Next Steps Antarctica Southport Lagoon, Tasmania, Australia
By LoftytheLion & PC Wally on 04-Mar-11. Waypoint GC2PQ2G

We searched forever around the place. The former staircase is almost completely gone, the huge rocks broke down, no stone pile around. You should definately check if it is still there...

Archiving at the request of the caretakers of Cockle Creek.
Will send information on how you can retrieve your geocache.

Found @ 10:38. After scrambling up from below using the ropes, the cache was quickly located as the hint indicated. Thank goodness it was up there, as I was not going back down again. Cache damp and log was a scrap of cardboard. Log needs replacing.

TFTC LoftytheLion

Made a beautiful walk to this lovely spot. At GZ there wwre only some parts of a stairway left, so my first thought was that it must have been gone. Then, after reading the hint, went up again and further up and there it was. Some 30 m off, but found!
TFTC

We had a fantastic walk into SE Bay from Cockle Creek, after arriving by boat a few days ago.

It was a perfect day (compared to the drizzly, grey days beforehand) and we thoroughly enjoyed the views over the bay from the cliffs.

Thanks Lofythelion, a great spot for a cache.

What a fantaxtic day! Drove from launceston and back just for thiscache! Dad had a gortex coat and i had a four dollar poncho, shorts and shoes resembling swiss cheese that have been everywhere for about a year and have done many hikes nd even climbed uluru! Lovely walk in. On aproach to gz you could walk leaning to one side because the wind could support your weight. Went for a swing, yes a madman of an idea but the wind was colder than the water. Found the cache and then returned to the car. Will update log and make it much longer With photos too. TFTC!!!!

Found with Bedmaker.

We camped the night at the beautiful Cockle Creek and was amazed to see the amount of Pademelon's in the area. They were very friendly too!

We got up early and headed off for South Cape Bay and the cache. The diversity of the bush through this area was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk. When we approached the end we could hear the waves of the Southern Ocean. When we reached the top we headed down to the cache while enjoying the magnificent views.

Bedmaker found the cache in no time then we headed down to the beach and watched the surfers riding the waves. We spent a while down here enjoying the area. There were a few people passing by who must have been doing the Overland walk.

Bedmaker and I thoroughly enjoyed this cache and the wonderful walk. It is well worth the effort and a highly recommended cache.

Many thanks LoftytheLion for bringing us to such a magnificent spot! Definitely a favourite point from me.

Found with TassieGirl13 while down here on holidays from Queensland.
We spent the night camping at Cockle Creek so we could get a nice early start the next day.
We woke up to blue skies and beautiful weather so the walk out to this was going to be a good one.

We found the walk easy going on the well formed track. The boardwalk really made easy work of that area and we made good time across it. We only started to have a few people start to pass us the opposite way when we were about half a kilometre from the beach. Once we arrived we both marvelled at the views of the Southern Ocean, wow just to think there is no other land between here and Antarctica is pretty amazing.

From the tops of the cliff we could see plenty of Surfers out trying to catch a wave. They must be keen because even though it’s summer that water would still be cold. We headed towards GZ and just as we were a few meters off I spied something that didn’t quite look as natural as the rest of the surrounds.

I walked over and what do you know here is the cache. The container and log book where in good condition. We had a read to see who has been here and added our names to the list.

After replacing it we made our way down to the beach area and took a few photos. After walking all this way in we certainly weren’t going to turn around and walk back straight away so we had a bit of lunch and enjoyed the area for the next hour or so watching the surfers and other bushwalkers going by.

We thoroughly enjoyed the experience this cache gave us, it truly is a great part of the country.
TFTC

Yay... visiting this cache has been in the planning for at least 6 months! I knew I was coming to Australia for a work trip and I added Hobart and then Cockle Creek onto it. It was 27 degs C today and whilst the wind was cooler on the coast, it got very hot enroute to GZ. I set off from Cockle Creek around 10am and arrived at GZ around 12.30pm. I met 5 groups of people on the way out (one was a group of young ladies who were just completing 8 days of trekking). All the paths were bone dry and well kept (well worth the $24 park entrance just for that alone), although if it's wet I can imagine some places could get a little muddy. On the way out I came 5 metres or so away from a big olive green coloured snake on the path, we stared at each other for a few seconds and it then slithered off into the bushes. On the way back I saw an Echinda . The first sight of the Southern Ocean will remain etched on my mind, what a breath taking location for a cache! I soon found GZ and noticed around a dozen surfers were riding the waves, they must have walked 4 miles with their surfboards! It's a shame about the bags of plastic rubbish still being there , perhaps an organised CITO could be arranged sometime. I found the co-ords were about 60 feet out, I had the cache being at S 43° 36.582 E 146° 49.379, but the hint gets you right on the spot (if you can see the rubbish, you can see the cache). The cache container had water in it and was covered in the dark sand from the cliffs so I spent some time cleaning things up and drying things, I also added two new logsheets (the original logsheet - photo attached - was a soggy mess so I took it away - you couldn't read anything on it anyway) and replaced cache as found. The previous log by MakkyBrown on a piece of cardboard is still in the cache. I took the mini car racing TB and another 'Pathtag' from MakkyBrown which wasn't listed in this cache so I'll look into logging that online. This is now my furthest cache south as it beats my previous in Kaikoura, NZ which I visited in April this year and also the longest there and back for a single cache . Thanks so much for setting it up, it is a real milestone for me - fav point added. TFTC and greetings from the UK.
#705

found, but didn't sign the soggy log...great spot nobody about on the way in(to suprise bay) but a few surfers about on the way out.
TNLN

Marathon day of walking including the to geokids aged 7 and 9. Such a great location, last time we were here was 1998. Lovely "calm" day here today with the surfers not managing to catch many waves. Note: It took us much longer than the 2 hours each way as a family with younger kids. Busy weekend day on the track we saw 19 walkers, some mud but nothing that couldn't be skirted around. A blue-tongue lizard, black cockatoos and a few wallabies. Left a tb. The only mini that's been to the south coast and we picked it up from the north coast of Tasmania. Left a pathtag too. TFTC

This entry was edited by MakkyBrown on Wednesday, 02 January 2013 at 00:36:11 UTC.

OK, OK, you can stop rubbing it in! Difficulty one and the owner's made an effort to make it obvious and we didn't find it. We admit it!

Totally blind sided by circumstance and I'm still puzzled. We turned the GPS on where we emerged from the bush and followed it all the way down to the end of the path where it pointed seawards, 7m. Climbed down, had lunch at the bottom of the climb, GPS still on, thought I'd have another check so I climbed up, started walking back. GPS climbed up to 20m so I gave it away. Returned to beach, got camera, moved around until GPS was on zero and took image.
The GPS said this was the spot, there were two stairways, one missing, it seemed obvious. Funny thing is that I'd hidden ICEM Cockle Creek only an hour or so earlier and the co-ordinates for that must have been fairly close as Old Saint made a quick find. Very strange!
We'll be back!

Nutwood, I agree, you were someway out with your location. Hopefully it has survived the winter and is still there. Hope you can get back down there again.

After finding ICEM Verse 6 - Cockle Creek I decided to continue on to Coal Bluff even though the weather was against me.
On the way there, I checked this cache and it is still where I found it. Checked it again on the way back out (just for fun) and it still hadn't moved.
Cheers to all
OldSaint.

Thanks for that Old Saint. I did wonder if we should have combed the area further inland but the co-ordinates took me right to the spot where I took the image and there was so much erosion happening I was concerned about the smaller half of nutwood. Surprised my GPS would be so far out. It reckoned it had a EPE of 3m!
Glad to hear the cache is still there. We'll have to make another trip sometime.

Sorry to let you know Nutwood that your picture is no where near ground zero for this cache. So I just want people to know that the cache should still be there and that the co-ords are pretty good.
Cheers OldSaint.

This was an interesting DNF as not only did we not find the cache, we also didn't find GZ. It's gone! I'll pop an image in the gallery to show what GZ currently looks like. The image was taken from the spot my GPS settled on 0. I didn't stay there long as the waves were reaching it. The end of the path is 7m from me.
I'm assuming that the hint refers to the last two flights of steps leading down to the beach. If so, this cache is gone, as the Southern Ocean is heading north at the moment. It's possible the cache is somewhere else as we didn't really hunt, but if it is, the coordinates are way out, which seems unlikely, given the clear view of the sky available from here.

We were very lucky with our timing of this walk: Heading towards Cockle Creek yesterday, in 36 degrees, with lots of smoke in the air coming from the fires near the area we left in the morning, we were relieved when the weather cooled down in the evening, bringing with it some much-needed rain. What a relief for the firefighters!
Today started wet but cleared as the day went on - ideal to tackle the 8 kilometer forest track. Yeaah, the most Southern cache in Oz is now a smilie on our map!
There were quite a lot of people walking past this spot today, but noone else seemed interested in finding the treasure we were after.
Thanks for bringing us here! Our joints are now sore but our cachers' spirits are very pleased with themselves.
Cache container had some water in it. We mopped it up with some tissues. Log sheet is just a little damp but usable.
TNLNSL

Mr Whitewebbs found this cache with Mr T from Tassie Trekkers. Beautiful day for a walk with lots of others doing the same. Great spot. Mrs. W and Mrs T did the shorter walk out to Fishers Point.

Found on our Far South caching weekend with whitewebbs, Mr T & Mr W found this one while Mrs T & Mrs W found Fishers Point. They enjoyed the walk on a beautiful day along an easy track. Amazing views at the end and the cache was found quickly. Thanks for bringing us to this amazing location and for the cache. Adding to our favourites list.

Hi to ya both
Back at Mum and Dad's (Huonville) for a short stay so decided to drive down and have a look for those caches in this area before going back to the Peninsula.
Arrived at the car park on what started out as a fine day, then for a while, all hell broke loose.
I sat it out in the car hoping it would pass. Once the rain stopped; the weather gods were kind to me for the rest of the day.
Have done this walk before but not for such a long time. Last time, I took in about 30 Police Recruits from the Academy at Rokeby.
Lucky for me today, the screech of the Black Cockie could be heard both in and out. Enjoyed watching an echidna feed. Shared the cache find with a couple from Fremantle (Lynn and Peter); at 1430hrs.
Remarkable: sea debris on the shelf with the cache. Had to be put there by the sea - draw your own conclusions. (See Pics)
The views here are fantastic and as for Lion Rock - impressive no matter how many times you see it.
Thanks for a great afternoon!
TFTC and cheers;
OldSaint.

Awesome hide

Awesome. Always wanted to get this one. Here with my unit of venturers '1208' from the national venturer camp 'Wild Dayz 2012'. We have scouts form all over the country and even a kiwi with us. Thanks for the cache here

Just re-logging 'cos it didn't seem to come up on the GCA system.
Was my first cache and very fun finding it too

My first cache find after buying the new "toy".
Found by myself and Anne from NZ, while walking
with Unit 1102 of the Wild Dayz Australian Venture.
Swapped items and wrote in log.
Venturer Scouts, do it all...

Found and logged together with Muspel during our holidays in Australia .

Thanks for the cache .

Triaden1

Found and logged together with Triaden1 .

There it was - my first milestone ! And of course it should be a special cache for this . What could be better as australians most southern cache ?

It was poor weather today but no big problem with good clothes . Partly the boardwalks were under water and the way through the forests was very muddy - and the whole time we had to fight against the leeches . After two hours we reached the bay and we were afraid that the cache had been gone because the lower part of the stairs does not exist longer. But we could find the cache after a short search . Thanks for this hide at a great location !

Muspel

On the way back from our interesting overnight camp at South Cape Rivulet we got this one. A rat ate a hole in our tent, kept us awake all night trying to get into our packs and ate some of our food that was right next to us. Did I mention the mud, ankle deep over Coal bluff! Great part of the world and the weather was fantastic. Thanks for the cache.

I walked the 4 hr return walk today from Cockle Creek to South Cape Bay
Ive done this walk several times now but I still enjoy it immensely ... and it still takes me 4 hrs
The weather today was fierce! with wind, rain, and where the track wasnt duck boarded it was pretty muddy but of course I loved every minute of it
I will claim FTF as the previous log was by the person who placed it and the sheet of paper (log book) was very much blank!
Thanks for the cache

Published

good cashe