1857 Stepney, South Australia, Australia
By Darksidelemm & Laighside Legends on 29-Jun-13. Waypoint GA6410

A cache taking you through part of Second Creek. Please read the full cache description, it contains instructions for finding the cache, and other important information.

 Welcome to the Adelaide underground (again)! Please print out these instructions for use during your upcoming journey...

There will be spiders.

There will be cockroaches.

There may be rats.

There may be other humans.

Good luck.

First some safety information:

- DO NOT attempt this cache if it is, or has been raining.

- DO NOT attempt this cache if you see water flowing in the creek at the start location.

- DO NOT attempt this cache without at least two torches, and backup batteries.

- DO NOT attempt this cache by yourself. Take a buddy.

- DO NOT attempt this cache if you are claustrophobic.

- DO allow approximately 1-2 hours for this cache. Total walking distance is a bit over 3.5km, most of it underground.

- DO let someone else know what you are doing, and let them know your expected exit time.

- DO wear clothes/shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty or wet. You will get muddy.

- DO bring drinking water.

- DO attempt this cache at night, if you can. It’s easier to enter and exit without being seen...

- DO bring a camera. It’s worth it!

This multi-cache will take you to a long-buried piece of Norwood’s history - the original Parade bridge over Second Creek, built in 1857. The bridge was extended in 1879 after the tram lines were built and then covered over sometime in the first half of the 20th century, when this area of the creek was diverted from it’s original course into the street-following concrete stormwater drain that it is today.

The starting coordinates are in the recently landscaped Linde Reserve, in the middle of Stepney. Avoiding the attention of other users of the park, make your way into the creek bed, and head upstream (towards Norwood).

For the next few hundred metres you will be walking through a canal which snakes its way through Stepney, going under streets and buildings a few times. There are also a few side-tunnels, which go to places unknown (Don’t go down them!). Algae often grows on the floor of this canal, making it very slippery - watch out!

Eventually the canal transitions into a rectangular concrete tunnel. You may spot a green frog somewhere on a wall around here. About 300 metres after the last open canal section you will come to a fork. You are currently below the Magill Road / Osmond Terrace intersection. The left tunnel continues along Magill Road and just gets lower and lower, so take the right tunnel, and continue on. You are now in Norwood!

As you continue through the tunnel, be on the lookout for grates above you. Some open into gutter-boxes on the side of streets, some into people’s backyards, some into car-parks. Second Creek really isn't as interesting as First Creek, but continue on - the cache awaits you!

About 1km after the fork in the tunnel, be on the lookout for a round concrete pipe (RCP) on the right wall of the tunnel, a bit less than a metre in diameter. It will be marked with ‘CACHE’ and an arrow. About 2m in, this pipe opens out into the underside of the old Parade bridge, which continues along to a larger open section, filled with cobwebs and cockroaches. A rat was also sighted here during cache placement. The cache is in this section somewhere, and shouldn’t be too hard to find.

If you’re feeling really adventurous, the small RCP at the far wall of the open section leads to a low section of tunnel which gets a bit bigger, then dead-ends. We’re a bit unsure as to what this section of tunnel was used for.

Once you’ve found the cache, we suggest that you go back the way you came. It is possible to continue along the main tunnel and exit after a few hundred metres, but the chance of being seen by muggles here is very high.

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