E.M.U. 5: Name, Rank & Serial Number Anglesea, Victoria, Australia
By Mr Emu on 13-Feb-09. Waypoint GC1K2YW

I was originally planning to "Temporarily Disable" the caches in this series while I reconfigured each of the first four puzzles (E.M.U.s 0, 1, 2 & 3 were confirmed as within the boundaries of the Great Otway National Park) and moved the caches to acceptable nearby locations. As it turns out I've spent (wasted!) the last week of my holidays trying to do just that, but am not at all satisfied with the results. In many cases the point of the cache was a unique viewpoint that I wanted to share - not something that is easily substituted. The puzzle workarounds were starting to look a bit ridiculous, and although E.M.U.s 4, 5 & 6 were in the Anglesea Heath and could have stayed, the series is pretty-much "broken". I don't even want to talk about the cursed E.M.U. 7 !

I am very sorry to disappoint the cachers who had recently convinced me to keep this well-appreciated series alive. I tried, but after the last week's effort I've decided that it's time to retire this specific series. Don't worry, the unique containers will be cleaned and freshened-up. You never know when the "caching muse" will strike!

Thanks to all of the cachers who attempted the puzzles and made the trek to the caches. I really appreciated all of the generous comments in your logs.

*** If there are any cachers who found at least three (3) caches in this series and have not yet claimed their "pathtag bonus", please get in contact with me as soon as possible with your preferred mailing address. (Now that I've got the logbooks in hand, don't worry if you can't find the "verification codes" - I can verify claims.) ***


*One final comment: in the process of collecting all of the containers today I was once again disappointed to see all the signs from our fellow citizens who don't adhere to Parks Victoria rules e.g. multiple well-worn (and illegal) mountain bike single-track created in National Park, people walking German Shepherd dogs off-leash in bushland in National Park (where on-leash is acceptable), rubbish strewn through carparks and bushland etc. My faith-in-humanity meter is lying idle on the "0" mark at the moment...

At least I got some good exercise. Those caches weigh almost 7kg, and I think I covered quite a few km of bush tracks.

07 January 2011 17:33:00

This was another easier one to tackle as I new GZ very well, and not the wrong way to come in from.

The puzzle on the other was a little tricky for themd and I must admit without a few clues from a brainstorm with º got us there in the end.

I approached GZ fairly easily in the commodore and was soon signing the log.

TFTC

Cache #144 for us, the second in the series today and our 3rd overall. Again, some assistance was required in converting the raw data into useful information.

As others have mentioned, the scale of damage done by geocaching compared with other activities permitted in Parks Vic controlled lands, such as 4WD and mountain-bike riding is plain to see in this series. These guys need their heads read. Oh well, such is life I guess.

We took the geo-peugeot up the track at the top of the hill to within a couple of hundred metres of GZ, where we encountered an area where discretion was the better part of valour and we pulled off to the side and walked in. A nice easy find, with no muggles today and we grabbed the trig point as well. Excellent views from here ! The amount of effort and research that has gone into this series impresses more as we work through them.

We grabbed a couple of the small dolls.

Thanks so much for this series

02/01/2011 13:48 Found: #169 #9/23 Huge (for me) cache day with lochb and PrincessDiala. I headed off first and rather than turn through the traffic elected to park in front of the scout camp. Took off through some of the heaviest traffic I have ever seen outside Melbourne peak-hour. Walked to GZ to find a muggle had driven there. Peered down the hill to see the two girls struggling up from below. From the platform I took some photos. We waited for a bunch of off-road cyclists to go past before we opened and signed. Amazing coal mine view. Nearly completed the series! Thank you again Mr EMU.

From W.P.3 the cars split up due to the steady stream of traffic on the GOR.
landau351 took off first and we lost him. We must have been too far for our radio's to work. (Turns out he has previous knowledge and knows a better way in...)
I made the (unwise) decision to park along Coalmine Rd, lochb looked at at her contour maps... Hmmm.. We're here now, lets go!
The walk wasn't too bad at the start, and then for the last 100m it was rather steep.
lochb and I slowly but surely made our way up top...... to see landau351's unpuffed face smiling down at us from the lookout - mmaaaaannnnn!!
We decided to wait a while before making a retrieval as there was a muggle in a 4WD also at the lookout.
I was in awe of the coalmine - wow, its so big!
We knew there was a trig point up here so took the pictures for logging and a pack of mountain bikers rode up. It seemed they were being taught how to mountain bike?
After they went down elsewhere, we made the quick find.
landau351 back to wherever he parked his car, and lochb and myself down the hill to the car (took us about 1/3 of the time to get back!).
Thanks again Mr Emu for this puzzling puzzle, cache and location!

Found today in the company of two others from the Vic puzzle solvers group - PrincessDiala and Landau351, before this series is being archived.

The puzzle was solved very quickly with no trouble (unlike some of the others in the series).

It felt good to blame someone else for the steep walk ... but it was actually rather enjoyable, and the views from up here were great. Yes, a huge hole for coal mining!

TFTC and the puzzle, Mr Emu!

Now we really did need help with this one! Very interesting little puzzle that we'll probably take an idea or two from for one of our own. It was interesting to note the huge mine off in the distance - funny how THAT can be environmentally friendly enough for the Otways when geocaching can't be. TFTC Mr Emu.

Amazing, I ride around here regularly and have never been here before. Looking at this view I can see the scale of the damage that geocaching does, compared to other users... Yes this HEAVY FOOTPRINT passtime MUST BE SHUT DOWN. Well done AGAIN Parks Vic..

A quick note for anybody who may be interested in attempting the E.M.U. series. I have altered my recent archiving plans (at request) so that all eight of these caches (#'s 0-7) will remain active up to - and including - Saturday 08 January 2011. After that date, I have no option but to archive the caches permanently.

* I am quite happy to provide guidance/hints for those that need help, but you will still need to do some work (and walking!) in the end.

Heard that these are going to go off line and having solved the series a couple of months back did not want to miss out on the find. Excellent Series and am sad to see Mr Emu pulling the pin on these ones. Thanks for all your hard work Mr Emu. Great job and these will be missed.

Although this puzzle cache has been enjoyed by geocachers for almost 2 years, I have considered the environmental impact of it's placement in light of the "Leave No Trace" ethic, and decided that it's due for retirement.

Collection and Archiving of this cache is planned within the next month.

Well it's taken me a fair while making sense of this one and some others. Really enjoyed these challenging puzzles and all the great location we've been to today.
Thank-you Mr Emu for a great day out.

TNLN

Suscoe found this cache nice and early today.
A terrific challenge and we enjoyed the views immensely.
TNLN.
Thanks to Mr Emu for these brain extending caches.

2010-07-03 12:02 We headed here after E.M.U 4 and parked in the suggested car-park. This track was much more solid than the last few We found the cache and enjoyed the nearby views. We would not have found this spot if not for the cache. Thanks again Mr Emu.

Convincing Alsume to jump into EuDes' geoPaj to head off to this penultimate cache seemed a good idea, but there must have been some white knuckles as EuDes tried every back road in the area. The geoSube managed to hang on behind wondering when he would stop having fun . Finally after having lost Joffa1970 for a while we made it to GZ and found another of these well made caches at 2:50pm. Nice view of the mine. Took a GC mainly because its ID was microscopically small. Exiting the area proved exciting, not the least due to dropping the geoSube over some steep terrain and a guttered Barina which the team was able to help escape.

Found with EuDes and Asume.
Thank-you for the late nights and finally a wonderful day day on the surf-coast and beyonds.
A Fantastic cache series.

Rather than head back to our car, we caught a lift with Eudes for a 4WD adventure to this cache - and what an adventure it turned out to be! Eudes tried to take us down every track in the area before we finally started heading towards the cache. We did eventually get there and logged a find with the others. Then we headed downhill and back to our car, but as we came off the hill back to the blacktop we were stuck in a traffic jam behind a red Barina that had buried itself nose first in the road side verge as it came off the hill too front on. Fortunately we were able to help and probably did it with less damage to the Barina than the front end loader who also stopped to help could have managed. We even managed to all get off the hill ourselves without getting stuck! Another good puzzle, we can only be amazed at the effort that has gone into constructing this series.
No swaps but took geocoin
thanks Mr Emu

It was time to dump the on-roader and take the scenic route from 6 to 5 much to the chagrin of many involved . It was a terrific journey, albeit short, and we finally all arrived at GZ for the find at 14:35 after admiring the sensational views nearby. (Another lot of thanks go to Alsume for the hard yards they put in solving this one .)

After the find, we all took the "short cut" back to the on-roader where, unbelievably, we were delayed by a traffic jam!!! But that's another story .

TNLNSL. Thanks Mr Emu.

Find # 3142 and 10th of the day at 12:01 pm. Accompanied by Feathertop on our Great Ocean Road Trip. Nice views, TNLN, left my mark in the log, Thanx MrEmu....

Another one of the earlier caches that I solved that promptly went into the solved pile and into the filing cabinet for a year.
Todays mission was to seek and disarm all 8 of these caches and this one went without a hitch though we had to keep low lest our position be spotted by those below.
Thanks Mr Emu

This was cache # 28 of 43 for the day, on our tour of Geelong and the Surf Coast. My name is Rebel my rank is commander my serial number is L.L.T.R.A.This was another great cache in a great location, am sure I needed a few prods on this puzzle and others in this great series. My thanks to Mr Emu for the cache.

Found while out with Acts2YouthGroup on a good weather day for caching. This was one that I managed to figure out fairly quickly and finished well before lunch that day! We had a look at this view too after making another quick find. Thanks Mr Emu.

coin drop

Found with bucketeer
TFTC

Our retrieval skills have picked up as it took us less than an hour to get from E.M.U. unit 4 to unit 5, which was recovered at 1030 hours.
The area provided interesting surveillance of a nearby industrial installation.

13:20
It took the initiative of ppras to mobilise the forces of maccamob and Phetlern to launch the offensive. Knowing that is was six months since the demise of the navy vessel; we assumed we would be searching for the fused hard rocky masses of the former robots. Phetlern could not have joined the hunt without the invaluable contribution of CDNB as their brains trust.
And another hard rocky mass is recovered this time by pprass as we enjoyed the view from this remote location. The E.M.U obviously could not escape via the tower route.

TNLN .. SL .. TFTH Mr Emu.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found by Mary & David at 1320, in company with pprass and Phetlern. Needed a nudge for this puzzle, too. Not sure we'd have got there otherwise. We made this another drive-by, and enjoyed the marvellous views from nearby. Once again, our thanks to Mr Emu.

Found at 1.25pm GAFF1 in the company of maccamob and Phetlern.

We drove up Power Line Track and then up a very steep track to get to the cache - which was quite interesting considering the amount of rain that had fallen the night before.

At GZ the unexpected view of the mine was impressive and the steepness of the track we had just come up was even more astonishing from the top looking down.

Once again we needed just a word to get us started on this puzzle and we were off!

Thanks Mr Emu on another good location.

RedPaw64 found this cache at 1255. Great walk to the cache.
TFTC NINO
Happy Caching

Time was marching on, and the days are getting shorter - but still three U.M.U.'s to find! A quick hunt soon found the little fellow, and we were off to try to complete the series.

Found this one after a quick walk from the parking area with RSF1010+SGGK and saraci.jaee. Series so far is great.
TFTC

found this one next, enjoying the fantastic series, tftc

Nice walk in the dark with Indiana08 and saraci.jaee. Straightforward walk and interesting view.
TNLN TFTC

12:42 Found on our Touring Tassie and Beyond 2009 Trip!

I think that all I can say is make sure that you double check what you write down as the answer before you leave home, as once you are out in the field it becomes harder to figure out what on earth you have done. This cache should have been a nice straight forward walk, but it turned into the hardest of them all as A had written down one number wrong, which resulted in a lot of walking, and a bit of silence in the car.

We got there in the end, and thankfully neither of us slipped in the now very wet clay, whilst going up and down the wrong hills. At the end of it all A did have the right answer, and she walked away with a smile on her face, and a hungry belly.

Another great cache. We didn't drive all the way to GZ due to the road conditions, but were able to drive to within 200m or so

TNLNSL

12:42 Found on our Touring Tassie and Beyond 2009 Trip!

I think that all I can say is make sure that you double check what you write down as the answer before you leave home, as once you are out in the field it becomes harder to figure out what on earth you have done. This cache should have been a nice straight forward walk, but it turned into the hardest of them all as A had written down one number wrong, which resulted in a lot of walking, and a bit of silence in the car.

We got there in the end, and thankfully neither of us slipped in the now very wet clay, whilst going up and down the wrong hills. At the end of it all A did have the right answer, and she walked away with a smile on her face, and a hungry belly.

Another great cache. We didn't drive all the way to GZ due to the road conditions, but were able to drive to within 200m or so

TNLNSL

This was another new puzzle method for me and while I had seen something similar I had to do a great deal of research to work it out. I fascinating concept indeed and one I used to memorise the verification codes on each of the caches.

I made the trip to the cache very difficult because TomTom didn't have any of the useful roads for the area (and nor did my GPSr). So I parked as close as I could and made a straight line assault for the cache. Well, that was a mistake!

Scratched and bruised I emerged from the scrub only to find a nice road waiting for me. Dang! I signed and returned the cache before taking in the great views and heading back - via the road this time!

Thanks for another very clever puzzle,

R - B

Name: Suitman
Rank: Locator - 2nd Class
Serial number: 32 - 4712
I am not permitted to divulge any other information.
TNLNSL TFTC

Found in the company of Bushfire, VKC1SR and Suitman. This was one of my favourite in the series and was educational as well. Nemo's quite the action man!

Took yet another wombat (getting quite a collection now) and left play dough.

Well a team assault was in order for these tricky puzzle caches. Headed off with Bushfire, Suitman and Pteranodon.
A nice easy find at 1400 after a bite to eat.. Loved the container. Will log thoughts in E.M.U. 7
TNLN

Dropping in Bobby coin as this is more than a fair cache Guv!

This EMU #5 cache was under attack from Pteranodon, VKC1SR, Bushfire and the Suitman in a combined attack. We found it at 14.00 after some food and a great coffee from the laneway coffee bar in Anglesea. Again another great cache in a form that we have become used to looking for and we were not disappointed. All of these puzzles are different and use a new theme or idea that will keep you guessing until you solve it. They all make you think about the problem and how to make sense out of it all. Come on all of you cachers give this series a try and come down and see what we have seen today. If you are struggling give the cache owner a call or Bushfire and we will help as this area is worth seeing as I have found out today. I have lived in the Geelong area for fifty years and never knew they existed.NI-NO and thanks for the cache.

Found tonight. my last in this GREAT series. The Mr Emu. Really did have fun tring to work these out. Second to finish the whole lot. Was thinking of setting one up near hear, but a little to late now. Well done again. TFTC NINO.

It suddenly struck me today how to solve this cache, after days of thinking about it, Geowife and I finally decoded the clues....with one number wrong lol! Luckily Mr Emu turned up while we were searching and let us know we were very close and pointed us in the right direction. I found it quite quickly then and I must say I really love the cammo. Definitely the best cammo I have seen to date! Well Done! Great series, even if I am going slowly mad trying to work them out! TFTC. TNLN.

YAY FTF.Awesome cache PacketStorm and I stayed up until 4 this morning figuring out the clues. great hid. can't wait until we can figure the rest of the series some very interesting tricky ones to decifer.

took pathtags

TFTC

Another Brilliantly planned cache, RHPS and i were on the hunt, after countless hours figuring them out it all payed off!
GPS was a bit funny as to how to approach this cache, but you will know when your on the right track!
FTF!
TFTC

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