|
|
||
 |
||
 This month in the Grapevine – Annual Stats, ISD update, a Geocaching competition and more.....
|
||
From the Desk of the Chairman…and just like that, we’re a month into 2022. Looking at the 2021 statistics, it seems like there’s growth from 2020. Not too difficult to believe since we were pretty locked down nearly 2 years ago but seeing the improvement is as exciting as holding on to Steinhoff shares. |
||
In the Shadow of the Dragon Less than 50 sleeps to go until the BIG KZN caching day and event - In the Shadow of the Dragon. 60 new caches were promised but the KZN Fun committee out done themselves by almost doubling this goal - over 100 caches have been placed and are in the process of being reviewed! There are loads of traditionals, an event, a whereigo, a letterbox, a couple of multis, and an earth cache that have been placed plus there is also the adventure lab, puzzle cache and community celebration event that have already been published. Please make sure to have your geocaching tool kit packed – some caches may need special tools in order for you to retrieve them. For any of the newbies out there some of the items you could include in your geocaching tool kit would be a pen (or 3), tweezers, prestik, torch, car phone charger or battery pack, spare batteries or car charger for your GPS, sunscreen, bug spray, snacks, water, mirror, magnet, pocketknife, 2l water bottle, raingear, first aid kit, sanitizer, and wet wipes. ISD will be held on 19 March 2022 in Underberg. The day will kick off at 07h00 and will end with the prizegiving event at 16h00 at the Underberg Country Club. If anyone would like to donate any prizes, please make contact with NinJa Speechie We have had a few queries about accommodation in the area – there is loads, from camping & self-catering to B&Bs & hotels. Google is your friend  If you would however like to deal with someone directly, please reach out to Deborah Taylor from Underberg Accommodation on 066 012 8642. It is a long weekend, so we suggest that you get your bookings in early. Apart from Geocaching there will be some other fun activities to complete on the day, keep an eye out for all the info relating to this in the March edition of the Grapevine.
Please log your will attends, if you haven’t already done so, and please encourage others in your caching community to do the same – the day will only be a success if we have lots of cachers attending and joining in the fun! We are looking forward to seeing all of you in March! |
||
Betty’s Bay: Leopard’s Kloof Hiking Trail and Geocaching Isn’t it awesome when you randomly stumble across a YouTube video that includes Geocaching? Thank you to the late Vuilhond for introducing new cachers to the game and for the social media exposure that went along with it. This is what The Ninja Chugus had to say: “We made an awesome friend on a hike one Saturday in the snow. His name is Braam, and he is the coolest dude we know. He took us on an epic adventure in Betty’s Bay where we hiked the Leopard’s Kloof trail. This trail is an easy hike and an absolutely must do for even the not so fit hikers out there. It boasts with beautiful rock pools and jaw dropping waterfalls that the camera just cannot capture! This hike is 1.5km in each direction and will take you around 90min for the return trip. Entry into the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens is R35. Braam also introduced us to Geocaching and we found our first Geocache with him! The link to the Geocache that we found is D.F Malherbe Stoel |
||
Your Geocaching WillAs unpleasant as it is to think about, we will all pass away at some point in time. None of us want our geocaching legacy to be unmaintained caches or geolitter and so we really do encourage each and every active cacher to make provision for what will happen with their caches once they pass away. Below in an extract of some of the information that is already on the GoSA website. Dealing with geocaches after the death of the cache owner After the death of a Geocacher that in life had been a member of Groundspeak’s Geocaching website (www.geocaching.com) and who had placed geocaches that are still active at the date of his/her death, the geocaches in question remain active. Without any clear instruction on how these geocaches should be dealt with, it is impossible for Groundspeak or other members of the Geocaching community to appropriately deal with these geocaches except by attrition over time as the geocaches get lost and are archived due to inadequate maintenance leading to the demise of the geocaches in question. This is an unsatisfactory circumstance as it can lead to the problem of geo-litter and/or the sterilisation of viable geocaching hiding spots while a protracted process of natural demise of the geocaches has to play out. In order to facilitate the addressing of the abovementioned problems, it is suggested that a Geocacher can as a responsible member of the Geocaching community take active steps to prevent the problem from arising. Two such steps are:
It is submitted that there are essentially three possible actions that a Cache Owner can direct in these circumstances, namely:
It is important to note that the Adoption of geocaches will be performed subject to the applicable Groundspeak rules and to the extent that certain limitations exist e.g., on the adoption of certain geocache types, such rules will apply and the request by the geocacher in question will not override the Groundspeak rules.
For each of the three possible scenarios detailed example texts for both the note to reviewers and the geocachers will can be found on the GoSA website |
||
Community Contributions
|
||
|
||
   |
||
|
New Souvenirs: Reach the Peaks Challenge – Everest
New Souvenirs: Reach the Peaks Challenge – The Peak Performer  We are drawing to a close on the Reach the Peak Challenge, it’s been a great 6 months of “climbing” peaks and achieving souvenirs and we are finally down to the last 2 souvenirs – Everest Basecamp and Everest Summit.
For those of you that have achieved all the previous basecamp and summit souvenirs along the way once you “summit” Everest you will also be awarded a bonus souvenir – The Peak Performer. The Souvenirs that can be earned are as follows:
The first ever recorded people to climb Everest were Edmund Hillary (a mountaineer from New Zealand) and his Tibetan guide Tenzing Norgay. Collect 425 points to earn the Everest Basecamp souvenir and 8849 points to earn the Everest summit souvenir. Points can be earned between 7 February 2022 and 6 March 2022 (UTC) Here are the point values for the Everest challenge:
You will be able to track your points via the leader board on the geocaching website www.geocaching.com |
||
|
New Souvenir: Deuces Wild 2/22/22 We know just how much GCHQ love funky dates and so it should be no surprise that we will be able to earn a new souvenir on Two-sday 22.02.22! The twist to this one? Well in celebrating all things “two” you need to find two caches or attend two events on the day. We are just glad they didn’t say it has to be logged at 22h22
Current SouvenirsSouvenirs are virtual pieces of art that you can earn, discover, and display on your profile page. They are associated with a particular location, task, find or event and may also be bound by time.
|
||
|
||
