GEO936

Congratulations to GreenJaM on the birth of their son Noel. He was born this morning and is doing well. Mom also doing well!

He was the founder of this museum and he is an artist?

How can you make this statement if you have never met or chatted to them?....When I contacted the Tshwane counsel, they were more than willing to help me and we build a VERY good relationship with the Tshwane counsel members and have permission for the existing normal caches in the Pretoria region. Ummm RedGlobe...we know a staff member at the Gardens and SANBI....she's been there since 1997 and has gone through all the changes and the new ways of working there. She advised us about the risk involved...and the kind of mentality that we would be up against as she deals with it on a daily basis. So actually, we have already tried from that angle. I know your good relationship with Tshwane council and that is brilliant....we will certainly give it a try with Joburg Parks again (our first attempts have not been fruitful).

Yes, we know that the Gardens would be a perfect spot for many Earthcaches. We had already thought of doing this, until we found out that you need permission from the landowner when putting together an Earthcache. That is were we got stumped. The Gardens is a government owned place, and run by people that are bureaucratics. We were worried that if we approached them about an Earthcache, that they would question the geocache concept. Currently, the caches that are hidden there have been done so without permission and it would be a huge issue if they were to find out about them. So putting an Earthcache may jeopardise the other caches there. But I know that both Wazat and besem are planning to do Earthcaches any way, (even though I did explain the risk). We also wanted to place an Earthcache at Kloofendal, but again we have to deal with the government departments to gain permission. Again this means we have to deal with narrow minded bureaucratics!

We are dying to put together an Earthcache or two or three...we've been planning on them since over a year ago. We are slow to get things done...but we will get there eventually. We just need to do some more research and get the necessary permissions and then we'll give it a bash! Incidently, we've applied for our Earthcache Bronze status, but as yet we have not received any logo or response. Does this sort of thing usually take a while? Does Earthcache.org check the Earthcaches and your logs and emails the Earthcache owners for verifification? Let's hope we are better organised and get things done next year....(oops, I'll be back at the office from next year, so my time will be ultra limited and I won't be able to do any geocaching from work !)

hey, at least I managed to figure out it had something to do with the UK and soccer!!

I really don't remember any dogs in the last World Cup, but then again I did miss a lot of it so maybe I missed the dog? I also don't watch much TV, so have no idea about the dog in the UK series. So, I'll have to guess again. This dog was the mascot for the UK soccer team and he is a labrador? He ran onto the field and scored a goal?

Is he/she David Beckham's pet dog?

Photo Nomination for November: besem's Purple Dragon: Taken by GEO936 We know this is not the best pic of the Racer, but it was difficult to get close to this juvenile Burchell's Coucal. How often do you get to see a baby coucal in the parking lot of your company?

From a cache owner's perspective, we prefer a "DNF" log when the cacher has attempted to find the cache at GZ. Then we know to make a plan to check it out and confirm whether it is actually gone or not. Otherwise, we think it is fine to log a note, when no attempt has been made to find the cache due to muggles or whatever. From a cache finder's perspective, we check "DNF" logs to see whether they were due to no access or muggles or whether they were not found after looking at GZ. Then we make our decision as to whether we go looking for the cache or not. If we see a string of DNF logs after experienced cachers did not find the cache, then we may give it a miss. But having said that, there is a cache that was not found by very experienced cachers over a period of a few months and it was still there!! We asked the cache owners to check up on it for us, due to our recent Event nearby and low and behold it was still there - it was just a good hide! For those that are interested it is the AROMERC-EHCAC (GC1PKEJ).

Our Nuvi 710 is called "Sophie", because we use the UK accent when needing the voice for directions. We share this GPS with Rolf's Dad, and he calls it "Sally" when it is with him. We also have an eTrex, but we haven't given that one a name as yet. Mmmmmm, I'll need to chat to Rolf about that and find out if we should give it a name!

Sounds absolutely fabulous...but we wouldn't be able to attend! Unless something happens and MrGEO936 is on a business trip nearby....then we would post a reply or something much closer to the time! Thanks for the invite though!!

Jeepers, Globalrat - how did you know that? ....... Didn't you know that GlobalRat knows EVERYTHING?

This is awful news and very tragic for the family that experienced it. We send our condolences and thoughts to them. Thank you for letting us know about it CH.

We were deeply saddened to hear of this tragic incident. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Anderson family at this time and for always. Our condolences - Rolf, Silvia, Nadia & Enzo - GEO936.

And a few more photo Nominations for the month of November 2009: Travel in Style Taken by Team Ginger We're impressed that you still managed to take pics with your Racer while on honeymoon!!! Well done...this was an interesting structure. Rhino & Hedgehog N. Ireland 2008 Geocoin Taken by rodnjoan We love labradors, so we couldn't resist this one! Arwen's Bling Bling Mini Cooper Taken by Skola and Lingiwe This is a very nice pic - we liked the fact that it was taken through the fence, with half the fence post missing - very artistic!! Vakashele Taken by VanPayne This is a cute one with a dairy cow! Bouncing Smiley TB Taken by 34south Nice landscape in the Western Cape. We'll do a last check at the end of the month for any new pics.

Photo nominations for November 2009 continued .... Wazat's Love Bug: taken by Wazat Wow - great shot of little Love Bug on top of a REAL tortoise! Looks like Mr Tortoise didn't mind to have some more weight on his back! taken by Wazat Nice one of a pet Rat...thank goodness it's not our pet though (although Rolf did have a pet rat when he was growing up ...)! taken by Wazat WOW - look at that huge croc on the far left....scary stuff...but nice shot! More nominations to follow shortly!

Mid-Month Photo Nominations for November 2009: besem's Purple Dragon: taken by BruceTP. We love aloes, and thought that the coin looked great in the aloe's leaves! taken by BruceTP Great shot, with a Jacaranda flower to cover the coin's tracking number and nestled in the fork of a Jacaranda tree with the view of the windmill in the background. taken by GEO936 Rolf LOVES submarines and this one has one of our lucky numbers on it, so we could not resist! taken by GEO936 We love our indigenous flowers and this one was very special with its own honey bee! You have to look very close! More nominations to follow ...

Wonder if it is Lesotho?

Hee hee I'm still busy loading pics to besem's Racer as well as ours...plus all else on the go, I haven't managed to go through all the Racers for nominating pics. I have a few in mind though...so as soon as I get the chance you'll see all the nominations coming through!!

Hey Gerhard, maybe this geocacher does not LOG any DNFs!!! Did you consider that? We often come across geocachers who log notes of not finding a cache instead of a DNF, so actually it would be difficult to correctly determine this ratio!

Oh my goodness cincol - so sorry to hear that things have not gone well with your recent geocoin purchase. We struggled with a purchase from Al & Ellies a while back. They had a long delay with their manufacturer who was based in China. They did eventually deliver - one of the coins is one of our Racers old Sir Henry Morgan. They did close their business though, due to the recession. We were nervous that it was possible we would never receive our order, but eventually it came through and they even gave us a free geocoin as a gift of thanks for our support. So they were an honest bunch. I hope somehow, you do eventually receive your order!

Yay...we managed to activate a brand new geocoin (was supposed to be a new dog tag but there was a bit of mis-communication between Mr & Mrs GEO936! ). We gave it to DRDM & Raider and look forward to the start of the Race!

Oh WOW...what an AWESOME Event!! Everything just fell into place and worked out brilliantly!! Thank you to all the cachers that attended - each and every one of you made the successful Event that it was! Thank goodness that the weather turned out in our favour. It was fantastic to spend some quality time with some of the cachers at the picnic and we know that the hike to do the caches in the Gardens was also fantastic. Rolf said that it made the hike seem so much shorter as there was always someone to chat to. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and our kids sort of behaved too (even without their naps, etc.). Thank you to Tinkerbell-GP that was such a honey with the kids - they love you and don't stop chatting about the Aunty that has "fairy dust" . You were a great help! But thanks to everyone - we'll definitely do something again soon, as we enjoy your company and would like to have more opportunities of getting to know you better and better each time!

Congratulations to Klitsgras - RedGlobe's son - who got married on Saturday (14th Nov)! We wish you a life filled with love and happiness! Hope you enjoy the honeymoon and do some geocaching too!!