BYO Pens Cache Bellbird, New South Wales, Australia
By Mix on 05-Aug-07. Waypoint GC14YK2

Found with banj ward tftc

I had heard from a fellow geocacher that this cache was still available, even though it was archived, so I thought I would check it out. Surprisingly, it is in much better shape than many caches I have found that probably should be archived.
Found with Beary_Unicorns, Miss Unicorn was glad that I remembered my pen to sign this ancient log. TFTC

was in the area and decided to trek across to this one
its still in really really good condition
and contents and log perfect
thanks for placing this cache and the journey up here

Decided to come find this cache after work ,after seeing some logs showing it was still available -last found in 2014 here i am 2 years later and the cache is great condition, no water at all -great swaps and i even forgot my pen but i knew this cache would provide. Thanks for the cache. Maybe someone else will come by in another few years.

I started work early, so I could leave early. Then headed straight out here. I used the phone GPS to navigate here as I didn't have my normal car one, not that I needed it. And had only 20% battery when I arrived. Then got a few calls from work.... somehow it didn't die. I arrived at the lookout, with amazing views of this area. There was also two car loads of teenagers there. They weren't doing anything, just talking. I got my gps receiver and took the low road. When the road started to dip down the other side of the hill, I took a short cut straight to the top of the hill. Interesting tower. Wasn't sure if I'd find this cache or if it was still there at all. But after a short search and using the hint, I located some rocks that had nearly been washed away with the rain, and where quite exposed due to the erosion and one of those rocks was actually this ammo tin. It was in amazing condition inside. These containers are built to last. Had fun poking around all the old pens and pencils and other swaps. Seems it was last found 2011, though not logged online. I signed the log and put the cache back in it's hole. I'm sure this cache will last a lot longer, unless someone decided to recycle it (but I should hope not!). I walked back to the top of the hill and took the high road back down to the car. There was only one car of teens left. I admired the view for a few more minutes, then headed back home.
Thanks for bringing me out to this great view! Thanks for the great caches you have hidden, you seem to have been a major part of why geocaching is so strong in the hunter/newcastle area. And it is obvious from your hides that you cared and planned a great much about them, even if you don't now.
Hopefully there are a few more of your's out there that I will be able to find....

archive

Planned our lunch stop around this cache - gorgeous views on a lovely sunny afternoon. Kids had fun finding the cache and left 'Hot dollar' glow pen, dinosaur obsessed geokid chuffed to find a dino toy.

Great cache, but I wish I'd known I could open the gate and drive up the hill - a steep walk for an old bloke.

This cache was quite a bit of exercise! We went the harder way. At least it burnt off all the yummy cheese we tasted at the Smelly Cheese Shop. TNLN TFTC

We'd just arrived at our "villa" and when we turned on the GPSr -- it told us that there was a cache about .2 miles from where we were. So we thought we'd just walk to it. We unfortunately started in the wrong direction - down a hill -- and had to retrace that and then head UP the hill from where we were staying. After a pretty good hike, we made it to the parking area. Then made our way into where the cache was located. We enjoyed the great views and the fact that we'd been able to walk a tiny bit of the Great Northern Walk. We'd seen the marker for it down in Sydney. Wish we had more time to walk more of it. Thanks for getting us to a very cool spot.

This was the first cache of the day and I must say what an original idea/theme for a cache. We took the wrong fire trails so made it harder than it needed to be but Geoson who is 5 found it so well done to him. A lovely view and hunt so TFTC.

This entry was edited by Puddle_Jumpers-PJ's on Sunday, 04 July 2010 at 02:04:05.

301 - Enjoyed the drive to the top - I think I interrupted some car park canoodling - I opted to take the easier walk to the cache rather than soldier up the harder way!! Enjoyed the walk and made a quick find. Good Cache. TFTC

We'd been to Scone to watch the Street Parade and decided to make a detour through the Hunter Valley to find a few caches on our way home. Our fuel light had come on and the sun was getting low, but we decided to look for this one anyway. We drove up to the car park and enjoyed the views for a while. We set off up the track [we thought we must have taken the steeper of the two tracks because we found it rather hard going [we found out later this was the easy way - boy are we unfit!?!]. We did a bit of an off-track walk to cut off part of the track before closing in on the cache. We did go around in a few circles before finding the cache though. TNLNSL TFTC

What a view and with the clear weather could see for miles. On the way back from GZ we met up with a couple of quite well aged keen bush walkers and let me tell you they were setting an excellent pace. For us it was all about the view and having located the cache just finished it of nicely...Talk about "pens" I don't think it will need restocking for some time.

Thanks for you effort

cheers

Tamykian

Found at 10.05am GAFF1. Now this is more like it! A cache that is close to "suuburbia", but has a commanding view of what is below. Enjoyed the walk from the car park and the "you take the high road and I'll take the low road" came into play.
The Bell Miner birds are certinly taking over this area.
Thanks Mix - used our own pen, have been doing so for a long time.

Great view from the carpark! We headed off up the track and the rain started. Of course we'd left our brollys back in the car. "How wet could it get?" we thought. "Do we really want to hike back up the hill? - surely it'll stop in a minute . . . . " Found the cache pretty easily but had to use our bodies as cover to keep the contents dry. The bush was very peaceful as the raindrops penetrated the tree canopy. TN and left KC's Travel Bug. Came back to the car the short (steep) way . Thanks Mix for the cache.

Great place for a hide and an awesome view to boot. Ended up getting guided by the GPS a bit further down the trail that needed, but a bit of a cross country shortcut had it in sight.

SL TNLN

Cheers for the Cashe.

Lovely walk, We earnt our Easter Eggs!! Great area, awesome views. TNLN TFTC

TFTC

nice pens

Some amazing views on the way to this one.
Would not have ventured this far if not for Cache.
so TFTC.

Found this with TheWobblys whilst out caching for the day.

This is a great drive up the mountain to a magnificent lookout.

By the time we got up there the mercury was at 32 degrees which always makes hill steeper.

Managed to take the long way and have to trek back to the other trail the cache was on.

Yet another cache on the Great North Walk. Didn't venture along the track due to the heat and whinging kids.

Great spot Mix, thanks for showing it to us.

PS Took box of pens. Left McDonalds Toy

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found while out caching with The Cashman .

TFTC

Found this late in the afternoon and it took a while (no sun, no compass, hmm, which way is south again?), signed the log before dark.
Left purple propelling pencil to commune with all it's new acquaintances.
Took TB Mini Cooper S, will release in a week or so after it does a long trip with us.
TFTC!

[This entry was edited by Briggbottoms on Sunday, January 03, 2010 at 5:11:35 PM.]

A pleasant drive up with wonderful views to offer from the lookout. I managed to walk out of the trail quite itchy from the bugs and plants, so I'd recommend wearing long pants and also a pair of sneakers if you're sensitive to the likes [8)].
Cheers for a great cache!

Loved this one, great drive winding up to the lookout and a great lookout once you got there. Interrupted a couple having a romantic picnic dinner as pinkcurtains and I arrived to set off on our journey to this one. Took the long way in not realising the steep fire trail went right up to it, once up there it took a few minutes to zero in on the location with the cloudy skys and tree coverage blocking the gps signal... nice and easy find once I got close and was pleased to see it in an ammo container, they're so fitting for geocaches.

Took Froggies Pinguin TB2K1MF, will help him on his way in the next couple of days

Bit of hike and make sure you wear decent shoes as the path can be a bit rough after rain. Found the cache quite easily. Didn't take any swaps but left a mini pen. Took the TB "Old Thomas" - Left the TB "Peace". TFTC

For some reason I thought that this was a drive by so I was a bit confused when I came across the gate. No waorries we just hoofed it up the hill for a way and made a quick find once we got to GZ. Top views from the look out and well worth a stop if you're in the area. Thanks for sharing it with us

Left: TB * 2 and GC * 1

TFTCSL

All we can say is UUUGGH! We made it up to the top and took a couple of photos. TFTC

We are having a great time finding Australian caches. As usual, we see great places that only the locals know about - why we love the sport. Logging is more challenging as Scoutboy and i fight over the internet access. TFTC!

Thanks for bringing us to this locale on our le grande tour de Hunter.
TNLNSL
TFTC found with teach cacher Sweet P too
The Turtle strikes again!

Now why didn't I bring a pen? Left some pencils in case the next finder....well, you know, doesn't read the name!

Coming up from Canberra I was starting to miss hills but this cache gave me my fix. It wasn't a very far walk or (by Canberra standards) a very steep hill from where you park but it did get the blood pumping. There were also great views from the Geomobile park.

Thanks for the great location and the nice ammo can cache.

T TB
Visited Ra's Gecko

SL TFTC

Found this one fast while exploring the vineyards for the second time.

TFTC randolfvonsambach

Last find for the day, caching with some novices and a mess of kids.
We have spent the day travelling all over the countryside, through mud, on roads, and now, walking up bush tracks.
A great day with much fun had by all.
Little Miss Rat loved a blue hi-liter pen, so we left an electric light-up pen in it's place.
Thanks Mix, have been meaning to do this one for ages.

good hide great views left TB,pen took 2 pencils tftc

Some good and much needed exercise getting here

Well that was a bit different. I've found many caches before with a log but no pen, this is first with lots of pens and no log.

After emptying the cache to find the log I read 5m1thy's log on my notes and found why it wasn't there so I left a replacement.

Great views from the car park.
Swapped TB's
TFTC

A tricky find, took us two separate visits. We only had one pen, so we left other things as well as our only pen. Took many pens.
A great hide.

TFTC

GeoDad says - a fabulously stocked cache, thank you Mix for making it worth our while to revisit the site. The 3 kids loved it, 2 of whom are new to caching.

Please note - geocaching son unwittingly took the Logbook with us. I will email you separately to see how I can return it to Mix. Our apologies.

[This entry was edited by 5m1thy on Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 10:38:23 PM.]

found it and i drove my daihatsu chrade up there very quick trip got strange look from someone and can not remember the date

Final cache for the two day caching trip north of home. This was cache 30 for the day and 70 for the trip (both GC and GCA).
Mrs Shifter took the short steep route while Mr Shifter stayed in the car (resting after recent surgery) and enjoyed the magnificent views.
The cache was located fairly quickly as the coords were very good. Only had a small pencil, but decided the cache was full enough with at least 60 writing implements.
Thanks for showing us a great place Mix.

TFTC TN added a pen!!!hehehee What a good hide. Been to the lookout several times but never walked the fire trail before. Kids loved the stash gave us a good laugh!!! Well done!!!
Ben & Mel :-0

That's always been one of my favourite Hunter Valley lookouts.

Took a boring pen, left a charity pen.

WOW - Spectacular views on such a gorgeous winter day. We where in town for the Hunter Valley Gardens Chocolate Festival and thought what a great excuse to find a few caches. Good way to walk off the chocolate too. We took the more direct (hard) route to GZ with a two year old on hubby's shoulders (good on you daddy). This cache was loaded with pens...we had to laugh as we had just spent half and hour trying to find one in the car before we set off up the fire trail.

TFTC dropped yet another pen, absolutely loads of pens in there.

Shell and I were in town for a wedding this afternoon and what better way to fill in the day than to find a few caches! As Shell had a sleep in I headed out around the area.

As this was to be our 1200th find I wanted one that was either a great spot or a nice view and this one was what was chosen. After parking near the lookout and wandering up the hill (that gets the heart going early in the morning after a few too many drinks the night before) and found the cache easily. I really liked the location of the GZ. In the early morning light all of the birds were just starting to wake up and were in full song! It is such a nice little gully.

Thanks Mix for the cache and the milestone. Another area that I wouldn't have seen if not for caching.

TNLNSL

Nice little walk in the bush.

took Nothing, left whiteboard marker

found this one easily

see the photos

The closest GC to home. I have been looking at it since it first went in. I liked the anticipation of having a cache still to do just down the road. Couldn't wait any longer.
I would say that the cache now holds about 40 pens.
Took nothing, left a pen.
TFTC

GPS a little funny trying to locate this one. Got there in the end after looking for about 15min. All good.
TN
Left - Bridgestone pen.

Beautiful morning after days of rain, hot air balloon flight, afternoon wine tasting in the Hunter, and to finish the day a nice look out with a geocache.
When I parked the car I knew there had to be a cache in the area, so I used a mobile phone to access the internet, and sure enough, here we are...

And yes, there are pens enough, although the pen enclosed with the log was crappy

My wife had shown me this spot many years ago and I had to ask what she had been doing up here??? She assured me that it was the view and I agree with her it is a great spot to look over the vineyards. While my son was asleep in the car geodaughter and I followed the track up and came close to GZ. I of course was following the arrow and had to do a bit of back tracking. When Geodaughter (4 years old) says "Daddy I think we have to go a bit further that way" Well I though that I would indulge her as the arrow was not pointing here. Then of course we nearly tripped over the cache. I will know better next time to doubt the cache sense of little miss compass. She wanted to take a whole packet of textas and as I was exchanging just one pen I thought that we could negotiate and be fair. We ended up with two colours and the rest left for another treasure hunter. Back to the car and remnants of a good night were near our parking spot and not wanting to explain what is in a silver square packet and was left in an area where young people go at night in cars to my daughter quite yet we left. TFTC

Spent the long weekend in the Valley and did this on the Saturday. We had planned to do a few more caches over the weekend but got a bit distracted by the wineries

A lovely view from the carpark and an easy find. TNLN.

WOW what a view from up here.
Found cache easy after a bit of a walk.

Took Homesick Moose TB
Left the other TB for someone else to help find a home.

Thanks for the cache

Found after a short search of the many trees with rocks at 0710hrs. Man that was fun. I loved the 50/50 choice of tracks and as per usual I took the wrong one first. But it was a great early morning walk in a beautiful spot, thanks for taking me there.

Took - Geocoin

TFTC

Found at 7:35pm in the dark. Up in Wollombi doing some work at my parents vineyard so thought it a good opportunity to knock over a few caches. Took nothing, left Homesick Moose TB, Around the World TB and Sevabo mask geocoin.

Yay First To Find! ~9:45am

Took a little detour on the way to work (so it was an extra 112km onto my trip) to nab this new cache and a great little spot at that. Found fairly easily with clue, good hide. Took nothing but added to the contents with a highlighter.

Thanks for another quality Mix geocache.

[This entry was edited by SUBYDAZZ on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 at 3:54:08 PM.]

Rated: for Overall Experience

Published