4x4offroad

The 2006 GPS CHALLENGE has been launched based on the success of the 2004 & 2005 competitions. See www.thegpschallenge.co.za for further details & rules. More details also in the latest copy of Leisure Wheels Magazine. We hereby cordially invite you to enter this event, either in the individual, club or Garmin Dealer / Reseller category. We have already secured sponsors such as Garmin SA, Leisure Wheels Magazine, Kevin Bolton GPS Consultants cc, 4x4 Offroad Adventure Club (Gauteng), Bridgestone SA, Protea Hotels and others, with great prizes at all heats. There will be 5 elimination heats (2 in Gauteng, 1 each in Cape Town, Polokwane and East London), and a final weekend based in Gauteng, travelling to an unknown destination in KZN. Event: GPS Challenge – Heat 1 (Gauteng Area) Date: Saturday 20 May 2006 Time: Final details to all entrants. Area: Pretoria / Johannesburg Venue: Start will be from Echo Accessories & Trailers, off Nalmapius Drive (R21), Centurion. Grading: Practical use by entrant & navigator of all features on GPS Accommodation: n/a Target Activity: To win! See web site for rules. Bring: GPS, vehicle (4x4 NOT required. Some gravel roads may be traversed) Cost: R250 (AAWDC aligned club membership – proof of membership will be required) R250 (Garmin Dealer / Reseller Category) – challenge your competitors!!!! R350 (General Public) RSVP by: 5 May 2006 Payment by: Full Payment by 10 May 2006 to confirm attendance. Bank details will be supplied on registration SURNAME & GPS2006 in description please!!!!! Kevin Bolton & Alan Goodway (GP 1796) 4x4offroad@mweb.co.za kbolton@gpsconsultants.co.za

4x4 Offroad her in Gauteng. We have an active bunch in our club (at least 4-5), so will remind them to list here!

Yes, one of my club members brought a whole lot of goodies back from the UK. We have contacted Geocaching.com and they have permitted us to reproduce kit etc. in SA. Would anybody be interested. The bugs, as they are registered and barcoded must come from source though. Comments welcome. I have some stickers for caches etc. as well as GEO and GPS stickers as samples (like the ZA sticker), has other details on it, T Shirts, Caps all as sample. For the Bugs, contact Jill (Centurion) directly. I have access to a weekly traveller to CPT if needed. ALL GEOCACHE ENTHUSIASTS AND CACHE HUNTERS! DO YOU WANT YOUR VERY OWN "TRAVEL BUG" TO SEND ON ITS TRAVELS??. I HAVE LIMITED STOCK ,SO CONTACT ME SOON TO SECURE ONE. COST: R75,00 EACH. (excludes postage etc.) JILL GREENGRASS 082 873 9140 Regards Alan 4x4 Offroad Adventure Club Gauteng

Hi all you great Capetonians! (yes ok, and anybody else who wants to partake!) Given the recent beach ban and the issues about negative 4x4-ing, a new hot topic flying around in the newspapers this last weekend is the destruction on Blaauwberg Hill, irresponsible 4x4 and Quad bike owners and so on. Clubs and associations are now being pulled into the pot, and it is really getting some stick! This debate has now intensified on 4x4 chat forums on the internet et al. Obviously many views exist and there is always 3 sides to a story - yours, theirs and the truth. What I was wondering and trying to evoke here is comments from geocachers who have used this facility (the Hill) and their views on the debate. Would a suggestion of removal of any caches on this location be a ridiculous one, as a show of commitment from the geocaching fraternity to avoid encouragment of topping this hill, and potentially destructing this environment? I have not posted any of my own views here. I am merely trying to see what geocachers feel about the issue and the environment. As a 4x4-er (positive & responsible type) I would hate to see further bannings etc. based on unsubstantiated issues and pure emotions. Peter, you have a feet in both camps - it will be interesting to hear your views. What says you all(sic!)!!!!! Kind Regards and best wishes over the festive season and keeping on caching!

Hi guys, I dunno if these booklets are the same / similar to the cache I found at Augrabies last month? The 'flyer / log book' was really neat & handy, specifically if somebody stumbles on a cache, which seesm to be the case at this cache, as somebody found it in December last year by mistake! and made an entry in it. In my cache find posting on my site, I requested the 'owner' to maybe let me have a copy of the documentation placed in the cache, then we can maybe get a standard going - this included his home made log book. Is this booklet similiar? (as if you know what is in the cache!). I have another idea, which you guys would have to drive down in CPT. SA 4x4 is close to you (in Tokai area I believe). Get hold of Mark Johnstone and take him on a 'search', preferably to a cache like the one on Blaauberg Hill, where a 4x4 is involved. Get him a bit excited. Then get him to look at these here pages, especially the 4x4 ones, and convince him to put an article together in the mag about Geocaching in SA. Maybe this can get your booklet published in an alternative format, and get the 'sport' some exposure. What thinks you? Regards PS. Can you email me a copy of the booklet (do not have CorelDraw - can you save it in another format?

Hey Greg796, I hope you enjoy your visit. With regard to the safety, why not hire a 4x4 and go and check out our 2 cache's - private land, beautiful 4x4 trails and AS SAFE AS ANYTHING. If you do spot something lean and mean, take a pic and post it here for our bush watching SA expert from the US of A..... The cache's around the greater Gauteng area (Hartebeespoort Dam, Irene etc.) are all safe areas, given that you take a friend or two along. I have not physically gone to seek any yet, but as a 1 year old Gautie, ex Cape Town, these types of places are as safe as any place in the world. Enjoy your visit to SA - life is what you make of it, and how you approach it, and boy are we having fun up here. Good luck with the TRI - you gonna need it! Go for it!

Dear Tricky Vicky, Mickey and Billycan! I owe you an apology due to "lack of understanding of ye old geocachers' ways". In the 4x4 industry, we use a GPS in conjunction with maps - and guess what - we stick to Deg,Min,Sec. Little was I to know, except if I had been Miles Ahead and did the usual - RTFM. I will try and remember from now on that the site actually wants the conversion to Decimal, and not act like a twit and just force the stuff in, assuming the Americans do this to make us confused! Well, we are never to old to learn tricks from old dogs. Tricky Vicky and I sorted this confusion out telephonically tonite. Thanks guys. Glad you enjoyed it, my next one is just as good - just need to change the co-ords, but I put a BIG NOTE on the cache page until I do! Billycan (or Mickey?), send my regards to the lost son Miles from here - we used to be colleagues at the old CA at N1 City - small world hey! And next time - think about it, if one option does not work, try another! I certainly will. Prompt Tricky Vicky to have a look at our club! Thanks for all other suggestions! Kind Regards

Thanks. Definitely set correctly. Recently used it to lay out a complete 4x4 competition night drive route based solely on GPS co-ords (see May issue of SA 4x4) and all 23 contestants 'found their way'. Thus I do not understand it, as the other guys reckon theirs is set up correctly too. It seems as though they found it (got some email today) but they reckon 400+ metres out! A mystery indeed!!!!

I got a call from an unidentified male earlier today, who is visiting Gauteng from the Cape, and he decided to take his friend from Gauteng, and go and search for the cache we placed in the 'Dome'. He was most distraught as they reckon the co-ords were completely wrong, and that they were scrambling along the mountain top trying to find the cache! Well, as far as we are concerned, we took 2 readings, before documenting it (both Garmin devices, correctly setup etc.) He assures me with the 11 caches he has found, he knows what he is doing. I do not doubt that. So what then the lesson - should we take pictures of the GPS at placement time and publish it as proof? Obviously I felt distraught as not finding it, is not the aim of the game. Any suggestions from you wise geocachers out there? So, whoever you are - apologies, but I really cannot explain it. We do tend to hide the box under a couple of rocks. I will ensure I take more pictures of exact locations etc. next time, as how do you explain to somebody where something is hidden on top of a mountain that really has no reference points. We placed another cache today in a popular resort, with a very easy 4x4 route. Again 2 devices were used, and the seconds were the only differences. The rest was spot on. I hope there is better luck with this one! I will revisit the cache in question later in the year and make double sure (that is if it was not found today!). Regards and happy caching!!!!!

[quote} Actually I've got a 96 Land Cruiser (in a class of it's own!) parked behind the building in the panorama. Hi Peter, Firstly BH is the place you were standing upon. Did not want to give it away. W.r.t the Cruiser - GOOD MAN! - I drive a 1998 Diesel 100 Series myself, bought at the good old Table Bay Motors down the road from BH! I suggest that you subscribe to a FREE 4x4 News Brief email based on email, where you will get to read about many happenings in the industry in your region. Send an email request to offroad@iafrica.com. Maybe even look at joining the Cape based 4x4x Offroad Adventure Club. There are numerous little hideaway routes in the region, but the authorities are clamping down. The BH, a place in the Fish Hoek area, 1 or 2 others are a few that one can still nip in and out - other than that, it is pay pay pay! The club also does week night drives based on a set of GPS coords, with a braai afterwards - I believe it is good fun and social. We cannot do it in Gauteng - fear of being 'HI JANED' or is it JACK? Based on your website, I see you have an interesting business. Also in IT up here. I am going on leave soon (June) via Bots, into NAM, and plan on pacing at least 3-4 caches. The owner of the trail / farm of the last cache was super excited about the concept. Till later...

Hi Peter, Your 2 caches make me and my colleague very homesick! We both moved north this time last year (after 38 years!), and the photo's you placed are areas very well known to me, as our Cape based club used to visit both regularly. I can walk to both your caches right now. Aaaaah! That view from the top of BH is and always will be stunning. Impressed to see your Landy made it to the top! (dig!) Regards Alan

Hi all; A colleague and I have watched this space for a while, and now the bug has bitten us. As lazy people, we do not hike, scramble, ramble or kloof, but rather 4x4 (with discipline!). Our club 'hid' our first cache on Sunday (been posted, awaiting acceptance). We hope to create the same enthusiasm and pleasure which seems to exist in the hiking fraternity around caching, in our 4x4 fraternity. Our club is situated in Gauteng, but it will not stop us from placing well managed caches around Southern Africa. We hope to entice other clubs to partake in this fun element, so as to grow the issue of caching responsibly in our sometimes 'tainted' industry. I suppose given the laws of the country, we will not be hiding any on a beach somewhere! Watch the new postings from us. Some of the areas will be private land, where fees are payable (4x4 trails), some will have access to hikers and mountain bikers, and some will be generally accessible, given that the terrain will not be too accessible to normal vehicles (gravel mountain passes etc.) Any other 4x4ers out there willing to join us? Remember the rules of geocaching, and remember to be responsible and take good care of the environment.