Did you remember to thank our awesome volunteers last week? If you did, allow us, on your behalf, to thank Rod, Bruce, Grant and Christina for their dedication to our game. While every player contributes geocaching in South Africa, on behalf of GoSA, in recognition of May 22, I’d like to thank these four in particular for holding it all together. Sure, we may have our frustrations here and there but doing this delicate dance of keeping us happy and the game alive has been a dance well danced and danced to a considerably long song. Thanks Reviewers. We appreciate you.
On another note, I was watching a geocaching podcast with one of the founders, Bryan Roth and he was briefly talking about some stats. I had also made a quip about getting old in a whatsapp group after buying some new TOTTs. I’ve already put my mirror on a stick to good use.
But it raises an interesting question in what the typical SA cacher keeps in their TOTT kit so I figured, let’s survey this. Here’s a link to survey with a list of 15 possible TOTTs. Let us know what’s in your arsenal and please make use of the “other” option.
At the time of writing, I have no idea what the new wheel of challenges challenge is but I hope you collected many favourite points over the last month…sheesh.
Resignation
I would like to inform the geocaching community of my resignation from all of my various roles in GoSA - Secretary, Newsletter Editor and COTM Coordinator. I have enjoyed interacting with and getting to know some of you better during my time on the committee. I am sure that a new appointments for these roles will be announced in due course. I wish the existing committee well for the remainder of the year.
Happy Caching! Ceinwen
Cache of the Month
To summarise how COTM will work: This month we will have community voting for a winner from the caches that were nominated last month. We will also be nominating caches for this month for COTM. We are up to date with the announcement of winners until the end of April.
We have two competitions running – 1) nominate a cache for the current months COTM and you will go into a draw for a prize from GoSA 2) vote for a winner from last months COTM nominations and you will go into a draw for a prize from GoSA. The nomination competition will close in December 2023 and the voting competition will close in January 2024.
The theme for May COTM nominations was Best Gadget Cache – we received 3 nominations/ Unfortunately 1 of the nominations was disqualified as it has a needs maintenance log outstanding for over 60 days. You can see which caches they are and vote for who you think the winner should be by clicking on this link. Voting closes on 20 June 2023.
For June we are going to be nominating ANY cache that you feel is deserving of the title Cache of the Month. Remember your chosen cache must be in South Africa; Only one nomination per month per cacher; You must have found the cache to nominate it; Cache must currently be enabled, archived or disabled caches are not eligible.(exception to CITOs and events); Cache cannot have a NM log in excess of 60 days with no response from CO. you to. When submitting your nomination for this month please tell us why this cache, event or CITO deserves COTM status.
Nominate them for the COTM by using this google form. Nominations need to be submitted by 20 June 2023
Because sometimes, for some people, it is about the numbers… Here is a summary of South African Geocaching activity for April:
1,066 Cachers found a total of 6,421 caches during April. 32 Cachers placed 65 new caches during April. The number of Cachers who found at least 1 SA cache in the previous 12 months is 7,913. The number of Cachers who placed at least 1 SA cache in the previous 12 months is 220. The total number of active South African caches at the end of April is 15,222.
Top Dogs
New Souvenir: Wheel of Challenges - Out & About
For this month's challenge you need to get out and cache on multiple days during the month, starting from 5 June to 2 July.
Easy - cache on 5 different days
Medium - cache on 10 different days
Hard - cache on 20 different days
Good luck to everyone aiming for this set of souvenirs.
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 below:
They are your local go-to people, so keep their details for future reference
Eastern Cape
FireflyAfrica (Jonker Fourie)
082 889 2459
Free State
Uncle Chem (Richard Chemaly)
072 431 7131
Gauteng
Leon St (Leon Stoop)
071 330 8435
KwaZulu-Natal
M²C²D (Mark & Ceinwen Oosthuizen)
M 083 324 6176 C 083 324 2167
Limpopo
Boats007 (Willem Botha)
082 463 3700
Mpumalanga
Bouts777 (Gerhard Botha)
082 876 3572
North-West
Team Tip Top (Hansie & Zaneta Van Huyssteen)
H 082 753 8082 Z 083 258 5926
Western & Northern Cape
SKATTIE@1 (Elize Louw)
074 138 6360
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!
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! 