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 This month in the Grapevine: What’s in a name, ISD update, Capri Cache competition & more...
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From the Desk of the ChairmanOh boy have I been looking forward to March. Not just because we’re probably all exhausted from climbing mountains but also to see so many of you at In The Shadow of the Dragon. February saw the availability of some sweet souvenirs. The GoSA committee also had a lengthy meeting discussing the way forward for 2022 and one difficult thing that came up was how to measure our impact on improving geocaching in South Africa and our goal of developing and aiding the community. |
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In the Shadow of the Dragon
 It’s almost ISD time…less than 3 weeks to go now! We are looking forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new cachers.
Along with all the geocaches that you will be able to find and events that are planned you will also need to download an app called Actionbound. The app is free to download and is available for both Apple and Android phones. The Actionbound app will have some fun activities loaded to it that will happen at various of the geocaches that have been placed. For each Actionbound activity, you complete you will be allocated points. These points will be used to determine who qualifies for which prizes and we have some fantastic prizes up for grabs – from 3D printed caches to perfume, from skateboards to paragliding vouchers, from premium membership to weekends away. Wayne from team waydom will also explain more on the Actionbound app at the Friday evening event, Meet & Greet in the Shadow of the Dragon, so please try and attend…. there may be some surprises at this event too! Remember that all caches and the Actionbound activities will be published at 07h00 on the 19th. Cut off time for collecting Actionbound points will be at 16h00 when the Prize Giving Event starts. For anyone interested in some merchandise to prove that you have "been there, done that and got the Golf shirt" check out M&Ms Marketing. All orders need to be placed and paid for on their website by 5 March. No stock will be available to purchase at the events.  Event Caches happening in the Underberg area for the ISD weekend are listed below. Please click on the links to view more details for each event:   Friday 18 March 2022 - Meet & Greet in the Shadow of the Dragon (Explanation of Actionbound)Saturday 19 March 2022 - Introduction to Geocaching (Explanation of Geocaching for Newbies)Saturday 19 March 2022 - In the Shadow of the Dragon (Community Event and Prize Giving)Sunday 20 March 2022 - Break the Fast (Share yesterday’s experiences)Sunday 20 March 2022 - On the Tail of the Dragon (Lesotho event)Monday 21 March 2022 - Getting Back into the Grind – (Last Goodbyes)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! |
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Community Contributions
“Words have meaning, and names have power.” - Author Unknown By Adventure_T  What’s in a name? There are millions of geocaching usernames, or “handles” as some of us like to call them, around the world – each one as unique as your fingerprint. This was your ticket to join this amazing game that started you on an adventure to interesting places. When you register your geocaching account for the first time, you must choose a username before you can continue. It seems like such an innocent request, but little do you know that you are going to have to write it thousands of times on scraps of paper, and that whenever you see another Geocacher, they are going to call you by this name. If we realised this fact at that moment, we might have given it more thought… A good geocaching username must be unique, but it should also be meaningful to you. It could be fun, clever, and easy to remember and write. What if you chose a username that you no longer like? No problem, you can change it quickly on your Account/Settings/Profile page. Remember however that you are known by your username and changing it may confuse other Cachers, and caches hidden under your previous username still display as that name. Although you can change them manually, it is a laborious task. According to Geocaching.com, usernames must be between 2 and 20 characters. They support the following characters for usernames, all other characters, including spaces, are invalid:
The shortest geocaching usernames registered are single characters, for example “A” or “.”, but these are old and have very few, if any finds/hides. When we meet other Cachers face-to-face, we tend to call each other by our handles, and almost feel surprised to hear that they have another name. Having come across several interesting handles in logs and cache listings, I reached out to some notable South African Geocachers, and asked them how they chose their usernames. Here is their interesting and insightful feedback: Skattie@1> The nickname “Skattie” came from her running days. When she switched from competitive running to social running, she started to help struggling people finish races, by keeping them company to take their minds off the pain and tiredness. She became known for her kindness and people started asking her to help them through races – they gave her the nickname of “Skattie”. “Skattie” was already taken when she tried to register it, so she tried “Skattie@1” and it was accepted. Thinking that it may come across as a bit arrogant, she tried to change it to something different around “Skattie” but could not find something she liked that was not taken, so she just left it. terunkie The name “terunkie” comes from the name of an exchange student “Tereska”, who stayed with them for a year and became like one of their children. It is a wonderful reminder of the time they spent with her, and incidentally she is coming for a visit in March 2022. udjopa “udjopa” is derived from the names of the horses she owned in the Netherlands: UDette, JOlien, PoembA. Although she didn’t know it at the time, quite a few Dutch Cachers use a similar method, but they use the first names of family members. SpiderFinder His caching name comes from the first time he went to look for a cache in the koppies near his home. While he was looking for his first cache with his daughter (already a geocacher), he turned over a rock and a HUGE spider ran over his hand – he almost wet himself! When he registered his account, he chose "SpiderFinder"! If he ever had to choose another name, it would be "Spike" or "Speek", because he is a thin guy! M²C²D (GoSA Secretary & Newsletter Editor) They started off with the handle, “MarkOost”, but realised that this had to change when local caching buddies started shortening it to “moost”, which sounded like a cow mooing! They decided that they had to produce something better than that! After some head scratching and thinking up a few options, they started putting their family's initials together in diverse ways and so M²C²D was born. M² - Mark and Marius; C² - Ceinwen and Cayden and D - Declan. It was also a reminder of her maiden name, McDermid. If they couldn't have M²C²D as their caching handle, they might consider something like “blackjackmagnet” or “bwttp” (bushwhacked to the path). Uncle Chem (GoSA Chairman) His nickname was always "Chem" (pronounced “Shem”) coming from his surname, Chemaly. It was originally his father's nickname, who had personalised number plates “Chem FS”. Chem and various iterations then became his nickname, most favourably, “Chem-Dawgy-Dizzle”! In 2011, 4 years into legal studies, he was elected SRC President, which included the appointment as “Warrior of the Shimla Rugby Club” (a very masculine name for a cheer leader). He needed a way of separating his professional self and the self that had to be silly to promote the rugby team, so he created a persona for the purpose. At the time, he was watching a lot of stand-up comedy and really enjoyed a guy called Rich Hall. Rich would stop his shows halfway and call upon his uncle to continue the show. His uncle just being him but with a different persona, Otis Lee Crenshaw. Chem figured he should just do the same thing, hence “Uncle Chem” was born. iPajero (#1 Finder in SA) On retirement, his company gave him a GPS as a farewell gift. Their eldest son showed them how it worked to navigate to a specific point where a small container was hidden, and this was how they became hooked on geocaching. They then had to learn all about geocaching and how to log a find. Their son explained that they could use an alias name, like, for example, his geocaching alias was “iHilux”. Since they were driving a Pajero at the time, their alias was decided there and then as “iPajero”. The fascinating thing about the name is that it was supposed to be pronounced “e Pajero” in the same vein as the musical group Ipi Tombi. However, everyone pronounces it as (eye) “i Pajero”. They never thought of another alias until the Pajero final got sold and they replaced it with a Toyota Hilux Raider. At the time they debated changing their alias to “Cache Raider” but felt they were too well known as “iPajero”, and by 2012 there were too many finds already (in the region of 7,000).  cincol Years ago, when registering his business name, he needed to submit several names, and “cincol” was the one accepted from the list, so it stuck. It went on to becoming his geocaching handle and comprises the first three letters of his children’s names: CINdy and COLin. Having used "cincol" for various things for 20+ years, it had never crossed his mind to change it. If he ever had to change it, he might resort to his CB Radio handle from the 70's - Channel Rat! SawaSawa The name “SawaSawa” is KiSwahili for “Just Right” or “Spot-on” and relates to when your GPS at last shows 0m and you have arrived at GZ. Working in East Africa for many years he had learned to speak the language. If he had to choose another username. It would be “Yaaaay!” - the typical expression of joy/delight and sometimes relief(!) on finding a cache. Evolutionaries They started out geocaching together as a family with something simple like “Barratt Family”. Soon they realised they needed something a bit catchier and more different. Being a geologist, he wanted something that reflected that, while he also wanted something "revolutionary". So, with a little twist on "Revolutionaries" they became "Evolutionaries"! So, does your geocaching handle reflect you to your liking? Would you ever consider changing it? If you would, you should know that “Snotx2” and “Hillgorilla” have already been taken…! |
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Thank you to everyone who entered the February 2022 Quiz - we hope you had fun. Congratulations to the winners! It may be our 10th birthday, but we are giving you the gifts
20 entries were entered into the hat - and the winners are: First Draw: Delbadore - Delbert Botes Second Draw: Geocaching Genie - Declan Oosthuizen Third Draw: mlornelh - Mike & Lorraine Harty Capri Cache Store will be in touch with each of you to get your prize delivered. The correct answers for the January Quiz are: 1.What does GPS stand for? Global Positioning System (It could also stand for "Gauteng Power Series", as I did not specify ;-)). 2.Where is the location (in full) of the first geocache that was hidden? Beavercreek - Portland, Oregon (I also accepted Estacada or in a forest near Portland, Oregon.) 3.What is a waypoint? A waypoint is a point defined by a geographical position, latitude and longitude coordinates and in most cases altitude, used by GPS navigation tools. 4.Who hid the first geocache? Dave Ulmer 5.What famous piece of swag is widely known as the “OCB”? Original Can of Beans The March Quiz is below, please follow all the steps below to participate and please encourage any of your geocaching friends who are not on the GoSA Grapevine mailing list to sign up so that they too can enter the competition. Please use the following link to subscribe: https://www.geocachingsa.com/  |
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Fallen Cachers
The subject of saying our final goodbyes to our friends in the geocaching communi0ty is, of course, a sad one but also one that we should not shy away from. The placements, finds, logs and events all rely on the personal contributions of each of us and at GoSA we like to remember our friends fondly. Some of you may know that we have a dedication page to some of the prominent cachers of our community on our website.The page is in need of some updating and we’d like to do it justice. If you find that there is somebody missing from the page or have additional information that is missing, please do get in touch with us so that we can arrange the necessary reflection on the contribution of fallen cachers. On the subject, there is also a rather helpful article on how to arrange your will to ensure your caches remain in play. Geocaching is a community hobby and at GoSA, we would like to remember all those who have made our community the amazing national friendship that it is. |
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New Souvenir: CITO 2022 Season 1
 Yes, its that time of the year again – time to show that Geocachers care about the environment! Let us all do our bit and encourage others to do the same. Remember that a CITO does not have to be picking up litter, it can be planting trees, or removing alien vegetation. Why not share some photos with us of some of the most unusual things that you find or see while attending CITO season 1 event? (Bonus: By attending any CITO between 1 March and 1 May to earn a virtual souvenir.) |
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Current Souvenirs
Souvenirs 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.The souvenirs that are currently up for grabs are listed and pictured below:
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 Found an awesome cache? Have some tips to share? Been on a cool geocaching adventure lately? Exciting events happening in your geocaching community? Taken a great photo? We would love to hear all about it! Please email our newsletter editor at |
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