HMAS #61: WATERHEN Holder, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
By Cankid on 20-Jul-14. Waypoint GC4V3W2

No response from the owner within the last 28 Days and as per the original note posted to this cache it has now been archived. If you wish to replace it please submit a new cache via [this link](https://www.geocaching.com/play/hide).

Sorry for the generic log but Finalf29 and I found seventy two for the weekend. We came down to Canberra to finish the HMAS series before it gets archived at the end of the month. We found the last HMAS puzzle as the sun set on Sunday afternoon. We were very tired after walking goodness how many kilometres, but had a fantastic weekend and enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks to all the CO's for your caches, but a HUGE thanks to Finalf29 for joining me in this crazy game... you are the best walking buddy a person can ask for!

We have permission from the CO to log this cache... since we cache offline and didn't realise the cache had moved to
S 35° 18.435 E 149° 02.997

Despite being currently disabled, I had the co-ordinates for this cache in the gps so was still able to make the find.
TFTC, Cankid and Smittengranny

It may not be active but the cache is still there and I'm getting my smiley before it's gone for good.

TFTC Smittengranny and Cankid

Will try to get to this one in the next two weeks.

Found this cache. Thanks for the hide

Found with mistysoho thanks for the cache

G'Day

I'm sorry, but your recent move has brought your cache too close to the Traditional Cache of [GC56YMW: HMAS #62: WATSON](http://coord.info/GC56YMW) and will need to be moved. Please read the following item on [Cache Saturation](https://www.geocaching.com/play/guidelines?expand=1#cachesaturation)

I've disabled this listing for the time being, could you please move it to a new location that fits within the saturation guidelines. Once that is done you may enable the cache.

Rgds,
Matt - Ministro.

Coordinates changed from:
S 35° 18.377 E 149° 3.062

Coordinates changed to:
S 35° 18.435 E 149° 2.997

Distance from original: 478.3 feet or 145.8 meters.

To be closer to original GZ.

Tftc. Luckily for me Mrs jaybeem was reading previous logs as I walked to the cache, and told me to add a new waypoint, or I’d probably still be looking.

Finally got to finishing the HMAS series with Runner5ive. The other Zombros did not join us this time. 27km and 65 caches later we had this all knocked off. A fair bit of backtracking through the first half due to some bad navigation. Sorry for the generic log but it has been a big day. Thanks for maintaining and looking after all of these.

COORDS ARE S35 18.435 E149 02.997
They are in an earlier log but not in the listing. Cache is nearby (not under) the big log.

Finished the HMAS series (traditionals only for now) with aramil. Also did some incidental nearby ones. 65 caches in one day, and not a single DNF! It certainly helps having two pairs of eyes. Thank you to the series creator and the current series custodian, sorry for generic logs, CIH TNLNSL TFTC

2 of 47 Today

With an indeterminate time between my old and new jobs.. I've taken the oppurtunity to just treat every day like it's my last day of leave.. so with that, I've come down here to finish up the HMAS series.. for the second time

Started today's run by heading straight into the pine forest down south, and then across to the Zoo pines

With only 2 DNFs, I was stoked to have to have over rest of the caches done here!

This one was a pain to find, but eventually got it.

TFTC CanKid, SmittenGranny & DRT!

It would have been better if the coords would have been changed in the listings rather than in the notes
We've been looking at the listed coords for quite a while before checking the notes.
Thanks
Team sissifalke

### A beautiful sunny day ###

----------

I have already planed the walk of the HMAS series.
It was beautiful weather so I’ve started this tour with enough food/drinks to keep me going.
I’ve met many cows along the way and was happy about the tranquillity and the nice caches along the way.
I was able to find all caches and bonus numbers despite the heat of 40 degrees on that day.
I’ve watched many kangaroos in the afternoon and a big echidna.

I got back to the car after 10 hours of walking 38km. I’ve had a nice day and I was happy to convert all the caches into smileys.
Thank you for this nice tour.

Team sissifalke

I will look for the bonus numbers tomorrow.

First time to get a chance go out go out caching with a great group of girls ticking off some of the HMAS series under the log stamp of Capital Crunchers. Thank you to Joolay for the organisation and Kitty Katch,minniek, Joeylovestreasure, JM383, Smittengranny & ZimbaW.

Thank you for a great day out caching with the girls before being summoned for beer and music by GeoSnag1.

Thanks for the series.

TFTC Smittengranny

Joolay organised a walk around the HMAS series so several of us girls joined her for the walk. Spent several hours caching with Joolay, Kitty Katch, Canberra Cacher, Joeylovestreasure, JM383, Smittengranny & ZimbaW. All logs were stamped as Capital Crunchers.

All caches were found easily (except one #61, but has now been moved by the CO). Thanks for the caches, we had a most enjoyable day.

Changed the coordinates for #61 and #62 today.
#61 is now S 35 18.435 E 149 02.997


This move will keep cache closer to original placement.

Found with Capital Crunchers. TFTC

Found with Capital Crunchers. That sure was hard work!

Found as part of the Capital Crunchers Ladies day out TFTC

Another afternoon in the pine forest... except this leg was not very pine foresty.. more new plantings with cool signs. Out with the eldest geokid, we found 8 for the day

Good to go.

Coordinates changed from:
S 35° 18.404 E 149° 3.023

Coordinates changed to:
S 35° 18.377 E 149° 3.062

Distance from original: 254.0 feet or 77.4 meters.

As requested to avoid saturation level.

Cache has been moved to a new location on request of CO and ministro.
#61: S35 18.377 E149 03.062

After a busy weekend, what better than to go for a nice walk and find some caches? All alone to start with but muggles appeared as the afternoon progressed.
7th of 20. A large kangaroo showed me the way. TFTC.

4:44pm Aquilus1, Youban and I were in the area picking up the others in this series nearby and couldn't go past and check on this one. GZ was strategically placed so that you had to stand in quicksand to reach it. Or it just happened to be that the ground was a little wet, either way a quick and easy find. TFTC!!!

Met up with dty73, youban and Mr youban to see about a number of caches in this area this afternoon and as we were walking right past made the find. With the sun down now and low enough behind the hill it was starting to get cold here in the shade. Not sure what the plan for this area is with all the bird houses and things but a lot of works have been going on. Thanks for the cache!

With dty73 & Aquilus1 we managed to pick this one up whilst trying to clear caches on the western side of the Arboretum. Kutgw

G'Day

I'm sorry, but your recent move has brought your cache too close to the Traditional Cache of["HMAS #62: WATSON" (GC56YMW)](http://coord.info/GC56YMW) and will need to be moved. Please read the following item on [Cache Saturation](http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx?expand=1#cachesaturation)

I've disabled this listing for the time being, could you please move it to a new location that fits within the saturation guidelines. Once that is done you may enable the cache.

Rgds,
Matt - Ministro.

Ok ... another nice afternoon after my half a day at work ... May as well make the most of it and come back down here for the 3rd day in a row, and find another bunch of these
TFTC - 7th of 11

Fence has been removed and cache slightly relocated to S35 18.404 E149 03.023

Coordinates changed from:
S 35° 18.410 E 149° 3.024

Coordinates changed to:
S 35° 18.404 E 149° 3.023

Distance from original: 36.7 feet or 11.2 meters.

Cache neede to be moved after work on upgrading sewerage services.

Doing the a second third of the HMAS series with Maris4 and the geo-Lagotto.
This area has been razed. We made a new cache and hiding place for this one. Maris4 has the updated co-ords.
Thanks for the series Smittengranny and Cankid.

We looked for any remainings of the cache, but it seems the terrain was reshaped and cache is probably under some layer of mud and soil.

We placed new box and logbook bit further from the road and original coords. It was not easy to avoid collision with other caches from the serie

New coords: S 35° 18.404 E 149° 03.023

Shall be easy to find. Hidden simmilar way as othe caches from the serie

Today was the day we decided with Lola to give again a go to the HMAS serie. Last time we did about a 1/3 of the caches and today the second third.
The weather cleared quickly and in the end it turned out to be a very warm day
After last expetience we took some "spare parts" mainly to fix some of the caches we already found and were in vad shape. Luckily had more, so we could replace few broken containers, zip lock bags and logbooks on today's finds.

Thank you for maintaining this serie for us

Cache area is accessible now. No sign of the cache however.

Sewer upgrade. Area will open again when work is complete.

I am temporarily disabling this cache until it becomes clear as to what all the excavations are about.

There has been some very recent major excavation at this location - GZ has been obliterated. There was nothing to find. There was an excavator further down the fire trail as well as temporary fencing laying along the trail near #64. Maybe some construction is about to happen.

A gorgeous sunny winter day today, so we packed The Woofer in the car and headed out to tackle the lower half of the HMAS series. We climbed fences, tackled the multitude of blackberries, and one of us (won't say who!) went home with a backside covered in tree sap from sitting on a newly-cut tree stump. We had 2 DNFs (ground clearing in the area has resulted in some casualties), but found 49 so we're not complaining! We took nothing from any of the caches, but left something in all of them. Thanks for the great series! We'll be back to complete it soon.

A nice easy find.

One of 60 HMAS caches found today whilst enjoying the walk around the area. Looking forward to finishing the rest off some time. TFTC!
Cheers,
The Hancock Clan

Our current visit to Australia had been in the planning for over a year with the very significant help and advice from friends who live in Melbourne. The original plan was for a 2 month visit, but as things progressed we just couldn't help extending our trip to the full 90 days allowed on our visas - after all it's a big country and so much to see and do, especially with our favourite pastimes being birding, hiking and of course geocaching! Our journey started with our arrival in Perth before travelling on to Adelaide. We then continued on to Kangaroo Island, before heading to Melbourne via Goolwa, Strathalbyn, Coorong, Mount Gambier, Cape Bridgewater, the Grampians National Park, Port Campbell, Cape Otway and Lorne. The second leg of our journey was a fabulous 9 days in Tasmania. Having returned to Melbourne we then set off on the third leg of our journey, which is to Sydney via Wilson’s Promontory, Lakes Entrance, Mallacoota, Pambula Beach, Thredbo, Canberra (where we are at present) and Fitzroy Falls. We then travel on to the Gold Coast and the nearby mountainous birding hotspots before flying from Brisbane to Cairns for a week in the area. We then fly to Alice Springs for a week on the circuit to and from Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock before flying to Darwin from where we will spend the last two weeks of our holiday making our way to Broome before flying back to Perth, from where we connect with the flight all the way back home to Zimbabwe via South Africa. We already know we can't wait to return!

We had our sights on this series months before we arrived in Australia, but we only had one opportunity to undertake the trail, and so when the day finally arrived and we woke to pouring rain we were not going to be put off - and so following on from a large breakfast to avoid the need for lunch we arrived at the parking spot, donned our waterproofs, crossed the road and found the gate locked! - but we were definitely not going to be deterred at this stage, and so we climbed over the gate and started what turned out to be a MEGA hike. We managed to complete the entire trail, covering a total of just over 32.9 kilometres in 11.5 hours, although it felt like much more as the rain didn't let up even for one minute during the entire day, so making the track very muddy and slippery so that it often felt as though we were walking on ice, slipping and sliding frequently. The last few caches we searched for by torchlight - and then for the hardest part of the day - the LONG walk back to our hire car, as the last cache was nowhere near the start point! Along the way we saw many kangaroos, lots of cows and a good number of birds including two 'lifers' for us - the best bit of all was we didn't see a single other person in the entire hike - this place is definitely a cachers paradise and very muggle free - we had a great day! When we had crossed the nearby road ford early in the morning the river was just a small babbling brook, winding through the boulders way below the road level, but when we crossed back in the evening the river was just below the level of the road! Being dedicated geocachers we then went on to find 3 more caches on the way back to our hotel to make up for the 4 DNF's of the trail, as we wanted one of our days in Australia to include at least 100 finds. Thanks also to the CO for the massive amount of information provided throughout the trail.

A nice quick find at Ground Zero. Thanks so much for the cache.

#1405 Today I found a total of 42 caches, 40 in the HMAS series and 2 others, Coombs Crossing and Aerial Bold. Parked at the corner of Harold White Ave and Annabelle View. Walked 10.5kms in 3 hours. I averaged 14 caches per hour. Most were in great shape, found relatively easy. Thanks for placing & maintaining this series.

After yesterdays rain and a cold frosty morning a clear day was the time to finish the HMAS series TFTC Smittengranny and Cankid

TFTC out with MGROCKS for the day on our push bikes, bloody cold out here after a -2 degree morning.

TFTC

I had to be in Canberra for other purposes this morning, but given I didn't have to be anywhere else until the evening, I decided to bring my bike along and try for a few more in this series. I came in via the Arboretum and was able to park near my first target cache then set out on bike. It was very windy again and this time I saw lots of other people, unlike last time when I didn't see anyone apart from some distant workers. Two mountain bikers, a walker and two people on horseback, as well as various maintenance or land care workers. Anyway, between about noon and 3:30 I picked up 40 in this area, then another 5 on the way home. So that was pretty good for a flying visit. Thanks again for this series and the interesting theme.

As for this specific cache: Another quick find. The wind is really picking up now. TFTC!

Having spent the past few days in the alpine area I returned to Canberra to grab a few caches. This series was my target and under clear skies today I set off on the bike to bag a plethora caches.
Starting down near the RSPCA I was nerved to find pockets of smoke coming from various parts the series…. It appears hazard reduction season is well underway.

After 8hrs in the saddle I had found all the caches. Thanks for putting this series together. I actually learnt a bit about our naval history and explored a nice part of Canberra. Sorry for the duplicate logs.

#8198 Found and Logged at 8:10:00 AM
One of 42 finds for the day while in Canberra for rhe week
A great day to be out in the great outdoors geocaching
Thanks for the series Smittengranny

Out for a pleasant day on the trail with teamwhitedoggang, this is such a great area for a ride. Perfect weather for it, and we made good time around the park. Gave my legs a good workout, and they were about ready to drop off by the end of it all. I think we may have just missed a couple of other cachers out today, with some other logs for today in some of the logbooks.

TNLN - Thanks Smittengranny and Cankid!

Found this cache when out for a cycle around the Arboretum area bike trails with Winterdragon.
Beautiful day, kicked off at 7.15 & wrapped up about 2.15 with 60 finds in total.
Nice spot, thanks for bringing us here
Thanks for the hunt Smittengranny

Decided to give the HMAS series (and a few others close by) a go. Headed out early, met MJW1 at the car park. With bikes at the ready off we went. The goal, to complete as many as we could (had 100 in mind originally, but it was probably also going to be a little too many). A cloudy day to start, but as the afternoon went on, the sun made an appearance, which made it a comfortable ride. A few muggles riding and jogging along the tracks but didn't meet any fellow geocaches. A great day was had, thanks MJW1, we'll finish the remainder soon. 71 finds and 4 DNFs (3 of them already logged). TNLNSL TFTC

A terrific day of geocaching in the company of the most excellent IamCoust. Our aim was to knock off the HMAS series, perhaps with a couple of extras in the way, using our trusty bikes to speed through the twisting forest trails.

While the goal of 100 caches for the day was feasible, it would have required a bit more emphasis on achieving the target and a bit less on achieving a really enjoyable outing with some great chats on the way. As it was, we covered 22 odd kilometres, found 71 caches (and recorded 4 DNFs - 3 of which had been DNFed by a few recent searchers) and had the aforementioned really enjoyable outing. Even allowing for the less than enjoyable blackberries.

Apologies for the generic logs. IamCoust was rather more organised and methodical than myself and made notes on the way, so his entries might have some more details. Sincere TFTCs to those who placed and subsequently maintained these caches.

Out for a huge day caching with The Storm Man, with the goal of breaking his best-day-of-caching record by getting 200 caches. Not the easiest thing to do in the ACT, but we were up for the challenge.

We got up at 5am and drove out to the HMAS trail. With only a few DNFs and most of the puzzle caches found we were able to complete this series on bike by 1pm, then it was off for a quick lunch break before hitting the new CTF trail by car all the way to Captains Flat. We bumped into many different caching groups heading the other way coming back from the day's event. Only 1 DNF on this series and even some time for a few local caches.

We left Captains Flat at 8:30pm knowing we were sitting roughly on 180 caches, we still needed about 20 more to get across the line, and the sun had well and truly gone.

As we drove back I looked through the maps to see what we could manage doing and decided on a night time walk through the Kowen Pine Forest. So at 9:00pm armed with our head torches and iPhones we began our walk through the Cache Constellation Trail. Very still and pleasant this time of night, with only 1 DNF we got back to the car at 11:15pm. Enough time to pick up a few single traditionals around Queanbeyan before midnight just to make sure we were well and truely over the 200 mark.

All in all a huge yet fantastic day.

Thanks StormMan for the fun and thanks to all the geocachers who placed these caches for us to find today. (Sorry for generic log.)

Joelisa was coming up to visit and do some caching and left it up to me to figure out what we would do. Decided to try and crack 200 for caches in a day and after talking to some friends figured the HMAS series would be a good place to start. Armed with camelbacks, head torches, snacks and bikes, Joelisa and I started the trail at 6am (still dark). We finished the trail at 1pm with only 2 trad DNF's, 1 puzzle DNF and 3 other puzzles that we didn't find the coords too, probably because we forgot to look for them. Loved this trail. It wasn't too hard to ride and was really tight so made for some quick finds. Thanks for creating it CanKid and for maintaining it Smittengranny.

Once we had had a quick lunch break it was off to the newly created Captains Flat Trail. Bumped into some other cachers as we made our way through this trail. Very nice to meet you all. Only one DNF on this one, although some took longer to find than others. At the end of this trail we continued on into Captains Flat town where we found a few more before heading back into Queanbeyan.

We still needed more caches and needed them to be close to each other. Joelisa made the call to go for a night cache of the Kowen Constellation Trail. By this point I was getting weary and was sceptical about this idea but went along with him anyway. Turns out it was a lot quicker than I thought and the walk was so easy.

We had about 45mins left before midnight so we made a dash for a few more finds in Queanbeyan just to top the day off. Don't know what the final count is but after a quick review of the day we knew we cracked 200.

Thanks to everyone who created all these caches and for the cool places it took us. Thanks Joelisa for keeping me going when I was close to giving up.

Had some time this afternoon to get a few more of this HMAS series. tftc Smittengranny

Replaced damp log. All good.

G'day, Smittengranny. HMAS #1 ANZAC has the story of my day.

KittyKatch, noikmeister, ZimbaW and I went out today to grab a few more of this series, nice little walk, got a little hot by the end. A nice quick find however log book was a bit wet. was great to know we picked up a souvenier for caching today This was No 11 cache for the day. tftc SmittenGranny

Found at 11:46:00 AM

A few hours on the HMAS trail, my first time. I normally eschew these types of power trails (these days). But it is a nice area to walk in and having company makes it better. I needed a walk to burn up a few calories, so it was a good excuse to get out and cache with some fun people. Thanks KK, DD and ZW (hat's what you'll see in the log) for the company and the chance to accompany you.

Thanks Smittengranny

Found with Darzee Di, ZimbaW and Noikmesiter. Going to head up the hill to grab the GCA virtual. Should be good views up there too. TFTC

F(H)ound it 12:08:00 PM with noikmeister, Kittykatch, Darzee Di and the geohounds. Great day caching thanks Smittengranny

Another crack at the HMAS Series from me, this time I started from the other end parking near the RSPCA.

Not so lucky today with a couple of DNF's (#70, #59) but only one was found with water damage (#61).

All in all for the two days I took 1600 steps for 12km on day 1 and 8000 steps for 6km on day 2.

Thanks for your efforts keeping this series going Smittengranny

A trip to Canberra - our main target today was to complete 51 to 90 of the HMAS series.

The weather was much cooler today, which made for a more comfortable walk.
All caches were found, signed and replaced.

Many thanks for placing this series of caches, Smittengranny, for us and others to find.

The morning was showing signs of heating up but I decided to tray and get a few of these caches now they can be easily accessed from the south. A nice walk with only one failure.

Thanks.

20790.42 TNLN
Visited: World Traveling Gold GC A#6 & 2009 Australia Wombat Gold 3 A#165

[Teal][font=Comic Sans MS]Albida[font=Verdana][/Teal]

As I have just adopted this series and need to find the caches so that I can maintain them, I am logging a find. This was #12 of 20 caches found this afternoon. SL Many thanks to Cankid and DRT for their tremendous effort in creating this PT. Thanks also to Pacmania and LiamL for replacing the cache. Have moved the cache slightly to avoid the blackberries but the coordinates are still the same.

HMAS #61: WATERHEN was transferred from Cankid to user Smittengranny

Thanks to Liaml for replacing the container. All good to go.

Found with Pacmania on an afternoon walk. Thanks

We replaced the container

Had a few hours to spare this afternoon so decided to make a start on this series. Found a spot to park in Coombs near the bridge and did a loop near here. Caches generally found OK, some a bit more tricky especially those in the areas recently logged. Overall a good introduction. I think I'll take the bike next time though!

Found the log book but the container has been totally destroyed. I just happened to have a spare container in my bag, so removed a few soggy pages & cards and put the logbook in a new container. Log wet but the spot we wrote on was dry. Hopefully it will be OK now, but log may need replacing at some stage if it goes mouldy.

Thanks

Finally a weekend off from work and the HMAS power trail is my target for today (plus a few others in close vicinity). I have been eyeing this one off for a while and I am glad to finially get most of it done. Completed all the traditional caches today. All were there and only one needs some maintenance (which I will log seperately). It was a great day to be out.

This cache needs some maintenance. The container has been completely destroyed by recent logging activity. The log book is still in tact but has been wet (then dried) and the pages are stuck together. The log book is in a not so water tight plastic bag and is sitting partially exposed to the elements. Will submit a seperate needs maintenance log.

Thanks for the power trail Cankid.

This cache needs some maintenance. The container has been completely destroyed by recent logging activity. The log book is still in tact but has been wet (then dried) and the pages are stuck together. The log book is in a not so water tight plastic bag and is sitting partially exposed to the elements.

Today we meet at the meeting point to start our big day on this HMAS, so I didn't have this one so my self and Rapilywild rode the bikes down the hill omg I loved it, it took me back to being 16 again. and I only had 2 crash all day and landed on my feet both times , but it was a great day sun was out all day. there ways a few good lol, we did come up with a few DNFs but apart from that it was a great day. Glad there was Blue Paint around to help, there was trees down everywhere, the loggers have found some and put them in the right places but not sure how long the rest will last, as you will see in more pics, it was a bit said as I was out to get my 900 today and missed out due to the logging. Thanks Cankid

[:(!] Thanks for an awesome effort.
I found this cache container totally destroyed and partially buried, plastic bag was filled with mud but logbook was intact. It looks like a piece of heavy equipment ran over it.

I like it

Another one off the list

TNLNSL TFTC/TFTH/TFBUH CanKid [^]

Today was the second mountain bike session on the HMAS series. It was a glorious winters day, bitterly cold at the start at 0845 and warming up to 15 deg over the course of the morning and finishing at 1415. Parking over at the Governor Generals lookout, it was a quick commute down stream to the southern part of the power trail and then travelling in basically an anti-clockwise direction. The first half was really great, zooming up and down on the bike until about #67 when the bike chain snapped and then the zooming was limited to down hill! Progress was a bit slower in the second half of the trip!
The friends count over the course of the day was dog walkers x 2 with dogs, horses x 5 all with humans and 2 with dogs as well, lots of birds and about half a dozen mobs of kangaroos of between 8 and 12 roos each, no snakes and no pigs. My apologies for the copied logs but at least they might encourage everyone to add to the story of your cache!
I was hoping for another quick find here, but it wasn't to be. In reflection I think over-searched here big time, dazzled it seems by the more obvious features at this location. After a good 15 minutes, the little blighter was revealed. It was just as well as I have visited HMAS Waterhen on several occasions so I was keen to recognise that with this find!
Thankyou again Cankid and Delta Response Team. A very enjoyable couple of days worth of caching was to be had cruising around your mammoth HMAS series, well done.
Cheers
MajuraHathi

It has been just over a month since we were last here, and I was back for another day on foot to do caches #41 - #85 with ambi666.

We found all the caches except for #63 which we had a good 40 minute search for... Thanks Cankid for the effort in putting out this series, it is certainly keeping us occupied. The rest of the caches were fairly easy finds, with some taking a few more mins due to our coords jumping around under the trees. TFTC and sorry for the generic logs once again! [8)]

We shall be back for the one we missed, and a few others before tackling the puzzles. Hopefully you will have done maintenance by then!

Back again to find the rest of this series with Loci612. Once again I was split between taking in the scenery and keeping my head down to find the caches. We encountered numerous cows, kangaroos, and other wildlife. So far I've enjoyed this series and can't wait to finish it off. TFTC Apologies for the generic and repetitive log.

Tftc

TFTC

Found with Jase90 on our epic weekend adventure in our Nation’s Capital. This expedition was partly inspired by the Geocaching Road Trip ’15 promotion and also because my goal was to reach 1,999 finds so my 2,000th milestone could be the final ever Geocaching Block Party in Seattle in September 2015. Jase90 and I left late on Friday night and, driving down, we made a few stops on the way down so he could find a few of my favourites along the way.

On Saturday morning, we targeted the HMAS power trail and managed to knock off all 90 from the series in less than 7 hours by foot, including Coppins Creek, Bernie's Boulders and Aerial Bold. Afterwards we headed back towards Canberra and we continued caching late into the night (in between breaks in the storms and bad weather). We managed to find the following before calling it quits around 11:00 PM: Gallifrey 2, Geocacher's Lost Lipstick!, Down and Dirty 2, Tourist Tips, Dominion of 2183, Foxy Place, Southwell Surprise, The Thirteenth Man, Sharkiefan's Challenge #3, Gungahleen Schoolhouse, One-Oh-Fore!, Hawkey's 2nd, Grate Expectations, Deep Extra Cover, Wally's Walk, Wally's Way, Harrison and Horsepark, Oblivion, Busy Bees, Heritage Site: ThereFore! A Cache., Liquidambar, Bug on, The Glassworks, and Can you hear the drums… err Bells Fernando.

On Sunday we decided to tackle the Roo geo-art power trail by foot and were able to complete 25 starting from the tail, as well as Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, Kowen Kamp and Reid's Ridge along the way. The terrain was much harder than we expected and the weather was freezing – we could see snow on top of the mountains in the near distance. We had to pick the coldest weekend in recent years to come down to Canberra didn’t we! In the evening we continued our hunt and found the following: The Edward Locomotive, Loch Be a Lady Tonight, carpark of shame, Close To Home, Heart & Soul of Parliament, Fore!midable Contribution, Granite Sphere & Questacon, Peace, Levitation? and Oz Rock - Cold Chisel: 'Cheap Wine'.

On an unplanned, extra day in the Australian Capital Territory, we felt our legs needed a rest and that they had done enough walking over the weekend, so we went for more park and grab type caches. We completed 20 of the JackaKid’s series, Little Miss Hayley, Big Sis Angela, Little Man Tristan, Guard Sei, Guard Quattro, Ingress to Forde, DNF #3, Tiptoe through the Tulips and OldFed 4. On the way home back to Sydney, we stopped found Collecta Cache, Cache-abet….Z and GWM 1914-1918.

Thanks to all of the Cache Owners for the hides and helping Jase90 and I have an amazing visit to Canberra.

Found at 3:59pm with JordsAU.

The Dynamic Duo (JordsAU and Jase90) were on an epic adventure to the Nation's Capital for the weekend. A massive road trip indeed. We had left for Canberra on Friday evening a little later than we anticipated and desired, but escaping the Big Smoke proved to be no problem as we worked our way to our destination.

Once we were on the M5 freeway it was all engines go, myself driving and JordsAU being my handy navigating co-pilot, not to mention the very skilful DJ and great company.

'HMAS #61' was my 84th cache of the weekend and our 81st for the day.

Today was the day we endeavoured to find 100 caches, a feat which has been achieved by JordsAU in the past but never by myself. My highest in one day previously was 18 finds so we were on a real mission to make it happen.

The HMAS trail appeared to be an ideal way to notch up some smiley faces. Unfortunately for me I had already started the trail back in December but only made it to number 12 so it meant we had to make up the remaining numbers afterwards in order to reach the elusive one hundred milestone.

The weather threatened to make our trek a lot more difficult, especially if the forecast during the week was anything to go off. We bit the bullet anyway and luckily for us we managed to avoid any major interruptions from the rain.

We spotted many animals on the journey including cows, horses and kangaroos as well as a few remarkable birds such as the Crimson Rosella and the Black Cockatoo.

Thanks for the cache Cankid and for the extensive series of caches on the HMAS trail.

Today seemed like a good day for a walk to collect another few dozen of this series. Of course it was bitterly cold today - probably single figures - so we were well rugged up and took several kms before we warmed up too. A thermos of coffee midway through the afternoon certainly helped. And Mrs Winglen persuaded me that we should take Dizzy along for the walk, who showed that 12 or 13km is no trouble at all for a Jack Russell. A nice afternoon and 40 caches found. Thanks Cankid.

uuugh wasn't watching the time so i have to get the others for another day. tftc, love the series so far.

TFTC! 26/42 for the day

#26 today. TFTC

Found it quickly today.

This is find number 18 out of 42 for today. I needed to put aside the daily hustle and bustle, and to de-stress by going geocaching. This HMAS series is a great powertrail to find some solitude and provided some nice views too. I enjoy the challenge of the hunt - read the notes, decipher the cache requirements, and go searching. My new GPS is working great and it has really improved my geocaching experience. This cache was another "Found it" for me. Thanks go to Cankid for placing it and maintaining it. TFTC! Cheers. [u]Jump Pilot[/u]

Perfect day for another crack at the other half of the HMAS series. TFTC!

TFTC. Third weekend out having a crack at this series.

We started this series yesterday with no 1 and managed to do 31 caches within 3 hours walking!! After visiting the parliament today, we thought trying some more. Having 2 GPS devices gave us the chance to go in two different directions and meet at some caches. With this tactic we managed to do the remaining 70 caches today. Despite the shared effort, it took us another 3 hours (but felt like 5 or more). The coffee was well deserved. Thanks for all the caches and the exercise on a beautiful autumn day.

With the weather being as nice as it was, I decided it was time to go out and do some of the HMAS trail. Today I managed to get 51 completed and 1 DNF. I spent roughly 5 hours out here today, got close to what I wanted to find, was only 3 short.

I was fortunate enough to be dropped off and loaned a bike thats heaps better than mine, it made the ride much smoother thats for sure. Thanks ladies

All caches were found relatively quickly, a few require some attention as their logs were saturated but I stamped them anyways.

Thanks Cankid for placing this powertrail, lovely area especially on a day like today.

Time to knock off the remaining Trads in this series. Big black rain clouds threatening but I was wearing the right gear.....which got quite hot without the rain coming down. Ended up being a 13km walk which was a bit longer than I expected as I wasn't carrying water. I think those caches within the Arboretum along the fence line will have a limited life expectancy. Now for the puzzles!

TFTC!

#31 thanks for the cache

#1425 Log to follow

SL TNLN TFTC

Out today completing the HMAS series which i completed half of about 6 months ago. Very long walk, each attempt took me 6+ hours, however glad to have all of them completed and smileys added to my map.

TFTC Cankid

A gentle bike ride for a couple of hours doing more of the HMAS series. I’ve never been in these parts before. Trip report at http://www.johnevans.id.au/wp/11-april-2015-arvo-tea-at-orroral-homestead-and-morning-yet-more-hmas-geocaching/ . TFTC.

Found with TikvaNZ on a caching raid on this series this morning - nice cool morning. We found HMAS 56-79 as well as HMAS 82 and a couple of others thrown in for good measure - 28 all up in around 2 hours walking! All the caches were found easily, even when the coords were a bit off. Caches and logs all in good condition. We noted a few of the caches had been maintained recently, so that was great. We added a bit of extra camo when it needed a top up. Thanks Cankid for the series and putting the effort in maintaining such a large series!

#4708 @0935
A morning's exercise and caching with AngelG27. A pleasant morning to be out walking. We started at Coombs crossing and then tackled the SW loop of the HMAS series, finishing back where we started. Cache easily found. TFTC and the series, and the opportunity to explore somewhere new. Being new to Australia it is good to learn some more about this country. Looking forward to completing the rest of the series.

Did some more of this wonderful series. Some were easy. Others were touch. Well done on the maintenance. A big job. TFTC Series Cankid.