Western Wind Sock - Western Ring Path Ardeer, Victoria, Australia
By caughtatwork on 01-Jul-17. Waypoint GA10325

Today we started with the Western Ring Path series of caches then headed over to Cairnlea to find some more in that area. We had selected 36 caches to find and this was one on our list. Unfortunately, we could only manage 24 finds, the rest were DNF"S.

Cache and contents were dry and in good order.

Thanks caughtatwork.

Rated: for Overall Experience

19:00
Looping around anticlockwise seemed the best way to get to GZ; it's not as if you couldn't see your destination at all times. The hide itself was surprisingly audacious. Now... back to the path...

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Well.

This wasn't the day I'd planned, but family matters had turned the weekend on its head. Between sleeping in after the fun of caching in the dark until so late it was almost early, and staying at home to referee while the better half ran some errands, it wasn't until mid afternoon that I rolled out the gate.

Finally logging my first cache for the day after crossing the Whitten Bridge, I continued anticlockwise around the Ring Road, bagging 42 finds, and a handful of DNFs.

Thanks, C@W... today's haul has gone a long way toward my ambition of getting my GA logs over 10% of the GC total.

GCA#282

Rated: for Overall Experience

#GA1889 - 12:23; Day two of a caching mission to Victoria with Sol de lune. Our major goal for the week is to complete the SSS and other series along the Western Freeway/Ring Road and to then collect enough GCA caches around Docklands to bring our total finds for the day to 100+ which would build our trophy cabinets a bit more as we complete a few more 'missions'. This was one of 82 finds in just under 6 hours along the various series, where we only had the one DNF! We finished the freeway section and had now turned north to take on the 'ring path'. Spotted this one on an earlier dead end run! Nice to finally get here Apologies for the mostly generic logs. TFTC caughtatwork

Rated: for Overall Experience

Loved being under the windsocks...certainly covered in there from any prying eyes.

Thanks for this one C@W.....

Rated: for Overall Experience

I enjoyed my walk along the Western Ring Rd path, south of the Western Freeway, a few weeks ago with my niece, so today I planned to cycle the northern section. I have not cycled very often in the recent past but I knew that the path was mostly flat so I should not get into too much difficulty. I ended up finding 25 caches in 4 hours, with a short stop to discuss geocaching with two police officers and another stop to chat with a VicRoads worker.
Thank you caughtatwork for this series.

When my sons were young they used to call these windsocks "Fimble tails" in reference to the BBC children's program about creatures that were similarly coloured. The funny thing was that Fimbles do not have tails. Maybe the windsocks resemble the Fimbles's snouts.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Planning for this trip began in June - we knew we would be heading to Adelaide but which way would we go? This depended on our targets. We looked at our list of unclaimed Dragon Zone trophies and picked out several that we could feasibly collect the required number of finds to qualify for the trophy. We then had to identify caches that would meet our targets and from here it was time to plan a route that would take us past the caches we had identified. Any caches too far off our route were discarded and replaced by suitable alternatives.

All was running smoothly until the Christmas in July game was announced. We would be travelling in the latter part of the game. It was difficult to include this in our target caches as we did not know what was required. Once the game began and we understood what we needed to do we could then add other caches to the target list.

We were just getting our heads, yes all four of them, around this when more Dragon Zone trophies were added. Which ones could we meet and which should we ignore? Do we need to add more GA caches and/or do we need to change our route and our targets? We decided on our target list and then our route and timeline. We had just drawn a line under everything and were about to begin printing our caching booklets, route maps and target lists when caught@work published 23 new caches on the Western Ring Path. Earlier we had decided on the caches in the Edgewater Walk series. If we added the new ones on the Western Ring Path and as many of the CCC series as possible, we could probably reach the required number of caches to qualify for the Dragon Zone trophies “Restraining Order Stalker” (Find 100 DZ caches hidden by the same cacher) and “Obsession!=Insanity” (find 50 DZ caches in a day). As the latter would give us our first Blaze Trophy, it was decided to alter everything to include the CCC series.

We usually head out of the Melbourne CBD as soon as we disembark from The Spirit of Tasmania as we do not enjoy city caching. If we were going to tackle the CCC series we would have to start in Docklands, then move to the Western Ring Path. Caches in these series also carry nice points for the Christmas in July game. New lists drawn up, alterations made to the route and maps. New line drawn and printing and collating begun. No major changes now (unless something significant gets published just before we leave – we cannot be too inflexible when caching is involved).

By contrast to our experience in Docklands earlier in the day, our GPS units behaved faultlessly on this section of the Western Ring Path with very accurate coordinates being recorded for each cache.

At first we were not sure which track would provide access to the wind socks. However as we got closer we noticed the side track running under the highway and sure enough this led to the cache. This was a simple but very effective hide. Container and contents were in good condition. After replacing the cache we retraced our steps back to the main path.

Thanks caught@work for this cache and all the caches you have placed along the Western Ring Road Path. They have become a recent focus for us as we travelled through Melbourne. And yes we are still practising for our dissertation.

***FTF***

Today was the perfect day to pick up some GCA smileys.

Xmas in July points need to be scored.

I threw the bike in the car and parked in a supermarket car park close by.

I've admired these from the freeway many times.

Today I was close up with a strong northerly blowing.

TFTC

Rated: for Overall Experience

Published for the Christmas in July game if you need a new geocache or two.