Dark side of the cache #25 Caboolture, Queensland, Australia
By 4ando on 09-Aug-19. Waypoint GC8BWNK

Knowing what I was looking for made a big difference.It made the search a lot faster for one.Having borrowed a kayak and launched from the spit a few years back I knew what I was in for.Thankfully the lantana was most ferocious in the south portion of the lake and that's where I'd made my handful of finds before.Not that I didn't encounter head high lantana at the mid section of the lake, because we certainly did.This puzzle was also solved quickly akd added to the pileGracias 4ando!

The puzzles were solved during Melbournes first lockdown. They kept me sane, though at times, also drove me insane. I had been wanting to pickup this series ever since, but unfortunately, something always prevented us from coming hereuntil this year.On our first day, we arrived eager, only to be met by the parks proprietor. He informed us that the lake was closed due to a drowning the previous day, and the body had yet to be recovered. Though we were a bit disappointed, our hearts went out to the family of the deceased.Shortly afterward, we were contacted by the person we hired the boat from, who had checked with the relevant authorities. He advised us to embark from an alternative boat ramp and to avoid a certain area.We had booked four half-days of boat hire, which turned out to be a good decision given the temperatures of 33 - a shock to our systems. The terrain was also much tougher than expected, and after the first day, I realised we didnt stand a chance of collecting them all.We found 12 this morning. Some were quick finds, while others took much longer than expected.Thank you 4Ando for a terrific series and in such a picturesque setting.

This puzzle was only recently worked through in the past couple of months in preparation for a trip like today. As a Star Wars fan, I was able to complete the majority of puzzles myself, but I did need help and a few nudges for a couple of more difficult puzzles.

We approached this geocache from our hire boat, and then made our way to GZ. We managed to make the geocache find reasonably quickly, and the cache container and logbook were in good shape. We signed as Team "GSW" (as per [GurTheWanderer](https://coord.info/PRWMPWQ), [stairman1](https://coord.info/PR4R27Z), and David"W"azza). Thanks 4ando for the cache placement and ongoing maintenance.

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During this extended weekend, it was a trip north to find the 65 Roses geoart in Kilcoy, followed by two days boating on Lake Somerset to defeat the Dark Side series joined with [GurTheWanderer](https://coord.info/PRWMPWQ) and [stairman1](https://coord.info/PR4R27Z).

Today, the plan was to attack as many of the *Dark side of the cache* geoart on Lake Somerset as daylight, time and energy could handle. After staying in D'Aguilar, I stopped at Kilcoy to participate in Yowie parkrun, before then making my way to Hazeldean to meet [GurTheWanderer](https://coord.info/PRWMPWQ) and [stairman1](https://coord.info/PR4R27Z) and pick up our hire boat.
We set off from Kirkleagh Boat Ramp just after 08:45 hr, and we made our way south / south-east whilst attacking the various geocache clusters. The lake was at 80% capacity with not too many boating muggles about, although there was one boat testing its speed limits as it "flew" across the lake. Ultimately, we managed to find all 108 available geocaches by the end of the day, which none of us expected to achieve. The Winter weather was fantastic as it wasn't hot, and the three of us had a lot of fun boating and walking/hiking across the lake's peninsulas.

Found with Team GSW. GurTheWanderer, Davewazza and I spent a great day caching on the lake here today. I was lucky to receive an invite to spend the weekend camping and boating and to track down the dark side caches. As it turned out we never need the second day and managed to find all except a couple of archived caches. The Co ords were great and it didn't take much to find them. Thanks heaps 4anddo for this great series you have placed for our enjoyment. The amount of work you put into these must have been extreme. A great day out on the lake weather perfect and not a wave to be seen. We even got to see a Koala at one of the caches. A bonus. Thankyou again.
As we had hired a boat from the local hire place for the weekend Davewazza and I stayed an extra night to nab the last few Traditional caches we hadn't found. Gur decided he needed to return home.
Thanks team GSW for a great day out.
TFTC

Eye height

Team GSW found these cache today. With Davewazza and Stairman.

I AM GUR

Great day out on Somerset caching with hubby and Treasuretrakkas

Wonderful chance to explore and find these caches. Little hike here and there but all generally easy and accurate to GZ

Tftc

After a disappointing morning of two DNFs and a missing cache we headed off again after lunch with another eight caches in our sights. It was a cracker of an afternoon, finding all caches and although it was a hot day we cooled off regularly between finds.
Thanks to all the COs who have placed caches on Somerset for our enjoy.

As the self appointed and self designated Director of Events in the Bromance it has been impossible for me to arrange catch ups as I have been incapacitated by surgery and recovery. I finally felt it was way overdue to get together again, and after a test last weekend in the Kayak, the Dark Side Caches seemed a perfect opportunity.

After an ungodly get up time (so early that even the bakeries were not open yet!) we arrived at Kirkleigh at Sparrow Fart. Of course CrookedPete was nowhere to be seen, and once we were all set up and ready to go I kindly suggested we piss off before CrookedPete arrives! Unfortunately he decided to arrive as our yaks hit the water, so we had to wait for him to put his swimmers on the right way before heading off together(ish). My favourite part of the day was the gentle, quiet, chit chatting paddle down to the first cache. It was GREAT to be out on the water again, and with my caching buddies in tow. Ahh the serenity.

The day was a paddle south and meander our way back north, picking up caches I had diligently solved many months ago when I completed the first half of these over a year ago. I recall the puzzles ranging from simple to excruciating, with a combined effort to get as many as we did. Thanks to the CO for the amazing effort that went into this series. Truly a special effort.

Another highlight of the day (commencing on the water at 6:30am and back at 3:30pm) was the stop for lunch under the trees and having a swim. I say lunch, but really only seffnjarah had a lunch lovingly prepared for him by the latter half of his namesake. The rest of us, due to no bakeries, had the odd snack and a few gummy bears to share between us.

Finishing with a few DNFs most likely due to past flooding, we finally got to head home. What a relief to finally paddle back to shore, but such a sense of achievement. Still a few to collect to complete the series, but maybe we can convince seffnjarah to bring out the speed boat next time.

Between various injuries and illnesses, work and family commitments, it has been a while since the full Bromance caching team, ventured out together. And it has been even longer since we were on the water in our yaks.

I had solved almost all the puzzles, but had to lean on my puzzle solving guru team mates for a few. We set out with three puzzles today unsolved, but with a bit of geologic, managed a clean sweep of all three.

Half way round the loop. No problems here.

We certainly appreciated the enormous effort that has gone into this geo art. Many thanks 4Ando

Pete

#6,496

A full complement of The Bromance assembled today to gather up a number of solved caches in this series (and with the aid of geo-logic and a pinch of luck, some not yet solved). A warm sunny day provided the perfect opportunity to enjoy a paddle along the dam and put the long neglected kayaks to good use. Thanks to Crookedpete, Dez (JezNDez) and Swellerfungus for helping me to make this cache one of our successful finds. And thanks to the CO for placing this challenging series of puzzles. TFTC

27/1/22 Travelling down yesterday from Mackay to do some GeoArt caches. On our trip down lost a bearing buddy from boat trailer near Rocky. Then near Gin Gin blew a boat trailer tyre. Got both issues sorted as had spare parts. Arrived at Dam yesterday and was raining. Setup our camp at Somerset Camp Ground and got a good nights rest. Woke up 530am and on the water at 615am. Rain has moved on. First lot of caches supprised me on the landscape as different to other dams I have done. The water shoes definitely getting a work out. Found caches secured and gps co ordinates good. Have Geokid CAITLYN1105 hiking around with me which is good company. Thanks for the variety of puzzles to solve and some I did get assistance on as good value mysyeries. TFTCs Signed Logs.

Travelled down from Mackay with alphag_25 to find these caches. My grandpa came out on the boat with us. We had rain yesterday but sunny today. Cache container was found in good condition. Thankyou for creating this cache. Travelling back to Mackay on Saturday.

Logging old caches originally found with alphag_25. Now have my own account and logging them separately so that i can claim the finds or not as the case may be. TFTC.

Sorry back to generic logs as it’s much of the same as before with lessening rain with the chance of meatballs . Just enjoying the day, it’s a Friday after all. & I are trying to complete as many today as possible

Muggle65 and I have the boat to ourselves now and it is definitely a bit more comfortable. The rain has eased a bit and it is just drizzling now. But very dark - it could be approaching sunset but it is morning. Have seen only one other boat all day even though it is school holidays. Clearly most people are more sensible than we are Cache found in good order. Thank you so much for placing it

Down from Townsville for the mega we were up at the crack of dawn to collect this series after solving these months in advance.

With the master Karicka at the helm and Padewans BenM70 and myself we aimed to complete the art in one hit.
Big day in the water which was most enjoyable. Mission complete.

Thanks 4ando for the massive effort in creating and placing these for us to enjoy.

Heading to the Dayboro mega from Townsville. Out with burgo78 and Karicka. Worked on the Darkside series before coming down and have now recovered from the eyestrain. Time to clean up and give some smiles to the geoArt. A few teething issues sorted with the boat and we were racing all around the lake. Great quality and well tethered caches should see this series last a while. Plenty of peoples out using the lake, for boating, skiing and jetsking. Thanks for placing these for our puzzling enjoyment 4ando.

Boating with burgo78 and BenM70
After a few outboard issues we made it here.
A good day for it. By the time we got here the motor had gotten over its earlier issues.

Thank you for hiding this geocache 4ando
R

Wow, what an adventure we have had. We had such a fun time collecting this series. Up bright and early, we set off on our grand adventure. We thought we were prepared for this journey, maybe we were not. Boats secured, supplies, maybe not enough, water to drink, maybe not enough, tech in abundance. We had heard rumours of previous finders being shot at, luckily it didnt happen to us, climbing trees, scrambling up hills, and keeping an eye out and checking for snakes at every step. A day in the life of a geocacher really!Thanks for placing the cache 4ando, and for the puzzles. The series was a lot of fun.We signed the logs as VIC to make signing easier, to represent becknmonts, McLookers, Alansee and myself, micaparamedic.

What an adventure! We had such a fun time getting down this end to start the caches. Up bright and early (again), we set off on our grand adventure, ready to be shot at by bull farmers (it didn’t happen to us, but we had heard rumours), climb trees, scramble up hills, and check for snakes at every step. A cachers dream really!

Thanks for placing the cache 4ando, and for the puzzles. The series was a lot of fun to solve.

We signed the logs as VIC to make signing easier, to represent Micaparamedic, McLookers, Alansee and myself.

After a massive effort to solve these caches and an equally massive effort to get to Somerset Dam, we had a great couple of days. The boat hire at the lake made this a very achievable series. The co-odds for the hides were spot on and the placements secure and effective. Caching and boating this series with beckNmonts, Alansee and micaparamedic, we signed the logs as VIC. We have many laughs, we made a great team and we had a ripper adventure exploring the dam. Thanks 4ando.

Found in the company of McLookers, beckNmonts and Micaparamedic over two days. This was our second day and this time we followed in another group's footsteps, although I reckon it was an easier day. Many thanks 4ando for all the work in placing them

A few of us had worked on these puzzles when they came out and with the Mega in Daybro it was time to come and find them.
We over estimated how quick we would find these hides and a very slow boat did not help matters but we are happy with what we got.
The hides were great, we only struggled on one where we found the coordinates a bit off but perseverance paid off.
To save room in the log books we signed as MMP. We are not sure how we came to this but can guarantee alcohol was involved
Many thanks 4ando for the interesting puzzles and great hides.
Apologies for the generic log but doing so many in a day we cannot remember each one individually.

Found by Mary and David with a great group of friends. Logged as MMP, CMP or similar. A very enjoyable day out on the lake in a hired slow boat. Our thanks to 4ando for all the work in setting up the series, and the fun of solving and finding.

A very tough series to do especially if you haven't got a fast water craft.

Thanks 4ando for the massive effort in placing these caches and for the puzzles that kept us entertained for days!

Day two on the dam and after three false starts due to winds, we managed to get out and grab a few more. Nearly done, just a few more tomorrow.

10735
TFTC 4ando

Before leaving home all these puzzles had been solved& then it was a matter of when would we go to find them
On our way to Dayboro we took a detour by Sommerset Dam a few nights camped here with the Snakepitters & also my muggle brother who has kindly lent us his tinny for the few days.
Day one was to place the yabby pots & check out the closest to the camp as to get an idea of what to expect.
Day two was a larger assult day, & to find as many caches while the weather was O'K.
Day three turned out windy so only managed to find 14
Day four, as we had extended our stay to finish the series off & also to wait to see of the latest lockdown
A great variety of puzzles to be solved some easily & others a PAF for a push in the right direction.
The views of the lovely green banks & the dam views were amazing.
Thankyou 4ando for placing this series of cache.

Many thanks to my son-in-law who took us out in the boat while he did some fishing. I had a good day picking up some caches. Nice quick find.TFTC

Apologies to CO 4ando. I found this cache on 29 Feb 2020 with geowife Dora the Explorer, CDAH55 and Selva Girls. I was amiss in not logging sooner. A long day on the tinny but water calm and grass green after the drought conditions out there on 2019.

Full log to folow

#4883
Lake Somerset Trip - Day 5

After collecting 60 of the series yesterday with **Tardis0061**, **Team Canary** and **Purplepeopleater** it was time to hit the water again. The weather was not quite as cooperative as yesterday with a steady drizzle for most of the day. We enjoyed the elevated view from a number of caches on the hill as well as the one about 100m off shore. All containers were found in good condition and well secured. Saw plenty more bird life and turtle shells on our journey today.

Thanks again for all the puzzles and placing and maintaining all the caches in such a picturesque setting

TFTC 4ando

Day 2 of the GOMs Somerset Dam Assault.
Another wonderful day out in a little runabout with Crash, Canary and Tardis collecting Dark Side caches that we so assiduously solved during Covid lockdown 12 months ago. An excellent series and well worth both the mental and physical effort.
Many tanks for a fabulous series. SL TFTC

Twenty first cache of Day 2 on Lake Somerset for the Dark Side of the Cache with TARDIS0061, Purplepeopleater and Crash2079.

Another quick search as we circled around.

TFTC.

I read somewhere during puzzle solving that the Star Wars sound effects are a big part of the films impact.. eargasms apparently. I agree, the sound effects are stunning. And here was another for us to work out.

We really appeciate the great co-ordinates in the series and well secured caches. Easily found as we wander around on foot, cache to cache. TFTC 4ando.

Out today for paddle by myself. It was nice reasonably flat water not to many boats out yet. Maybe to early for most boaties. 3.5km paddle to the first cache.
I collected 22 more mystery cache in this visit. That leaves 27 to go.
One big hill to climb today. I didn’t push myself today paddling. I had time on my hand.
As morning roll on I could see the boat traffic increase. The wave grew higher. But not to windy goodiee.
The return paddle was a bit lumpy lots of traffic. Sometimes wave from different directions
Got back to boat ramp about 12pm. A good day on the lake.
Sorry for the generic post
4ando *TFTC* 4774 *Finds*

Out for the day with our friends Steve (otherwise known as Urdera) and Michelle to see how many of these Dark side caches we could get. We were on the water by 8am and we left the water at 4pm. We were sunburnt, scratched, tired and had enjoyed a wonderful adventure. Each piece of headland was different to the last. Some quite hilly others nice and flat. Grass not too high but sometimes where no trail was evident it was bush bashing through head high lantana etc. We saw cows, lots of rabbits, a huge goanna, two snake skins and several turtles. We had leisurely stops in scenic spots as we enjoyed lunch and morning and afternoon tea on the boat. Our thanks to 4ando for placing this cache series and enhancing our enjoyment of the area and we would not have visited this area if it had not been for the caches.

Arrived at the gate at 5.30am ready for my first time kayaking on lake Somerset.

I had a great time during my 6.5h round trip and found all of the caches I was planning for quite easily.

This is a great geoart and series of different puzzles! And a big reward finding them as they all have good TD ratings! Even more rewarding when you find them by yourself on a kayak .

Thanks for the fun series and great excercise!

Georode

Today I was the whole day on the lake paddling around and looking for some caches of the Dark side series.
TFTC

Found it
With DeafPVC
️

What a climb! Thank you for this great geo art puzzle and caches. Logging with DeafPVC

Hooray thanks for share DeafPVC boat walk

Wow another awesome time caching, I just love getting out and caching, a big thanks to 4ando for this series.

A couple of weeks back I tried to organise a few regular suspects to come and grab the dark series. It wasn’t looking good as only one solid confirmation and three can’t confirm till last moment. Then it was a mad week to finish of the rest of the puzzle caches and be ready. A bunch of phone calls in between and a rough plan in place all of a sudden things changed and we had a group to attack this series. An overnight camp Friday, a few drinks and a few laughs. Saturday night brought the excitement and the stories to tell after the event.

A great day, a long and fun day, lots of laughs and some awesome caches. With Team Tyrrell setting off on kayak while we waited for the slow boat to be loaded and launched, then it was Willis007, Simber15 and CHAMAD following up in a “hasty” pace, we had turtles asking us if we needed a tow, we even got passed by a butterfly at one stage, however this was just added to the fun of the day. The caches took us all over the dam area with some great views and some nice cache placements. Mrs Simber15 cured her phobia of cows and Willis007 learnt how to deal with angry magpies. The bird life on the dam is remarkable, there were a couple of sightings of roos and rabbits but nothing could beat the views from the tops of the hills, just inspiring; surprisingly no DNF’s and all caches are in good condition.

I really had a great day, the memories of the day just added to the great caching experience. Thank you to all that came along and be ready for the next assault on the next geoart. Thank you to the CO for the time spent placing these and setting this up. If it took us a long day to collect them it must have taken you weeks to organise and to set them out.

Puzzles were solved and a plan was hatched. We were going boating! We had started solving these shortly after they were published and I remember the speculation around the shape of the new art as the caches were published slowly over about a 24 hour period. It didn't take long for the enormity of the task ahead to become clear and so we parked the idea and the second half of the puzzles for another day. A week ago some geocaching friends invited us along for a weekend of camping and caching. An opportunity we couldn't possibly refuse! A quick scramble over a few days and the final touches were made and puzzles solved that had been neglected. We arrived the night before and made a plan of attack allowing for changes as required based on the flavour of the wind. An early start by kayak followed by the SS Slow Boat resulted in 11.5 hours on the water after first launching before the final cache was signed. We couldn't possibly have achieved this task without the help, support, entertainment, laughs and all round fun of Chamad, Willis0007 and Team Tyrell. The scenery was stunning and the bird life abundant. Views from some of the hills were magic and we couldn't help but stare in awe up at the bright stars from the campsite of an evening. Mrs Simber15's irrational fear of cows was overcome on a few occasions and a brief encounter with magpies completed. A few times we found ourselves beached or engine stalled and then Chamad would remind us "I know boats" and it wasn't long before we were up and running again. We made good time working in a clockwise pattern and tried to be methodical in our attack. The ground was dry and crunchy and it amazed us no wriggly sticks were found. A favourite moment for me was wading through a shoulder high patch of weeds with strange seed pods that sounded like christmas bells as you brushed against them. I have never seen/heard anything like it before! Thankyou so very much 4Ando for the incredible effort that you have gone to to create this art and the unique experience that it provides. This was a weekend of caching we won't soon forget! A fave for the series.

What an awesome series you have here 4ando.

I've had these puzzles in my solved box for quite a few months now, but haven't seemed to get the right timing to make an attempt at grabbing them. The puzzles were solved by various means of PAF's, getting hints and nudges from the CO working together as a team and good old fashioned time spent banging my head against the computer. Being somewhat of a Star Wars fan, some of the answers came easy to me. Others i had to knuckle down and search through Mr Google and various other sites to come up with the Co ords.

A few phone calls early last week had a rough plan in place to come up to Somerset this weekend and make a smash and grab for the series. A small but dedicated team came together for the challenge. Willis007, Chamad and Simber15.

I had previously decided to attempt this series by using my Kayak ONLY for the transfer between GZ's. On arrival at Somerset camp ground boat ramp very early this morning and looking out across the expanse of water the challenge seemed to be a bit overwhelming. Anyway in i plopped and off i set with a determined and healthy paddle stroke. By utilizing my kayak sail i was able to hold my own against the rented SS Slow Boat and the other team members. It was a monstrous day on the arms and after approx 10 hours on, in and around the water i opted to get a tow from SS Slow Boat to the last 8 caches as the wind was really starting to pick up.

An absolute great day out in an awesome location.

My highlights of the day would be :-
3 of the tree climbs that i managed to scramble up
The awesome views over looking the dam from the top of the hills
The numerous birds and animals putting on a show
The great condition the cache containers were kept in
Climbing out of my kayak when we returned back to the boat ramp

Low lights :-
Not really anything to complain about.
My legs got a little torn by the scrub on the Southern section of the cache's but that's all part of the fun.
The wind picked up from a NW direction as the day went on.

Well done 4ando.

Love your work.

A plan was hatched last week to visit Somerset and collect the Dark side caches which for me meant drop everything and start solving these puzzles
I was able to work through this one quite easily, and soon had Certitude giving me the info I needed.
With more plans put into place, a camping and boating weekend was closely looming. A bunch of dedicated cachers - Team Tyrrell, CHAMAD, Simber15 - and our high tech transportation fleet of a super fast kayak and what has become affectionately known as the SS Slow Boat - came, saw and conquered some lovingly placed caches in the most beautiful of locations.
A lot of bird life and cattle were seen through the day, along with kangaroos, a rabbit and did I mention magpies?? Thankfully there were no snake encounters given the super long grass we walked through in some places.
A long but very satisfying day with some great company, a lot of laughs and scratches, a day which will long be remembered.
A huge thank you 4ando for a very well thought out puzzle series and for placing this cache here for us to collect today. Your efforts here are amazing!

Continued our walk from the last cache and a short little rain squall passed over. Then the sun shone.

This cache was soon spotted, signed and we were on our way to the next.

Thanks for the puzzle and cache. We’ve had a lot of fun solving them and now, today, more fun finding some.

Today was the day Eskies5, Davinells and myself (DEK) made plans to travel to dark side. With an early start to the day we were on the water just before 8 and returning to ramp just before 4. A great day with just enough clouds to make sure we didn’t get burnt to a crisp. Most of the caches were straightforward finds and all were in great condition.

Thanks for an awesome day out on the water 4ando, we will return for the others another day. Apologies for the cut and paste logs!

Team DEK (Davinells, Eskies5 and Kestal) embarked on Somerset Dam in our little hired tinny to put Darth Vader's head back together! I was on driver duty while Eskies5 and Kestal were the navigators and look outs for the submerged logs and shallow banks. The weather was kind to us with not much wind, that was until the end of the day when we made our way back to our starting point and the wind had picked up. The waves were unavoidable in the little boat and Kestal bore the brunt of them and got soaked! Sorry! A total of 65 caches were found in 8hrs, a great day out and with great company.
Thanks 4ando for putting together a fabulous selection of puzzles at a beautiful location. Thoroughly enjoyed our time at the lake and look forward to returning and completing the series!

After many hours of puzzling "The Shroud of the Dark Side had Fallen"....all around Somerset Dam. So it was that Team D.E.K (Davinells, Eskies5 and Kestal) came together to right a wrong. Kestal and I had an early start travelling down from Toowoomba to meet with Davinells who had camped overnight and organised our transport for the day. With Davinells at the helm we headed out with much excitement on calm waters. The weather was kind to us with a bit of cloud cover giving us sporadic reprieve from the biting sun. A great adventure with lots of walking in between the boating. Heading back to the boat ramp the wind picked up and by the time we got back we were pretty well soaked but spirits weren't dampened as we were super happy with our tally for the day. Many thanks for a fun day out, 4ando.

Puzzle solved, so this was another one we could search for today. It was mid afternoon, and we wondered if we felt a few drops of rain as we were heading back to the boat.
All good here and we signed the log. Like some of these other style of puzzles, it took us a little while to find what we were looking for but all good in the end.
Thanks 4ando
Domsky

Out doing Dark Side caches for the third time. Windy day on the lake. Getting wet in the little tinny.
Easy find.
TNLN, TFTC.
This one gave the boat shoes a workout!

What a blast of a series this is! Puzzles to muddle through, dodging the headaches as we go, then a dam to muddle through, dodging trees and stumps as we go!!

We had such a great time, Captain Tenkae, stortigirls, E_Smiley and I, collecting about 50 on this beautiful day. We clocked up quite a few boat kms and the walking kms added up too. Really enjoyed how it all came together with boating then walking then boating then oops may have ended up in the water when it got a bit hot. Beautiful!

Thanks so much, 4ando, for all the time, effort and fun put into this series. I look forward to returning and finding the other side of the dark side sometime soon!

I was out for a day on the water today with E , Tenkae and Caro, taking Tenkae's new boat out on its maiden voyage. We had planned to launch an attack on the Dark Side, finishing what we started before the world went mad and the pandemic turned everything upside down. A great day was had by all, lots of laughs, awesome scenery, a very civilised picnic morning tea and great company. Thanks 4ando for the puzzles, the caches and the whole experience

Fantastic day with Tenkae, Car0 and Stortigirls! We collectively signed as Team ACE A (our real name initials) or AACE or sometimes our caching names, depending on our mood.
Solved the puzzles ages ago, even collected half of them last November.
We were meant to hire a tinny today but we were late to book a full day so Tenkae decided to buy a boat instead! She's always full of surprises.
Cruising was much faster and more fun! We managed to pick up 50+ caches including some traditionals up north from 7 am to 4 pm.
Great day overall. So much laughter and catching up while caching. Amazing teamwork and camaraderie on board Oasis of the lake. Entertainment, food and activities were much better than the Royal Caribbean version, Covid-free was a special bonus.
Thanks for the cache 4ando.

Team AACE are out on a mission today to finish this series. New boat so learning as we go... wow... found neutral and reverse after getting 6km from safety. Beaut day on the water and loved the puzzles... well... most of them. TFTC

TFTC smile7182 out and about with Hatzoff, Echocage1 ,RoddyC, Snickersallan, 5days on the lakes (or dams)having a great time walking , boating, caching ,and thanks to the muggle fur baby sitter a favorite point for this cache



Thank you, 4ando, for placing this cache for our enjoyment.

***COs- Currently in the process of catching up on my logging backlog- some of it, I'm embarrassed to say extends back a number of years.
I'm logging each cache on the date that I actually visited it, not the day I'm logging. Cheers??***
??????????
We'd been busy beavers solving this series and could finally come and collect the goodies here. It took us 3 days in a slow boat but we had a great time out on the water and being away from home.
As Ratty?? said to Mole??...
“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
We didn't mess about too much though or we wouldn't have found them all in the time we had the boat.
The logs were signed as either team GERSH or sometimes GRESH, depending on the memory of the signee and the caches were where our coords led us and no issues were encountered.
One highlight up this end of the dam was seeing a large flock of swans.
Another was finally getting my first D/T loop with this series although sadly I wasn't aware of it at the time. Probably just as well as I may have capsized the tub in my excitement! No happy dancing possible in a plastic tinnie without soggy consequences!???????
Thanks 4ando for the huge effort in making the puzzles and placing the caches.??

We decided to join forces for a few day's caching on Lake Somerset. Our first day, and we are motoring our boats to do the northern end where there are some traditional, caches, then start on the caches of the Dark Side series.

All logs were signed as "G.E.R.S.H." (Grannysmith1947, echocage1, RoddyC, Snickersallan and hatzofff).

Of those found today, all were in good order. Some required a little effort to retrieve (especially for those vertically challenged), and a couple had me panting for breath after a steep climb (at least for this old fellow).

Cache located, log signed and all replaced as found. TFTC, 4ando, on 03/09/2020

Another Great day out doors and on and around the water.

Great day, great weather, great company.

All caches signed as GERSH (Granny Smith 1947, echocage1, RoddyC, Snickersallan, hatzofff).

TFTC 4ando

Visiting from the Gold Coast and spending several days in the local area. This is our first day on the water after hiring a neat little tinnie to get us to and from the various islands and we certainly enjoyed every minute of it especially with the large volume of different types of birds flying around or just keeping a watchful eye on us combined with the herds of cows coming & going.
To save on paper, all our logs were signed as Team GERSH (grannysmith1947, echocage1, RoddyC, Snickersallan and hatzofff)
Well done CO on a fantastic series of puzzles and hides, thank you.


TFTC 4ando
Found September 3, 2020

Day two at Somerset dam with Konie chasing the Dark Side series in the tinnie, had a great day out hiking , climbing, boating and generaly having a great time . After starting at 0800 and stopping for lunch we completed the series at 1430 and headed back for a well earned brew.

Konie did a bit of maintenance on one that we only found the tether.

Thanks for all the work in placing this series.

Once again, sorry about the generic logs.

TFTC 4ando

Out for another day Somerset Dam with El Peregrinos completing the Dark side series. We headed off around 0800 and after stopping for lunch completed the series around 1445.

We had a great time out walking, talking and climbing many hills to find the caches. The cobblers pegs and spear grass, which is nearly waist high in places, added to the fun. Plenty of cows and birdlife around the dam too.

Well done on a great series.

Like everyone else, my apologies for the generic logs.

TFTC 4ando

#4985 [11:44] 24/52 from the series today
three women in a boat (to say nothing of the myself) - that how it looked today well, boat... at least we didn't have to paddle. we had plenty of time and weather was great. so what more to wish? points, points, points, of course! and we had definitely enough today!
thanks for placing all these caches here and preparing fun for us. we really enjoyed. and there is enough for another trip see you next time!

Having solved all the puzzles it was finally time to head out and turn those little dots on the map into smileys. So I wrangled up a crew.... at the wheel we had Captain VikoCZ and then matey wombles and 1MinnieMoo.

It was a grand adventure on the dam today collecting lots of smiley treasures. Thankfully the weather was fair and we managed to collect about half of the caches. It was not danger free however and at times we had to battle with black snakes and cows with guns. I won’t mention the jungles of spiky plants and weeds I think wombles was still picking prickles out of her shoes a month later. Haha!

Our journey also rewarded 1MinnieMoo and myself both with the next loop of our DT grids and Viko found his 5000th milestone cache! Not a bad haul

Thanks for all the time and effort creating this fun series and placing all of the caches 4ando
I’ll be back to collect the other half one day.

A plan was hatched for four of us (Nyssaflutterby, 1Minniemoo, Vickocz and I ) to come out here and hunt for dark side caches. We hired our putt putt boat and headed out.
Sorry for the cut and paste logs but after the snake, it's all a bit of a blur of cobblers pegs, spear grass and other assorted spiky things and hills, oh the hills....plus assorted attack cows, thongs, bare feet, well earned rests under shady trees and then some more hills.
Only half way done so we will be back...

17/5/20 Find #3625
Apologies for the cut and paste logs - I will try to add at least something individual at the end of each one.
Today we had a mission planned. NyssaFlutterby, wombles and co, VikoCZ and I were to hire a boat and head out to grab a number of Dark Side caches on Somerset and achieve a goal or two in the process.
We sorted out our boat hire and were soon off on our way.
With comments based around pedalling faster, we made our way across the lake..... very slowly. I swear I heard turtles laughing.

And here we could tell the hills were going to start. Although this was at least a gentle ease into them.
Thanks for the cache 4ando.

Out with Brother Colin and Grand Poobah for a day kayaking and hiking. Beautiful sunny day, lots of water activities on the dam.
Tftc

Finally, another out on the water at Somerset to collect a few more caches in this series.
This time I cached with Grand Poobah (as usual) and doscrapbooking. [^]
We only had trouble finding one cache as the terrain was steep but we found it eventually.
The long grass and the hours spent pulling out the grass seeds was another nuisance.
Other than that, we had a good day out.
Thanks for the cache.

Brother Colin, doscrapbooking and I headed out to collect a few of the Dark Side caches.
Some kayaking, some hiking and some pulling of grass seeds from the socks was the order of the day.
Thanks for the caches.

Another invite to go out on a boat and go for a few walks at Somerset Dam. I couldn't refuse! Much hotter today than last time I was here. Good company helped. Lots of caches found with Dora the Explorer, Phil the Serenity and CDAH55. Lots of fun and laughter. I was entertained by their shenanigans all day.
Sorry for the generic logs. The day was too hot for me to remember each cache, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely.
TFTC

Nice day put on the water. 3rd time out here collecting these caches. Saw a few hares today. Nice to see so much water in the dam. Lantana is taking over some of the caching areas. A couple of caches we hade to wade through the water for. The mountains are very green. Sawa few cows as well. Completed with CDAH55, Phil Serenity (the geo hostage) and Selva Girls. May have also beat my record for the most caches found in a day, which is not very many compared to other cachers. We started this series at the further point from launching and gradually moved back towardsthe launching point. Completed mostly in a tinny.

This is the third time that Dora the Explorer! and I have been out to this dam to grab the caches in this series. Today we were accompanied by Selva Girls and Phil Serenity.

The water on the dam today was quite calm.

We grabbed the caches in a systematic manner working back to the boat ramp.

We were on the water just after 9:00am and off the water a little after 5:00pm

Thanks ***4ando*** for a great series of caches. The series has been completed by Dora the Explorer! and me, however Phil Serenity and Selva Girls will need to mnake some more trips to the dam.

Find #2829

The right elements are now in place with Big Palooka 4ando announcing their return to the galaxy and the ascendance of master geo-cachers. Their plans are aided by the 6 Sith, a secretive cult that had been working from the shadows to assist in the geo-caching resurrection. 4ando's emergence from hiding resulted in a desperate final conflict with muggles.

With the demise of muggledom, 4ando and the 6 Sith can freely go geocaching whenever they like. A noticeable item that you’ll see from cache descriptions is the disappearance of the stealth attribute. The universe is now a safer place until the next muggle uprising!! Good effort 4ando!!

There were six of us out on the water today in two boats (plus a muggle driver). So I thought our team name was "The Six" and someone was a bit lispy at the very early morning start time. But "The Sith" is much more appropriate for such a geoart!

We have had these puzzles solved since first published (and were FTS on quite a few), but distances looked too long for kayaking and we needed more than one boat. The stars (or boat availability) finally lined up quite nicely for today, so we made an early start. By the end we were all very hot and sweaty, and were struggling to walk another step. But it was a highly successful day, with good fun all around!

Thanks for the effort in making this awesome series 4ando. The amount of work putting all those caches out astounds me. TFTC!

Tftc. A team of six out on the water today. Thought our team name The Sith most appropriate. Beautiful day and not a drop of wind which made the event very smooth. Thanks for all the hard work that has gone into making these caches for all to enjoy.

To we who dwell in the Force, normal life is little more than pretense. Our only actions of significance are those we undertake in service to the dark side.
“To be a Sith is to taste freedom and to know victory.”
We were today The Sith and we indeed tasted the freedom of boating on the lake . At the end of a day where litres of sweat were lost we had claimed victory with the Dark Side conquered and a few traditionals as well !!! An enormous team effort and a few cows disturbed by the Force. A brilliant art and the trads were awesome too! Congratulations to Ardom on his 5000 find and 6th DT loop. Bestowing congrats on TeamARF for a 4000 target achieved ! What a day!!! Thanks 4Ando for the series and we are in awe of the efforts to create it!

Out caching with a group of 6, plus one semi-muggle boat driver
With the Star Wars theme, 6 of us caching together today, and being Ardom’s 6th D/T loops we decided on the team name, The Sith!
The Lake was beautiful and quiet, I saw lots of turtles and turtle shells today - a ridiculous amount of inquisitive cows, and one cute little fox!
Another amazing adventure with an amazing team. Thanks for the caches and the effort that went into placing them

Finally come today has. Yes, hrrrm. Changed and evolved over the time plans have. Our name for the day the Sith was.. Yrsssss.. Found slowly caches were. Long and hot the day was. Hrmmm. Complete we are.

Enough Yoda! We truly had a fabulous day, the weather was perfect although very warm and humid. The dam ever so quiet thanks to the ban on ‘in water’ activities after the rains. We did get stopped by SEQ Water doing a check on all watercraft and thankfully we both passed being fully kitted out boats and four licensed drivers between the seven of us. I am thankful that we upgraded our motor last year as dang that spread is huge!!! Even though the second boat was much zipper than ours we still managed to hold our own and get the wind in our hair.

Huge thanks to my muggle husband who drove our boat and managed to get us in and out of some tricky spots. Lots of debris up the top end and we may have clunked on a couple of submerged trees. The turtles in the water were curious things almost as much as the cows who at one memorable point thundered past us and down the cow track to the skinny bit of the island about 2m from the front end of the boat where Mr JACS was having a catnap!

I was pleased to see the growing tick piles of caches done growing bigger and bigger, because I was done!!! So glad to be able to finally say this fabulous Geo-art is finished. Congratulations to both, Ardom who completed his 6th DT loop and 5000th Cache and Team ARF who achieved his 4000th Cache.

Mrs slow puncture and I had a plan today to turn Somerset dam into all smileys. We had gathered most of the caches here and mrs slow puncture only ended up needing I more and I needed 10. after around 12km of paddling and a couple of kms of walking I was starting to wilter.mrs slow puncture waited with the kayaks while I took off running and walking to the 5 caches on this section. I wanted to make it quick before the winds picked up and it was lucky as after finding all of these and halfway to the boat ramp the winds all of a sudden picked up. We had so much fun finding this series and solving the puzzles. Thanks for taking us here and for all the fun

Found with bella at waggy during a great weekend of catching up and finding is very cool series.
Im a bit tounge-tied and unfortunately going to log some generic logs for this series.
Very impressed with what 4ando did here.
So well done.
Hope you dont mind the generic posts.
Cheers,
The Bug.

Episode 2. These are the voyages of the cachers dahumbug and B@W. Oh Wait wrong geoart series. A long long time ago in far off cities dahumbug and B@W plotted so obtain the co-ordinates of the Empires secret stash points to have a terrain raid and turn those blue marks into yellow smilies and return the Force well art work back to normal. Who said Darth Vader can't simile.
This trip had many targets but things changed due to fires, lack of boat hire times on a Friday and so on. The end result was dahumbug and B@W spent two days on the water instead of one on the water and one on the Bluff which due to the heat the number of steps taken was probably just as well as despite having a boat we covered plenty of ground on foot not helped by some very low water levels and that the hire boat so slow.
As a result of the leisurely opening times we headed back into town to brighten the start to our caching day although it was not without issue.
We picked up the boat at Somerset Caravan Park and lets just say the speed to get us in the water matched the speed of the boat but we were grateful we could get a craft and it had a sunshade cover. Perhaps the speed of the ship was limited due to the Empires Tractor Beam?
So with the late launch we changed our plans to two days on the water and decided to get these ones up north before engaging with the art work.
Saw some roos, rabbits, cattle and bird life on the way round.
Appreciate all the effort in going into such a series.
No problem making the find, We completed the signing duties and re hid. TFTC

Out with Ms Maddy and Beardman75. Having a lovely day.TFT puzzle and cache.

The puzzles were solved and diaries checked and an outing was planned. One intrepid geo-boatee could not make the trip, but we’ll be back So, the hire boat was slow but that allowed more time for us to get soaked as the wind whipped water over the bow

We chugged along and occasionally grounded the boat and ran around in circles and, boy, some of it was rough terrain. The cows must be handfed as they came running at some spots Nikikd1 and I both managed to get (sorta) lost at times But great fun and next expedition the aim is to mop up the map. Roughly 41 logged today, a fine effort.

TFTC 4anddo, appreciate your efforts in placing this series for our pleasure cruising

Ms Maddy hatched a plan to head out on the lake and find a few Dark Side caches. Nikid1 joined us but unfortunately, our fourth had to withdraw. The boat was painfully slow and the wind was blowing which threw up plenty of spray in our faces. There was also a lot of smoke around from the fires further north. But it was still a beautiful day to be out on the water. Thanks for the cache

Another one I recognised, yay. Spotted the first signs of life on this stretch. A small group of cows enjoying the breeze from the water. They all happily moved on as I approached.

In any movie franchise there are good characters, and bad characters.

And sometimes there are bad good characters. Polarising perhaps? How should you view them?

But certitude has its own philosophy.
“Either correct or not correct. There is no judge.”

Another quick find at GZ although we also found some spiky flora on the way.

Day 3 of our targeting this series. Day 1 was a few hours thanks to J.A.T. providing transport. Day 2 was late yesterday with a quick single landing and walk for a total 90 minute trip.

This morning a 5:30am start (in the world’s slowest boat) meant there was 4 hours before the boat needed to be returned.
Mist on the water meant a beautiful first hour or so. The mist had gone by the time of the second landing but the water birds were a great alternative.

TFTC yet again 4ando

I like to think I am a longtime fan of the Skywalker phenomenon, as I remember going to the cinema in late 1977 as a 13-year-old and watching the original movie “Star Wars” (now known as A New Hope)! It was truly amazing. Of course I have continued to follow along [^]

Over the last few days much effort has gone into the solving of these puzzles, and being a fan made that somewhat easier! I had more than 70 of them sorted by myself. Then I got a request to join Orange Crew on his boating adventure later in the week, and so we set to with a will to find solutions for as many of the others as we could. Soon Miss Direction signed up, and we became the “3 Jedis”, ending up with almost 100 puzzles in the can. Duly this morning I arrived at OC’s place at 6.30am, we picked up Miss_D at 7.10am and found ourselves at the boat ramp just before 8am. All aboard! We spent the better part of 9 hours out and about, gathering 86 smileys, with 29 FTFs All were logged as “3 Jedis”.

TFTC, 4ando.

A mysterious series of transmissions indicates a gathering of Imperial forces on a remote planet of the Dagobah system. With IolantheK and Miss_Direction joining me, we had a crack team of 3 Jedis ready to battle the evil grip of the Dark Side and return light to the planet of Somerset.

Several days were spent making sense of the intercepted Imperial messages, until we were ready to charter a Corellian Skiff from a shady Gungan in a remote outpost and navigate the uncharted waters. While she was never going to enter hyperspace or complete the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs, she was a reliable craft that got on with the job and carried us well, much like a Bantha but without the horrible smell.

Unlike the swampy cessspool we had expected, the planet was teeming with wildlife and had stunning vistas. We battled from early morning until the shadows became long and the 4 moons began ascending. When victory was ours, all that remained was to find a quiet cantina on Mos Eisley to blow the froth off a relaxing Sarlacc juice.

---

Log signed as "3 Jedis" and cache returned as found. Thanks for the smilie **4ando**. This log is trackable, mention where you saw it.

.........@__,
/|___||_/__________|\
\\_______/_TGQNRV_/
~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~

3Jedis (OC, IolantheK and myself) who took the darkside challenge and found this cache in perfect state and placement after not much spotting, but lots of boating and wandering. In total we also found 3 lace monitors, a gazillion birds...bonded over our bird love...and zen. Thanks for the who am I’s?, the trivia, the pics, the audios, the word searches. Thanks for spot on co ords and logical placement of caches. OC collected some bottles along the way, and we all found a lure for my fishman brother who I am trying to entice into geocaching. TFTC

4809

Monday. Joint (FTF) A lovely quick solve on this puzzle and a rush to get as many solved as we could. At GZ for this one, it was spotted hanging nice and securely. None of these caches on the dam are going anywhere! Log signed and we literally raced back to the boat and off to the next cache! . Some more pics taken of the very intriguing clouds and I was happy.

This was the 17th of 31 caches found on today's trip.

Thanks ***4ando***, for showing us this place.

Well what an interesting day and a bit we have had. After seeing that a few new puzzle caches had been published on Somerset Dam, we suggested to Slow Puncture that perhaps we should go for a little boat trip At the time, we thought we were just looking at a dozen or so puzzles Well, as quick as we could solve one, another was published to replace it and so it went on, and on, and on

By midnight, Mrs Just a Trifle's brain was fried and a few hours sleep was had before waking for an early morning start with Mrs Slow Puncture We arrived at Somerset Dam to find it as smooth as glass and a pleasure to be on for the day

We decided to first head south to the cache which was the furtherest from the boat ramp, hoping that we would manage to find all of the caches we had solved before the wind had a chance to arrive It was a good decision as just as we were finding the last few caches, the wind started to build (only to about 10 knots though) and the lake went from smooth to a rough chop within the space of an hour [xx(] Our last couple of caches were just opposite the boat ramp and we were able to get the boat back on the trailer without too much effort, despite the waves that had built up [^]

We had a lot of fun solving the various puzzles and each cache was located easily, pretty much where you might expect [^] With our names added to the log book for a {FTF}, we continued on our way.

Thank you 4ando for placing the cache and for maintaining it for everyone to enjoy We really appreciate all the effort you have put in to creating this fun filled series [^] We have decided to give a favourite point in recognition of the sheer effort required to create geo-art of this magnitude

Published