|
|
||
 |
||
 Next Reach the Peak Souvenir, Game Board Regeneration and more…
|
||
From the Desk of the ChairmanSeptember! Already! Who would have thought we’d be at the month when we should have been having our massive event so quickly? While the Bay Cache Bash won’t be happening this month, I’ve been delighted to see our community doing amazing things and growing. A few weeks ago, there were a number of events to celebrate International Geocaching Day. I attended an awesomely well attended one in Johannesburg. Beyond that, I’m elated to notice safe and smaller events and trips being planned and carried out in lieu of our large event.
What is most promising to me is that in the sadness of losing members of our community to the pandemic and some members being hospitalized, the way in which the community has rallied around one another to support in these times of distress has been heart-warming. I’d like to thank you all for being so cool and offering such amazing friendship. It’s genuinely great to see that our community is more than just a collective of people who pick things up under obvious piles of rocks. We also have some mountains to climb over the upcoming months. Personally, having cleared the caches in Bloem, it seems like the souvenir hunt is going to see me travelling the country quite a bit in the near future so I’m looking forward to meeting many more of you. I had hoped that we could do a submission for the Geocaching Film Festival but with the deadline passed, I can only hope that some members of the community I’m not aware of made a submission. If not, fear not, we have a great idea for next time that we’ll begin planning. Maybe by then, if nobody has solved the annoying issue of replacing a micro, we’ll have a rather relatable film *winks* On the subject of solving problems, at a recent event, there was talk by some newbies on hosting another event aimed at tips for building awesome gadget caches. Let us know if there would be appetite for such an event and we’ll try make it happen. Until then, enjoy the newsletter, thank you so much for all the community contributions. Keep ‘em coming and keep on posting your great photos using #GeocachingSouthAfrica |
||
|
||
Community ContributionScouts Craft Badgeby Janine222
Max Bentley is 12 and attends 1st Cambridge Land Scouts in East London. Max lives in Gonubie with me, his mom, and his elder sister. Max along with his family are working towards the Geocaching Scoutcraft Badge. We have found 15 caches so far but yet to find a multi-cache and puzzle/mystery cache.
Once we have completed all these Max will present his logs and info and knowledge, he has gained to his scout leader for approval, and earn his badge. Max has not yet logged any finds on his own profile (he doesn’t have a cell phone) but has been keeping track on his mom’s, Janine222. We only found out about geocaching this year and were hooked straight away. We have searched in Gonubie and Hogsback so far.
  |
||
Game Board RegenerationBy Adventure_T
 So, with limited space, and limited new caches being hidden, how can we keep the geo-excitement perpetually growing? The time has arrived for Game Board Regeneration! As Geocachers, we know that our game board is planet Earth. We have the opportunity to breathe new life into it - to refresh it. To bring us back to the glory days of a map filled with green, blue, and orange icons, calling our names… So, how exactly can we be part of the solution of regenerating our game board? We can do this as both Finders and Hiders. As Finders, we could:
I created a Cluedo series of Mystery caches a while ago. I think there were about 3 finds in 2 years, this in spite of nearby Traditionals getting found regularly. Lesson learnt - the vast majority of Geocachers can’t / won’t tackle Mystery caches. I then archived them and relaunched them as individual Traditionals. Immediately they were being found by many more people, with logs like “I missed out on the finding of this series first time around, so it was nice to revisit today.” In fact, some of those original Finders even went back for a second Smiley, with complimentary comments like “Good to be back here again.” Then, I noticed that one of my nearby caches in a good location kept getting “needs maintenance” comments as the container wasn’t good. Instead of just replacing the container, I invested in a puzzle box which had to be solved to access the logbook. Immediately after archiving the old one and relaunching this location with the upgraded container, compliments and FPs came flying in. Several years ago, I had laid out a trail of Traditional caches on a nearby hillside. It had been found a few times, but as it was disjointed and clumsy, it was largely ignored. I then archived and removed most of the caches and laid out new ones, with an extension, which included a rare Letterbox hybrid. It is now something I am proud of and has 11 shiny new caches to find. As a Finder, I have also recommended, and successfully achieved, archiving of several multiple DNF caches belonging to COs that had left the game years ago. This opened up valuable space for new placements. In some cases, I placed a replacement, in others I left it for other local Hiders. (Note: I am however a supporter of cache adoption where the cache has some historical significance) So, as you can see, it is really quite easy to be part of the solution. Join me in this month’s challenge of game board regeneration in your area: replace at least one old or bad cache in your area, with a new one. Share your adventure on social media and then bask in our respect and admiration!   |
||
|
||
New Souvenirs: Reach the Peaks Challenge GCHQ have released yet another challenge – this time inspired by the mountaineering challenge of reaching the 7 highest peaks on all 7 continents. No, we don’t need to actually climb these mountains or reach certain heights, what we do need to do is collect points. The points that you need will be the equivalent of the height above sea level of the base camps and summits of these famous mountain peaks. Each month will have different points for each type of cache find.
The challenge will run over the next 7 months from 2 August to 6 March 2022. Each month there will be two different souvenirs up for grabs – a base camp and a summit. At the end of the 7 months should you have collected all 14 souvenirs along the way you will receive a bonus souvenir – The Peak Performer.
The Souvenirs that can be earned are as follows:
September sees us ending Puncak Jaya on the 5th and starting the climb towards Vinson Basecamp and Summit on the 6th.
This month we start our trek up peak 2 – Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica. Collect 325 points to earn the Vinson Basecamp souvenir and 4892 points to earn the Vinson summit souvenir. Points can be earned between 6 September and 3 October (UTC) Here are the point values for the Vinson challenge:
You will be able to track your points via the leader board on the geocaching website www.geocaching.com |
||
|
||
|
||
