The Wife then suggested that since that one was so easy (yeah, well I didn’t see you out there in the heat scratching around looking for it, “that’s because someone had to stay with the car in case there were car jackers around”, what the hell is the alarm and locking system for then? “they were part of the deal and anyway you can’t rely on them”), we might as well have a go at Do it by halves. We had worked this one out on my Garmin Mapsource program and had entered the final co-ordinates directly into the GPS. So using these we pulled up at the GZ. Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t far from the only place a cache could be hidden. A tree. It looked like a fair bit of cleaning had been done here recently and we weren’t real positive that we would find the cache. Well, with all hands on deck (the shade of the tree must have been encouragement enough, although it must have dropped the temperature by a whole 1/2 a degree, or it might have been my scathing remarks that kicked them into action), searching every nook and cranny, I eventually found the cache very neatly hidden at the base of the trunk.

Several weeks later, we were on our way back to Whyalla to see the Monster Trucks. C7 is a VERY BIG fan and he had received tickets to them for his birthday. As we were running a little early I suggested we do a cache on the way in. Pete’s Path seemed as good a cache as any. The Wife had also activated her own TB, My Other Car’s a Mercedes Benz, the night before and was eager to send it on its travels. So following directions from the GPS we headed off in the general direction. It wasn’t long before I was at logger heads with it, and I near threw it out the window, when we ended in some dug out hole with no way out except the way we came in. So a quick u-turn and then i followed my nose. Wasn’t far to the right road and we were on our way again. We arrived at the parking spot and then walked to the GZ. Lovely day for a walk, placed the TB, then walked all the way along the path back to the car and returned to the highway the easy way. C7 was now happiest as we were on our way to the monster trucks.

It was only a week later, while we were once again in Whyalla, that we decided to clean up the last cache for us to find. Catapult had proved once that it may become a problem cache. On that day it had been 44 degrees in the water bottle, much the same as it was this time. Once again we ventured forth and located GZ. It seemed like only a few minutes before I found the cache under the ONLY tree that H10 and I hadn’t searched the first time. So it was a quick signing of the log and back to the air conditioned car to cool down. We had cleaned Whyalla out and didn’t have to bring our caching gear with us anymore. Well until there are some more caches to be found anyway.

Once all the sightseeing that had to be done, was done, we got back into our wannabe 4WD  and continued on down the track to No Country For Old Men. We actually drove a complete circle around this cache trying to find a track or part of the road closer to the cache than where we thought was closest (see photo). In the end we finished back at where we started and the geokids and I walked through the scrubbery to the GZ while the Wife recovered from her heart attack in the car (no head for adventure or cars going down steep slight, bumpy slopes).  Didn’t take long for H10 to dig up the cache and perform the swaps. I covered it back up with more sticks and twigs and we returned to the car and the still, jittery wife.
  

We then drove back around and up another hill to close in on the next cache called Monash Gully. In hind sight there probably was a better way of approaching this cache, but the shortest route seemed the logical choice, which was straight down. I must admit the Outlander handled it admirably but I now have to repair some of the upholstery due to the claw marks left by the Wife as she and the geokids were screaming their heads off.  I turned to the left at the bottom and parked not far from the cache. The Wife got out and started wobbling walking towards the GZ. When quizzed about the wonkiness, she assured me it was due to her legs having turned to jelly. It wasn’t long before we located the cache, again under rocks, under a bush and soon we were on our way again.

The drive to Power and Water Available was uneventful and boring. No steep gradients or slippery slopes for the car to slide down or spin it’s way up. We pulled up near the water tank and went for a walk into the bush. By now H10 had worked out how the caches were hidden in these parts and it wasn’t long before she announced that she had found the rocks (after being prodded in the right direction by the wife). She removed the cache and I signed the log. C7 was too busy throwing sticks or SMASHING ants to worry about the cache but took time out from his busy schedule to replace it. From here I figured it was straight out to the highway and onto our next cache. I hadn’t counted on roadworks happening in the area and we couldn’t actually get to the highway without crossing some very iffy terrain.

Eventually we navigated our way out of the mess and powered on to Dig? Once we had figured out the clues from the CORRECT sign, we headed on down the road. Whoa, we’ve gone past the GZ. Ah well, there’s a road there that leads towards the GZ. Hang on, that’s going over the number 9(?) fairway. Don’t think those guys playing there would like us doing that. What if we ran over one of their balls? So we did a u-turn and headed back the way we came. I remember seeing a track that looked like it would lead in the general direction of the cache. We parked approximately 150 meters from the cache and walked the rest of the way. Again H10 spotted the, now familiar, pile of rocks and uncovered the cache. Nice views from here and a stop at the nineteenth would have been a godsend nice, but we continued back and on to a cache that had been haunting our dreams for quite a while.

Hourly, Daily was proving to be a bit of a headache. The first time we had tried this we ended up in some wild, farout places that we knew just couldn’t be right. The Wife had also tried this one several times on her regular pilgrimages to Whyalla, but was unable to crack it. Well it turned out that The Wife was not as clever as she thought she was and confused the two places as well. Also she overthunk it and made it more confusing by using the Roman numerals. I’m not too sure if it was the adrenalin coursing through her veins or the dopamine high she was on but she re-read the information supplied and the logs, redid the maths with the proper digits and WHYALLA (sic), there it was (Note to mental self, don’t let someone with IQ of 150 near a simple problem). Stick with the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid). Now that I had located and retrieved this one from under a nearby tree, we could now sleep a lot easier at night move on to another unfinished cache.

This was one of those caches that appear a lot harder to do than they actually are. Which is why we hadn’t finished this one yet. Flight 904 was one of the original caches that I had downloaded into my GPS when I started caching and the first time we searched for it we had no idea that it had actually been moved. So this was technically our second attempt, and with the new co-ords we were sure to find it. The Wife was looking right at it but still managed to miss it. C7 thought it was the discarded battery until he tried to lift it “wow must be heavy treasure in that” I think I heard him say to H10. That’s when I spotted the container hidden in amongst the bark and leaves. It was now fairly late in the day, but we decided to claim one more cache before we went and had tea.

I had found the original cache of Maux Horizons back in October 2007 and decided to do Maux Horizons – 2008 remix after the original was washed away. This time the whole family got out of the car and trekked up the hill. It was a bit easier to find this one , compared to the original, as it’s hidden in a bush next to the fence. This really confused H10 as there were no pile of rocks, so she couldn’t see the container sticking out like dogs balls. In the meantime C7 was planning on moving every stone on the hill an arm throw away. Boys… just gotta throw something, stomp on something or break something. Oh well, he’ll sleep well tonight just like the rest of us.

Our next stop was on the outskirts of Cowell heading in from Lucky Bay. What a dump was exactly that, a dump. Despite a rigorous search from both the Wife and I, using both GPS’s, we couldn’t find the darn thing. When we returned home and to the computer we found the co-ords had been updated. As you can see from our tracks (from my Quest) in the first photo, we were that close, just not close enough. We gave this up as a DNF and continued on our way to the next cache.

Down by the sea is located near the boat ramp and we were in two minds whether to attempt this one or not because of all the muggles around. We knew there was something wrong when we located GZ. We were standing knee deep in water. This suited C7 perfectly and he was happy to look in the water all we wanted, except we knew it wouldn’t be there. The only things nearby were saltbush shrubs and so they were told to put their branches up to be searched vigorously. After, what seemed like ages, I decided to head for the only solid structure around for a quiet breather and give this a once over. Who knows, I might get lucky. I hopped onto the table and BINGO, there it was. We worked out it was approximately 17 – 18meters from the GZ, which is probably why we couldn’t find it near GZ. I think the muggles were too busy looking at this to bother seeing what we were up to and I’m 99% sure we got away with it.

Buoyed by our success on this one we thought we might as well round out the morning by finding our last cache in Cowell called Have a look. By now the temperature was starting to get a little warmer than is comfortable and we didn’t want to hang around any longer than we had to. Upon arriving at GZ in the middle of the scrub, we scouted around for a good ½hr with no success, before giving up. Geokids even climbed the lookout in the vain hope of spotting it, but as this was several 100 meters from the GZ the Wife and I figured they had no chance. As the same person who created the last two created this one, we suspected that the GZ was out by a fair distance and decided to head to the Cowell bakery for lunch and a cold drink instead.

We have noticed that the co-ords have been since updated for both our DNF’s and we plan to go back and attempt them at a later date.

Eventually reaching the top, it was up to the Wife, myself and C6 to find the cache. H10 had got the grumps up and just wanted to sit. After scouting around GZ we finally found the alloy case and logged our visit. C6 had a second go at running down the sandhill and back to the car, as he liked going down the first time so much. I wouldn’t suggest doing this one on a 40 degree day. It was warm enough when we did it, a mild 32. After a toilet break, of which it was rather confusing for C6, as I had told him to go behind the tree, he wanted to know exactly which one of the bazillion that we were surrounded by. I had too tell him exactly which one, and then as only unworldly wise ones will do, peed into the wind. GREAT.

From here on it was plain sailing as all we had to do was find the main road to Cowell and stick to it. Not far out of Cowell is Lucky Cow, which we found lying down underneath the only bush within the GZ vicinity. We dropped off Alocsin’s #1: Trans-Pacific Traveler (from Placentia, California, USA) GC and picked up NTSTROM’S Roaming Geocoin from here.

We then continued into Cowell and out the other side to Old Skool. It was fun hunting for this one as my GPS and the geokids eTrex had the GZ in the middle of nowhere. There was only one structure the cache could be hidden in though, and so we started a methodical search. The geokids had given up and went back to the car when I found it cleverly hidden in a hole in the wall behind a heap of rocks to look like part of the wall. I duly signed the log and replaced it.

As it was reasonably cool inside the building and out of the wind and sun, we decided to cook and eat tea. This was when we worked out that the small LP gas cans you buy for camping are good for 2 ½ meals only (mental note to one, make sure I buy new gas cylinders for travel stove after each trip). The burgers were cooked and the sausages were nicely preheated (no point eating warm meat). So we cleaned everything up and went back, to the Caravan Park where we were told that if we camped next to the fence we wouldn’t have to go into Cowell too see the fireworks as we would be able to watch them from here.

After we had set up the tents, the geokids were still hungry and as we had plenty time until the fireworks, we went and finished cooking tea on the free BBQ provided by the park. After satisfying our hunger we strolled back to our campsite and set up to watch the fireworks.

a. not my FAULT, must have been someone else who done it, HONEST
b. the GPS does some crazy things when you’re not watching it
c. stupid computer misinterpreted a 1 and a 0 giving the wrong co-ords when downloading to GPS
d. GPS was having a hissy fit and thought it would be funny to change the numbers
e. all of the above

Anyway, this time we found the container stuck under a bush. Quite an easy find when you get everything right. I think the nearby shed has seen better days many years ago, but this didn’t deter the Wife from taking a photo of it as you can quite plainly see. (mind you, it is the only thing within cooee of the cache that is worth taking a photo of, unless you want another shot of an Australian native tree, hohum)

With the success of another find, we continued onto Port Pirie where there are a couple of caches that we have been meaning to have a go at for quite some time. Lost Ones was our first port of call. Despite re-landscaping the garden and surrounds we couldn’t find this one where the GZ was or anywhere near it. It was only when we got home and checked it that we noticed that it had been muggled several times and had been moved to another location not far from original GZ. Bugger, this means returning for another go.

Our once high spirits were starting to sink fast. We had to do something to re-elevate them and so made our way towards Big “Steel” Ships. Waiting at the stop lights that lead over the single lane bridge took forever and a day, and there was no traffic coming the other way. Once across the bridge I decided I knew where I was going as I had looked at google maps and seen all the tracks and planned which way I was going to go. Of course nothing goes as planned and one turn lead to another and before long we were coming to dead ends, doing U-turns and getting nowhere fast. Finally, after a few black stares from the Wife and the geokids moaning in the back seat we arrived somewhere near the GZ. Being reasonably hot deterred the Wife from putting her foot outside the A/C’ed car, but H10 and I went walkabout. The cache was located under a couple rocks in a shrub and we returned to the car after performing the normalties. Continuing along the same track, we drove into the carpark for the boatramp. Another black look from the Wife, as this was the way she wanted me to go in the first place. Oh well, can’t win them all.

As we weren’t too keen on solving the mystery caches that are here (they are more than our brains can handle, believe me, we’ve tried several times), we continued on our way to Port Augusta. There was one cache still bugging us in PA that we hadn’t found yet. Towering Views has proven to be a pain in the neck and we were determined to find it. After buying tea at Keeping Fingers Clean, we drove to the water tower and proceeded to vigilantly search it from top to bottom once again. It was FINALLY located above one of the windows. You need to be a monkey to get this one. With the cache in hand, we walked across to the skate park to eat tea and log our visit. I had to wait another 20 minutes or so before replacing it as there was a muggle family at the top. We thought they were cachers, but several comments about caching yielded no response and it was only after they left that I was then able to replace the cache. For anyone who is reading this that hasn’t found it yet, you will see in the two photos, the one on the left is the incorrect view and the one on the right is the correct view.

We then continued homeward bound and slept soundly that night, knowing we had finally solved this one as well.

On the way we planned to do a spot of geocaching. It had been threatening to rain all day on the Friday and as we pulled out of the driveway it started to spit. This meant that we may have needed to change our plans and not do any caching on the way to Adelaide. As it happened, it didn’t get much heavier than a drizzle in any one shower, so we continued with our original plans even though it was very muggy now. The first cache we tried was Bruce. I think we made this a lot harder than it was by approaching from the paddock side of the trees. It was an easy enough find as it’s hard to look past a bucket placed strategically under some trees and we did have about a million other sets of eyes looking as well, (mind you I think they were more interested in us than the cache – damn flies, smidgen of rain must have made it the right conditions for them to hatch.)

From here it was just a short romp up the road to the next co-ords being Smelters. With the friendly flies annoying us badly by crawling into every orifice they could physically find, we looked in every obvious place except the right one, so we had to log this as a DNF but vowed we will have another shot at it.

Another hop, step and a jump away and we arrived at the next location known as Port Pirie Travel Bug Holiday Inn. We found the ground was very soft and cushiony here, not sure why, and when arriving at GZ was set upon my big, black meat ants. Not wanting to be their next meal the Wife shot through wondered off to collect a photo while I played “name this dance” with the ants. Didn’t really expect to see too many Tb’s or GC’s in this as it was fairly new but was surprised by the number that were in it. We removed Alocsin’s #1: Trans-Pacific Traveler (from Placentia, California, USA) and then booked in DeltaEcho’s Christ Centered Caching Geocoin #4. I then re-enacted the dance moves, for the benefit of the wife who was in fits, to replace the cache and bolted out of there. The wife suggested she buys a bigger memory card for her camera so that she can video it on our way back from Adelaide. My reply was colourful in the least but basically suggested she could take her camera and fall over Niagara falls with it.

Still another triple jump away was the next cache that we would have a crack at. Take a Break from all accounts on-line, was going to be a challenge. Apparently it is not the best smelling area for a cache to be sited in and it sure lived up to it’s reputation. It’s a wonder these salt bushes aren’t a 100 feet high with all the salt and nutrients they are getting from all who REST here. I started to dismantle the other half of the wall that had been half dismantled already and knew that this was not right. Wishing I had bought a couple of bags of render with me (cement that is), it was only by chance as I was reassembling the wall, that I picked up a rock that wasn’t part of the wall and found the cache in all it’s glory. Shuddering at the thought of how many people and animals had p!ssed rested on it, I picked up the key secreting container and logged my visit. I put it back exactly as I found it wondering why the container wasn’t rustier than it was and thankful I don’t have to come back to this one.

It was more like a marathon than a hop, skip and jump to the next cache that we were going to make an effort to find. At least it gave us a chance to cool down, get rid of the flies out of the car and track down that one ant that had found it’s way up my pants leg and into the car (F*&^%$ thing left a nasty little bite mark). At arriving at Freddohill, we marvelled at the size of the River Red Gums and water in the creek bed. It turned out to be a very serene and quiet spot and we wished we could have stayed a bit longer and hopefully listen to the frogs that may have invariably escaped from the cache bucket and into the marshes, but we were on a schedule and schedules must be adhered too.

Our last find for today would be one that we started some months ago and was only a short marathon away. Which Bank?, for some reason I thought it was a multi, turned out to be quite easy really. After taking ages scouring the sign for the answer and not finding anything I decided to log my visit and there staring me in the face was the answer. The answer being the side of the road on the way to Adelaide, seemed to be a coincidence as well. OR WAS IT??? So it was chalk another find up for us and onto Adelaide to book into a hotel and get a good nights sleep ready for the Christmas Pageant frenzy the following morning.

It was mid afternoon, and as we made our way down from Winters Hill we worked out we would have enough time to do a few of the easier caches before heading home.  We decided to work our way around the shore line starting at Kirton Point. So our first cache was going to be Floating Buoy. The Wife tried the “route to” function on the GPS and this took us to a dead end car park. Having lived in Lincoln for several years I took a different route that got us to within a 100m  of GZ. GPS was having a hissy fit but gave up in the end proudly announcing “You are approaching your destination”as if claiming it knew all along what it was doing. After a short walk along a well defined path we had to go scrub bashing, which the geokids decided wasn’t for them and gave up. The cache was located under a beautiful, large mallee tree hidden by the only camouflage available – bark and sticks.

After reminiscing for a while with the geokids about the Wifes and my earlier days at this local spot we drove to the next cache. We parked on the roadside directly opposite the GZ and set out. After sliding down an embankment about 10 feet high and fighting our way through the scrub and many ants and spiders, we came upon Jukes Lookout. It was about now that we noticed a footpath leading into and out of the GZ. The cache was found under a rusty piece of tin and we performed our duties as per geocaching rules and guidelines. once completed, we headed off along the path leading towards Kirton Point and guess what? It led us out to the road and about 30m behind where we had parked. Isn’t that always the way. Take the hard way in and find the easy way out.

So far so good. We had found 2 more caches and headed for another cache nearby, which was located at the Port Lincoln marina. Boy, this place has certainly grown in the last 20 years. I remember when the leisure centre was stuck in the middle of nowhere with a road around it. Now it seemed like it was in the centre of a mini city. Lemon Pepper Squid proved to be a bit harder to find as it’s GZ is located in rocks and rocks and me DO NOT get along very well at all. I had shifted a few rocks (no mean feat when each weighs in excess of a coupla ton), when a muggler stepped out onto his balcony and stared at C6 and me, I guess wondering what in the heck we were doing, before moving back inside into what I can only assume was a very plush and comfortable surroundings. It was only after the Wife was sitting on the edge of the breakwater and looking at a “doggy doo” (don’t ask me why? I don’t know why she would stare at a doggy doo), that she realised it wasn’t the afore mentioned, but actually one of those fake rocks that you can buy over the internet. Well spotted dear, but you still ain’t gonna get me to stare at doggy doo just in case it’s a cache, only a glance, long enough to step over it.

By now it was close to tea time, so we visited the popular chicken chain shop and grabbed a heap of chicken and drinks. We then drove from here to Rotary Ramble and sat in a very quiet park to eat tea before locating the cache. It was while we were feeding one (that’s right ONE, one only - meaning single) seagull a few of our chips that the geokids saw a fox slink around and then under our car. The Wife and I didn’t think it was, but stranger things have happened in a city, and we went to have a look only to find a really large ginger cat with a very fluffy tail. The Wife took a photo and we returned to the park bench to finish tea which the lone gull hadn’t even bothered to attack. I’m guessing it was a plover or crow or something in disguise as it wasn’t normal behaviour for a seagull. Any rate, with tea over and done with, C6 decided to have a play on the playground while H9 (from now on referred to as H10) and I went and found the cache. Quite easy to find in the tree hollow as the GZ was right on.

As time had really gotten away from us everyone agreed that it was time to go home. Actually the geokids had been complaining for half the day that it was time to go home and they didn’t want to do anymore caching. By now it was dusk and the Wife and I reckoned we had enough light to attempt one last cache. On the way out of town is the Axel Stenross Maritime Museum where the cache of First Landing is situated. Upon arriving at GZ we noticed a tree had been cut down recently and were disappointed we couldn’t find the cache. We assumed that the cache had been muggled and returned to the car wishing our weekend hadn’t finished this way. There always has to be one freaking cache that ruins a completely successful weekend and I’m sure that it occurs just so you have to revisit at another time to find it. So that was it, we had found 18 out of 20 attempted with a 90% strike rate. Not too shabby I guess. We travelled home to the sound of loud snoring coming from both the front and back seats. NO, I wasn’t asleep, the Wife was.

By now very eager to try out the 4wd drive, I tried to get to the next cache the cheats way via a short cut. Didn’t turn out well at all and ended up going along the road as the GPS navigator had told me in the first place. As we got closer to the cache of Emma’s sea view, we couldn’t see any roads going in the direction of the co-ords. At last we spotted a track that pointed in the general direction and turned onto it. FINALLY, as I selected 4WD, I figured this would test it out. It was a very rough road with sand on many of the corners, but the Outlander handled it magnificently. I will have to admit that there would have been no-way on gods given earth that the Commodore would have made it in here. Eventually we arrived at a parking area of sorts and proceeded to seek out the cache. As we were searching the rain started. We tried to shelter under a bush and our jackets for a while (jackets will only soak up so much water and no more), before I bit the bullet and found the cache. As we trudged back to the car, sopping wet, the rain eased then stopped. Typical.

With our wet jackets draped over our knees, and the heaters up full bore, it took until Coffins Bay before they were dry enough to wear again. As we were entering the town limits, the GPS decided to have a hissy fit and told me to do u-turns and all-sorts to get us to the cache of Where the wild things are. Obviously a bit of road work has been completed since I had downloaded my navigational maps and the route to take was a ‘T’ road off the road into town. Once we got to the spacious car park it showed we needed to walk down the embankment in front of us for about 30 metres. The Wife saw a walking trail and thought that this may be the easy way to reach the cache. After all, isn’t that always the way whenever there’s a walking trail nearby. Well the trail was leading us further from the cache and so we all decided to go bush, directly towards the cache. What a mistake. There is a prickly bush here that has thorns that penetrate even the thickest layer of clothing. We eventually come out of the bush, you guessed it, next to the car park where we had started along the path. This time we took the direct approach and scored a find. I left my MaX 305 CASE IH tractor TB here to starts it’s journey. I’m glad we found it as I don’t ever want to bring my family back into unfriendly scrub like this again.

We had intended to do all the caches around Coffins Bay until we found that they had a mini-golf course. Coff ‘n Putt proved to be a popular time out from caching and travelling which you can read about by clicking on the following link: More *ss than Cl*ss.

We didn’t hang around long after we had finished playing golf and our next cache was waiting to be found. It took a U-turn and some fancy driving before we parked parallel to Rustlers turn. The kids decided to stay in the car while the Wife and I trudged off through the alternative Australian bush and over a fence to find the cache.  There were many kangaroo tail bushes around here of which the cache was hidden under one of the biggest ones. A great hide in very pretty surroundings.

Back in the car we completed another U-turn and made our way towards the local roughnecks B & B cache that goes by the name of Stay the Night 5! Well, it’s not actually at the exact location, but you can see the complex from the cache site. Not quite as close as Stay the Night 2! though. H9 found this one quite easily.

Not far from here was another cache called Power up. Upon arrival we figured we would have a search on our hands as the grass is really thick and high as the clue suggests. This looked like it might be a very seldom used road until I started to search for the cache. The number of times I made it look like I had been visiting nature, it’s no wonder the grass is so high. Mind you if the same person had driven by a couple of times they might have wondered what I was up too, or that I had a very small and weak bladder. It took a bit of searching to dig this one up, as the sub-station seem to have an effect on my GPS and I couldn’t pinpoint GZ very easily.

As we had come this far around the back way into Port Lincoln we figured we might as well keep going and pick up Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt & ……. on our way into town. When my Wife and I lived in Port Lincoln, we used to visit here quite regularly. I remember it use to be a favourite place for budding young couples when the moon was right and the night was still and clear, you had to cuddle up to stay warm (well that was the excuse anyway). Looks like the favourite of the hoons now, judging by the tyre marks everywhere on the way up. When we got to the top there were muggle teenagers hanging around but H9 and I didn’t let that stop us. Off we trundled to GZ. As we were looking for it, H9 jumped nearly 40 feet into the air. She had been scared by something in the grass. On closer inspection we found two sleepy lizards fighting. We must have scared them as when we walked back that way about 5 minutes later, they were gone. The camouflaged cache was well hidden behind the rocks and it took a couple of looks before I located it. We took DeltaEcho’s Christ Centered Caching Geocoin #4 from here even though it had not been logged into this cache.

On our way back to the car we could hear the muggles living up to their reputation and there was a new set of tyre marks on the ground when we climbed back into our car.

That’s it for now, but when we return in the next post we will attempt to get Juke to find his Lemon Pepper Squid recipe and go for a ramble through a park.

There was one more cache up this way, in the middle of nowhere that we agreed to attempt. Wedge View was the first place where I was able to select 4WD in out Outlander and drive up the steep slope to the flat parking area. This, we agreed, would also make a perfect camping area with the tree’s for shelter and the amazing scenery of the Australian bush. Once out of the car we changed our minds again. No squadrons of mossies, but here they could suck you dry in less than a minute. Huge, I’ve never seen them so big and the March flies could have carried off full sized cattle. The cache was quickly located and duties performed. Then we were out of there. The mossies that got into the car were soon splat marks added to the ones from Walker’s Rock. Mental note: Clean car windows when we get home.

By now it was late afternoon and we still had to find a camping spot. It needed to be somewhere that we wouldn’t be nothing but skeletons from the loss of blood by morning. We all kept a close lookout for a likely place as we travelled back to Elliston. A short tour around Elliston township and up to the back beach and we soon were on our way again. We still hadn’t located a likely spot as we neared Locks Well. By now the Wife had conked out (48hrs of wakefulness with only about 4hrs sleep sort of takes it toll), and so the kids and I thought we would attempt Locks Well.  After driving down the very steep, winding road (Outlanders brakes work well), we arrived in the car park. Leaving the Wife to snore her way to dream land we set out to find GZ. Brother, did we attack this from the wrong angle. A lap around the building and we were nearly back where we started from. Only then did I notice that the railing was missing and there’s the cache. I guess if you didn’t know it was there you wouldn’t see it. While I did the usual things H9 and C6 ran down the stairs to the beach and back up again. If only the stairs had been there many moons ago. Can’t recall the number of times I lugged an esky full of fish up those damn sand dunes. Going down was easy, coming back up was the gut buster and you would regularly do a mischief of some sort.

Once back at the car and disturbing the Wife to wakefulness of sorts we headed off to find a camping spot. It wasn’t long after leaving Locks Well that we pulled into a parking bay to see if it would be suitable. No! the Wife didn’t like it. So we crossed the highway to the other side of the road and found the “perfect” camping spot. Far enough from the road so as traffic noise wasn’t a problem, sheltered by natural bush with plenty of clear areas for a camp fire and a grassy area for the tents to be set up on. To read about our first camp out click on the following link: A new car and a camping trip.

The next morning after packing up the camp site we started off back down the Lincoln Highway to Cummings Monument. When we arrived it was blowing a gale and as cold as ice. C6 elected to stay in the car and make sure no-one broke into it and steal off with anything while the rest of us decided that a walk in the chilly air would do us good and wake us up. Besides I needed to iron out a few kinks and bruises from the good nights sleep I had gotten. Collecting a few scratches from the tree at GZ I finally located the cache in a tree about 5 or 6 metres from GZ. We performed the ritual signing, while the Wife took a picture. Don’t be too surprised if you think you have had a few as the picture may appear blurry. This is because the Wife was shivering so much I’m not sure the camera could focus fast enough.

As we drove down the Lincoln Highway we decided that we should have a go at Xan’s Gaze before we attempted Greenland. When we got as far as we could along the road, without going past it, I turned into a paddock entrance. We figured that the GZ was at the top of the hill and all we needed to do was get up there. As far as we were concerned, all the tracks lead to China and the only one that went up the hill, was padlocked with umpteen different padlocks. As we headed back to the highway in disgust, we joked about going through the farmers house yard, which you pass going there and coming back again. It wasn’t until I got home and onto the computer again that I read on one of the logs that “If you ask nicely at nearby farm house, the owner will give you a set of keys. One for each of the different locks on the gate”. DOHH.

It was only a hop, skip and a jump from here to the the next cache down the track in Greenland. Apparently it should have been all green around here, I’m guessing from all the cereal crops that were growing. Unfortunately we have arrived at the end of the growing season and most were yellowing off. Still, it was a pretty place to see. We certainly tested the brakes on the car as we descended down to the parking area and I didn’t get it out of 2WD when we drove back up again. H9 found this as I was still zeroing in on the GZ. It’s like she has a built in GPS that no-one knows about. We didn’t stay too long here as the howling wind and spray from the sea were making it quite uncomfortable. A couple of quick pictures and we got underway again.

I am going to leave it here for this post and continue our weekend fun in the next where we get to see what Emma saw and stay the night at a classy room and board.

Now all we had to do was acquire camping equipment. So on the Saturday we piled into the car and headed for the nearest camping store, which happened to be in Whyalla. From the time that we arrived, there was a lot of shopping going on, but not much of it was for camping equipment. Eventually around 2pm in the afternoon we got to the camping store. There was much deliberation as to what should or shouldn’t be bought and we eventually settled on a couple of 3 man tents, 4 x foam underlays, 2 x child fold up chairs and a small stove in a carry case. We didn’t want to buy too much in case the kids didn’t like camping, and we figured we could flog what we had bought on eBay if it all went pear shaped.

Once all this was packed into the boot along with the trillion dollars worth of new clothes, shoes and groceries, we decided that we had enough time to do a couple of caches before heading home. A recently posted cache, Garden of Remembrance, would be a good start. Unfortunately I hadn’t entered the co-ords into my GPS and the print out didn’t have it on it either, so we sort of guessed where it was. When we arrived, there was a couple sitting at GZ creating an in-depth debate between the Wife and H9 as to who they most likely were. Geocachers (H9′s choice), or  bereaved relatives (the Wifes choice). It was when we started to look for the clue that the couple introduced themselves as fellow geocachers Bubbles8.  We had a good old chat with them as Mrs Bubbles8 and H9 located the cache. During the conversation they mentioned that they weren’t able to locate Don’t do this cache and that was all the encouragement we needed to attempt this one.

After saying our goodbyes we headed in the direction of Don’t do this cache. After doing a U-turn I parked next to location. Once GZ was marked it seemed logical that there could only be one place where the cache should be. A bit of scratching around found me with cache in hand in under 2 minutes. The camo on this cache is fantastic. It had been staring me in the face the whole time. Sorry bubbles8, but I have to rub it in. WE FOUND IT, WE FOUND IT, there I feel better now. We completed the signing of the log and decided it was time to head for home, as the Wife had to work the night shift and wanted some beauty sleep (god knows she needs it).

Early the next morning we loaded up the Outlander and set out for Wedge Road, this being the first cache on our journey towards the West Coast this weekend. Upon parking near the location, we couldn’t workout why a cache would be placed here. I don’t think that the sign was the only reason for this cache. Still we located it after a short walk into the sand hills and C6 took a photo.

After a snack or two had been eaten we proceeded to the next one on the list of Stock water Stop over. This one is located in a beautiful area that I have visited many times in my youth, where, as I remember, the waterhole always had water in it. This certainly was not the case now. The lack of rain in the area over the last couple of years has taken it’s toll and the waterhole was empty. The huge gum tree’s still are lush and green attesting to the fact that there is still water underground at least. We took a short walk from the car with H9 leading the way. She needs to learn to stop looking at the GPS and watch where she is walking. First she ploughed through some branches getting scratches on the face and arms, then, if she hadn’t learnt from that, she ran straight smack bang into a tree stump that blind freddy would have had trouble NOT seeing. This stump being the same one the cache is hidden in, so I guess we have to hand this find to H9. I don’t think it made her feel any better though. We all agreed that this would be a perfect spot to camp but as it was still too early in the day we continued on our way.

After a break at the Bramfield cemetary, where H9 learnt all about her ancestors and late grandfather, we turned onto the Lincoln highway and made our way towards Waterloo. It was only a short drive after turning off the highway before we arrived at the rest area situated near GZ. I haven’t been here for a very long time, but I do remember that the last time I came fishing with my brothers here, we had to drive near on 15km’s before arriving at the exact same spot. There are also signs of habitation by homosapiens in the area, which would never have been thought liveable a couple of decades ago (boy I’m starting to sound old). Once the cache was located the Wife and C6 went off to take some pictures and throw rocks into the sea (another reason why the sea levels are rising), while H9 and I swapped the container as the old one was busted. This was also where C6 learnt for the first time, not to pee into the wind. Although he is lower to the ground the effect wasn’t quite the same, but you get the idea.

We also found some amusing warning signs here.