QFC

Strangely enough whenever I explain Travel Bugs to people I always try and use the Gnome from Amelie, though it seems most people have not watched the movie. Too bad there are not that many Gnomes in SA and I dont travel too far.

Slowly Gramin and GPSr's catch up with the rest of mobile devices out there. I wanted a Colorado, but now I am thinking that I should wait for the follow on to the oregon!

I feel your Pain C&C! After a month of tekking around Europe (Scotland, France and Switzerland) we finally dumped all the TB's that we had brought with us in a cache close to the Geneva airport. This after they had travelled with me from SA, to Scotland, through France and into Switzerland. Note, we dumped all the TB on our last day on the trip. Both C and I felt rather sad about this. The only thing worse would be to have returned to SA with them still in the ruck sack.... ;P Glad you are back and (kinda) enjoyed your trip to mud island's close neighbour

I doubt that the www.geocaching.za would be possible since I don't know of any .ZA address being available. http://www.zadna.org.za/ are the people that control the ZA domain, one would have to talk to them. I would think that it would also cost more than a .co.za (R50) or a .za.net (Free).

NO No no 8km = new place = new route to get there = new hunt => new cache.

Nope.... Same cache... You have found it already!

Still the same cache? 8km away from the original spot? surely not? Hmmm.... still the same cache, still the original FTF.

I looks like http://www.geocacheuk.com/ make use of pocket queries to update their database ( a possibility that we have being playing with ) and http://www.handicaching.com/rate.php don't have access to the cache database since you can enter any fictitious geocache waypoint code and it will be accepted. Hopefully next year the development "team" will be back together and playing with the latest and "greatest" web dev tools to make a new shiney GRC.com (though this has been promised too many times ) F

You make us blush.... We are mere WinForms developers that decided to have some fun on the web and ended up with www.geocaching.za.net and later www.geocachingranking.com Other countries have dedicated sites that run in the same vein as/ with permission of www.geocaching.com. i.e. Geocaching Australia - Free and Open Geocaching Geocaching en France

The problem that one always runs into is access to data. And unless we gain access to the cache database on GC.com (which is unlikely) one needs to do mass imports from GPX files or manually capture the caches from the one system GC.com to say GC.co.za. The next problem is the cost of hosting and development (not too much R175 pm) and domain registration (R50 per year) Oh and the last problem is that www.geocaching.co.za has been "booked" already by an SA IT company based in Knysna. We wanted to add this to our site (www.geocachingranking.com), but there was not too much interest at the time (2005) and getting access to the Cacher and Cache info posed to great a problem. If you have any ideas drop us a mail of make comment here and we can discuss ideas.... ---- As you said in your later post, some cachers have found the competitive nature fo GCR.com not too their taste and it is for this reason that we added the in the news section and cacher gallery hoping to keep the site available to all cachers.

Chat to TeamTGF and HarryHound, they have ties into the Orienteering side of things and attend events in 4km * 4km areas quite often. (or they did)

That or a piece of burnt stick. (When in Africa learn from the busman painting) * My caching bag has an assortment of pens that for the most part do not work.

NOT to stir the pot, but..... I find these event is conflict with one of the Geocaching Listing Requirements/Guidelines. They state "in addition, an event cache should not be set up for the sole purpose of drawing together cachers for an organized hunt of another cache or caches. Such group hunts are best organized using the forums or an email distribution list." Finding the caches is not the sole purpose of the event, but if you look at it, it comes rather close. "if you come to the event you will also be able to log the 20 caches...." Now I hosted what I think was the the first event of the this kind in SA where caches braved the deep dark South of JHB and found waypoints containing information and existing caches that were in range. This idea was loaned from a UK cacher (harrogate hunters) who holds an annual event of this kind. They lay out a course where people have to perform tasks, find information and basically conduct a scavenger hunt after this they return and have a pint and food at the local pub. Since my event CF has take these SA events to the next level and has attracted new members to geocaching doing so. I have attended one of the events and enjoyed it (bar the breaking the speed-limit saga that followed), and all that I speak to always seem to enjoy the events. (so what is the problem?) The slight twist on the guidelines is that the event causes the placement of 10 - 40 caches are scattered around an arbitrary route for no particular reason, bar the event. The attendees of the event then find these caches on the day. Surely waypoints would do just fine? If containers are placed they can be removed after the event? On a maintenance note surely placing this many caches is slightly reckless and careless. I apologies for reviving an old topic and being slightly off thread, but I thought it had place here.

Greetings all and long time no see. This post should pose some interest for the Capetonians that Drive the N1 and N2 to find all of them cache-y things They SA Roads agency has proposed that a toll road section be erected on these two roads. It seems like they will only effect the commuters beyond the R300 (on the N1) and the Airport (on the N2). Check it out all the same and have your say! IOL article Facebook cause for them facebook type people

Surely you mean Scotland? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wee

Hey DBob, Got halfway though updating the site this weekend and then the computer games jumped out and got me. Will work on it again tonight and see where I can get. I will have it up as soon as I can....

With you selling more coins though your site, you are going to have to look into opening a non SA paypal or something account so you can be paid by international customers. As a far as I know international people can not pay into and SA paypal account (FICA or something to that effect). Should be lots of fun to sort out. Nice work!

Surprisingly the prices are comparable. Tiffendell offers packages including ski equipment hire, breakfast and supper. They also discount the lessons here in JHB from R1600 for 6 hours to R260 if you use their accomondation.

Hey Guys and Gals, I am currently trying to organise a get away for some of my Jo'bug friends and would like to use this opportunity to learn to Ski. (yes.... bla bla bla... some of us have the life) I would have loved to invite all of you, but some of my friends are scared off by the word geocaching Anyway, I am currently looking at Tiffendell as the main option since then the Ski Lessons will be cheap, but am interested to hear what you guys think or know. And hey if you want to talk about geocaching, maybe you can mention some caches that are in the relative area. Lets see how this topic goes.... Thanks in advace F

Keep on going Brick!!!! Way to sneak one below the radar (well except for the group of us that was out with you) as usual!!!

I dont think that nobody seems to mind. I think it is more the case that there is no way to police these caches. If you start dissing the cachers that place these cachers you just make a bad name for yourself. We are all very PC and not willing to say what is on our minds. And this is for a good reason. We do this (geocaching) for fun and dont want mean nasty people ruining our fun. Way to stick your head out Larks.

Roadside and micro (the same bad carma) caches that have a point are worthwhile. Cross Check is an example of a wonderful roadside cache. It gets you our of your car, over a fence and busy not driving for a good while. You also notice a spot you would have never seen before. THis is one of those caches you think of ever time you drive the winding SA roads. Beestekraalnek our 100th find left us rather cold and we could not really see the point. I look at caches in a different light since I tried to find them on foreign soil. And rate them on slightly different criteria. Does it take you to a nice place Was it acceptably easy to find - you dont know the place and dont want to be arrested. Did you have a good feeling after finding it. Would you tell your non geocaching friends about it? Micros and Road-sides are a must... It all depends on how they were placed!

Hmmm.... you have to log on to the site with the user name and password that I was meant to have give you... (next plan.... allow cachers to add themselves and request lost passwords) we will see how little real work I can get done today.

I quite like the blog style format of the forum as opposed to the website format of the TB race web page as it has a more "participatory" (I wonder if such a word exists) feel to it. Now if the web page had a comments section that would be cool. On the other hand - would it not be nice if we could expand this thread to a couple of thousand posts over the next year! I leave the descision to DBob on this one. Less work for me. * though threads get lost and hard to maintain. And I was hoping to give him the ability to add points and stuff...

I guess this is as good a place as any for this post.... Let us all be glad that C3P was visiting the country because after the abuse that Noddy and I have recieved I was very close to pulling down the site. ...... bygones...... While looking for a way to solve the issue that SOME cacher's stats do not update I have added a section so that cachers can update their own stats manually. Not ideal... but if you want to prove something our keep your listing up to date it will work finr for the moment. I appologise to all for not getting back to your emails. I will attempt to do so when I have a chance. You can update your stats manually from: The profile management section