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 This month in Geocaching – Let’s go to Russia, International Earth Cache Day, Adventure Labs and more…
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From the Desk of the Chairman…and so came and went September without an event we’d looked forward to for some three years. No matter! There were still plenty of goings on and some of you even went to the Eastern Cape all the same. Can’t wait to see the photos.
As summer comes along so do a whole lot of new opportunities to get caching. Climbing mountains just being one of them. It would also be an ideal time to convince your muggle friends to get off their couches and join you on “that GPS treasure hunt thing you do”. It’s also time to hold our AGM which I would encourage you to attend and perhaps even consider giving input. See the notice below and hopefully see you on 6 November either online or in person. In the meantime, I’ve been so happy to be able to find a number of caches that were placed over the lockdown. While in some ways, this pandemic has slowed us down, in other respects, it’s bred a new generation of cachers and guiding and keeping them motivated should be a priority. To this end, I’d encourage you, this month, to prevent yourself from going in with the simple “TFTC” logs. If there’s a story to be told, it would be grand if you could use the log to tell it. It makes the game enjoyable but also brings the community together in ways that I would love to see. Since I happen to be in Ballito at the moment, I’ll end it here and head out caching! May you have an amazing and safe month with many yellow smiley faces. |
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Community Contributions
I avoid EarthCaches like the plague! |
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Hermanus' Adventure LabsBy MacAddikt
Covid-19 definitely put a damper on our geocaching activities - both finding and placing new geocaches and the planning of events. In addition, many of us were given Adventure Lab Caches to publish. Due to Covid-19 lock-down restrictions, this became very difficult, some may say 'near impossible'. This year saw some of our lock-down restrictions eased and with that, not one but two Adventure Lab Caches have now been published in Hermanus in the Western Cape.
Hermanus Pieters, an itinerant schoolmaster from Boontjieskraal in the Caledon region found a ‘fontein’ or spring of fresh water, flowing into the sea roughly where Marine Drive today passes Swallow Park. He visited regularly and the area became known as Hermanuspietersfontein (the spring of Hermanus Pieters). In 1902 the name was officially shortened to “Hermanus”. Hermanus has been described in many ways. “Village of the Sea” showcases the fishing and holiday life. “Riviera of the South” focuses on the reputation of the town to tourists and the health conscious. “Whale capital” which offers the ‘best land-based whale watching in the world’. For others, Hermanus is the centre of the fynbos region, with natural botanical riches for research, collecting and painting. Created by tomtwogates
Duration: Less than 45 minutes.
Who: This Adventure Lab is Child and Stroller friendly, however a visit to the Old Harbour Museum (not part of this Adventure Lab) does include the navigation of stairs. Caution: Please exercise caution when crossing the road to do the Whale House stage, especially if there are children in your group. Parking: There is Tariff FREE parking close to the starting point. There is a chance that parking may be charged for in high season. A walk on the paved Cliff Path used to be called the ‘Champagne Mile’. The phrase referred to the renowned quality of the sea air in Hermanus. The reason the air is so healing here is that the swell is strong and huge waves crash forcefully against the rocks, sending huge plumes of spray into the air, saturating it with moisture and charging it with negative ions. Studies have found that negative ions can help boost ones immune system, speed up metabolism, and improve mood and sleep. Created by macaddikt
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Tree Planting
By Gauteng Geocachers Earlier this year Mooiman, one of the Gauteng geocachers passed away and we had some tributes to him in our August Newsletter. One of his fellow cachers, za pienaar family, then decided to host an event as a tribute to him. Thank you to all the cachers that shared photos from the event with us.  |
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New Souvenirs: Reach the Peaks Challenge - Elbrus 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 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:
The final push to the summit of the Vinson is on 4 October and then we can spend the rest of the month focusing on travelling across to the Caucasus Mountains in southern Russia to begin our ascent of Elbrus, the tallest mountain in Europe. Collect 325 points to earn the Elbrus Basecamp souvenir and 5642 points to earn the Elbrus summit souvenir. Points can be earned between 4 October to 31 October (UTC)
Here are the point values for the Elbrus challenge:
You will be able to track your points via the leader board on the geocaching website www.geocaching.com |
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Souvenir News: Wonders of the WorldUp until now the Wonders of the World Challenge has had an open-end date. GCHQ have now announced that this challenge will be ending on 20 February 2022, so if you have not yet completed all 4 levels you will still have time to do so. Visit the Wonders of the World webpage to see your progress and which Wonders you still need to find. |
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