Erik Gegnome Derby, Western Australia, Australia
By
hhheddy on 01-Dec-10. Waypoint GA2957
Cache Details
Difficulty: | |
Terrain: | |
Type: | Moveable |
Container: | Micro |
Coordinates: | S17° 18.029' E123° 37.507' (WGS 84) |
51K 566433E 8087095N (UTM) | |
Elevation: | 7 m |
Local Government Area: | Derby-West Kimberley |
Description
A moveable cache participating in the Gegnome caching game.
Placed as part of the Gegnome Project from December 1 2010 to January 31 2011.
Hi my name is Eric and I'm 234 years old, only a young un for us gnomes I like travel, dance and long walks on the beach. Would like to meet similar minded gnomes with GSOH ... Oopps sorry that's the other web site, got a little carried away there. Actually that's exactly what I want to happen. To get carried away and travel. With itchy feet I feel the need to travel near and far throughout this land. I may appear a little grubby but it's really just camouflage, I like to blend in to my surroundings and fly below the radar.
Please move me on along my journey and post photos of my travels to allow me to reminisce during my latter years.
Hints
Ebnq fvqr bs furq |
|
Decode |
Logs
Archiving the cache as it has not been found in a long time and given the close proximity to a GC cache thought it would attract some attention.
Thanks to all that helped Erik on his travels around the state.
hhheddy (Steve)
(http://mrlocks.tumblr.com)
https://www.facebook.com/mark.seberry?ref=tn_tnmn
“1CADFAY”, (1 cache a day for a year).
Derby WA
Rain, Rain, Rain, still drizzling down. Not sure what to do about going to see Windjana Gorge and Tunnel creek, we decided to try to get some more accurate information on the road condition. I jumped in the car and drove to IGA to get some fresh vegies and visit the bakery next door to get some fresh bread. Nearby was the tourist information office but it was still not open, next door was the Shire office which was open, I spoke to the engineer who told me that the road was still open and that the recent rains had not really reached out that far and that in fact the roads were still dusty.
Back at the caravan the kids were doing some school work, Jacki and I got chatting to the neighbours about their recent and past travels to the gorges and got some great info. I headed off to the office to pay for another nights accommodation and chatted with the owner about road conditions as he asks all the new customers about how conditions are and had all the latest updates. So with all the info I went back to the caravan and we had a conference on the subject of what to do to, as today was getting a bit late for such a long days trip and decided to wait till tomorrow to go and hopefully the weather would be better also. With that decided we realized we needed to pay for the next nights accommodation as well and it was back to the office to pay.
After lunch Chloe and I decided to go find a nearby cache while Charlie stayed with Jacs to do some school work. First on the list was “Derby Wetlands, GC15RFN”. We drove down the road towards the cache and once we got to the end of the sealed section the road became soft, slippery red clay. I was a bit dubious about driving on this but kept going anyway, trying to pick my way around the worst soft muddy patches. At the end of the road we came to the local tip and I was not sure how to proceed, we were still a long way from the cache and knew I wouldn’t be able to access through the tip when I noticed a track leading off to the right along the fence line and decided to give it a go. The track was very narrow and a bit scratchy but the track was fairly firm so we continued on, a little was down we turned left eventually coming out at an area close to the mud flats. Here we found a bit of a parkland where there had been placed a small picnic shelter with table and seats and information board placed above. The general area was somewhat overgrown and need a good slashing, nearby was a fenced off area containing a pond and featured a park bench overlooking it and views over the mudflats. It was a very pleasant area to find and a big thanks to Team Willows for bringing us here as we would never have found this great spot if not for geocaching. The cache was soon found and the log signed.
As we were coming into the area we were passed by some youths in a 4x4 who were hooning around the muddy tracks, our next cache was not too far away so we headed off in that general direction to try to find “Goodbye Boab, GC42YBD”. We drove down the muddy tracks and very quickly came to large puddles going right across the track, we stopped and considered our options and decided to give it a go, we surged across the puddle keeping to the side to avoid becoming bogged in the centre, deeper part, and popped out the other side. Fired up with adrenaline and having successfully crossed a large puddle we kept going through many more, slowly picking our way towards the cache. At times, when we charged through the puddles, the red, muddy water shot up into the air and over the windscreen, obscuring our view, but with the wipers flapping away we were able to continue on. We eventually found a nice wide, straight track in good condition and turned onto this, still working our way towards the cache.
We came to a walk trail which crossed over this road we were on and that there were some signs nearby so we stopped to check them out and realized we were only about 300m from the cache area along one of these trails. We parked the car and set off to find the cache, the trail in was through light bush, the sun had now come out and we saw some butterflies fluttering about the forest in the dappled light of the trees. We soon came to the area of the cache where once had stood a large boab tree, the only thing that was left there was a large crater. I knew this because someone had left a very convenient sign explaining what had happened, lol. We looked around for the cache and eventually found a tell tale sign close by, we extracted the cache container from its hidey spot and stuck in a sticker and signed the log, the odd type of container was letting water in so we replaced it in an upside down position to help prevent the log book getting more wet. This was such a nice area to visit, the walk through the forest was splendid, we loved it, we would never had visited this place if not for your cache, we think we might give this one a favourite point. Thanks to Derby Bush Rangers, PS. Chloe and Charlie are participating in the Scouts Geocaching Competition. Thanks for this great cache! This is why we do this fun hobby. We managed to get out and back to the main road without incident, we drove to the JoonJoo parking area which we found nearby the Prison Boab at coords S 17 20.837 E 123 39.890.
We headed back to the caravan park for a cuppa, I tried to catch up on some more book work while the kids set about cleaning some of the mud off the car, lol. The sun was getting low in the sky so we decided to go and have a look for a GCA moveable cache, “GA2957, Erik Gegnome”. The GPSr took us to an old shed and we wandered around the shed while the GPSr indicated it was inside, there was no way in so I’ve got a feeling it may not be here anymore……..? So no luck finding this one!
The sun was starting to set so we drove out to the jetty and ordered fish and chips for dinner from the shop at the end of the jetty, while we were waiting we walked along the jetty enjoying the sunset and the evening light. We returned to the caravan to have our dinner and it was soon time for showers and to retire for the night.
There is a short Munzee trail nearby if you are hunting Munzees.
The coordinates may be slighly off as the tree is quite thick and difficult to get a good signal under, however I am sure it will be easy to pick.
Did I not collect a FROG from this very same spot last night...????
Spooky.
This morning we went out in hope of finding a "frog" and although we were unsuccessful it gave us a nice place to leave Erik.
PS - The pathtag that we left 'up his tube' in January is still there. You need a long pair of tweezers to get it out.
(Edited entry from a note to a found 14/12/2011)
Great plaster job on his legs - looks as good as new. We will move him on ASAP.
Erik is well bandaged to hold together his recently re-set limbs, take care Erik!
*Overall Experience: 3*
"My left foo-oo-oot!" agonised Erik.
The first-aid verdict was two fractures and seven clean breaks so Erik's intended quick trip to another scenic area is delayed while he undergoes a bit of gnome-setting at the base surgery. He'll get something to clean up that nasty rash of ants in his nether regions as well.
We decided to do some boat maintenance today so Eric reckoned it was time to move on at a shady spot.
Signed Erics log book and will move him to a new location soon.
Placed Santa at nearby cache Flower Power. & Trevevred turned up.
Off again ...
An now resting up...
While we were getting some lunch Erik told Agro about the great spot he was at by the ocean.
Seems Agro wants to go there....
Off we all went & the boys had fun by the water. Left Agro to ponder across the water.
Santa & Erik continued on to help find "Rudy Gnome"
Will place Erik later today...
Cheers
OK - I have updated Erik to the correct position now
Cheers
Wow Erik has been very busy today. Caught up with a mate Rudy Gnome at Woodman Point and they both went for a swim. Erik then moved on... Now out looking across the water towards Garden Island. Lovely spot, but lots of Muggles. Please keep me safe.
He'll travel somewhere else very soon.
TFTH mate..
EDIT: Mrs Sq invited Erik for Xmas dinner, hes gonna be on his travels on Boxing day.
First, Gnomadic and Erik climbed onto some kind of baby roach (sorry, Roche) thing -
"Biggest roach I ever saw," said Erik.
"Hush Erik, I'm trying to get the hang of this seek-when-sing bizzo," muttered Gnomadic.
Next, they found a very colourful display that reminded them both of a cache location map -
"Look Erik, I reckon we're over there, that green spot right in the centre, the other green spots would be found caches. The blue ones must be yet to be found, red are DNF - gee, lots of those!" exclaimed Gnomadic.
"What are the purple spots Gnomadic?" questioned Erik.
"Erm. Mystery? Lots of puzzle caches in Perth?"
"Yeah, could be."
"Hey, come look over here. Can we squeeze in through this glass door?"
Yes they managed to climb inside a 3730 DNA Analyzer -
"Don't know what this does. Hey, what's that sound?"
"Dunno. Uh, is that a laser?"
"..."
"ruuuuunnnn!"
Escaped with eyesight intact, gathering their wits on the bench -
"Er, Gnomadic?"
"Yes Erik?"
"I feel like going somewhere a bit more outdoorsy. Maybe a swim?"
"Not a bad plan old gnome."
Will see what Erik wants to visit in the next day or two. Thanks for the cache hhheddy.
Edit to correct the coordinates and the published date