Geocaching

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.