A Geocacher in South Africa

by Lynn Salmon <>{ (aka Team Mumu)


Geocaching on my South Africa birding & Wildife Safari got off to a great start with Virtual Geocache GC892A2 in the arrivals hall at OR Tambo International Airport. While the troops gathered to meet our guides, Liz (aka birder428) and I made our first geocache find in South Africa.

We found geocache number 2 the next day after dinner at the Dullstroom Inn. As we finished our meal, Anne happened to open the geocaching app on her phone and noticed there was a cache across the street at the Dullstroom Stone Church GC2KP4V. I quickly ran over there with Liz (birder428), Ginger (bakerbaby), and Anne (fellowpilgrim) and we found the container in the dark. I have no idea what the rest of the group back in the restaurant thought we were doing.

We spent the next few days in Kruger National Park. No physical geocache containers are allowed in Kruger, but there are a few Virtual and Earthcaches to be found in the park. This trip was a birding safari, offered by Saw Mill River Audubon, so we had to spend most of our time in Kruger looking for birds and wildlife, rather than geocaching ;-). You can check out my South African Birding & Wildlife Safari trip log for all the gory details of the "main event".

After a delicous lunchtime stop at Kruger's Tshokwane Trading Post. I highly recommend the honey chicken pineapple jaffle, btw. Liz (birder428) realized there was a Virtual Geocache GC88ZHM at Tshokwane, and we got the necessary info to log it.

Later that same afternoon, I realized we were passing the Kruger Tablets GC8J32R earthcache. This is one of a few spots in Kruger where you are able to get out of your vehicle in the park. Cary joined me, and we were able to check out the giant rock formations up close.

Subsequent Kruger earthcache finds included GC6HFPJ: Kruger's Roaring Roads, GC7JG3B: The Termitarium, located at our lunch stop at Afsaal Picnic site, and the very conveniently located GC638FM: Lower Sabie River Sandbanks. Ground Zero for the latter happened to be on the restaurant patio where we enjoyed dinner.

On the long drive from Kruger to Rust de Winter, we happened to have quick park-n-grab geocaches at a couple of our rest stops including GC8M76J: Fill your tank (and tummy) and GC7NYJX: Rhinos Rest.

The next stop on our geocaching saga happened on our first evening in Simon's Town at GC7B96X: Jubilee Square. This virtual cache required us to find several interesting pieces of naval history on plaques in the square near where we parked for dinner. This had me, Liz, and Ginger running around in the dark with flashlights and a little help from a local police woman trying to gather all the required info. We forgot to take a picture of the famous dog, Able Seaman Just Nuisance, and I returned for this crucial shot on our way to the airport on our last day in town.

Additional geocache and adventure lab finds on this trip include:

More geocaching photos


back to my South African Birding & Wildlife Safari trip log