Orange River - Flourspar Mine Traditional Cache
Orange River - Flourspar Mine
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This cache is placed on the traditional 4 day Orange River canoe trip, from Noordoewer to Aussenkuer farm, the biggest privately owned farm in the southern hemisphere. This one can be accessed by road however. (I think)
There are many companies which offer this trip, and this series of caches is placed for those who happen to be going on this trip. For those looking for an alternative holiday, this is a great way to relax and experience some great adventure in the magnificent scenery of the Orange River.
The Orange River is the border between South Africa and Namibia, and you will need a passport as the takeout point is in Namibia.
Flourspar is an incredible stone, that glows a bright neon turquoise when thrown in the coals of a fire, and then explodes like popcorn (watch your eyes). It is a clear greenish colour, and little bits of it can be collected from the ground all over. Please do not dig chunks out from the mine itself. The mine is the gash in the cliff, about 50m uphill from the cache.
From the cache site, looking downriver, you will see the notorious Shambok rapids!
The theme of this cache is stones. It is filled with interesting stones I found on this trip, so bring some small stones from home to trade.
Note: There is no guarantee that you will get a chance to search for any of the Orange River caches. Where you stop for lunch and overnight varies from trip to trip, so you might just canoe past the caches with no chance to stop. I will try and place all the caches at the most popular lunch and campsites though.
However, you will normally get a chance to visit this mine on all trips, unless you go over a very busy time such as new years, as it is at the resupply point for food.
note: The terrain rating is based purely on the fact that you need to paddle for 4 days to get this cache, not on the hike at all. The walk would be about 2 stars.
There is a road that leads to cache area, along the dried up Shambok river. How you get there, I have no idea, and whether it is open to the public, I do not know either, but the river companies to drive down there for restockng. The road does continue on to Rudy's diamond mine as well, but I beleive they do not like strangers there much!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Pnpur vf uvqqra va ornpba bs juvgr ebpxf. Ybbx sbe gur cvyr bs fznyyre ebpxf ba ornpba, ba evire fvqr.
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures