Wazat

Congratulations to the following two cachers: Neville Bailey 200 (Well done mate that came along nice and quick) Urban Hunters also on 200 finds. Ooops just saw that rodnjoan also passed through 200 finds without us noticing.

I am not sure of the oldest cache owner been active but the second oldest cache in SA been GC1341 still has an active owner. I did a round trip of some 450 km to find it. The cache owner is Hosta whom many of us have met. He is known for riding his bike to some really tough caches. He is quite a character and has some interesting stories to tell. One of his others was also one of the toughest I had to search for at Bivane Dam GC7551. TVM have also been round for quite a few years. I would have been in this sport about 4 years ago while still selling GPS units I got an article sent to my mailbox about geocaching from Avnic Trading the importers of the Garmin units. But I never got a GPS at that stage and only when going through old emails a few months ago just after I got my first GPS did I find the article. The day after I went out and found my first cache.

Well done to the TB's that finished the race. And hopefully the MIA's will live to see another day. So when is the next race up?

OK now is the time. Who be the winner QFC. The 2nd of January it is.

Will definitely keep you posted on it.

There must be a problem with your watch Bats..... or someone turned tore the 1st off your calender already..... See QFC's last post dude.

Wow, and did you guys go caching. I just saw every cache bar one get at least two finds each. I realised then that we had a new cacher introduced in Newcastle. But my joy is going to be short lived as they are moving. Thanks for the positive reaction on our caches. Glad you enjoyed it. Now just to get other cachers here. I'm moving towards so interesting hides in the future and might possibly change one to a multi with quite a twist in it. So people keep a look out for some new caches hitting this area soon. And with regards to Mitre, I am waiting for Rhino and Hedgehog to return and the weather to change. So thanks to toekie-toekie for giving us an extra bonus along the way. And to all the cachers out there may you all have a prosperous and fun new year, from the cacher in the bundus.....

Welcome to some new cachers Bvers, toekie-toekie, and especially someone new in my area Subterranean Homesick Blues. May you guys have many happy caching days ahead.

I disagree on this. I had a 1 to 1 ratio of finds to hides at one stage but that is now around 3 to 1. The thing is location. I live far from active cachers and have only 4 other cachers in the area one been my young son. The thing is that when I started there were only 5 caches in the area. They were all visited ages ago by some cachers from far away but then they became dormant. No-one else seemed to worry to travel a long distance for a few caches. I started to place a few and since the number of caches has increased the number of visitors in the area have increased again. I am getting finds on them almost every week now. My problem still remains that I also have to travel far just to find some but with me placing some in my area I am hoping to get more local cachers interested and hopefully they will place some for me to find. I even encourage the out of town visitors to place them, I offer to help maintain them too. I don't see that placing caches is a problem after all we want this game to be popular.

Wow there is a bonus. Bet that would have got the UK cachers up in a tizz. Well done buddy.

Thanks, not a problem. Shame not working over Christmas like some of us huh?

That I did. Total finds is 93 not 92. Sneaked another in while no-one was watching obviously.

Something may be wrong again. My stats have not updated since Monday. I have refreshed it, updated it but still nothing. Does anyone else have the same problem?

Congratulations go to rodnjoan on the 200 finds. Well done.

Congrats Battlerat and Pussycat on your 500. Well done.

DNF's are good it forces the huy who placed the cache there to do a bit of maintenance on the cache. If it is indeed there then note it for those who had a DNF to think about it again. Some times people just give up too easily. Also if you DNF a cache put it on your watchlist so that you will know if someone else didn't find it or did for that matter.

Thank you TVM. May you and all the other cachers enjoy this festive season. My all your Christmas Stockings be filled with many lock 'n lock goodies. LOL. Happy hunting to all.

Congrats Cincol - 50 finds.

Problem is we are not always hovering a mile above the cache site. But yeah it can help a bit.

Quite a few milestones reached lately. Must be the holidays... Seeker Two - 300 Scorp67 - 100 Trackz - 100 Vatikaki - 50 Stukkies - 25 Eben - 25 William894 - 25 Pecky.d -25 Congrats to all on their achievements. Well done.

A small Mag Light. Became very handy in my work and also for finding caches late in the afternoon in dark holes.

I guess if you are a confirmed Schizophrenic your alter ego might be able to log a find on your other alter ego's cache. You know, the one that your other alter ego hid. The one that your other alter ego posted a DNF on. Yes the same one you had a FTF on the same day that your other alter ego dropped it. What about if someone that is a confirmed Alzheimer Sufferer. Maybe he hid a cache and forgot that it was his. I guess you need to be certified to get away with that though. If you are otherwise normal. NO you cannot find your own cache.

I would love to try find them with Google Earth but carrying my PC up a mountain or down a ravine is just not gonna do it for me. Then the star ratings need to be doubled. Actually my son hid his first cache and logged it using Google Earth for the co-ords. I did it as my 49th find as I was going to do a mountain cache as my 50th the next day and I was out of caches. So with Google zooming by default on my home he panned around the corner to wher he had put the micro cache grabbed the co-ords and listed the cache on geocaching.com and it was published. His first hide and that without a GPS. I have an Etrex Vista HCx and the co-ords are about 2 meters from the cache. So depending on the accuracy of the picures in Google Earth some could be almost spot on. I always use Google Earth as a reference for when I go looking for the cache. It helps to get some idea of the place where you might have to look. But to find the cache then the GPS is king. Also out in the open fields and away from man made objects that can be referenced on Google Earth there is no beating the GPS.

And another placed in Ladysmith Today. Lets see who is fastest to that one. My bet is I have woken Bosluis and he will be out there in a flash.

Thanks.... If it wasn't for the renovations going on at home I might just have gone for another 25+ finds in a one day caching spree in Mpumalanga today. But we are tied down by the whole renovations thing. Gotta hit the 100 at least by the year end..... But if it doesn't come that's OK.