Turtles of the World - The Western Chicken Turtle New South Wales, Australia
By DARKSIDEDAN on 22-Feb-22. Waypoint GC9PMJK

In town for a couple of days, getting a few caches l didnt on my way through last time. Quick find TFTC

Today was the day I was aiming to achieve three things 1000 caches in 2024, 7000 caches all up and 200 caches in a day (my previous record was 121). Easily achieved all three in 13 hours between 06:00 and 19:00. Was a glorious spring day on the back roads around Yass. Most logs signed TE5 30/9 to save time.Up the Boorowa road briefly to get one more guard rail cache. Access to this one was difficult but got there in the end.TFTC DARKSIDEDAN

TFTC, signed log as TT72. Travelling back to Sydney after visiting Rugby.

A quick drive by find. TFTC.

Nice easy park and grab TFTC

i am glad of the parking spots, as we are towing an mt horse float. TFTC.

Nice easy find. Tftc

Full time Nomads, travelling around Australia since 2014. Staying a week or so in Yass, today we headed out late morning. Fantastic weather today, woo hoo!We did some more cache maintenance, replacing broken containers, or replacing wet soggy logs. It continues to surprise us how people are just about the numbers and don't take the time to update the CO on the condition of their caches. [B)] We always endeavour to leave caches that we find in great condition. (we carry a variety of cache containers and logsheets to assist with this)We had to work harder today for our smileys with coords a bit average today, some we found at 15mts away from our GZ.[^]TFTC DARKSIDEDAN

Time had come to say bye bye to ACT. We are on the way home after having been in South Australia, Victoria, NSW and Canberra - for the 2 MEGAs, selective caches and sightseeing.We found this cache and signed the log.Tftc Darksidedan

Exciting times over the next couple of weeks as we takeoff for the Capital GeoBash in Canberra! Its going to be a flood of Sandgropers over east, with a host of West Aussies making the trek east for the event. Im travelling with fellow Cockburn Crew members Leg5 and Barnzy12, starting in Sydney and hitting the road to Canberra, before returning back to Sydney. Honourary mention to our fellow member, Cravo10, who couldnt make it after recently introducing a new geocacher to the world the week prior. Once in Canberra, the agenda is set, well team up with a host of Western Australians to conquer caches. Collectively, were hoping to make it the biggest ever weekend for cache finding. Following the event, the journey continues back to Sydney, with a mission to clean up caches and new Local Government Areas (LGAs), ensuring no cache is left unturned in this epic geocaching adventure. Something tells me that well need a holiday after this, well, holiday. We have commenced our raid on Yass. All logs have been signed as WA to save space, abbreviation for our team of cachers from Western Australia, who are cleaning up the series together. Cheers DARKSIDEDAN! Join us in Augusta, in Western Australias South West, for WA Goes Big 2024 (GCAGV8Y) on Friday 20 to Sunday 22 September. Log your will attend now!

Out and about again, headed around Canberra for the MEGA. Super excited my first MEGA and heading over with 2 others from the Cockburn Crew. Today we are out with a group from Western Australia and signing the log as WA to save time and log space.This is 15192, hoping to clock over the 15,000 finds in the week in New South Wales and ACT.Thanks to DARKSIDEDAN for the caches we found.OZMEGA2024 OZMEGA2024 OZMEGA2024 OZMEGA2024 OZMEGA2024 OZMEGA2024Head over to Australian Capital Territory for Capital GeoBash MEGA - Canberras first ever Mega Event. Easter 2024 (GC9PNFB):5 day event at Canberra Park adjacent to EPIC (Canberra Showgrounds) on the Federal Highway, only 6km from the centre of the city. The mascot for the Mega is Gangles the endemic Gang Gang Cockatoo, a bird you may see or hear while in Canberra. The official website - geobash.ozmega.com.auACT has over 4700 active caches, power trails, and over 100 Lab Adventures. Heaps of challenge caches, hikes for geocaches for all levels of skills and fitness.

Part of the Sandgroper contingent that has come to the Mega to explore new hunting grounds. Its sure to be a great week with many finds and laughs with lots of great friends and maybe some new ones along the way. Thank you for placing this cache for our enjoyment. Logged as WA. WA crew - Barnzy12, Lachlan 1.77, Legs5, Neva2old , meme28, Geotrakka, Cirrus_wa and I C Nothing

The Cockburn Crew are on tour at the Capital Geobash in Canberra - travelling from Perth to Sydney, Canberra, Sydney and finally back to Perth.Today was day 3 and we had an absolute blast, after an earlier night last night we got up early to head to Yass and the surrounding areas to cleanup a bunch of caches inparticular whereigos and our personal favourite the challenge caches. We stopped in Yass and completed some high quality caches before venturing back to the trails. We completed a huge number of trails, challenges, whereigos, traditional, multis, earthcaches, labs, virtuals and puzzles. It really was a great day for variety. We enjoyed caching in territory we havent been before. Weve filled our boots with some rare DTs and DTTs and generally had a great time. Thanks to the COs for a great day and event. Logs signed as part of team WA/WAC (WA Crew)

A big plan was hatched in WA to spend today hitting Yass and surrounds. Living off not much sleep the teams from WA met at 5.30am with very big plans for the day. Lots of laughter and antics we have really enjoyed the variety of caches. Signing as a team - WASome logs are delayed - Apologies for that- its been hectic trying to keep up! Many thanks DARKSIDEDAN for placing this hide for me to find and adding to my adventures.

In Canberra for the GeoBash Mega, our WA group had planned to tackle this area north. Out and about for a full day of fun.Logs signed as WA. Apologies for generic logs today. Cache found with no issues. Cheers!

For day number five attending the Canberra mega, I headed off with the WA5 (I C Nothing, meme28, geotrakka, burns345 & myself) as well as some other West Aussies (Barnzy12, Lachlan1.77 & neva2old) for a full day off caching in NSW around Yass and the surrounds.Along with the many caches we found we also signed off on a heap of challenges that I will see if I qualify for in the future.The day finished off by heading along to event HQ to join in the evening festivities.Logs today were signed WA.Thanks DARKSIDEDAN for placing Turtles of the World - The Western Chicken Turtle for me and others to find.I added my name to the log on 31/3/2024.This is find number 8653 for me.

Day 7of my Canberra Mega adventure. Out caching with the members of the WA6 and WACrew The day looks to be another sunny day, so a great day for geocaching . Very happy to claim a smiley here. logs signed as WAThis is my 13311 find Thankyou DARKSIDEDANfor placing and maintaining this cache.

Please excuse online logs not necessarily matching the day the log was signed; Ive lost track of things. Theres 2 alliances from WA at mega. Unbeknownst to us prior, we are using the names WA6 (them) and WAC (us). Our name comes from Western Australia Crew, largely because 3 of the 5 members are part of a long standing alliance called Cockburn Crew, based on the LGA in which they live. Today there was some uniting to hit Yass big time. Everyone chooses to cache as they do and this proved to be an awfully large alliance to manage. Some big players uniting for some big numbers. Theres plenty of other Western Australian cachers at the mega but across the two alliances theres 10 people. Its been exciting having maps with hundreds upon hundreds of caches waiting to be found. Of course months of preparation went into solving puzzles and trying to track the hundreds of challenge caches. The biggest challenge for me personally has been the large number of caches requiring some sort of tool to access a cache hidden well above the ground. I appreciate you cant find them all but I do like to try to clear an area when I visit and that hasnt always been possible.Of course, theres been many COs whove provided the caches for us to find, largely lead by ALL7 and DARKSIDEDAN. Challenges caches are going to take days to log due to the number of checkers its going to take to prove qualification. Thanks to you for this cache and the opportunity for some fun.

TFTC

Reperio 14:20Day 4 of our weekend getaway to Yass for a caching run, and after getting a better night sleep, we were up again early to hit the trails. We managed to fit in around 100 caches before having to head for home in Orange, but we had a fantastic 3 and a half days away non stop caching. Gratias DARKSIDEDANAs a well spent day brings happy sleep, a well spent life brings happy death - LDV

There was no problem finding this one today with ilook4geo and the log was signed to indicate out visit. Thanks for this cache go to DARKDISEDAN.

Happy to add this turtle to our list of finds for the day with goingplaces2. TFTC.

Day out in Yass and surrounds. Cloudy and cool afternoon. Able to come away with 35 finds around the area today. Signed and replaced. Tftc.

So quiet traffic wise this early in the morning, thanks for the easy finds

Had to look up its home range. If I lived in Texas, I'd bite first and ask questions later ...An easy park and grab. Thanks, DarkSideDan.

After spending the night in Bowning while on my way to QOGM in Longreach I made an early start for a day's caching. I made this find at 07:02 this morning.

My first for the day after leaving our lovely Airbnb accommodation nearby. A nice quick find to start our day rolling.
Found with icybeetas on our journey to QOGM in Longreach.
Thanks for placing it here.

Tftc. Nice series.

TFTC found with Davrie457

Quick find in the country. TFTC DARKSIDEDAN.

A straightforward find here today - thanks, DSD!

Nice drive picking up caches in the country. TFTC

Quickly found Thanks for the cache

I was out and about and came across this cache to find, today. I’m slowly finding the caches, east from home. At the moment, I’m mostly focusing on the caches between Binalong and the ACT border. Finding this cache certainly has certainly helped with this mission. As I am catching up with my logging, I’m not exactly sure how long it took to find or remember what type of cache it was but I certainly enjoyed finding it all the same. Also, I have back dated this log to the day I found it. When I signed the cache, **it was either signed as JM or JohnoMawbs**. This was due to the size or amount of space on the logsheet/book. TB visit. I would like to thank the CO of this cache for placing it and for allowing it to bring the Geocaching community enjoyment. TFTC!

Spent the morning clearing up caches in Boorowa and took the opportunity to finish a few missing caches near Bowning on the way back to town. All attempted were found and in good condition. Thanks for placing and maintaining these roadside caches DSD

Find # 9154
Nice quick find.

TFTC DARKSIDEDAN
15 April 2023 16:05

Out and about with TBU1Bikesu for more smileys Tftc for the serie
Darksidedan

We challenged ourselves today by even creating a list of caches to go and find. It was predicted to be very hot - and it was! We enjoyed the caches that were in the shade most, but still found the others as well.
This was one turtle that looked as though it has swum away as we could not find it anywhere.

Cache 9501 on 30 Dec 2022.

Headed out this morning with SpecimenX to grab a few caches north of Yass which had been taunting us for a while. Lots of LBHs and dirt. We saw assorted wildlife on our drive - a few shingleback lizards, some red necked wallabies, eastern grey kangaroos, some sheep on the loose, butterflies, kookaburras, parrots and a rabbit! A fun morning catching up on news and 30 caches!

Unless otherwise indicated, all caches were found in fair order and in accordance with any hints provided.

Thanks DARKSIDEDAN for the cache and the fun!

Teamed up with AngelG27 to go for a drive in the countryside around Yass. Lovely cool day for caching! Be careful on the roads - lots of potholes and road damage from all of this wet weather we've had!

All caches we found were relatively easy finds with only a few taking a few moment longer for the search [^]

Thanks for the hide, DARKSIDEDAN

A trip to check out some of the awesome places in NSW & ACT and grab some old caches. TFTC.
Nice quick find.

We had planned a caching trip with Wilbert67, We started caching in the dark and ended the day in the dark. We travelled Yass and surrounding areas, so many caches have popped up since our last visit here,
The morning looked promising however it changed as the day went. sunny, windy, drizzling, The chilled went straight true us. The roads were quite muddy and some of the way the the road had big rutts, caution was taken not to get stuck along the way.
We did traditional, multis, wherigo letter boxes, mystery and challenge caches.
We always have a great day with Wilbert,
Thanks for you company,
Thanks to all the COs for their hides

Early morning start for a long day of caching in and around Yass. A nice mix of challenging caches and all good quality as expected. Just in time to get the numbers up a little so I can celebrate my milestone overseas next week. Always enjoy the company of J+J.AU.
TFTC Wilbert67

This cache was checked today by the Drovers who I asked to ccmhexk on the condition or the cache container and the logbook on my behalf. The Drovers have informed me that the cache is in good condition.

I hope that you all enjoy finding this cache.

In the area, picking up a few more of these caches.
Caches found in good condition. Signed and replaced.
Many thanks for placing this cache, DARKSIDEDAN, for us and others to find.

Found it. Thank you

Another day in Yass, but with no rain predicted and little wind. Turned out to be a good day for caching with even a few bursts of sun.
We decided to again head out of town on a loop. We learned about Snakes of the World, Turtles of the World, Lizards of the World and even a few flags. This was mixed with a number of Challenge caches and trad or two that we past.
There were a few high ts we managed to get and also a few that were beyond our TOTT!
It was all capped off with a mega multi!
A big day, but quite successful.
Great to meet up with Sui along the way, a prolific and very creative hider.

Thank you for your efforts in creating and maintaining the cache DARKSIDEDAN.
**SKI Pair****

I decided to take an early mark after a work day at home so that fitzy_1965 and I could head out for a bit of caching.

Off to the Yass region to help fitzy fill in a calendar date. We are able to find the ones that we targeted and all found quickly and easily.

Thanks DSD.

28,102. Found with minniek during a post-work run to fill in a Calendar day for me.

With so many caches up around this area, we decided to do an afternoon run to fill in a day for me. Whether it be an Australian Animal, a Lizard, a Snake, a Frog or a Turtle, we were happy to stop for the find ! We really appreciate the series that Darksidedan puts out, as they help us and many other Cachers with their various challenges. All the caches were found without issue, unless otherwise stated. This was a nice quick find once at GZ. Stamped the log, replaced the cache as found, then continued on to the next one on our list.

Thanks DSD !!

#17626 @1725
An after work drive to catch up on podcasts and top up my find numbers for the day. Cache easily found. TFTC.

#14522 - 9:36:00 AM; Out on a run towards Bowning with Sol de lune to top up our daily finds and pick up some more challenge caches and caches with other attributes. One DNF, with the remainder all found in good condition, including this one. Logs signed L.L10n & sdl or vice versa. TFTC DARKSIDEDAN

Out again with LuckyL10n for a caching run around the Yass area, probably the first of 5 days out way this way this week.

Once a GZ the cache was nice quick find an our names were soon in the log. Cache was replaced and we were off to the next one.

Thanks for the continuation of these series DSD......getting to know this area very well.

After the busy (and wet) summer had finished, The Rats floated the idea of a trip to the area around Canberra and Yass with Steeba and myself. We compared diaries, and had a two day mid-week window where we could make things happen, in the week wedged between Easter and ANZAC Day.

The weather was on our side for the first time in I forget how long, and we were able to make the most of our time opportunity.

A lot of excellent caches were found, and some fantastic terrain caches too. A few power trails, some crafty hides, some hard hides, and even some climbs that I could not do... even with our ladder!

Thank you to all of the cache owners for placing their hides. This boiler plate log does not reflect the quality of the hides. Most importantly thanks as always to my two great caching mates for their company!

Cheers

The Rats, Hoojar and myself teamed up for an assault in and around the Yass area for a couple of days- a most enjoyable caching trip with my mates. Plenty of power trail type finds but a lot of great variety here and there, particularly around Yass itself. We started off on Wednesday night and finished up Friday afternoon. TFTC!

The Gong Gangsters (steeba, Hoojar and The Rats) took advantage of an extended Easter / Anzac break to head out for another caching juggernaut through the Southern Highlands and Yass regions. Blessed with beautiful weather we targeted a few powertrails and high D/T rated caches.

After 2 full days we'd collected a plethora of finds, made some new friends, laughed alot, pushed our bodies beyond the comfortable level and most of all - had a great time with mates. Thanks to all the CO's for your caches and those who tagged along.

Great Northern escape 2022 Day 1. Townsville Mega section Day 1. Canberra to Canowindra. At long last the final afternoon of work was over and I hit the road to cache along the Lachlan Valley highway and Cowra on my way to Canowindra for the night. It rained on and off all afternoon and night, but I did not get stopped by it.

Thanks for the cache DARKSIDEDAN

35840.2 TNLN
Visited: World Traveling Gold GC A#6 & January 2017 Passing Time A#356

**Albida**

Out Yass way for another morning targeting recent hides of all types. Found without issue, signed and replaced. TNLNSL TFTC

Adventure boys!
We found in peace.
#nosuchthingas~ftf~

Chooo ooo [found] with dty73 and youban on a quick Yass run! Nice quick find here! Thanks DARKSIDEDAN!

Tankengine, Youban and I had a free day for caching, so when we saw a nice little bunch of new caches up around this area we decided to go for a drive.

We picked up way more caches than anticipated and saw some very interesting sights.

This cache: Found

Found with Tankengine and Dty73 on a trip around the Boorowa area. kutgw

Was out for an afternoon of caching with Aquilus1 trying (not very well) to tidy up some of the SPRT series when new caches starting out. "To the car!!" I said before even knowing where the caches were because we simply were not having much luck on our other adventure.

Nice little head start given where we were so we powered along passing through Sutton, Murrumbateman, and seeing the lights of Yass as we continued along the highway talking about the famous McDonalds Yass sign which apparently AQ1 had never seen or heard of... which should be a crime. But once we got the Lachlan Valley Way it was down the business with some interesting navigational skills from the co pilot AQ1 we managed to safely collect all the new caches as an *FTF* without and issue before heading home and discussing options for Virutals and Adventure Labs

TFTC and the nice evening drive.

Published

*FTF* With Delta Response Team more later..

So weird, this looks in a paddock but my phone's gps had me right by it. Not what the sattelitte image showed.