A geocaching weekend at Gunalda

Saturday January 24, 2015

This weekend Patricia and I are attending an event at Gunalda (Qld), approx 136km north of Bribie Island.  It's called: Gunalda Cacheup for the Newbies and it is organised by Patricia's ex-husband Keith, who's also a geocacher as you may have guessed.  

Because we log attended events here's my first logged cache of the weekend:

Gunalda Cacheup for the Newbies

We meet a few people that we haven't seen before as well as a few that we already knew.  It wasn't well-attended, but the reason may be that it was also Australia Day long weekend and a lot of people like to celebrate this by going camping or by taking part in the local festivities.

Straight after arrival we were directed to a few caches nearby:

Gunalda Show

cache is hidden behind the grass under the timber post

and

Gunalda Showgrounds

Accompanied by Heather and Trevor this was a
FTF for Patricia and me
(the FTF coordinates were given out to selected people at the event)

After we had found those two Heather and Trevor wanted to go and find all Colin's new caches in the area, so we went on a trip in their 4WD.  Trevor was the designated driver, Heather the navigator, I was a sort of secretary, keeping track of the list and making notes and Patricia helped with the searching.  It may be said that she found some without the use of a GPS!

Charles Watson Bridge

Open Spaces

Sexton Rd North

End of the line

Secret Mouse House

Cattle Ramp

Split Tree

One Tree Island

Power up

Woolooga Turnof

Next we found two hybrid letterboxes.  Nothing special, just a cache with the required stamp.  They have probably been placed so that people have access to this kind of cache in their area, because there aren't many around. 

Brooyar Post Office

Curra Post Offic

Stockyard Creek

After we'd finished the series Patricia took me to another cache which was located at Keith's former place of residence.  She guided me to its hide:

Number 11

That was all we did on Saturday.  Quite a result I'd say.  Afterwards we went to Keith and Pam's place for dinner and as we had been invited to stay the night we spent a pleasant evening with them.

Sunday January 25, 2015

Not many new people turned up, so Patricia and I decided to go and look for other new caches that had been placed for the event.  Most of them were Keith's, a few were hidden beforehand by new members.

For the first cache of the day I had to actually climb a tree after, to my horror, Patricia discovered the cache hanging from a branch! But..... I did and not in vain, because we could claim another FTF. When we'd set out to go caching earlier in the morning we did not realise that there still were a few FTFs that hadn't been claimed.

Highway 1 - Mango Tree

Looking happy, because I've discovered
 I am still fit enough to climb a tree!

And happy again when I discover a blank logbook,
meaning it's a FTF for us!

Highway 1 - Glenwood

And look!  Another FTF for us... :-)

Highway 1 - Kanyan

 Higway 1 - Glenwood School

Breathe In

For the Rest and Revive cache we thought we had to look at the actual location where the free coffee and tea was served, but we were wrong.  The cache had been moved to the other side of the road.  However, I thought it was a good idea to have a rest and a chat.  These volunteers are always so kind and lovely to talk to, so we had a (much needed) cool drink and a cup of coffee before we moved on to find the cache.

Rest and Revive

On our way to the next cache we passed the showground and decided to have a break from the heat.  Heather wanted to come with us to pick up a few more caches, so the three of us set out to do a few more in the afternoon.

road narrows

got you stumped

Another one for Patricia without a GPS
while Heather and I were looking across the road!

Dickabram Bridge

No Offence

And that was the last one of the day.  The shadows were getting longer and we a bit hungry, so we called it a day and drove to Keith and Pam's place.  We arrived a bit later than planned, because we got caught in a thunderstorm which caused a tree to come down across the highway.  Luckily passers-by in 4WDs removed it quite quickly and we could travel on.  We had dinner at stayed again for the night.

Monday January 26, 2015 (Australia Day)

Keith took me out early in the morning for another FTF close by, however, it turned out that only he could claim it, because Heather, Trevor, Patricia and I had found, and logged, the cache before it was published.  

Gunalda CITO for the Newbies

Kangaroos in the showground

Later on Patricia and I went back to the showground after having said goodbye to Pam, and since nobody else had turned up Patricia asked Keith to help us find a cache that had been eluding us the day before.  I found it, but I must say that I only did so with Keith's help.  I would have never found the trail towards it, neither would I have attempted the climb on my own.  The rocks were slippery from the rain the night before and the GPS would have been useless under the tree cover.  Patricia turned the car in the meantime and soon we were on our way back again.

Hwy 1 - Gunalda Pass Road

And that was the last cache of the weekend.  Monday was to be the CITO (Cache In, Trash Out clean-up) day, but Patricia wanted to go home and I didn't feel like doing the clean-up all by myself, so I promised Keith I would take a bag next time and do CITO while caching so I would do my bit.