OzGeoMuster 4

It's Friday and we arrive early enough to settle in before I am due for volunteering.  Robyn, another geocaching friend of ours, and I are on roster from 1 to 4 pm.  We are on duty for registering people, something I like, because you get to meet so many fellow geocachers.  We also receive a nice shirt for our efforts!

Dianne and I log the event, so that we receive our Mega souvenir and spend some time meeting up with people that we know.  There is also a meeting event, which we briefly attend, but it's too busy to stay on and we are too hungry to join the long lines for food, so we hop over to MacDonalds across the road.  Yeah, I know, not my favourite, but..... hunger is the best spice!

This is the sixth time I write my name on a Mega log: Stanthorpe, Qld; Christchurch, New Zealand; Melbourne, Vic; Hessen, Germany; LLangollen, Wales, and now Morisset, NSW!  I am happy and hope to be attending many more.

On Saturday Robyn and husband Darren take us out for the day in their car to try and find all the puzzle geocaches of which we have solved the puzzles in the weeks leading up to our trip.  70 In all and for good measure we find a few more, so that our result for the day is 74 caches.  Our second best after the Mega in Stanthorpe when we found 105 in one day.

Obviously I have not made an effort to take pictures of all of them! :-)  This is the only one:

#1882 - OZGeomuster G9

The puzzle caches were all geoart again: Cachentine (a heart) and OZGM.  No matter what I do, I don't get a complete picture, but this gives you some idea.

Cachentine (14 puzzles)

OZGM (56 puzzles)

On Sunday we attempt the lab caches, of which there are 10.  We also go on a kind of car rally with Robyn and Darren and find a few caches on the way as well.   The car rally (Geotrek) has been put together by a geocaching buddy of mine from Sydney, with whom I caught up as well and we are going to meet in Prague later this year where we will organise a small 'meeting' event.

Lake Macquarie - Eraring, NSW

Overpass Pacific Highway - Cooranbong NSW

Darren and Dianne

Walking back to the car (Robyn, Darren and Dianne)

Playing with the selfie stick we received in our registration pack

And again...

A group selfie (Marion, Dianne, Darren, Robyn)

Cooranbang lookout

The final for the weekend: fireworks

And that was the end of another Mega event.  On Monday morning we make our way back home. As there are almost no free camps along the Pacific Highway (the coast road) we forego two more visits of 5W members and head for Scone on the New England Highway.  We have lunch at the Wilson Memorial Oval at Murrurundi, NSW and keep travelling to Tamworth where we fill up with fuel.

Later in the afternoon we arrive at the Moonbi Lookout Rest Area (#155) where we stay for the night and also find a cache.

#1957 - Moonbi Outlook

Well hidden and hard to retrieve

The following morning it's another long spurt, albeit with a stop for lunch at the Mother of Ducks Lagoon at Guyra. This also is an earthcache and even though I have been here before with Patricia, I have never attempted the cache, so I can add another smiley to my list.

#1958 - Mother of Ducks (Lagoon) Nature Reserve - Guyra

Next stop is at Glen Innes where we visit the Australian Standing Stones.  As I have found the caches there already, including the earthcache, Dianne goes in search of them by herself while I make some repairs in the camper, as we had a problem with a (locked) drawer flying down the isle, the toilet cassette dislodging, (locked) cabinet doors opening, etc. The drawer could not be put back and was stored in the back, but unsecured it had hit the side of the hot water system and damaged it as well.  My suspision is that the shock absorbers are no longer doing their job and will need to be looked at when we're back home.

After this little drama I needed a cup of coffee and a treat and got myself something nice at the Crofters Cottage nearby where Patricia and I visited a few years back.

No, I couldn't lift the sword ;-)

People who have read the book, or watched the
series Outlander know what I am doing here..... ;-)

And then finally our last stop, behind hotel Jennings at Jennings.  There are a lot of kangaroos about and Dianne goes for a walk to take pictures.  I have plenty from the past, so I pass on that and have a quiet read.

The following morning we pass through scenic Cunninghams Gap and hit Brisbane where we are welcomed with rain, and lots of it.  It's not bad, because it washes most of the dirt off the vehicle. ;-)

Before we are at Dianne's place at Arana Hills it's dry again.  Dianne unpacks her gear, we have lunch and then I make my way home, where I unload the camper and park it at Maree's place, with the intend to do a thorough clean-up the following day.

Kevin arrives shortly after, because he has been studying quietly at my place now and then while I was away, and was not aware that I would be home much earlier than expected.  Probably just as well, because I hurt my back just before we go out for dinner at the RSL and I can hardly move or walk.  I make it to dinner, but boy I am hurting.  A visit to the doctor the following day is in order, and the clean-up will have to wait a little bit longer....