GoSA Grapevine November 2024

Wakkerstroom, A New Team and A RomCom

Wakkerstroom, A New Team and A RomCom.

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AND YOUR NEW COMMITTEE IS...
On 12 October 2024, the GoSA AGM was held and the committee elected consists of:

Chairman - Richard Chemaly (Uncle Chem)
Treasurer - Lucia Rodrigues (LuciaMPR)
Secretary - Andrie Krokos (KrokosZA)
Member - Bruce Pantland (BruceTP / Pte Curb)
Member - Chris Larkin (chrisingy)
Member - Dwaine Duthie (Orosman / Umsizi)
Member - Trevor Bailey (Adventure_T)
Member - Dieter von Fintel (camelZA)

From the Desk of the Chairman

Finnnneee, I'll do it again!

In all seriousness, I'm incredibly excited to have another year at the helm though I'm running out of ideas of awesome things to do. That's why I'm happy to have three new committee members and some returning too.

I'd also like to thank Francois and Jonker for their efforts on the previous committee.

I'll be heading to Cape Town midmonth and see a number of events happening in town.

On the subject of events, the stats are pretty interesting. We're a mere 30 away from last year's number and we are already ahead on CITOs

Events

2021	2022	2023	2024
46	97	167	137

CITOs
2021	2022	2023	2024
10	15	26	31

Thanks for all the efforts and making our game fun and sociable.

Going Nowhere Slowly
by IngetjieZA

Mission: Head to Wakkerstroom, show the locals and the Travel and Tourism Council the wonders of geocaching, and brainstorm ways to bring more people to this quant little town. Oh, and since it was World Postcard Day, I figured I’d host an event to try to lure in some nearby geocachers.

So, how long does it take to go from Joburg to Wakkerstroom? For a muggle, it’s a quick 2.5-hour drive. For a Orosman and I? A leisurely 7 hours.

First stop, Val. I had learned about it recently on TikTok. In true geocaching fashion, I had to see if there were any caches hiding around. There were! One breakfast and two hours later, we were back on the road with a few finds and having learnt more about the history of Val.

Finally we made it to Wakkerstroom! After quenching our thirst, we met with the Tourism Board and kicked off our event with some curious locals. By the end, we might have converted a few muggles to our cause.

Sunday morning, while enjoying breakfast, we spotted an old Ford Model T across the road. Naturally, we couldn’t resist chatting with the owner, whose family had bought the car back in 1927. Hearing its history was like stepping back to a time when people really knew how to go nowhere slowly.

We spent the rest of the morning moseying through town, chatting with the friendly local shop owners, who made us feel right at home. With such warm hospitality and the town's charm, it’s safe to say we’ll definitely be back!

Community Contributions
SA Geocaching Stats
By Adventure_T and Danie Viljoen

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

September 2024

Here is a summary of the South African Geocaching activity for September:
954 Cachers found a total of 5,196 caches during September.
31 Cachers placed 71 new caches during September.
The number of Cachers who found at least 1 SA cache in the previous 12 months is 7,286.
The number of Cachers who placed at least 1 SA cache in the previous 12 months is 203.
The total number of active South African caches at the end of September is 15,017.

Top Dogs:

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

1	BDuthie13	320
2	Weltenbummler47	137
2	iPajero	123
4	SKATTIE@1>	115
5	Lumpyjrb	78

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

1	BeztTeamEver	13
2	ge0cath	9
3	Karootreasures	6
4	Andredj	3
4	SimonLourens	3
4	white night	3
4	Panthera03	3
4	sekhie	3

Top 5 Finders for 2024 (and caches found):

1	BDuthie13	592
2	The_VanWyks	584
3	chrisingy	429
4	SKATTIE@1>	422
4	Andredj	347

Top 5 Hiders for 2024 (and caches hidden):

1	Uncle Chem	111
2	BeztTeamEver	35
2	WÅLDO	31
4	white night	28
5	Andredj	22

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

1	iPajero	21995	(26549 incl int)
2	The Huskies	9392	(14056 incl int)
3	rodnjoan	8656	(9314 incl int)
4	SKATTIE@1>	8516	(10310 incl int)
5	terunkie	8417	(9153 incl int)

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

1	PieterM	585
2	Adventure_T	540
3	iPajero	456
4	SKATTIE@1>	418
5	Panthera03	417

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

			active caches	ratio
1	SimonLourens	16	82	0.2
2	CamelZA	8	22	0.36
3	BowlsBoy	5	39	0.13
4	Evolutionaries	5	56	0.09
5	ernestyzel	3	19	0.16

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.

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...

Splinterheads (2009)

IMDB Rating: 5.8/10
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vSWSXaAyP4
Level of geocaching: milked it

What do you get when you mix up White Chicks, PS I love You, Law and Order: SVU, Dwight Schrute's brother, Back to the Future and Transformers? An ensemble for a movie with Geocaching in it. We’ll ignore the fact that one actor went on to portray Joe Exotic.

Also, how do you get over 350 000 geocachers to watch a trailer? You give them a video of Rachael Taylor teaching Thomas Middleditch how to geocache. Hilariously, the official trailer only has 14% of that traction. Way to go, Caching Community! The forums had the best time with this one.

If you differ with your significant other on the movies you like and you’re the action and explosions one. You can offer them this on movie night and tolerate the romcomness of it as you anticipate the geocaching references.

It’s one of those movies that makes you feel good a little but really doesn’t go anywhere; slacker, carnival comes to town, meets young woman, old man makes inappropriate joke, the end.

Strong appeal to any couple who met through Geocaching.

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

*CITO Event

4-Nov-24		Ketelo Lesotho	Sani Pass	LSO	GCAZ27J	Virtualboy
5-Nov-24		Weiter auf der Großen Afrikatour	Maputo	MOZ	GCAZ2CG	Gazelle5111
9-Nov-24		Scenic Sundowners	Plett	WC	GCAZDMZ	IngetjieZA
10-Nov-24	*	BSCA - "Paterson’s Curse Returns"	Milnerton	WC	GCAZMR3	Andredj
11-Nov-24	*	Cito @ Cape of Good Hope , South Africa	Cape of Good Hope	WC	GCAYWDF	Gandalfdb
12-Nov-24		WRQGT #106 : Back to Pizza for November	Cresta	GP	GCAZQ6W	BruceTP
12-Nov-24		German Rockers meets Globals and Locals	Camps Bay	WC	GCAZ93R	Sprossenhörnchen
13-Nov-24		QC CLXX - November 2024 - The Social Grill	Mooikloof	GP	GCAZQF0	Voëlhond
15-Nov-24	*	Ballito Beaches - CITO	Ballito	KZN	GCAZQQD	Desertal
17-Nov-24		Meet and Great in Kapstadt/Südafrika	Cape Town	WC	GCAZCZB	Mauselteam
23-Nov-24	*	Gonubie Beach Clean Up	Gonubie	EC	GCAZMW0	iPajero

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!
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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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