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From the Desk of the Chairman

Hello from an office in Westcliff. June was a particularly cool month for me. I got to go to Durban for work. I turned another year older and I celebrated the day with some fellow cachers at an event that marked my 3000th find. Thanks for sharing that journey. Although truth be told, I was rather excited by my original plan to celebrate at Gilroys. Unfortunately that had to be cancelled because I was informed that it had been booked for a nudist party. It was then that I learned that under extreme circumstances, one can move events by making the request of a reviewer. So I’m grateful to all those who came to celebrate and to Mr Price and Edgars.

Now, I don’t want to say that things are looking up. I’ll just let the half year stats speak for themselves. I believe it’s the first time since before lockdown I can report these kinds of stats:

On with the game! Thanks for keeping it awesome! Oh and I know I promised a write up of our awesome GoSA treasure box. It’s still coming. It’s just that, I don’t know how to share how awesome it is in writing.

Oh and there’s the AGM to consider coming up!

Notice of AGM

The Geocachers of South Africa AGM will be held virtually on 17 October 2026 at 14h00. To obtain the link, documents and other information, or to put an item on the agenda please send us an email.

iPajero’s run-in with the Long Arm of the Law 2016

By iPajero

To set the scene for the events that unfolded during the course of this day I need to give some  background information. In those early geocaching days we were totally overwhelmed by the friendship and generosity that we experienced from fellow Geocachers that we had never met. The invitations to come and have a cup of coffee, enjoy a meal together, meet at a restaurant and even you’re welcome to stay over, were numerous. This attribute to geocaching was one of the reasons that encouraged us to  become avid Geocachers.

This day was no exception as we had received a message via the geocaching message centre from Team Vella “If you are planning to do POWER STRUGGLE TB LODGE Mystery Cache GC5RKKJ the final is outside our home, please come in for a cup of coffee we would love to meet you”. As it happened we had planned to do a number of geocaches in the area.

Power Struggle read “this is a multistage quest. The cache is not at the published coordinates. Electricity and its sign is the central theme throughout”. This multi cache was all about electricity and the waypoints were at pylons, substations and an electrical wholesaler. We had a number of waypoints and caches that we visited during the day. One being a cache in a park with a number of big trees and the park was surrounded by houses. After completing this cache as I got back to the cache mobile and drove off, I noticed an elderly gentleman leaning on his front gate and staring at us. The expression on his face told me he was not a happy chappie. I said to my wife “this could be trouble”.

We continued on our caching quest and finally got the coordinates for Power Struggle final and arrived at ground zero which was on a one way street with a grassed island in the centre. Sure enough the container was housed in a fake electric box. I had just got the electric box open and retrieved the cache when a car came speeding down the one-way street and parked directly behind my cache mobile. The driver jumped out and asked me angrily what I was doing opening an electrical box. Now due to the invitation for coffee and not having met the cache owner I presumed that this was him and was playing a prank on me. I decided to play along and informed him “I am from the Eastern Cape looking for a camping spot for a few days and was just seeing how I could tap into free electricity”. My wife must have seen the real anger on his face and said to me you cannot say that. At that moment another car came speeding up the wrong way of the one-way street and parked directly in front of my cache mobile, so I was parked fast.

The driver of this car jumped out with the cache in his hand from the park and demanded from me “what is this you placed in the park”? Then they both informed me that they had been following me all around town observing my suspicious activities. They had also requested a police report on my vehicle and they needed to take me in for questioning.

With all this  activity outside, the cache owner came out of his house and explained to the  Community Policing Forum (CPF) all about geocaching and took the cache back and said he would replace it in the park. The CPF were certainly active in this  community, but fortunately for us we had not committed any crime. After all of the excitement the cup of coffee was most welcome.

GoSA went to Court

Imagine our shock when we saw that GOSA was taking on the Minister of Police. In light of iPajero’s story above, maybe it made sense 12 years ago but why would we do it today? That’s when we learned that we may have to go to court. Not against the Minister of Police but rather Gun Owners South Africa on a trade mark issue. Here’s what some of our community had to say at the news:

• Somebody seems to be a bit of a loose cannon
  • Just a shot in the dark!
    • Bite the bullets and get it done.🥴
      • I'm blown away by this...
    • Its a long shot.... but are they targeting GOSA? That would really trigger me.
  • Might need to rifle through the court proceedings
• Stop it ppl...you blowing things up to much.
  • We shoota get some time to find those decent sized ammo crate caches
    • I did not expect to open my phone to see this bullet-in.
      • I'm just a blank about all this - what's the target ?
    • You’re firing off joke after joke. They’re killing me!

SA Geocaching Stats

By Adventure_T and Danie Viljoen

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

716 Cachers found a total of 3,578 caches during May 2026.

42 Cachers placed 129 new caches during May 2026.

The number of Cachers who found at least 1 SA cache in the previous 12 months is 6,173.

The number of Cachers who placed at least 1 SA cache in the previous 12 months is 198.

The total number of active South African caches at the end of May 2026 is 13,800.

May 2026’s Top Dogs and Doggets:

Events to Attend

Souvenirs to Grab

Some inspiration to go out caching, here’s what’s on offer souvenir-wise

• International Geocaching Day: August 14-16 - Find a cache, attend an event or log a lab
• International Geocaching Day Hider: August 1-30 - Hide a non-event cache (excl AL)
  • Some events we know that are coming but still don’t know what to do for them…
    • September Equinox: September 19-22
    • Cache In Trash Out®, Season 2: September 1-November 30
    • World Postcard Day: September 27-October 3
    • International EarthCache Day: October 9-11
    • Adventure Day: November 25-29
    • December Solstice: December 19-21
    • Farewell 2026: December 24-31

Cache Desperate to be Found

GC199Z5

Last found on 29 February 2008

Who’s keen on a trip to Indiwe, EC?

New Caches Published in June

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