Swallow

I'm a bit wary of just adding caches to increase the score. But what I'm in favour of is something along the lines of 'dash' caching : A challenge where the computer randomly chooses an existing cache in Gauteng (or any other province) and you get points for finding it (again). That way all the stale caches will get chosen at some point incentivicing someone to investigate their fate. Actually I don't mind hunting a missing cache. I could not find Grotte Baai (Gentana), Cradock Peak, Vic Bay View, Waterfall Wonder (Walter Sisulu botanical gardens) and Jhb's best View but nevertheless I enjoyed the hunt.

A reporter friend of mine said that an article she wrote was approved and will be published in 'De Kat' during the next few months.

The reviewer of my latest cache says he gets a 'forbidden' message when he tries to access the pictures that accompanies my cache. But I can't trace or duplicate the problem from here. Can a few voluteers just tell me if they can access both of the links below ? Site A Site B

I'll need to carefully choose some spoilers.

Yes. But the cacher must compensate for that in his calculation. Alternatively the hint should be the trajectory of a certain star in the sky, because that is not influenced by seasons.

I've come up for a new idea for a puzzle cache and I want to share the idea with the community and I wouldn't mind if anyone go ahead and create such a cache. It's based on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER). Instead of giving seekers the coordinates of the cache, you give them the data that a MER would collect if it were to land here on earth : 1. After landing the MER uses it's camera to find the sun in the sky and then tracks it for 10 minutes or so. Amazingly this data is not only enough for the MER to work out where is North and South, but it can also be used to estimate latitude and longetude. So one way of giving the hints will be to compute and publish the position of the sun in the sky. Then seekers will need to do the math to work out latitude and longitude. 2. The next thing the MER does is to take a 360 degree panorama (picture) and transmit it back to earth. So another way of giving the hints will be to publish such a panorama. If you place the cache in a city with recognizable landmarks, then a cache seeker can use the panorama to accurately measure the angles between them (assuming you use a high resolution digital camera). The cache seeker also needs the GPS coordinates of the landmarks, which may include some urban caching. 3. The MER also takes photo's with it's hazard avoidance cameras, which may ease the work of the cacher considerably. I know that 1 and 2 includes some difficult math, but there are ways to reduce the burden : 1. Supply cachers with a spreadsheet that does all the work. Then all they need to do is collect the data. Contact me for an example of such a spreadsheet. 2. Add spoilers to the data : E.g. the panorama or haz-cam photo's can contain spoilers that allow cachers to solve it without the math. Supplying the complete trajectory of the sun through the sky would also make things much easier, because it will allow the seeker to easily determine the time the sun was at it's highest (and consequently longitude). The maximum altitude of the sun above the horison can be used to compute lattitude.

A list of good (street level) online maps for SA : Brabys mapping You can directly go to the location of you're interested in e.g. http://www.brabys.com/mapping/default.asp?...8,Y:25798.8,S:9 The 9 is for highest zoom, 1 is for lowest. Tiscali has a similar application. There is a routing utility somewhere on the Shell South Africa website. You can play around with The MyWireless Broadband zone locator. Or try the Names database.