Riana's Treasure

The Riana’s Treasure geocache (GC1W2H3) has been watching over the red slabs of the Epupa Falls since July 2009, in the far north of Namibia, where the Kunene River draws the border with Angola. The river spreads there over half a kilometre before breaking into waterfalls, among baobabs and makalani palms.

You set out from Opuwo with a full load of water and food: ninety kilometres of track in a 4x4, a whole day, and most often a night under canvas. At the end of the trail, the cache waits below a large flat slab, on the river side. It was originally a two-litre box, with a small koala in charge of holding the pencil; the container has changed several times since, and today it is an amber glass vitamin bottle, exactly the colour of the rocks.

In a country with only a few hundred caches, this one has held on for more than fifteen years, and Geocaching HQ made it its geocache of the week in July 2023, before including it in its selection of the year. On the way back down, you sometimes come across crocodiles sunning themselves on the bank.