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I usually try to cache with my young sons (8 and 10) as they are the primary reason we started caching. When they were younger, BG (before Geocaching) we'd often go for hikes in the local preserves - was a lot of fun even when they were being potty trained - "Hey Mom, guess what I got to do in the woods today!" Geocachiung was a natural expansion of that. Other times I will sneek in caching before or after work especially if I am traveling. On some occasions when I won't be wearing work clothes and can take my bike, I will. I use a RAM mount on my handlebars and unlike when I am in the "cage," I don't enter waypoints, etc while riding. Outside of not getting as nice a viewing angle as I'd like, no problems. I almost always have my GPS with me on my bike rides even if not caching because I tend to explore more on my bike than when driving my cage. I have a horrible sense of direction. George 1976 BMW R90 /6 Luftmeister fairing and Krauser bags. 1970 BMW R75 /5 Fell down and went boom 1999 Audi A6 Avant a great Geowagon!

Ah, but you were missed Solly - as Europe's top cacher you'd have fitted right in! - An excellent and well attended event, with the bonus of trackable GeoGnomes (I got you one Alan, to pass on or send out) and cheeses of various bigness to chat to too. A great atmosphere and no one tried to hit me; always a bonus. Big thanks to Go catch, Alibags, DalekMeat for my cap badge and all those who attended this (BMW) Mini Mega That said, I hope you had a cracking day of your own and the Father of the Bride speech went well. "I don't think of it so much as losing a daughter as gaining a spare room..."

I notice that a lot... if everyone actually traded up then we'd have more "I took this gold bar, is an BMW and appropriate trade?" threads in the forums. Not everyone who caches finds enjoyment in the same things you find enjoyment in.

Anton you are reading my mind. This will be my last post and I will do another new one on this topic next year. I included snippets for those interested in doing this trip for background information. Ok, also to get your attention. I hope I use the correct spelling for the towns. If not then I apologize. You can travel all the way to Kaszungula with a Bitumen road from Gaborone. If you reach Nata you can also turn to the western side and you can carry on to Maun. It is amazing to see the progress compared to 1966 when only 10 km was paved. (This could be wrong; this was received via my peers in Botswana) I will do my best to make the events accessible to all cachers and to make it reachable with a normal vehicle. It is one of the reasons why we need to hold one of the events in Gaborone itself for the Botswana leg. Anyone can attend with any vehicle and you can go home the same afternoon or cross the border and stay over somewhere in RSA. Or you can stay in Gaborone at Oasis and return the next day. To make it a 4x4 event only is a little bit unfair as we immediately exclude 80% of the caching community. Only after publishing we will be able to say if we are going into the wilder places and if we are staying on the tar road and near the town. Only when the cachers agree will we go to the bush. Maybe better to say - sand. Most of the worthy places are however off the beaten track. If there are any objections then we stay on the 2 ply lanes. This final answer will also depend on the number of 4x4 vehicles that will attend, if any. I normally do remote areas with a minimum of 4 vehicles but prefer not more than 8 at a time. Also interested to note that Botswana has a population of about 1.7 million people and 80% of them live on the eastern side. The country consists of about 580 000 square km. This will give you some idée of the spread of people. Even when you travel with a normal vehicle you need to travel in a group; vehicles can break down. There are only two types of vehicles. Those that are in the workshop at present and those that will visit in the near future. Night driving is a no go at all times; but then again so is the rest of Africa. In this country you will see more than enough donkeys. They do not move they just stay on the road. The higher you go and the more to the western side the less the people and sometimes the more the elephants. There you do not hit any thing on the road and you do not get caught in a speed trap. Use the hooter at all times and go around people and animals as far as possible. The police are well organized and you have 48 hours to pay your fine at the nearest police station, sometimes they demand payment on the spot. Do not even try to bribe them; jail will be the next stop for you and the family. Do not be late with the payment and do not ignore the summons; they are quite effective and you will be arrested at the next stop. Speed limits are more or less to the SADC requirements. General speed is 120 km/hr, semi urban is 80 km/hrs and 60 km/hrs for urban/build up areas. In the bush you need to be careful. Sand tracks are sometimes deep, you have to keep momentum and revs to make sure you do not get stuck. Here petrol machines do much better than a diesel. Diesels tend to run too hot in sand. Also you need to stay in the track at the same time. In the sand the small narrow tyre as fitted on the old Land Rovers do much better than the wide ones as fitted on BMW. If you meet another group you must be alert - the inexperienced drivers could climb out of their tracks and then there is no control. Most of them are foreigners that want to rough it and they do make use of hired 4x4’s with no or little experience. Maybe it is not kind and maybe it is not right but I treat all of them as inexperienced and then there are no surprises and I expect anything. Sometimes I will also pull off the road especially when I see they do speed. Elephants should be treated with respect if we go the bush, we will meet them somewhere. If some of the bulls are in their muster season you could be worried. They do mock attacks – drive away from them at speed and they will keep on coming and they will enjoy their game and you will be doing the sweating. Best is to stop, switch the engine off and stay where you are; it is hard to do while the mind is saying something else and the feet wants to run when he is charging but you need to do the right thing. He will soon loose interest if you do not get scared and he will carry on with other things. You need to know the difference between a mock attack and a real one. Do not switch off when he does the real one – not nice to be a hamburger patty. Yes, I will not stay in the bush with any type of tent. In Lesotho we had to face a 50 km/hr wind but here you face a wild kitty that has food on his mind and honestly we are the bottom of this food chain so I do take care. Accommodation is sometimes a pain. You can not arrive at a location and expect to find something. Some of the reserves will not give you access at the gate if you can not produce a letter stating that you are booked, even with empty accommodation. The tour operators in this area do block bookings - sometimes up to 20 people. Three days before the expected arrival date they will cancel the booking if they have no sufficient numbers. When you leave RSA you need to have the accommodation resolved. That could be the biggest challenge. But for the rest - it is a relatively low risk trip. For the next couple of months we will need to plan and we will need to do some reconnaissance of this area. BruceTP will be booked but then there is no more space in my vehicle. It will happen sometime in June 2010 and it will be in the Gauteng school holiday and it will be about 10 days long. Hopefully I will be close to my 2000 mark. During winter the sand give you a little bit less problems and you do not need to go through 1 meter of water. But it is also the time when it is busy. If you drive sensible you will not get stuck or better - you have a good chance not to get stuck. But you have to learn to stop the normal way and to reverse back onto your own track and then forward and then back again. This will compact the sand and you will have the chance to get momentum during pull away. Blow down of tyres are essential and a pump must be carried with a tyre gauge. The secret of sand driving is in the tyres and to learn not to spin the tyre off the rim. The way I will precede is a simple way of starting the plan but it ends as a complex chain of events. I look at the tar roads, then I look at anything of value on that road such as scenery and caches, if there is a border crossing then I do some checks and balances as each and every border post sometimes have their own rules. For those interested in the planning I do make use of a decision tree to get to the best option for the average cacher. I then look for possible gathering places such as public places where there are some sort of open spaces and if possible where no arranged booking must be done such as restaurants or where an entry fee must be paid. I ask for permission to hold such an event from the property owner and that is sometimes quite a hurdle. I then recheck the route and test for accessibility with a normal vehicle and I check for any negatives and or risk elements such as high crime areas and I adjust the plan if anything is found. We then do a recognisance trip and we have to make sure that the plan is working. Only here we start to add days required to get there. The plan is simple – I am going to move around and I will not stay too long at one location. I am planning to leave extra time to do the final event in Gauteng – probably delayed with an additional week. The aim is also to meet with the owner of the location where the event will be held. Only when all is resolved we will proceed publishing the event. I will in all probability do a similar one every two years. But that depends on the reaction of the cachers and on their recommendation and the way they experienced it. Also it is important to note that they we do contact some of the cachers that visited the area and I will ask for info, hints and anything that we should be aware of before publishing the event. For sure, if the plan materializes and only one cacher arrived at the event then no further events to the North will be done in the future unless the next cacher sign the listing with his name in blood. No, do not use the screen – I will not see it. If there are two people then I will rethink the next one. I hope Groundspeak will allow me additional time for the event. It is for the benefit of the cacher. You need to make sure that precautions are taken against malaria and the accommodation must be resolved so additional time is needed as this is not the ordinary event. I think they will understand and if any obstacles then the reviewer will have to assist to explain the circumstance to them and why it is needed. On the other hand such an event in these remote areas should not be a problem – after all how many events will be on top of the new listings in Botswana? At least the cachers are warned of a potential chain of events that will be done next year and they are in a position to start planning and to get the resources needed. The plan was broadly discussed and you should have an idea how and what is involved. Do not worry, with this one I will lead from the front from Gaborone back to RSA. If I am not there then the team lost me somewhere in Botswana. During January we should be in a position to give the red light or the green light. You then need to decide to do the jump or not to jump. This year I am not going on leave due to this plan. But to see Botswana you have two choices. You pay the tour operator an arm and a leg or you get a group together at much less cost. It is time to convince the wife….. Gerhard

How do you arrive at this conclusion? The average person has no idea what the TB emblem is. This is like saying "If you have a BMW or Audi or Lexus emblem on your car you may have expensive stuff in it." I would think that the thief would have to know what a travel bug was in the first place. Mine's just the scarab beetle image with a number underneath it. Not much to go on.

How do you arrive at this conclusion? The average person has no idea what the TB emblem is. This is like saying "If you have a BMW or Audi or Lexus emblem on your car you may have expensive stuff in it."

Female.... Blond.... Live in Southern California.... Bought my new Etrex Legend so that I can find my Blue BMW (color coordinated to my Legend, of course, when I lose it at the shopping mall. ... or was it the other way around??? I think I bought the Legend because it was blue and matched the BMW???

The lawyers would take your case and make sure it lasts long enough to buy a couple of BMW's. Yep you nailed that one!

They will take the toy out of the box and charge the same amount for a Happy Meal They will then sell the toy separate and the kids will whine, the parents will fold. It is a win-win for McD's The lawyers would take your case and make sure it lasts long enough to buy a couple of BMW's.

Sounds like a bad infomercial Just attempting to explain the perspective of someone who likes being able to post a log from the field. Sorry if you've got a problem with people who happen to have a different kind of phone than you, and happen to like it. Fair enough. Just came off sounding funny, like the a bad infomercial. "before I started selling Amway I lived in a cardboard box, I had to dumpster dive for food. Now That I sell Amway, I travel the world, have a BMW M5, and live in a mansion." PS. My insult about the iPhone was directed at a certain person who thought I must be jealous of his iPhone, and a lot of other similar fanboy types, not every iPhone user. I have a few friends with iPhones.

We found a TB and logged it that we have retrieved it. We have now placed it in a new cache, but I'm having issues. The travel bug is still showing up in the cache's inventory that we picked it up from... So I can't place it in the new cache's log. If someone could help me that would be great. Here's the cache GC1DWNZ. And the TB is MY BMW R100RS. It shows us retrieving it on the TB log. HELP!

Let's see what this bring out of the woodwork. Recently I have been shopping for an article and was confronted with a combination of letters and numerals. They are specifically i3 and i5, amongst others. [No, I am not buying a BMW or a Hyundai.] What do these refer to and what is the 1 main difference between them?

Yes, it is a bit annoying when people bring back a design over and over in different colors and metals just to make money. Absolutely agree with that statement! ~J no one has answered why this is a bad thing. most coin designers do it ALL the time. new colours, new metal combinations. does anyone think this is anything but a way to make money off the original design and dies of a successful coin? it is not for the generosity of spirit, otherwise coin designers would be selling coins for EXACTLY what they paid to have them minted. there is always profit, profit is a good thing. people, we live in a capitalist society so can we really point fingers at someone who is being a capitalist? anyone who buys coins at one price and sells them for another is doing the same thing. i think folks are ticked off because tranquility prices have gone so high as to make them almost impossible for the average coin collector to obtain. i can't afford a bmw sports car that i would truly love to have, but that doesn't make me angry at those that can afford it. a little jealous perhaps, but not angry. such is the way of the world. rsg I have to agree with you on this. When I started collecting, we were a community of traders. When I bought a couple of coins, I could count on the extras I bought being traders, and being able to get coins I missed. Supplies were that limited. Now, we mint and mint until everyone can buy one. Along the way, prices have skyrocketed. Trades are few and far between. Why trade when you can buy? Which is a shame since I valued the relationships I built by trading. But things fade away, and we all get on with life. But this coin, they could mint in 1000 new metals, and give them away, and I still wouldn't add one to my collection. Way too much drama from the folks who bring drama in everything they do.

Yes, it is a bit annoying when people bring back a design over and over in different colors and metals just to make money. Absolutely agree with that statement! ~J no one has answered why this is a bad thing. most coin designers do it ALL the time. new colours, new metal combinations. does anyone think this is anything but a way to make money off the original design and dies of a successful coin? it is not for the generosity of spirit, otherwise coin designers would be selling coins for EXACTLY what they paid to have them minted. there is always profit, profit is a good thing. people, we live in a capitalist society so can we really point fingers at someone who is being a capitalist? anyone who buys coins at one price and sells them for another is doing the same thing. i think folks are ticked off because tranquility prices have gone so high as to make them almost impossible for the average coin collector to obtain. i can't afford a bmw sports car that i would truly love to have, but that doesn't make me angry at those that can afford it. a little jealous perhaps, but not angry. such is the way of the world. rsg

now how do you trade up or even a Nissan? Maybe a BMW or something? lol

Charge , yes, that's probably going to be inevitable GPS is one of the biggest changes & assets to surveying since dot. Surveying accuracy & capability is quite staggering, besides it was surveyors who developed the work around to sqeeze millimetres (even less) from a system capable of 100m. The mapping stuff could probably be a reality now except the satellite system itself would never handle the extra bandwidth but certainly dedicated geo sats on the side. You'll be surprised the amount of mapping info they can now fit on one CD. Actually in Germany (I think or over that way somewhere) the in-car navigation systems link to the local weather forecast and traffic control system which makes for intelligent route decision making. It's a turn by turn description with pre-warning and lane changing requirements etc etc with the voice selectable from 12 languages (male or female). Been the odd miss-adventure but like the BMW driver who drove off what the system thought ("in 400 metres turn left") was a bridge. Was actually a ferry ramp and of course the ferry wasn't home and BMW's don't float Cheers, Kerry. I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

Charge , yes, that's probably going to be inevitable GPS is one of the biggest changes & assets to surveying since dot. Surveying accuracy & capability is quite staggering, besides it was surveyors who developed the work around to sqeeze millimetres (even less) from a system capable of 100m. The mapping stuff could probably be a reality now except the satellite system itself would never handle the extra bandwidth but certainly dedicated geo sats on the side. You'll be surprised the amount of mapping info they can now fit on one CD. Actually in Germany (I think or over that way somewhere) the in-car navigation systems link to the local weather forecast and traffic control system which makes for intelligent route decision making. It's a turn by turn description with pre-warning and lane changing requirements etc etc with the voice selectable from 12 languages (male or female). Been the odd miss-adventure but like the BMW driver who drove off what the system thought ("in 400 metres turn left") was a bridge. Was actually a ferry ramp and of course the ferry wasn't home and BMW's don't float Cheers, Kerry. I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

I hit a BMW once. Does that count?

Nós alugámos uma carrinha BMW em Milão, com matricula italiana e isso pode ter sido determinante... ou não. Na Croácia aconteceu-nos um episódio caricato que tem a ver com este assunto. Ao estacionar num lugar muito apertado encostei o meu pára-choques ao pára-choques do carro que estava atrás. E quando digo encostar é isto mesmo, um toque quase imperceptível. De dentro do carro sai um Croata a dizer (num inglês muito macarrónico) que tínhamos um problema e que eu lhe tinha destruído o carro todo (que estava podre de velho). De tão caricata que era a situação (quase ao nível dos "Apanhados") não lhe dei muita saída, mas perante tamanha insistência, acordei em accionar o seguro do aluguer. Ele alegou que o carro não era dele, que era do patrão e que não tinha autorização para estar ali, por isso tínhamos que resolver o assunto de outra forma (passando-lhe umas notas para a mão). Discordei totalmente e se ele quisesse pensar no assunto do seguro, deixava-lhe o meu contacto telefónico e resolveríamos a coisa a bem. Assim fiz, dei-lhe o meu número de telemóvel. Ele reclamou comigo por aquele número de telemóvel estar errado porque o indicativo não era de Itália. Fiz-lhe prova de que não éramos italianos mas sim portugueses. Nessa altura ele quase me abraçou e disse: "Meu amigo, então acho que o nosso problema está resolvido. Pensei que eram italianos!" A Maja explicou-nos então que há bastante animosidade entre os italianos e os es-Jugoslavos. Para a próxima, já combinámos de levar uma grande bandeira portuguesa para colocar no vidro traseiro. Como portugueses somos sempre bem vindos em todos os cantos do Mundo. Por motivos profissionais, todos os anos tenho que ir a Milão em Maio e na primeira vez aconteceu-me exactamente a mesma coisa. A partir daí passei sempre a atestar à saída de Milão. Apesar de ainda serem cerca de 40 kilómetros é o suficiente para chegar ao parque do Rent-a-Car com o ponteiro no máximo. Não voltei a ter problemas. Normalmente também uso o booking.com (e apenas esse site), mas em geral apenas para a primeira noite quando sei exactamente onde vou ficar. Numa viagem de 10 dias como foi a nossa torna-se bastante difícil prever com exactidão onde vamos ficar cada noite, e é muito frustrante ter que perder determinados sítios que se revelam grandes surpresas, ou ter que andar a pastar e a fazer horas em determinado local, condicionados pelo calendário da dormida. Temo-nos dado muito bem com esta estratégia, apesar de por vezes não haver grande alternativa a dormir numa "estrebaria" ou então só conseguir arranjar hotel às 6 da manhã como nos aconteceu nos Montes Apalaches no Canadá. Encaro isso como um salzinho extra que em alguns casos são as recordações mais rocambolescas que trazemos das viagens. Sim, já tinha noutro post chamado a atenção para a Vigneta na Eslovénia e a eco-taxa de Montenegro. Não há como as evitar. Mas creio que foram as únicas "portagens" que pagámos. Verdade seja dita, tentámos sempre evitar auto-estradas e optar por percursos mais panorâmicos. É natural que tivéssemos pago um troço ou outro, mas não chegou sequer a ser assunto. Rijeka e Zadar (excepção da marina e da zona ribeirinha) são muito fraquinhas e só as atravessámos porque tinham umas caches a piscar no radar, mas foi mesmo de fugida. Das coisas que tenho mais saudades é da comida. Ainda no sábado passado fizémos uma grande jantarada de Cevapcici e Kajmak em casa do João e da Maja (Team Hulkman) que trouxeram da recente viagem a Sarajevo no final do mês passado. O Cevapcici do Mrkva no centro de Sarajevo é especial, nem que seja pela carga histórica que encerra. Foi graças a ele que a Stari Grad (cidade velha/centro histórico) de Sarajevo foi poupada aos bomardeamentos dos snipers sérvios, pois o maior desejo de Radovan Karadzic era ír lá comer um belo Cevapcici depois de ocupar a cidade. Nunca chegou a ter esse prazer, ao contrário de nós, que realizámos lá um Evento no ano passado

I agree - I have the Oregon RAM mount on my motorcycle but the Garmin one is well made and perfectly adequate for a mountain bike or car dash. What mount are you using and where did you get it? I'm also interested in what bike you've got and how it attaches as I want to mount my Oregon onto my cbr. I have an F800GS BMW and use the RAM mount which I bought from GPSCity.ca Click the image above to go to the site. Check out their selection of bike mounts - you could find something very inconspicuous for your bike. This is what it looks like on the F800: I use this Garmin cable to power the gps from my Battery Tender connector. But this is more like your CBR - my wife's Oregon is mounted on her TT600 Triumph:

Well well, what can I say - what a rush! The best part of this event is that the fun continues, I can sit back and wait for the logs, ignore the complaints, have a devious grin, look at the caches received and start scheming as to where they'll go. And start planning maintenance runs... My garage is sorted the way I wanted 3 years ago, and because Bruce did such a good job with drilling holes and hanging stuff in the garage my wife roped him into mounting mirrors and stuff in our bath room and things outside - things she asked me to do a year ago already! Thanks for everyone who supported the day - the quick storm at the end of the day made it look like a flash mob gathering wrapping up, but fortunately it didn't feel like unfinished business. Someone even caught a fish! What blew my mind was when I went to clean up after the rain - seeing that people cleared out in a rush trying to flee the rain, you couldn't expect people to clean up properly? And what do I find, after looking carefully? 60-odd people, a braai with food and containers from home, lots of stuff that is used up and can be discarded... and I find ONE small plastic pull-ring!! Well done guys, you make me so proud to be a cacher!!!!! Thanks to the Damhuisclan for the braai and gazebos (also Cabey and others I think) and GreenJaM for the awesome help on the morning and before, my awesome wife and kids and Mom+Mom-in-law (muffins, coffee/tea, marking, registering, etc., etc., etc.) A great thanks to everyone donating prizes, I hope the recipients enjoy them! BMW Bavarian Motorcycles, Tracks4Africa, Irene Running Club, Team Da Garma of previous years, Wormgeocache (Jacques), GreenJaM (Marinus), GEO936 (Rolf & Silvia), Groundspeak (Andy) - and I've lost track (i.e. who gave the Mugg&Bean voucher?)... so thanks to everyone I've forgotten to mention! And lastly, the biggest thanks go to my partner in crime, BruceTP, the strangest friend I have (no wait there are a few others too! ) He gave time, money, effort, put up with my grumpiness and unstructured ideas and brain, and generally just poured himself into the event. Tx partner, onwards to Microfest 2020!!! ...fading out with the theme from Jaws...

Just received word that I must go and pick up some more prizes from BMW Bavarian Motorcycles, Pretoria. If it's too nice, I'll just keep it...

From what I was able to discern from the Naughty Swag discussion, religious stuff is not prohibited swag because it isn't: Illegal Physically dangerous Obscene as defined by local laws It may be annoying to some, however. I personally find McToys, little erasers & pine cones equally as annoying, like really, really, really. ANGST ANGST ANGST! I also find the lack of keys to a late model BMW in a cache really, really, really irritating! Where's that "General Angst" thread anyway? I know I saw one once.

I would personally like to thank Tracks4Africa (Pty) Ltd for the generous sponsorship of the five copies of Tracks4Africa Version 9.10 which arrived today. I am sure the recipients at the event will greatly appreciate the prize. I would also like to acknowledge the other corporate sponsors as well: the Irene Runnning Club as well as the BMW Motorcycle Club. We are going to have a great event. Please support it, sign up and come along to a funfilled day for everyone. I look forward to seeing more than the current 7 teams who have indicated their attendance.

Got some more goodies today from Irene Running Club... nice! And a couple of teams from Pretoria BMW Motorcycle Club... watch out!