A game of golf on a hot Sunday

Sunday, 5 January, 2014

St. Andrews - Warrigal

Colin teaching me how to hold the golf club

And now for a big swing

Noticed something unusual? No?  Well, I don't play golf much, or rather, not at all, but I know that this doesn't quite look like an ordinary golf course, and... it wasn't.

It's a multi cache presented as a golf course in an area where long ago an 11-hole golf course was planned on the southside of Brisbane.

Now being a member of two facebook geocache groups I yesterday noticed an invitation by a geocacher to come along and do this multi cache together in a group.  As I very much like to go geocaching in company and didn't know much yet about waypoints, I thought it a good idea to join in.

This morning I made an early trip to Runcorn and met with a group of people just before nine am.  They were Colin (who I already knew), Peter, Ralph, Kylie, Julie and Rachel.  Barb (who I met at the last event) arrived a little later.

Colin arrived in style with his golf clubs and had pictures taken all the way down the track. I just have to borrow them from the geocaching site, as non-members will not be able to see them otherwise.  I don't think he'll mind:

Hole 1 Tee off

Hole 3 fairway.  Grass is just a bit long

Just hoping not to get zapped here

Hole 4 fairway, more like an obstacle course

Balance problems for hole 5 tee off

Hole 5 fairway

Hole 6 tee off

So close to the green

Hole 7 tee off

Hole 8 putt putt course

Hole 8 tee off

Elevated tee off at hole 10

After this entertaining photo series you would really think Colin had been playing golf, but the poor guy, besides helping us finding the tags for the waypoints he had to lug his golf caddy around the 'course' going under roads and over waterways, and as you saw at hole 4, across numerous fallen trees.

We had a great time though, although it was hot and sticky under an overcast sky. I have a few more pictures of my own.  Not half as entertaining, but I'd rather show them anyway:

Rachel, Ralph and Kylie

Colin preparing for his photoshoot

Got there...

Barb, Colin, Peter, Julie and Rachel

Most of the tags were rather easy finds on trees and/or fence posts.  A few had to be looked for very hard and one of them couldn't be found.  Peter rang the CO who gave us the necessary details to carry on.  This was legitimate, because the tree on which the tag had been attached had been cut down and without the tag we would not have been able to finish the course.

The cache, when we finally found it, had been very well hidden, but was discovered in the end and we all got to sign the log.  

On the way we walked past a traditional cache:

Looking for Wally

which I was lucky enough to find, so was happy to be able to sign another log for the day.  One cache to show for three hours work would have been very little result for the time spent...

The picture of this cache can be seen above at: Hole 8 tee off.

When I left early in the morning I had plans to do some more geocaching on the way back home, but finally seated in my airconditioned car, tired, flustered and drenched with perspiration, I had no urge other than to go home, have a shower and lie down for an hour or so, and afterwards watch the tennis. Regrets?  None!  It was a perfect day despite the heat.

A few more smilies close to home

Monday, December 30, 2013

Today I had a funeral service to go to in the morning, but Kevin had stayed the night so we had a few spare hours.  After a quick breakfast we were on our way to Beachmere and to the cache furthest away.  We were hoping to find a few caches quickly, but that wasn't to be, although we didn't go home empty handed.

Among the Mangroves

The day was overcast, but still very muggy, so it was nice to go for a stroll close to the water.  Normally I don't read the logs, but today I did and one of them made quite clear what we had to do.  Kevin was a GZ and I had a good look and went straight for the cache!  Easy find.

Among the Mangroves

Walkway to the Beach

On the way back to the car we walked past GZ for this cache.  Kevin knew it was magnetic, I didn't but happened to walk to an area which looked suitable to me.  It could be in one of two places.  It not being at the first one, Kevin put his hand out and took hold of it in no time.  We signed the log and were on our merry way again to, hopefully, find a few more.

Walkway to the Beach

Unfortunately these were the only ones for the day.  The next two were DNFs and we also ran out of time.

A few caches close to home again

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Kevin rang and was coming for a visit.  He looked for a few caches on his way, because he is working very hard to reach his milestone of 100 caches.  Since I tried to find a few in the area by myself a few weeks ago, and had not been successful, we used the remaining daylight to try a few close to home.

Muddy Tides

was one of the caches that we had been looking for with the BUGs and could not find.  I thought we had been looking at the wrong tree, and that was correct, but... the one that I had in mind wasn't correct either. So, Kevin was the one who had more luck and produced the cache.

Muddy Tides

The cache was in a built up area, but close to the water and we saw lots of kangaroos:

Abbey Museum

This cache I had been looking for on my own a while ago when the accuracy of my GPS was 1.83 km!  I didn't have coverage either to look up any information, so I had to let it go.  This time, with Kevin present, we had more luck.  I should however have taken my Christmas present, an extendable mirror with a LED light, but had left it very enthusiastically at home!  Kevin found the cache without too many problems, though, so we signed the log and had a look around the museum church with its beautiful lead lights from all over Europe.  We had a brief chat with the minister before he started the church service.  I think he was happy enough to be outside in the breeze which had come up because of the thunderstorm, because, although it was getting late in the afternoon, the air was stifling.

The hint: duck for cover...  Easy! :-)

Runway Three-Zero Caboolture

From the Abbey Museum to Caboolture airport was only a short drive, but it was getting dark quickly.  Kevin had been in the afternoon and also had a torch, so with a bit of guidance and extra light I had no difficulty finding this cache.  Unfortunately I discovered that another cacher had taken a TB without taking a diary that belonged to it as well.  I've taken the diary home and contacted both the cacher and the owner of the TB and will try if I can reunite both for further travels.

Caboolture airport and the runway in the dark

A little bit of light from the car's headlights went a long way...

Sandy Bridges revisited

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

On my way to Albany Creek for the Christmas celebrations I had a few hours spare, so was going to try and find a few caches on my own.  However, my GPS was not working properly, so I had 4 dnf's out of 4! Guessing doesn't always work...

As we had a few hours spare after lunch as well Kevin and I took off to try and figure out where the Sandy Bridge - Finale could be located.  To do that, we had to revisit all five bridges, because somehow we had made a mistake with the colour clues and could not get our GZ coordinates approved.

So, we did the walk again.

Sandy Bridge #5

We could not find #3 this time (here one day, gone the next!), but it didn't interfere too much with our clues. The fact that I wrote a number down in the wrong place did however!  Eventually we had a fair idea where the final cache should be, so we drove to the cemetery and started looking for a brush-turkey mound.  These are huge, so cannot easily be overlooked:

This is not the mound that we were looking for,
but a picture of one to give you the general idea.

We did find it and with the hint we again had a fair idea of where GZ should be, but we still couldn't find the cache.  It didn't help that it was getting quite dark and I was being eaten alive by the mozzies, so we gave up for the day.  On the way back I received confirmation of the coordinates (after I had tried again with the new number in the correct place), so next time we're in the area we may have another look.  Unfortunately another DNF.  Not a very fruitful day. :-)

Another Geocaching Event

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Gold Coast Christmas Gathering 2013

As I knew this event was coming up while Madeleine and Mikayla would be staying with me I made the decision to go, even though it was a two hour drive.

Kevin was interested as well, so he, Adele and Angus came down to the Gold Coast as well and we all met up at Pacific Park where the event was being held.

We had a great afternoon meeting fellow cachers.  Some were becoming familiar faces after earlier events, some were new, but all were very friendly and chatty.  And guess what?  Even Santa arrived with a bag full of presents...

Santa paid us a visit

That's us: Kevin, Mady and me in the centre

Pacific Park

Happy Mikayla

Mady receiving her present from Santa

Since the kids received mostly geocaching presents we have them a bit more interested in the activity, which is great.  As for me, I did not receive a geocaching present, but a box of Turkish Delight.  However, I believe I have talked Mady into giving here handy retractable mirror to me as a Christmas present... (Is there an icon somewhere with crossed fingers? LOL)

Since we were close to a real cache, as Kevin had worked out beforehand, we went for a little walk and found

Pacific Specific

The cache was a small magnetic, and I mean small  :-)  However, we are used to it by now and Kevin found it in no time.  This time we remembered to take a picture, so here we go:

Pacific Specific

.... and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

We were in for a surprise too, because one of the presents was the coordinates for a soon to be published puzzle cache that we could search for and log during the event.

.... and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

It was an easy find again, although the tree didn't quite look like a pear tree, and luckily Angus was with us and agile enough to climb the tree to retrieve the 'partridge'.  In the meantime quite a crowd had gathered and everyone was happy to sign the log and have Angus replace the cache afterwards.  The cache was published last night and I am happy to say that I now have 109 caches to my name. :-)

The event itself was such a success that the organiser is thinking about making it an annual event.  Let's hope so.  We quite enjoyed ourselves, but in the meantime.... hoping to add a few more caches during the year.

Sneaking in a few

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Eclipsed - Raptor Forks

On Sunday Kevin and I went to our monthly meeting of the Dollshouse and Miniatures Club in Brisbane.  It was our special Christmas do (bring a plate, etc.) and the club organised for ham and roast chicken.  We had a lovely lunch and the sweets in particular were to die for....  We were supposed to go home straight afterwards, but we left a bit early to 'walk off' the lunch while searching for a few geocaches... ;-)

We decided on a few around the Clayfield area and happened again on a few series.  This was the 'eclipsed' series which got its name because of the 'Eclipse' containers that were used for the caches.  They are metal and generally a magnetic cache.

The Raptor Forks was an easy find near (train station) Eagle Junction.  Think about it and you get the reason for the name of the cache...  It contained a question, which, after a little bit of research, is easy to answer.

Eclipsed - Raptor Forks
Another Google Earth picture

Melrose Meanderings 1 - The Culvert

As we didn't have a lot of time and had decided on a few caches near the club's HQ, we weren't going to follow the earlier series.  The series Melrose Meanderings also started close by and followed a tiny stream in the area which is often gazetted as Melrose Creek, but is more like a drain which empties in Kedron Brook.

The Culvert was at a bridge across the old culvert at Melrose Park.  The hint mentioned something like that it had nothing to do with a troll, so I knew where not to look... :-)  When I walked to the place where I thought the cache would be Kevin spotted it because he was directly in the line of view.  Great. Easy find.

*** I can't show the picture yet, because Kevin still is to send a few to me that we took that day.

Melrose Meanderings 2 - Dawsons's Creek?

The second one in this series.  Kevin discovered this one.  We were looking on the ground between two similar skinny trees in the hope that the scrub turkeys hadn't covered the cache.  We were lucky.  They hadn't been too busy.  

*** Waiting for this picture as well.

Melrose Meanderings 3 - Mmm Fishy...

Not too hard this one either.  It was close to an aquarium shop (!) and in a spot that we had come across the day before.  Kevin and I both had the right idea, but I let him get the cache in order to distract a muggle who walked past...

Melrose Meanderings 3 - Mmm Fishy...

One day, I promise, I will use my camera when I take it!!!  Lucky for me that Google Earth is very obliging most of the time. ;-)

Sandy Bridge #2

After the last of the Melrose caches we sent a text to Stephen to let him know we were on our way home. Stephen was to drop off Mady, who would, together with Mikayla, come with me to stay for a week during the school holidays.  As it was, we couldn't help ourselves and quickly made a little detour to Sandy Bridge #2, because we wanted to finish the series.

As it was, I discovered the cache even before we had established GZ and with all 5 clues now in our hands we thought we could do the Finale as well, but...  we seemed to have gone wrong somewhere, because none of the coordinates were accepted.  We will have to go back to check all 5 caches for their clues again. Bu....! Ah well, next time.  We'd better hurry now...

Sandy Bridge #2
Kevin signing the log

A milestone: #100 and I didn't even know we were going geocaching...

Saturday, 14 December 2013

Guns 'n' Roses

Saturday was a busy day, as we had a garage sale at Adele's place in the morning, packed up and stacked everything in Adele's car and transported the whole lot to the shipping container at Kevin's place, on the road to Toowoomba.

On the way in Kevin stopped all of a sudden alongside the road, got out, bent over and showed me...... a cache!  Well, that must have been the quickest find in history!  I didn't even know he was going to stop for a cache, let alone, do so on the roadside next to a lamp post.  However, I checked the cache location later and discovered this picture:

Guns 'n' Roses

A hint for Dummies one wonders???  Anyway, I didn't ask if Kevin had seen it before he stopped, although I know he hardly ever checks logs before he goes caching...

And guess what?  It was my 100th cache too!  I'm a happy chappy.

Cars park here too

As Kevin has been doing some caching on his own of late, on his way home after work, he knew of a few in the area close to the highway.  On the way home he knew of one at a truck stop, so we got out and quickly searched for it, as a storm was brewing and the sky looked ominous.  As Kevin didn't get GZ quickly on his GPS I started walking and was called back soon.  He'd discovered the (not so) micro one and was trying to get the log out of the micro part of the cache.  With a pin handy he succeeded and we were on our way again to try and beat the storm (which we did).

Another Google Earth picture for the usual reason.
Cars park here too