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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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!
When placing or seeking geocaches, I will: 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
Cape Town 2016 (GC5YRDE) is the next South African Mega-Event. For the latest news and updates about this exciting event, you can:
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.
Only 2 Months to go to Mega 2016 in Cape Town and the Mega committee has been working hard to ensure everything is running smoothly. Get the details of their most recent update here. You can also visit their website to buy your tickets for the weekend. If you want to buy any of the Mega clothing, remember orders close on 31 August. Follow the Mega Event on social media:
GoSA has set up a YouTube channel to share various geocaching related videos. The first one we created is an animation of the geocaches hidden across South Africa. There are also links to other South African geocaching videos and to Groundspeak educational videos.
We are starting our Meet the Reviewers series with Bruce Pantland, who has been a geocacher since May 2008 and a reviewer since April 2012. Bruce caches under the BruceTP profile, and reviews as Pte Curb. He started geocaching after being introduced to the game by a colleague, Dakardrix. Bruce explained to us that he chose his reviewer handle by just reversing his player handle.
When not reviewing, Bruce's day job (and night job too as he pointed out) involves supporting key banking applications to keep the lights on for the customers! Given that he also spends a minimum of 25 hours a week on his volunteer reviewer work, that keeps him pretty busy. In addition, he is the reviewer liaison for the GoSA committee.
We asked Bruce to share some advice and experience from his reviewing with our readers: GoSA: What do you enjoy about reviewing? Pte Curb: Interacting with the folk from around the country as they brainstorm new caches as well as helping newbies get started.
GoSA: What advice do you have for new geocachers? Pte Curb: Read the guidelines and then read them again before placing your first cache. Also find a few before trying to hide any.
GoSA: What advice do you have for geocachers who have placed a hide and are about to submit their listing? Pte Curb: Check that everything makes sense - Check your location on Google Earth - Is it where you hid it. If not recheck your coordinates. Patience!! Although we try and get through the queue as quickly as possible at peak time this may take a few days.
GoSA: Why don’t you go for FTF’s? Pte Curb: I have never been a great FTF hunter, but if there is a traditional which has not been found and I am in the area I shall attempt it. For example Kompasberg remained unfound for over a month and I happened to be hiking in the area and so I went and got the FTF with JPMZA and MeganZA. Mystery caches are something else because we have insider knowledge which gives us an unfair advantage. So as a matter of principle, I would not chase an FTF on a Mystery.
GoSA: Anything else interesting you think our readers would like to know about you? Pte Curb: I enjoy meeting geocachers at events and finally put names and faces to handles. I really enjoy the social side to geocaching especially the camping weekends away, the PE camp outs and Tswaing Crater events.
It is official. Cape Town 2016 (GC5YRDE) has been granted Mega-Event status. Congratulations to the Mega 2016 Organising Committee, and thanks to everyone for supporting them. We will see you all in Cape Town for South Africa's next Mega-Event.
For the latest news and updates about this exciting event, you can:
We regularly see fellow geocachers struggling with mystery or puzzle caches. There are some events coming up in a few of the regions to talk about puzzle solving. Otherwise, visit our FAQ which has a section dedicated to puzzle solving techniques.
The West Coast Geocachers have shared the details of their 2016 New Year event with us, catch up with all the stories shared with us here.
Cape Town 2016 (GC5YRDE) is the next South African Mega-Event. During March the Mega T-Shirt and Mega Geocoin will be going on sale on their website.
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.
This year, geocaching.com is doing something special to celebrate the end of the fantastic time we have had in 2015 celebrating 15 years of geocaching.
Earn the Goodbye 2015 souvenir by finding any geocache or attending an event on December 31, 2015.
Then, earn the Hello 2016 souvenir by finding another geocache or attending a different event on January 1, 2016.
Get all the details from the geocaching.com blog here.
March 2015 includes a unique opportunity to attend Pi Day events. Pi (also depicted as π) is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, and numerically is a mathematical constant equal to the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, commonly approximated as 3.14159 or 22÷7. Being an irrational number, π cannot be expressed exactly as a common fraction; its decimal representation never ends and it never settles into a permanent repeating pattern.
More accurately, π to 20 decimals is 3.14159265358979323846…
March 14, 2015 at 9:26:53 AM or PM, alternatively written as 3-14-15 9:26:53, has therefore been declared Pi Day, and there are various Pi Day events happening next Saturday morning all around the country.
To find a Pi Day event near to you, visit the Pi Day page on our website.
We will let you know more as these events are planned
Speaking of websites, when last did you visit the GoSA website?
We recently completed an upgrade of the GoSA website. The new website includes links to upcoming events, articles about geocaching in South Africa, a FAQ and Glossary to help explain geocaching guidelines and the lingo we use, and links to various useful websites and South African geocaching forums.
If you have any other ideas or comments on the website, know of a geocaching site or geocaching blog that we should add links to, or use other sites to help with your geocaching experience, please share these ideas with our webmasters by sending an email to them at.
The 2016 Cape Town Mega planning team has got things under way for a Mega event from 1st to 2nd October 2016 in Cape Town. If you are based in Cape Town, they are looking for volunteers to help with Finances and Website Design as well as Promowear, Geocoins, Registration, Tech Talks, Special Events and Hikes, Kiddies Corner, etc...
Follow the Facebook group, SA Geocaching Mega Events for more information.
We would love to hear from you in terms of what information you want to see on our website, and what other information we can share with you as a geocaching community.
What information would be useful to include in the GoSA newsletter?
Some ideas we are already considering are any unusual geocaching experiences from both cachers and owners, some of the SA geocaches with the most favourite points, advice on how to solve geocaching puzzles, geocaching diaries, fun and interesting statistics and advice from reviewers.
Please send all your ideas to.
GIFF (Geocaching International Film Festival) Weekend 2015 is your chance to watch the entire reel of the 16 finalist films from the 2015 Geocaching International Film Festival. On the weekend of November 5-8 only, geocachers will host geocaching events at which these films will be shown publicly for the first time. So pop your popcorn, get out your cosiest blankets, and get ready—it’s a global geocaching movie night!
The details of the events approved to show the movies in South Africa are all on our website.
The Mega 2016 organisers published their event, GC5YRDE Cape Town 2016 last month. Help them achieve Mega status by logging your "Will Attend" so that they can get to the 500 required. They are currently sitting on 301.
For the latest news and updates, follow the Event Facebook group, SA Geocaching Events or visit their website.
Some geocachers went extreme in Rustenberg a few weeks ago, read their story... A few others tried a different way to get some of the high terrain Gauteng caches, read their story...
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...
The 2015 Road Trip ends on September 2, this is your last chance to earn your souvenirs. All the details are available on the geocaching.com blog.
The third South African Mega Event was Cape Town 2016 (GC5YRDE) and took place from 1-2 October 2016 in Cape Town.
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