Wazat

The best times probably will be during the beginning of Autumn round April/May and then again in Spring August/September. The problem with these berg trips is that the weather can and most likely will change in a matter of minutes. It can be hot and sunny and half hour later you are in a snow storm. So you need to be well prepared for anything. Grab a warm jacket, lots of water, a hat, charge that cellphone and take some energy bars, a few oranges and some good company with. You gonna need it for sure. You can count me in for the return trip. I think I forgot to leave my calling card in the cache on top of Cathedral.

What was tough about it? LOL. Actually the toughest part was keeping my underwear clean on that one as a couple of wild pigs came charging through the foliage right towards me as I was on my way back from the cache. They were grunting angrily as they came tearing through the undergrowth. I think that my panicked shriek and equally ferocious grunts were just as daunting as they came to a halt only meters away from me. That's what makes caching fun I guess....

At how many Beats? This would be a much easier way to be on time. I have one of these Swatches somewhere in the house. I tell you been on time with this is a definite. You will sync with anyone anywhere if you go according to this. It takes a little getting used to but if implemented it works great. The Swatch Internet time for the Gathering is thus: @750 which is 9:00 on the west coast of America (Los Angeles, San Fransisco, etc) and 19:00 here in South Africa.

Oh Oh not good news that.... But not to worry Garmin has good service. they will most probably quickly sort it out for you. Obviously a good tester you!!!!

Oh I love this topographical map set. Puts some perspective on everything. I am still browsing to see if there are some missing routes that I have traveled. POI for speed traps is great. I went past a known spot that they always set up a radar today and the alarms went off. I maintained a speed just over 105kph at which I set it to warm me and the thing went berserk and wouldn't stop until i slacked off. Great. My MioGPS only warned me to slow down if there was a spot up ahead. I could be walking and it would warn me.... I am loving this little guy more each day.....

Thanks buddy, now that should have you fit for a mountain climb...... LOL. Hey last I looked I am sure Neville Bailey was behind me on points..... Well done mate that was quite a move up the ladder.

That's the spirit. Hey this might turn out to be a group effort of note..... By the way at the little berg to quote Rhino, "Even if we turned around here it was a good day". He was referring to the amazing view we had even from the little berg on the way to Cathedral. The views are extremely awesome even at 2000 m so believe me even if you never make the cache site you will be happy to even reach half way. Bats and Rhino can vouch for me... The walk is tough and does demand a lot of stamina. But as unfit and overweight as I was/am I still conquered the mountain. So a little hiking beforehand should make even the unprepared person's chances a lot better. Twin's and Mitre are going to be tough and will not be an easy cache for anyone to do but as a team who knows. Count on me been in on this one guys.....

..... Knit a jersey, grow some crops, build a house, visit the old age home, introduce gramps to geocaching, go to Tibet......... Mmmmmmm....

Can you send me the track log please Rhino.... I now have all the software to go with it.... Whoooo.

* Waves hands frantically in the air * - You can bet I will not back down on these two....

McBirdie - On your 200, well done....

I wonder if some of them computer parts got attached to a TB and got muggled on their journey...... Haa haaa haaa......

Update on the Etrex Vista HCx.... Amazing. I have used this to place caches inside the local Pick 'n Pay.... LOL. No not really but a unit that can still pick up signal while deep inside a large building really is impresive. I have not been cache hunting in my area as yet mainly because I have found all of them already, also after a few days of waiting to get the street maps loaded cause I was been a bit dof and didn't realise I could do it. I realised to my horror that the maps on my mio gps were more detailed in regards to farm and secondary roads as well as some of the smaller towns. But the points of interest blew me away although there are some that are missing. Now the question I have is do the topo maps perhaps have these other farm roads on. Also how do you update points of intrest with Garmin. I noticed that there is a golf course in my town but I have been in higher buildings in the area and not seen any golf course even on the buildings below. I looked around in the shop and can't find it their either. I was going to ask the shop keeper if there was a basement but when he looked a bit oddly at me running around the store with the GPS, I thought it best I leave.... Me thinks either there is a nice underground golf course here or Garmin has a wayward POI floating around.... LOL. Oh Cincol just a quick note. The Etrex Vista on your side costs R2500 but what maps does it have? If you need to get the Southern Africa street maps for it then you need to add another R2200. So in the end you end up paying more than I did on this side. But if you did get it with the Southern Africa street maps then that is an awesome price. What do the Etrex H yellows go for there?

Congrats to Pooks on the 100 and it looks like I missed the congrats for Miking on the 500. Well done people may to have many, many more.

That's the spirit. Glad to see that the mountain is calling. I would love to go up again but right now is probably not going to be the best time. The weather up there is probably not going to play with. I have seen it, or rather not seen it the last few days. The clouds were thick round the little berg nevermind the mountain. The gullies could be really hard to get up in the rain. I suggest that you guys really look at what the weather could be like before endangering yourselves. This one certainly ain't Amajuba. What dates are you looking at?

Geez tried to get my order in at 7 this morning but kept getting page not available. Finally tried later this afternoon and got my registration in. Hope I get one. See they are limited to 5000 so good luck guys....

OK Hands up all those who did Nkwankwa river and battled because of the heavy tree coverage. I was placed spot on the co-ordinates on this one but at two different places about 3 meters or so apart. At the right spot it showed an accuracy of 4 meters. It took me less than 3 or 4 minutes to find this after a clue from the FTF on this cache from 2 years ago. So the Vista HCx is a great unit and under the trees worked like a bomb. Great unit to say the least. I think when placing caches that we should maybe state the makes of GPSr's that were used to hide the cache.

Thanks Bats.... I am not frustrated anymore. Found a 5* difficulty cache in the Berg today with the Etrex. It was almost spot on the co-ords given with a 4m accuracy under the heavy foliage and a very overcast sky. OK I was initially barking up the wrong tree as I found a hole in the first one. Had to phone the only previous finder I knew who happened to find it first two years back. I had the wrong tree as per the clue I got. Then not more than 3 or 4 meter away was the right hiding spot. Checked the GPS, spot on again.

The 50 was a long haul in my area. So yeah it was sweet. I am hoping that some of the locals will do some placing in the future but I am not going to place too much hope on that. So I guess a venture beyond my 200 kilo radius will have to be arranged....

Congratulations Warthog. 10 times more than me.... Eish on day I will hit 500 one day....

Thanks. Was not quite the way I had planned it but I got it on a great cache non the less. Still leaves me with Amajuba to conquor and oddly enough another one by Africard, Moorfield to try again. I tried it a few months back with no luck due to my GPS sending me in wrong directions the whole time. Will see how the new Vista HCx handles the coverage down the gorge.

Have yet to test it under heavy foilage and down a gorge but if it can pick up signal inside the house with an acuracy of 7 m I am quite sure that foilage is no real problem for this little baby. As I get to do heavy foilage I wioll report back. But so far I can just say that the H series is great. Still the samepot indoors and I now have an accuracy of 5m, locked on to 8 satelites.

And it arrived. My Vista HCx has arrived. At last I can find my way to caches again. Can't wait to test the new toy on new caches or just to find all my own again.

And what a weekend it was. I was hoping for a few more cachers to attend but this was a bit of a short notice event so I guess I mustn't push it too much. It all went pear shaped as Fish Eagle would say from the beginning. I had originally arranged with a co-worker to do my standby weekend for me as I had done his 2 weeks back. But he dropped me on Thursday so I was left in a predicament. The event had to go on though. Friday just a half hour from end of work I get a call for a client. Spend a good hour or so trying to get them sorted. There goes my camping over on Friday night with the rest, maybe a good thing cause it rained all night. Then Saturday morning I go up to Amajuba Mountain entrance gate and meet everyone. The phone rings and I get another call-out, this time in Bergville some 230/240 kilos away. Serious call got to attend. File server is down. So I race off to Bergville. As I turn into Bergville I get a call. Not to worry I need not attend to the call it was a switch on the server cabinet that had tripped. No I am really fuming and very upset. So just to calm the frustration I go and take a walk up to the cascades in the Royal Natal National Park to find Rhino and Hedgehogs cache, they could not attend my event so I thought I will go visit their cache. Thanks guys that was my 50th. Then back to Utrecht to attend my own event. I only arrived at about 7 pm. Was great to get to meet all the cachers who attended and although it was only a short while that I was there it was great to finally get to meet the faces behind the little plastic containers that we all search for. Glad to get so many visitors to all my caches in the area. Even though it was so hectic I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and hope to get another one organised without any setbacks again. Thanks guys it was awesome.

And what a weekend it was. I was hoping for a few more cachers to attend but this was a bit of a short notice event so I guess I mustn't push it too much. It all went pear shaped as Fish Eagle would say from the beginning. I had originally arranged with a co-worker to do my standby weekend for me as I had done his 2 weeks back. But he dropped me on Thursday so I was left in a predicament. The event had to go on though. Friday just a half hour from end of work I get a call for a client. Spend a good hour or so trying to get them sorted. There goes my camping over on Friday night with the rest, maybe a good thing cause it rained all night. Then Saturday morning I go up to Amajuba Mountain entrance gate and meet everyone. The phone rings and I get another call-out, this time in Bergville some 230/240 kilos away. Serious call got to attend. File server is down. So I race off to Bergville. As I turn into Bergville I get a call. Not to worry I need not attend to the call it was a switch on the server cabinet that had tripped. No I am really fuming and very upset. So just to calm the frustration I go and take a walk up to the cascades in the Royal Natal National Park to find Rhino and Hedgehogs cache, they could not attend my event so I thought I will go visit their cache. Thanks guys that was my 50th. Then back to Utrecht to attend my own event. I only arrived at about 7 pm. Was great to get to meet all the cachers who attended and although it was only a short while that I was there it was great to finally get to meet the faces behind the little plastic containers that we all search for. Glad to get so many visitors to all my caches in the area. Even though it was so hectic I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and hope to get another one organised without any setbacks again. Thanks guys it was awesome.