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

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

Geocaching Safety in South Africa

How can we as South Africans make our Geocaching activity safer and more pleasurable? Read on, here we give some important tips and information which goes a long way to avoid those unnecessary trips to the ER, and advice on how to set up your ICE (In Case of Emergency) contacts.

Like most outdoor activities, Geocaching carries an amount of risk. You will often see on cache pages that there may be some risk involved in doing this cache and that you do so at your own risk etc. There are numerous aspects which come in to play such as activity levels, your own health status and especially where you will be caching. It is this last aspect in South Africa that is especially important as we have certain challenges that other countries do not have, they have their own again such as snow storms etc. Our challenges in South Africa include our lovely but sometimes dangerous African sun, dangerous animals, dangerous unmarked areas and lastly but not least our crime rate.

That said, we thought it pertinent to recommend the following tips for when you go Geocaching, all as a helpful tool to make your experience safer and more pleasurable. Just in the last two weeks we have heard of a group of geocachers who were attacked by bees and another that encountered a particularly harsh weed that resulted in a prompt roadside haircut by her husband!

So here is a list of things one could do to ensure your experience is reflected in a smiley and not in the newspapers (as fun as that may sound!).

Make sure someone knows where you are going and when you should be back, especially if caching alone. If caching in a group, make sure the group knows how and where to get to your emergency information. This is often saved as an ICE contact on your phone which can also be accessed if your phone is locked. See this write-up in PCMagazine on how this is possible. Another option is an app such as “medical ID” which is also available if your phone is locked carrying important information about you.

1. Be aware of where you are going to regarding any risks in that area. Read the previous logs! Google about what to expect there. There is lots of information on the Internet. Make use of it. Ask your friends that may have been there.
2. Check your equipment and have backup if necessary. There is nothing like stopping at a great night-cache and your batteries for your torch are dead!
3. Always have a backup plan and that includes how to get back to your car and under what circumstances. If you lose your geo-partner for example, what is the plan?
4. Take lots of water and sun cream! You should also take whatever meds you may be dependent on; for example bees are a reality, if you are allergic, take your allergy medication with. You may think Faerie Glen Nature reserve is just an hour’s walk but if you are setting off at 11 am that hour becomes a very long hot walk!
5. Know your limits! Even if you are within metres of that smiley but unsure whether you can make it, rather withdraw and re-plan.
6. Be aware of ticks! These blighters are all over so have someone check you out for ticks when you are back at home.
7. Have a daypack in which you carry your most important goodies such as a pen-knife, basic first-aid kit, gloves, something warm etc. Our summers are warm but nights can be cool, and if you are lost or stuck somewhere, you may need something warm. Also carry a sturdy walking stick. Unlike in New Zealand where most of the forest walks are smooth going, in South Africa they are not, and a twisted ankle is no fun!
8. Be aware of the local inhabitants and possible no-gooders! Some people sleep in the strangest of places. See the cut-out below and keep that handy if you run into any trouble. Respect the law and if any law-enforcer warns you against entering an area, heed to it. That smiley is just not worth it!
9. Lastly but not least ensure you have a decent communication plan, yes, take those walkie talkies, you’ve been itching to play with them, now’s your chance!

The end of a major run

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.

What's That Number?

Cache of the Month

Geocaching Weekends and Big Events

There are several geocaching weekends coming up.  The first, over the weekend of 2 to 4 March is in Port Alfred, GC7H8H2 Annual event @ Medolino.

The next one is over the weekend 13 to 15 April at the Ezemvelo Nature Reserve near Bronkhorstspruit, GC7F4D7 Ezemvelo Nature Reserve - weekend April 2018.

The final weekend event currently scheduled is at the Tswaing Meteor Crater over the weekend 13 to 15 July, GC7H4NP Tswaing Crater Sleepover X, 2018.

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, log your will attend now so we can get this event up to Mega status.

Canada Day Souvenir

More About The Numbers

How do the numbers of cache types in South Africa compare to the rest of the world?
I compared the numbers of the major cache types in South Africa with their prevalence in the whole world. Based on the total number of active caches in South Africa, the following graph shows the result:

What this means is that we have fewer multi-, letterbox, mystery and Wherigo caches than our total number of active caches would suggest. (A quick remark about Events: This comparison only considered active caches, i.e. future events that have already been published. I suspect this could be seasonal, and that the time of the year counts against us.)

This is compensated for with more than average numbers of event and EarthCaches. EarthCaches especially are almost three times as common here as in the rest of the world.

To get in line with the rest of the world, we need the following changes in cache type numbers:

• 329 more mystery caches
• 63 more multi-caches
• 21 more letterbox caches
• 9 more wherigo caches
• 6 fewer events
• 248 fewer EarthCaches
• 280 fewer traditional caches

• Traditional: GC185 - Sentinel View, in Cape Town. Placed 18 January 2001.
• Virtual cache: GC31AA – food for thought, in Nelspruit. Placed 10 January 2002.
• Multi-cache: GCGYQ4 - Urban Tag #1, in Pretoria. Placed 24 September 2003.
• Mystery: GCH26T - Reporters Riddle – Final, in Roodepoort. Placed 12 October 2003.
• EarthCache: GCPX24 - Vredefort Koepel Earthcache, in Vredefort. Placed 24 July 2005.
• Letterbox: GC12G1D - TBB'nB II, in Nelspruit. Placed 28 April 2007.
• Wherigo: GC1V8KT – Irish Quest, in East London. Placed 29 June 2009.