Geocaching in Leisure Wheels
Brick writes about his caching trip to Hartenbos in Leisure Wheels
Issue No. 39 - October 2006
(Below was scanned and OCR'ed from the article.)
The birth of my third boy has changed the way we go on holiday. Nowadays I
drive with the luggage, while my wife and the children fly.
With Hartenbos being our planned holiday destination, I phoned Lizelle
Labuschagne, a friend whose mother lives down there, to enquire about
accommodation in the area. I mentioned that I would be driving alone, and had
room in the car if she and her children wanted to take the opportunity to visit
her mom.
Her two kids are used to driving to the Garden Route, so were not expected to
cause any hassles, but as a precaution I fell back on my old geocaching trick
to keep them entertained. As regular readers would know, the basic concept is
that a geocacher places a "cache" at an interesting place. This contains
various tradable items, usually small toys and trinkets, a logbook and a flyer
describing the cache site.
The coordinates of the placed container are then measured with a GPS device and
published on a central website, www.geocaching.com. The cacher also posts a
little write-up of what to expect at the chosen site. Geocachers then use these
waypoints to find the cache. The idea is that you can take anything from the
cache, provided you put something back and sign the log.
On a previous camping excursion with the Labuschagnes their daughter, Tania,
found a little ladybug-button in a cache, but unfortunately her dog ate it and
she was quite sad. I planned to make up for it on our trip to Hartenbos.
I downloaded a full list of geocaching waypoints into my trusty Garmin eTrex
unit. We left at 02h00 in the morning and I really pressed on to be as far away
as possible by sunrise. I managed to be past Bloernfontein when day broke, and
with the sun up, decided it was time for coffee, and the first cache at the
Springfontein Blockhouse.
Tania insisted on following older brother Andre up the little koppie, complete
with Barbie slippers! We found the cache and I could read a bit of history
about this site. Tania took a purple bangle, and Andre a dinosaur. 1 signed the
log and placed a few toys, and we were off.
In Colesberg, an attempt to find another cache proved futile, and we had
breakfast at the local Wimpy. Lizelle suggested that we drive via Graaff-Reinet
instead of Beaufort West. 1 happily agreed, as I had spotted two more caches in
the Valley of Desolation.
Just before Middelburg, Andre, who had been watching the GPS screen like a
hawk, saw another cache coming into view. It was quite close to the road, but a
howling wind nearly blew us away. We found the cache, and while 1 was filling
in the log, the kids were rummaging through the contents. Suddenly Tania gave a
delighted squeal. In the cache was another lady-bug button!
We stopped in Graaff-Reinet to take a few pictures of the famous Dutch Reformed
church, a replica of the Salisbury Cathedral. Made from local sandstone, it was
the fourth church to be erected on the same spot. The first one burnt down and
the other two were rebuilt to accommodate the ever-increasing size of the
congregation. The first service was held on 11 September 1887.
We did the two caches in the Valley of Desolation, one involving quite a hike,
but rewarding with an awesome view. Although this added about two hours to our
journey time, it did not matter. We arrived in Hartenbos, relaxed and happy.
Not once were the kids a nuisance, as the caches we'd found and the caches we
were going to were eagerly discussed.
This trip again proved to me that a long journey does not have to be an
agonising one. We had great fun. So dust off that GPS, put in new batteries and
go geocaching! .