Tricky Vicky & Mickey

That's the one.

Last Saturday we did a cache which was placed on private property obviously without the owners permission. Not only were parts of their garden being visibly disturbed, we also caused the owners quite a lot of anxiety. A man in a 4x4 drove slowly past us, staring glaringly at us and went off at snail's pace up the road. Then a woman appeared on a balcony having a good luck at us. This all unnerved us a little and we got back into our vehicle and went off down the road and sat a while waiting to see if the police would arrive! Eventually we plucked up courage and went back, found the cache immediately and left. On our way out we did notice some fellow cachers heading towards this cache venue, so decided to return and show them where it was, so as not to distress the owners anymore. When we got there, the woman was in the garden talking to the other cachers and after we explained it all to her, she was very happy to allow us to continue with our fun. Surely if we want to place caches on private property, it would be advisable to ask the owners if they mind? Most people are only too happy to help, when they know what it is all about.

The restuarant in question is The Raft, Perdix. A very firm favourite of ours - wonderful pub, delicious food and stunning pelicans and sunsets! The moon scape cache is a must, too - there's also one on the beach near the Swakop River just outside Swakopmund, which is fun to find. Ohhhhh ...................... would give anything for another visit to one of the most beautiful countries in the whole wide world!

ZALandyman & Suzieq and Hectic too have been caching up a storm recently! Congratulations on your achievements - very well done.

Congratulations to AERodney on his recent first century - also good to know you are back home again too. Best wishes also go to Adventure King and abcollier on their 50's. Well done to you all and may you have a great deal of fun finding many more super caches!

Congratulations, Wolkynou, on your first century. We are so thrilled for you and hope you have as much fun finding your next century.

The Western Cape cachers and Wolkynou are busy dreaming, plotting and planning ,,,,,,,, , but it is awfully quiet from all those other cachers in the rest of our country! Is anyone going to join us, so that it can really be a national event? We are quite a nice bunch and would love to meet you all, too!

So happy for Bear&Fox and GS&Dogs - congratulations to you all on your 200th. Very well done!

Very well done, Cownchicken - we are thrilled for you.

Fantastic, Wolkynou! Knew we could rely on you and look forward to meeting you face to face at long last!

What fun - we'd definitely make the trip even though we've just been there. Wolkynou has already placed another five caches near by that we haven't done (and we did nine or ten a day when we were there!) and am sure there will be plenty more by the time we get this organised - hey, Wolkynou? Gariep Dam has super camping facilities and chalets too, for those who don't fancy camping and is big enough to cope with LOTS of geocachers, so sounds like an excellent venue. Regards, TV&M

Well done. Fish Eagle! You certainly have been caching like crazy these past few days - enjoy!

Thanks, Team Fido! But seriously ....... can't remember that far back! I know we used to visit there when I was a child, which is a few years back, but can't remember much more than that - we did move to Namibia when I was about 6, and those visits most probably were before then, which is seriously long long long ago!

We're old, but not that old ....... !!!

Fantastic, Globalrat! Very well done and we are thrilled for you. Regards, TV&M

Was really good getting to know you both and we look forward to meeting up again when we visit your part of SA again, which will hopefully not be tooooo far away!

A big thank you to everyone for all the messages and congratulations - we've had such fun and do so enjoy our time spent caching and look forward to finding many of the new caches that keep being placed in our lovely country. We've met so many super people in the geocaching world who have become special friends to us - thank you for all your support and friendship. Regards to you all, Vic & Gill

Congratulations also go to John-Gill and SH9 on their first half centuries - well done and keep on enjoying caching.

Bats & Squirrel, very well done! We are thrilled for you both. It was super meeting you both last Thursday and look forward to getting together again when we next visit those wonderful caches in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Some very special achievements occured in the Western Cape today! Firstly, South Africa's very first CITO event took place which was very successfully and ably organized by Larks, Goofster, Vespaxvespa, Bear&Fox and GS&Dogs. Next, some rather special milestones were achieved: Hectic found his 50th cache, ZALandyman & Suzieq found their 100th, Goofster managed his 150th, Vespaxvespa got his 200th and the Huskies their 300th! Fantastic! Congratulations to you all!

When packing the rain gear, gloves, black bags, hiking boots, torches, long pants, drinking water and picnic basket, please don't forget a bowl and spoon for the ice cream and chocolate sauce!

Congratulations must go to Fish Eagle who reached his second century this weekend and also to the Huskies with their 250 and climbing. Congrats too to Seeker Two and all those others who have done so well recently - Larks, Noddy, Cownchicken, Frantre, Cache Fan .... and all those others we haven't mentioned, too. Then almost forgot those wonderful QFC fellows, too - very well done!

OK, now for our five cents worth .... ! There are virtual caches and there are definite armchair caches - both are logged as virtuals, but are totally different from one another. Virtuals are those caches you go to and find something, see something or photograph something and then have to email the owner with the answer. In other words, there is no cache container to be found and no log book to sign. An armchair cache is something else again. Haggis Hunter - a very well known and knowledgable cacher from across the sea - has bookmarked these caches and right at the top of the first page, he states these caches are ones that can be completed from the comfort of ones home and are perfect for when one is ill or injured and unable to leave ones home. Probably also ideal for those countries who have extra long dark winters and snow galore - after all, life must be pretty boring at times like that when one cannot get out of doors. Now the question is ...... in our ranking system, should these caches that require very limited effort, actually count as many points as those that require our navigational skills, expense and lots of hard work to achieve? For example, perhaps they should only count one point instead of two or perhaps there should be a completely different ranking for armchair caches, which would enable the elderly and perhaps infirm, to compete amongst each other. How one would actually separate them into a different point category though, is quite beyond us, but may be someone has some bright idea on this subject! But, in the end, what really counts is that we are all having fun and enjoying ourselves, no matter how we cache. Regards to everyone, TV&M

Wow! The shirts look super - can't wait to get ours! Well done to Bear & Fox.

We believe that one should always log a did not find, if you did not find the cache. I do know that while in the UK we were told that if a cache is missing and you send a photograph of the correct place where the cache should have been, most cache owners, after checking and discovering the cache gone, will then email you asking you to log it as a find, if they cannot replace it immediately. This is not common practise though, and nor should it be. After all, the very reason we go out hunting is to be rewarded with that container at the end! We have just had a wonderful trip and did 65 caches - 60 finds and 5 DNF's, which we have logged as such. Whether one logs DNF's as finds, or repeatedly log the same cache, we are only cheating ourselves and surely that defeats the object totally!