Skip to content

The geographical centre of SA Traditional Geocache

Hidden : 7/7/2012
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

Welcome to the middle of South Africa!

If you use the four extreme coordinates (i.e. the northern, southern, eastern and western most points as given below) of continental South Africa to calculate its geographical centre this is where you end up; approximately 830km from each of the four “corners” of the country.

A geographic midpoint, sometimes called a centre of gravity, centre of mass or centroid is the average coordinate for a set of points calculated on a spherical globe. Due to the irregular shape of Earth and distortions that occur when the Earth’s surface is projected onto a flat surface, this true centre might seem somewhat off when viewed on a flat map.

Happy caching!
 
References:
Geographic midpoint calculator, http://www.geomidpoint.com
Northern most point: S 22° 7.631' E 29° 39.387'
Southern most point: S 34° 50.016' E 20° 0.008'
Eastern most point: S 26° 51.495 E 32° 53.440’
Western most point: S 28° 37.801' E 16° 27.477'


Thank you to "Ons twee" for agreeing to help maintain this cache.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Arkg gb srapr haqre fznyy Xnerr gerr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)