Another Fine Mess Lane Cove West, New South Wales, Australia
By Leek on 11-Aug-02. Waypoint GA0002

A public holiday in our next of the woods so LuckyL10n and I headed to Sydney to fill in a couple of gaps on our dragonZone maps. This one turned up as one for me to find as LL had found it a couple of years ago.

Parking in the area is almost non existent, so I was dropped off and made my down to the cache. Didn't take to long and the cache was soon in hand. Log was signed, cache was replaced and recovered, waiting for the next finder.

Thanks to Leek for the cache, great to find GA0002 still going strong. Hopefully it will last for quite a few years into the future....

Recommended.

#107
In the area to pick up my daily cache and saw this one nearby. Parked across the road from the entry point and followed the path to GZ. Encountered a bush turkey but otherwise had the place to myself. Walked in a circle and then spotted the signs of a cache. Soon had my name in the log. Great to find such an old cache!

Rated: for Overall Experience

I should learn that heading out to cache at 6am is not good for accurate satellite fixes! As I headed down the path, my gps had me quite a way off the track shown on my screen. I thought maybe the map was a bit out but then, as I reached the river (no, not really a necessary detour!), the gps showed i'd crossed the main road and was on the far side!! What??

I turned my gps off and on (as all good IT experts suggest) and I had a better fix. So I made my way along a bit and back a bit and along a bit with not a lot of confidence. In the end, I used the shape of the green shown on my screen together with the GZ shown and worked out a likely area. Luckily it was nice and open and the cache hide was easy to spot as an out-of-place looking thing.

Thanks leek, your caches last due to good quality in the beginning

Great fun to find Leek's first and after 11 months since its last visit. Seems like the area has been cleaned up as it's quite open with few weeds. The cache was just sitting there, in plain view, where it must get seen by the residents who can come straight down past it from their yards. I guess it's become part of the environment. Signed the dry log, removed a few old rusty, mouldy things and gave it a bit of cover, although it's still quite obvious. Thanks Leek.

Rated: for Overall Experience

#GA818 - 15:35; I dropped by Woolwich and collected only one of five moveables before getting a bit more serious and grabbing some of the GCA trads. I had collected two trads and was headed back to meet the geohoney, having initially decided I didn't have time for this one. As I was driving along Burns Bay Road, I noticed that the GPSr had me less than 100 metres from the cache. I managed to snag a park at some multi story units which are under construction and made my way back to the cache. It was sitting out in the open and uncovered, so after log signing duties were completed, I used the available rocks and concrete to provide a bit more cover. It was nice to collect such an early GCA cache. TFTC Leek

Rated: for Overall Experience

I walked along the track trying to find the easiest route to this one and finally decided to walk along some rocks to avoid having to bush bash. I got to GZ and found the cache easily. When I turned to leave I realised that the whole area was easily accessible through a open clearing. Whoops. TFTC

Rated: for Overall Experience

I like returning to this area as I lived here as an adolescent in the early seventies, only about 100m from GZ in fact.

The cache is no longer hidden as suggested by the hint but was nonetheless a quick find. The contents are a bit damp but not overly.

Good one, thanks Leek.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found with morry9 at 6:04 PM after hunting for the Lane Cove River Provides Multi Cache further down the river. Once at Ground Zero, we made the discovery straight away. Signed Log, Took Nothing Left Nothing. Thanks For The Cache Leek, it was a pleasant walk and we enjoyed exploring more of the trail along the river.

Rated: for Overall Experience

I came in from Burns Bay Road. I got to a point where the GPSr said 12 m to go and pointed straight into a steep part of the bush. I contemplated the direct approach but then noticed two brown posts about 20 m to the south. This indicated the beginning of some stairs that went straight to GZ.

The hide is pretty obvious and the cache was soon in hand. I had brought with me a 2 litre sistema container to replace the old one that was cracked and also put in a new logbook, then back in went all the old contents of the original cache.

Thanks Leek - another old one that survives. Found at 8:59 am.

This was quite a surprise to find such an old cache, I got to near GZ when the batteries in the GPSr decided to pack it in, put fresh ones in but no chance getting a satellite lock again. But I decided to have a look anyway as I knew I was quite close and sure enough I spotted the container sitting in the open.
Unfortunately the log is completely ruined and a soggy greasy mess. I have to admit that I don't usually read the previous logs which is a shame this time or I could have brought a replacement container. Nonetheless this elderly cache does deserve more attention and I will try to get back there soon to repair the damage.
By the way I did locate a lump of concrete aggregate that fitted quite nicely in front of the container so it is now better hidden.
If you do find it before I get there please place it upside down so water does not get inside.
Thank you for a grand old adventure.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Cache full of water, lid cracked, contents soaked. Needs complete replacement.
Please don't archive!

More than a year since it was last found and nearly 10 years after it was first placed I decided to finally look for this venerable GCA cache - number 2!

Parked at the end of Cope St as I didn't know of any other way into this bush and a nice little track took me some 300 metres to GZ. Left the path and spotted the cache almost immediately. The neighbours have decided to dump a heap of chopped lantana right above it but amazingly the cache was not covered by it. As for the cache there is only bad news. It was completely full of water courtesy of a crack in the lid. I took photos but couldn't sign of course as even the ziplock bag inside was full of water.

Drained it out but the whole thing needs replacing before it can be used again. I wouldn't like to see it archived as it's a piece of GCA history. Someone in the area will have to do the honours. If I get back there in the near future I may try but that's not likely at present.

Thanks!

Rated: for Overall Experience

A great sunny Friday afternoon taking an extended lunch

Pulled up off the main road and found the little track to walk down to GZ. As I got on the flat part of the track I heard this russling, before a decent sized Red bellied Black snake came from out of the bush, across the track and slithered to the other side. Did my hear stop, yes it did. I stood and waited, wondering why it was out in winter, but who knows. It went away and my heart started again

Moved on to GZ, and located cache after searching in the right spot. SL. TNLN and replaced. Nice views. TFTC.

Rated: for Overall Experience

First GCA!! Been meaning to do this for a while and when the sun finally got out today, so did i!!
TnLn, SL, TfTc
It's a bit damp tho...

Rated: for Overall Experience

Did GA0003 yesterday. Today I was just out for a walk, not intentionally caching - until I spotted on the GPS GA0002, and had to give it a go.

Cache was completely exposed, but seemed to be fine. A bit damp inside. Signed log. TNLN. Covered the cache so it isn't visible itself, although the camo doesn't look exactly natural.

TFTC

Rated: for Overall Experience

Got fed up with the kids watching television. Decided to make this our first geocache expedition, using only my Nokia phone. I was somewhat surprised to find it. We all had fun, and have decide to make geocaching part of our lives.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Great cache...NEEDS MORE VISITORS though!! Lovely spot by the water! Took Lego man, left a bouncy ball, SL. Boxed was sealed, but had water inside?? TFTC

Wow! Two really old Leek caches in an afternoon. With this and 'Egg' knocked off that's GCA 0002 and 0004... hmmm better research the other ones as both of these were great! Yes it's a little damp but the walk was well worth it. Lovely stroll along the river. Cheers!

Rated: for Overall Experience

Quick find after a bit of a clamber up to GZ. Contents are damp but not destructively so. Doesn't look like the stairs get much use!! TFTC

Rated: for Overall Experience

This cache needs more visitors. It seems to have a few so far this year/month but is only averaging 2 or 3 a year. Great spot, parking a bit difficult and nice vies of the river.

It's nice to see some of these older caches still around.

Rated: for Overall Experience

An easy find on the way home. Dried the container out and the bags surrounding the log book. Threw out the blank CD as it was full of water and the label had collapsed. Signed log book and rehid container.

I was surprised at the number of rabbits I came across on the way back to the car. Must have been at least a dozen of them all within a 400m walk.

Thanks for the hunt Leek, a nice view of the river from the cache. location.
Hunter/Finder

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found a-ok, but had to tip water out.
Log a little damp but everything else is soaked, and at 8.15am on a chilly morning, there was no chance to dry it out (logging this at noon, and NOW it would be warm enough to dry out if placed in the sun).
A great little spot, and well worth the visit, with a seat to sit and watch the water afterwards only a short distance away alng the track. A great pity more people do not come to do this cache, as it was easy to walk and easy enough to find. 9 months since it was last found.
TFTC

Rated: for Overall Experience

This was a pleasant bush walk with nice spots to catch glimpses of the river. We overshot GZ on our first approach but soon picked up the trail again. Cache container was damp inside but the log book is fine. TNLNSL. TFTC.

Nice little walk along the river- I'm assuming the big tarpolin covered mounds are boats and not dead bodies? My 6 yr old son got a bit freaked out by them and then found a lone shoe so immediately assumed the worst! Cache is pretty wet.

The first challenge is working out where to park. Once that was sorted found the track in and worked my way down. Overshot the mark under the tree cover but coming back the thing guided me to the right area for a fairly quick find. Cache was a bit wet inside but the double bagged logbook nice and dry. A pleasant spot below the traffic noiose higher up. Thanks Leek.

Not sure where my caching brain was last time. Walked straight up to it this time. Nice bush track with lots of bird life.

Rated: for Overall Experience

A nice tranquil spot down by the river after the busy road above. Located the cache readily enough however as many others have indicated ad nauseum it is a little damp inside - possibly something to do with the hide methodology as the container itself is undamaged. Made no swaps here.

Sats were not great, but upon reaching GZ there were only two possible locations. Checked both and nada.
One tree had a perfect spot to hide a cache and there sure looked to be lots of fallen sticks and twigs.
But nothing showed up, when I moved them aside.
Even widened my search area but still nothing. There are not that many large trees. Either my interpretation of large tree is different to others or its gone.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Top spot for a cache. The log book is still fine but the Cache is pretty barren, might need a little TLC Mr Leek.

Left: Austalian Idol stress thing


TFTCSL

Found sitting in the open with the lid off and half full of water. The double bagged log was just about all that had survived the water. Removed the water logged contents to the bin. Empted the water out, signed log and hide the cache under more leaf litter and a large rock.

Found the cache at 8pm. Wow excellent view... No swap. Thank you for organise the cache and hunt.

At last - after spending half an hour last week looking in all the wrong places we came back and found it in minutes.

It certainly is very soggy. Living just across teh river next time we're over this way we'll try to remember to bring a new container and take this home to dry iot out, unless someone gets to it before us.
Thanks LEek

Nice easy fond
thanks for bringing us here
keener

found this cache within minutes but stopped for a while to have a look around!
This cache definitely needs maintenance as it is quite soggy!
TFTC

After a pleasant walk along the river we found this cache quite easily.
LNTNSL.
TFTC

The locals had a go here for clean-up Australia Day, and located the cache. It seems they followed instructions and replaced it!
Everything was quite damp, so I added a new log (double bagged for safety) and took a matchbox car that would no longer fit.

COR the only find out of 3 bloody muggles everywhere!!!!!
Acko and She who must be obeyed
TN Left Hotwheels
cache very moist

Very easy find this one, spotted the cache from 15m away whilst on the walking track, cache had water inside and log book was very damp, looks like a lot of cleaning has been done here so not sure if the cache had been disturbed although i placed a few sticks around it so you wouldn't spot it from the walking track.

TNLN

Found after being fooled by the strange antics of my gps. The cache is in poor condition, with dampness all through, and the logbook covered in black mould?. The container appeared ok, though I don't remember checking the sides for damage. The top is definitley ok and seals as it should. T: lightstick, L: Bandanna. Thanks Leek for the cache.

We found this one, but logged it on GC. Unfortunately, this one comes up in our gpx downloads now. If you think that's needed, please delete our GC log.

Transferred to Geocaching Australia site

Archived - Tsunami...

owners request

Driving home from Gladesville caches, the GPS said this was close to the side of the road so I pulled over and went wandering. Nice spot, need to be discreet in case of watching neighbours!
Found it easily, the GPS led right to the spot. Cache is quite soggy and needs maintainence, will email Leek.
TNLN.

Nice walk, still some moisture in the cache. It took some time to find as the GPS had me going in circles for a while. I found the cache when I wasn't expecting to, just got that flash of colour when looking from the right angle.

A couple of ladies chatting away up top. I prowled around for a while trying not to look to threatening and probably failing miserably. Sat down to have a think and almost sat on the cache. Contents quite damp. It was a lovely sunny day and I was able to dry out the Intro sheet and most of the other stuff. The jigsaw puzzle was going to take a little longer to dry so I took that with me and left a cylum stick.

Leek's first cache. Well Leek it's holding up OK apart from being a bit damp. TNLNSL. Thanks Leek nice area. Regards Philma.

Easy find, after walking through all the spider webs. The cache was crammed with damp stuff, so TNLN. Great walk, thanks Leek.

This was a quick in and out having parked at a tiny reserve only a few dozen meters away. Would have spent a little more time venturing further to properly appreciate the river views, but Young Wiggins was being dined on by hordes of mossies and soon tired of being the designated insect decoy. Cache holding up well, just a bit sweaty inside. Took a candle, left a Harry Potter ruler. Thanks again, Leek.

The girlfriend's away, so I decide to see if there's any caches near our place. I've never tried before, but find there's one 190 metres away from where I'm sitting on the lounge! Headed off, and after a bush bash found the little blighter! Took the wine stopper and left a pink highlighter pen. Also removed the batteries as they were starting to leak. Thanks....now I'm off to the next closest, about 800m away.
Koputai.

Found it, never realized there was a cache this close to my home...

GPS signal was a bit flakey (low precision) so it took me a while to find it..

Left a US quarter (from a recent trip)
Look a candle.

The cache was a bit damp so the party popper probably has little 'pop' left in it...

This was about the easiest find I've made in a long time! I wandered into the GZ, looked around, and there was the lid sticking out of the leaves! Too easy.

Took a CTC key ring - left a wine bottle stopper. There appears to be a fair amount of moisture inside this cache, and it may be time for a maintenance check. I've drained out what I could in the short time I had, and I've also double bagged the log. It was still a nice walk though! Thanks Leek.

Missed this cache back in November last year. Today I came back a more experienced cacher, and found it quickly. I suspect it was hidden better when we first attempted it. There's a little bit of moisture in the cache. We repacked it and resealed the lid a little tighter. Happy to find it this time round. Thanks Leek !

Co-ords took me straight to the cache. Americans haven't started anything just yet by the looks of things. No sight-seeing neighbours to bother me during my quest. The quietness (?) of the area was only shattered by the starting of a nuclear powered lawn mower above. Hope the regeneration people don't encroach too much further or the cache may be found.

No swaps.

Thanks Leek.

[last edit: 3/17/2003 8:21:44 PM PST]

Welcome back to the game GeoPiggies... I look forward to meeting you on the trail some time...

[This entry was edited by Leek on Monday, October 20, 2003 at 10:25:29 PM.]

Found by Mary & David at 1910. Lovely views but the area spoiled a bit by rubbish dumpers. Took a little while without the benefit of Leeks alternate coords (we left them in the car - doh!). Surprising number of joggers about but none passed at the critical time. Cockatoos screeched above and the crows were calling as well. Took lion ball and left a candle. Thanks again to Leek - three out of three for us this afternoon. Pity the fourth was off-line. Oh well, we'll just have to come back again.

Just checked the cache and can confirm that it is still there and in good condition... It was exactly where I had left it, but was very well camouflaged... I have reduced the amount of coverage and made it a little more obvious in line with its difficulty rating...

I don't think that the bush regeneration team have reached it yet as there is still plenty of Asparagus Fern about. The area was a little flattened due to searching activity. I found your tray of stuff GeoMonkeys, but none of the items belonged to the cache. You were about 7m too far south.

The cache could probably do with a sachet of silica gel so the next person may want to take one along.
I took a new set of coordinates while I was there, but haven't changed the coordinates above... But try .249S & 947E if you get desperate.

[last edit: 12/4/2002 3:49:50 AM PST]

Friday the 13th, my lucky day!

Did this one on my lunch break (I work across the road, 200m away). Took work mate Grem (sprained ankle and all) to help find it.

We found it after bashing around for about 10 mins. Coords were pretty spot on after my GPS settled. We even had time for lunch.

Took a golf ball and left a key ring.

Nice one Leek. Your Stringy cache is probably next on my hit list.

Due to the various comments about luck, I have added a small extra hint...

The Ginger Loon met up with the now fed-and-watered Captain & Hyper for a spot of afternoon caching. We were soon at the trackhead and making our way through more suburban bushland to GZ. Found the stash in no time flat. Can't remember what we took but the Captain left a map.
[br]Good first cache Leek. Welcome to the game! [^]