Geocaching

Tuesday , 28 June 2016 A Monumental Expedition We could remember getting a cache here before and discovered this was a replacement. We thought we would have a coffee at the café but it was closed on a Tuesday. Conical chronicle Noticed a track to the shore but then found this was not the ideal way at all but once a better approach pad was found it was much easier.  Left a TB. First time we have seen one of this type of container which was nice and dry inside so must seal up well. Vee to me Spotted location, but was busy looking for State Permanent Marker and didn’t check it at first. Although the cache was found the marker wasn’t. Somflin #1 Easy enough to find as was expected for this first one of the series. Somflin #2 Did not tax us too much as it did not require any calculations. Somflin #3 Calculation was fairly straight forward and it didn’t take long. Somflin #4 Bit of scrub, which may well have grown up since cache was placed, so it took a bit...

Friday , 17 April 2015 With a nice forecast in the offing we did a circuit walk on the hills at the Waterworks.   We parked within the reserve and headed up hill eventually getting to the crest where lunch was enjoyed in the sun and then along what was now a wide track to Chimney Pot Road and back down to the car via McDermotts Saddle. It was mixed day for finding caches though with one complete failure and  another that gave a deal of frustration; but .managed to get four. Stumped By Clueless? Was suspicious that the obvious answer would be a trick and it was  I didn’t like the colour of the herrings. Tried another tack   but came up to a brick wall. It was then time to get some help from Barad and that was enough to break the deadlock. Keys to Success This proved to be a problem. After exhausting the options from the small container we discovered the actual opener after a bit of examination.  However the inner was obviously only able to be opene...

Thursday , 5 March 2015 We had been thinking about doing the multicache on the Canopus hill for sometime and as the weather was not looking the best for a Mount Wellington walk this seemed to be a good time to do it.  The first thing that struck us was the huge noise of the highway traffic and was not until after leaving waypoint 4 before it abated.  At the next stop the land owner was very curious to know what we up to and so ensued a lengthy explanation of geocaching and GPS units; by which stage he had changed from being concerned to helpful and pointed to where we ought go for views from the top.  We met him again whilst as he said was his regular walk round the top.   The Curse of the FTF (Tasmania) #3 A quick look at this puzzle had us in the dark, so we were pleased to get it the easy way.   A Stroll or a Trek The optional  walk was well worth it and had the advantage of a walk through the pleasant bush on the summit.   And the b...

Saturday , 27 December 2014 Eight caches had been added since our last walk up the hill, which is now getting to be close to 4k to the end one. For variety, and to get an additional cache at the northern end of Goat Hills, we walked own the Zig Zag fire trail and that needed care to avoid involuntary sliding. Montrose List 12 - Holden on Fortunately it didn’t take long to work out the answer as an internet search just happened to bring up the right list, although there was 1 dicky one in there. Montrose List 11 - Hard Rock (but no Cafe) Number 12 was visited first and while there Peter's pack tipped over before we headed off to this cache.  Once the log was extracted we discovered that some items were missing and Peter had to walk back to 12 where he also found his drink bottle as well.  An unplanned 300 metre extra walk.   But we did have a cup of tea, although it was a BYO variety. Montrose List 13 - I Love Puzzles I worked out what the puzzle items were but th...

Wednesday , 30 April 2014 After running out of time two days earlier and with a pleasant weather prediction, we headed off to do the caches that had been planned for the previous trip, plus some more. But it took us so long walking and searching that we ended up still being at Ranelagh after 1 PM and bought lunch at Summer Kitchen baker. It advertises as an organic business and the food and coffee were tasty. Save a cowboy Ride a ??? A light shower was falling, but Sue was able to hop out and quickly bring it back to the car for signing. One Lane Creek 4 Looked where the GPS and logic said, but no sign of it. 4 Corners-2 Found one in this series before so went straight to the the right spot. One Lane Creek 3 Peter went north side and kept his shoes dry, whilst Sue encountered long wet grass on the south approach. The log was so wet it was impossible to sign. Actually on first sighting Peter was none too sure that this wasn’t just some an old discarded object rather than the cache ...

Monday , 21 April 2014 With a fine morning predicted, followed by rain arriving in the late afternoon, it was off soon after breakfast to New Norfolk. A 12.5 k circuit walk from the town centre took us past 10 caches. Return was by Boyer Road which is marked at 80KPH all the way to Bridgewater which we kept to, but some drongo who seemed to be unable to read and had little regard for road safety passed us on double lines beside an 80 sign whilst beeping and gesticulating violently as he roared past. The morning of caching did however turn out to be a day of caching, but we did beat the rain home; only just though. Third Bridge Stopped as traffic was light and the swans came to check what we were doing. SB Multi #1 We called at WP1 on the way to New Norfolk and confirmed the suspicion about where WP2 would be. Then later as part of the walk we did the second calculation, but Peter made a mathematical error and the GPS pointed to a most unlikely spot. A recheck of calculations gave a...

Friday , 4 April 2014 We planned a trip staying overnight at Brockley homestead and to include the Part of the Old Coach Road that we hadn't previously walked. Brockley has been restored and offers accommodation in the historic homestead. On the way we settled on a few geocaches to do between Penna and Orford, plus a visit to the Bushland Garden near Buckland. Sharkdog walk Found without problem after the short walk beside the calm bay. A Digital Digitation Looked complicated but after consulting Google the conflict between I & P was resolved, but then during the calculation stage it was further complicated by the number 10 which would have been out of bounds. An assumption was made and when the final result was viewed in Google Earth it all looked plausible and when at GZ the road name gave more confidence. Some drivers of passing vehicles gave us curious looks. It was found at the suspected spot. Convict Cove It was a very pleasant latish afternoon walk to the quarry and...

Wednesday , 26 February 2014 We decided to take a trip out to the Poimena Reserve to attempt a few caches. A couple of years ago we both recollect walking to the top of the reserve for geocache, but there is nothing on the web and it has us somewhat puzzled; are we mistaken or has it been archived. The caches today were varied and inventive. Flying Saucers We walked up from the bottom car park only to find a council truck with workers inside parked at GZ. We think they may have been waiting for knock off time to lock the gate on the road. Fortunately the cache further up the hill beckoned and after finding that we returned and the truck had gone. Sue suspected where the hide might be and she was correct. It had been popular up here as we were the 5th in the log for the day. The Birth Place of Australian Disc Golf A fairly quick find and we hope the plastic bag lasts a bit longer as there was no hard container and it had a hole in it. Peter pulled out a few Boneseed plants while Sue ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Monday 11 March 2013  An afternoon circling the Domain, starting with what we thought was a pretty smart start with the unusual "Batteries Not Included" cache. However although we thought we had things correct, it seems that was not the case as it ended in taking lots of time and frustration. The remainder of the day was successful with a mixed bag of caches. Batteries Not Included We thought all was really going well after discovering the initial container and having an item to make things work. However the GZ didn't seem right and certainly didn't fit the spot that other logs mentioned. After more searching we went on to other geocaches and as our car was parked nearby, decided to go back to the start. This time we found more combinations that seemed to give a response, but still didn't get the confirmation expected. Nevertheless we went back to what was now several potential GZs, but failed to find anything at any. We must have missed a vital clue somewhere i...

Thursday 24 January 2013 Powerful Chemical Conundrum 12 After reading that this area has an endangered plant (Velleia paradoxa) we decided it might be a good spot to place a cache.  The first thing to do though was locate where the Barad Bunch cache lay so we could be the requisite distance away.   On reading the description we realised that unless a map was taken and a compass we probably wouldn't be able to work out the first position needed. Our first excursion involved finding the poles and the numbers on them.  Peter didn't think to get a GPS reading of the position of the poles, so had to make the best estimate using Google Erath and some map software. Today we went over to the reserve again hopefully with location of the first container in the GPS.  As we arrived Peter discovered his paper with the information and for writing any further clues had been left behind. The GPS  brought us reasonably close and after circling round a bit, Sue called out ...

Friday 6 July 2012 Quite a few months ago Barad Bunch suggested trying to find some of his Kalang series, so Peter had a look and realised that it was going to require a bit of brain power to solve. At first it looked like A|C|G|T (KK 04) may be the easiest, but several attempts to work it out failed. The only thing to do was email Barad Bunch for some help; the reply was “well that is probably the hardest, try some others first”. Well we did but it became clear that this was seriously tough work and Barad had to put up with several more requests for hints of what to do. The only one of the five solved that didn’t need his help was Noughts and Crosses (KK 02). So a really big thanks to Barad for his forbearance. We worked out the route to take with a bit of Google Earth plotting and set out on what was a superbly beautiful day; in fact it reached 17 degrees. Not long after ticking off the first one a woman walked past with her dog and, on seeing us with a GPS and a looking at a sheet ...