You've Got to be Joking! Waddamana, Tasmania, Australia
By Horus & embi on 08-Jan-04. Waypoint GA0035

Horus & embi thank you for the cache.

I have been here before wit AmazingDaughter but didn't have the information to work out the cords but had a good idea where GZ might be.

Today I had the full cache description and soon found the number and worked out the cords for GZ.

The climb up was possibility the steepest walk I have done and had to stop many time for a rest.

The Cache was easily found in excellent condition, the funny thing is I found it on the way back down as I walked past it on the way to the top.

We collected the info and looked at where we had to go but with no finds for 3 years and limited time today we sadly put it on the maybe another day list.

Hi Horus

When I was in Adelaide I did a cache called "I'm a Bastard". It was difficult to locate, but nothing on this walk.

Wandering to the cache with Oldsaint on basically one leg was a lot of work. The walk was even more difficult coming back, but my little friend struggled with a dodgy leg quitely.

A great cache

Hi Horus and embi
An early morning start at 0500hrs this morning saw me log two locationless and the to Hobart in search of another cache prior to meeting Budgietas at 0700hrs to travel the Lakes area to clean up those cache we had not yet found in that area.
Our journey took us to Bridgewater first, Wayatinah, Bronte Park, Little Pine, Arthurs Lake and as far north as Poatina. Our next stop was Waddamana for two caches, Victoria Falls and then back to Hobart to look for "Big Fibs." On the way around Budge helped replace two caches and replaced the log in another.
I got back to Huonville at 2230hrs.
Thanks Budge for another great day's caching.
This cache was my fourth for the day in the Lakes region. A quick find, signing the log at 1557hrs.
My last visit to the Museum was not so long ago at which time, we enjoyed touring the museum and taking in the history contained within. I worked out the co-ords for this cache on that visit but looked at the intended walk and said exactly that "YOU'VE TO BE JOKING!" The walk had to wait for a couple of good reasons. However, we completed the climb today.
Drove part way up the hill and footed it the rest of the way. I struggled a bit today and apologise to Budgietas for holding him up. The rocky parts of the climb made it a bit uncomfortable, but overall I enjoyed the walk to the top. Not often one enjoys being a mountain goat, but I did today. The transverse under the penstock reminded me of cammando style training. The walk back down was a little easier until I got struck with a migraine.
The views a great. Enjoyed the cache immensely, the sense of achievement tremendous. Thank you!
Top votes from me on this one.
Thanks for a quick find
Cheers OldSaint.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Had a very interesting visit to the museum today and were glad to be inside and dry while it rained continuously outside. Thank goodness for the rain.......it gave us a very good excuse for not even attempting this one We South Ozzies are a wimpy pair and very unused to the rain in our home state.........I know, I know "toughen up Princess"I hear you say The muddy, slippery, and slightly steep slope made us decide to be happy just to bag the other nearby cache. TFTC

Found the information that was required for the last waypoint for this cache. Did the calculations and looked and thought..no, surely not! Decided to think it over and went for a look through the very well looked after and maintained museum. Came back out and the GPS was still telling the same story.

Oh well, we are here now and the things you will do to find a cache!

We tackled it the hard way and went up the right hand side of the pipeline. Wow, 500m is a long way when you going straight up as well! In the end we climbed up onto the pipe and walked up along that. The wind made it fun but we made it.

Found the cache after a climb under the pipes to the other side and then went for a walk to the top, which wasn't far for a look. Wow, it's high! Looked for an easier way back down but ended up returning the way we had come. Going down was harder than the trip up.

Made it back to the car with 30mins to spare before the museum closed and a nice fill of water and we drove away rather satisfied.

Didn't expect the cache to be where it was and it was great. Thankyou for the unexpected adventure. TFTC.

We had visited the Waddamana Hydro Museum a couple of years ago - very highly recommended. Luckily we had taken photos of the required information at WP1 giving us the coordinates for WP2 back in April 2010. However today was the first time we had come this way to try to complete the cache. After looking at the access from the bottom, we decided to look for altenative access from the top. Although longer, the terrain was much more friendly but the return walk taxed our fitness as the humidity climbed and storm clouds gathered. Near GZ it took a few minutes to locate the cache - we had to crawl under the now disued penstocks to get access but that was because we didn't make the right guess at the top as to which way we should go. Seeing the powerstations from the top confirmed that our access was preferable to climbing up from the bottom. Thanks for an enjoyable cache and for bringing us back to this historical part of Tasmania.

Found on our 450klm Highland Loop round trip. What a great area to explore we enjoyed every moment of it. This cache was one of ten we found on the day and by far the hardest.

OMG was the first thing that sprung to my mind an apt name for the cache if it was placed in this day and age. Can't believe it was placed in '04. The climb to the top was slow and steady and not for the faint hearted. This will be a cache Mrs T will remember as she did a solo thanks for the challenge and giving me a reason to climb a very steep hill that I would never had done otherwise.

We visited the museum and had a real appreciation for the workers who would have constructed the power station. A challenging cache that is in great condition. Thanks Horus & embi

Rated: for Overall Experience

115 weeks since last logged, another on our list of longest since last found knocked off. Still there, still in excellent condition. After looking for the answers for the multi for much to long inside we emerged with only one of the answers to realise that all the answers are much more obvious than we had expected.

Punched in the coords and after an explore we followed Sirius's plan as 1/2 of shazcol knee's could not have handled the decent from GZ. Found the cache no problems at GZ. Also found some of the old haulage way tracks on the way out in behind one of the remaining large valve systems if you go searching. Some of the old original rock work under the pipes is also quite interesting.

Note: A lot of transmission line work is going on at the moment and the place is crawling with workers and trucks. There is also ample evidence that the area around the track in is currently being selectively harvested as well. Be careful.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Great cache for Red Tags 700th.
We enjoyed the climb up and the view. Wallabies are everywhere you look here. They make useful pads to walk up on.
Thanks Horus & Embi

Rated: for Overall Experience

I wanted a bit of a challenge for my 700th find so after reading the description and the previous logs on this cache I knew it was the one I wanted to do for this milestone.
Gspblu and I had been fishing up in the Central Highlands and had been keeping an eye on the time to make sure we didn't miss the opening hours.

Gathering the info at WP1 was all very straightforward and like others in the past we stood at the bottom and gazed on upwards.
Luckily neither of us hesitated which way we would go, and after navigating our way past the multitude of wallabies we began the climb.

One foot after another at a very manageable pace had us at GZ before we knew it.
Coords spot on and number 700 found.
Thanks Horus & embi for the most enjoyable experience.
red tag

Wanted to add a bit of interest to my drive up to the NW coast, so went via Waddamana! Got to the area at 3:20 had a bit of look inside and asked the staff man there about going for a walk up...he said to stay on the right side of the pipes, and that he had some things to do so he would'nt be closing the gate till 5 or 6 - and if I wasn't back he'd come looking for me! That was reassuring so off I set. Had a good climb up, (about 1/2 an hour) didn't exactly love looking down while climbing - it was steeper than I'd realised, but it was a challenge and fun! Found and logged cache, all good, TN left orange eraser. Then for the climb down, which took a fraction longer than going up as I'm a wuss-bag and scared of careening down the steep slope!!!!! But got there without so much as a scratch...which lasted at least until Great Lake... Loved the drive out too. Thanks Horus, it was fun!

What should I do on a cold, cloudy Sunday? How about go somewhere colder, cloudier and wet! What an excellent idea! Did I mention it was a 260km round trip? That's 14 points well earnt! Took the easy, longer walk option. Spent about 15 minutes crawling around in the mud under the pipes looking for the cache. TNLN, tipped the water out of the bag!

Got the impression from the logs that this one wasn't going to be a walk in the park, but while doing some others in the area we decided to have a look anyway, but we didn't think it was going to be that bad, how wrong can someone be, after looking at it for 2 minutes (yes thats all it took) we decided 2km from the top was better than 500m from the bottom, too close to 100 (kilos, not years) to go up, shorts and T shirt not exactly apropriate for the weather, cold, windy, with showers, loved the view from the top, T shrek2 tin, L permanent marker $ carton cutter,

After putting in coords for wpt2..looked up..my god..no bloody way..it may be only 550m or so..but all vertical.Being observant on way in and having been a pretty sirius orienteer at one stage..opted for the longer but more grade friendly option.While there are private property signs..they relate to when the flume was in operation..but has since been dismantled.Walking in this way gives another perspective of how much work has gone into these Hydro power stations..tremendous effort.Given the weather..almost snowing..there were ample places to avoid the rain showers..inside the short sections of pipes still left.Great cache location..well worth the effort..great stuff and thanks heaps Horus.By the way..cache is in pristine condition..thanks to excellent bag from DDT's...reckon a lot more caches could do with these bags in extreme weather.TNLNSL TFTEC Cheers.

Rated: for Overall Experience

For the second time in their lives the DDTs made the uphill trek to this cache - the first time was on a whim of DD's, about 20 years ago (when we were younger, but not necessarily more foolish than now!!) Inside knowledge from our previous visit made us check out alternative routes, but we still chose uphill in the end. As on our previous vist, we found this to be a most excellent trek (as Horus and Embi claim). Had someone just told us that the lid of the cache was cracked, we would have taken a replacement! Still, nothing seemed damp, so we just put the whole container inside our high quality - fifty cents from Chickenfeed - weatherproof bag! T Village stress star, L big green squishy frog. And, yes, we admit that this cache being unloved led us to attempt it this weekend - although it has been on our to do list! Many thanks for the cache.

With the lovely ‘Private Property – Trespassers Prosecuted’ messages from Hydro above and below, we had to give this one a miss. Sigh. And I've been looking forward to it for so long! I don't know if it's my stupidity or if things have changed since Horus was last in the area - private property hides definately aren't his style!

On the other hand, it inspired us to finally do other caches in the area, and attempting this one meant we drove through some truely stunning scenery. I went into the museum and found it quite interesting and with very friendly staff.

And there was SSSOOOOO much rabbit/ wallaby/ whatever droppings to roll on in the picnic area! I was in heaven!

Hah!!
FTF and done it the hard way (how many times will I climb up really steep hill just to find a box?)

Found at 1250 on 6 Apr 05 (not March as I noted in the log! Geez I did a lot in March). The forecast was rain later in the day and I was hoping to find and log the cache and get back down before the rain arrived. Didn't happen. It was threatening to rain on my way up, spat at me a few times and drove me up the hill faster. Got to the top with Talking Taco Dog TB and went ballistic with the camera taking shots of what is left of the penstocks. Rain held off for the photo shoot.
Batteries went flat in GPSr, it turned off 3 times but mamanged to find the cache before it died completely. Logged cache. Took DVD sampler, left Star squeezy stress ball thingy. Left area and took off down the hill this time on the other side . What a mistake that was! (Note to self: Next hill, research if there IS another way, if not, in and out the same way!) Rained on the way down, everything was slippery under foot and trousers ended up soaked. A great time! A great place and managed some CITO.

Thanks Horus for showing me that the stations are no longer in use.
TeamSwampy(-AR)

Rated: for Overall Experience

Got there just after the gate was locked, but I have binoculars, so getting the required information was realitivly easy. Then the big decision, which way to approach the 542m!! The walk in was spectacular, saw a wombat, devil and many roos. Looking at the old pipe supports, the gates and valves that have been left in place was an engineering history tour. I'm looking forward to hearing future finders tales of how they tackled this one.
As Craigrat says, "I was geozumped, but got to log it first!!"
Left Guide Dog Puppy and Shrek2 zipper tin. Took Smelly Belly!

Wow fellas, it was a wet wonderful blast. Thanks for getting my head back in the cloulds.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Sorry TeamSwampy, I should have included the opening times, and it's crazy that I didn't because when we placed the cache the GeoMuggle in charge started to shut the gate on us as we were taking the co-ordinates for WP1.

If it's any consolation I'm as disappointed as you are - I wanted someone to find the cache, it's been there over a year now with only one attempt so far.

I have sent this as a note because of the following reason.

I rocked up after driving to Electric Fishie on the way home from Launny. I thought 'Great, another one that Orac won't have done'.

Alas, my joy and elation were short lived. I found a fence, a gate and timings. I said "You have got to be joking...." when the GPSr indicate I had another 80 odd croms to go. Then a local muggle decide to get in their 4wd mugglemobile and come to investigate why I stopped at the gate.

How does the saying go? "NOT HAPPY, Horus"
TeamSwampy(-AR)

After today events at gc.com I no longer have any faith in them as the keepers of my caches - so for the time being, until I decide what to do - or calm down, whichever comes first, all my caches have been archived.

This is perhaps the most aptly named cache I've attempted so far....

Got to WP 1, entered the new co-ordinated then was promplty heard to say "You've got to be joking!" ... Bingo..

I was about to set out to WP2 when it started to snow (besides, it looked quite slippery anyway).


This one will wait until summer.

Some people have a sick sense of humour...