REALLY SideTracked - Lakeside Emerald, Victoria, Australia
By Pinkpiggy7 on 13-Aug-22. Waypoint GC9YEZN

Just finished the first Emerald Lake Parkrun. A great course with lots of hills. Thought we would spend further time in Emerald caching and catching up with a friend

Thanks!!!!

Managed to grab this quick one before catching the train back! SL TFTC

This cache may not have been intended to set the world on fire, but after a tour that started at 7 am, having no time at the chocolate factory, no luck at the sanctuary, this one started to take on a bit of a do or die pressure. Family went to the museum and I went for a walk. Coords spot on, and log signed. Phew. Pressure off. There you go, you never know, even the simple ones can become epic finds.

Quick find despite my GPS being off a bit. I surveyed the area and spotted a classic geo hidey hole. Lucky for me it was there. Thanks for placing

T4TC, greetings from . DNF from an earlier cache, thankful that we found this. Thanks for maintaining this cache

Great spot nice easy find TFTC. The new station is huge.

Boy did I get my exercise on this one. Having trouble with GPS. Now to find my back to my car. Tftc

While waiting for the train!

Epic

Too easy

Along with Andoni walking through this park, we couldn't leave without this prize. Thank you for hiding.

We approach this park that is close to us to sign some cache Thanks for hiding. Greetings from Spain

Tftc

Saw this tell-tale cache as I approached. Many thanks and greetings from UK

No problem here. Pleased to get this cache before our return journey on the Puffing Billy. SL. TFTC

Crustyvarmint and I were enjoying our travels and cache finds through this area this afternoon...such a lovely sunny day and great company to boot. Thanks for the cache Pinkpiggy7.

Today, Redcb and I were caching in the area, and the lake was looking superb. We managed to drive close to GZ and made a quick find.Thanks Pinkpiggy7.

Another day, another chance for a cache on our road trip with Jack and Purrfect Di. Every day is Caching Day - so off we go!!! [:o)]Got sidetracked in Emerald and found your cache while checking out the Puffing Billy.Thanks Pinkpiggy7 for this cache hide and ongoing care and maintenance ---------------- ----------------------In a dangerous world filled with rusty old mint tins and solid caches falling from trees - - - a cache a day keeps us agile... sort of --------Caches are logged using the resources of gsak, garmin, and androids, occasionally AI too! (And a little rubber stamp ) Work gets in the way - and some may take longer to log than others due to mixed technology and need for sleep! The skill and talent of some Zenior Zombies helps, and maybe a spot of luck too [:o)]----------Cache carefully and make sure Travel Bugs are the Only bugs you share and pass on Clean as you go and cache the countryside Big thanks to those placing quality caches out and about around our country areas, in nice safe places and containers especially! - it keeps our game fun for all Of course we do appreciate if you actually did read all this extra addition to the log word count! There's a challenge somewhere out there, or so we've been told! You win a virtual smiley for the effort and getting to the end of the log Maybe if I worked out where it is I could do it and go back to normal logs again ! If you find the challenge let me know and perhaps we can put an end to these long logs !!! Maybe not though - as someone actually did read to the end and alerted me to just a project GC badge that requires long logs [:o)] Well at least it's not as bad as finding a mint tin! Did you get that... stop putting out rusty mint tins, just stop it, now!!! C'est fini... For now... ... until tomorrow! Viva Mexicana ! Thanks for the caches beyond the wall [:o)] PS:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------GCA1DNA - Great Leap Forward ... or is it backward... it takes an extra day to get to March 29.2.24 The Mega Leap Event of the year. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------And don't forget to put the SA June Long Weekend in your diary for 2024 too... fun and funky finding with a little competition too

Nice detour for our outing today!

First of the year 2024 for us!!! Thanks.Now to se the model railway!!

Nice spot TFTC!

Made a trip with Puffing Bill and grabbed the cache in the break! Thank you for showing this nice place and greetings from Germany

Driving an excursion bus here today. The new visitors centre is a bizarre contradiction given the strict heritage controls in the railway corridor.

An easy find when you know what you're looking at. It's good to find these types when they're placed far enough away from all the tourists, lol.

TFTC nice cool day out at Puffing Billy

#172Out for a nice Sunday walk. TFTC!

TFTC

TFTC left a travel bug

It’s pretty obvious we haven’t been to Emerald Lake in a long while. This section of the park has certainly changed from our last visit, teeming with buses of tourists and a very nice new building too.

At least this hide didn’t stump us. With the paperwork completed and cache returned, it was time to take the long walk back to our car.

Thanks Pinkpiggy7 for another of these SideTracked caches.

Woof woof. TFTC Pinkpiggy7. I found with my mum beckNmonts

We found REALLY SideTracked - Lakeside while waiting to partake a puppy puffing billy.
I was too busy talking when ahomburg said, here it is.

Thanks Pinkpiggy7 for hiding this cache so that we could come and enjoy ourselves

Date: June 18, 2023 Time: 11:48 AM
Find #13910

In the area to visit Billy for the first time since I was a child. A fun day

Massive thanks go to Pinkpiggy7 for placing this one.

Today ManfredWolfgang, Earthbound Chief, the Shouty Spoodle ahomburg and myself did some geocaching and went on the Puffing Billy Dog Express. Let’s just say that poor Manfred wasn’t a fan, and we didn’t catch the return train!

Thanks for the awesome caches, Pinkpiggy7

Find number 12061 at 10:35:32 am on Thursday the 8 June 2023
Out for a bit of a drive to grab a couple of geocaches on the way to mums to fix her doorbell.
A nice quiet morning here today and the find was pretty quick. Enjoying the sun coming through the trees after this mornings rain.
**Thanks for placing this cache Pinkpiggy7**

---
Have you logged your will attend for the “Cachemas In July” event?
More details are available at: [GCA7WT4](https://coord.info/GCA7WT4)

If you are looking for some new caches to find, explore the nominees for the 2022 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards.
The Geocaching List is available [here](https://coord.info/BMC8QYR)!

Found it!

Found it! After caching in the morning around Heatherdale, we enjoyed a leisurely drive up the hill to find a couple of Puffing caches around the lake. This was a quick find and I did a bit of CITO before heading off to the next cache. TFTC SL

Rain is a pain sometimes, especially when we wanted to go searching for particular caches with goingplaces2. This one however was a successful find and both names or initials were noted on the log. TFTC.

Today was another wet day, but we continued with the hunt for caches in the sidetracked series with ilook4geo. We were happy with the success rate, although there were a couple of DNF's. Signed all the logs we found and replaced each one in its proper place. Thanks for placing this cache go to Pinkpiggy7.

Good quick found after lunch and rushing to board the choo choo train back to Belgrave.

Tftc .

Flying visit on a Puffing Billy stop. Found the cache quickly.

Found it

Found it

SideTracked find, number 158.
This took me ages to find, as my GPS took me on a merry dance through the bushland. I got caught up in a prickly vine, and a thorn in my finger (extracted). Made it out of that, but when I got to GZ, the cache hide was easy to spot. Pretty native, terrestrial, pink orchids in bloom. TFTC Pinkpiggy7.

There were a few caches to find in this area and this was the third one for us.
We got into a bit of a mess trying to find our way to this one but eventually we popped out into the car-park and were able to find the cache and sign the log.
Thanks Pinkpiggy7 for placing all of these great caches around the area.
Chiefton!!!

Went for a walk after dinner with the wife and dog and grabbed a couple more caches in the park.
TFTC

Playing tourist with Puffing Billy

Tftc

First Sidetracked cache, and it definitely won’t be my last.

In the area looking for caches placed in various years, and somehow 2022 was needed.

We haven’t been up this way for a few years, so it was a good excuse to visit the Lake. Quick and easy find. TFTC.

Quick and easy find

Found, signed, reset! TFTC

Found

Found by Omegaman1971

Out and about with Rebel Acts putting some smiles on the map. Early start to the day but definitely worth it to tick off a few more sidetracked caches.

Cheers for the cache Pinkpiggy7

Found by Rebel Acts in the company of Omegaman1971

Out on another of our Sunday caching adventures, we had an early start chasing a few Side Tracked caches all over the place before heading to the Year of the hide 2022 event, after that we concentrated on some Bayside caches.

This is one of the caches found today.

Thanks Pinkpiggy7 for the cache.

TFTC left a kindness heart and sticker pack.

Found on my morning walk. TFTC

Found while waiting for our return trip on the Puffing Billy. Log not signed as I forgot a pen, but picture taken as proof if needed. TFTC

Loved this one!

Puffin Billy is on my bucket list but gulp its pricey, so next best thing I guess is walking by the tourist area to find a cache then watch the train pull in and watch the happy tourist exit. I'm not sure this train is the actual PB as it looked alot smaller than I expected it to be. Cache located and signed after walking the long way around. (Nevermind whats a few extra hundred Meters when you've racked up a few km for the day). TFTH

15:58
After the first celebration of Freddy's birthday, and pulling out massive quantities of forget-me-nots, it was back to looking for Tupperware in the bush.

By the time we'd finished a couple of multis and the most fun Adventure Lab that had just been published in Gembrook, n0w0rries and I had missed the lunch celebration, and the weather didn't look like improving, so we started slowly towards home.

I can vouch for the coffee at the bakery.

So why not add to the tally of SideTracked finds?

A quick grab among the juggling act of Adventure Labs

Thanks, Pinkpiggy7

#6359

A day out in the area with nirgalagrin started in Berwick for Manfred Wolfgang's birthday celebration.

This was followed by a different style of CITO where we were pulling out Forget-Me-Not.

A new lab cache from Manfred & Co as well as local mysteries and multis.

We are on a bit of a mission, to find as many SideTracked Caches as possible.
It made sense to us to grab a couple whilst in the area.

Thank you for adding to the series Pinkpiggy7.

OMG I don't know where my head was but the dog and I walked a lot more than we needed to in order to find this one! On the upside I got a good look at this new section of the park. Not a fan of the new big black box that replaced many trees here but what can you do?

Thanks Pinkpiggy7

STF at 6.20pm
Hunter

After finishing a Geocaching Publication HTML training session, I saw these new geocaches recently released. It had been 20 minutes and I was 20 minutes away, but without taking the risk, you never get the rewards.

After getting STF on the other cache, I almost went home thinking the FTFer would have come here too. However, at the last moment I thought I had to check. Didn't realise how dark this park was at night, after only being here previously at dusk and during the day. It was so dark, I think I actually tripped over the cache a couple of times before actually seeing it. Pleased that I was right in that the other FTFer hadn't came to look for this one, but I was still STF. Signed at 6.20 pm and returned as found.

Thanks for the cache Pink Piggy 7
Hunter

##Published - thanks for contributing to Geocaching with this Listing.##

> *Interested in finding out a whole lot more about Geocaching?
Why not visit the geocaching travelling educational exhibition [**GPS Adventure Maze**](https://coord.info/GC9N1CX) appearing at Whittlesea on 19th and 20th November 2022.*

Congrats to FitzelFleas on the FTF!

I had received the email when I was at work and I figured....well If I can get off work soon, I might be able to go for the FTF. Well that's when I got called into a meeting and was assigned to work late. Well I figured the the FTF would be gone by the time I got off work, so I didn't think about it for the rest of my shift.

When once I finished worked I figured I would just check the cache page, just out of curiosity. Besides I always love a good FTF log. So I opened up the cache page and saw there were still no logs, the FTF was still up for grabs.

So I got changed into my caching clothes at work and headed off. The sun had completely set by the time I got off work, so I knew I would have to search in the dark for this one. Just like all my FTF opportunities, I was checking the to see if anyone had log the cache at every red light I hit.

When I got to Emerald park I checked one more time and still no logs! The FTF was still up for grabs. I parked up the hill aways from GZ and grabbed my head torch and headed off for GZ.

Once I got to GZ my phone was acting up a bit. I knew my coordinates were probably loose. After not finding the cache I ended up expanding my search radius, when I finally saw the likely beacon, and shortly after the cache!

The moment of truth was I FTF? Unfortunately...no. Not only was I not FTF, I actually was Third to Find. That's when I double checked my phone, and I saw the note from 999Hunter.

Oh well, all in good fun! I needed to grab my daily cache anyways to keep the streak alive and I couldn't of thought of a better place to go today. I always love coming out to Emerald Lake. It such a beautiful pocket of nature. Thanks for the fun tonight and TFTC.


Cache Maintenance Status:

Cache container was in great shape, logbook was clean and dry with plenty of room for future cache finders to sign.

When I saw the two SideTracked caches pop up so close to home, I decided to have a go at FTF. I didn’t think I’d have much luck, since it was already 30 minutes since they’d been published, but, oh well. When I arrived, it was not quite yet dark and everything was deserted. I parked quickly, a bit further away than was necessary, and slid down a hill. After sneaking across a deserted road, I could see the GZ was close at hand. I found the cache quickly and… yay! At least one FTF was mine tonight. TFTC. This one will be a tricky one to get during the day time when all the tourists are about, that’s for sure!