GoSA Grapevine October 2024

Meerkat CITO and AGM Time

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NOTICE OF AGM

The Geocachers of South Africa AGM will be held virtually on 12 October 2024 at 14h00. To obtain the link, documents and other information, please send us an email.

GoSA AGM
Saturday, 12 October · 14:00 – 15:00
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/npe-ksce-grh

From the Desk of the Chairman

Hello from the buzzing metropolis of Bloemfontein. I'm looking forward to Saturday's AGM. While I was looking at the stats, I noticed a massive spike in numbers so thanks to all who went out and cached. The hobby is looking healthy. More so now that a project is underway in Wakkerstroom. Well done to those who made it across to the Mpumalanga event and thanks to Inge for leading the charge.

Thanks too to all of you for another wonderful year of GoSA. Thanks to the committee and good luck to the incoming one. May the smileys continue to thrive.

Meerkat CITO
by waydom

Earlier this year, Mankub signed up for Meerkats (junior Scouts aged 5-6) and in the process, parents are encouraged to mention any hobbies or interests which they might be keen to share with the kids..

That's like asking the puppy who's been waiting diligently for the opportunity to go walkies if he'd like to go to the park... obviously reference to geocaching, the web link, apps and health benefits was made.

That marketing investment paid dividends in July when I received a request to talk to the Meerkats about geocaching on the 17th August.

"Walkies!!!"

Count me in was the response.

With a plan to meet at a local park containing 3 traditionals, I decided to incorporate a CITO into the day.. because "why not?"

On the evening of the 16th I popped to the park to check on the caches and found that 2 of the 3 needed replacing.. just as well.

On the morning of the 17th.. quite coincidentally International Geocaching Day, we set off for the park where we met with the Meerkats and their parents. After a theory dump targeted at the 5 year old audience we hit the trail to pick up trash and find some caches.

Dom helped to coordinate the official CITO with some "old hands" (old only in geocaching experience) and the park was left even cleaner than when we arrived.

At least one meerkat and dad joined us after the event to find out more and I count that a small victory.

A great morning out doing what we love.

Community Contributions
SA Geocaching Stats
By Adventure_T and Danie Viljoen

Because sometimes, for some people, it is about the numbers…

August 2024

Here is a summary of the South African Geocaching activity for August:
1070 Cachers found a total of 6,359 caches during August.
29 Cachers placed 86 new caches during August.
The number of Cachers who found at least 1 SA cache in the previous 12 months is 7,280.
The number of Cachers who placed at least 1 SA cache in the previous 12 months is 211.
The total number of active South African caches at the end of August is 15,035.

Top Dogs:

Top 5 Finders for the month (and caches found):

1	BDuthie13	225
2	chrisingy	220
2	iPajero	153
4	waydom	146
5	Andredj	144

Top 5 Hiders for the month (and caches hidden):

1	white night	20
2	Uncle Chem	18
3	SKATTIE@1>	8
4	waydom	5
5	Andredj	4

Top 5 Finders for 2024 (and caches found):

1	The_VanWyks	584
2	chrisingy	388
3	Andredj	320
4	Fish Eagle	319
4	SKATTIE@1>	306

Top 5 Hiders for 2024 (and caches hidden):

1	Uncle Chem	110
2	WÅLDO	31
2	white night	25
4	BeztTeamEver	22
5	QwikChek	21

Top 5 Finders of South African caches for ALL TIME (and caches found):

1	iPajero	21872
2	The Huskies	9392
3	rodnjoan	8656
4	SKATTIE@1>	8516
5	terunkie	8417

Top 5 Hiders of South African caches for ALL TIME (and caches hidden):

1	PieterM	585
2	Adventure_T	540
3	iPajero	455
4	SKATTIE@1>	416
5	Panthera03	415

Top 5 Maintainers for the month (and caches maintained):

			active caches	ratio
1	BelvidereBelle	17	70	0.24
2	Uncle Chem	17	203	0.08
3	Leon St	10	110	0.09
4	WÅLDO	9	155	0.06
5	FreekG	6	82	0.07

Note: All the above statistics include all South African caches on the geocaching.com database, which doesn’t include Adventure Labs.

Current and Known Upcoming 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:

Hider 202 4 – Hide any cache between 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024.
CITO, 2024 Season 2 - Attend or host any CITO Event between 1 September 2024 and 30 November 2024.
Adventure Day - Complete and Adventure Lab location between 18 and 20 October.
International Earthcache Day - Find an Earthcache on 12 or 13 October.

Feature Caching Movie
as we continue our hunt for movies that involve geocaching in the hope of stumbling upon a good one. This month it's...

Tracker (2007)

IMDB Rating: 7/10
Trailer: NA
Full movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnGYtExVyWc
Level of geocaching: Lots

You know a film is old when it opens with a shot of somebody typing in the forums…on Mozilla Firefox…and one of the actors goes on to direct a film called The Magical Wishing Washing Machine (that one is actually quite enjoyable).

Sometimes in the search for bad movies, one finds one that is disappointingly not bad. The opening sequence immediately draws you in as you question, “can a thumb tack really penetrate a 4x4 tyre?” before getting annoyed at the poor Latin employed in “magnum cum laude” as if one gets an expensive ice cream in lieu of a degree if your scores are high enough. You also know that they don’t pay the camera man enough when to illustrate hiding, they film from a shrub with all of 57 leaves on it.

Credit must be given to the action stunts though as they are so relatable. We’ve all jumped from one rock to an adjacent rock. Loved that. The absolute winner for this film is the support actor’s t-shirt slogans. From “overheating” to “vote for me” it just dampens the sting of the thrill and adds some comic relief, especially in the intensive 30cm rock jump scene. Good thing they buy a case of Redbull for the road because we all know that diabetes, gout and geocaching go hand in hand.
If you get dizzy easily and enjoy that then this film is a treat. Tripod? What for? For we have been blessed with hands and must use them to hold cameras.

Scenically, you’ll be transported to an Mpumalanga maize field with a dilapidated concrete shed so it will appeal to those who are fond of mielies and geocaching and concrete and friendly dogs made to seem scary with post production over-dubbing that even Leon Schuster would be envious of.

If you want to be thrilled by geocaching, go out and find a nice Wherigo and if you cannot find one then this film will do.

Current and Known Upcoming Events
While there's time, you may want to set your event for International Geocaching Day

*CITO Event

9-Oct-24		Iscandar's Birthday Safari	Hazyview	MP	GCAY4ZC	Iscandar & Wired Widget
16-Oct-24		QC CLXIX Cappuccinos, Southdowns	Centurion	GP	GCAYR37	Duches
19-Oct-24		Hello from Pretoria	uMhlanga	KZN	GCAX6E5	nico&chantelle
19-Oct-24		Meet & Greet at Waterfront	Cape Town	WC	GCAYGK6	frechemoep
23-Oct-24		Meet & Greet Cachers and Whales	Hermanus	WC	GCAYGM9	Pookie Baloo
25-Oct-24		Meet and Greet at the Boat House	De Hoop	WC	GCAYGMK	Islayfreak2109
26-Oct-24		Birthday Sundowners	Linksfield	GP	GCAY6E2	IngetjieZA
26-Oct-24		Karoo Event	Carnavon	NC	GCAYBAR	90Unknown09
26-Oct-24	*	Coastal Cleanup #15 , 26 October '24	Milnerton	WC	GCAYK8D	Andredj
27-Oct-24	*	Cache In Trash Out®, Season 2: Hennopsspruit	Hennopsspruit	GP	GCAYJBR	Voëlhond

If you'd like to tell us about your events, write to us and share photos!

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!
Please email our newsletter editor at
If you're reading this part, something is 7BEM9G hidden here. I'm really hopeful that more people send some sweet contributions about event series.

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