HMAS #85: WORLD WAR I Weston Creek, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
By Cankid on 10-Mar-14. Waypoint GC4V3WJ

Battled the scotch thistles here while in the area today with dty73 on behalf of the CO this cache container was removed today and this cache can be archived.

This series of caches has been archived as new suburbs are encroaching on the area. Thank you to all who have visited the series and special thanks to the original COs for the placement of the caches. Thank you also to all who have helped with the collection of the old cache containers.

No luck. Very bushy here. Too hard for me.

TFTC

Found an echidna while hunting for this cache! TNLN Thanks for the cache

Sumbloke and I decided to go caching after work (28/9/18) and the HMAS was a series we enjoyed doing.

Sumbloke’s GPS was more accurate than mine and he found this cache when the sun had already set. Luckily for us, we had torches which made it easier for us to find our way back to civilisation before the hunger pangs took over. Tftc!

#1706

I headed out with jazzy3008 after work to grab a few caches before it got too dark. We'd done several of the other caches in this series previously, including several that appear to have since been archived.

We'd decided that we could manage one more before the light faded too much and came along to this one. We looked around closer to the fire trail before deciding that we needed a bit of bush-bashing. My phone was pointing me pretty much straight there and once I was at GZ it was an easy find.

Following the find, we headed back to the car (very thankful for the torches we'd brought out with us) and went off to find some dinner...

Got it we did. Wonder how long this one will last in this spot.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Found during HMAS Pickup event. Thanks for maintaining this series for so long. It's a shame it had to end but all good things do :>

Thankyou Smittengranny for both maintaining and letting us log the series, as well as the CITO event.

Thanks also to Cankid for the initial placement.

It was time for this excellent series to go. But as this one was the only DNF I had in the series due to a wombat muggling off with the cache years ago, today at the CITO (or COTO!) I was able to log the find.

Thanks Smittengranny and Cankid for the cache and the series!

3rd Day last minute effort this werk on the HMAS series after I just learned on Monday that the will be gone by the end of the week.

Today together with Dino an after school hike in the south east section.


A beautiful weather for the hike here today!

TFTC Smittengranny and Cankid for the great series, will be sad to see them go.

Found together with Fred.


Finally I'll get my shot at some of these caches in the series, was to ill on Wednesday to join Fred but today I am better and happy to go on a hike and fine some of these before they go.

Thanks Smittengranny and Cankid for the series.

Really nice little geocache, in a serene location. Definitely worth a shot, even casually if you live in the area.

I hate thistles!!!!! Thank goodness for the hint. Below above beside thistles everywhere!

Out hiking with Fricka on our caching adventure so I can try and clean up the last of the HMAS trail. Such a lovely walk! Tftc

Tackling HMAS with Nibletricecakes. TFTC

Day 2 of as many days as it takes to clear the HMAS series before it disappears. Today I'm starting at the start, about 2pm, on what looks to be good terrain to get through quickly on a bike. Clearing out as much of the western and southern sections as I can in the daylight available.

TFTC Cankid and Smittengranny

This one is truly burnt!

This was a very nice walk which took me most of the day. I didn't have time to do the whole walk but got the majority of it done. Most of the finds were easy apart from a handful which took a few minutes to spot, plus 1 DNF. The weather was nice and sunny but not too hot. The walk took about 8 and a half hours including a few stops for drink and snacks along the way. Thanks for setting the series and a more detailed log at No. 1. TFTC.

The hint helped, TFTC!

Finalf29 and I were off to Canberra to meet up with friends and of course a spot of geocaching.

I met up with AngelG27 and we found 20 caches in the HMAS series... the last few as the sun was setting. Rather appropriate cache series being ANZAC day today. We had a wonderful walk, getting a lot of conversation in between caches. Lots of laughs as usual, especially climbing gates... but not that barbwire fence! Thanks

Cache 3742 on 25 Apr 2018

My friend HappyUke came down to visit during the school holidays and grab a few caches. I have been meaning to grab the last of these caches for a while and this was a perfect chance to get out and take a wander! Unless otherwise indicated, caches were found easily and in line with the hint.

A few options to choose from!

Thanks Smittengranny for the cache and the fun!

thanks for the journey

Found with mistysoho thanks for the cache

Back again and widened my search a bit more, and saw something that matched the hint.

Found!

TFTC SmittenGranny!

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.

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

Specific log: this was well hidden! Thankfully there was a hint!

Lots of debris around here.. not sure it's here...

Thanks for the cache. Wow - lots of prickles and ants about. Signed Canberra 945.

### 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.

Tftc. Was standing there looking at GZ and debating whether I wanted to venture in. Decided yes, found the cache and only came out with one ant bite and a few thistles.

TFTC! Ouchy

Hope your wearing long pants and good footwear. Pick a stump as described.

The bike ride from Tuggeranong finished at the National Arboretum this morning so I took the opportunity to seek out some geocaches around the Arboretum on the way home. The tally was seven, with two getting the better of me! This cache was a straightforward find, being more or less on the coordinates. Thank you smittengranny for maintaining this cache.

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.

Found with Capital Crunchers. TFTC

Found as part of the Capital Crunchers Ladies day out TFTC

Found with Capital Crunchers after dodging all the ants!

Found with sami_180

Found with wethinks (after gingerly walking thru long grass haha)

Tftc!

Out with dty73, AddictedGamer, Aquilus1 & ShadowStorm1 for a day of caching. At last it is coming to an end and I can smell the coffee. Kutgw

Found with Aquilus1, AddictedGamer, dty73 and youban. Went out to do some caches and luckily I now have my own account so I can get out and see some more places. I really liked seeing the Black cockatoos today, there were so many here. Was a bit wet but still ok.

TFTC

Out with ss1, youban, dty73, Aq and went out to do these series. Nice find TFTC!!

Time to turn north

took Banjo the geopup out for a walk in the forest and picked up some caches to finish the HMAS series. tftc Cankid and those maintaining the caches now.

Found during a long caching stroll on this lovely winter day. TFTC

Tftc well hidden

On the way to 8000 finds... only about 300 to go!
I have a plan to find my 8000th cache on the 29th of July, in two weeks time. So I have a lot to find before then. So I planned a couple of weekend trips to Canberra of intense caching. Today the HMAS series was the target! I brought my bike with me as suggested... but when I started this morning at 8AM it was minus 4 degrees! Frost covering everything and ice on my car windows and bike. On top of that all the layers of warm clothing made it a bit difficult to move freely so I decided to go by foot.
By the end of the 8th hour I found the last cache, and had another hour walk back to the car. In the end I walked 30Km for 8 hours 50 min and found 99 caches in the area ( a few of the HMAS caches were offline and 1 DNF). Followed by a nice 3 hour drive home!
I'm still short of my goal so I'll probably come back down again next weekend.
Thanks for all the caches!

Nicely hidden. Tnln. HOTA

8:55am As the sun was starting to break through, it took Aquilus1 and I a little bit to find. Too many paths to follow. Well hidden, simple, but effective. TFTC!!!

So many people out this morning. A few in the trails but most on the path across the river! Looked in a lot of places then went with the hint and make the quick find. Thanks for the cache!

Crappy area and lots of traffic noise but - I found the cache. TFTC

Out for a walk with Decrypter getting some exercise and finding some caches. D had already done most of these so it was up to me.
This one took a little while but I eventually spotted the hide. TFTC.

Tftc

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

Doing the a second third of the HMAS series with Maris4 and the geo-Lagotto.
We fixed a few caches along the way.
Thanks for the series Smittengranny and Cankid.

Full log coming in a day or 2 - need to "visit" trackables before I drop most of them off at the event I am about to head off to and have run out of time to write my usual long logs, so I am pasting this in, and editing later

Nice easy find tftc

Great series, thanks

We enjoyed the location - we took the long walk and found this cache.. Thanks to Smittengranny for placement of this cache and adding to our enjoyment of the area.

Yuck... Thistles, fallen timber, waist high weeds... like looking for a needle in a haystack... Either I left my brain in the car or this is now harder than a 1.5... oh well, don't have time to look for an hour - need to find my daily, at least... off to the next one

Maintenance run today as it was slightly cooler. Log replaced. All good.

Log is sodden - dripping! Definitely needs replacing.

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.

This one was sitting in the open, so after signing the (very wet!) log, we used the hint and hopefully replaced it where should have been. TFTC!

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

P.S. After the recent floods, this one has got very wet and the logbook is sodden

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.

A quick find on a gorgeous autumn day! TFTC, Cankid and Smittengranny

#1421 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 one slightly off the trail, and I was distracted by various red herrings, but a quick find once at GZ. 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.

A fortnight ago IamCoust and I made an assault on the HMAS series, collecting up to #72. Today was the day to finish them. We very nearly did, collecting up to and including #99. Unfortunately, with a deadline approaching we missed the last couple. Nevermind - they'll be there for next time and it was a terrific part-day of riding through the visit, with an intermission while we went to the CITO event at Weston Park.

Apologies for the generic logs on these. But sincere TFTC and TFTSeries

Back out again with MJW1 to complete the last of HMAS caches. 28 found, the final 2 though just out of reach. Will return soon complete this great series. TNLNSL TFTC

#8156 Found and Logged at 10:43:00 AM
One of 31 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

T4TC

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

Today was the day to finish the southern section of this trail. Most of them went smoothly but one in particular caused a long search. One day I will get to the rest I am sure.

Thanks.

21285.12 TNLN
Visited: World Traveling Gold GC A#6 & Mosquito A#32

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

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.

Had a little snack break as some horse riders rode past. It was at this point that Joelisa wanted to go and collect the puzzle caches we hd the coords for but we decided that there may be one more coord to find and it would be a waste to have to double back like that. So we continued finding them in order.

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.

Last one today. I'm tempted to go off up the little hill, but it will be dark soon. This was another easy one, Thanks, team!!

In an attempt to get a bit fitter, I tried cycling over here from my place, and it was quite an easy ride for the most part. I normally don't bother much with power trails, but this is such a beautiful area that made it worthwhile on its own. I grabbed a few of the series before thunderclouds started building on the horizon, and I thought I'd better make my way out of there and home before the storm hit. I'll have to return and do a few more on another day.

TNLN - Thanks Smittengranny, and to Cankid for the original concept.

KittyKatch, noikmeister, ZimbaW and I went out today to grab a few more of this series, nice little walk, though did get a bit hot by the end, decided to leave some for next time. Great to get a souvenier for caching today This was No 4 cache for the day. tftc SmittenGranny

Found at 11:04:00 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. Working out how we are going to tackle the caches here. We circle all the way to the back and tackle the middle if we have time. TFTC

F(H)ound it 11:08:00 AM with noikmeister, Kittykatch, Darzee Di and the geohounds. Great day caching thanks Smittengranny

Der Hinweis war hilfreich. TFTC and greetings from Switzerland

Today turned out to be the perfect day to get this series finished. So, loaded up with plenty of water and gaiters I parked near the Molonglo river crossing at the southern end and headed up to the north then back around and down to my starting point - picking up 21 plus the extra Aerial Bold along the way. A lovely walk thanks. TFTC

TFTC a quick find along our journey.

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.
We found the container much closer to the road, than at GZ.

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

# 2006 Detailed log to follow

SL TNLN TFTC

Having adopted this series a little while go, I thought it best to discover where each cache is situated. Today I am out on a find and maintenance run. This was #4 and I am glad I started earlier than I have been as it promises to be a scorcher.
How **** am I ?! Having checked that back pack had everything I would need; that I had charged Little Red Riding Hood's batteries (aka my GPSr) and my phone in case I needed a back up, it was not till I reached the track that I realised some of these caches had not downloaded onto LRRH!! So I grabbed Sam(sung) and hoped he was up to the job. Well he eventually had me at each of the GZs but he was wandering a little at times. No worries, I know where this cache is now in case I have to return at some stage. Thanks to Cankid and Delta Response Team for all their incredible work setting out this PT.
I am claiming finds as I haven't visited this GZ before.

There has been some clearing going on here but cache is still good to go. Will change Hint.

HMAS #85: WORLD WAR I was transferred from Cankid to user Smittengranny

Decided to tackle the rest of the HMAS series this afternoon so loaded the bikes and off we went. Great weather, terrrain wasn't bad at all and it was fun dashing through some of the mud puddles. Thanks Cankid

Find #4 for this series today

TFTC