these always seem to get a great response from those who get the smiley.
• Series of the Year was awarded to jtomcat16 for his Puzzle Container Series. The category attracted 7 nominations and shows that local cachers enjoy publishing series.
• Event of the Year was awarded to GC65GXB - On the River Bank (Weekend event) by PumTim with plenty of input from KitchenBoss and a few other cachers. This popular annual event is growing from strength to strength and geocachers attend from far and wide.
• Extreme Cache of the Year went to GC6BNN3 - inniKloof waterfall by plainoldgraham. This D4.5 T5 cache was a deserved winner attracting 10 Favourite Points (56% Favourites/Premium Logs in 2016. A great day out for any geocaching group. The extreme nature of this cache is not only where it is placed and the journey to get to it but also the fact that access to it is by appointment only.
• Most Challenging Cache of the Year went to the well-deserved GC6KE7A – SMAUG by GeorgeC12. (See Multi-Cache of the Year above for more on this cache.)
• The award for All Time Favourite Cache of the Year was a close fought affair with FireflyAfrica’s GC558ZR - PE Beachfront TB Hotel pipping the other contenders. This cache has also been awarded 43 Favourite Points at the time of going to print.
• Best Log of the Year was awarded to Katarn1977 for his penning of the epic tale experienced in the pursuit of GC4PWP3 – Pinocchio’s Nose.
• Best Log Photo is best seen than described. This award, the third for GeorgeC12’s GC6KE7A – SMAUG, saw plainoldgraham (aka, for this cache as, IronMan), Shefetswe (aka the guy with the broken ankle) & Katarn1977 (aka as Captain America for this cache) dressed in swimwear, in the middle of winter, after a prolonged week of rain, in a quest to conquer Smaug, the fire drake of the Third Age. Judge for yourself...
  
  Photo posted by Katarn1977 “What did you do today” on GC6KE7A – SMAUG by GeorgeC12
• Young Cacher of the Year is a close fought category every year and the 2016 Young Cacher was MeercatC12 for his continuous contribution to the local Geocaching community.
• Newbie of the Year was a popular & runaway victory for Bull-Terrier, who racked up 200 caches to the end of December 2016 after only starting in September of 2016.

• A popular choice for The Achievement Award was Katarn1977 for the incredible impact he had on the PE Geocaching community for the short period of time that he was resident in the city. Many Geocachers, who were fortunate enough to meet this fun-loving resident of Bakersfield, California, USA had, not only their Geocaching experience enhanced, but their lives changed by the larger-than-life “Let’s Do It” persona that slotted into the community as if he had lived here all his life.
• Geocacher of the Year Award, with 9 nominations, was fittingly awarded to the husband and wife team of ChrisDen, who, not only, found well over 1800 caches but also surpassed the 5000 mark in 2016. They have also placed more than 170 caches, still in play and have always made themselves available to aid and advise the Geocachers in the area.

• Most FTF's went to Navimate who cached until 4am in the morning after the night the caches were published. Navimate also found all the caches within 11 days and won because he had one more FTF than Chrisden. It was THAT close.
• Chrisden came second, having also found all the caches (but could not win because there were more points for an FTF).
• Wikklegat came third as they also found all the caches, but had less FTF’s.
• Pipibibi got the prize for the “least” found cache GC6Y076 PEG - Little orange boy.
• Spesbona received a prize for the "last" found cache GC6XXJP PEG - Go Fish in the Night.

Planetary Pursuit - Exploring our Solar System by Exploring our Planet

When this challenge was announced by GC.com my attention was raised somewhat higher than usual over the previous ones.  This one appealed to me on the level of a cosmological enthusiast as well as having not completed a challenge in its entirety since the 31 Days of Geocaching back in August 2013.

The nature of my work allows opportunities to geocache in several countries, but at the same time sometimes it doesn’t leave much time to do it.  As a long-haul freight pilot, I work a somewhat irregular schedule which usually involves lots of late nights and daytime snoozing. 

The Planetary Pursuit would prove to be a challenge indeed…

My journey started in Johannesburg where I live.  To get a small head start before flying back to work in Japan, I tried to incorporate some geocaching during some last-minute errands, and I found four geocaches in a morning.  These would prove to be the last South African geocaches I would find during the Planetary Pursuit.

My first stop was Narita in Japan, about an hour’s drive outside downtown Tokyo.  Luckily for me there is the Inbanuma Pond- the biggest lake in Chiba Prefecture- with a cycling track all around it.  I have geocached here many times before, and it has always been my ‘go-to’ geocaching spot due to many geocaches placed in a power trail fashion. 

In true power trail fashion though, the caches around the Inbanuma Pond are small and quite unremarkable- with none to very few favourite points, necessitating the need to find a lot to get anywhere beyond the Inner Planet souvenirs. 

Travelling east took me to Anchorage, Alaska, an area renowned for the great outdoors, something that we all know goes hand in hand with geocaching.  Except at this time of year, the whole state is snowed under and is very cold - temperatures dipped to -16° on some days I visited.  I still was able to find some caches though: those that weren’t buried by the snow.

A brief stop in Chicago yielded one quick cache, before I set off still eastwards to Germany.

The small double town of Traben-Trarbach along the Mosel River is a quintessential German village - quaint with beautiful scenery, churches, rolling hills with Riesling vines and castle ruins.  I was fortunate to spend several days here and got to explore the area by foot, finding several wonderfully thought out and well placed geocaches. 

Spending some idle time in Germany had me planning the rest of my Planetary Pursuit journey.  I had an upcoming trip to Seattle and I started planning a trip to two meccas - the Boeing factory and to Geocaching HQ.  But things were looking tight - I started a tally of how many and what kind of caches I had to find in order to reach Pluto and become a Space Explorer on a high note - finding the cache at Geocaching HQ.

Onward - and back to Japan briefly.  And then, something strange happened…

How can you find two different caches over 5000kms apart on the same day, and find the second one before the first one?  Time travel?  Not as difficult as you would think - you just have to cross the International Date Line.  Often, we takeoff from Tokyo in the evening and land a few hours later ‘before’ we left, in the morning of the same calendar day in Anchorage.  Confusing for the body, confusing for logging geocaches!

After find caches in Japan, Anchorage and Chicago again, I arrived in Seattle, hoping to complete my journey which by this stage had become fairly tiring.

After an amazing visit to the Boeing factory in Everett to see how the aeroplanes I fly are made, I found myself in Fremont where GC.com is headquartered.  According to my tally I had to find two caches worth 15 points, drop six TBs and then log the geocache at GC HQ to become a Space Explorer.  Fortunately, I was able to find two such caches nearby that were part of a geo-tour, picking up some TB’s along the way.

I arrived at the Lily Pad and was greeted by one of the Lackeys, who showed me around the visitor’s center.  After discovering some rare trackables and having my photo taken with Signal, I found the geocache at GC HQ, dropped some TB’s and filled out the two logbooks- one for a written log and one for your photo with Signal.

Sitting down, I logged onto GC.com to log my finds for the day…

Mercury through to Pluto by exploring our own planet, Earth.
Here are some statistics from my journey:
Geocaches found:
Traditionals: 62
Mysteries: 4 (incl. Geocaching HQ)
Multi: 1
Total Caches: 67

Cache-to-Cache distance: 63926,86km
Maximum distance in one day: 5545km (12 caches)
Countries visited: 4 (South Africa, Japan, Germany, USA)Article submitted by Halty

Hidden Creature Souvenirs

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 465 WILL ATTENDS, so are almost there. Please check your calendar and book the weekend now.

Cache of the Month

This month's theme was Best Field Puzzle, and we got some fantastic nominations.  All the field puzzles sounded very impressive, but our winner this month is very innovative and unique, even requiring some musical skills to get the container open, and had multiple nominations. 

The Cache of the Month for June 2018 is GC69XG7 Puzzle Containers 6 - Nursery Rhymes which is one of a series of field puzzle containers by jtomcat16, and this one has a awesome 93% favourite point ratio.Next month's COTM will be the best Golden Oldie - a geocache that is older than 10 years old (placed between 2001 and 2008). From August we will not have a specific theme but general COTMs again. Please send your nominations to .
 

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”

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.

Geocaching in the Media

Cache of the Month

Storms’s River, the Bloukrans bridge, the Outeniqua mountains, the Karoo, Baviaanskloof, Langkloof and Joubertina are all visible from the highest point of the Tsitsikama mountains. Here lies Formosa Peak, GC4TMME, this month’s Cache of the Month which boasts breathtaking 360 degree views!

This geocache is for all those avid hikers keen to tackle a challenging trail. Thank you to Team Schutte for putting this peak on the geocaching map!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.

For June and July there are more specific criteria for the COTM. June's COTM will be for the geocache with the best field puzzle while July will feature the best golden oldie geocache. This refers to a geocache that is older than 10 years old (placed in 2008 or before).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 315 WILL ATTENDS, so please check your calendar and book the weekend now.

Ezemvelo Caching Weekend

 
Ezemvelo Nature Reserve? Never heard of it. That was before Georg (Namibseun) and his team found this idyllic spot for a geocaching event!

Ezemvelo Nature Reserve is situated about 20km North-East of Bronkhorstspruit. It is really a hidden gem on the border of Gauteng and Mpumalanga. It is fairly flat with numerous roads and paths for hiking, mountain biking and driving. There is plentiful game and bird life for nature enthusiasts, even a dam for fishing.

Most teams arrived on Friday the 13th with a few that arrived later. In all there were about 30 caching teams. A great turnout.

On Saturday morning the hikers were taken around the 12km Protea trail and the MTB riders struck out on the 22km Burkea trail. In all there were 49 new caches that had popped up at 8am. 24 for the hikers placed by WorsEd and 25 for the bikers placed by Namibseun. The caching was great fun with a beautiful day (even though a bit hot) with lots of caches to find and lots of caching stories to be told while on the trails. Most of the time we were watched by some wildebeest or zebra. The afternoon was used by some to recover while other drove to pick up some of the caches on the alternate trail.

As the dark set in the braai fires were lit and once again the general topic was caching with lots of laughter and fun.

On Sunday morning there were once again two trails to attempt. The Ochna trail for the hikers which was 4km with 11 new caches and a MTB trail along the boundary fence with 15 caches placed by Jors. The hiking group seemed to have shrunk since the previous day despite some Saturday afternoon arrivals that were added. The biking group made a strategic decision not to go. The walk was a nice easy one with a bit of competition as to who would find the most caches. The walk was followed by a CITO around the dam picnic spot.

The caches were in great condition even though they had been placed last year starting in September. The baboons had managed to grab some but each group had the CO along to make sure the cache was found. In addition to the four caches that were in the reserve there are now an additional 76 new ones, including a few Multi’s, Letterboxes and Mystery caches. The real adventurous could have logged 83 smileys over the weekend.

A wonderful weekend and a must visit destination if you are a cacher that prefers the open spaces to the crowded city.

A massive thank you to Namibseun for the organisation and to Namibseun, WorsEd and Jors for the large amount of caches.Article by ChrisDen; Photos by Panthera03

International Geocaching Day

Mega 2016

Mega 2016 is happening at The Wild Fig in Observatory, Cape Town from 1-2 October 2016. The Mega team is running a Mega Geocoin design competition. The cut-off date for your design is 31 August 2015. The winning artist will receive a Mega Geocoin, free registration to the Mega Event and a surprise goodie bag... Send your entry to

Follow the Mega Event Facebook group, SA Geocaching Mega Events for the latest news and updates.

Delbadore in India

South African Geocacher Delbadore has been fortunate to find several geocaches in India.  Read about his experience on our website.  There is also a photo gallery of all his finds.

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