Danie Viljoen

2019 Statistics, part 1: New caches 1915 new caches were placed in South Africa during 2019, 4.4% fewer than in 2018 (and 36% fewer than the peak in 2016). This is an average of 5.2 new caches per day (vs. 8.2 per day in 2016).

Most South African finds during the past year: For the year ending 13 Sep 2019: 1. iPajero 1614 finds 2. pieterix 1539 finds 3. Andredj 936 finds 4. LL_cool_J 922 finds 5. Strong_Boy 903 finds 6. TeamTatoo 806 finds 7. The Huskies 796 finds 8. StrickFam 778 finds 9. Geocaching Genie 774 finds Ninja Nano 774 finds

Caches per population: Province People/cache People/km2 W.C. 1690 51 E.C. 2433 39 KZN 3813 121 N.C. 4058 3.3 Gauteng 4219 810 Mpumalanga 4752 59 N.W. 8395 38 Free State 5220 23 Limpopo 16285 46 R.S.A. 3672 47

Distance between caches: Gauteng: 3488 active caches in 18176 square km: 2.45 km between caches KZN: 2986 active caches in 94361 square km: 6.04 km between caches Western Cape: 3917 active caches in 129462 square km: 6.18 km between caches Eastern Cape: 2681 active caches in 168966 square km: 8.53 km between caches Mpumalanga: 952 active caches in 76495 square km: 9.63 km between caches North West: 474 active caches in 104882 square km: 15.98 km between caches Free State: 566 active caches in 29825 square km: 16.27 km between caches Limpopo: 356 active caches in 125754 square km: 20.20 km between caches Northern Cape: 302 active caches in 372889 square km: 37.76 km between caches South Africa: 15722 active caches in 1221037 square km: 9.47 km between caches (The distance is calculated for even equidistant distribution of the caches over the given area.)

Provincial centroids, part 3: Limpopo: S24 01.875 E29 43.550 Closest cache: GC17BJV Lariska's Stroompie Farthest cache: GC5ENZR Lovers nest: 241.4 km Mpumalanga: S25 33.741 E30 37.659 Closest cache: GC4TX6Y The little piggy's key Farthest cache: GC437KD Lions Rest: 259.8 km

Provincial centroids, part 2: Free State: S28 35.992 E27 00.711 Closest cache: GC58YH0 Dup Senior's First Hide! Farthest cache: GCY1NM Memel Escarpment: 279.2 km North West: S26 13.880 E26 49.718 Closest cache: GC3DYCH No. 1 for Ventersdorp Farthest cache: GC2GY8W Boetsap Falls: 303.9 km Northern Cape: S29 35.413 E21 19.605 Closest cache: GC6EMTD Kenhardt History #1 Farthest cache: GC4JA4A Kalahari Sands: 552.0 km

You are right. The updated centroid for the Eastern Cape: S33 29.154 E26 0.611 Closest cache: GC38Y1W Sidbury Sports Club Farthest cache: GC12GZ9 Transkei View Cave: 479.6 km

Provincial centroids: Gauteng: S25 59.129 E28 07.107 Closest cache: GC86KXG Stretch a Leg #13 Revived - Big Bird (North) Farthest cache: GC2FVNZ Off the beaten track: 102.7 km Western Cape: S33 50.988 E19 18.765 Closest cache: GC1XEAZ Klipbok Farthest cache: GC61MYH Bloukranspas: 399.4 km KZN: S29 33.338 E30 37.991 Closest cache: GC2ZEXF Lookout Farthest cache: GC4VXV0 Kosi Bay: 368.6 km Eastern Cape: S33 29.089 E26 0.561 Closest cache: GC38Y1W Sidbury Sports Club Farthest cache: GC7EGJP Whale Trail Vaalkrans: 513.1 km

Cardinal caches: As mentioned yesterday, GCZWR3 REALLY SideTracked - Landmeter Station is the cache closest to the centroid of all the active South African caches. Northernmost cache: GC15MHT Mapungubwe - Cinnamon Rock Bunting East: GC4VXV0 Kosi Bay South: GC1H9WR 2 Oceans West: GC4J6P0 Gems of the West Coast The following are the farthest from the centroid in each direction: Northeast: GC4N80H CROOKS CORNER Southeast: GC1GW3K Fraser Falls Southwest: GC2HQR1 Kommetjieberg Ridge Northwest: GC4JA4A Kalahari Sands The following cachers have found the most of these 9 cardinal caches: 1. The Huskies: 8 iPajero: 8 3. ChrisDen: 7 4. mlornelh: 6 5. Henzz: 5 SKATTIE@1: 5 TechnoNut: 5 cownchicken: 5 9. Louise_Gerhard: 4 PieterM: 4 Team GBS: 4 Tricky Vicky & Mickey: 4 Danie Viljoen: 4

Centroid: The centroid of all the active South African caches is currently at S30 04.064 E026 32.820, which is about 24km east of Trompsburg in the Free State. The closest active cache is GCZWR3 REALLY SideTracked - Landmeter Station, and the farthest active South African cache is GC4N80H CROOKS CORNER. I first calculated the centroid on 4 May 2015, when it was at S29 34.258 E026 32.820, 68km to the northeast of the current centroid. What this means is that relatively more new caches have been published in the Western Cape during the last 4 years than in the rest of the country.

Karma is the number of finds on your caches divided by your own finds. For a higher karma you will need more finds on your caches and/or fewer personal finds. Personally I don’t worry too much about my karma, as long as it is more than 1.

Karma, part 4: One problem with karma as it is defined is that it only works for cache owners (which, as we have seen, are only 5.5% of all the South African cachers.) What if we simply subtract the number of own finds from finds on owned caches? That should give one an indication from how far in the green (positive) or red (negative) you are: 1. BoazRuthFields 20756 2. GEO936 18604 3. die sousies 17961 4. NotBlonde 14071 5. Leon St 13874 6. Louwtjie&Vroutjie 11432 7. SawaSawa 10831 8. pannie&medusae 10375 9. HeinG 10012 10. CrystalFairy 9819 . . 43347. JanMich -3059 43348. dolos -3080 43349. divmango -3103 43350. bergbokkie -3424 43351. mart514 -3690 43352. pieterix -3849 43353. GorNat -4996 43354. terunkie -5310 43355. iPajero -5693 43356. rodnjoan -6328 This should not be seen as a shame list (especially the second half). The cachers at the bottom of this list are there because of their massively high find numbers.

I am somewhat skeptical about a strong correlation between membership of Facebook caching groups and cacher longevity. I am not saying I am a typical Facebook user, but I am currently subscribed to 25 groups (mostly not caching related), of which I actively read the postings of about 5 of them.

Two problems with this: I am not a member of all the Geocaching Facebook pages I do not know of a way to retrospectively determine the number of members at any past date.

Karma, part 3: Karma: The ratio between the total number of finds on one's owned caches to the total number of own finds. Per definition the 94.5% of South African cachers who do not own caches have a karma of 0. The cachers with the highest karma are: 1. WeItZfAmIlY 153.5 2. daanzena 104.1 3. Schmore 100.9 4. PikkeVis 80.3 5. cenea10 69.9 6. MovingHamster 65.2 7. GoSA 55.5 8. Peter Scholtz 51.6 9. OLLIE.Q 51.4 10. die sousies 51.2 (I only considered cache owners with at least 10 finds)

Karma, part 2: Of the 43356 unique cachers who have logged at least one cache in South Africa, only 1397 have a karma > 1, i.e. have more finds on their owned caches than they have finds. In other words, 3.2% (1 in 31) of the cachers carry the rest.

Yes, but how many is almost impossible to determine

Karma, part 1: Of the 43356 unique cachers who have logged at least one cache in South Africa, only 2379 own at least one cache in South Africa. That is 5.5% (1 in 18).

Most finds in KZN: All time: 1. iPajero 3784 2. TechnoNut 3091 3. M²C²D 2547 4. Ninja Nano 2378 5. Eagle Eyed 2366 6. Geocaching Genie 2358 7. Strong_Boy 2357 8. Beetles and Bentleys 2285 9. D_illigaf 2190 10. waydom 2070 The last 12 months: 1. iPajero 924 2. LL_cool_J 735 3. Strong_Boy 673 4. WeItZfAmIlY 392 5. Geocaching Genie 373 Ninja Nano 373 7. Eagle Eyed 371 8. M²C²D 364 9. N00n3atall 336 10. WÅLDO 335

Most finds in the Western Cape: All time: 1. terunkie 5155 2. The Huskies 5025 3. cownchicken 4619 4. PieterM 4029 5. SKATTIE@1 3925 6. Henzz 3375 7. Andredj 3324 8. pieterix 3204 9. iPajero 2942 10. battlerat and pussycat 2862 The last 12 months: 1. pieterix 499 2. terunkie 430 3. Andredj 382 4. The Huskies 342 5. Evolutionaries 284 6. SKATTIE@1 260 7. tjoklits 235 8. ephyfer 216 9. Fuzzyducktravels 213 10. Adventure_T 210

Most finds in Gauteng: All time: 1. rodnjoan 5373 2. iPajero 4650 3. Leon St 4058 4. GorNat 3738 5. Geelvink 3707 6. Louise_Gerhard 3648 7. JanMich 3647 8. dolos 3373 9. Antron 3300 10. SpiderFinder 3265 The last 12 months: 1. Eksteen 625 2. Panters 568 3. DivanOli4 487 4. pieterix 486 5. Andredj 484 6. TEAM SCHUTTE 481 7. za pienaar family 463 8. ephyfer 449 9. D_illigaf 415 10. rodnjoan 409

Most finds in each province: Gauteng: 5373 rodnjoan Western Cape: 5155 terunkie KZN: 3784 iPajero Eastern Cape: 3190 iPajero Mpumalanga: 1281 iPajero Free State: 832 iPajero North West: 467 iPajero Limpopo: 344 iPajero Northern Cape: 241 iPajero Not only is iPajero tops in 7 of the 9 provinces, they are no. 2 in Gauteng and no. 9 in the Western Cape!

Most African caches found (excluding South Africa): 1. Mendes&Freitas 1971 2. Radler! 1858 3. keper 1775 4. Humlos 1758 5. TatiyPedro 1754 6. Butyo 1748 7. Cidinho & Lia 1741 8. dandrade 1740 9. Dríade 1737 10. tojoliveira 1733 11. Familiaornelas 1677 12. dameblanche 1673 13. cach-u-crew 1659 14. paulocasca 1645 15. RRV1982 1619 The South African cacher with the most finds in the rest of Africa is iPajero with 259, coming in at position 881.

Most caches found in Africa: 1. iPajero 17990 2. The Huskies 8083 3. rodnjoan 7729 4. Geelvink 6705 5. cownchicken 6642 6. GorNat 6639 7. SKATTIE@1 6504 8. Louise_Gerhard 6458 9. terunkie 6358 10. ChrisDen 6336 Most caches found in South Africa: 1. iPajero 17732 2. The Huskies 7897 3. rodnjoan 7659 4. Geelvink 6705 5. GorNat 6634 6. SKATTIE@1 6504 7. cownchicken 6495 8. Louise_Gerhard 6424 9. terunkie 6295 10. ChrisDen 6232

African cache owners with the most finds on their caches: For all time, on African caches: 1. GC Putte 71580 2. luisftas 61325 3. Oss to 51463 4. Mendes&Freitas 50619 5. togtog 39334 6. ricardomariagoncas 32079 7. cach-u-crew 29749 8. _KIKERO 28638 9. lacruz18 27704 10. Ballangen 26502 11. Cidinho & Lia 24553 12. BoazRuthFields 22755 13. GEO936 20630 14. Leon St 19229 15. die sousies 18285 The first 11 are all based in the Canary Islands and Madeira. The first 10 received 12% of all find logs in Africa. For the year 10 June 2018 to 9 June 2019: 1. GC Putte 14767 2. Oss to 11878 3. cach-u-crew 6985 4. togtog 6866 5. Mendes&Freitas 6545 6. luisftas 5072 7. Cidinho & Lia 4827 8. _KIKERO 4723 9. GeoMadeira 4293 10. hachri1965 3695 11. LaFleche974 3479 12. Carolina_Silva 3108 13. peter_55 3015 14. BongoUlli 2822 15. Panthera03 2728 The first South African comes in at no. 15. The first 10 received 17.7% of all the find logs in Africa for the year.