i!1: Nest Middle Cove, New South Wales, Australia
By Ideology Geocaching on 01-Jan-01. Waypoint GA0067

If I'd done my homework, I could have walked half the distance to this find. Still, after yesterday's Christmas gorging, the extra distance was a benefit.
Finally arriving at GZ, I thought a bit of climbing was needed, but there was nothing solid enough to climb. I concentrated on the lower areas and caught a glimpse of blue in a deep, dark hole. A bit of stick work and my name was in the old book.
Some interesting swag, including a mossie net, which wouldn't go astray if you were staying down here.
Another scavenge down. Thanks Ideology.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Yeah! Strike-a-light very kindly came with me to find this cache today. As Zal and many others had, we took the wrong route initially and backtracked for the other option. I was rather worried as the tide was not especially low but we had no trouble at all walking along in the not-very-soft mud. There is very little garbage here so the land care people have done a good job

Once at GZ, my gps had me climbing the hillside to explore the rock wall for crevices and I had promised Strike-a-light that the last find was only a month ago so it was sure to be there. As it turns out, my memory is a tad faulty and it was 2.5 years since it was found and there wasn't any evidence of that last find for us to notice!

After a bit and using my cache-hiding brain cells, it wasn't long before I spotted the best hiding spot and the cache was sitting there waiting for me. Thanks Ideology, it's still going strong

I'd never searched for a GCA cache before but we were in the area and thought this one looked to be in an unusual area and it was a pretty old cache so decided to give it a go.

Lucky for us the tide was out so we didn't get feet as we followed the water course.

AT GZ we tried a few other spots first before geohubby got down low for the grab.

TFTC

While planning my morning Dragon Zone run I was going to claim a new Zone but then saw this cache and decided to check the tides... It would be dead low in 30 minutes. Bonus! So it was time to finally pull my finger out and get after this long planned exploration for the first Ideology geocache.

The sun was shining and after picking up a GC one and a Munzee on route, I found myself at the creek... and then took the wrong option. Getting to within 10m of the box I took a look at the cliff and decided the safest route was to backtrack and approach from the riverside.

It was easy going though a bit damp and muddy underfoot. Only had one near-miss slip! You wouldnt believe it but I nearly got muggled out! I heard voices as I approached, but it was only landcare cleaning out some weeds and luckily 50m away from GZ.

At GZ the hunt took a little while but eventually I came across the correct hole and managed self extraction though it cost me some scratches! Super excited to have this cache in hand and a great secret location too. A few kayakers paddled by as I signed the log... which might be the easiest approach actually.

Cache is in good nick thanks to the TLC from previous visitors and will hopefully be around for another 13 years!

Rated: for Overall Experience

Since I was in Castle Cove I thought I should make the slight detour and try to redeem my previous DNFs.
This time I approached from the right level, the tide was working in my favor, I did need an extraction tool but there was plenty to choose from.
Thanks for the great cache

Rated: for Overall Experience

Low tide at 8am and an old cache on the radar.

Despite the previous logs I found this without too many troubles. I tip-toed along the foreshore trying not to damage the mangrove shoots too much. There is a faint path to follow. Be careful on the rocks as sone are slippery. The mud was mildly squelchy in places but I was comfortable in my hiking boots.

I came armed with a golf putter which I used to drag the cache out of its crevice but there are sticks near GZ that would do the job.

The cache is in good shape in its lock-n-lock. One item of swag is a mosquito net which could came in handy next to the mangroves at certain times (but there were no mosquitos around when I was there).

SL TFTC
Found at 8:21 AM

Rated: for Overall Experience

I was glad to have the chance to look for this old GCA cache today. Reading the old logs makes you realise how the game has changed since those early, seemingly mischievous years.

Anyway, I parked on North Arm Rd and wandered down many stone steps. Soon the path went back up again and I debated whether to go along the track-free creek or continue on the path. As I was still some distance from the cache, I opted for the latter (a poor but not fatal choice).

I knew that gz was closer to creek level than cliff top, but the path stayed up so I followed it until it eventually dipped, quite a way past gz. I endeavoured to find a way to creek level here but there was an impenetrable marsh so I returned back to the top of the cliff around where I thought gz was.

There were few options for descending, and of those none seemed too safe or appealing. I didn't want to backtrack to where the creek was near the start of my walk - that was hundreds of metres from gz. So eventually I decided on a climb down in a spot that, at worst, probably wouldn't kill me if I made a complete mess of it. I did slip at one point but managed to spin myself into a large grass plant, avoiding further calamity.

Then I was at the bottom. And what a surreal world it was. A deathly silent creek flowing through a swamp of grey mangroves. A little upstream was a large rock overhang. There wasn't even that much rubbish about.

I set to looking for the cache. Within 10 minutes I had spotted it, but it was deep in a small crevicey cave and I could only shift it slightly with a stick. So, I hoisted myself up and wedged in and grabbed it from the darkness.

All in good order. Log faintly damp, but fine. I signed and got it back in place. Now, how to get out of here? The climb up didn't fill me with enthusiasm, so I thought I'd see how far I could go in a south easterly direction, and maybe, just maybe meet up with the track. And so it proved. Skirting the edge, between the mangroves and the cliffs, I made it all the way back to the track right where I had made my initial decision to follow the track rather than the creek.

On one level it's a shame more people don't visit this cache, but on another it's not. The area around gz seems very fragile and I don't think a lot of human traffic would do it much good. Thanks Ideology.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Unfortunately this one has eluded me, I am pretty sure I was too high along the track as it put GZ in an unapproachable spot. Tried to low approach but the walk through the mangrove swamp did not appeal as I still had to get a bus back to the City and then a train back to Lithgow!
Thanks for the walk.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found this after much effort scrambling through heavy vegetation up and down a steep slope. When I found it, I needed a stick to pry it out. Everything was in order in the cache. I was surprised to find no writen log entries since 2009, but I see that is reflected in this online log.

We enjoy looking for caches such as this that have not been found for a while and require a little bit more effort to reach than the average urban. On a warm and rather muggy spring day we'd opted to go for a walk along the Foreshore Track from Harold Reid reserve to HC Press Park & back which encompasses three caches. It's a walk that's as delightful as it is easy on a well maintained track with virtually nothing that can be categorised as a hill along the way. Plenty of spots with good views over the water and it seemed we had the track to ourselves today, with only a couple of other walkers encountered.

Following the track we got very close to the cache - a matter of a few metres only - but we were not deceived knowing from a perusal of the logs that we were too high. So we traipsed further along despite the distance to the cache increasing quite dramatically. After a little while we found ourselves down at creek level with a rather damp looking track heading off along the bank in the desired direction. The tide was nearing it's ebb and the track was on the muddy & slippery side with the occasional small crab scuttling away to it's burrow. It was quite pretty for the most part however the large amount of rubbish in the area - we presume washed in by the tides - was a major detraction.

The cache is nicely hidden however was not too hard to find. Now logs as far back as 2006 were indicating the cache condition was a bit dubious with the log book being replaced back then by GIN51E, so we were not surprised to find that the cache was in a very sorry state. Everything was very damp and very mouldy, no doubt due to the large crack in the base of the bucket. The only thing in good condition was the replaced log book. We removed the old cache and replaced it with a 2lt lock 'n lock type with a few swaps included. This is a very nice cache and well worth the easy walk.

Lovely walk to the cache and very peaceful in the Mangroves. The cache was and easy find but a little damp. Even the old Bra is looking a worse for wear.

Thanks for taking us there


TNLN

TFTCSL

¿? What curious colour the water is.

¿? We are curious about this brown sticky stuff.

eek, sorry we aren't much chop at cache maintenance!
we'll take a look in the next few weeks

we placed this on 1/1/2001, our first cache and one of the earlier ones in sydney, so we really should look after it a bit better!

Cache #1 @ 1pm

Well after quickly reading the last log i thought i would take a new log book with me, one problem is i didn't have a spare log book,

So i ran around the house trying to find something and came up with an old exercise book which i had to cut down to size to fit in a Glad Bag, placed in a GCA stash note and a few pens and out the door i went.

During the walk to the cache i noticed it was high tide and thought the area looked very nice at high tide, but then i arrived at GZ where i had a Decision to make, was it up here or down there. So i quickly pulled out the PDA and had a little read, hmm yup it must be down there... all of a sudden that High Tide didn't look so nice but i had come this far and already had a new log made up so down i went.

Jumping from tree to rock to tree again trying not to get my feet wet then found the cache quickly, Except it wasn't a pretty site.

The cache had a fair bit of water in it along with the contents of what used to be in the Rusty Old Tin Can, So i got everything out of the cache, gave the container a quick clean in the water and stuck all the mouldy contents back in, Signed the new log and before i gave it a new home i slipped it into a second Glad Bag for extra protection.

Then I had another battle with the increasing Tide and on the way back up the track i spotted a nice Lizard i had never seen before. The body of a Blue Tongue yet it had the colours and marking similar to those found on a Carpet Python, yet it quickly jumped back into its hole before i could get a photo.

All in all a much enjoyed cache despite the cache condition and the weeds and rubbish around the area, still worth the visit.

Any chance the next cacher to attempt this cache to bring along a new Container and a rubbish bag for the old one and swaps.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Fishing was on the agenda for the day

What the heck, the cache was on the way

Motored up the narrow creek

Thank god for high tide, got almost to the peek

Tramped through the mud and to a cliff

Had the geocache within a jiff

What a mess Id have to say

Mouldy soft toys and a bra

A can of soup in total decay

The log book stinky and wet

No ones been here in a while I bet.

After reading of the trials and tribulations of other seekers, entered the track at North Arm Road. Followed the track too far and had to backtrack. Found the bucket quickly and used last page on log.
No swaps made, after 16 months things are getting a bit manky, although the oft-mentioned bra in it's baggie was probably the best preserved. Can't figure out why nobody's attempted this one in over a year.

A great adventure but sadly no prize. Made our way to a fairly stable GZ - the tide was favourable so we kept our feet dry - but no sign of any nest. Maybe our tired eyes were just not seeing it. One or two trees seemed to have fallen, so hope they weren't significant. After 'beating around the bush' for a while, backtracked to a safe crossing place and checked the other side of the creek. This seemed to confirm the original GZ, and once again no nests revealed themselves. Perhaps we can try again next visit.

Maybe not a good idea to start this one late in the afternoon.Parked only a few hundred metres away but got within 20 metre of GZ but seperated by water to deep to cross.then went the long way around and up and down.
Took rat
Left lamb

Easy find. Bit of a walk through the bush but the GPS took me straight to it. Cache was chock full of stuff, but nothing to tickle my fancy, so no swaps.
Tangle's bra is still there. Interesting to read through the old logs, only 5 pages left in the book.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Nice easy find! started on the high track but found it quick smart after a bit of trudging . Encounterd some wild life and got a bit muddy.
Team J.A.C.K.A

What a mission. Took the wrong track, took the other track (turns out to be one of the right ones), took another wrong track. Dopex took a run, a jump, a swim, a wade. Finally CACHE! No swaps. Departed in opposite directions using the CB's to make a rendezvous back at the road. No swaps.

wnet with barnesy... although barnesy proved to be hydrophobic and stay on the wrong side of the river (or is the the right side of the river).
pex

An interesting place for a cache. Almost as interesting as the contents of the container. It would appear that the bra has been there for over two years - who leaves a bra in these things?! Oh well. Well hidden i! Luv ya work! Took the remaining food stuff, left a small blue radio.

Take the high road or the low road? in the end had to walk both tracks, thankfully the tide was out. Took nothing.

Jeff and I had a fair while searching in the wrong location. Not particularly straight forward. Got to hate those caches close to cliff edges....

After all the searching, we decided to follow a track that led us in the wrong direction, but brought us back....finally found the cache. Took about 1hr to find this one.

Left a business card for the Ottoman Restaurant in Canberra - a great turkish feed lot!

After a long search that was fruitless, we tryed a slightly less than appealing tack. It paid off and we found where it was hidden. very sneaky. The geokids were with me and they enjoyed it greatly. Took a paintbrush, red candle and a sewing kit. Left a pet rock by 'plantman', a fridge photo magnet and a beast. Replaced the ziplock bag the logbook was in as it had holes in it. cache in good order otherwise.
Thanks,
Baseline Benny & Family.

BJF and I had tried this one a long time ago and had struck out! Back in the area with upgraded hardware and a copy of the logs and latest co-ordinates we set off to find this elusive cache! I almost fell down the cliff and found myself up to my shoulders in ferns and scrub. However with me hanging out of a tree and pointing directions, BJF eventually found it! We had actually walked past it twice before! We left a soft toy ball and took nothing except the ferns and prickles that I'll be picking out of my orifices for the next few days! You gotta love an experience you can take home with you! MRG

Well, more than a year after our first try and with updated co-ordinates we finally bagged this one. MRG says it all in his log...what more can one add ? Thanks Ideology.
BJF

Really up the creek with this one. Having read the previous logs, decided to ignore the worst possibilities and attack from the dry side. Unfortunately this path led to a philosophical crossroads: wade in or give up! Never say never, in we went following an arachno-overhang whilst the high tide crept ever up the trouserlegs. Suddenly land-ho and soon found the co-ords were damn-well spot on. Took a ball, left some Aussie stickers; returned a steeper but drier route. Sad moral of this story: Never put your mobile phone in your trouser pocket while cache-hunting. Is this covered by insurance?
Thanks IG for a great adventure.

After first ending up on the wrong side of the creek (I wasn't going swimming like other hardcore cahers) and then at the wrong altitude, eventually found this pretty easily - even managed to keep my feet dry although got a few scratches from the bush-bashing. Nice one - evil, but nice. Left a golf ball, took nothing.

Wandered in and approached GZ. Right location, wrong altitude. After having rectified this minor problem, the cache was easy to find. By the way, has a recycling centre relocated to this area. There must have been about 1000 empty plastic bottles around here. (No, I am not joking). Took some out but hardly made a dent.

Apart from the rubbish we took nothing and left nothing.

Great hide i!

Nice easy find on the way home from THE PICNIC. In went a ball and toothpicks, out came a keyring and dogfood. We were working an a printout of 25.8.02, but still found it...We were going to suggest some co-ord changes, but that has been done.
Thanks i!

Well, what can I say. I was expecting a 10 min car to cache time, and it could have been. It turned out to be 59 mins, but I got the slippery little sucker.

Was very close on my first attack, and ended up back in the same spot for the final successful attack. 2nd attack saw me at the right altitude but GZ was inacessible (I did go in the water up to my knees but was hesitant to proceed further). 3rd attack was from the wrong side of the creek after much walking and bush bashing. 4th attack was successful after taking the lessons from the first 3 attempts, relocating the nest and bashing to GZ.

Nice one i!. Left a sewing kit, took relaxation CD. Listening to it now, I think it will find it's way back into another cache fairly soon (not to my taste).

Pooled brain cells with SwampGecko again for my second attempt at this one... My GPS returned me to exactly the same spot as I'd had SO MUCH LUCK at the last time, but nevertheless we both searched around for a while within a 20-30m radius without finding anything... Not even my i! thinking cap would help...

SwampGecko decided to trust his instincts and crossed the creek (again) to explore some likely looking hidey holes over there... I joined him after he had found it, but he kindly let me find it again...
We found the coordinates to be off by about 30m, but the reception IS pretty bad in that area... This cache has been here so long maybe the continental plate has shifted by that much - who knows!!!
If you don't have any luck at first, try 33'47.429S & 151'12.796E or thereabouts...

Took a box cutter and a muesli bar and left some Leek seeds and replenished the stock of Freddos

Disappointed!!!
Not even the new Leek mapping technology helped with this one... (according to the UBD map, the cache is in the middle of the creek??)
Finally found my way down to the cache area, but did manage to get my feet slightly wet while crossing the creek - not a good start!
There are so many nests in this area, it was difficult to know which one to go for. Got a reasonable fix near a tree with a nest, but when I tried to triangulate to get a better position, it pointed me somewhere totally different!!!
After 1.5 hours beating of bush in a 10 meter radius, poking with sticks and trampling of Asparagus Fern - I finally surrendered...
I can only take comfort from the fact that many other players have failed to find this one on the first attempt... I'll be back...
Consider me baffled i!

I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse...