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Gauteng Caching


Louise_Gerhard

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I need some help urgently. We are moving into Gauteng area this weekend, specifically to the east and west to hunt some caches on Sunday and Monday.

 

However, we are concerned about the violence and have no idea what to expect. Is there any danger?

 

The possible hunts are caches planted by daxie, ddpisani, Colinbo, daanvs, Adventure King, Vatikaki, Vicki1V,Zouga, Fier, Globalrat, Iddes, King Rat, Not Blonde.

 

We analysed the caches this afternoon to determine the cachers that found the most caches in this target area. Our macro is showing that RedGlobe has found 78% of the caches targeted, GreenJam has found 71% of the caches targeted and Keith Wood has found 49% of the targeted caches. If RedGlobe, GreenJam or Keith Wood is interested in helping please forward me your telephone number using my e-mail address. I will appreciate this lot. We do not foresee a problem with the caches as we choose the quick ones but we need some sort of backup in case of a problem.

 

We are going to hunt fast and we only allow 10 minutes of searching time before we abandon the hunt. If you need details about the caches and you are willing to assist then I will e-mail the list to you.

 

Gerhard

Edited by gerhardoosMPsa
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We are going to hunt fast and we only allow 10 minutes of searching time before we abandon the hunt. If you need details about the caches and you are willing to assist then I will e-mail the list to you.

 

Hey, its not about the numbers its about the hunt :D:D:D

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Gauteng is generally safe to cache if you follow the following rules:

 

> Has the cache been found relatively often in the past few months?

> Go there during daylight hours (too far into parks should be done with care when there are not lots of people around)

> If you get an uneasy feeling walking along a river or park - pull out - the ONE cache is not worth it

 

But in general - if you take care and be observant - then no problem/

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Nope I do not agree, it is about personal safety. Previous experience has taught me that during unrest some people tend to abandon their houses and they sleep in the veldt. This increases the risk to me in isolated areas.

 

David and I was on a Business trip in Guateng yesterday and we had the opportunity to speak to about 5 black people that work for the electrical contractor to determine the risk and what is happening in the townships. I rather would stay away from isolated spots and bushy areas at present. We are going in and out as fast as possible. We are not going to hang around.

 

We are busy with the removal of some of the caches, but I am not happy - we are now left with micros which are in town and which are too easy. Muggles is the only problem. Nearly an all the possible finds on our list are rated below 2. We are now discussing if we should not abandon Gauteng and move to a different area.

 

Gerhard

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Gerhard,

I wanted to place a new cache in White River this week but it was to close to another. Maybe Saturday or Sunday.

Gauteng? Eish! Just try not to look like a foreigner !

 

Thanks, I thought you were too quiet that side of MP. I enjoyed your cache on the bridge. I do check for new caches in MP but there is only one left to be found as a FTF, excluding my one.

 

I also find your “If life deal you oranges….” which ended up as a DNF the previous time. Thanks for the caches. It was great to find it the second time around. Before I do Nelspruit en Sabie again I would like to do the caches on the 4x4 trial in the south of Nelspruit such as porcelain. Maybe you should join me; it is a long time since those caches were found. It should be a challenge to get pass the boulders. I am planning a trip during end of June for this trial. The MP cachers are very quiet at this stage. Our available cache counts are busy decreasing. If you are interested please drop me an e-mail, it does get boring sometime to cache alone. Maybe we can get the other guys to join, Pcmechanic that includes you as well. I need to report on the trial to the Nissan4x4 forum, the more souls the better.

 

Yes, I am practising for the Gauteng caches. I run ever night around the block just in case. If I can not beat them to a pulp I will ran them to death. The Gautengers is not much interested in helping or to act as a standby, no friendly cachers that side. No response from them – maybe I am talking to the hand. Or maybe they will react now. Maybe they are scared I ask them to join me. Maybe the going is too tough on them. :)

 

I can only see two ways. In the positive light the Shangans left the bushes and they are on the run and it should be safe in Gauteng’s bushes. On the negative side they are scared and some moved into abandoned areas and bushes until things quiet down again. During Eastern weekend it was very nice to do caching in this area – no muggles in any bushes around Pretoria was found. Next eastern weekend we will be in Gauteng again.

 

The only real problem is the plenty micros that I need to find. After this trip I do not want to find a micro again for a while. I enjoy caches on the outside of town but this time around I will have to find some inside the town as well. Maybe I will learn something new.

 

Gerhard

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Gerhard, if you don't want to find Micro's soon, then go and hunt my version at "Jasmyn's Secret" , Meerhof Windpomp; and the beautiful "Aspiring Stonehenge", "Lost Path", "Yellow", "Northwest's Best View" as the final straw/cherry. Relative no muggles, safe and beautiful scenery. :unsure:

 

Remember to get permission for nr. 3-5 at reception of "The Ring."

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The Gautengers is not much interested in helping or to act as a standby, no friendly cachers that side. No response from them – maybe I am talking to the hand. Or maybe they will react now. Maybe they are scared I ask them to join me. Maybe the going is too tough on them. :unsure:

 

 

;):)

Maybe you should check your mail and my previous post on this topic……

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The Gautengers is not much interested in helping or to act as a standby, no friendly cachers that side. No response from them – maybe I am talking to the hand. Or maybe they will react now. Maybe they are scared I ask them to join me. Maybe the going is too tough on them. :D

 

 

:(:grin:

Maybe you should check your mail and my previous post on this topic……

 

My apologies... it's been one of those weeks (and weeks...) only spotted this now. Keen to help of course - list would be good to take a look at. We're friendly - promise :huh: ... Just rather busy at the moment . Will PM with contact details...

 

GreenJaM

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Thanks a lot !!!! I will not bother you with hints on a no find. I will return and I will search for it again. If I am really stuck I will drop an e-mail to the cache owner and ask him for assistance when I am back home.

 

FishEagle is always willing to help and I know that he will only give me a hint – nothing more or less. He will never tell you where to find it, he will guide you and that are that. But I very rarely phone him for help. But if the pawpaw hits the fan I know that he will assist. The same applies to him if he phones me for help – then I am prepared to go to Nelspruit and to assist him if he is stuck somewhere or something bad happened or vehicle broke down.

 

It is just for backup and emergency – someone must know about my whereabouts if something goes wrong.

 

I believe that all cachers must have some sort of travelling plan. We live in a violent society and it must be possible to pinpoint the possible location of a cacher if something bad happened. This afternoon we saw a woman beaten with a sjambok in Middelburg – it was obvious that she is not a South African. They kept on pointing to a specific direction – probable showing her the way out. I wanted to get involved but I had my wife, my mother in law and my daughter with me and it is not worth taking the risk. But I feel sad for her. She was well dressed, much better than the hooligans that got hold of her.

 

Just recently I caught myself against a rock face with a cache in Barberton. It was easy to climb the rock face until I had to turn around. To climb down is always very difficult. I was alone and I suddenly find myself stuck in a position where I could not determine the possible path down. It took me a while to control myself and to find the way. My cell phone was in the car and the sun was setting fast. If I was stuck on this rock face I would sit there for a very long time until someone decides to walk around in this area.

 

Again, thanks a lot, there is some cachers alive in Gauteng. I hope I can return this favour one day.

 

Gerhard

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I had a good time in Gauteng. Surprisingly there were very little movement and muggles. The traffic was quite bad on Monday night but this is a given for Gauteng. I had hail for about 10 seconds, some rain but nothing serious, some lighting and some cold.

 

Thanks for the caches. I enjoyed the ones west from Gauteng the most. I did find a whole range of caches from cachers unknown to me. This trip resulted in my worst DNF’s rate up to date. But that is the way the cookie crumbles. I did enjoy the locations and I was surprised a couple of times with new ideas and good intelligent hides. I learned a couple of good lessons. Cache concentration was also good. I would recommend the caches on the west side to all cachers – they are good.

 

However there are some problems with the caches on the west side. I do not want to point fingers to specific caches or owners but I realised very quickly that one specific cache owner has upgraded from micros to small and to large without changing the listing. I only record this to enhance a good caching experience for cachers that will follow. I also did not record the details but I recognize some of them while completing the logs.

 

If a listing is saying micro then I am expecting to find a micro or a pico. A couple of times however I pulled out a small. There were also a couple of exceptions with the grading used. At one stage I had to go for a 500 meter walk but it is rated as a 1/1. I believe attention to detail is important. Or else we must mark all caches as 5/5 and all containers as large from today. To me this is important and I planned certain trips based on these ratings. The rule of garbage in garbage out then starts to apply.

 

If you need to check your listings for correctness you could select my profile and do a check on the caches.

 

I also noted that the new maps from garmap could cause trouble. With the previous map set the townships were not mapped properly. The new map sets have a lot of details. At one stage my auto routing wanted me to go right through Alexandra. I do not think this is wise. If you are visiting Gauteng one should make sure which areas are no go areas. For overseas visitors this is important. You should be aware of this if you are not from Gauteng.

 

Thanks. Gerhard

Edited by gerhardoosMPsa
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Just our two cents worth...

 

Having recently (1 month ago) become a statistic in Gauteng we are also much more "picky" about

where we go and when we go and who we go with.. We love "safe caches" and would rather

pay a small entrance fee to know we are safe and don't have to keep looking over our shoulders.

 

Big groups also make us "feel" safer and caches located in "nice places", and not just neccessarily

any green belt that does not have a cache.. We have been reviewing our caches and are slowly

removing the ones we don't feel are safe any more..

 

If you want nice area, the Pretoria area is great, the Magaliesberg is awesome (but expect some serious

climbs) as well as Cullinan and Parys (juts outside).. There are a lot of new caches being placed towards

Rustenberg.. After our event two days ago there will 38 new caches in and around the mindrand area

ranging from Micro to Regular and almost all of them are in very safe environments..

 

That said, have a great day.

 

CrystalFairy.

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Thanks for the advice, caching alone is a problem and a risk in an unknown area. I appreciate the comments and the warnings. If I read the listing it is only a location. For the person living near the cache or who is familiar with the area it is much easier to warn me of a no go area. I live in a small town where the children is still saying “Oom en Tannie” to you. If you enter Gauteng you sometimes forget that this is not the same as your environment where you came from.

 

I marked the comments from CrystalFairy about the safer areas and I will do these areas the next time around. I appreciate this feedback it does give me some guidance for the next time. This feedback adds value to my planning.

 

The only thing that really annoys me is the fact that I feel safer inside Lesotho next to the dirt road than in my own home with 3 trained dogs, armed response, and burglar alarm and behind fencing and burglar bars. Even is Swaziland I had the feeling that I was accepted and not once did I feel unsafe.

 

I sometimes think that there is one vital point missing on the listings. We have the terrain rating and we have the difficulty rating which is nice. However, there should be a hazard/danger rating as well. Caching should be a family sport and on the other hand I believe that a cache owner should accept responsibility for the planting of the cache. If it is in a highly dangerous area he should state that in his listing. No sport is safe, there is always a risk but one must reduce the risk. But a cache in a high risk area is also a risk to the owner of such a cache.

 

My other problem that I am experiencing is that some cache owners refuse to communicate with you. I do not want to know the cache location I want to know about risks. About 40% of the cachers are not responding to questions. This is making me angry because I try to protect myself and then I end up in a location where I do not want to be. I am now trying to bypass their caches as they are not open and frank. But this action is not resolving the problem; other cachers are still at risk. Therefore, I was thinking about creating a bookmark on caches which is relatively safe. The cache owner can not bitch that I marked him as unsafe. But other cachers with a little bit of knowledge will be able to trace my caches and will be able to determine if the cache is safe or not. There is nothing safe, not even an empty gun is safe, but there is caches out there that must be marked as a high risk cache. If the cache owner does not take ownership then someone else must do it. At the end it is for the person to judge if he wants to enter an unsafe area or not – the only thing I am asking is that I must be given the opportunity to make that choice depending on the circumstances.

 

Maybe we should start with a stats topic where cachers can present incidents.

 

Only a thought.

Gerhard

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Ouch CF, sorry to hear about that statistic comment. <_<

 

We can't be too careful these days, grouping looks like the best way to go, some guys to look after the vehicles and more to protect the caching group. B)

 

I rather enjoy group caching... I think in SA this will happen more and more... Not so worried about the car though... its insured, more worried about life... although it is insured, you can't really replace it B)

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Gerhard,

 

You and I are of the same mind about safety it seems. The bookmarking as unsafe cache area is an idea that I would support, if the owner does not do so himself.

 

My recent cache - Tonteldoos VII - presented me with the situation that all the Anglo-Boer related sites around Pretoria were already boasting a cache or two. Where to place a cache? By pure coincidence the "Paul Kruger Church" opposite the "Paul Kruger Museum" presented itself. My first priority was safety for fellow cachers and on investigation the fenced off church grounds with access control to it clinched it for me. The enthusiastic Sexton will provide the access - I could not have asked for better. B)

 

RedGlobe made the suggestion of placing a cache nearer to the centre of Pretoria town, although possible, I will not seek such a cache, and I would not like to take responsibility for the safety of cache seekers in such an area. A sad reality for me that my playground as a youngster, has become a war zone 16 years on; in MY opinion. <_<

Edited by LeonW
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