Flags of the World - US State of Kentucky Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
By DARKSIDEDAN on 04-Aug-21. Waypoint GC9EQ50

Spending some time caching around the NSW/ACT southern tablelands with lots of side trips. TFTC. Hiking and events around Black Mountain.Quite a hill climb for this one. It's a shame the other two up here were burnt. I did spend some time looking until I updates the off-line data.

Thank you!

Black Mt HikeI decided to take a hike over Black Mt today to find some caches. This cache was nicely tucked away and in good condition. Thanks for the hide DARKSIDEDAN

Out for a days caching. Opted to spend the day in Canberra. Spent much of the day walking hills and grabbing lab caches.Really enjoyed my walk around the Black Mt precinct.This was one of a handful I found today. Thanks for contributing to my fun day.A nice breeze up on topTFTC ??

My family and I have headed down from Brisbane to Canberra for the Easter break to visit relatives living here. The lure of a Mega event in town at the same time was just a coincidence, honestly .So far during our visit here I have spent most of my time on family related activities, with the odd session of geocaching thrown in. Yesterday I had the full day to myself to spend geocaching, with my wife having to do some work remotely and my daughter catching up on an assignment. Today the leave pass had been rescinded, with a family trip planned mid morning to the Australian War Memorial. Still, I decided to get up early before everyone else and squeeze in a walk around the lower slopes of Black Mountain.Starting just before before sun up I followed the maze of trails in the area and along the way was able to visit this cache.Walking up hill through the area burnt out by the recent burn off I was not confident of finding anything left at GZ. Fortunately the fire appeared to be a relatively cool burn and the cache was placed high enough to avoid damage. TFTC

Mega day - started with a walk up Little Black Mountain and an exploration of the burn-off area. Followed by picking up caches of interest around the city and of course a quick visit to the mega. Importantly, the day was topped off with a rather nice beer and pub meal! TFTC.

Decided to tackle the Black Mountain walking with ilook4geo despite the back burn having happened. On our route we saw 4 parks vehicles and 4 parks fire trucks on patrol. Cachers and muggles were still out and about there. We found most of the caches we looked for but a couple had been destroyed by the fire. This one was in good condition. Thanks for the placement go to DARKSIDEDAN.

Took a walk today around Black Mountain Nature Reserve with goingplaces2. Found some caches but others looked to have been burnt. This one was all good. TFTC.

Just another find geocache in the woods. Thanks for the fun!

Found a little higher than I expected. I met up with Sleepy Hollow here. 104,000 Finds!?!After too brief a chat we headed off in the opposite directions. TFTC.

The Adelaide Leap Day Mega and Canberra Geobash gave us a great excuse for a road trip. This trip has shown us so many new and interesting places as weve chased LGAs, oldies, challenges, interesting D/T combinations, rarer cache types and favourites.Meeting up with friends old and new along the way, we sometimes cached together and sometimes alone but always had a great time. Today we took a hike around Little Black Mountain, enjoying the solitude, the birdlife and the perfect walking weather as we found as many challenge caches as we could and other caches we passed along the way. Thanks to the CO for placing and maintaining this cache and adding to our enjoyment.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~Walk in the woods in search of challenges and traditional ones on our route, or almost. We will take the opportunity to see the local fauna.The logbook is signed **pesti-Hoot** for *pestinette* and *BlackHoot*.In: Nothing.Out: Nothing.Thanks **DARKSIDEDAN** for the cache.~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~*Here is the palaver from my log "3615-MyLife" that you still don't have to read:*After multiple outings together, here are some examples: the park at T5 in the Orlans region, the Letterbox Matrix in Provins on the return of GeoBulles 2023, a getaway to Rambouillet and Fontainebleau, the Mega in Oliveira de Frades in Portugal, that in Spain in Camarasa with a memorable passage in Andorra, a foray into the Drme at the beginning of the year, I have the immense luck and pleasure to accompany the pestinettes who asked me last summer to be part of this crazy trip to Australia to participate in the Adelaide Mega on February 29 !So I start by thanking them once again for the invitation as well as for the preparation of all logistics and the program of discoveries planned for these 17 days on Australian lands: Jasmers including three from the year 2000,webcams, virtual ones (full), challenges, Earthcaches, mysteries, Events.I would just add my two cents with the Matrices by cache type as well as obtaining as many Addons as possible for Leap Day ! Then depending on the time that we will have left at each of our stages, all caches allowing usto visit a nice new place.We only visited a tiny part of this beautiful country which makes us want to come back although it is not next door and I would also remember the warm welcome of Australians and their kindness.I sincerely thank all the poseurs without whom the exploration of all theseplaces known or much more discreet would not have been possible. A big thank you for your personal investment for the pleasure of all and ours in particular during this beautiful trip shared in friendly company ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~**Against a sedentary lifestyle, geocache! Get Out and Play! Saia and play! Sal y juega!**

6 months ago, during a frenzy, we said to ourselves "why not going to the mega in Adelaide for the leapday". From scratch we moved on to preparing an 18-day project in Australia.Our objectives are simple, visit a small part of this immense continent while validating a few caches. There are so many caches (impossible to do everything) that we will select. Our plan will allow us to visit Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Mount Gambier and finish in Adelaide for the famous Mega.During our stay we will log PestiHoot for Pestinette and Blackhoot.Arriving in Canberra this early afternoon, we visit Black Mountain through the caches. We will come across kangaroos, iguanas and spiders (a little scary). The forest trail is very pleasant. The coordinates are very precise, so we will do it flawlessly.Thanks for the cache and the discovery of beautiful or original spots

The expedition: Everytime we have stayed at the nearby caravan park I've threatened to complete a whole heap of caches in this piece of bushland but never got up.. until this morning. Around 30 finds, 2.5 hours of walking and bit over 8kms much of the hill is now complete.The challenge: Haven't quite met this one yet- but close.The cache: Pretty straightforward.TFTC!

Nice and straightforward. Thanks for the cache maintenance, Tiz. TftC

Another epic day planned of hiking this time the Black Mountain. Predominantly, I was chasing the challenge caches, but I happened to pick up a few trads, including this one along the way. Took a bit to find the GPS was spot on after all..new stone paper and ziplock bag added

Nice wander up to the apex of little black, and then the cache. Little damp inside but logbook is perfectly signable. May need a proper opportunity to dry out the contents though. We didnt have the time today unfortunately, but at the very least we emptied out the water that had accumulated inside the container. Thanks DARKSIDEDAN --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the spirit of reconciliation we would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country on which we geocache throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We (the pants people) pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

More to come.

Found on our journey around Black Mountain.
We had not been pursuing some of these tracks today, however, the weather was spectacular, and we decided to just keep walking and explore some of the trails we have not visited in the past.
Log signed here.
Thanks Darksidedan
Domsky

Found on a very rewarding walking day on Black Mountain with 34 caches, 32 degree forecast, many KMs, lots of path changes and lots of going up and down hills! Another tough climb up another hill but this path was very cute and worthwhile. Quick find at GZ. Lovely views of the city through the trees. I put on some more sunscreen then I was off again. TNLNSL. TFTC DSD!

Decided it was time to get this patch of caches. Started by forgetting my pen and having to go back but not too far. Lovely afternoon, a bit warm but great to be in the bush.

Container had water and log damp but ok.

Thanks for getting me out and about DARKSIDEDAN

I made sure I did a pre inspection with the camera on my phone before I went sticking my hand in there. All clear thankfully. Cache logging duties completed I was on my way. Nice to make it to the top of this little knoll, Thanks for the cache DSD

Morning bush walk, begun with the challenges and then followed the trads back to my car.


Thank you for this geocache
R

On a day hat threatened rain, then hailed extensively twice, I still managed to get out for a few caches and even a walk without getting too wet. I even stayed inside doing some pre-mega shopping during the heaviest bit of hail.

The last caches of today were a walk up the hill from Barry Drive. I managed all four without any problems until it started to rain about 200m from getting back to the car. Oh well.

Thanks for the cache DARKSIDEDAN

38931.10 TNLN
Visited: World Traveling Gold GC A#6 & 2015 10th Anniversary Compass Rose LE Argo Navis A#340

**Albida**

Great day for caching, tftc.

More and more countries are now opening up for traveling. I took the opportunity to make a short trip. To visit some places, I’ve been visiting a long time ago. To see if anything has changed but also to find some caches. Maybe also meet some fellow geocachers. You see, the world consists of two kinds of people: Your friends, and the ones you haven’t met yet. And I was lucky to extend my list of friends during my trip.

When I arrived yesterday evening, it was raining and someone said it was going to rain for another 10 days. But when I woke up this morning the sun was shining. I rushed out to look for some caches. Soon the sun disappeared and it was cloudy. But luckily no rain. I was out for a couple of hours. Met nobody.

A quick find in an obvious place.

Found

And the final cache for my walk today!
Loved how this series aligns with a great little walk. Good for the legs

The geobro, goldfinger777, was down for a visit and super keen for a geomission - so off we went to target caches on Black Mountain.

Another quick find for us here.

Thanks for the hide, DARKSIDEDAN

Fantastic hide TFTC

Nice find

Howdy partner!

We enjoyed watching a big fly nearby. No problems with the cache. Tftc

Cache a bit damp, but it’ll survive. Tftc~

Decided to do a little maintenance and collect a circuit of caches on Black Mountain.....what I used to think of as Challenge Mountain.

All found after some little or a lot of searching. Some should have been out of my reach but for my stupidity/determination (I will let others choose). A lot of wet container on the mountain, but the logs staying dry for now.

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Headed into Canberra today with fitzy_1965.

We decided Whitlam was the place to be today...... although we stayed a bit longer than anticipated. Next on the list was a regular so we 'swung' passed Aranda to pick that up. After we go done what we needed to do whilst in Canberra, we headed over to 'lower' Black Mountain for a bit of a walk. It was a bit warm but satisfying to pick up some of these caches. I still need to come back to pick up more of the challenges…. But they will keep for another day.

Thanks to the CO’s for maintaining these caches and for bringing us here today.

26,641. Found with minniek during a meander over Black Mountain grabbing some neat caches.

minniek and I decided to do a loop around the north side of Black Mountain - including Little Black Mountain - this afternoon grabbing some Challenge caches and some neat Trads. Ironically I met earlier today the CO of the three Challenge caches we did which reminded me (us) that we had these ones to do. This was our next stop. Nice quick find at GZ. Signed the log, replaced the cache exactly as found, then headed off to the next one on the list.

Thanks DSD !! Another 'Flags of' knocked off.

Found it.. tks

Today was my first real outing in nearly 3 months so I decided to wander all over this hill and grab this series. Surprised by the large number of flowering plants and many donkey orchids in the wetter areas. A lot of up and down - I almost climbed that hill twice!

Caches mostly found quickly and all OK. What a nice little hill and quiet area.

Thanks,

Nice easy find in a lovely spring morning.

Last find in this little section. Turned around and headed back to car.

#12205 - 11:03:00 AM; After picking up an earthcache to celebrate International Earthcache Day/Weekend, I continued my mission around the foothills of Black Mountain collecting caches in the Flags of the World series. Parked the geomobile and set off on trails and through the bush at different times. Caches all located in good condition and the logs signed. Made a navigational error heading to this one. Stayed on the main trail instead of following the mountain bike track to the summit , all good on arrival, just made for a steeper climb! All up nine from nine on the mountain and 10 for the day. TFTC DARKSIDEDAN

The trail up and over the hill was chock full of lunchtime walkers. I recognized some academics from ANU among them. The wildflowers were splendid, with who knows how many species to try to identify. I got the impression that they were enjoying the sunshine and warmth as much as I was.
At GZ I had an inkling where the cache might be. And so I found it in the very first place I looked. The cache was very much exposed to UV rays, so I covered it a bit to try to help the plastic last a bit longer.
This walk was a good work out for a body that has been sitting in a chair for most of the past two months or so.
TFTC DSD!

This afternoons outing took me up and over Little Black Mountain to the US State of Kentucky. On arriving at GZ took a few moments to look around and spot a likely hiding spot, which soon found me with CIH. Thanks DSD for this series of caches.

A caching walk around Black Mountain before the rain set in this afternoon. TFTC.

Apologies I forgot to log this cache until now. Easy find. TFTC

Not sure why I could not find this one!

Out and about with AngelG27 on a pleasant spring Sunday. Quick find. TFTC DSD

Cache 8101 on 26 Sep 2021.

Out to maximise my exercise time on a lovely spring morning by wandering over a fair swag of Black Mountain with Fox in Jox. I found the last two of the flag series of caches on Black Mountain and signed the last challenge which I still need to do some work for. Good exercise, great weather, excellent company!

This one was a quick find in accordance with the hint!

Thanks DARKSIDEDAN for the cache and the fun!

Thanks for the cache. So peaceful up this way. Off to the next one.

This location was a great stop. A bit of the city peaking through the trees reminds you why Canberra is called the bush capital. Tftc

A beautiful day for a walk on Black Mountain with Nibletricecakes. Found a couple of caches and signed a few puzzles. TFTC.

A hot hike up the mountain this morning with GLISS! On a beautiful spring day. Grateful for the breeze and the singing birds encouraging us on the way. Great to have another in this series collected. Thanks for the cache.

Found it

We used our 2 hours of exercise today to get a bunch of these caches.

I have been to Kentucky, so it was good to get this one.

TFTC

Mm my gps didn’t like this spot .. but I got there anyway TFTC

More lockdown daily exercise within the 5km limit brought me to this spot to complete the series. A reasonable hike to the top of the hill on a beautiful morning. All attempted were found and in good condition. TFTC DSD

TFTC.

Quite a few people riding, walking and jogging throughout the area today

Half the trip up from this one was spent off track, avoiding other people. A quick stop was made at the Black Knoll cache & to check on a spurious "public toilets" icon on a map. Strangely, there were no toilets beside the trail Quick find near the summit...

#15798 @0735
Out for my daily exercise and to top up my find numbers for the day. A pleasant meander. No one else around. Cache easily found. TFTC.

A [FTF] with the team and help from others. TFTC
Fav for the series.

A magnificent day to be on one of my favourite paths.
Ta.

A pleasant walk around this new series in Black Mountain Reserve which is always nice to walk in with very little scrub and a nice open woodland field. Today my loop covered 4.54km for a 146m elevation gain.

This cache was a straightforward find at GZ - thanks, DSD.

With two hours before school pickup managed to race around the base of Black Mountain and pick up a few of the newly published caches. All hides were found without issue, a little ingenuity required here and there. Signed and replaced it was onto the next, making it eventually back to the geomobile, zooming off with minutes to spare. TNLNSL TFTC

*FTF* with StarsAlign, contesta, Flintstone’s, Isopeada, Tankengine and Aquilus1.

What better way to spend a calm, mild evening than climbing all over Black Mountain with some of the best Cachers I know.

Great company while hiking from cache to cache. All quick and easy finds without any issues had. Tftc DARKSIDEDAN!!!

Published

[FTF] WOOHOO!! With StarsAlign, Isopedia, Flintstones, Aquila’s, and…

More to come…

[FTF] ️ ️ ️ with Contesta . dty73 . isopeda . Aquilus1 . Flintstone’s . Tankengine

Already in bed early the Black Mountain Tower was in full view from my bedroom window shining brightly on this perfect crisp clear still night.

Our Dream Team were madly texting each other. Yeah, Nah, Yeah, Nah! Half the team were too settled at home the other half ready for a night of adventure but needing encouragement from each other. However, the adventure being discussed was night cycling down the Mt Tennant Firetrail to bag 22 FTFs.

Contesta and I took an hour to discuss our plans and eventually got dressed (on top of my pyjamas of course but you probably don’t want to know that detail). We were in no hurry as who else would want to go way out there in the dark anyway??

Suddenly we noticed that the FTFs were disappearing from the start of the trail. Shocked , we quickly discovered that it was Tankengine! What! He should be home in the warmth. Oh well, he has saved us from ourselves. Little did we know that he could only pickup two caches thanks to a high flowing creek - and there is another story here for tomorrow LOL

So, now dressed and no where to go, we looked closer to home. The Black Mountain caches that were staring me in the face where still unloved. With the bike already loaded onto the car for a planned Namadgi cycle the next morning I headed off to meet Contesta down the road at the reserve.

The rest is history! The carpark was full by mid evening with cars containing energised cachers - Contesta, isopeda, dty73, Aquilus1, Flintstone’s AND Tankengine. YEP by the time we had our act together Tankengine had made it all the way back from way down south for a share of the Black Mountain spoils.

A great night out with familiar, fun and friendly faces

[FTF] with Contesta, StarsAlign, Flintstones, DTY, Tankengine, Aquilus1 in a moonless night.

TFTC

Yabba Dabba Doo *FTF* with Aquilus1, dty73, Isopeda, Tankengine, contesta and StarsAlign! .... more later

Thank you DARKSIDEDAN for putting the cache out and maintaining it.

Chooo ooo [FTF] with others more later, Thanks DARKSIDEDAN!

*FTF* With dty73 Isopedia Flintstone's Tankengine starsalign contesta on a cold but not freezing night time new cache publishing.

I was catching up on my logging when I got a call from dty73 that there were new caches... I hadn't recieved any notifications so was pleased for the call and was out the door while still talking to pick her up along the way. Ends up a mass publishing of random caches all over canberra was going to happen this night.

Got to love a night publishing though as over the course of the night we had 8 awesome cachers out with us to join forces and team up with to share the fun!

**This Cache:**

We were all pretty surprised that the peak of this hill had no cache on it! There was one down the side of it a bit, but the top was bare! So a great spot for a cache. You might need to bring someone tall for this one, or find something to stand on!

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**Today:**

Myself and injuryman headed down to southside for a hike around Urambi Hills Nature Reserve in the morning. It was at the summit of Urambi Hill when we were finding a cache and DSD called and asked if we were keen to hide some caches! We agreed to meet at the bottom of Black Mountain in an hour, once we had finished up the last two caches. Just as we had arrived at Black Mountain, a new cache was published at UC! So we ran back to the car and headed over given we were only around the corner.

Once that was complete, we came back for attempt #2 at hiding these caches! Was a pleasant stroll around the base of Black Mountain, hiding over a dozen caches in total. Had to head up the side of the hill for a bit for a couple of the placements as the flat section was running out of space!

Thanks DSD for inviting myself and injuryman along for these cache placements!

Loci612 and I went for a walk on Black mountain to help DSD place some caches. Good to see so many people got to share the FTFs. The walk was great fun, even if I was tired at some points.

Thanks for the walk lads, and for the invite.