Jump to content

Microfest 2010


dakardrix

Recommended Posts

Hi, my name is dakardrix... :mellow:

 

...and I haven't been around very much lately. But here I am, planning an event and based on Fish Eagle's recommendation, testing the waters to see whether there would be any interest.

 

So, back to the topic: micro's. Those pesky little things you either love or hate, yet can't leave them alone. This event will celebrate the humble 35mm film container!

 

Date: sometime end of March on a Saturday. Tentatively 27 March 2010

 

Where: at my place, south east of Pretoria.

 

What to do:

 

1) In the afternoon, say 2-ish: Bring and braai - I will supply a toilet (useful, and a house for when it rains!), safe parking, gasbraai, coffee/tea, bread rolls, and lots of space. This is of course for everyone and will count as event attendance just by pitching up.

 

2) The normal culprits can bring their geoware and trade freely. And the usual showing off of coin collections and stories going around.

 

3) I will set up a gazebo or 2 (mine a bit heavy, can do with someone else bringing 1 or 2?) right next to a flyfishing dam - so welcome to bring your own rods, only catch and release, keep the fish in the water when caught. No charge, you will be my guests - just need to know the numbers to arrange if more than 2 or 3 people are interested. There are 2 dams for flyfishing and 2 others for papgooi if you like.

 

4) In the morning, say from 7am onwards: I will plant a lot of micros (aiming for 20, 30... who knows - have a lot of spots, not counted yet - focus is on quantity, but maintaining a certain level of quality) in the area stretching from Midrand through Olifantsfontein, north of Bapsfontein, not quite as far as Rayton, but that general area and direction. Every team that wants to participate in the Microfest hunt then will prepare and donate one cache, bigger than a micro. In exchange they will be given the list of 'event' micros, which will be published after the event (if Fish Eagle is happy with every one of course) and can be logged by those who found them at the event. All the donated caches (and some of mine) will then be used to replace as many micros as possible before publication - credit will be given to the creator.

Hopefully I can dish out a small 'prize' or two to the best cache submitted, most finds, who knows...

 

So, am I smoking my socks and must get back on my bike and rather go caching, or will there be a bit of interest?

 

Fire away!

 

Drix :(

Edited by dakardrix
Link to comment

DamhuisClan likes braai events.

We should be able to make it.

Can bring with a gazibo, and a half-drum braai if required.

 

Tx Anton, the gazebo will be much appreciated! :(

 

My gas braai is one of those about a meter long and half a meter wide (vague guess) - mmm, I wanted to say I'm sure mine will be fine, but if we are more than 10... Jip, will actually be super if you can bring it! I have some wood and will get some charcoal as well.

 

BTW, some of the caches will be in the Star Crater area... I'm sure you and some other teams will have fun revisiting there! :mellow:

Link to comment

...uhm, I think those ARE the specifics...

:)

 

 

Rephrase: I await specific instructions as to where to go to hide all these pesky things in advance.

 

BTW. I have spare lock 'n locks of various proportions with which to make caches for the finals.

 

Mmm, that's a good point - I haven't actually stated the obvious (buried in my head)

 

The idea with this event - keeping in mind according to Groundspeak rules the braai and social gathering is THE Event, the micro hunt is separate and needs to be arranged not on the web listing but via the forum (here) and e-mail etc - is to do 3 things apart from the social:

 

1) Have fun chasing lots of caches on one day.

2) Help those who would like to boost their numbers a bit - come on, admit it, although we all like the hunt and getting to nice places (which will also be important for the Microfest), the majority like the stats part as well.

3) By getting people to donate a cache, it shares the effort and financial burden of creating non-micro caches.

 

So, although we will probably plant a few non-micros for the day, I would rather plant 4 micros instead of 1 traditional. Just for this event, obviously not as a rule!

Link to comment

 

Where: at my place, south east of Pretoria.

 

 

I would have thought that C-Max in Pretoria Central would be far easier to access, but I suppose their braai facilities are not that good. :)

 

That's nothing, I was thinking of making a Multi or a Puzzle that you have to solve before getting the final destination! :D Mmm, wonder if that's allowed... have to chat to FE... :D

Link to comment

Well, my micro-count is way to high as it stands... but it's hard to say no... uh-oh, I think my eye is twitching. Give me a minute to think...

 

<1 minute later>

 

I'm SO there!

 

Great!

 

Mmm, that's a point... although not every single cache on the day will be a micro (and I simply don't have enough, actually very few , 35mm holders (go try and find them - photo places just don't see them much anymore) - but I have lots of micro variations), the actual caches published later will, as intended, be bigger. Hopefully Traditional, but I guess Small as well.

 

Soooo, when you log against them they will not count against your micro count... Everyone ok with that? :D

 

BTW, I have given the Micro thing a lot of thought though - I don't think it is that much fun hunting a micro in the middle of a rocky koppie. Especially when you are at number 80 for the day... hehe Where it is feasible and I am reasonably convinced that I will replace with a Traditional size, I will attempt to place the micro in a bigger temporary holder so as to make it easier to find. :)

Link to comment

Sounds like a heap of fun, we will never decline a option to find some caches and a braai. We also have a few containers available to place as permanent caches, and never short of swag either.

 

The 27th sounds like a good date!

 

We will be away trying to clean up some of the Durban caches from the 1st - 16 March.

 

So count us in!!

 

Ps. We also have some Gazebo's

Edited by Happy Hunters SA
Link to comment
OK, now that it is official, I am onboard and ready to assist. Where do we start...?

Mmmm, something does not look right. My name seems to be appearing on more event caches as 2IC lately. Is 2010 the year of the event?

We should have a few events during the world cup. Then we can *entertain* our international geocaching friends.

Link to comment

We'll be there...but I don't know about the morning session. Would LOVE to go, but need to consider the kids. What I may do is arrange for Rolf to go, maybe catch a life with someone (Bruce?) and do the morning caching and stuff. And I'll come in the afternoon with the kids, after Enzo has napped, etc.

 

We'll definitely sponsor a cache or two to replace the micros!

 

And, I think Rolf would love to fish (he loves fly fishing) but in all honesty it is an Event and we NEVER get to do much other than chat, chat, chat at Events. I doubt he would be able to slip away and fish. At the last event, both he and I didn't even get to sit down, as we went from cacher to cacher, catching up on all the news!! :)

Link to comment

I love that I could create a problem for you guys to choose between caching, catching, and catching up!

 

I have marked 30 spots already. Bruce and I are going out tomorrow on the bike to plant the first ones - not even at the marked spots, but beyond. I started organising my material gathered over the last 2 years - scary how many containers I have... so small... hehe ...we'll see by the end of tomorrow what has happened!

Link to comment

Mark my words, this event is going to be no walk in the park. Even on a powerful off-road motorbike we still ended up slip-sliding all over the place, bundu bashing through the countryside where the vegetation was almost higher that the bike. Ok, those will be the 4 or 5 terrain. But what about the difficulty ratings on others? The jury is still out on those. I am just glad I was helping to hide them and not retrieve them. Eish, not for the faint hearted!

Despite all of that as well as the heat, we certainly had a wonderful day out and I was still able to pick up three finds en route. I did not realise how hot it gets inside all that riding gear. I would be interested to know how many hundreds of kilometres we covered today as we were on the road at 06:30 and we only returned at 15:30. My thanks to Drix for his expert riding skills and my safe return.

Link to comment

Mark my words, this event is going to be no walk in the park. Even on a powerful off-road motorbike we still ended up slip-sliding all over the place, bundu bashing through the countryside where the vegetation was almost higher that the bike. Ok, those will be the 4 or 5 terrain. But what about the difficulty ratings on others? The jury is still out on those. I am just glad I was helping to hide them and not retrieve them. Eish, not for the faint hearted!

Despite all of that as well as the heat, we certainly had a wonderful day out and I was still able to pick up three finds en route. I did not realise how hot it gets inside all that riding gear. I would be interested to know how many hundreds of kilometres we covered today as we were on the road at 06:30 and we only returned at 15:30. My thanks to Drix for his expert riding skills and my safe return.

 

We think someone's going to be walking like a cowboy tomorrow!!

 

:laughing:

Link to comment

Hehe, fortunately we stopped enough. And Bruce entertained me no end! :laughing: It felt like 500km, but I think we roughly did 150km, focusing on one corner of the overall plan.

 

But not to worry, there will be more than enough easy finds! The way things are going, you will be able to continue caching for the full next day as well, if you like. The intention is to publish 99% of all the event caches (well, remember the event is the braai, the cache hunt is additional, but I'm sure you all know that by now)

 

In essence, we try and cater for... i.e. keep everyone busy for the maximum time - I'll be shocked if any team gets more than half the caches on the day:

 

1. Road bikes that don't want to go on gravel/off-road; cars that have no desire to get dirty - i.e. your typical Ferrari cache mobile;

 

2. Road bikes and semi-off-road bikes that go where their owners want them to go and they are not scared of dust; RedGlobe cars that are not meant to go off-road, but their owners treat them like Avis cars and they can handle gravel - i.e. most of the cars we all drive;

 

3. Bakkies and cars (like the capable GreenJaM Subaru) with more height than a normal car and/or off-road capabilities - no 4x4's required, except if it rains a lot or people take interesting routes to waypoints!; Adventure bikes with slightly more experienced/trained riders and/or with height and maybe capable tyres - no enduro bikes needed.

 

Hope that helps! Will try and mark the caches as such, i.e. Vehicle level 1, 2 or 3. The 2.5 ratings will be interesting - make sure you have the phone number of a buddy with a bakkie to come help if you beach your Golf!

Edited by dakardrix
Link to comment

Hehe, fortunately we stopped enough. And Bruce entertained me no end! :P It felt like 500km, but I think we roughly did 150km, focusing on one corner of the overall plan.

 

But not to worry, there will be more than enough easy finds! The way things are going, you will be able to continue caching for the full next day as well, if you like. The intention is to publish 99% of all the event caches (well, remember the event is the braai, the cache hunt is additional, but I'm sure you all know that by now)

 

In essence, we try and cater for... i.e. keep everyone busy for the maximum time - I'll be shocked if any team gets more than half the caches on the day:

 

1. Road bikes that don't want to go on gravel/off-road; cars that have no desire to get dirty - i.e. your typical Ferrari cache mobile;

 

2. Road bikes and semi-off-road bikes that go where their owners want them to go and they are not scared of dust; RedGlobe cars that are not meant to go off-road, but their owners treat them like Avis cars and they can handle gravel - i.e. most of the cars we all drive;

 

3. Bakkies and cars (like the capable GreenJaM Subaru) with more height than a normal car and/or off-road capabilities - no 4x4's required, except if it rains a lot or people take interesting routes to waypoints!; Adventure bikes with slightly more experienced/trained riders and/or with height and maybe capable tyres - no enduro bikes needed.

 

Hope that helps! Will try and mark the caches as such, i.e. Vehicle level 1, 2 or 3. The 2.5 ratings will be interesting - make sure you have the phone number of a buddy with a bakkie to come help if you beach your Golf!

 

Sounds like a lot of fun!!

 

We're lucky that we have a bakkie that can go places some other vehicles wont go!

 

Will make sure we pack our towing equipment if anyone beaches their car :laughing:

 

We got stuck in the mud axle deep at the Vaal and we were rescued by Antron! Just fair to repay that favour to

anyone unlucky to get stuck along the way.

 

With only 7 hours of caching for the day it would be unlikely for anyone to do more than half of the 80 caches that you're planning on hiding. We all still want to have a go and gooi some pap and feeding some non existent fish. And still have a braai!!

 

So...seeing as were not chasing any numbers....we would be forced to come back on the Sunday to do the rest of the caches in the area. (Sigh) Sunday would be a full day (13 hours as our normal day of caching) to do the remaining caches we dont get to on Saturday!!

 

Looking forward to it!!!

Edited by Happy Hunters SA
Link to comment

What a hot day! But we had loads of fun - 8 planted and 41 spots so far. Names include 'Out of the Box', 'Pass', 'Overhang'...

 

Hope that helps! Will try and mark the caches as such, i.e. Vehicle level 1, 2 or 3. The 2.5 ratings will be interesting - make sure you have the phone number of a buddy with a bakkie to come help if you beach your Golf!

 

So, what category of vehicle would the fire engine with a 20' ladder constitute? Sorry, I forget that ladders are part of the average caching kit, folded up in a corner of the boot or on the back of the bakkie.

Remember the disclaimers for the listings and the fact that safety harnesses are not supplied. And there is also the geocaching rule: If you drop it, you fetch it. That may be interesting to see in the sinkhole shaft.

Link to comment

Shhh Bruce, I'm trying to convince everyone it's just road-side micro's! Note to self - keep an eye on my long ladder when people register in the morning... :D

 

BTW, and seriously now (sounds like a Star Crater description!), just to clarify, as I picked up some confusion from people:

 

On the 27th of March, we will be ready for teams from 7am - 10am. You can arrive later, just warn me before, as we will be clearing the registration and start to get ready for the return of teams as well as the braai (which will be ready after 2pm)

 

Entry requirements: The braai is open to everyone, just pitch (as per postings before and cache listing) and you can log the event as 'Attended'

 

To take part in the micro hunt in the morning: You bring a new pre-prepared cache, bigger than a micro, preferably a standard size, fairly waterproof and with log sheet/book, stash note, pen/pencil and normal toys/tradeables as per geocaching rules. You give that to us and we will go and plant it later and reference who donated it.

 

In exchange, we will give you the list of caches available (load on your GPS if possible and a paper copy, so even the most basic GPS/cell phone that can take co-ordinates can participate) and set you off with instructions.

 

You then have until 2pm to return - please don't race unsafely, we will be flexible in allocating points for the amount of caches and time of return - exact time will only play a role if teams have similar points/finds. The few small prizes don't warrant putting your lifes and others' at stake on the road, it's about fun!!

Edited by dakardrix
Link to comment

Now, if our informal marketing works and I have neighbours and biking friends and therefore lots of newbies pitch up, they might be put off by the cache swop requirement for the morning hunt. Showstopper, barrier to entry, all that jazz... :D

 

So, if you don't want to prepare a cache or don't know how, we will also be selling a few prepared caches on the side for R50 each (I think that's reasonable?) and when we run out we will take R50 donations. This is not to make a profit, just to cover some costs - it will all go back into the caches.

 

If that is still an issue, just talk to me and we will 'sponsor' you. These are tough times and if you only have R50 in your pocket I'd rather you spend it on the petrol driving around caching, than not take part at all! We want people to have fun and enjoy the sport of geocaching, whatever it takes! :D

Edited by dakardrix
Link to comment

Shhh Bruce, I'm trying to convince everyone it's just road-side micro's! Note to self - keep an eye on my long ladder when people register in the morning... :D

 

BTW, and seriously now (sounds like a Star Crater description!) just to clarify, as I picked up some confusion from people:

 

On the 27th of March, we will be ready for teams from 7am - 10am. You can arrive later, just warn me before as we will be clearing the registration and start to get ready for the return of teams as well as the braai (which will be ready after 2pm)

 

Entry requirements: The braai is open to everyone, just pitch (as per postings before and cache listing) and you can log the event as 'Attended'

 

To take part in the micro hunt in the morning: You bring a new pre-prepared cache, bigger than a micro, preferably a standard size, fairly waterproof and with log sheet/book, stash note and normal toys/tradeables as per geocaching rules. You give that to us and we will go and plant it later and reference who donated it.

 

In exchange, we will give you the list of caches available (load on your GPS if possible and a paper copy, so even the most basic GPS/cell phone that can take co-ordinates can participate) and set you off with instructions. You then have until 2pm to return - please don't race unsafely, we will be flexible in allocating points for the amount of caches and time of return - exact time will only play a role if teams have similar points/finds. The few small prizes don't warrant putting your lifes and others' at stake on the road, it's about fun!!

 

Thank you for the info Drix.

 

I just have one question concerning the documentation.

 

1. Would you have a loc/gpx file for us to load onto our laptop and then send to our Gpx device/s?

 

2. A HTML file to load on our cell phones with the cache page?

 

If so, who ever has a laptop can just bring it along and we can do the upload to our device/s right

there and then. If you have these files on a memory stick or 3 it might make it a lot easier?

 

Just my 2 cents worth :D

Edited by Happy Hunters SA
Link to comment

Hi Happy Hunters!! Good questions.

 

We will have 2 or 3 laptops to load straight onto your devices - just remember to bring data cables, ours might not fit (we will have the standard mini-USB that works on Nuvi/Colorado/Oregon and so on)

 

Will still see if we put in LOC/GPX format, possibly yes and on a few memory sticks.

 

GreenJaM, who has done this before at NOLY event, recommends we stick to using Mapsource and load as Waypoints, apparently it has the least compatibility issues - names will be short like 'Micro33-Box'

 

The descriptions/hints will be basic and fit on the paper, so we don't plan HTML descriptions - rather keep it simple. Also plan to print map (as part of paper pack) with cache waypoints to give overview for route planning. These are the plans for now.

Edited by dakardrix
Link to comment

?? I see one can't edit old posts (like the very first one)? The intention was to keep updating the first post with the info as we discuss in order not to have everyone wade through the posts and/or miss something.

 

Oh well, think I'll just repost the growing summary every week or so to keep it close to the end of the thread...

Link to comment

Is there going to be a prize for bringing along the most creative cache container :)

 

Absolutely! But you can't bring your Skunk cache... :lol:

 

BTW, I have been working on the caches today and realised we are too optimistic to prepare caches for sale as well, I'd rather plant the few non-micros I have.

 

So, I think we'll keep it simple - you either bring your prepared cache (remember, only ONE per team, not per person!) or make a R50 donation (as mentioned this will be used towards the caches we replace afterwards) If we can't decide between the best cache containers, we'll put it to the vote at the braai...

Link to comment

You guys rock!!! Sounds great!

 

BTW...

Hope that helps! Will try and mark the caches as such, i.e. Vehicle level 1, 2 or 3. The 2.5 ratings will be interesting - make sure you have the phone number of a buddy with a bakkie to come help if you beach your Golf!

 

My 4x4 Corsa goes everywhere!!! hehehehehehe

Edited by Team Ginger
Link to comment

:blink::(

 

... 17 planted... this is hard work.... and my job really interferes with my real life! :o:blink::o

I have 14 pre-prepared magnetic micros with log sheets and pencils ready for Saturday. I can make more if you want... So is it all systems go for another outride to plant them all?

Link to comment

:mad:;)

 

... 17 planted... this is hard work.... and my job really interferes with my real life! :unsure::D:huh:

I have 14 pre-prepared magnetic micros with log sheets and pencils ready for Saturday. I can make more if you want... So is it all systems go for another outride to plant them all?

 

Yip, I'm building the tree one and maybe another one tonight. Will take the trailer and ladder as well. The under water one I'll manufacture next week and the fake tarmac I'm reconsidering. The teddy looks good though. But the fish looks false... :anibad::)

Link to comment

Yip, I'm building the tree one and maybe another one tonight. Will take the trailer and ladder as well. The under water one I'll manufacture next week and the fake tarmac I'm reconsidering. The teddy looks good though. But the fish looks false... :D:)

Just settle for some coffee and .......!

f6ce1f59-6cbe-4766-895d-e6f94486c63e.jpg

Link to comment

Now I am officially exhausted... I left home at 05:00 and arrived back just after 22:00 after a full day caching. It was most rewarding though. Drix and I managed to plant 22 new cached and document them. En route I still was able o get 4 caches that I had never found including Star Crater. Having seen it and done it, it is certainly not a cache I would have attempted on my own or without the right gear.

My sincere thanks to Drix for doing all the driving today. I really enjoyed the off-roading. Your skill and experience certainly showed.

I am sure the cachers out there who are going to come to the Microfest 2010 will not be disappointed by the quality of the caches planted.

Link to comment

Tx Bruce, certainly a day for hard-core cachers only! :laughing:

 

I think only a few people might understand what it means to plant 22 caches in one day, and we are not talking about drive-by's. Hope more than 10 people pitch up for the Fest hunt part... but even if only 10 enjoy it, they'll be there for the future, so plan some caching for the Easter weekend if you are around. Not all will be published immediately, depending on the amount of cache entries we receive, but the majority will be.

 

So currently there are 17+22=39 planted. Still more to come! And if you hate micros, just ignore them - and don't post logs like "There should be a bigger cache at this place!" !!! This event and 'series' are there to have fun chasing numbers, yet few are 'arb', and to inject some life into the dwindling new caches in our area of South East Pretoria - so it makes it accessible for the Jo'burgers as well.

 

I hope Bruce posts the picture of him retrieving Star Crater climbing with motorcycle helmet! Strange but true... :anitongue:

Link to comment

Yip, I'm building the tree one and maybe another one tonight. Will take the trailer and ladder as well. The under water one I'll manufacture next week and the fake tarmac I'm reconsidering. The teddy looks good though. But the fish looks false... :laughing::anitongue:

Just settle for some coffee and .......!

f6ce1f59-6cbe-4766-895d-e6f94486c63e.jpg

 

Bruce, doesn't seem like our Photoshopped image works for marketing.. feel so ignored... :laughing:

Link to comment

So currently there are 17+22=39 planted. Still more to come! And if you hate micros, just ignore them - and don't post logs like "There should be a bigger cache at this place!" !!! This event and 'series' are there to have fun chasing numbers, yet few are 'arb', and to inject some life into the dwindling new caches in our area of South East Pretoria - so it makes it accessible for the Jo'burgers as well.

This is going to be the acid test to what lengths (literally) people are going to chase numbers. I trust that you have your body armour close by as I think that with or without ropes, after cachers have decended into this hole only to find a micro (actually smaller) they might have a little more than just an impolite log. :lol:

94b4a43e-e1d7-4d2d-8a1c-b9760c01cb2f.jpgad5520c2-608d-474a-a741-9cc8d78df727.jpg

 

Yip, I'm building the tree one and maybe another one tonight. Will take the trailer and ladder as well. The under water one I'll manufacture next week and the fake tarmac I'm reconsidering. The teddy looks good though. But the fish looks false... :D:D

So, you got your underwater cache completed after all... Let us now see who is brave enough to enter the swamp. ;)

4ac632d8-f861-4f56-8aa5-751e3cdce9c6.jpg

 

Edit to fix photos.

Edited by BruceTP
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...