A Darke History Darke Peak, South Australia, Australia
By ThisMechaniCan on 10-Feb-08. Waypoint GC198KB

Thank for the history lesson And the cache Kiwi lost on the EP

Bit a good history here. Cache found with Sarge5556 tftc

A very scenic resting place, tftc with jeffner5556

Thanks! Easy find on a Saturday

Awesome spot

Not the first explorer to go this way. Thanks ThisMechaniCan for bringing us here to this historical site. Tftc

Easy find

What a sad place and history TFTC left some cards for the kids

Gotta love a bit of local history!
Now I know where Darke Peake got it's name from!
Nearly 11 months since the last find here! wow
A quick find after reading the info boards and taking some snaps..
TNLNSL
Thanks

nice easy find tftc

Another cache found with richlink while on our 2022 South Australia Adventure, using Geocaching as our guide.

Thanks for showing us this lonely grave.

Thank you to all the CO’s who have placed and maintained caches for the enjoyment of all.

Out in another brilliant autumn day with iluvtrekking. Got plenty of red sticky mud on the car on the roads to this cache but so worth it. Spent time reading the story at the memorial. Thanks for the hide.

Setup base in Cleve and headed to Darke Peak today, caching along the way . Well, after caching the range, it made sense to drop by here and pay our respects to the man it was named after [^].
A sad end for one of SA's early explorers .
TNLNSL.
Thanks ThisMechaniCan.

Found whilst wandering the Eyre Peninsula
Fun series, good co-ords, cool caches
TFTS ThisMechaniCan

Lovely historic spot. Easy find. TFTC

TFTC. Weather trying to drown us today!
Happy caching and safe travels!

Tftc under tree

Got it.

Tftc, interesting grave site, cheers

We stopped by to say hello and find a cache. A weekend heading to Port Lincoln picking up caches along the way. TFTC

During our new years break, [@jesswrigley](http://coord.info/PRNW59T) and I headed to the Eyre Peninsula to travel around the various coastal towns. We started the trip with Jeep trouble, but then continued in our alternative vehicle without 4WD to stick to the main tourist roads where possible. We travelled south-west to Tumby Bay and Port Lincoln via Whyalla, Cowell, Cleve, Arno Bay; west across to Coffin Bay; and then north-west to Streaky Bay and Ceduna via Elliston, and Venus Bay. We then headed back east staying in Kimba via Poochera, Wudinna, Lock, and Darke Peak.

Today, [@jesswrigley](http://coord.info/PRNW59T) and I headed from Streaky Bay to Kimba, primarily driving along the Eyre Highway. Our first stop was a few of the geology stops around Wudinnna, including a hike at Mount Wudinna which was great. After calling through Kyancutta, we decided to take the round about way to Kimba via Lock, Rudall and Darke Peak. A few nice stops, and the Hellbent Hotel at Darke Peak was a highlight. We then spent the late afternoon to evening seeing Kimba's famous sights, and included a few very creative and well constructed geocaches.

A historical location to have visited, and the poor guy. Friendly natives that went rogue - I wonder what happened? [@jesswrigley](http://coord.info/PRNW59T) and I had a bit of a chuckle with the sign listing the party of explorers/surveyors: "Darke, John Henry Theakstone, James Howard and one other man, made up the expedition party ...". That poor other guy that risked his life and faced harsh conditions, only to have been forgotten by history. We then made the short walk to GZ, where we found the cache quickly. The cache container and logbook were in good shape. Thanks ThisMechaniCan for the cache placement and ongoing maintenance.
Note that this geocache was logged with the *Team Warren* Davidwazza/jesswrigley stamp.

A fun week away with Davidwazza, exploring the Eyre peninsula! TFTC!

Swapped red & white tape & pen for egg cup & wrist band

We made a decision to take a two week break and head to the Eyre Peninsula. We were keen to return to Coffin Bay and also to explore some less travelled areas.
We had three nights based in Cowell. One of the highlights there was a drive along the 4WD fire track along the top of the Drake Range.
And while here we visited the gravesite. Sad story.
TFTC ThisMechaniCan

Found it TFTC. Cache in good condition, with lots of goodies lol

Day 12 of our Eyre Peninsula caravan odyssey with the geo-pup, from Cummins to Darke Peak.

Great place, thanks for the placements and maintenance.

TFTC

Found with muggle husband. TFTC

Lots of treasures to swap, kids loved this one

I was keep a close eye out for wriggling sticks, but all quiet here today. A quick find and great views.

Thanks for bringing us here.

What a great cache container and very well placed. We were here two days short of the 175 th anniversary of Darke’s death and were lucky to get a talk from a descendant as well as the local MP and mayor. Shame about the flies. Tftc

Found It!
An interesting, but sad, bit of history. A quick find here while caching in the area.
TFTC

Poor gentleman travelled so far in those days to just die thanks from wa

Nice big cache. All in good condition. TFTC

Found it

Revisiting this site with family and geocaching under a different name. Still a fantastic place to visit and a stunning view.
Thank you for the cache.

Found it great spot

Cheers. Peace.

TFTC

TFTC

TFTC. Pretty place.

Lovely hide at a lovely spot.

Gotcha, interesting history here.
TFTC

TFTC ThisMechaniCan

??

Found it

TFTC!

Great spot, couple of pints at the darke peake pub then onto some history! Beautiful view!

Took a drive down a quiet country road to get this cache, locals have given us two different versions of why Darke was speared! TFTC.

Found by R4R whilst exploring these parts. TFTC. Cheers Rav 4 Raiders

Nicely hidden.

I'm reliably informed that I am a distant relative of Darke (difficult to pinpoint the exact relation as there are some gaps in the tree, as it were). Basically, Humphrey Darke, my great great great grandfather (my maternal grandmother's great grandfather) was John Charles' relation (possibly a nephew or cousin of some sort). So there you go! It was great to visit his gravesite and reflect on the history. A lonely yet beautiful place to be buried. Thanks for the cache ThisMechaniCan! The drive out to the west was a bit of fun - quite sandy and slippery in places!

Good history about Darke. Taken elephant dropped egg cup and geocoin

Found with "How Do They Know?" on a 4WD trip through/over Mount Darke with the Whyalla 4WD Club. Thanks ThisMechaniCan.

Catching up with late logs.
After six days caching on the Yorke peninsula with Alansee and Micaparamedic we parted company and headed across to the Eyre to try our luck at the power trails over here and as many other local caches as time permitted.

This was the second cache for the day and another very interesting one. This sort of information should be taught in our schools not the American Civil War, etc that we had to study. We didn't know any of this and enjoyed reading everything here and now understand a bit more about the area. The cache was a nice easy find and our name has been added to the log and a favourite point has been left for the cache page.

Thanks for the cache.

Heading in to this cache from the 'other side' today, I had seen the gentleel side of the Darke Range already
But heading along the muddy roads along the northern side, I got to see the full grandeur of the steep, rocky north face of the range through the mists

After much a slippin' and a slidin' along the roads I reached Darke's grave.
A poignant spot with a very nice memorial, thanks to the Govt of the day [^]

TFTC and detour [^]

It is that time of the year again.
The June long weekend is on and Mr Parrot and a young einstein have teamed up to play as Pirate Parrots this year.
So here we are running around near Cleve this long weekend.

We stopped here for some lunch.

A great lunch spot

Found with "Are We There Yet! on our 4WD trip after crossin over Mount Darke with the Whyalla 4WD Club. Thanks ThisMechaniCan

Now I know what the name is behind the name, took a stab at this one and was very close,tftc

A quick find and interesting history . I think I would rather have my 36 year old husband come home than have a peak named after him
TFTC

This entry was edited by Gum-Ako on Friday, 28 September 2012 at 09:04:14 UTC.

Lovely site to visit on a sunny morning on the first day of spring.

Hmm, wonder what he did to deserve that??

Respect. What an interesting life.

We were heading for the Gawler ranges as a test run for "Mrs" Bowz2's new camper trailer
Didn’t make the Gawler ranges due to the rain and ended up detouring south instead and still got wet through at least not bogged!
So picked up a few caches on the detour
Well worth stopping and looking around and interesting bit of history!
As a avid (all be it these days "ageing") rock climber I really like the look of those cliffs!!!
And would like to get a rope and "go for a look"
TFTC

A great cache to visit, we left a few over this way today we will come back to get a few more in the region when we have the time to stay over night. TFTC

Container has been replaced and has also been placed so it will not see a lot of sunlight now.

Logged from my phone using the Geocache Navigator by TrimblE. This cache may need some maintenance as the container is brittle and cracked! Did not have a spare of this size with us. TNLNSL TFTC NO ghosts at this cemetery tonight.

took koala keyring left Darke Peak lighter

good scenery here at this time of year,picked up travel bug,left army man

Speccie views from here. Glad we didn't come across certain reptiles! Found the cricket pitch which reminded me of the pitch near Lyrup.

Love the sign which points to Googly Earth.

Clear skies from TeamAstro [^]

Nice scenery and interesting history. Left tb. Thanks ThisMechaniCan

Good little spot, great views from here, an easy find.
T-pouch
L- keyring. SL.

Have driven past here heaps of times but never stopped for a look - disgustingly windy day.
T - State travel bug
L - stickers
TFTC

Have been here before but before we were looking for caches. Nice spot for a cahce. TFTC
T - TB Car

just dropping off TB.

hi was great day for a drive easy find took magnet left neck clip cheers valiantscot

Came to pay my respects to an important explorer and raid the geocache!
T- Henry TB
L- armyman
TFTH

I didnt even know this was here. A small bit of history.
L - 'Henry'Travel bug
Plastic boat
T - Keys Travel bug
TFTC

Another easy find on a lovely Sunday afternoon drive. TFTC
Took nothing
Left nothing

Congrats Tweety 2 again. Silver to us. Well we are not going for 3 silvers as Tweety2 did 3 golds we were in the darke and it was a long day. Spooky too.
Left Le Keys Tb
TN
TFTC

Hey hey, second FTF for the day. Not sure if I have been here before, but now I have, and it was well worth the trip! TFTC

TN
L knife pouch

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