Four Geocaches and an Umbrella
Yesterday morning I headed out to the shopping centre to drop off some work pants to have altered and I thought since I was out I may as well get some good ol’ Geocaching done. I’d hopped in the car then looked at the sky and went back in the house for an umbrella. It looked like I’d get good use out of that.
I dropped off my pants and headed towards Nurragingy Reserve in Doonside, Sydney. I soon arrived and followed my iPhone Geosphere GPSr application to nearby the first Geocache, Lynched!
I had an idea where the Geocache may be hidden so searched around the area. I saw what I thought may be the Geocache, but could not get it to move, so figured I was wrong and went back to the GPSr application. It kept pointing me around some trees, but I didn’t think the Geocache would be there. I wandered around for about half an hour checking everywhere, but I think the clouds may have been causing havok with my GPSr. The iPhone doesn’t have the best GPS device inside it, so you have to trust your judgement as to where a Geocache may be.
I decided to read the hint supplied, but it didn’t help at all. I read through other logs and it became apparent I had been correct in my first assumption and wasn’t trying hard enough. I gave it another go and soon had the tiny Geocache in my hands. I stickered the log with our Official Two Goth Geeks log sticker and put the Geocache back. I filled in the log and FOUND section in my phone to sync back to the Geocaching.com website later and headed back to the car. There had been a gathering… a wedding or somesuch nearby the Geocache, but it was raining enough to keep people inside. A few people walked by near where I was searching, but none were around when I was working on the actual Geocache.
I jumped back in my car and drove off to the next one on the list, N.R Hideaway. The description suggested parking near the Blacksmith’s hut, so I did and grabbed a small badge to add to the cache, got my umbrella and headed off down the track. This one was along a track which had been built up to a platform and steps. I came across a biker going the other way and said “Gday” as we passed. Not far from the Geocache, I heard a lot of kids shouting and laughing. Soon after, a bunch of them came riding by on pushbikes. Two rode off in the direction of the Geocache so I headed that way, too. They soon came back past me and rode to meet the others as I continued along the track. I came across a brick pylon right next to a swamp, which was strange. I might upload a photo of that to the Geocache page. I soon arrived at the location of the Geocache and figured the most likely location. I had a quick search before checking the hint and knew I was right next to the hiding place. I picked up the Geocache and saw it was too small for the badge, so just signed the log, put it back and went to my car again.
Next one was THE FALLEN. This was another short walk of about 600 metres. I had to head off the track into the bush (or ‘woods’ as they say in the US of A). I walked to where I figured was about the right location and checked my GPS but was about 100 metres off so headed closer and soon quickly figured what THE FALLEN was referring to. After a quick search, I had the Geocache in my hands and the logbook stickered up. I dropped the badge in this one, careful that the black plastic spider guarding the cache didn’t attack and put the Geocache back together. Back to the car and off to the next Geocache.
By this time my car fuel warning light had been on for a while, but I knew I had a fair way I could go on that so drove to the first waypoint of a Multicache. Multicaches have more than one location for you to visit before finding the actual GZ (Ground Zero — or the actual location of the Geocache).
I parked the car near WP1 (Waypoint #1. The first location to visit.) and strolled down the education trail. It was not long before I came across the right spot and after a quick look had the location for WP2. Back to the Cache-mobile and onto the next Waypoint. I got to the second waypoint and got out, locked the car and proceeded down the trail. While walking I thought I’d see if there was a way to mark where the car had been parked so I could find it easily enough when I returned. After a bit of mucking about I had a location set in the Geosphere program and went to switch it back to searching for Waypoint 2 when I suddenly realised with a shock that I’d lost the location because I’d been trying to put the car’s location in. ARGH! I walked back to the car and quickly drove to WP1 again, fastwalked down the trail and this time added a new Waypoint to the Geocache entry in my iPhone and saved it. I also took photos of the numbers in case something happened again. In the car and it was off again to WP2 about 3 mins drive down the track. Following the correct location direction I was off once again. It started raining, but I had my umbrella. I walked past a group of people and up onto a road which it turns out I could have driven to somehow, but nevermind, it was only about 500 metres to walk to WP2. I passed a council bus with a bunch of Islander-looking people playing guitar and singing at a BBQ spot. I went past then and turned right down the road again and past a group of people with a sign something like “The Legion of Mary”. Huh… Past them and to WP2 I was soon searching for the numbers again. I thought I was in the correct area but still checked the hint this time and knew I was correct. It was just a matter of finding the tiny printing of numbers. After about 20 minutes I spotted it and entered the new location into my Geosphere application. I also added a note to my iPhone note application with the numbers on it and walked back to the car. Along the way it really started raining heavier than ever before and my shoes got soaked through. I made my way sloshing through the rain and got in the car. The fuel gauge was still assuring me I needed to fill up soon, but I was sure I only had one more place to go.
I filled my pockets with a few trinkets some friends had given me as they no longer needed them and followed the arrow on my GPSr to GZ (Ground Zero). There were people walking around in the rain, some even with very young children in rain jackets. I had hoped that the rain would keep muggles (non-Geocachers) away, but still had to wait until they’d all moved on before I started looking. GZ was a big pile of rocks and after some long searching in the rain I checked hints and other logs. I knew I was in the right area, but apparently you have to be very dexterous and flexible to get this Geocache. I searched around, lying on wet rocks and reaching, feeling all around… hoping against hope that no creepy crawlies would attack my flesh. After about 30-40 minutes I’d had enough. I was quite wet by now and had had a headache for about the last hour and a half. (Okay, it was probably more like a hangover). I decided I’d have to log a DNF (Did Not Find) against this and trudged through the mud back to my car. I got in and drove home, only stopping for some petrol and a small amount of supplies for dinner. I soon got home and downed a couple of Nurofen Zavance and had some food. I watched a bit of television comedy (Scrubs) and soon was feeling much better.
A really good, peaceful day out Geocaching in all.
