Fine Cotton Ascot, Queensland, Australia
By ruzzelz on 13-Apr-07. Waypoint GC124J1

Another mini road trip from Queensland. This time with one of my teen-muggle, so fewer geocaches this time. Bringing our geomobile home.Came here after solving the mystery a week ago. After fifteen minutes at and around the hinted GZ, I must stop. Another time?

Got intel from a recent finder. Ah, like the Fine Cotton saga, you gotta look further. Whats on the other side? Of the hinted GZ. This time, a quick find to keep my teen muggle happy. TFTC ruzzelz

TFTC Placeholder log.FLTF

Over visiting from NZ and using the time to do as much caching as other commitments allow. Today I had teamed up with GEM_54 to try and knock off as many of the sailboat series as possible plus any others we may be passing.I'm certainly glad we chose a Sunday to do these ones, as the area was almost deserted and so parking near GZ's was never a problem, but I can imagine how busy it would be on a week day, with lots of workers and heavy traffic.Another nice quic find here. TFTC

We couldn't leave the area without finding this older cache. Gotcha. Tftc

Solved this one a long time ago and heading down for a walk along the river and found this one after a bit of a search. Well hidden. Tftc

After work I drop pass this one to grab this cache. ruzzelz thank you for placing and maintaining this cache for enjoyment of the caching community

Hunting oldies one by one and this one was todays Winner! Relatively QuickFind at GZ

I headed out in the geo-car for a few caches today.Decided to hit a few around Nundah and surrounding areas..I found your cache, Fine Cotton today. This is my 2571 find.Found it this time but not exactly where I expected.ruzzelz, TFTC, TFTH & TFTSF

After sailing through the streets near the airport we still had some time left before the evening activities. Chasing a certain attribute this cache came up, we tried for this one a few weeks ago but it was dark and the bats and spiders were out in force. Back during the day and after one lap we found the cache without too much trouble.Tftc ruzzelzFind #4848

Tftc.

Found today with Mrs Burdons5 on the way home from a river cruise. Glad to report the cache guardian or his decendants are still watching the cache. Have me a big fright! Tftc!

Well, this is our 1000th find so we wanted it to be something a little special. As a family who has always had, and maintains, a connection to thoroughbred horse racing this was a perfect one to solve. Fine Cotton eh! I was a child at the time but the folk law surrounding that story is something that has endured. What an amazing shambles. It’s well worth some research.

Caching today on the area that has plenty of green spots. Now to turn into smiles.

Out caching with RoddyC and echocage1.

TFTCache ruzzelz

Had an opportunity to log a few caches with hatzofff and Echocage1.

All is good here. It has been too many years since I solved this puzzle! I guess we have never made the opportunity to get here.

Log signed and cache replaced as found at 1140 pm on 19th July 2023. TFTC, ruzzelz.

New cache in place.

Hi Ruzzelz, I looked in your cache today but it looks like maybe missing. It looks like a long time between now, and the last find.

Are you able to check on this cache?

Cache container and contents found spread across the ground. Cleaned out the container and placed a temporary log in place.

This was a quick and easy find. TFTC

Quick and easy find but watch out for the 8 legged cache guardian. Has nest on the container and doesn't want to leave.

I had worked this one out early last year but hadn’t been in the area until today. Quick find at gz. The logbook has mostly dried out but is covered in mould. It got over my hands so I wiped off as much as possible from the outside of the book and my hands on the grass. Added a silica gel. Tftc

Found Fine Cotton a little worse for wear; damp & mouldy log book. Put the cache back and tried to add a little more camo. Ascot: Amongst the Porsche’s, Benz’s & Beema’s. TFTC

I should have come and picked this cache up some time ago, especially on the days I was losing money on the punt around the corner.

If I just had of left the horse betting arena back then and instead came for this cache, I would have plenty of money saved to spend on other vices. If I had of made a smart decision back then, who knows how much dough I would have to spend on other endeavors like tobacco, alcohol adultery and sugar.

Today was a perfect day to visit because as a public holiday there weren’t any races on and it meant all the money in my wallet was staying there. The only scary thing we saw today was a giant toad hiding under the cache. It was so massive it was almost as big as a horse, and for old times sake I threw a few dollars on it for the win. tftc

Whilst scouting the Brisbane suburbs, I remember coming across this puzzle cache, and it was a simple research puzzle; the opposite of a puzzle with twists and turns, and "guess what I'm thinking". Sometimes, these sorts of puzzles are preferable whilst understanding an element of local history. For this puzzle, it was all about learning of Fine Cotton, and it wasn't too long until I had a set of solved coordinates that the GeoChecker liked, back on 22/02/2021.

I was in the area today and so thought I would make a stop at a couple of caches around Ascot, with this cache being one of them. After parking nearby and walking to the obvious structure, I immediately saw the cache sticking out. I was rather surprised to see the cache so prominent, so it was probably lucky that it hadn't been seen by muggles, so I made sure to place back with some natural camouflage. The cache container was in good shape, and despite the logbook acknowledged to be wet/saturated, it didn't seem to be too bad to me. There were signs of it being once damp, and there was some slight black mould, but I've certainly seen much worst logbooks in my time. Thanks ruzzelz for the cache placement and ongoing maintenance. It was also nice to have found this oldie 04/2007 hidden cache, which is one of Queensland's 1000 oldest yet active geocaches.

A quick park & find. Unfortunately everything in the container is wet including the log book. I managed to sign but everything needs to be dried off TFTC

All contents of the cache are wet & a replacement log will be needed as it is starting to go mouldy

Headed to Brisbane with Kestal to collect a list of puzzles to fulfil a challenge I signed in Melbourne last year before the world went crazy. Initially we were headed in another direction but I missed an exit through the tunnels and we ended up nearby so we decided to reverse the order of caches and this became find number one. Have had this one solved for a long, long time so very happy to make the find here. TFTC ruzzelz.

Eskies5 gathered a list to ️ off a challenged she had signed pre-change of world in Melbourne last year. With the list in hand, we headed off. This was the first stop and we were happy to make a quick find to get the day started (they weren’t all going to be this straightforward!). TFTC ruzzelz

With the rest of the family away for the weekend I had the whole day free to myself. I don't often get a chance to cache over on the North side of town so today was the perfect opportunity to rectify this and pick up some solved puzzles and other caches in my to-do database.
I have had this puzzle solved for well over 5 years but never seem to have the opportunity to detour off my usual routes around this area to make the find. With plenty of time on hand today I was able head over and finally secure myself the find. TFTC

Nice straight forward cache partnered with a crazy tale of shenanigans. TFTC

Watawieh from Norfolk Island South Pacific.
I solved this one for before this visit to Queensland as I knew I would be in the area. Thanks for the interesting history lesson that I am sure the horse racing industry would rather forget. A quick an easy find on an early morning walk. TFTC

I August [I found the sister geocache](https://coord.info/GL12F7866) to this one at night. Somehow, I had this idea in my thick brain that the mystery here was a tricky one, or required a visit someplace. I don't understand why I had that idea, but clearly I didn't think to check.

When I got home and logged it, I then checked this listing and sat and solved it. Turns out, paying attention, and a few internet searches gets you to good places. It got me to at least some co-ordinates saved away for a future day.

And that turned out to be today. After a morning volunteering at another clean-up event, this time at Breakfast Creek, I checked the map and spotted this icon nearby. Ah yes, this old, solved hide. I'll have that!

Somehow I managed to nearly drive the wrong way up a one-way street, but did find a parking space in the shade. Sans shoes, I wandered down the hot path, across some nice grass and with a quick circumnavigation of the suspect spot, I made a quick find and grab.

Very rarely I'm unaware of my surrounds when geocaching, but as I retired, I spotted a BMW pulled over just metres away, watching me closely. I carefully shuffled the geocache about my person to keep it out of sight as I walked away and plonked down on the grass to sign the logbook. It was quiet today, both my memory of the Fine Cotton incident (guess that happens when it pre-dates my birth!) and the surrounds - just a few picnickers.

Unfortunately, there was some very ragged contents to the geocache, so I took the opportunity to give it a bit of a clean, sign the logbook and out-wait the BMW. Which I managed and could replace the geocache in peace. All done and sorted. Thanks for this geocache, ruzzelz

Gee did this cause a stir when it happened. I had worked this out quite awhile ago. I found the other cache of the horse involved so went for a quick walk for this one. Thanks for these two

A very fine cache find

Caching with Triggerfish. We started in the CBD but came out to the ‘burbs to get away from the muggles. We are having much better luck now!

Thanks for the fun, ruzzelz

Solved the puzzle some weeks back and cycled past today on the way home after playing soccer. Quick find.

TFTC

Georode

Have recently decided my map was in serious need of some Smilies on Mystery Caches. A nice bit of history here and a lovely area surrounding GZ. All is good here. TFTC

Geohubby solved (Azeale), geotoddler ran muggle interference and I found, a very nice family afternoon TFTC

Thank you for the puzzle and the hide. Was a in and out log after work

Had to postpone my mountain experience by another day, but tomorrow that foot WILL be OK!
Car caching to collect a few finds.

This puzzle was one of the few I have managed to solve while in isolation.


Thank you Ruzzel for this cache
R

After finding another along the way, We decided to stop by a nearby park and collect a smiley for a puzzle we had solved sometime ago. It was pretty quiet out here today. It’s nice that even in these times where we need to self isolate, Geocaching can still provide us with an outdoor and healthy activity.
A lovely puzzle and beautiful park at GZ.
Thanks ruzzelz
Domsky 

Thanks for the puzzle and cache. This was one of the first puzzles I ever solved. I've just been waiting for the right time to collect the cache. Today's was that day.


Log in good condition.

Nice and quick little puzzle. It helps me out with the February challenge, so today I set off to find the cache.

GZ was really beautiful this morning. Not a cloud in sight, already quite hot at 7 am, and some rainbow lorikeets flying overhead, eating seeds from a tree, and generally making quite a lot of sound.

This is a very generous sized cache. Dropped off a TB and picked one up. Signed the log and went to return the cache but a muggle had decided to wait around for transport to start their day. So I had a bit more time to enjoy the birds and the trees before finally returning the cache and starting my own day.

Thanks Ruzzelz for placing and maintaining this cache - all in good condition here.

Had solved this one a while back but needed a F for February. Got it early today. Nice area after the makeup. TFTC

Ferg44 solved the coordinates and Ferg13 made the find. The area is looking lovely. TFTC

Out and about on a warm Sunday afternoon. Parked the car and walked towards GZ which was in the park across the road. Found cache and signed log. TFTC ruzzelz

Attending an event later in the afternoon in Hamilton so collecting a few caches nearby. Enjoyed solving the puzzle - remembered when it happened! A quick easy find at GZ. Thanks ruzzelz.

Great story

I enjoyed the story behind this one and solved the puzzle in my hotel nearby last night. This morning I got up extra early to make the find in an attempt to log the greatest distance between two caches in a day as we jet off to Vancouver at 9am and because of the time zones we’ll arrive at 11am on the same day giving me a good chance.
Instant find at GZ.
Thanks for adding to my trip.

Quick easy find tftc
Park looks fantastic now after all the work done here

Stopped here on the way home after dropping ZipZap1's cousins family at the airport. Driving the cousins quirky fourby for the first time so needed a breather before tackling the run through the city.??
A quick cache here to steady my nerves did the trick and I and the rig made it back to ZipZaps unscathed.??

Found this cache quickly and in good condition.
TFTC ruzzelz??

Want to log in order so just advising unloved hunters that it has been recently found.

Improvement work in park completed and fencing barrier removed

Exclusion fencing is still around the park. Work looked to be complete so hopefully will see the park re-open soon.

Checked again today. Reconstruction work at the park is continuing. Area still fenced off.

Park improvements are still under way and the area is fenced off. No notices of the expected completion date at the site. I'd say at least another month.

Park improvements underway. GZ is fenced off. This work may take a couple of months to complete.

Who doesn’t love a puzzle about horses! A quick stop to retrieve the cache after a trip to dfo and onwards for a few more on the way home. Tftc

After a stroll waiting for coast to clear retrieved the cache nil in nil out. Thankyou cheers bmtc18
NOTE
See photo

Headed to Brisbane for the Australian youth waterpolo championships and this cache was reasonably close to my accomodation and the only mystery I solved before heading away. The clue became apparent once at ground zero.. jumped a mile when uncovering the cache to find a mouse..log signed and replaced as found

After dropping off our canadian visitors back to the cruise ship, I decided to pick up a few caches this side of the river. Coords spot on and a quick find. Interesting puzzle and location.

Found on 19 April 2018. TFTC, ruzzelz.

Had a bit of time in between appointments, quickly wikied the answers and found it was nearby. A short walk and a brief search located the hide. Tftc and the interesting history lesson.

Haven't been coaching for a while and had this in my solved but not found list so decided to go forth. Love the hint and location. TFTC

usually, when i look at a puzzle, my head swims and i slowly back away, but this one actually looked solvable from the get-go. so not wasting any time, i soon had some likely suspects. . all that was left, was to be rolling around the area, which just so happened to be this fine day. mini-milestone mystery!
Thanks ruzzelz for teaching me something new and placing a cache in dedication. i spent a great time wikapediaing all about racehorses after the solve.
(totally dodgying up a backdate find for the milestone credit.)
Cheers!

Perfect winters day to be out caching with geo friends and this was a nice neat hide with great co-ords, had to get the trusty torch out for this one but found easily enough. Thanks ruzzelz and TFTC

Quick find. At 8.23pm. With Snickersallan and RoddyC

TFTC

Solved this one a while ago and thought of finding it today . Had to do some double checking with the numbers to get the checker to agree . So today we parked near GZ and walked over. There weren't to many muggles about today so after 5 minutes of searching retrieving the cache was easy . Thanks for the cache ruzzelz , enjoyed the history lesson on horse racing . TFTC!!!

After a bit of number crunching we soon zero'd in to our prize. Tftc and the history lesson!

With a bit of looking we found it, Tftc :^) 29/04/17

I have a long list of solved puzzles that im slowly converting into smilies. I saw this puzzle and said to my muggle husband . I bet i will not have to google the answers to this puzzle. He has a love for horse racing and is a member of doomben. Anyway he did give me most of the answers i recall. I was hoping it may spark an interest in geocaching but no luck there. After work i raced off to the finish line. It was a fine day and when i parked the car i realised it would be a short gallop to the cache. I did however have to stop short as a ring in (muggle) was close by. I was hoping she didnt notice my nice white socks when i pretended to tie my shoes. There was now a gap in the field and i was able to get to the finish line. I saw the hint and did not understand until i got to gz. Loved it and it made retieval an easy one. Thanks ruzzelz for placing this cache here for us to enjoy.

Out with 1MinnieMoo today for some caching fun, I never been to the races before so this is the closest I have been. We found markets in here today and we were entering as they were packing up so we found a spot got our numbers then headed off. A short time later we had found signed and waited for muggles to leave before replacing. TFTC and bringing us here

26/3/17, 12:58 pm Find #669
Markets were on at the races today. And after grabbing the CO's other cache here, we headed in to the racecourse having a quick look at the closing markets before sitting down at a table to gather our information and work out our sums. A short while later we had the coordinates we were after and wandered off to GZ to make our find. It was quiet enough around here today, we only had to wait for a couple of cars to pull out to replace the cache safely.
Thanks for the cache ruzzelz and for our own bit of "fun at the races".

Coordinates were spot on and led me straight to the cache. Picked up a TB and left one in its place. TFTC

Needed a puzzle cache for my February Challenge and as I had this one solved I returned to find it. Last week there was a guy sitting in the nearby bus shelter chatting on his phone so it was a no go. Quick find today, signed the log and left a Trackable, replaced as found. TFTC

Trackable left was "Glitter Bug" TB7314P

In preparation for our horse themed outing today hubby and I enjoyed solving this fun little puzzle .

We drove past eagle farm racecourse on the way, found a close by park, sprinted to the finishing line me beating hubby to the cache by a nose.

He called for a photo finish

Thanks for the fun cache, FP awarded

TFTC. Enjoyed the puzzle!

TFTC!

Worked out the co-ordinates recently and found myself in the area following a party so decided to go find this one. Located in good condition, signed and replaced - all good here!

Thanks for the mystery cache, liked reading the info to get the answers.

TFTC #143

Up in Brisbane (from Adelaide) to visit my muggle best friend Pete who now lives in Queensland. Today we spent the day visiting the Eagle Farm Market before heading to an area where he used to live, and having lunch nearby in Samford Village, and grabbing a few caches on the way. Pete was only too happy to accommodate my obsession with geocaching, and made numerous stops on our travels.

This was a cache I solved via Internet research last night, as I knew we would be in the area today. Pete made the find at the GZ before we ventured into the markets. For a muggle he is really good at spotting cache hides. TNLNSL TFTC

Tftc

Mrs Wazza&Kara was visiting Brisbane today. We needed a Puzzle Cache and had solved this one. It wasn't far from the Brisbane Airport and she made a quick find.
A fun puzzle to solve about an interesting piece of racing history. Thanks for the hide.

27/08/2016, 3:33 PM Find #1060

We're out on a puzzle-palooza on the Northside today.

This was one of the first puzzles I solved and it's been sitting in my solved pile for a very long time.

It was our last cache for the day and everyone was getting a bit tired. We parked nearby and two of the geogirls accompanied my to GZ for a quick find.

TFTC russelz

TFTC

**Smilie #4343**

Over the past week we have realised getting around to finding puzzle finals can be harder than solving the puzzles in the first place! LOL ... We find 10, then go home & solve another 10 plus! The list of 'solved but unfound' just isn't getting any shorter!

Another day, with Immyky, converting some more caches to smilies.
The puzzle was solved over 12 months ago but with our extremely busy 'life' schedule it has taken this long to get around to the search phase. LOL ...
Once at GZ it was a quick P & G.
All good here.
Made our mark & replaced as found.

**TFTC ruzzelz **

Another day out caching with Vegan Cachers.
One more smilie for our map.
Nice quick find.
TFTC

I remember this being big news, the media followed it for months. Refreshed the memory and completed the puzzle. Made a quick find in the light drizzle. Container in good order. More memory refreshing on a run around the racecourse, used to live nearby. Thanks.

1796

Thursday. Kery from Slow Puncture was out today to find two of the four remaining caches for Fangsoki's "Can you spell February..." Challenge.

So here she found herself at Ascot. The cache was quickly found where the arrow said it was. The container was in great condition and log book was clean and dry. I remember when the Fine Cotton scandal erupted. Fancy a scandal at the races! Well, at least one that was publicised like this one was. Lots of trinkets in this cache, but the only thing taken was a lovely little bird nest found nearby. Ah, nice change as well, a nice easy puzzle that does not require MENSA membership, thank you!

This was the 2nd of 2 caches found on today's trip.

Thanks ***ruzzelz***, for showing us this place.

Never knew the details of the ban so it was good to read about the scandal. Cache was quick to find. Thanks for an enjoyable cache.

This event was found out, you wonder how many race switches have not!! Thanks for bringing me to this area.

This cache has been in my sights for a little while now but I've pushed this whole area aside when deciding on my earlier caching trips. But now many stars were aligning and this one became a must, if we can say so.
International Geocaching Day with its souvenir + GC Road Trip '15 and its mystery souvenir period just started yesterday. Additionally, my better half was coming home form a long overseas journey so I was going to the airport anyway early morning. Whenever 1+1=3 all these three factors combined gives me 5 or so. That led me check on the difficulty of this puzzle (easy, just gather available information) and crunching the numbers at lunch yesterday (checker agreed and Google Streetview looked promising) and galloping to the GZ 5:58 am this morning.

My smartiephone attempted to take me first somewhere odd but when I insisted in a spot at the GZ, it succumbed and gave me "4 m to go". That'll do...

Started to walk around the GZ and check potential spots. Checked the hint but it didn't make any sense so just carried on step by step. After about 330 degrees around I concluded that the by far best place would be that one there - and that's where we also have telltale signs and a container, folks.

Being a "newcomer" in the sense of this story and not really knowing anything about the equine sports here it was interesting to read how bad the execution of the fraud was. If I may say it bluntly, you have to be a "bit simple" to not do it any better. Of course, it's good from sporting viewpoint that the fraud was discovered and justice served. At the same time, there may be cases that are pulled off so well only few know and have made unjustified extra money out of them so let's keep our eyes open and game fair. [^]

All good here. TFTC, Ruzzelz!

While enjoying a Subway sandwich for lunch at Portside I did what was needed to solve this using the subway wrapper for the workings. Soon enough the checker gave me a Good to go and I was off. One stop on the way and soon I was nearby GZ.

I got in a good position and had a little look around, spotted something above, however it appears to be a homeless guy stash more then a cache. So a little more look and sure enough cache was soon in hand. Name added to the log and off I headed.

TFTC

#9841. Despite my GPSr being bit out today, this cache was an easy find. It was well after 4 by now, so we wasted no time heading off to Racecourse Road to check out the coffee options. TFTC.

An interesting tale of bumbling incompetence. Good to find both this and the "sister" cache this afternoon. A quick find for StreetWalker and nice to for a good sized urban cache. Now to look for a well deserved coffee . TFTC.

I had solved this one quite some time ago, and had attempted it once before, in the pouring rain!

Tonight, I worked my way to GZ, and waited.... and searched, and waited!

I'd chosen late peak hour to try to grab this one and muggles kept appearing left, right and centre!

After sheer determination, I managed to make the grab! Finally!!!

TFTC

Decided to go for a stomp around the old nieghbourhood and this was one of the caches I found.

Had this one marked out for an earlier day but it was disabled. Heading back into this area today provided me with the chance to grab this one. Tftc. Recovered and returned.

Good memories of this time. Fought off the big black ants to release the virgin log book. Thanks ruzzelz.

Had to clear the site of rubbish and a dead possum. Cleaned container, replaced log book. Please position cache horizontally in the spot to ensure it keeps dry.

All good to go

I solved this puzzle a while ago, but never had the opportunity to be in the area to find it. The cache had been down for maintenance, but people had been finding it. So this evening, after work, I made the decision to make a special trip. I parked across the road and made my across to GZ, wherre I quickly located the cache. I signed the log and returned the cache to its hiding spot before heading back to the car and home

Apologies to cache seekers the intention is to have this back in action by 1 June