Geocaching

Monday , 30 December 2013 Once we only went on the track round Rosny Point for a bike ride, but on recent times it has been as a walk to find some caches. Today we went from Montagu Bay to Kangaroo Bluff which makes it close to a 10k return walk. On the drive to the start we stopped off at Cornelian Bay to finalise a cache there, so that added a further 1.5 k to the day. Lottie's Lookout #2 This had gone missing on our previous visit a year ago, but we got it quickly today. Whats the point? Sue spotted this from about 10 metres off. We approached by going down a track and along the shore and returned by going up direct to the track. Dance of the Bee. Before arriving we read some of the logs and realised this would be tricky and it was; just too tricky for us and like AlbyDangles before us it had us beaten. We looked about thinking now what would BlueBearyK have been collecting (see log 5/8/13) and what would DnA! Consider as trash (log 20/8/13) and at the same time trying to re...

Friday , 27 December 2013 This year our family all stopped at a holiday house not far out of Swansea for Christmas. This gave us the opportunity do look for a few caches in the region. Bagot Point Lots of holidaying muggles, vehicles and boats. Could see signs of previous gecoachers entering site. Look at the Sea We were a little surprised when the GPS told us to pull up here. The grass was quite long but we got through to the cache. The log was very wet and the pages stuck together; the previous visitor had left behind a sheet of paper in a plastic bag so we signed that one. Once was a Dump We came down a side street and realised going any further that way would be a bit tricky so walked along a south heading track before getting to the shore. A few ups and downs brought us to GZ and return was north along the coast which proved easier walking. Left Orb Weaver Geocoin. Sneaky Sneak 2 Found by Sue after consulting the hint. As we were signing the logs two friends came past and we...

Monday , 16 December 2013 We had planned to visit the fruit farm at Sorell to pick some berry fruits and stopped at a few sites on the way there and back to search for caches. Old Road We nearly didn't bother with this when it was realised that a small dead tree was blocking access and the only feasible other way was the get through the thorns. In the end peter decoded to try. The Travel Bug and Geocoin were not in the container. Lots of Cars (2) Spent a bit of time at two likely spots, but the long grass hindered the search. Don't get wet! Made an small error in the calculation and wasted time searching in the wrong spot, but even when corrected there was still no joy. One of Ten Tribes Did a circuit walk, once we discovered the starting point. Sue located it, but the GPS differed by several metres. Between the Bridges (2) [not anymore] Quick find by Sue after reading the hint.

Sunday , 15 December 2013 Since the last visit to the Taroona area there has been a few new caches put in, so we decided to go for a walk mostly using the foreshore track, but with an excursion on the roads that was needed in order to attempt one of the caches. At one stage we came to a dead end at Illawong Cres but a local said it was probably OK to walk on the land that connected to Wandella Ave. so that saved a lot of backtracking. As it was the cache up that way impossibly under the view of a horde of muggles. Dixons Reef We searched about until Sue spotted a potential hide and it came up trumps. As we went down the steps there were two groups of muggles but they were in the process of leaving and we had the area to ourselves for the search. Taroona Foreshore Track - Pilop For a one star difficulty this proved to be almost a DNF for us. We concentrated on the wrong spot for quite some time and gave up. It was only on the return walk that it was finally discovered by Sue at a clos...

4- 7 December 2013 We went on a mini holiday, staying at a shack at Binalong Bay then drove through the northeast to Launceston, collecting a few caches on the way. Our final day was at the Tamar Wetlands where the extensive mudflats were a new experience for us. Geocachers Garden The grass was quite high so we opted to circuit to GZ on the rocks. Royal Garden The grass was wet after the rain and our shoes absorbed some, but the cache was not hard to locate. Left Princess TB and took two geocoins Fisherman's Memorial We had a look here although the bushes were very wet, but could not find the cache. Sloopy's Spa Bath Even from Jeanerette Beach we could see a distinct feature that we reckoned would be what had to be described to claim the cache. On reaching the actual cache site our assumption proved correct. It was high tide and anyone in the pool today would easily get swept out; we kept a big distance away. Dragon of Information The eyesight read the word "rear...

Friday , 22 November 2013 It was predicted to be quite raining today and were rugged up in anticipation. However it proved to be a sunny and warm day and it seemed a good time to finish off the remaining caches in the Kalang area. Peter had been there earlier in the month whilst doing some Bushcare work, but forgot to take the calculations needed to locate the caches. Kalang Kaleidoscope - Final (KK 07) Finally finished this hard to solve series. Took the Music TB The ants had taken a liking to the inside of this container cover at KK7 Not Ancient Ruins Well this was really tough to work out and Barad was pestered several times for help and still more help, which thankfully was readily given. Eventually Peter worked out to make use of the information provided and spent some time using visual basic to help get the answer. On arrival at the cache site it was apparent that nature had played a part in altering the hiding place. The container was visible and somewhat muddied by what h...

Friday , 15 November 2013 The day was split between finishing off the Tranmere group and some newer ones at Lindisfarne It was an ominously bad start with the first 3 as DNFs, but a rescan brought it back to 2 from 3. Eventually we pared that back 1 DNF until adding another later in the day. Quite a few foot kilometres were involved as we drove to a car park for each area and walked to the caches. Dennis Woz Here Walked up from having lunch at Lindisfarne village. The park was a bit on the neglected side, although fortunately the grass had been cut. Froggy Is Not Amused Made a search but it would have been useful to have gloves as protection from the sharp parts of the hiding place. Streets of Lindisfarne As we got close the likely hiding place became clear. Foreshore Track - Bee Diamonds Took the hard and low approach, but clearly if the tide had not been low this way would have been under water. Took the best way out that we could see, but there was a lots of long grass and stick...

Thursday , 21 November 2013 Originally we were going to walk elsewhere but the weather forecast persuaded us that a circuit of Mount Direction, Madmans Hill and Gunners Quoin would allow is to cut the day short when and if the predicted rain arrived. After the climb to Direction, where mist was rolling in, it was down to an open plateau that was followed north to Madmans Hill. At this point it looked like conditions would deteriorate, from the occasional drizzle we were experiencing, and the walk was changed to return via Saggy Flats.     Kids cubby spotted on the way We were back at the cars at 2:40 pm and were just driving off when the rain arrived. Mount Direction had been subjected to a burn off several months ago, but it looked to us that the fire was too intense, with lots of old trees having been so badly effected that they had fallen over. Some spots had deep ash from the fire.    Fallen trees after burn off   Captain John Hayes The first stag...

Sunday , 10 November 2013 A morning walk turned into a finish after 2:30 and we hadn't had lunch. A bad start ended with a bad finish but in between we managed to get a decent score along the Tranmere tracks. We are residents of the western shore and whilst standing in sunshine we could look back to our home front near the mountain to see showers falling. Wise Men 2 We had two tries at this, the first search for the day but without success and lots of dog owning muggles about. On the return walk we looked from near the path, then read a few logs to discover it was a bit further away than an arms length. Bus Stop Nano Found as described, but could not extract log, even with tweezers. Concreate Took a bit of searching made harder by all the activity about, including a swimming race. A great container. Left a TB. Post Cap Saw a spot that matched the hint and also read the August 2013 log entry mentioning that a tool was needed to get at the cache. We couldn't budge anything so...

Friday , 18 October 2013 This was a day to complete the caches on the track between Seven Mile and Lauderdale, plus a couple of Australian ones in the area. As there was a bit of spare time left we did a walk to collect a couple of "Amongst the Fir Trees" from Five Mile Beach, just as the wind once again picked up to crabby strength. Fork'n Tree One side was open to view, but we made sure that it wasn't visible from trackside. Give me a little sign The naming of the cache now understood. Whattle he think of next A quick find made. Wide open Spaces This one was out in the open and upside down when we reached it; the recent strong winds may have been the problem. Replaced with a bit more security. The only way is up There was plenty of muggles about this morning which meant we had to be cautious. A likely spot was seen but didn't find a cache. Then Sue saw the container lying on the beach between some rocks. We pit in back where we assumed it came from and plac...

Wednesday, 16 October 2013 Walked the Whitewater track on a gradually warming but with the wind also increasing in strength. In fact at one stage Peter's hat blew off and his glasses also got knocked off; unfortunately that meant he couldn't see where they landed and only found them when he realised he had trodden on them. Having new and expensive glasses damaged was not very nice, but at least the lens were not scratched. The Whitewater track was fine enough but as with so many creek systems, that have human development near, the weeds have made big inroads. Rascally's Ouch!! Went too far for this but soon rectified the mistake. Whitewater Wander - Take A Seat Sue quickly found it and most of the time taken was in putting back the log, which is now full. Whitewater Wander - Log Your Find A bit of a stretch of the hand and the container slipped from Peter's fingers a couple of times. Tried to pull out a small Blackberry before it took over and managed to get a prick...

Sunday, 13 October 2013 With predictions of afternoon showers we decided to tackle the walking track between Lauderdale and Seven Mile Beach during the morning while things looked OK. But by the time we had gone about two thirds of the way it started to rain and after sheltering from two shower spells we thought it best to head back to the car and do the rest on another day. LYC on the beach. The clue helped Sue grab this fairly quickly. Before we got to the spot we were looking for something large and well above head height to match the clue before realising we were thinking of a different version. Last Line of Defence A quick find by Sue. The Steps The spot we expected it to be drew a blank, but taking another angle soon came up with goods. The End We were on the walking track but is was clear that we should have stayed on the beach. A look down persuaded us to try for an easier approach and that turned out to be by returning after going down to get the next cache in line. Peter...

Saturday, 12 October 2013 Barad had mentioned that he had been chasing up drawings for some geocaches he was planning and soon after the CACC series began to get published. One look at the first one had Peter flummoxed but Sue made a suggestion stemming from the picture on the cache web site. This started the wheels in motion as we managed to solve it without too much nudging from Barad, but when the next two came up Peter was hopelessly lost and had to make repeated entreaties to Barad for help; which was willingly supplied. On the appointed search day we set off with Peter convinced in his own mind where the first 3 caches would be. However as CACC 1   was neared the GPS was insisting it was a good 150m off and Peter became convinced that he had copied a coord wrongly. So as it eventually was getting even further off, we switched to look for CACC 2 and found it was right where we were standing. Eventually we collected CACC 3   and headed back by a very steep old track. The...

Thursday, 10 October 2013 As we haven't been beyond Sandford for several years when three new caches were placed near Calverts Lagoon we decided it was time to head that way. There was also two close by ones and they were added to the list. Mareniko's Menagerie A fellow was in the paddock of Mareniko and had a look as we pulled and walked to the cache, then he resumed what he was doing; we assume he also knew what we were up to. Calvets Walking Track Sue managed to find this OK, but had to stretch until she realised it was an easy grab from the other side. After that we went for a walk along the track where the first bit had some nice flowers out. The part going close to the fence wasn't nearly as pleasant so we came back via the walking only track closer to the lagoon. Unfortunately Erica, the weed species, has invaded some of the area and although signs indicate horses must be kept to the track marked for them, there was evidence of horse hooves in the off limits areas...

Friday, 27 September 2013 With an afternoon that had nothing specifically that had to be done, we opted to finally have a go at a couple of the Barad Bunch puzzle caches on Knocklofty. Plenty of people about, especially with dogs, but we managed to avoid coinciding too much with them once at the cache sites. However it wasn't all easy sailing. Powerful Chemical Conundrum 04 Upon getting to the calculated pole we proceeded to head in the direction that we thought would be the most likely. This seemed to pay off when a container was duly found. However it proved to have a most unwelcome message indicating that it was not the cache at all. We read the brief instruction and immediately began looking for the real one in the direction indicated. It was puzzling because there was no mention of how far away it would be, but we assumed it would have to be close. After over 30 minutes of fruitless searching with Barad's name becoming mud in our thoughts we were about to throw in the to...

Friday, 20 September 2013 The lower slopes of mount Wellington have a lot of tracks that can be used for a circuit walk, and today we went from O'Gradys, up Betts then on the north south to the Springs and down Radfords. On checking beforehand it was discovered that the took us past four caches that we hadn't yet scored. O'Grady's Bracken Fairly close to where we left the car and the clue was very helpful. Always Better With .... O' Grady's Refreshment! The naming of the cache became apparent once it was found. However we don't really agree that it is always better with … O' Grady's Log Sue spotted the location from the precise clue. O'Gradys Falls were in good form.   Radford's Monument Sue spotted a very likely location, but she decided it would be Peter who had to put his hand into the unknown.

Wednesday 4 September 2013 We had decided to go for a walk along part of the Kaoota Tramways track and had assumed that this cache would be somewhere along the route.  After parking the car and starting off Peter realised that the GPS was saying that WP1 was back where the car was parked.   Once the info was collected and plugged into the GPS, it showed that the cache was not anywhere near the expected location.  Thinking that he must had inserted something wrong or made a miscalculation, Peter rechecked and in fact found he had used the B value where the A should be.  That should fix it he thought; but no it was still not where Peter imagined it would be.   A recheck and yes everything seemed to be entered correctly, so back to the compass and now it suddenly was suggesting the location was over 9,000 k away; whoops S had been inadvertently replaced by N.  Back to the compass and still thousands of kilometres away; whoops again W had got in inst...

Wednesday, 17 July 2013 Many thanks to the geocachers who brought us down to the Taroona foreshore track. It was unknown to us and may never have been discovered otherwise. Council had closed off part, but not where the caches were hidden, and a laneway diversion had to be adopted. Lunch was at a café in an old service station and seems a popular spot. Retreat Cove Went from track through the schoolyard; noted a lot of Vinca at GZ (a spreading and horribly invasive weed). Dead or Alive Name and hint honed us onto this. Took Orion geocoin and left KJs trackable Time & Tide Glad to have been brought here. Followed dirt track which was a bit muddy to the final waypoint. Caching Greatest Hits We walked from the café at Taroona after doing the foreshore caches and, despite it being winter, by the time we got up the hill to GZ we were quite warm and sweaty. The views of the large old home and another fairly old one were interesting and something not noticed as well when driving. Too...

Saturday, 13 July 2013 It was a most pleasant day with lots of sun out Seven Mile way and we did a circuit from the south east corner to the end of the airport and back through pine plantations. Originally it was thought that the caches at Five Mile Beach might be included, but once back at the car we decided we had expended enough energy already for the day. 11.265 Kilometre View Went too far along the coast as it would have been a slippery ascend if we followed the GPS, so had to backtrack about 20 metres to pick up a pad. The cache was found at the spot the GPS indicated. On return we ascended a bit further and used the fairly newly gravelled walking track back to the beach. This was our 450th cache, excluding the Aust site ones. Pining For Mum Found the log on the ground beside a cut down pine, but no sign of the container. We didn’t have a spare one but put the log in a plastic bag and placed it under a quite large log chip beside the stump. See Smells By The Sea Shore A bit o...

Tuesday, 9 July 2013 It was a sunny day and the arrangements for the day had fallen through, so an afternoon stroll around Rose Bay to Lindisfarne Bay was done. JABs and Old Saint keep putting caches in the area which helps with the decision of where to walk. The Big Bang is Back Our Big Failure Well this is proving to be just too hard for us. First times the gun had just gone and now on a visit soon after being reinstated we just could not find it. Stoppage time had to be called a few times due to the arrival of muggles, but we reckoned the hint area was given a thorough search. Unless of course we misinterpreted a key word. In fact we were down on knees and hands until we got giddy. Rose Bay Foreshore Park The hint was taken literally and fortunately there was a ledge at the right height. From there it was only a few metres to a suspicious item. Photographic Point Quite quick because of the hint and we liked the camouflage enclosing it. Ford Parade We read some earlier logs and...

Thursday, 20 June 2013 After spending time listing the caches planned for this walk through the East Risdon Reserve, Peter hopped out of the car and went to grab the list only to find he had left it at home. He was quite upset with himself, because he did the same only a few weeks ago. Fortunately Peter knew where the puzzle start waypoint for one of Barad's caches, so all was not lost. The calculator on the GPS also came in handy today as we only had the tiniest bit of paper to work things out on. We included a few Old Saint caches on the day and had a devil of a job finding one of them and with the one placed by DDTs, we walked past it thinking eventually it would get closer but it didn't, and we had to settle for looking for it on the return walk. A Bridge View A few muggles about but we managed to spot the hide and log it without drawing too much attention. Had at use a little item to assist in the extraction. Selfs Point Gee this caused us a lot of angst as we could see...

Wednesday, 26 June 2013 The Alum Cliffs track is marked as 2 hours return, but it took us much longer; but stopping for lunch at a beach front café accounts for that. We started at the top end off Sedgebrook Rd and collected the caches along the way. On return we walked along in the northern direction to the final lookout and cache. Alum Cliffs: Have a Seat! When Sue read out the hint. Jenny who was walking with us spotted the location. Left TB Dash to start his journey. Achiever's Cache As we were coming from the top the hint was not so easy to use. Sue approached from a different, though harder, starting point to Peter and arrived first. The container was quite visible from a few metres away and did try to make it less so when replacing. Chepup & Snuva As mentioned in a recent log, this cache has been muggled or somehow come apart. We had Dave with us and he located a clip lock plastic bag whist Peter found the lid of the container and a couple of plastic bags one with ge...

Friday, 28 June 2013 Our ambition was greater than what we could achieve on this walk. This was partly brought about by the fact that the multicache took us on a circuit of Rosny Hill that we had already just walked. Those we didn't get can wait for another day. Fire Up Bingo! Sue spotted a cache then found in fact there were two for the price of one. We did not have this one down searching and realised when checking the web site map that it did not show up due to it being hidden behind the "Black Beetle" mate at the same coords. With this one we signed the log and put it back in the hide Foreshore Track - Reflections Of … This time there were no workers about and in fact it was all fairly quiet as we walked past. Quickly grabbed the cache and walked on a little, in case vehicles came past, to sign the login before returning it. VIEW 360 A geocache track took us down to the spot. No More Mr. Nice Guy We entered the Rosny Hill reserve from the western side and walked ...

Saturday, 29 June 2013 A lunch invitation took us to Bagdad and the opportunity to do a few geocaches on the homeward journey was too good to miss. An Old Fashioned Ford Two walkers with a dog were exiting from the path to this cache and one was quickly recognised as Graham51, who worked out why we had pulled up. We took some time looking for the cache and Peter had just about given up thinking this was harder than a 1.5 difficulty for him. Sue made a search in the spot vacated by Peter and came up with the goods. A nifty and clever hide. Bridge over troubled Jordan Even with highway no longer going here, there was still ample traffic. A quick find by Sue. When hearing the name of this cache this morning Peter suggested it sounded like a Budgie title. Downtown Bagdad After stopping at the bottom of Winstead Rd, it was a matter of crossing the highway and nabbing the cache container. Traffic was not all that heavy so it could be replaced and the road crossed again. To the Pontville...

Wednesday 12 June 2013 Collected They Found a Cache   whilst on a bushwalk to Butlers Hill.  We ascended to the top of the cliffs from the Chauncy Vale car park and wound our way along the tops until an old logging track was reached.  This was followed for a while then a steep climb to another  and finally up to Butlers Hill.  On return we came down at a gully and were able to walk under the upper cliffs for a considerable distance.  This was quite fascinating with many overhangs and caves, masses of what we though were Devil scats and several spots with the white from bird droppings from the cliffs above.  As we got closer to the GZ the GPS indicated it was directly below us so  this necessitated continuing along on the level we were on until a way could be found to get onto the walking track past the cache cave.              Cliff line          De...

Tuesday 11 June 2013 This was t he  last one needed to have the right to visit Wellington Peaks H.  On a fine and partly sunny day we walked up the track from Myrtle Forest, getting wet from the bushes with the previous nights showers still cloaking them. Peter had been told of an exotic pine up there and when he spotted it, was most annoyed about not bringing a saw; oh well looks like another trip back there soon. On approaching the summit Neville and John were given a brief explanation on geocaching and Neville helped find the container.   Photo at top     Lunch on Collins Bonnet    above   Mount Connection and below   Mount Marian from Collins Bonnet summit

Saturday, 8 June 2013 For the last couple of months we had on the radar a visit to the Murdunna area to both the see the destruction from the bushfire and to get the Barard caches. We also thought buying morning coffee and lunch would be a way of helping the local businesses. Coffee at the Murdunna store was acceptable but only came in throw away containers; it could be better with cups and some food to choose from plus a door directly out to the deck. Lunch was at Dunalley Waterfront Café which had a nice atmosphere and service was good. Sommers Bay is a pretty area. Murdunna Moments After having a coffee on the deck at the Murdunna store it was a short stroll to GZ. In fact Sue had it found well before Peter even had his GPS on. We left Soccer Ball TB Sommer Set #1 We walked down the gravel path to the jetty then were unsure which way from there, mostly because of a sign nearby, which seemed to suggest that it was private property where we needed to go. The answer was to walk aro...

Wednesday, 22 May 2013 We had a couple of hours free before meeting our daughter so decided on a Lindisfarne walk past the new caches. Old time seat We did sit on the seat as suggested and had the container after a bit of searching at the spot. Beacause I Can We had seen a container like this quite recently so that helped make it a quick find. The Park We saw a pack of walkers approaching and made a dash to locate this before they got close. Took a little searching and Peter also had to take care not to get poked in the eye from the pointy sag leaves. Beltana (Lindisfarne) Park We kept looking around the big tree then reread the description and after that Sue was soon on to the cache. A muggle was sitting in the park eating lunch and would have been sure to be wondering what we could be doing. The Big Bang Well we got close to Anzac Park at Lindisfarne and went to the spot that the GPS took us. The description talked about a gun and the hint was quite specific. However as hard a...

Wednesday, 15 May 2013 A couple of years ago we went for a walk in the hills above Risdon Brook and returned past the cache "School Of Rock" in which we found the first waypoint. It was on our agenda for today on what was quite an enjoyable walk, with lots of wallaby scooting about and stacks of little holes dug in the sandy soil; probably from bandicoots. On that initial occasion we didn't know realise the GPS had an "enter next stage" function so left it for another day; it was just as well because we now know it would have directed us back the way we had just walked down from. School Of Rock: Cheat Sheet After re-finding the first waypoint we were a little confused by the two very faint instructions in the container, although the coords were clear to see. We put one of Peter's GPS and the other in Sue's so that covered all bases. Anyway we soon passed waypoint 2 and proceeded to waypoint 3 although by a higher track than we should have. On top of so...

Wednesday, 8 May 2013 Today we walked from Montagu Bay via Rosny Point to the eastern end of Bellerive Beach. We have ridden our bikes along this route in the past, but as Peter had stitches in his back it seemed more prudent to walk. Getting caches took a turn for the worse due to all the workers at the first two sites and there was plenty of them about over the whole journey; however that was the only spot that really stopped the hunt. Perhaps it is all part of the NBN rollout. We did return sooner than planned because at the end of Bellerive beach Peter's shoe sole started to part company with the upper; it only just survived the journey back to the car, with a very flip flop sound by then. Foreshore Track - Reflections Of … All the work activity here, including a "stop/go slow" man meant we could not hunt for what was to be the cache for the day. Foreshore Track - Holy Moley It took two searches of the hiding spot to feel the container. While we huddled over the log...

Thursday 2 May 2013 It was a nice day for a walk and the decision was Risdon Brook possibly including the multis there. A brisk wind kept us jolly cool until gaining shelter from the treed areas. After a circuit of the dam was completed, Sue discovered she did not have her sunglasses and remembered taking them off at the cache at the furthest end of the dam. A second circuit did have success in finding them. Art Of Fencing About 10 minutes was spent looking and trying the nut this one out, then Peter spotted something. This was an ingenious hide; no wonder 50% of finders give it a favourite and it also earns one from us too. A couple of the log entries also now made more sense A Stream at Risdon Tried to find this once before (24/Jul/2011) and things were looking no better until a bit of prodding came up with the goods. Left ALL BLACK CAPTAIN ( David Kirk ) TB By the Brook Went too low but on second scan of the site a likely hide was noticed. However this seemed to be the signal...

Saturday 27 July 2013 A lot of steps had to be negotiated from the university up the hill to Mount Nelson. Our aim was to pick up the caches we didn't get around to on the last visit to the area, but one had to dropped from the schedule because Peter forgot to bring his sheet of paper with calculations that were needed. The return walk was down through Lambert Gully. Stairway to Heaven We left the car at the University and walked up the steps on what was quite a warm day. On getting level with the cache site it was over the fence where a convenient log had been left (although we subsequently noticed a opening allowing easy access a little way further up. Left Badminton Racquet TB Walking the Dog After climbing up the hill we emerged at the primary school and noticed the pad through into this little bit of bush surrounded by houses. Sue spotted the hiding spot, but dropped the container quick smart when she noticed a cockroach on it. TFTC Kooka's Playground Although the GPS p...