Adventurers set out to find hidden treasures

On Saturday, September 10 the warm sun was no match for the burning enthusiasm of the members of GoSA (Geocachers of South Africa) when they took to the trails and terrain of the Kloofendal Nature Reserve in search of its hidden treasures.

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure-hunting game, aimed at getting people outdoors. It is also a flexible game that allows everyone to play it in their own way, within the geocaching guidelines.

Geared with walking sticks, cargo jackets and GPSes a group of 10 adventurers set out to find caches hidden mostly by cachers who live or work on the West Rand and in surrounding areas.

According to Elsie van Wyk, who initiated Geocaching events at the reserve, some of the older treasures have been hidden from as far back as 2005 and geocachers have been finding them ever since.

This is officially the second Geocaching event at the reserve that we have organised in collaboration with the Friends of Kloofendal (FroK). This was done to contribute to the good work done by FroK in the nature reserve and to promote interest in geocaching on the West Rand,” Van Wyk said.

There are currently 14 active caches in Kloofendal, and a lot of caches in the surrounding areas as well. She went on to explain that caches of various difficulties and terrain ratings are published and given to participants, allowing them to choose the caches they would like to look for.

There are also different Geocache types such as traditional, multi, puzzle, virtual, earth and adventure lab to name just a few. Van Wyk was thrilled to announce that the group had found various caches on the day, among them a traditional cache, puzzle cache, nano cache, the new multi-cache and adventure-lab cache.

“There are a lot of interesting geological sites as well as the historical gold mine and the stamper in the reserve, making it the perfect spot for an adventure cache and earth cache. There are even plans in the pipeline to add a number of new earth caches to raise awareness of the interesting geological sites.

Geocaching and nature conservation complement each other very well. One of the geocaching event types is a CITO (cache in trash out), where geocachers get together to clean up an area by removing trash. They could also help to remove alien vegetation. This presents some more opportunities to assist FroK with the maintenance of the reserve.”

She encouraged locals to join in the exciting hunt as it also serves as an ideal opportunity for the whole family to spend time together in nature.

Geocaching not only helps its participants get fitter in a fun way, but can challenge their minds and educate them. It’s also an exciting way for the young ones to learn more about the sites in their area since geocaches are often placed at interesting, natural or historic sites.

If you would like to find out more, contact Elsie van Wyk on 083 680 5610. You can also visit www.KloofendalFriends.org.za for more information about the reserve. If you would like to know more about Geocaching, feel free to visit www.geocaching.com.

What are you waiting for? The treasure awaits!