Volkswagon Lookout (Beautiful Albany's Heritage Penny Collection #05) Frenchman Bay, Western Australia, Australia
By Albany Canucks on 25-Oct-10. Waypoint GA2667

Your mission is to find an Australian penny hidden at a coastal lookout above Whaler's Beach in Frenchman Bay

Views of a beautiful beach.  Lovely wildflowers.  A shipwreck.  Some local history.  And an old Australian penny.  Those are some of the things you can expect to see on this cache hunt!  Like most virtual caches, the main requirement is to get to the location indicated by the coordinates.  The coordinates will bring you to a lookout right above the beautiful Whaler's Beach and Frenchman Bay.  The beach is bordered by Vancouver Point on the left and Waterbay Point on the right, affectionately designated and remembered by the Canucks as VW.  You won't see any Volkswagons, but from here you will see the wreck of the Elvie on the beach to the left, Vancouver Spring to the right, the ruins of a Norwegian Whaling Station, and of course the spectacular beach.  To get here, park at the Vancouver Lookout on Vancouver St (off Frenchman Bay Rd) and follow the Heritage Walk Trail (see image gallery for a walk trail map) - walking the entire trail will take little more than an hour, and there's many fascinating interpretive signs along the way that detail some of the historical records and experiences of the early visitors like Captain George Vancouver and Matthew Flinders.  You may get to see some nice wildflowers, and it's worth considering taking the steps down to the beach near Vancouver Point.

But this is a virtual cache with one small difference: we have hidden an old Australian penny right on the very spot where we recorded the coordinates.  The original requirement to take a photo of a view from around GZ is now optional, but to prove that you were really there, after you've logged the find please send us a private message telling us the year on the penny.  You should be able to find the penny without too much difficulty when you pinpoint GZ, but please do NOT try to remove it. An old penny won't make you rich, so leave it here for others to enjoy the somewhat unusual challenge offered by this virtual cache.  The penny is not buried and doesn't require the removal of rocks or anything else, but is in plain view - you just need to look in the right spot!  Is the penny hunt like looking for a needle in a hay stack?  Not when you have a GPS receiver and the exact coordinates where it's located!  

This is the fifth of what the Canucks hope will become a Heritage Penny Collection sprinkled throughout Beautiful Albany, in some of the wonderful places that this area has to offer.  Our aim is to bring you to a nice place where you can enjoy the beauty of the natural environment, and the additional challenge of finding the equivalent of a needle in a haystack - made easy with today's technology.  The more accessible the location, the harder we'll try to make the penny hunt.   The real "wealth" that this land abounds in isn't measured in pennies, but in nature's gifts of beauty rich and rare, and we hope our penny trail will help you get there to appreciate it all.  Enjoy Beautiful Albany, enjoy our Heritage, and enjoy the hunt!

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