Stages one and three are GXProxy containers hidden in the woods a short bushwhack off of a fire road. Stage two is a preform container hidden in a common spot.
An ordinary three stage multi, stage one points you to stage two, and stage two points you to the final. That being said, the middle stage will likely take a bit of extra effort for most seekers. Those who have the means to do so are certainly encouraged to treat this like any other multi-cache they have done, and proceed from stage to stage and make the find at the final and log it. If you choose to do it that way, we’d very much appreciate it if you’d post photos and a long descriptive log, because we’d like to hear all about stage two, as we’ve never been there!
Huh!?!
Stage two in in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. It is a physical hide, a container with the coordinates to the final in it. The final is back here not so very far from the first stage. From stage to stage directly if you visit all three stages, is a roughly 13, 000 mile trip, so take a few travel bugs with you if you go! Here are the guidelines for how to find this hide if you do not intend to go to South Africa to find stage two:
LegoMikey has placed a sister hide to this one, GC54TQY. When you go look that one up, you will see that, like this one, it is a three part multi. The second stage of LegoMikey’s hide is here in Maryland. What you will need to do is post a note in the Groundspeak logs of his hide seeking a South African cacher who is willing to go and find the second stage of our cache and obtain the coordinates of the final for you. In return, you should be prepared to find the second stage of LegoMikey’s hide and obtain the coordinates to his final for them. It is our hope that you will post a note (like a log entry, but just a note, not a “found” log), in LegoMikey’s cache log detailing your adventures in finding stage two of the South African hide. Likewise, we hope that your collaborator will do the same in our cache log.
Skype or FaceTime can rally be helpful in the pursuit of a collaborative effort!
Note: Once you have established a relationship with a South African collaborator, please post a note in the logs of both caches stating that. This will help avoid you getting bombarded by multiple seekers, and foster more collaborative associations as each seeker finds a collaborator of their own.
As the idea is to get cachers in far-away places to coordinate and cooperate we would love to hear about the relationship you developed with your South African collaborator, so please include those details in your log entry. Pictures would be great too, so we encourage both you and your collaborator to post some to both hides! Remember, we’ve never seen stage two of our hide!
One caveat: please don’t ask LegoMikey to be your collaborator. He is co-owner of this hide (after all, he placed one stage of it!), so that would be inappropriate.
As you might imagine, the creation, placement and approval of this hide required an extraordinary amount of work; it has been months in the making. It would not have been possible without the help Silvia L., another South African cacher, and most of all it would not have been possible without the help of LegoMikey. We’d also like to give a shout out the the approvers on both ends, Sir Crab here in Maryland, and Africa Rocks in South Africa, who worked with us to get this one approved in a timely manner.
If by chance you encounter a collaborator who does intend to visit Maryland to find the middle stage of LegoMikey’s hide, please be sure to let us know! We will be happy to plan an event here in Maryland to provide a warm welcome, a list of suggested hides to go after while they are here, and introduce them to the best of what our region has to offer in the way of geocaching, history and cuisine!
One last note - please do not post the coordinates to the middle stage of either hide in any log, or anywhere on the web. We request that you honor the intent of this hide, and that if you cannot physically visit stage two in KawZulu-Natal, that you work with a collaborator to get the final coordinates
Parking (Maryland):
There is parking available at both stage one (coordinates given) and the final (at the end of Poole Rd). Please don’t block the entrance to the fire road at either site. Note that this area is closed from sunset to sunrise, and that there is active hunting here during the winter months, so please take the appropriate precautions.
Parking (KwaZulu-Natal):
COORDINATES:
The provided coordinates were established using commercially available GPS receivers, no phones were used in the development of coordinates for this cache. Three site surveys were conducted for each stage of this hide, and coordinates were taken at each one. Each set of coordinates was averaged at the time of capture, then all three sets were averaged and the result is what we posted. We had no indication of poor reception on any visit, and are confident that the posted coordinates will allow you to successfuly obtain a good ground zero. After that it is up to you.
DISCLAIMER:
As with all your searches, please do some research, and use good voyage planning techniques. Know your limitations, employ risk management, and don’t take on something that is beyond your capability. Some of you do this all the time, some rarely; in the end, it is you who are accountable for what happens to you, mentally, emotionally and physically as the result of seeking this hide.
Thanks to everyone who has taken up the challenge of finding these two caches. There is one issue that has raised its head that we hadn't really anticipated. The issue of logging the sister hide as a collaborator. After discussion with LegoMikey we have mutually agreed that, unless the collaborator physically signs the logsheet on the sister cache it would be against the guidelines to log the cache. The criteria for logging the cache requires that you physically find the hide and sign the logsheet yourself. Logs by proxy cannot be accepted. The idea behind the hides is to foster friendships between cachers across the globe and not to give cachers find stats in a country they have never been to. Please respect these caches for their intention.
Thanks again for showing interest in the hides and we hope you'll enjoy finding them as much as we did creating them.