Africard

Paper Kings finally landed in Stainbank cache in DBN. This move changed the rankings (finally): 1st: Dan Dolphin 2nd: Voice of Africa 3rd: TUFULA Warthog committed himself to rescue the TB's stuck in the "Great Plains". I've added another column on the Ranking page to indicate the distance required from the last known cache a competitor is / was visiting to the final cache...some TB's still have a looooong way to go...

Again a very quiet two weeks with only two TB's inching along - TB TUFULA and Voice of Africa (still in transit)...Again these moves did not change the rankings following TB Dan Dolphin's final dash to the final cache! TB Dan Dolphin has since returned to KZN to eat his heart out in the sardine run currently causing much excitement in KZN. A couple of TB has been stuck in the Bloemfontein and PE areas - if anyone can help them along it will be greatly appreciated by the owners (myself included). Currently competing TB's has travelled 6939.2km (average 867.4km per TB), visited 64 caches, 39 of them unique (only one TB visiting), carried by 25 cachers. Whostops (owner of TB TUFULA) has provided 8 trips for competing TB's. The longest distance a cacher carried a TB was Globalrat who carried TB Dan Dolphin 1254.8km. The most frequently visited caches are: Hilldrop View and The KZN TB Hotel, both owned by Africard, with 4 visiting TB's each. The maximum days spent in a cache is 61 days - TB Star Light in Womens Monument, TB The Globe Trotter in MADIBA TRAIL Bloemfontein and Earth Watcher in N1 Sandrivier - GMC001Z. The maximum days spent travelling is 54 - TB Paper Kings in the hands of Culling Song. The average TB stays 14.8 days in a cache, and takes 5.69 days to the next cache. 167 Days have passed since the start of The Race. 1 TB - TB Dan Dolphin finished the race in style on the 5th June '05 after 132 days travelling. TB most likely to win is TB TUFULA, who visited 17 caches already and travelled 1342.8km (Race number 79.0). TB most likely to complete The Race next is TB Stealth Racer, who only have 627.2km to go. Remember: The Race is not over yet, and any TB still stands a chance to win!

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the addiction...this is worse than drugs...

Guys, Please consider finding a couple of caches before placing new ones. The experience gained from finding a few caches before placing is invaluable and also promoted as a guideline from geocaching.com.

Please enter my TB (name TBA).

TB Dan Dolphin finished The Race in style on the 5th of June, 2005 after only 132 days travelling (he was a late entry). He visited 6 caches on his way to Cape Town and will hold poll position until a TB with Race number lower than 263.6 finishes (if any) The Race. Dan moved from last to first in 1.4km, and every other TB moved one position down on the rankings. The two favourite TB's are the only other TB's making a move, with TUFULA still ravaging the Gauteng caches one after another. A couple of TB's are stranded halfway between JHB and CPT, let's hope some cacher gives them a ride!

Go Dan Go! TUFULA has a made a a visit to two caches assisted by the same cacher. For this violation of of The Race Rules(Rule 14). For this TUFULA will be penalised with the distance travelled to the last cache and one cache. The cacher will unfortunately not be crdited with this move. This penalty did not influnce the rankings or TB TUFULA's performance significantly.

TB TUFULA is ravaging the caches in Gauteng, getting his Race Number down...I'll soon have to make extra space just to accomodate his travels in my record book! The rankings have not changed (still), but we are all anticipating Paper Kings to move on soon! Dan Dolphin was finally rescued from Table Top Trove cache by DiscomBob, but not before his name appeared in the stats for the longest stay over so far...all participants are eagerly watching his next move...will he finish?

TB's are moving again! TUFULA visited two caches recently and are currently in Gauteng. This move did not change the rankings, but I changed my prediction for the favourite bug to ein to TUFULA again. Currently all the competitors are asking "Where are the Capetonians?".

Closing this thread - continues in update 4...

The last two weeks was very quiet, with only TB TUFULA making a move...no changes in rankings. Link to Race update

An article on The Race just got published in Today's Cacher ezine. Read the article here!

Welcome CLUBCAB! Shoot away with the Q's...you'll find this a very stimulating obsession (sorrryy sport ) as Azaruk put it into perspective......you guys are going to kill me. Hope to see your first find soon!

Goto 2005 South African TB Race to Cape Town and related pages.

TB tags are indeed made of Aluminium, melting point 660C (1220F), as it is made of an Al alloy, the actual melting point is most certainly a bit higher. Melting it in a forest / brush fire is not quite impossible, as temperature in excess of 800C can be achieved easily. However, Al rarely melts, it will rather oxidise to form Al2O3 - a fine white powder, possibly with metal droplets in it. Al oxidises very easily, especially when water (moisture) is present, as would be the case in a forest / brush fire. With this in mind, it can be said that the chances of a TB tag to survive a fire is not great.

Not a lot of movement here.... Checkout the 2005 South African TB Race to Cape town post in the South Africa forum...

Agree with Azaruk. I've never ended up less than five metres from a cache according to the (my) GPS, that however does not gaurantee a find. IMO a great cache is one that, after reading the clues, still requires some caching skill to find. I attepted "Belfry" 3 times and only found it with the help of other cachers.... "Under large rock" is fine if the location only has limited amount of possibilities, but not when the terrain is "rocky". I love the way Azaruk uses the encrytion tool to give spoilers for the more difficult caches.

Warthog this is correct. You may collect (all) the TB's from a single cache and drop them off in different caches, or as in the case mentioned from multiple caches and then drop them off in (preferably) different caches. If you picked them up, you can only assist in dropping them off in cache A (and if applicable W and X). If another cacher picked the TB up from where you dropped it off (A, W or X), and it is in reach of yourself again after being dropped in B (and if applicable Y or Z) , you are welcome to aid the TB again. Refer to case file for KZN TB Hotel, where 3 TB's ended up, all assited by a cacher to their current locations (i.e. Bloem), or the travel log for TB TUFULA that visited a couple of caches assited by two cachers alternating picking up and dropping off.... As I am not in control of cachers activities, I will only enforce rule 14 hard, but politely request to apply rule 15. Hope this answers your question....

Been away for the long weekend...this is the latest update Paper Kings is slowly losing ground to the faster TB's, but is still leading... The rankings did not change, but TB Voice Of Africa is spreading the news at a tremendous rate and thus increasing chances of winning! TB Dan Dolphin is still closest to the final cache - only 1.4km away. The Race stats changed a lot over the last week. ****Warthog: To answer your q: It is OK to visit a cache more than once, especially to pick-up a TB. For The Race, provided you obeserve the stated rules, you can pick-up and place a TB on the same day.

Culling Song - Northern KZN.... Getting more people here in Northern KZN...

Hello All! Three TB's made a move out of KZN towards the final cache over the weekend - Earth Watcher, The Globe Trotter and Star Light. Paper Kings is still leading (although I don't expect this trend to continue for long... ) I've published a lot of interesting stats on The Race. thus far we have had 109 racing days, and the TB's that entered late is doing extremely well. Only Paper Kings is still very close to the start 16.9km, Dan Dolphin is just 1.4km away from the final cache! At this stage, TUFULA seems most likely to win (if he completes the race....hmmmm), but other TB's are catching up fast.

The Race is in it's fourth month and has exceeded all my expectations. Thanks to all the participants, sponsors and cachers so eagerly helping our TB's in getting to the final cache. I've included some statistics on the update page, which will also be updated with every movement of the TB's. The rankings did not change over the weekend, however there are a couple of TB's "In the hands of xxx" and we are waiting for them to reach new caches...

Voice Of Africa moved up from 4th to 2nd, with all TB's moving down one position...Should be a really interesting weekend...

Wow! TB Dan Dolphin is still number 8 on the rankings, but is only 1.4km from the final cache - Table Mountain 2 !!! The race leader is still Paper Kings, TB Voice of Africa moved up one position to 4th and thus moved The Globe Trotter to 5th position.