Back to Basics Little Bay, New South Wales, Australia
By AlternateRoute on 24-Nov-02. Waypoint GCAC63

The ravages of weather and frustrated puzzle solvers has taken their toll on this cache and it is now to be retired. Thanks to all who sailed in her!

First for the day. Found in 10 minutes flat. Bit damp. Left 20 Pence took keyring.

Found by Ray and Maya (The Nomads) on 15th June, 2003 at 3-30pm. On route to visit some family, we decided to take the opportunity to miss the next freeway toll and do this cache, we drove around to find the entrance suitable to venture in. The area was very boggy and Ray did the searching as Maya was somewhat uncomfortable about spiders etc, Ray eventually, after trudging here and there, as the GPS was not happy with the tree cover, found the cache. Alas it was full of water, the log was saturated and we suggest the cache will need to be replaced. Left nothing took nothing. An eventful break in our travels all the same. The Nomads.

this is sort of a find, but not really

was dropped off near the cache by big brother who had already found it. was walking along with nephew and we got down to about eight metres and the GPS strted going up again, maybe we were moving too fast, i dont know.

but i walked off into the scrub a bit (after reading the page properly, i now know i shouldnt have.) and it started going down again. got within three metres and my BB turns up. What are doing?

i have no idea

anyway, he found me GZ and i also have no idea how we missed it, but i'm not sure we were looking in exactly the right place.

Left: US nickel (i think)
Taken: some sort of square indian coin.

'the boards arent that far off the ground'

Found this cache this morning. Don't know how it was missed on previous visits. I didn't have any foreign currency, so made no swaps. Its quite wet and could do with some more glue when the weather clears up.

Looked for about 1/2 an hour. Thought it might be under the boardwalk, my son found a small golf bag under it before we go a good signal(at the coordinates above), and we all got excited, but only found golf balls, a towel, sun screen and lots of ants... Maybe we'll find it next weekend.


[last edit: 5/12/2003 4:42:49 AM PST]

Ahoy Alternate Route!!

Basically speaking the co-ordinates be spot on!!

The cache be a little damp. Swapped a key ring for a coin and a watch strap.

Good one.
Blackbeard [B)]

User's web page
No:4 for the day. Finding the cache was the easy part. Clever clues and a cache picnic helped with the find. Then we had to exchange something. That part took an hour. Finally swapped a coin for a coin and left a tiny pencil.... Log book is starting to get a little mouldy.... Thanks Alternate

Some suspicious activity was taking place here today......

Went back to this one after the clean up event. I spent about 10 minutes looking for it previously, but was called away. This time I had it uncovered fairly quickly. Whilst puzzling the puzzle, Alternate Route crept up and captured us on camera.

Did some basic maintenance, adding a plastic bag or 2 to make things more waterproof, but did no swaps.

Thanks AR, sneaky cache!

Found by Mary & David on our second attempt at 1415. After failing here yesterday, and finding ourselves close by again we ventured down the trail again. Armed with a little canine intelligence, we thought we'd have an easier time of it. Wrong! We squatted and pee(r)ed, squatted and pee(r)ed over and over, up and down the track, but we could not see. Can't help wondering if it is hidden where it was originally placed, as the clues don't seem to fit. Eventually, we stopped relying on vision and the very-well concealed cache fell into our clutches. The next challenge was to get it open. Took US quarter and left Indian 5 rupees, and withdrew to rest our aching backs and sore knees. Thanks to AlternateRoute.

Mary & David searched for about an hour without success. Had excellent GPS coverage and a stable GZ too. Oh well, must have been the after-effects of our long, late lunch at Coogee. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.

No shortage of golf balls at this location. A lovely little placement with a puzzling end. Did not have any foreign money but left a Jim Beam key ring, took nothing.

Thanks Pilatus (sorry I mean Alternate Route)

Dave and Deb

I have listened to the output of the nearby transmitter station on many occaisions. Also Hounddog has played golf nearby as well. We tried not to get too 'board' while doing this one. Clever container A.R. Swapped some foreign currency. The cache is in good condition.

Seeing as this one was sooooooo easy to get too, we even had the youngest team member with us in her stroller. Once we got down to it we were on top of the situation. Unfortunatly we had no foriegn money so we didn't swap any. Thanks for the pleasant afternoon stroll.

Hmm. I feel silly now. We went back this evening, but still couldn't find it.

(We found some more golf balls though.)

I'll go back again when I have some more time.

The container is fixed and the cache is back up.

For mind Socket and Ebenezer, the cache WAS still there however I have temporarily removed it due to excessive damage sustained by the cache container.
For future finders, the cache container is a puzzle and can be opened without needing force. If I can repair the container I will reactivate the cache.

We looked for a few minutes, but all we found were 3 golf balls, a Japanese passport (discarded nearby), 2 kids who wondered what we were up to, and their mother who just thought we were weird.

[last edit: 1/1/2003 2:50:04 PM PST]

6th cache for the day. Had to give up due to a lack of time. I should start taking printouts with me sometime, would make life much easier than trying to remember all the clues.

My second attempt at this one. First time around I found something very odd but this time around I came up with the goods after reading the clues. Well done.

User's web page
We hopped on the Ideology GeoChair and rolled straight for ground zero. There, we followed the instructions and took a pee. Sadly, we didn't realise that AlternateRoute squats for a pee, so we were still none the wiser. Then we went back to basics, and found it in a flash. Good one, AlternateRoute!

Went back to this one today with Sandy Cousin and Sandy Megs. The extra pairs of eyes paid off and we found it easily. No swaps as we were clean out of foreign coins.

Very handy having a cache placed just down the road from a christening of a niece. So while the bub was getting dunked we slipped out the back and scored the cache. Interesting cache container. It reminded me of those old school windows that you could never open in the wet weather due to expansion, but I digress. Luckily we made it back in time for the family snap before heading off for an afternoon of screaming kids and smelly nappies. No swaps as we gave our last foreign loot to a secret agent last seen down the Opera House

It took me 20 minutes to find this one due to its sneaky placement... It then took me a further 30 minutes to open the thing... I was just about to resort to a crow-bar, when the container popped open - easy once you know how...
Took the travel bug & left a couple of foreign coins...
Nice one AlternateRoute - Loved the new calling card...

After seeing the container that this cache was in I thought it would be an easy find, not so will have to head out there again soon for another look.

I may be the first log here but it was young Paris of Charlie Brown who was first to the cache. Interesting location and interesting cache container.

Thanks guys a nice one.

Around 7pm myself and my apprentice looked for this one. Along came Bushpusher with all the gear thats needed. Including the flashlight!. The 3 of us looked high and low when Junior said what's this ..... ... doing ..... ... ...... . We just kept scratching around. Then comes Alternate Route to check up on the cache. Again junior mentions the ..... ... . Then we took note.

Well it was one thing to find it. Try opening it !!!!

Left Bullwinkle Travel bug and took nothing.

Good one Alternate Route. Hope we bump into you again.

Charlie Brown and his apprentice.