Aratula Aratula, New South Wales, Australia
By Faliven on 23-Apr-24. Waypoint GCAPP69

Health check done today, everything is ok Be careful when walking in the grass as the snakes are back

This was a quick find, AFTER i had to apologise to the boys for causing a few heart attacks. There was a flurry of HURTFUL WORDS from them about my driving skills ( or lack of ) but deserved in this case Once we were out of the car we resumed caching mode..They were in Australia for a few days and planned a big trip to smash some smilies over a cpl states and about 4000 lga's !! Lots of laughs had and we didnt even kill each other after 4 days TFTC

Our rally driver hauled on the anchors, slid the car across the road and narrowly missed a pole - all in front of a car whose driver is probably wearing brown trousers now . He sort of made up for it by finding the cache. Thanks FalivenOur four day boys trip was an 1800km dash from Melbourne Airport into southern parts of NSW, caching in 19 different LGAs. After an overnight near Melbourne airport, the toolman picked us up and we were off. Overnight stops were in Deniliquin, Ariah Park and Albury with a small selection of caches in each LGA unless there some more exciting ones to make us hang around a bit longer. The toolman finally filled his D/T grid. Lots of laughs, lots of insults, a good number of caches, but not enough sleep!Thanks to all the COs that made the trip a fun adventure. Visit the [Geocaching Tasmania Facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/318455407771/)Member of the [Tas_Community](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=25086739) maintenance group.

Day 1 of our trip and this one was another quick find by us before adding our names and then replacing as found and then moving on to the next on the shortlist.This was a mainland trip from Tassie to do a couple of things, we wanted to grab a few LGAs and also the big item was to finish of the DT grid of 1Toolman.We landed late on Wednesday night and after a good night at the Melbourne Novotel Toolman picked up and drove us North for four days of caching before he brought us back on Sunday night, we had a great time with lots of caching and lots of laughs.Found on 24/10/2024 at 16:24:00 thanks to Faliven for placing this cache for me to find. The best caches I have found so far are:-Sentimental [Moorgreen P3:1, Penny Pincher](http://coord.info/GC32Z5B) By [Sven&Cup](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=6596795)Traditional [Hanging Around in Toorak](http://coord.info/GC62KAP) By [bobthebuilder_123](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=586681)Multi [Gawler Fort Knox](https://coord.info/GC5T0W1) By [**JEM**](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=11449141)Unknown [Men In Black Holes](http://coord.info/GC1DVB0) By [SG-3](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=918045) Letterbox [Rolf's Letterbox](http://coord.info/GC5NCYM) By [membsec](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=5318842)Earthcache [Totem Pole](https://coord.info/GC862H8) By [The Hancock Clan](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=263428)Visit the [Geocaching Tasmania Facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/318455407771/)Member of the [Tas_Community](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=25086739) maintenance group.

Family is away for the first week of the school holidays and so I have a plan to go caching. First goal is to make 7000 caches and hoping to crack 180 in a day on Monday. Today I headed west with the geohound - starting on 821 caches for the year (250 AdLabs!) and hoping to crack 50 in various LGAs for the day. It also happens to be AFl Grand Final day so listening to the Swans and the Lions as well. Again had no information on this one so hoped it would be found particularly as a long drive for one cache. Hoped it would be in Murray LGA which it was (by about 1500m). At GZ I parked on the quiet road. Went to closest tree and nothing. Went to the other (11m out) and the familiar hide was spotted (a long way out for one of these). Looks like I am the 3TF but only the second to log online. Quarter time while I arrived here - Lions are just in front at this stage.TFTC Faliven

Published

{FTF}I had spent the weekend camping on the Campaspe River near Rochester. After packing up I decided to head away from home towards Echuca to find the recently nominated cache in the area. Whats another 30mins? After finding the cache I was ready to head home. I thought Id just double check if I needed anything in the adjacent NSW LGA for a challenge and I did. An earthcache not too far away. Whats another 30mins (on top of the original 30mins). I completed the earthcache and turned the car around ready to head home. Oops, I just happened to look at the map. There is a FTF nearby. Hmmm - what should I do? I guess whats another 40mins added to the journey? Oh boy, there is another FTF at the other end of the road. I guess it is a mini NSW loop. .After securing the first FTF, I took a 20min drive through the bush to try and grab this one. A lovely drive along and I soon arrived at GZ. The spent a bit of time searching a clump of trees that my phone sent me to initially. Admittedly my gps had been a little temperamental this weekend, so in case it was having a tantrum again, I widened my search to the next nearest object and soon found the cache. No TOTT required here and another FTF!A big thanks goes to Faliven for taking the time to add Aratula to the geocaching map for us all to find and enjoy.-The nominees for the [**2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards** ](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/2023-victorian-cache-of-the-year-awards/) have been announced. Find as many of these amazing caches as you can before voting opens later in the year. The full list of nominations is available on the [Geocaching Victoria website](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/2023-victorian-cache-of-the-year-awards/).