Don't Look Down! Gawler West, South Australia, Australia
By
Laighside Legends on 06-Aug-16. Waypoint GA8324
Cache Details
| Difficulty: | |
| Terrain: | |
| Type: | Traditional |
| Container: | Small |
| Coordinates: | S34° 35.979' E138° 44.190' (WGS 84) |
| 54H 292431E 6169023N (UTM) | |
| Elevation: | 43 m |
| Local Government Area: | Gawler |
/138.7365,-34.59965,14/400x200?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoiY2F1Z2h0YXR3b3JrIiwiYSI6ImNqa2l4ZzNzMDE5bjgzdm1sZGpuODF1Mm0ifQ.q8YMzVyzDJJlJHHV8EMjwQ)
Description
The third cache in the SA railway history series...
Unlike the first two caches in the series, this one is a lot more difficult to get to. Note the terrain rating. If you slip and fall you will end up in hospital. Please only attempt it if you are confident in your physical abilities (and are not at all scared of heights).
The Gawler River Railway bridge. The original bridge was opened in 1860 when the railway was extended to Kapunda to service the growing copper mines. I am unable to find the date the current bridge was built but my guess would be about the 1920's. The last train to cross the bridge was around 2008. It is currently out of service and may be revived one day if the need arises. I have been unable to find any historic photos of the bridge so if anyone knows of any please let me know. Below are some current-day photos.
The remains of the original bridge in the middle and the current bridge of the left
This photo was taken while standing on top of the cache - this should give you some idea where you need to be
There are two ways to access this cache. If you have a big ladder you can approach from below (this is probably the safer way). Or you can walk out along the bridge and then climb over the beam to the cache. But before climbing over the beam please make sure you are capable of climbing back up - otherwise you will get stuck on the pillar with the cache.
Good luck and enjoy the history!
Hints
Zvqqyr bar, fbhgu jrfg raq, va gur ubyr |
|
Decode |
Logs
Cheers and thanks for the challenge LL
Thank you Laighside Legends
During this trip to Adelaide achieved 4x FTF's (GA), picked up a dozen moveables; plus the highlight being my D/T grid (GC) now filled after finding one up a tree.
Huge THANK YOU to local cachers: J&J, Laighside Legends, andrewbt, Atreyu1982, Blackadders, OzGrumpy, weredunn4 & Jacknor whom all contributed towards my success.
What an adventure, visiting: Adelaide CBD, Showground, Glenelg & Seacliff Holdfast Bay, McLaren Vale, Onkaparinga, Hawthorndene, Carrick Hill, Kensington Park, Teringie, Prospect, Elizabeth, Port Adelaide, Garden Island, Gawler, Nuriootpa Barrossa; and an impressive collection of planes at Greenock Aviation Museum!
No way I was betting back from there, but now I know what gear to bring with me on the next visit!
Arriving near GZ, my confidence continued to be high..... right up until I looked down and realised that I was!
As my confidence plummeted, so did my hopes of having a shiny thing in my hands
Muggle partner then decided that he could perform this cache retrieval, although he did look at and consider several options prior to selecting the one that he thought he could manage.
Naturally Brodie stood guard while I took the pictures and stood ready to call 000 if required, all the while praying
that it wouldn't be! When the wind gusts increased the levels of concern rose however the wind died off again and a safe retrieval was made.
So *FTF* at 13:34 today
.... well before the wind and rain really set in! Thankfully there was a pencil in the cache
as muggle partner took off in such a hurry that he didn't grab my stamp and I didn't think to hand it to him! 
Muggle partner is 6' 3" so the warning about that beam is very important as there was no way I'd have managed to get back up on top of it!
All in all, a heart stopping cache hide and it definitely needs a secure sense of balance to allow a safe retrieval to occur!
Thanks for the fun, LL
Mrs J waited on solid ground while I strolled out until the GPSr said the cache was one metre away. Those photo's sure are deceptive. I knew I could probably get the cache, but there'd be no coming back the way from it. Even my 3' ladder would have helped here, but that was back in Morphett Vale.
It sure was a long walk back to the car.
