Matata

Yes me is guilty too a bit... two weeks ago we took a drive around porterville to "rescue" some TB's the next week I took a drive to infinity (GCYZ1A) for a drop off - after all the TB's mission is to reach Singapore... only realising there that it was a micro well so I gave 'm (TB Mamsell's Husban) a WWOOFing experience at our retreat and made some pic's to "relax" its owner and make 'em feel better about the delay... However what I like most when grabbing a TB is when there is its mission attached to it so you know imidiately if you should just drop him off at the next cache or if there is a particular direction he wants to travel to... well I better log off and head for a TB landing spot now.

Yeeeeha Let me start 2007 with good news!!! I've got my GPS back nice and fixed with out having to take a third bond on my house either AND it was done local too!!! which is important to know for all the sceptics out there (of which I WAS one of'm) Now here a quick cronical of what happen after the 29th of Nov. 04 Dec Mon - I e-mailed Avnic at Mount Edgecombe S 29.42.556 E 31.02.368 (candida@avnic.co.za) which was the only address on their website... 05 Dec Tue - Coleen from Cape Town replys sweet and short: "The unit is repairable - the turn around time for repairs at the moment is about a week. The cost of this repair will be R350.00 ex VAT. " No question this had me jump with joy reply service excellence!!! 06 Dec Wed - My GPS catched a lift to CT with Matata2 08 Dec Fri - GPS took a ride via courier to Muizenberg 11 Dec Mon - GPS arrived at Muizenberg 18 Dec Mon - GPS repaired and Avnic e-mailed invoice 19 Dec Tue - Invoice Paid 20 Dec Wed - GPS arrived back in the CBD at Matata2's office 26 Dec Tue - Matata 2 arrive back in the Mountains AND the GPS too 29 Dec Fri - GPS in action just in time to hide the "final" Waypoint-micro for our Geoteering multi cache 30 Dec Sat - A new Geoteering record was reached So what more the THANKS A MILLLLLLL!!! to AVNIC for their great service can I say?!!!! For me this was proof enough that the bush talk of "self-imported GPS are not being serviced by Avnic" is no longer true and Avnic is not dicrimination against us immigrants. My faith is back behind Garmin and Avnic But now I gota go and get my GPS settings right again... don't really like that pink back ground...

Well I went strait to Garmin since it takes pretty much the same time for me to get to Avnic in Cape Town or send the unit strait overseas Also since I heard nothing nice from Avnic yet (I had a British tour operater here to establish an adventure deal for overseas tourists, and while checking out our MTB tracks he had a crash and damaged his Garmin, only to find out that Avnic refused to repair it since it was a "overseas unit" . puts you kind of off doesn't it?!) Anyway Product Support AssociateGarmin (Europe) Ltd (Edward Webber) came back starit away with asimilar rate of £80 (R1120.00) So I guess I'll give Avnic a call after all - it might just put a smile back on my face and faith into Garmin again

What we often kick ourselves for forgetting to take along is a simple plastic bag to collect the bits of rubish, you could go a bit further and add some rubber gloves specially in case of the Reservoir cache near Swellendam... Then of course there is the checking up on the latest logs, if you downloaded the cache a half an year or more ago... Spare batteries for your gps?

What a shocking disapointment ... after only 15 month of smooth (more or less) work, I encountered today trouble with connecting my Garmin GPSmap 60CS via the USB cable to my computer... it just did not recognise any hardware... well after login off and restarting for the 5th time I suddanly got a last wimp or beep from the unit... just as I touched the cable close to the gps's port... So I pulled out the cable to examin the port only to find that there was bondage of the closes kind... the port came right out the case stubornly hanging on the plug... THIS IS THE END... it flashed across my mind ...of my USB port... second flash where dollar signs in mass action... Now to cut a frustrating story short, has anybody out there experienced similar problems and if where and how much did the repairs cost??? I checked the Garmin site which gives a quick-shock rate of $150 + $25 for shipping (R1250.00) for total factory overhowls... I guess that would be the top limit... But yes, I love to hear your experience out there.

Well I put my money where my mouth is and on the 14th of November I took a hike up to Helluvaview GCQ3W8 to see if the baboons were first or not... I'm happy to report all is in order and still no FTF '', 'smid_22' and while I'm online guys, Geoteering GCZ35P the multi-cache is finally available too!!! So everyone that came to the Geoteering event please go and log your find on the cache site too.

I just made another sad discovery my second and last TB: Whiskie (524981) also got "nicked" This time after a bare 208km travel. Last logged in "B&F Ceylon and St Helena" on the 19th of July 2006. WHAT is going on out there??? or is the rule simply do not tag any usefull items - not that a whisk or a goat bell are such hard to get items... well if anybody seen Whiskie after July let me know or I'll have to head of to Ghana and play Saxon again

Same same, my attitude is check ASAP after it was reported DNF, which makes me still wonder what happen to "face your fears" of Amyson?! we struggled to find that one and still haven't... As for my mountain top caches I try to service them once anualy if no one has been there for a while... java script:emoticon('', 'smid_2') Hellofaview here I come again. With GT-K of our Geo-Teering Multicache I was fortunate enought to rescue the punch 15min before the veldfire raced down the gorge and would have melted it down to a blob of red plastic... which reminds me to replace the punch and finally publish it on the site. But yes I agree regular maintenance is on order. java script:emoticon('', 'smid_26')

Rather strange though, both her offspring are MIA or at least last seen in 2005 and 2004... so much for concrete bricks TB's being a safe bet agains TB Shifthas... On the RIP cache south of Ghana -in the Gulf of Guinea- thanks everybody! Perfect place to sink ones MIA TB to peace. TB Geisegloeckli (the Bell) has joined the other 2 tousands...

My condolences dear TeamTGF and Saxon plays again. I've just hear from D-bob about a "final cache" for MIA TB's but for got to get it's name will contact him

Today I discovered that my very first TB has been MIA since April 2006... shows you how faithfull I am - no news is good news - is always been my policy... Well that seems not the case with TB "s'Geisegloeckli" or short: The Bell, who was destined to Heidi Country... it made just about 102 km and was last seen/dropped off in Canada loves South Africa GCRWZQ... That cache was reported destroyed on 16th of June 2006. NOW... did anybody see The Bell between 8th April and 16th of June? Or has this bell rang out? Do we have anofficial memorial for MIA TB's or even caches? Any records being kept? Any statistics of what locations are NO-GO's or High Risk Areas? Love to hear, in the meantime I'll slot in Saxon's "Requiem-We will remember" in honor of The Bell

Dominique le Roux... well isn't she the last editor of the best outdoor magazine SA ever had: OUTTHERE?!

Ok guys I was asked to explain that new game at the last event over in Greyton... took me a bit '' but here we go: having been a avid Orienteer ?! is that what one would call it? well I Love Orienteering and I love Geocaching, so it came to my head to fuse these two and create a "new" game calling it GeoTeering ('' This is how it works: There are a number of Orienteering Punches hidden out there in the bush. At the start you get givin the cooridinates of the "punch-caches" which you enter into your GPS and head off to get as many positions as you can. It's kept FUN and SKILL rather then speed and "get'm all". At the end it's all about having fun in a very concentrated time and area. Hence calling up on your skill of finding the puches rather then reading lots of descriptions and logging all your finds... Now if this is to your taste, come and join us on 16th of September at 33°36.953' S 19°43.649' E (GCWF1G) camping for free and a hell of a braai and get to gether is no question '' if you can't make the event don't worry we'll post it on the site and you'll be able to do the game anytime that suits you. So see you there!

Hi There Never mine washed away roads... we just came back from placing a "remote" cache called "Point of No Return" GCY3RE (pun intended) it's just around the corner from where we live, yet it took us two days to get there leaving only in the evening we had a real adventure driving half way there and dogging all the dongas and pot holes and getting stuck in the mud, then an hours hike in moon light and to finally reach camp. Just before it we stood at a abyss of 10m deep and about 20 wide... so another d-tour through tick invested bush was on. Well the bottle of red wine tasted double as good once we had a camp fire going and were digging into our pasta bowls. The next morning it was an ascent of 1530m over just 8km. But I tell you it was worth all the sweat!! No I wonder how long it takes for some one to get up to those 2073m and log a FTF I got a couple more of those remote, top of the peak caches, still waiting to be found... which is sad some how but I guess not everyone is a mountain goat like me So go for it even if it's just for another crasy guy like me to do the trip

Hi guys Check out this Eventscache: GCWF1G "GeoTeering the Race" it's what we came up with when fusing Geocaching with Orienteering. The idea is simply to replace the cachs with orienteering punches which are potted all over the landscape some far some near. the main aim is Fun and skill more then speed and "the winner is...". so if you are in the area join us, we even have a geocacher guest couple coming from Belgium!

Us too!!!!!! don't know if my order via the e-mail got through, so here again: one S one L for the Mountain Matata's

Is anybody organising for a mass order on CITO T-shirts?

Having recently notices that some cachers are cleaning out caches of their full TB content, I was wondering if there should not be a restriction of the number of TBs one is allowed to grab?! Personally I recon it's only courtesy to take one at the time allowing the next fellow to have a grab too... Also the encourragement to label the TB with an instruction of its mission, so you can help it along quicker without having to log on first and check. What is the feeling out there?

Could not agree more! Fostering should be a honor to all cache hunters. This allows for a greater distribution of caches and get the caching community closer together. After all it doesn't matter who owns the cache! The location, the challange, the experience is priority!!! I my view the enviroment comes first hence I'm very disapointed that the locationless caches have been stopped. They allowed endless posibilities without "polluting" nature, plus you always learn about some awesome facts and location.

Nice one count me in (no 4x4 though...)

Interestingly enought while you guys were talking, I finally managed to relocate the Montagu Springs Cache and report to CNC on an illegal trap set in the Montagu Mountain Reserve. I don't see much fuss attached to it. As I did a FTF on that cache in Oct I saw it's inappropriate placement: Off the Badskloof hiking trail in a well visible location for other hikers to notic ones "illegal" off trail venturing. Being a member of the Montagu Mountain Reserve Committee, I contacted the owner of the cache and recomended a relocation. She agreed and asked me to arrange it for her due to the distance to her home base - which points to another point of concern: Maintanance of ones caches, how far is feasible?... The cache is now closer to the old trail (13m) and out of sight of the redirected "hikers highway" In addition I've chosen a location that is more obvious and will prevent long searches in the enviroment - remember it is a Mountain RESERVE! It's new waypoint is S33°46.264' E20°06.905' at 246m asl with an 7m accuracy due to the high cliffs and bad satelite pos at the time of taking. I've notivied the owner. Yet Eric you might check up on it. Since the site is down on my side (due to maintainance, it said...) Further more I placed a notice in the old location, since I'm sure there will be cachers with "old" printed out cache info heading this way... the beauty of my little operation was as mentioned above also the discovery of an potentially illegal set trap in the reserve plus the spotting of yet some more OFF-TRAIL hikers hi up in the rocks... No climbers I might add! and this after we had a fatal accident here in Montagu just a month ago, of someone hiking off trail and falling to his death... Awareness & Responcibility please and we'll keep Geocaching alive for long while coming! On the note of No Tresspassing signs (being a farmer myself) I might just add that its main reason is for legal purposed to help prevent squatting on farm land, without the sign we have almost no change to get squatters removed from private lands. Any "visitor" with good intend (e.g. geocaching) is always welcome, bear in mind that you are able to maintain that cache too!!! To ask for permission from the farmer for placement of a cache in the above case is just added curtecy and should be part of the operation, speciall if you drive into the farm as compaired to fence hopping. on the last point before I head for breakfast if you do so please make sure you use gates or near poles and don't damage the fence and create hole for livestock to escape nore should you remove the rocks placed at the bottom of the fence either. thanks folks and excuse my english...