SES Field V's Ops Puzzle Balarang, New South Wales, Australia
By The Rats on 04-Mar-16. Waypoint GC5RWBP

fitzy_1965 and I headed to the Lake Illawarra area to do some caching with friends for the Canberra long weekend.We signed our group as SHI (ShellHarbour Invasion) which consisted of Kittykatch, Joolay, contesta, ispoeda, Tankengine, dty73, fitzy_1965 and myself or if most had already found we signed our own names.It was a great few days away and lots of caches found. Thanks to the CO's for placement.

Shellharbour tripFound with Joolay, minniek, fitzy63, isopeda, contesta, Tanjengine, dty73. Logs signed as Shellharbour Invasion Team (SHI). Thanks for the hide The Rats

Long weekend with Contesta, Kittykatch, Joolay, DTY73, Tankengine, fitzy_1965, and MinnieK with the main goal to finish the SES series. Signing as SHI - Shellharbour Invasion.TFTC

Chooo ooo [Found] on a quick trip down to Shell Harbour with dty73! Found with a bunch of other Canberra and local cachers! Signed SHI (Shell Harbour Invaders)Thanks The Rats!

Nice spot. Tankengines climbing skills strike again Looking forward to a warmer weekend enjoying the lovely Wollongong area with Kittykatch, contesta, ispoeda, Tankengine, dty73, fitzy_1965 and minniek. Signing Thanks for getting me out and about The Rats

Tankengine and I drove down from Canberra leaving at 6:30am Saturday morning and joined our friends (Kittykatch, Joolay, contesta, Isopeada, minniek and fitzy_1965) and we had become part of the Shellharbour Invasion Team (SHI). We could only stay one night, so up early Sunday for a quick bite to eat and more caching before we had to leave everyone to head home again. We had a fun time caching, logging many finds and a couple DNFs, enjoyed a lovely dinner at the very busy club at the great event on Saturday night and most of all hanging out with great friends. This cache: Found quickly and without issues. Tftc!!!

Find # 1218125/5/2024 12:43Caching adventures continue and trying to tick off as many on the solved pile as I can. Headed across to the coast for the long weekend to meet up with a few other CBR cachers. The main target is the SES series, having worked on these puzzles last year and gradually made the solves. Some with help and others straightforward. Either way it was an enjoyable series, generally. Now its time to collect. And of course with so many others to choose from in this area, its a busy weekend.Always shenanigans in a group as you never quite know what might happen but its guaranteed to be fun! The group consists of Joolay, KittyKatch, isopeda, minniek, fitzy_65, dty73, and Tankengine. Signing as SHIAll caches located, retrieved, signed, and replaced.Thanks The Rats for SES Field V's Ops Puzzle

Out on a Lake Illawarra SES clean up mission today. Lots of great Rats caches to collect on a perfect summers day. All cache were in place and in good condition. Seems there has been some maintenance and lantana clearing going on since last I was here.
SL TFTC

After finding a safe parking place we headed to GZ where MC made the climb. TFTC

Performed the climb and had CIH, thanks for the puzzle

#11722 13:15
A day out with Everest High to do a loop around Lake Illaware to find the SES caches from The Rats. When close to our route, we also picked up a few other caches.
It was a great day out; very hot but the cold sea breeze made the drive very pleasant.

Tree climbing action!

TFTC

A tricky little climb to get CIH. OCW It's Dozzie. TFTC

Needing five "underwater" caches on a Friday for a challenge, we targeted some of the SES series which have an elevation below zero. Parked the car in a nearby street and found an access point to walk to GZ...but then realised a lot has happened since this cache was originally released. Rechecking our solved coordinates revealed the puzzle had changed, so a quick in-field solve and with a new set of coorindates in hand, we walked the short distance to GZ. Spotted this one on our second pass and after a quick climb had the container in hand. With the cache in hand, we signed the log and then replaced it as found. Both the cache container and log are in good condition. Thanks for the cache The Rats.

The following TBs came through for the mileage : Bob geoMinion, Dave geoMinion, Evil geoMinion, Jerry geoMinion, Larry geoMinion, Mary Hyde's Treasure, Stuart geoMinion, teamMerlin's 7 Deadly Ducks Tag (Lust), Vanlith The Youngling, Hidden Creatures Geocoin TB, teamMerlin's Football, Merlin's Steed, Cito 2007-time capsule, Greek Gods Geocoin - Poseidon, Magic: The Gathering, Ixalan Treasure Piece, Sweet 16, Survivor: Paris

At GZ I looked up and thought to myself, are you too old to climb up there?
The answer was yes but I did it anyway.
Many thanks to The Rats for the challenge.

Savouring the solving of these puzzles little by little. Singing and dancing is not permitted during our COVID lockdown but this brought some cheerful enjoyment to the day. Will eventually get out to hunt this down. Cheers…. Gaztek

Thanks. Sent the kids out to grab this one.
Slowly getting through the series.

Find 230 for the tribe.

I think this was the first puzzle we solved, first of the series at least but it has taken us a while to get to GZ. Out caching with the geokid this morning. Parked in a nearby residential street and we made our way to GZ, found the cache without too much trouble, signed and replaced as found.

Cache in excellent condition with plenty of room in the log for future finders.

Thanks again to the rats for placing and maintaining this geoart.

Joint find with Kezwaz today! LNTN TFTC

Joint find with Ellsull
Very grateful to Ell for being the volunteer to retrieve the cache from it's tricky location! I provided moral support & the pen lol!
TFTC, SL
This find was a little tricky as getting to GZ was hindered by the amount of road works all around the general area.

As a group we solved this series when they first came. I was down here last week but thought maybe the cache has been moved because of roadworks. I didn't have time to check. So did that after I got home and new coords were soon obtained. Found that a tree climb was involved without an ACL in my left knee sometimes tree climbs are no longer my thing. So did a call out to find out who would be available one Saturday at least as support in case something happens

So teamMerlin was available today parked in a different spot to last week so had a longer walk when we got to GZ it took a while till we located the cache. I gave it ago and was able to get level with it

With cache in hand we signed the log and replaced as found. Both the cache and log are in good condition. Thanks for bringing me to the area and thanks for placing the cache The Rats

Getting back to earth was harder missed the last step and ended up on my butt. Could have been far worse it was mud a bit further around. Who needs pride when you can have slapstick

The following TBs visited for the distance - phlphotos 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018 NSW geocoin, phlphotos travelling 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 & 2018 NSW Geocoin, phlphotos Mary Hyde's compass, phlphotos Spindoc Bob Memorial Geocoin, phlphotos, phlphotos Area 51 Tag, phlphotos backpacker canister cover, phlphotos Cache In Trash Out Geocoin, phlphotos Cache In Trash Out Tag, phlphotos CITO Micro Geocoin, phlphotos Col Miner geocoin, phlphotos Four Elements Geocoin, phlphotos Optical Illusion Geocoin, phlphotos Trackable Building Brick, phlphotos Travel Bug Dog Tag, phlphotos Oz GeoMuster 2018 geocoin, phlphotos Oz GeoMuster 2018 geocoin, & dirty Black Juke

Found on my way to Kiama for a few days R&R. Didn't take a pen with me so will send a photo of the cache as evidence of the find to the CO.

TFTC

With wheatz tftc

Finally finishing off this series. Found in the company of DiamonJs

Been out and about caching and now logging. TFTC

This was todays main meal, finding the SES series with some fellow Tassie cachers WW and TT, we were thinking it wouldnt take long but in the end it took us all day, thanks for another great series.

While over from Tassie to attend the Gong OzGeo Muster 2019 myself and Goose of GooseandEgg we managed to polish off few series and grab some other random caches in our five days on the big island.
We flew out on Thursday night and arrived back in the apple isle late on Tuesday night, thanks for all the caches.
We normally try and get some old caches or D/T's we are missing but this time it was more about a couple of series and catching up with a few fellow cachers.

Found on 08/07/2019 at 12:57:00 PM

The best caches I have found so far by type are:-

Traditional [Moorgreen P3:1, Penny Pincher](http://coord.info/GC32Z5B) By [Sven&Cup](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=6596795)
Multi [CoaledHearted](http://coord.info/GCKGZ5) By [CraigRat](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=256663)
Unknown [Men In Black Holes](http://coord.info/GC1DVB0) By [SG-3](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=918045)
Letterbox [Rolf's Letterbox](http://coord.info/GC5NCYM) By [membsec](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=5318842)
Earthcache [Alum Cliffs and Gorge](https://coord.info/GC5KVHA) By [jandalfan](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=2409043)

Day 88 Mainland trip - OZGM
We headed out caching with the Tassie contingent of Tassie Trekkers, gooseandegg ad stainless-steel-rat and this was one of many caches we found today. It was great to turn the SES puzzles into smiley faces and we appreciate all the work that went into setting the series up. A long day but a great time was had by all. TFTP

When stainless steel rat and I found out whitewebbs and Tassie Trekkers were planning to do this series on Monday, I was keen to join them as I had solved all the puzzles when they first came out. A couple of the puzzles had been altered slightly since then and I had to update four of them I think. In my mind we were going to knock them off in half a day but with a handful of others in the mix it was a full day. We started out just before 9am with SES USAR Puzzle and finished with SES Unit Structure Puzzle in the dark.
Sincere thanks to The Rats for this series, I had been waiting for this day for over three years!

Worked out where was the best place to park and pulled up behind a car with geocaching stickers... There was quite a lot of water between us and the cache but we picked our way on a dryish route. At GZ was the Deaf VW team holding the cache... but there was a problem. While putting it back the attachment had dropped to the ground and that piece of wire blended in too well here. So with the cache already found our hunt for this puzzle was for the attachment and we were all relieved when it was spotted. Since we'd got the easy find we offered to replace the cache. Said goodbye to our partners in wire hunting and continued on to the next cache. TFTC The Rats.

Staying at Cataract Park for the OZ Geomuster with whitewebbs, gooseandegg and stainless-steel-rat we tackles the SES series where we spent all day finding the caches around Lake Illawarra and surrounds.

Cache and contents were in good condition.

Thanks The Rats for placing and maintaining this cache for our enjoyment.

OCW the house puzzle queen frazeydaze to find a few more of the caches in the SES Unit Structure series whilst attending the OZ Geomuster at Wollongong.

Whilst frazeydaze worked on the puzzles I enjoyed reading about the many and varied disasters and emergencies that the SES volunteers respond to.

TFTC The Rats.

Caching with oldmorty finding caches belonging to the NSW SES series.
These puzzles are a little harder (some a lot harder) than I'm used to solving. But I really enjoyed the challenge.
That was fun. I'm not a tree climber.
Thanks to The Rats for this great series.

Awesome hide. Met some lovely geocachers and shared the experience

Met up with team PFUDOR and convoyed around the lake grabbing caches

Thanks The Rats for SES Field V's Ops Puzzle

#3835

2:08 pm #7618
A lovely day doing a lap of the lake with great friends, picking up various solved puzzles. I thoroughly enjoyed solving each and every one, easy and hard. I know how much work goes into creating a series like this. Most appreciated.
Cheers The Rats ??

In the area for the OzGeoMuster so the brains trust of our little group had spent many hours solving this series. There was no way that we weren't going to find as many as we could. We have allowed quite some time to make sure we complete them all and as it turned out, it took two days.
Luckily, the weather cleared and out little convoy had a great time travelling around, seeing the area and searching for GZ. Lots of laughter had and tales told.
So many to do and so little time.
Thank you so very much for the time and effort that has gone into creating, placing and maintaining this series for our enjoyment.

Caching day with Geofriends during Oz GeoMuster 2019, thank you The Rats so much for placing it for us to have fun.

Here at the Oz Geomuster, Found your cache today. The Rats, thank you so much for placing it.

I managed to get a few days off work to head up to the Wollongong Mega and to make a relaxing time of it by spending a few days around the area. Lot's of great caches, great lab caches and awesome views across Wollongong made for a very enjoyable few days and I hadn't been in this area since I was a small kid so couldn't remember anything.

After some morning lab cache adventures I headed over hear to the coast for some puzzles I had solved in case I had some spare time. Which I did thanks to my extra days off.

These were all relativity easy finds after having some problems solving the puzzles. Only one DNF today but some nice walks out in the bush.

Quite obvious which tree to climb with the bark missing.
Thanks The Rats for the cache, the adventure, the hunt and the fun.

The journey to the mega resulted in a lot of driving, with a few select cache finds, due to the distance I had to travel. If only there was time to find them all! Today we decided to find some SES puzzles. We had a great day circling the area. Thanks for placing the cache The Rats

Solved this Geoart over the last couple of months with a fair bit of help by the CO and JACS team and today was the chance to find all the caches. It took all day from sunrise to sunset to complete this series.

Thanks for the fun!

Georode

out and about with AussieBen for the Mega Weekend doing lots of caches in the area loved solving this puzzles and the Geoart not that we got them all finished but left some for next time great work

Down to the Mega early and eager to get started on ticking off all the must do items, including the SES series. I have been working on this series for a long time on and off knowing that one day I’ll be down this way. I am so excited to finally get it finished!

Thanks for the cache, and puzzle. Out caching for the day with kingfisher_au. Down for the ozgeomuster , thanks for bringing me here.

Found at 11:38:05 AM: GAFF4/1.
Gosh - everything is so hard around here! Found that the road works had mucked up the original location. Reworked the puzzle on in the car, then tried to find an access. Took a few attempts, found the access and then there was water all over the ground to negotiate - actually there was a running stream to get over or around
Got to GZ and then - what the heck - a tree climb for a lousy T2.0 Grumble grumble grumble [B)]
Thanks The Rats

Puzzle has been re-worked and cache hidden in a different spot due to roadworks.
Happy hunting

Due to roadworks in the area of GZ, this cache has temporarily been disabled

Drove past this site and I think the new Bypass work has removed the cache...

TFTC
Grabbed this one on my way to a nice lunch. Great day for caching.... plenty of Mozzies at GZ, haha... must be that time of year.... nooooo

Cheers

Travelling to Sydney today to catch up with some old friends and I decided to leave nice and early in the morning and spend my day caching!

After grabbing a challenge cache I have been working towards for a long time, and then some quick park and grab puzzles along the road to Lake Illawarra I started on this series! Have grabbed a couple of these before, and got a big chunk of them today, but there are still some left on the west side of the lake for my next visit (as well as some DNF's)

Love this series and have been solving the caches ever since they very first came out. In fact I remember solving them before the FTF's even went off, even though I live way to far away to chase them

Thanks to The Rats for this great series of puzzles and all the thought gone into the final locations!

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The first one in the series for today, parking along the road was easy enough and a quick run up and down the little hill I had the CIH. Thanks!

Another one solved and found today. Attending some training not far away and a sort of P&G if you will . I think I have worked out the easier ones... now onto the harder stuff.

TFTC The Rats and enjoying the series once I get my brain around the puzzled.

One of the few of these SES puzzles that we could solve. TFTC and the puzzle

Tftc. First one today that had no writing implement. I left mine in car. Took photo log and left a protractor inside cache as proof.

Doing a round of the caching playground. Thank you for the cache.

This was day 2 of picking up some caches that had been solved in this series and that were active at the time. We did succeed in finding all the ones that we looked for and now we need to work on some more puzzles.
Many thanks to The Rats for the steep learning curve on some of the puzzles and for each cache placement. Our name was duly noted on each log before we left to continue the hunt for the day.

Found on the 07/10/2017 at 5:08:00 PM.

I had a few selected caches that I wanted to find today, and this one was still on my GPS unfound. While I was travelling by the area I thought I'd find it.

Thanks for the cache.

Thank you for the cache. Log signed and cache replaced. *OCW Throsbyonchurch*.

Thanks for the hide. OCW Throsbyonchurch. SL.

Found -- 3:51:00 PM -- SL TNLN TFTH. Thanks for bringing us here to this location The Rats.

**The Puzzle**
SOLVED 19 July 2016. No 4.
Had a look at some of the puzzles you published back in February '16. I had not returned for a second look until July '16. I had this mystery cache solved fairly easily and in good time.

**The Cache**
Cache in good condition. An easy find, replaced back in it's hide'y hole. Have never been out along here, so it was very nice to change direction and see other areas of the Illawarra.

**The Day**
Upon awakening this morning I decided to head off and locate all of the *SES* series puzzles I have solved. Well, most of them anyway. I looked out the window and it looked cold and as if it was going to rain. My enthusiasm diminished. I got myself ready and dragged myself toward the car to find it wasn't so cold. Today resulted in perfect weather. I am so pleased I pressed on. Considering much of today was wasted and I wasn't well prepared, and leaving home late, and stopping for a hours lunch I think we did quite well. Although I am most disappointed in my SES haul today, I was wanting to find a few more than I did. I loved spending time down around the lake today, stunning views and very enjoyable.

12 = 9 and 3

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*Respect other peoples caches just as you expect them to respect yours.*

Found with seeker200 cullum68 and mistysoho on a day out caching thanks for the cache

Found with nissan 65 Mistysoho and Seeker 200. We hatched a plan to try and complete this series. We headed off early and after coffee we were ready for a big day. Lots of walking and a few nice quick ones thrown in. We found all except 3 which were DNFs. In all we walked close to 17km today. Thankyou to the rats for this fun and sometimes frustrating puzzle series

Out on my second day to find more SES series, thanks for the journey

Nice hide and good find. TFTC

Solved a while ago but GZ is a bit out of the way for us so had to wait for the opportunity. Cache is safe and secure and in good order.
On to the next puzzle. TFTC

Last for the day, as TC was on a mission, ie to pick up his wife from work at 4pm in western Sydney. We'll be back...

A day out colleting the SES Series with Rainbow Spirit. We successfully found 21!

Another classic hiding method this one!

Our last for the day before I had to pick up my wife. Nice and quick. Well, I was crossing the road. Rainbow Spirit made the find as I went too low and was circling back to GZ.

TFTC.

Nice quick find takes longer to work out the puzzles than do the cache.

TFTC

Ironbark.

We have had many fun nights solving as many of these puzzles as we could of the last few weeks. There are still some that allude us, however this was one that we have come across many times in the past and so it was just a matter of sorting through all the characters. Thanks for the series,

Domsky

An yet another TFTC

Plans were set in place with fitzy_1965 for a weekend caching mission around the Illawarra region We had a great time nabbing a whole bunch of caches with the only disappointment being the high number of DNF's due to missing containers

An easy solve of a commonly seen cipher prior to the trip and a quick find for us at GZ [^]

Thanks for the puzzle & hide, The Rats

11839. Found during a weekend caching trip to Wollongong with specimenX. Overall a great weekend with the only downer being the high number of DNFs - especially around the lake.

A plan was hatched for specimenX and myself to visit Wollongong this weekend to attempt the SES (those that we have solved anyway - we have a few left for next time) and LIPT series plus others. We arrived in Wollongong last night inorder to get an early start on the trail today. Next find for the day. specimenX went up and over for a quick fiind at GZ. Log signed, cache returned and we continued on our way to the next one.

Thanks again The Rats !! Very interesting series with many many different puzzle techniques - Awesome !

TNLN - TFTC !!

Out today hunting a find for our mission souvenir. Lucky we had solved a couple of these already and haven't had the time to find them! Easy find but I can't say the same for these puzzles

5:00 P.M. Twenty-ninth of the day doing the SES series. Caching with family and friends. TFTC.

Found toward the end of our day. By this time I was prepared to accept anything presented. Too tired for a happy dance from this cacher.

With mystery weekend coming up we put our noses to the grindstone to finish these off before Saturday. It is always great to collect a big series of mysteries all in one go and though we missed one we have to feel pretty good about our day's work. Solving the puzzles was no small chore and collecting them was almost as much of a workout. After doing a couple of small trails of our own where there were no puzzles involved at all, we can certainly appreciate the amount of time and effort that went into making a trail of challenging puzzles. Thumbs up to the CO and of course TFTC!
OCWF&F SL

A weekend away was hatched with Rapidlywild to head down to the Wollongong area to collect a few smileys. After getting an early mark from work we packed the car and headed down the highway and through the meandering hills to the coastline, collecting a few caches along the way. We did the obligatory stop at the Robertson Pie Shop for dinner, arriving just before closing time. After a late night exploring around the town we hit the hotel for a few hours of shut eye before heading out for a big day collecting the SES series and others we had solved when preparing for this weekend.

Thanks to the cache owners for the cache placements and bringing us to the Wollongong area. The variety of puzzles on offer was enjoyable, some of the puzzles we have seen something similar before and some were quite challenging. Thanks for the challenge.

Plans were in place for sometime to attack the SES Puzzles with FurfacesLL and the Queens Birthday weekend was decided on for collecting them. We started working our way thorough the puzzles together, some were easier than others, and eventually we had them all solved. We took off after work friday and was home Sunday night.

We had a very muddy weekend but enjoyable all the least. Thanks to the CO's for the placements.

Solve: Ohhh I like this code, ive personally used it for one of my own puzzles No issues getting the green light from the checker.

Thanks for the puzzle and the placement The Rats

(644) Noikmeister picked me up at 5:30 am and we made good time as we drove to the Lake Illawarra area. We watched the sun rise through some pink clouds as we headed NE up the Hume Highway. Our aim was to collect all 31 in the SES puzzle series and to maybe collect on or two more. This was the first one we collected.

The solve: I've solved a few of these now. And I'm a fan of the work of the person who came up with this cipher all those years ago. So it was not a tricky solve.
The find: Noikmeister did most of the finding today, and he found this one almost immediately.
TFTC!

Found at 7:50:00 AM with ZQX who introduced me to this series. Solving them made me get some mojo back for puzzle solving and they were welcome fare. So after we had a set of 31, we set some plans to some up and crack the series in a day.

A straightforward puzzle solve for this one. So much so that I didn't even make a note in GSAK about how I solved it. Suffice to say I am very familiar with this case even before geocaching.

This was our first find today and we fell into what would be a familiar pattern, found a familiar container and developed a routine for doing the business of signing which we perfected by the end of the day.

Thanks The Rats for what turned out to be a very enjoyable series. I really appreciate the effort that went into it.

Streak Day #1038 - Out on a day trip to the Illawarra with dave8153, we decided to do some caches and then cache our way home. This was a quick find for us

I had solved this puzzle a few days ago and upon knowing that i would be down this end of town today and of course me being an SES member for 19years myself, it was kinda appropriate for me to find a cache tribute to the SES. Cant wait to get down here after solving the rest of the puzzles. Thanks so much for this geoart series

Found it with snoopy1976 on a day trip to the Illawarra our 4th for the day

Signed back in to the gc website. Backlogging a majority of finds over the last year. Started my own account and it's time to sync it out. To avoid confusion I wont change the date logged. Send me an email (via profile link) or a message in the message centre (also via profile link) if you have any concerns.

TFTCs

Enjoyed solving this one so much I’ve since gone on to decrypt a page long description with similar font for a cache in San Francisco I’m hoping to visit later this year. I’ve driven past this one a few times since solving but took a planned opportunity to park in the right spot for a short dash across the road and an easy stroll out of sight to GZ. So do I prefer Field or Ops? When I attended my information night, I felt more drawn to an Ops role and then when I started, I found myself building confidence and exceeding self-challenges by following new friends from my intake into the Field. A year in, I took on juggling additional administrative roles that have since taken over on a full time basis. So technically while I’m not in a Field or Ops team, every role within the service depends on each other and I can still wear different hats as required.

First find for the day.this puzzle fell together nicely and found the cache no probs.
TFTC!

Today's CITO Event gave me a good excuse to sign off on the SES Series too.
26 caches total today (1 CITO, 5 Traditionals, 20 SES Puzzles) - Not a bad haul!!

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Solved the puzzle quite easily,
Located the cache fairly quickly.

TFTC

Came today to reap the rewards of the massive amount of time spent on solving these puzzles and still not solved them all. We brought our Geohounds along for the hunt on this georgeous day. TFTC

Another puzzle in the series which wasn't too difficult- but they never are when you know how!! A quick stop off this morning and the cache was in hand- thanks!

First cache I actually find with my own car, only because I made a detour via MArshall Mount and Albion Park to avoid the traffic in Albion Park Rail, it was really terrible on this Friday afternoon! Was able to stop within 20 meters of the cache. At GZ got killed by the mozzies!!
TFTC Wilbert67

Dancing men. Dancing men everywhere! No dancing at GZ, but I sure had to dodge some fast moving cars, I should have parked on the other side of the road.

Quick find, even in the dark.

Cheers

I was able to quickly solve this one before bed, which unfortunately lead to me dreaming about stick figures dancing around my head. Today arriving at GZ I parked safely on the opposite side of the road as there was more room. Once across the road I didn't like the direct approach, so it was round to the backside which provided easy acess to the cache, thanks.

As with the earlier ones published in this series I was away from home all day when these ones appeared. By the time I got back and had things squared away it was nearly 10pm, but I thought I'd race through these and see which ones stood out as immediately solvable or that I could make some headway with. After a couple of hours I'd solved 9 of them, and been the first solver for 4, so they seemed good candidates for a possible FTF mission in the morning. After putting the kids on the school bus I came down to the lake and got all 9 FTFs! Working through the puzzles and then visiting the locations today really drove home how much effort has gone into this series. I really appreciate the effort from the CO and enjoyed working out the puzzles and exploring around the lake and surrounds - not to mention learning more about the SES and appreciating their efforts even more. I'll see if I can get my head around any more of the puzzles soon.

As for this specific cache: I recognised the puzzle immediately, having seen it elsewhere but also because my wife is a huge fan of a particular literary character. I soon had an approved set of coords and this morning was able to make a quick find. I probably raised the terrain rating a little by scrambling down from above, working my way along the bottom and then bashing back up again. If I'd gone further along, a shorter and more direct downhill approach would have worked better. But a blank log greeted me, for the first FTF of the day. TFTC!

Published

Oh man I can't see any more stick figures now... Will visit it when I'm in the area.