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Louise_Gerhard

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Everything posted by Louise_Gerhard

  1. I would not like to point to a cacher or a location so I will only publish the log to protect the cache owner and the cacher that hunted for it. This to me is a worth while and a good log to read. The cacher managed to capture the moment and my feeling when I hunted for it. Enjoy. Gerhard So, Mountain Pat and I are actually running out of time, not wanting to ride our Dakars in the dark as we still had to get to Ermelo before dark. But we found the rating and name curious, so just had to check it out. Then, strangely, Mountain Pat being the accomplished mountaineer that he is, took out his camera and 'politely' waited for me to ascend this little 100 storey monster with off-road motorbike boots and gear. Had a glance here and there to look for clues along the way, but decided to start searching from the top. All in about 15 minutes of daylight to spare. Now, round about the 50th storey, I started realising that I might not have the 100% head for heights that I thought I had, plus I can't think straight and breathe heavily at the same time. But Mountain Pat is watching, so the job had to be finished. On top I realised this viewpoint was not built with safety in mind and the handrails I was looking forward too either never existed or is in the scrap metal heap in Pretoria that I could see from there! On my hands and knees my religious side went through a renewed revival as I resumed my top level search for a piece of paper to write my name on, and suddenly geocaching didn't make sense at all! One good thing is that I was now above the layer of smog covering Bethal (really disappointing to see such bad pollution, can't think that this is a healthy place to live in - so much for the platteland clean air) Well, I couldn't see anything, mainly because the tears of fear blurred my vision, so I decided to search a touch lower. Going down I realised I couldn't search in the dark, and I was not going down to get a torch and then back up, so that was it and we retreated with our tails between our legs... beaten by a cache planted by a geocacher who lists 'pensioner' as job title...! This one is now on my watchlist. TFTC - I think...?
  2. I was on the Garmin web site when I read about geocaching. I had no idea what this means. I eventually got to the listings and discovered that there is one close by. Put it into the GPS and went there. (Skurwerantjies) I found it after one hell of a search. Still had no idea what to do – discover the log book and read it. I then signed it and I took the coin. Later I discovered that I must log the finding on the website and that the coin is not for keeps. Our team consist of my wife Petra, Abbi my daughter, my dog Rex and me. I do most of the caches except the single ones or the ones on holiday. I then told my brother and he followed. (williesoosWCsa) He found a couple of caches then suddenly he stopped logging. I then discovered that he is still caching but he is no longer logging his finds on the Internet. He only does it for the location and the fun of it and do not want to go into numbers. During my holiday in George he was with me but no logs were done by him. He was no help at all, even when I was falling around in the area he would only smile. At Victoria bay I started off on the wrong foot and ended somewhere in the caravan park. This really made him smiling. Some of the coin and TB discoveries I had to do on his behalf. I now keep an eye on him – I have three caches in the mountains as a FTF. If he finds them and he does not log onto Internet then the next cacher will be the FTF and I will ignore his find as punishment. One of my colleagues then wanted to see what this is about. (Leodes) I took him to “Rocky View” and told him to find it. This turns out to be a huge struggle. His gps could not point to the correct area. I then handed him the quest 2 and he found it in no time. He only have this one find and is now waiting to buy a proper GPS. Bottom line – my infection ratio is not good and at 400 caches later I could not convince anybody to join as a cacher with passion. I am still the only resident in Ermelo that is doing caching which is a big pity. Gerhard
  3. If I analyze anymore than I will suffer from analysis paralysis. Much better to enjoy the caches than doing the numbers. But at the end the bottom line is that we are only a few people doing caching. We do have about 3000 caches to hunt which is still ok. Yes, and I am very jealous when I read about the huge number of caches around a very lucky cacher in the UK. But this discussion gave me another view on caching. There is huge potential in South Africa to add more cachers. Gerhard
  4. 1. The reviewer is 100% correct. No logbook – no cache. The logbook is the one cachers used to complete their visit. With an earth cache it is not needed but you have to reply to the owner of the earth cache with answer which will give you permission to log a find. 2. Cachers are not allowed to bury caches in circumstances where any tool is needed to dig for it. You need to explain to the reviewer how the cache was hidden. The reviewer is not your enemy he is only applying the rules. If you drop him an e-mail I am sure he will assist and help where possible to make it possible to comply with the rules. Gerhard
  5. Wazat, best of luck for this week end. Hope there is one less with a tree growing on top. Gerhard
  6. South Africa has a population of 43,997,828 (2007 estimate), which gives a population density of 36 persons per sq km (93 per sq mi). South Africa has a multiracial and multi-ethnic population. Of the nearly 44 million inhabitants, approximately 75 per cent of the population is black African, 13 per cent is white, 9 per cent is Coloured (mixed ethnic background), and 3 per cent is Asian. With other words with 500 cachers against 43 000 000 muggles we should be happy if only a few caches get muggled. For every cache in South Africa there is 14300 muggles. If there are 500 cachers then there are 86 000 muggles for each cacher. Luckily we are not at war. Gerhard
  7. Eish, sorry October 2007, typing error. Well spotted. Gerhard
  8. I see a huge difference between my stats and other guys. I am not claiming to be a guru with my figures. My figures could be hopelessly wrong. I hunted caches in the PE area that was archived. So there are flaws. I am only showing my stats as found in my database. Please do not stab me for this. I started with geocaching in October 2008. The program I use is GSAK and I do download all caches. Some of the caches that I downloaded since October 2008 are now archived. But I keep some of these caches as they are in good locations and I do visit the location even with no cache present. At the end it is not only to get the numbers. Therefore I have more than 3000 caches in my database. At present my database is telling me the following. • Only 82 different cachers visited the tonteldoos series caches. • There are 496 different cache owners that have planted caches in South Africa. • There are 895 micros available. • There are 1144 small caches. • There are 922 regular ones. • There are 35 large caches. • On my database there are 136 other caches such as events, earth, camera, CITO, etc. • If I exclude “others” then there are a total of 2996 caches. This includes some caches that are archived and some in Swaziland and in Lesotho. If I deduct these then I get very close to the official figure on geocaching.com. • This will then calculate to an average of 6 caches per unique cacher. This is very close to the 5 calculated elsewhere. • CrystalFairy have 297 cachers on her database. • If I scan through some of the names it becomes very hard to determine active cachers. Some guys were quiet for years and they return. Does this mean that they were inactive? So, we now have to bring in a time frame. Let us use a 6 months window to determine who was active in this period. Even one cache find will indicate status as active. Run this on the database and I then come up with a very strange figure of 218 active cachers. Is this correct – I have no idea. Some of my caches in the database could be out of date. • The total database records are very close to the official count. So let us assume a 5% error in the database. This will indicate that there could be between 207 and 229 active cachers in South Africa. CrystalFairy have 297 cachers in her database. To me this could be a realistic figure. • Let us verify this figure with geocachers.co.za. There are 366 different names listed. Go through the list and you get to plus minus 149 names give and take, which is still in the 6 months window. A lot of the new guys on the block are not listed as well as experienced guys such as FishEagle. My database should be more accurate. The figure of 218 and 207 could be a reasonable estimate. I would therefore assume or more accurate an estimate of between 207 and 218 active cachers inside a 6 months window as a limit. Ok, my 2 cents. I wanted to express this in Zim dollar but then the figure is is too important. Gerhard
  9. Welcome to groovy2 who logged his first find on one of my caches. May there be many more. I noticed that he joined on 1 September 2008 and already found three caches. Well done. Gerhard
  10. Wazat, you are in trouble – there is a new corsa 4x4 on the scene with bug and all. The owner is not blond so you definitely are in for some competition. It looks cool. There are quite a number of discoveries all ready. Gerhard
  11. There are so many places in Oudtshoorn to plant caches. There is Rust and Vrede, many dams, ostrich farms, 4x4 roads between George and Oudsthoorn, CJ van Langenhoven’s house, Crocodile farm, Adventura, Meiringspoort, Swartberg and walking trials, Swartberg 4x4 routes, Ox wagon trials on the way to Mosselbay, military training ground (Leopard) where the last “vuurdoop” has taken place, Zebra crossing 4x4 trials, winery farms on the way to Calitzdorp, the old walking bridge in Outshoorn, route 66, etc. The problem is that only a few cachers are active in this area. If I should list all the possibilities near George, Mosselbay and Outshoorn it would probably take me a day. I would like my brother to comment. He is at present in Groblershoop. There is nothing – nearest place that is worth going to in probably Bloemfontein/Kimberley. Not much we can change – except to plan well and to hit more than one in a go or else the fuel price will kill you. Gerhard
  12. Our home town is Ermelo. The nearest accessible cache at is at 86.4 km. But it is not worth doing as there is only one available. There is a multitude of other caches in all directions not worth doing unless you are passing by on your way to somewhere. Therefore the nearest cluster of caches is at 142.4 km. We will normally start to hunt for caches if there is a minimum of about 6 caches in close proximity unless it is a FTF or a special cache. The best area with the correct options starts at 180 km with other words we have to do caches in Gauteng (220 km) or we have to the caches in Nelspruit (212km) or we have to move more south to Ladysmith area (682 km) or we have to move to Swaziland. When we started doing geocaching it was easy and a lot of caches were available. The challenge to find them is now with a two way approach. • If we are somewhere for business we will hunt them in that area – this is our top up approach. • Our second strategy is to select one weekend of a month for caching. We will leave on Friday night. On Saturday morning we will start our hunt and we will only complete it when the sun is gone. Same applies for Sunday. We will normally try to select an area which is unknown or a challenge to us. This weekend trip is normally more than 600 km. We will only select an area where there are good quality caches and the owner is showing responsibility for his caches. If a particular area is showing a high amount of DNF we will bypass this area. Normally we select a target of 30 to 15 caches for this weekend. Our favorite areas are the following. This is good locations with good caches and a lot of challenges. I personally prefer the ones in the open and away from the concrete jungle. • Sabie at 272 km. • Tzaneen at 446 km. • Drakensberge at 306 km. Gerhard
  13. I parked it on Saturday at Game and when I came back a group of young men were standing around the vehicle. They were very curious to know what this sign and number indicates. Before I answered them I asked them what do they think it stands for; the answers was… • You are a game rancher. • You belong to some unknown organization or group - maybe a right wing organization. • You are some sort of law enforcing agent, the one guy asked if we are replacing the scorpions. Anything strange in this small town is quickly noticed. It took a while to explain the concepts to them. Maybe it is easier to do a brochure and keep a couple of copies for distribution. Gerhard
  14. Anlufu, you will make my day. If I have one find on them I will be able to relax. Anlufu are you one of the cachers watching these caches? I notice that there are two and I am very keen to know who they are and if I can assist them in any way. If you go you can drop me a sms the night before. I will be on standby the next day for any problems. I know the mountain like the palm of my hand. A DNF is not good reading material. We stayed with a friend in Mitchell Street during our last trip. She has this dream to stand on top of George peak. This is one of the reasons why I planted these caches – to act as beacons of challenges for her. She has problems with her knees but she has done a lot of walks in this area and she completed about all the caches with my brother. She was also with my brother when they visited your cache on the mountain. A bad one was when they got stuck in the mud with the 4x4 below the old George dam about two years ago. This was the fault of my brother. As he went over the hill he suddenly realised that the road is completely washed away but it was too late. She volunteered to do the winching in the rain and mud. My brother on the other hand volunteered for the steering inside the bakkie. That day she realized that she is tougher than she thought she was. This was her first ever severe off-road situation and she eventually winched them out of the trouble. Ok, it took 7 hours but they eventually got out. She does not know this but I will volunteer to go with her to visit the mountain cross cache which she should be able to get to. If she handles this cache easily then me we have to discuss how we are going to get her onto George peak. I walk fast but rest more – she walks slowly but she keep on going. By the way I am still flabbergasted about those poor donkeys we visited. I still can’t get to the idea that gangs are using donkeys to practise their stabbing techniques. People have abused them but yet after rehabilitation they still come to you with for attention and a pat with no fear. We will visit them again on our next trip to George; this time we will be armed with carrots. Gerhard
  15. I have received the answer, basically plant them and forget them – someone will come along but do not expect anything – there are cachers out there that will visit them; but they are a minority. I like my caches and I love to read logs even if they are negative. Maybe if they mature with the years it will be nicer to read the logs. Next time I will plant a couple more on the old ox wagon road called the Cradock Pass. There are a couple of very interesting spots and it is quite amazing to walk the same path which was used by ox wagons. Maybe someone will be interested if there are 6 caches in that area. Maybe leaving a R200 note as first to find will also help to get them moving. I read some of the logs in the valley of sand. Eish, this is a different world. Thanks for the feedback. Gerhard
  16. There is only one thing that is difficult for a cache owner that planted a cache on a mountain. I watch them every night and I notice that some cachers are watching them as well. Nothing is happening with these caches. I am now thinking that I made a mistake to hide them on the mountain. I would not like to see one of my caches rated as one of the oldest ones not found. My brother is planning to visit them but he is delaying it for a cacher to find them as a FTF. I planted 3 caches on 1 July 2008 on the Outeniqua Mountains. Mountain Cross This is an easy hike of about 5 km. Even with snow on the mountain you should be able to get to this one. George Peak On the other hand the George peak cache should be manageable by the average cacher. Cradock Peak Could be difficult for the average cacher and level of fitness. We are going down to George during March 2009. Questions: 1. Should I remove them if there are no finds on them? 2. How many hits/year can one expect on these caches? I would love to see some estimates. 3. Should I plant any other caches in the Outeniqua Mountains? 4. We drafted a proposed earth cache for one of the peaks in Lesotho but at the moment I am not sure if we should publish this one. Should I go ahead and wait for years to pass before this is found? I would like to see some postive and negative comments on my questions. gerhard
  17. I see a FishEagle flying through the forum.
  18. Yebo, I received my window decal today. I do not want to blow my own horn but it does look very cool. I stuck it onto the black part of the window and it should be easy to spot this one. A lot of people are going to be curious about this little bug and what it stands for. I included a photo – I had to remove some of the numbers of the actual tracking code. Sorry. Thanks to Quintus in getting this to me. I appreciate this a lot. Gerhard
  19. Looks like a lot of cachers have the same problem that we have. It is only Dakardrix which is flying from cache to cache. He has to drain fuel from his bike every week just to show some fuel consumption. I will try Bloedrivier and Amajuba tomorrow. Bloedrivier is the worry. It is not a difficulty 3 but more a 4 or 4.5. Tomorrow when the sun is peeping over the horizon then we will start hunting big time. I will have to find him even if it took me the whole day. But my confidence levels received a serious knock at this one and made me humble again. Gerhard
  20. Guys I must speak my mind at this point. The person in question has archived the event and he will no longer do caching. We must get back to the topic. In my days when I was still fighting there was a fine line that you do not cross. It is easy to kill a person inside the ring if you want to. But if you have beaten him than you stop. If the person indicates that he does not want to continue then you stop. If you see the haze in his eyes then you do not take it further then necessary. This guy passed this point but yet we keep on stabbing him. How many times must you beat the same person to win? The fight is not about beating the other person senseless. I can teach anyone the art of fighting but it is much harder to understand the essence of character, sincerity, effort, self control and etiquette. You have to understand where to stop and to let the other person go with dignity. I myself sometimes still do not understand where to stop and sometimes other people must step in and they have to say “This is enough”. If it happens then I turn away if I lost control. But we all learn and no one is perfect. Let the man go – he admitted defeat by archiving his event. Let him go in peace and let us show character, sincerity, effort, self control and etiquette. It is done and over and problem is resolved. Life goes us and this is no longer an issue. Let it be.
  21. The official tonteldoos caches are now ready and the cachers can hunt them all. If you want a challenge please visit Bloedrivier. If you want to climb a little bit visit the one at Amajuba. If you want to mix with the birdies visit Vredesboom. If you want to hunt quality caches and learn something about our past then hunt the rest. Good luck and thanks to all the cache owners that made this series possible. Yes, I forgot – Fisheagle thanks for your assistance, patience and positive contribution. Oh yes, RedGlobe should we try the one at Hanover as a FTF? Gerhard
  22. Fair and just. Caching is back the way it must be. Gerhard
  23. Bats, you can count me in as well. If you want anything please drop me an e-mail. I will not get involved without your permission but I think Anlufu have a good point. Maybe I should drop a “Will not attend” note with my reasons without referring to you specific. If you want something along those lines I will run it pass you before I publish it. Maybe we all should drop him a note. This is nonsense. We do not like all people we come across in life but we tolerate each other. We can agree to disagree but to ban a person from an event is really childish. He has one hell of an attitude problem and it is time for him to understand that it is unacceptable for the majority of cachers. If you have a problem you should be able to speak your mind and you must have the chance to settling the score. I went through all your logs and you are very mild in your comments. There is not one that is provoking anybody. This cacher has some sort of personal score to settle with a hidden agenda. If I do not like a cacher for any reason I will just stay clear of him. But if he chooses to have a conversation with me I will give him the chance without being nasty. Banning a cacher from a public place is however just too much. What is next – an e-mail to you to stop breathing? Caching is open to all – point blank. We lost the rugby – it does not indicate that we should just give up. But it is your decision. However I am on your side. Gerhard
  24. Last night law graduate Simon Reynolds, 22, of Gloucester, admitted he snatched Murphy. He said: “He was my companion for seven months and we got very close. “He was a great ice breaker.” Team Marzipan from N Wales had a Gnome masoct, and he "went travelling" after a recent event. The kidnappers have even set up a GC account for him....Noddy Curtis and he sends back reports... Funny how he's not been seen for a few weeks.... hmmmmm! Keep a eye on your Gnomes - they do travel. Gerhard
  25. The following log made me smile. “We have released this travel bug at the railway children in Rutland UK....... sorry for the delay!” The strange part is that the person dropping it had it in his possession for more than 6 years. So, if your TB is lost let us wait for 6 years to pass. TB is back after 6 years Peter, I dont' know if I'm being cynical, but I reckon that's a cacher of longstanding that has realised he's had that TB forever, and has set up a new account to drop it... there's just 2 TB finds to his name and No cache finds...... How very very bizzarre!!!
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