A bike ride with a difference

Sunday June 9, 2013

I have been a member of the BUGS (Bribie Island Bicycle Users Group) for a few years now and normally we go on a bike ride just for the fun of riding and enjoying mother nature, but today we took a bike ride with a difference.  The theme was Geocaching for Beginners!

Unfortunately the rainy weather and overcast skies must have put off a lot of riders, but we started off with four people, amongst which one real beginner, so it was to be a fun morning after all.

As I was going through the geocaches around us yesterday, on line, I noticed one that was placed by a Canadian whose relatives were looking after the cache, and guess what?  The relatives were the ones leading our little group and the first cache of the day was of course theirs: Here (4).  Needless to say that we found it, and... without their help!

Just the general location of the cache (picture Google Earth)

As we were going to make our way from Bellara down to Bongaree we stopped off at the big sign close to the bridge which greets all the Bribie visitors from far.  The picture is again from Google Earth and alas taken before the sign was placed.  I definitely need to get my camera in order.

Again the general area of the cache, minus the big sign (picture Google Earth)

As there hadn't been a find since May this year we were doubting that the cache (Bribie Island Lifestyle) would be in place.  Unfortunately we ended up with a DNF as well.  All our GPSs came up with the same spot for GZ, so we stopped looking after a while and decided to move on to the next one: Bribie Seaside Museum.  As that was the first one I'd found on Bribie Island I left the search to my fellow geocachers and enjoyed the view over Pumicestone Passage.  (The picture of the Museum appears in my posting from January this year)

The others were relatively quick with their find, so on we went to: Full Head of Steam.  It's the one close to my place that we have been searching for a few times, but still in vain.  But.... this time I came prepared and was lucky!  Oh, this sure was a tricky one, and micro as well.  My preparation was a further hint, because I had become quite desperate to find this one.  For the picture, see again the blog update of January this year.  It was one of the last ones we did with Frank.

We were still getting closer to home on our bike ride, and just around the corner, near the bird sanctuary, was another cache that I did not have any knowledge of.  The reason being that it was for Premium Members only and at that time I had not yet become a premium member.  (I have rectified that immediately afterwards ;-))  The name of the cache is: Buckley's Outlook.

A beautiful place for a cache near the bird sanctuary: Buckley's Hole

As the weather was deteriorating from an overcast sky to actual showers, we decided to call it a day after our successful finds and we all stopped of at my place for a cuppa till the rain had passed.  All in all I would say that we could repeat a bike ride like this to include the many other caches on Bribie we haven't searched for yet.

I will have another posting soon, because I have been able to add a few more caches to my name. :-)  Till then.