CapeDoc
-
Posts
816 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by CapeDoc
-
-
Ahem! This thread has gone quiet.....time for a winner?
-
Good to have another dedicated local at the helm. We appreciate the huge commitment you are making and thank you for the time, thoughts and work you are about to give to this appreciative community.
Welcome!
-
That's terrible news! Totally understandable though.
I would just like to say a heartfelt thanks for all the amazing work you have done. Thank you for your diligence, speed of reviewing caches, ballanced and even judgments, friendly pointers at oversights and helpful suggestions.
Thanks too for the hard work regarding caching in the KNP. I hope your involvment there will continue.
The excellent guidlines regarding cache placement in Africa will continue to give Reviewer guidance to those planning to place a cache.
Please train the next Reviewer to be as good as you!
Hope you get a bit more time for finding caches inbetween all that work!
-
Depressing news for you and me....!
Thx for the heads up!
-
Wow! Thanks for that! What a contrast between Northern and Western Cape! After caching for 3 years my Total finds = number of new caches place in one year in one provence! Nice to know that caching in this country looks to be ....infinite for me!
-
Can we have similar stats by Provence?
Which Provence has had the most new hides, most finds?
-
-
sounds like someone who wins while swimming...
-
Another idea- Comment on the photos you like, it MAY help the judge, kinda of like giving it a vote:
Wazat: Like the crosses. Sometime breaking the rule of thirds can work.
WWorld: Amazing shot, very surreal feel. Would have liked to see a little less exposed, but you only get one shot at it!
-
Like the idea!!
I think:
- Keep it SIMPLE!
- no categories, just photos
- submit as many as you like....the more to look at, the better for me. Only one good photo is going to be the monthly winner. Mik n druk, DSLR...all photos judged together.
- have a monthly judge. His/her decision is final and needs no justification. Winner becomes next judge.
- photos have to be related to a cache in some way. The relation must be given with the photo. Judge decides if too...tenious.
- show/don't show EXIF. Your choice.
- album a good idea, but post on the forums too.
- no griping!!! JUST FOR FUN!!!!
Photo taken in the river at NABM cache with mik n druk:
-
Wow! What a walk that was!
After getting only a few hours of sleep (family sleepover in the Aquarium) we set off bright and early. The up was not that bad in the early morning cool shade. The traverse was amazing beautiful views and had exciting exposure all the way along. The narrow and technical bits were quite exhilarating. Mentally tiring as we needed to watch were ever foot was placed.
The Kloof corner bit was relatively easy except for the two sets of chains. The first was long and quite tiring needing quite a bit of upper body work. Luckily there are spots to rest on the way up. The second "crack" chain just took a lot of guts as it has a long drop into nothing below it and is quite technically difficult. Was very glad to have a length of rope to pull up the day packs, otherwise they would have presented a huge challenge. (The crack that you climb in is too narrow to be wearing a pack).
By the time we hit Frodo's the ledges and sheer cliffs, as impressive as they are, were manageable because we were so used to it by then! The cracks were a spectacular place to get relief from the sun. Climbing down a level after the cracks was nervy enough AND was made more difficult as the rocks were so hot they were difficult to hold onto.
Then came the tough bit. The decent down the steep and loose path of Yellowstone in the blazing heat. With a birthday party to attend Oceans247 and I split off from the other three, trying to get down as quickly as possible. Both of us were nearly out of water and were dehydrating fast. Below us we could see the public loo and knew that we could find a tap with water there. As always the path never goes straight there and the winding path down to Tafelberg road was torture. I have never been so happy to enter a public loo! We made straight for the basins and drank and bathed our heads for ages! I was definitely a bit heat stroked and only recovered an hour or two after taking copious water and sports drinks.
Thanks Discombob for placing the caches that gave us this adventure. It was a fabulous challeng and I certainly have a sense of achievement completing all those caches.
(Note to Capeccr who has done all the bits that make up this walk ON HIS OWN: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!)
Thanks for the team for the company and support along the way. (Oceans247 saw it fit to look "watch over me" and offer to carry my pack as we wilted in the sun).
Don't think there will be a next time for me.....!
-
Going out to Riebeek Kasteel with family tomorrow. I can usually persuade them to do one cache. Any great family caches out that way?
-
Hey! I'm in Stellenbosch at the moment for a little bit of quality time with my study leader. Of course, I'll take off a few hours on Saturday 6 March to geocache. Any volunteers to join me? The plan is to clear the few caches around Stellenbosch that doesn't require hiking (the fine wines series come to mind), and perhaps head into Somerset West's direction to pick up a few. Too bad I can't join ya'll on Sunday for the Big Hike... unless you promise to have my back at my car by 11am, because my flight back to Pretoria leaves at 13:00!
Hmm, most of the guys that would take that up are going to be doing the big walk!
Will SMS you.
PS have a look at these for you next Cape Vist. I think these "Puzzle Ridge" cache will appeal to your mathematical mind: Rivet Number Crunch NC2 Dog's Breakfast
-
Thanks CH.
Looking forward to a big walk on the Mountain on Sunday. The bit between there and today looks a little more mundane. As always I hope that carbon hunt is fruitful and stimulating.
My you have a cool week!
-
I, who probably started all the "ado" with my negative log, am glad about the way things are turning out. It is starting to prove a point that negative logs DO get people thinking and that sometimes real good can come out of it as a result.
I really applaud Trevor for making lemonade out of lemons.
I would definitely be up for backing up my negative log with positive action. Like the idea of a CITO. We haven't had one here for a while. Count me in!
(As a small note, the original cache was placed far from the park, on the other side of the tracks. CapeGekos have done a good job of improving the cache by highlighting the park with the new location. I still stand firmly by my original conviction that the primary choice of cache location was a very poor one. I will continue to give wordy negative logs to any similar new caches, again in the ultimate hope of doing good. Hopefully I wont be alone. I hope that we have not started a trend of placing caches in areas "needing attention" to highlight them. I personally would much rather CITO events were held for that kind of location.)
-
sounds like a good place for a geocaching quiz evening - in the style of Dbob's - any quiz masters out there - Maybe Goofster as he was the winner last time?
I have heard these are great fun. So yes please!
-
I have arranged the use of the Club Function Room at the Ice Station, Grandwest on Wednesday 17 March from 19h00 to 22h30 for a possible Geocaching Event. The venue has a private bar (club prices), comfortable seating, DSTV, etc as well as a great view over the ice rink. I can arrange free skate hire (for the brave souls who wish to be really cool) from 20h00 onwards. The venue also has a fully equipped lecture room with video projector, etc. attached to it, so if anyone would like to arrange a simultaneous Techno Event, please let me know.
I am aware that the time of day may not suit everyone, especially those with children. However, the ice is at it's quietest on Wednesday evenings, so it's a good chance to try out skating without a big crowd. CownChicken, being masters at event planning, have advised that before I go ahead and publish an event, I should get an idea here on the forum how many would be interested in attending. So please post a note if you are, and if there is enough interest, I'll post an event.
Sounds like a great idea!!
I would do what CnC suggested and publish. Rather by guided by the number of "will attend" notes than by the forums. It only feels like 10 or 15 Cape cachers keep any kind of eye on the forums. Speak to FE, there must be a way to cancel an event if there is not enough interest shown on the listing. Having said that, events tend to be better attended than the replies indicate.
I am keen, though the last time I went ice skating it led to another event cache....Capedoc's New Shoulder event cache!
-
Ok those hints make it too easy....
(What is the collective noun for a group of waiters?
.......An IGNORE of waiters!)
-
Congrats Cism on 300!
-
The Oregon doesn't do voice. The reason I switched were the battery issue, and the ruggedness of the unit and the ability to record tracks. I recently was crawling in a cave with my nuvi (before I lost it...fell out of my pocket) and somehow my pockets filled with sand. A bit of sand got stuck between the frame and the screen, activating a hidden menu which asked "are you sure you want to erase all your data?" and because the sand was stuck there I couldn't say "No". Fortunately I figured it out and the problem went away after I cleaned out the sand.
Tracks can be really helpful 'bob. Recently the Pooks and I hid a cache (one you would like) and would have never found the subtle paths unless we were following one of Larks's tracks.
I think your idea of both units is not a bad one. Best of both worlds.
If you are had on units like long hikes, then handheld best. (I bought the Oregon second hand through gumtree for R3500 including maps and 1 gig SD. Maps cost about R1000 these days (Yes Trev, I hear you sigh)...so it works out at about R2500 for the unit.) I am sure you could get one for even less in the UK)
If mainly easy terrain, then Nuvi.
Best "crossover" device is probably a nuvi 500 series as it is tough and waterproof, makes paperless easy. Might be worth looking for a second hand one, with cautions as mentioned above.
-
I cached for a couple of years with a Nuvi 310.
Yes Discombob, you can load all that your caching heart desires onto any old Nuvi. (We had a "Techno" event cache recently where all this was presented...but you do want to go off and live in the cold.....)
First become a premium member and set up the Pocket Query (PQ) you want to load on the Nuvi.
Get GSAK
Next add the PQ to GSAK by dropping and dragging the zipped file you recieved by email into an appropriately named GSAK database.
Next install the pioletsnipes macro into GSAK as detailed by this thread
After installing the macro you should end up with a button in GSAK called "Nuvi". When you click it, it will convert all the cache info into a file your Nuvi understands.
Generate the file and load it onto the Nuvi using the POI loader. If you want to keep all the speed camera info, you have to load that at the same time, also via the POI loader.
It sounds complicated but each step has got a very detailed tutorial to it than can be accessed on the relevant sites. You will be able to teach yourself the process and once you have got it all sorted and set up it's quite easy.
You end up with just about everything about the cache on the Nuvi and you can navigate quite easily to any cache.
The 500 range make life a lot easier, but you end up with about the same info.
So, to answer you Discombob, yes we are sure and, yes it is true!
-
The Great Traverse Extravaganza was cancelled because of the weather - drizzly with lots of cloud on the mountain. Will re-schedule soon and keep all posted.
Disappointed!!!!!
Did enjoy the new route up Lion's Head though....
-
I don't know. Remember a documentary on how the Spanish went on a major mission to pillage the place and ended up with a roomful of gold.
-
A mound of something that will make you quite wasted if you smoke it?
Photo Competition - South Africa
in South Africa
Posted · Edited by CapeDoc
Thanks so much for the detailed review of each photo. I think you went above and beyond! I certainly don't expect future judges to be as comprehensive in their crits, but the effort is most appreciated!
Ditto, thought the photo was wonderful!
Looking forward to the new submissions!
Here's one I took of Van Hunk's Cigar Lounge. (Devil's Peak)
Photo was added to cache page.
Called it
THE DEVIL MAKES HIMSELF AT HOME:
The cache survived with some damage. It highlights what you have to think of when placing a cache!
Edit: Thanks Globalrat for the linking info (see his post below). This post edited to create link to cache page. The photo is part of a "series" of photos of Devil's Peak. Others can be seen on the cache page.