The Jacarandas this time of year teach us a vital lesson; with beauty comes a significant amount of work. Who would have thought we'd be spending so many hours sweeping the streets only to have to do it again tomorrow? 

I'd bet many of us never thought there'd be a need to do maintenance when we first started placing caches. Similar to the Jacas, the beauty of our game requires work and now that we're going into the holidays it's that time of year when many people start or rejoin the game. Please keep this in mind if you have some caches that aren't in great shape.

You'll see from this month's newsletter, we have a ton of international visitors and they seem to have a great time this side. Thanks to all of the hiders as we come to the end of the year of the hide, for making SA an awesome place to cache.

Lastly, on a personal note, thanks to all the support for our local GIFF submission. It's been a fun ride and we have some orders already. To show how awesomely international we are, I got some great responses from around the world but this one made me realize how small the world it:

"Greetings from San Antonio, Texas USA! We had a local event today to watch the GIFF finalists. When a video from South Africa popped up on the screen, I thought "I wonder if this is from one of the 4 geocachers I met at a June event in Johannesburg?" Well, imagine my surprise when I saw you in the video! I pulled up my picture from the event we attended and yelled out, "I know that guy!" That was pretty awesome and I enjoyed your video."

Dave
aka...HerkAV8R


 

A Quick Impulsive Trip to South Africa
by guho
 

Originally, I hadn't planned to visit Africa this year or in the near future. However, when my friends approached me about a trip to South Africa and mentioned they had a spare seat in their car, I agreed. I expected the typical dry and hot weather of this part of Africa. To my surprise, the temperature was quite comfortable even for me, a Central European. On some days, it even got chilly, so I had to grab a jacket.

During our stay, I enjoyed the visits to natural parks where we saw a variety of animals that I can usually only see in a zoo back home. Another highlight was our visit to the Big Hole, where I witnessed colorful diamonds with my own eyes. An unforgettable experience was the ascent to Sentinel.

I really liked Africa, and I would love to come back someday, but I'm unsure when the right opportunity will present itself.

 

 

Cachencary's South Africa Geocaching Experience

by Cachenscary

My late winter/early spring trip to South Africa with my muggle spouse, Mrs. Scary, was our first time on this continent and the seventh continent we’ve visited.  For me my South Africa smileys represented my sixth continent of finds.
 
With a muggle as a spousal traveling companion, I use the early hours of the day when only I’m awake for independent searching. Then at times when we’re together the focus is on Virtuals, Earthcaches, TB Hotels and gadget caches which still seem to hold interest for Mrs. Scary.
 
We started the trip based in Joburg and spending 5 days in Kruger Park. One thing I learned is that I was correct in assuming no cell coverage in the Park but also that taking the caches offline onto my smart phone didn’t help much with Virtuals and Earthcaches.  The Descriptions don’t come along!  And I hadn’t printed any of them out. But necessity is the mother of invention, so at the 4 or 5 Virtual and Earthcache stops we made, I snapped pics of every piece of information and unusual feature that I could.  Of those, I scored 2 finds - the Kruger Tablets EC (GC8J32R) and the TSHOKWANE Virtual (GC88ZHM).
 
The rest of our stay in Joburg was taken by tours of the historic and geologic sights. My finds there were limited to two Virtuals (Tambo Airport and Constitution Hill).  We were hampered a bit by a 5-day hiatus for our first taste of COVID.  
 
So with 4 smileys in hand, we headed to Cape Town for the rest of our time in South Africa. I won’t mention much about my finds in the Cape Town area (16 in all) but suffice it to say, I left the country a very happy camper!
 
While in Cape Town, I hosted what turned out to be one of my favorite Events I’ve ever experienced (GCABWYC).
 
Including the host, attendees totaled 6, all of whom are prodigious Finders and most are big Hiders as well.
 
There were two Aussies - one of whom (Seemyshell) is now an ex-pat living in New Jersey and a multiple GIFF finalist.  He was accompanied by his spouse, alana719, having first met at a GeoWoodstock Mega in the States.  Seemyshell’s fellow countryman, 2Wagtails, was vising CT and just happened to cross paths at the Event with his past acquaintance.
 
We had 3 locals as well… Andredj, SKATTIE@1 and terunkie. Unbeknownst to me at the time, these included 2 of the top 5 South Africa Finders (SKATTIE@1 and terunkie). And SKATTIE@1 is GoSA Rep for the Western and Northern Capes. Who knew?
 
This Event really put the exclamation point on our trip and cemented in my mind what I so much loved about the country. What I tell my friends back home is that yes, there are big animals here. But what would bring me back again are the people!
 
I’ve never been in another country where virtually everyone you meet on the street, in the hotels, on the trails and standing in line to catch a cable car have warm smiles and words of welcome and just very comfortable personalities.  And none are more fun to be with than geocachers at an Event!
 
Sorry, Joburg, I owe you an Event and just hope I can pay that back soon!
 

 

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