4X4-1 The Begining Nayook, Victoria, Australia
By Team Crackers on 31-May-08. Waypoint GC1CT32

Spurred on by a challenge cache that im trying to qualify for where i need a few more T4.5/5 I figured why not go for another walk. So I took the scenic drive down Tea Tree Rd until I could go no more which was just at the Junction of Labertouche North Rd and l took a muddy 1km walk to GZ...how they call this muddy rutted trail a Rd is beyond me. Thankfully I managed not to mud slide or end up with a mudmask. At GZ I was battling about 1 meter of bush mulch that I kept sinking into and fallen Tree planks that I kept slipping off. After searching for a few minutes, coming up empty-handed, I read a log or two and broadened my search. My geo Instinct instructed me to head to a particular area as I did. I just about tripped over the cache..woo hoo, whatever works. I was so happy to see that metal container. Claiming the 2+ years of unloved while I'm at it.

Due to unforeseen circumstances Mr Smokey Bear will no longer be a part of Team Smokey Bear and will continue his adventures as "SmokeyBearOG".

So I'm relogging all previous finds under my new account.
Unfortunately this log will not show the original logging date.

**Thanks to Team Crackers for this adventure, looking forward to many more.**

Adam
SmokeyBearOG

After expecting this to be the easiest is wasn’t with a dnf, wasn’t in the location you would expect, and I haven’t been geocaching long but after watching the vids I’d say that list of these 4x4 series need to be moved as I never destroyed so much native flora and plant life in my life

here we learnt the deceptive powers of mud

with all the rain of recent weeks, we were expecting the track to be in a pretty rough state
we were right
the long slope is a winding river of mud
and, in case that wasn’t enough fun, there is a steady cascade of flowing water for the cherry on top

usually, we are fairly adept and judging how much a boot will sink into the mud before the step
but
not here

the mud displaced by heavy vehicle wheels gets piled up into hillocks with all the structural integrity of a half-baked souffle
unfortunately, we looked at one piled-up stack of mud and thought it seemed sturdy
two misjudged footsteps and we were ankles-deep
shoes coated in a thick layer of brown sludge

good way to start the day

so remember:
look before you leap
and
never trust mud

Had been out caching for a while and the weather looked perfect to venture up into an area I hadn’t been in many years
Gps sent us in circles for this one but eventually Hunter was the one that made the find
Track was in great condition
Thanx for the Adventure Stay Dirty ️

2000

I was planning on caching somewhere this morning, but I still hadn't decided where when I got a text from Smokey Bear. I was instantly in, and didn't even know what I was in for. When he suggested the first 4x4 series and maybe a few others that we both maintain found, I thought it was perfect, especially not owning a 4WD.

Had a great time finding caches and visiting areas in the Bunyip State Forest that I haven't been too. Such a lovely area, and looks like a number of these roads had been maintained recently. 7 finds and only 1 DNF, and worked out the entry points for a few other geocaches.

This was the first of the day and we signed it at 9.20 am after strolling around for a while. Both our GPSr devices kept saying different locations, but nothing closer than 10 meters could be found. After some motorbikes past us, I was able to make the find.

Thanks for the cache Team Crackers
Hunter

The weather was so terrible, My daughter and her husband take me there. Found your cache Team Crackers, thank you so much for placing it.

Out and about for a drive this afternoon we thought we’d attempt what we could reach solo and with the limited tracks open (Western and Gentle Annie tracks about the only tracks open at the moment in this part of the forest - Dec20).

Track dry with good traction but huge ruts as soon as the gradient kicks up. Made it up past GZ bellying out in a couple of sections that needed some extra momentum to scrape thru (2inch lift on 32’s). Parked in the runoff about 50m further up from GZ. Found cache in good condition. Very thick and deep undergrowth. Thanks for placing.

Looking at the rest of the track decided we’d abort mission being solo with some even bigger ruts and holes further up. Will return another day.

Thanks for cache!

(Pic coming down)

Covid-19 restrictions are now lifted and Geocaching is allowed so it is back on line.

Due to the new Covid 19 restrictions Geo Caching is not a reason to be out so we are disabling our caches untill safe to enable again.
Please stay home and be Safe.

Found the spot, I'm pretty sure, but there was no cache. I tramped and crashed through the overgrown undergrowth all around the area but no sign of a cache. Certainly an interesting track to bring my new little jimny down, but it did a great job not falling into the ruts!

Area has been open for awhile so all good to go.

Area has been open for awhile so all good to go.

We have been told this area is still out of bounds.
We will check it as soon as we can get in.

Due to the fires in this area we are disabling our caches

We had spotted these series quite some time ago but didn't feel that we had enough experience to attempt them on our own. So when we got an invite to join in with others, we were very pleased. Unfortunately, due to the weather, it was called off.
Then we were told that another date had been set so it was on again. We had been watching the weather, and although it didn't seem to bad, we weren't sure if it would be called off again. It wasn't, YAY. We met up with two other vehicles at a fuel stop, struggled our way through Friday afternoon traffic and road words and were soon on the road to adventure. It was a shame that the 4th vehicle couldn't make it (but I'm sure the CO has done these tracks more than once.)
There were some awesome views and great tracks. There was only one that was undriveable, (in everyone's opinion) although an alternate route was chosen for another cache. Considering that there had apparently been rain only a couple of days earlier, we were lucky with the tracks. We only found one of them to be a little slippery but no worries.
A winch was needed in one place but nothing major and no damage or harm done so really doesn't count.
I had a fantastic afternoon out so a huge thank you to our awesome travelling companions for the invite and another huge thanks to the CO's for placing these caches.
Really hope that we can get out to do some more.

Found with Geoturtle37, The Tritonz, beckNmonts and micaparamedic. We had been eyeing off these caches for some time, so when we received an invite to join a small but intrepid band for the day we were all over it. The CO was set to join us as well, but a postponement due to rain unfortunately threw a spanner in that plan. The rain stayed away this time around and a great time was had by all rumbling around the Bunyip area. We tackled all but one track in our vehicles, that one was deemed too risky by unanimous vote. There was a bit of slipping here and there, but only one winch recovery required and everyone stayed shiny side up so that is just part of the fun. Thanks Team Crackers for bringing us out here for a great day out. We look forward to hitting the trail and sharing a cold one over a tall tale down the track somewhere.

Well we made it to the beginning or is it the end unscathed, all cars in one piece and very little mud to be seen. We had a great adventure this afternoon traveling the tracks through the forest and we are happy to note the resilience of the bush as it recovers from the damaging fires that swept through here on that ill fated Black Saturday.
Thanks Team Crackers for the placements here in the Bunyip, we had a ball[^]
A favourite point for sure.

Vroom vroom! Dad and teen spent a couple of days up-country walking and camping, chasing caches of varying DT combinations. We parked nearby and wandered up the track, finding the cache after a little hunt - the regrowth is savage.

Thanks for the cache - a great spot and we can imagine the fun of 4WD’ing up here; our experience was more 4LD(leg).

We were off to a good start here, and found the cache. The good start was soon to stop at the top of the hill though! We waited and waited for a four wheel drive club to finish their stuff before eventually heading off in another direction. TFTC

I headed here this afternoon to see what the tracks were like, as the last time I came they were closed and had not been graded. I got to this cache without any issues, and took a bit of searching with all the overgrowth to make the find. After making the find we ventured up the hill but decided to turn around since I didn’t have all terrains. It was a good decision as we got caught up with 25 cars who were in a 4WD club. So we would have had somebody to pull us. However, after watching many of their cats get stuck and need winching, all of which had bigger tyres than me, we decided we made the right decision! We will have to come back with a different car. TFTC & unlove Team Crackers

Today tackled the 4x4 series 1 & 2 and enjoyed the journey to this cache. We would not like to tackle this one in the wet, but no dramas reaching GZ today. We enjoyed this series challeging our Geo 4x4. Cache and contents are in good condition.

Thanks for placing and maintaining this cache for our enjoyment.

Day 3 of my week long visit to Victoria. Day 1 was spent driving over from Adelaide. Day 2 spent collecting the great Pretzel series, rectifying a DNF on the P.I.G. series which made the geoart complete and four of the five outstanding C.F. series completed. Only one left to complete that geoart as well.
No points for guessing the plan for the day then - get that final C.F. and get some of the nearby puzzles that we solved. Time permitting the NHL series and make our way over to Geelong.
As the late great John Lennon said, 'life is what happen's to you while you're busy making other plans.' Caching too -So here is what did happen! [:o)]
My GPS navigator has 4 voices. 2 male and 2 female. Currently it is Lee telling me where to go.
But Lee doesn't really know that sometimes 'roads' are sometimes tracks and that gates can sometimes get closed. I also don't think he has 'turn around where possible' as part of his navigation skills.
So here we were on our way to C.F. 31 using Lee as a guide. Not only did he miss the easy way turn off he brought us to a closed and locked gate. Well we may as well just keep going as there is a trad just up that road a bit. Did i say up. Yep up. Up and then some more up till we got to where the cache was.
Lots of trees had come down and GZ was covered by rather a large one. A bit of clearing away the fallen branches and finally the cache was located. Thanks Team Crackers.

A week of caching and this guy was on my list travelling through Werribee then down along the beach front to Beaumaris and then across to Tynong and then returning to Anglesea for the Surf Coast Mega later in the week travelling with my friends from S.A.
Our aim was to find five C.F. caches that we did not find last Mega, one PIG cache that was a DNF last year, and then attack the Pretzel Series and another 30 odd mysteries, multis and letterbox caches and if a trad crossed our path then we would grab it on our way past.
brisal5 had booked us into a farm stay cottage for a few days and as stated previously we planned to returned to the 2016 Mega at Anglesea. This week I have cached as Bushfire, GOTHS+1 ( I am the +) BAB and today BABS and must thank all the owners of caches that we have found for placing these caches to make this trip possible.
A week of laughs, some great company, some good food and wine and some great caches, what more could you ask for. OH I should also say a couple of DNF's, too good for us this trip, but if I live long enough I hope to return.
I was outnumbered this trip with the others all coming from SA but what a team.
We were mainly consecrating on Mysteries, Wherigo's, and any Letterboxes that we may pass.
This guy was not on our list but we ended up on this track and noticed that there was a cache close by so the hunt was on but it took a long time owing to a fallen tree covering the cache.
Brian eventually shouted those famous words that all teams love to hear "Got it" and of course it is in an ammo can. I will give the owner a call and let them know what we uncounted. I had to remove my bike rack as it keep hitting the erosion banks so once that was removed it was a drive in the park so to speak but that would change if it was after rain and you are in a 4x4 with some clearance.
I hope to return to find the remaining caches along this road but now it is to find the "Bunyip" who is reported to live close by!!!!
Thanks Team Crackers for placing this cache.

After a long search the cache was found. Well and truely buried under a fallen tree. TFTC. 10/11/16, 1:22 pm Find #3140.

Fortunately we were able to drive right to this one and with a bit of a search in the bush it was found.
Thanks and well done Team Crackers.

Not being in possession of a 4WD I parked some 400-500 metres from the cache and investigated on foot. Pretty sure my car wouldn't have made it over even one of these erosion-control humps. It was a fairly pleasant walk and I found myself in the vicinity of GZ quite quickly. The cache, in common with most of those in this series, was really well hidden, at least by 'regular' standards. Pretty much no chance of passersby stumbling on this one. Obligatory thoughts of snakes and leeches entered my mind, but there was a happy ending. Thanks Team Crackers!

Decided not to venture into the bush to get this one as it seemed a little in and we were not attired for going through scrub.......snakes.....so had to leave this one today. It is a shame that this is not accessible during the colder months. We had a good drive. Tyftc anyway.

Found on our Australia Day caching run TFTC

Finally catching up on some logs now that our laptop is home from the computer doctor!

Out for a day drive with hubby, nothing planned, nowhere to be... After driving up through Jindavick hubby was itching for some 4WD-ing.. A quick search had us heading for this series. The tracks were amazing, although a little hair raising in parts... Hubby handled them all with confidence while I held on for dear life! The kids giggled and laughed the whole drive.

Thanks Team Crackers for placing this cache :)

Found 2:46:00 PM, whilst out with Muzza on our December caching expedition, to Bunyip State forest. A 4WD expedition this time, so the Wrangler could do what it does best

TNLN, thanks Team Crackers (F=17447 H=129).

Out and about with Biggles Bear #1 in the 4WD, we decided to take advantage of its capabilities and headed for the Bunyip State Forest to do both 4x4 series there. On advice from the CO, we attempted the second series first, then the first series in reverse order, although things didn't go as planned. Final cache for the day and fairly easy find with help of the clue.

My thanks to Team Crackers for the cache and the two series. Glad I was in BB's 4WD and not the Subaru.

Drove the great wall here but parked 250m down the road as i had enough for the day especially after doing you have gotta be made of 3. The road was quite good had a few knife edges (steep hump, similar to speed bumbs) which 2 wheel drive cars might struggle with. A small amount of bush bashing and a quick find.

This entry was edited by jgestier on Tuesday, 17 November 2015 at 06:05:59 UTC.

A great day out and a bit of wildlife around. Once finding the right tracks in to the area the beginning was no real issue although there were a few puddles around. Once at GZ we pushed in the bush and got to the right spot and made the find. We completed the signing duties and great to see an ammo can. TFTC
We continued up and got to a steep hill that was deeply rutted which with some damp parts meant we would not get up so double back and picked up the rest of the first series in reverse being Homeward bound (quick find), Annie (certainly well cover log - how did we miss such a large log to start with) and The Rocky Bit (quick find). All logs signs and caches re hid. TFTC

Nice walk. Great hide. Took rubber duck and left toy dog. TFTC

While in the area today on a Mission we stopped in and checked out the cache, a quick find here after finding GZ, will check out the complete track when there is more time.. TFTC

While out and about today we stopped in and checked out this cache, a good find here TFTC

[green] Almost [/green]

I got within 90m of the cache with my soccer-mum-car (Nissan Xtrail) but decided to chicken out and reverse back down. It was raining and the track was quite muddy. So with the last 200m on foot it wasn't a long hike and the cache was found in perfect condition. I also scored some unloved days > awesome.

Thanks and cheers
Philipp

[url=http://fb.com/groups/geocachingmelbourne][navy]Geocaching Melbourne[/navy][/url]

Find # 1126 Found @13:10Hrs

Out for a bit of 4W Driving withe the GLW & our new Toy (1996 Suzuki Vitara) which made it up the track with eas.
A nice easy find after finding a suitable parking spot having to do a bush bash.


TNLNSL
TFTH

Great series of caches, reasonably easy drive in dry weather. Certainly do have to hunt through the regrowth for this one though!

Arrived on our 650 singles and cased the undergrowth for the cache. Jeez that was no understatement about the regrowth taking over! We also went in from different directions and I couldn't even see spoor from anyone else who had been tramping about. Then an unfortunate meeting with the same prickly stuff mentioned in other posts sent me back to the road for a regroup. Just then partner, LankBrown gleefully sallied forth from the undergrowth with a, "I am genius...found it!" Sigh. You introduce someone to geocaching and 3 caches later he is having better luck than me at finding them. There is no justice sometimes.....
Great spot and the road is great fun for bikes.... Thanks for the cache guys.

Geohubbys comment was - how bad do you want it. I pointed we could come out here and went around again, he decided to have another look rather than come back and the cache was at hand. Thanks for the 4wd day out

With bated breath we find the track and head for cache número uno! Funnily enough we all entered the undergrowth at different points (I found the prickliest path, oh yay!) but most of us ended up at GZ. Couldn't see each other through the scrub though! Actually heard Wal find the cache! Found with the Walenators on another 4x4 adventure! TFTC Team Crackers.

Out for a bit of fun geocaching with Earthbound Chief and Co. We decided to head towards Bunyip State Forest and a bit of 4x4 excitement. After a bit of a bush bash the cache was easily located without too many injuries!!! TFTC

Done today in the company of Team Crackers, Maccamob, Rebel Acts, Rabbitto, pprass, and Mr Coffee. The last of these caches for me and I really wondered when I was going to do them so was mightily pleased when pprass arranged this trip and Team Crackers obliged. Team Oaky's logs give some indication of what this would have been like sans 4x4 and before the roadworks changed things. Those tracks will be sealed soon!

A great day out thanks TC's et al.

Found by Mary & David, in company with Team Crackers, Alansee, Rebel Acts, pprass, Rabbitto and The Coffees, at 1240. Doing the series in reverse, this was the last one to find, and the most difficult. With all the new growth, often chest-high, we had to resort to the hint. Even though we were only a few metres in from the track, the going was slow as we circled around an uncertain GZ. In the end, Alansee found the cache when he spotted the items mentioned in the hint when he was close by. Our thanks to Team Crackers.

Out for a days caching and some cache maintenance with Alansee, Maccamob, Pprass, Rabbitto, Rebel Acts and The Coffees.
After they had found the cache we declared it safe and sound and right where it should have been, even though the undergrowth has taken over.

Out on a motorbike ride for the first time in 18 months. It was very overgrown here but that's part of the fun. It was a terrain 5 after all.
TFTC and my brother for stopping his motorbike ride to look for strange little boxes in the bush.

Started at homeward bound so this is the last one and due to the new under growth I think this would be the hardest one. Thanks for the 4x4-1 caches.

we went to go get this one after one of our cars broke the back axle and this was the quickest way home we thought so got to here and and had a quick look at the bush and decided to leave it for another day as they couldnt stop on the hill and we didnt want to delay the group to much as for that they just had worse bad luck as we got further up the track they broke a front cv and diff lock so we turned around and headed the long way home he managed to limp his car home on 1 wheel drive thanks for the series of caches i will be back to try and find the rest

Heading down to spend a few days with djcache, now have the opportunity to complete this series that I've wanted to do for some time now. Cache found shortly after arriving at an appropriate parking spot, log signed and no swaps made. The start of a pleasant drive I hope. TFTC

Did with Pau Pau & co Over shot gz and had to walk 220m down hill very slippery and wet did swaps sl tftc

What a great way to spend Australia Day, out in the bush geocaching. The track had just been graded and a light sprinkle of rain made it very slippery but great fun. Found with THE BOUNTY TRACKERS. Done swaps. SL TFTC

Found @ 11.50am, #557.
A day out motorbike riding in the bush and why not find some caches while we were there, I had my GPSr in my pocket so it was a bit hard to see it there. The day was wet and the tracks are very rutted and slippery, you would need a very good, not standard 4WD to get up and down the tracks around here.
After passing this one yearlier on we decided to do a big loop around and come back to this one soon we could grab the trackables because they had been there for a while but not looking at my GPSr we went right passed Homeward Bound and Hollow Log without knowing, we arrived back to GZ and started searching and getting wet from walk through the bush and scrub but I was already wet so it did not matter, I soon located the hide and signed the log and freed the TB's from their prison.
We will come back another day to finish this series and start the next.
Thanks to Team Crackers for this cache and series.

Was in the area with friends off road driving, happened to drive along a track nearby that was gated and had to turn around, noticed the familar green box on the GPS screen while trying to find somewhere else to play. Great track, would be a lot more interesting in the wet! Was late in the afternoon and nearing home time when we found this one. Will have to get the rest of this series another day. Bonus, may have converted a couple more people to the wonderful world of Geocaching!
Took Thats nothing, left Okanagan TB, Big Bird TB, the littlest Hobo 'Helga' TB, and Koala Lumpar TB.
Thanks for the cache.

GPS giving us some grief and unable to settle down on a location so with clue a bit vague and after searching for some time we couldn't locate it which was a real disappointment. May go back to this sometime with new GPS.

I was taking a group from the Melbourne Jeep Owners Club out for an explore in Bunyip. We set our targets high both the 4x4-1 and 4x4-2 series in one day. If you follow the log enteries, you will see how we went.
We have even posted a video clip of our trip at http://animoto.com/play/jgwinUW6c8C0X4xkyAjyRA?autostart=true

The new hide was quickly found by a newbie once the clue was decrypted - then the walk back to the cars - we couldn't fit the 4 car convoy into the run off near the cache.

After using the wrong entrance into the park, and finding that City Nav 2010, Garmin Topo v2, etc etc to be fairly useless for navigating the area, frustration was setting in! We found a place to stop for lunch when a couple motorbikes decided to stop as well, and then another two... They were much more familiar with the area and had us going in the right track in no time.

Got to GZ with no problems and the 2 x 5year olds (Caleb & Rhys) were ecstatically arguing over who gets to use the $700 GPS! This was Rhys' first ever cache...

Thanks for bringing us here...more to come...

I wonder when the Camry will be up this way? [:o)]

Found at 1330 hours, this was not the begining for me but the end of this series for me.
I hear you ask, will he attempt the next series, well you will just have to wait and see.
This was the easiest of the 4 caches to do.
I got the Festiva within 160 metres of GZ, wise move on my part.
From here I could have been in all sorts of trouble.
But as per my navigational skills I managed to walk the distance to GZ without any mishaps.
TNLN SL
TFTC and the series and the adventure. Thanks Team Crachers

Rated: for Overall Experience

found easily today i dont no how i missed it last weekend tnln sl tftc 4x4 series is a great idea

We came through today with Fullonphil to check this series out. Nothing left of this one at all so it has been replaced with an ammo can about 1m from the original co ordinates.

bunyip opened on thursday since the fires so we went and looked for all the geocaches to see if any survived


we dnf on this one we had a pretty good look but you never know it may still be there

Hi nomex,
We realise this cache has been off line for awhile but after the fires of Black Saturday we are waiting for Parks Victoria to reopen the tracks.
We have been told the area of the 4X4-1 series could be open by Christmas but at the moment the public is not allowed in at all.
If it can not wait that long we will replace them as soon as we can get in and relist the series.
Thanks
Mark and Diane.

For safety reasons this series will be disabled until the CFA has the fires under control and given the all clear for the public to re enter the area. We will then check and see what has survived and replace if nessessary.
Thanks for your coopperation

So thats it. We Finished the 4x4-1 drive backwards
Left rainbow pinwheel

While leading a Melbourne Jeep Owners Club 4x4 trip through Bunyip, I stopped the convoy here to introduce a few muggles to the sport of geocaching. As I had 6 jeeps in the convoy, I couldn't stop the convoy at the normal stopping point, and instead continued driving up the hill until we found enough level ground for the whole convoy to stop and pull over: then I had the group walk back down to get the cache. Not so bad, but the walk back up to the Jeeps slowed a few members down.

Next time I'll take a group through the full planned track and take on gentle annie.

PS I would like to see more 4x4 cache series like this one: as a new club trip leader, a well laid out cache series like this makes it easy for me to plan trips into areas I have not done previously.

Found this one without too much trouble. We spend a lot of time in and around the area four wheel driving and today thought we would place our own cache in the area and also find one or two. Took small wooden picture frame. Left stress (squashy thing ) in shape of Australia and a small childs plastic handbag thing. Had fun finding this. TFTC SL
Davidman (+1)

Logging old finds from previous account

Found whilst out with macey918. Great fun in the 4x4. Very sad to hear of impact of the recent fires in the area.

easy find after a very wet and slippery ascent of some tracks requiring some proper low range driving and wishing that we had another vehicle with us for recovery purposes.

I took my Brother out for his first geocache hunt while he was in town: he has been living in Mexico for the last 10 years.

As we were travelling alone, and i'm new to Jeepin', I decided the last hill on the approach to GZ was a bit tricky after a lot of rain, so we parked at the bottom of the hill and walked the last 200m.

Very pleased to have a hint, as the cloud and tree cover made the location lock a bit dodgey on the GPS: without the hint I fear I would never have been able to find it.

We didn't press on to the next two in the series, as I knew from a prior recent trip to the area that the tracks are rather hard to tackle without backup (well for a newbie like me anyway).

I'm looking forward to more 4WD caches by Team Crackers

Sorry for the late log, we had so much fun compleating this cache with the rest of the teams we forgot to log it.
TNLN
Thanks Team Crackers and every one else for making it such a great day.

Found at 10.20am GAFF5. To get to this point we had already experienced a lot of tales that would normally fill logs a few times over, however they pale into insignificance to what we actually experienced at the pointy end of this trip.
The weather was perfect as we gathered at the BP service station near Longwarry North at precisely 9.00am (a miracle in itself) with Fullonphil, Vombatus including Stewart & Nicole, Coffees, Crackers, Rabbitto and Acts2youthgroup. We were in anticipation wondering what the condition of the tracks would be after the high winds and rain during the past week, but the first bit was quite easy as we broke away from the rest of the group with Rabbitto in their serious 4wd wagon and went onto find the first cache of the series in 2wd!!
Thanks Crackers for placing this type of cache for those that have an interest in enjoying the great outdoors with a bit of a challenge in winter.

pprass had named this little expedition Bunyip madness, he was not wrong, we all met at the BP service station ready for the assault on Bunyip it was good so see the comrade re and friendships that had been formed through geocaching. The first part of the track gave us a false sense of security for what was ahead as pprass never put it in 4WD for this part, the cache was soon in hand and we prepared for rocky. Thanks Team Crackers for the cache.

Went out with a team of experienced and well groomed geocachers and 4x4 efficienardoes. At first all that experience was not needed but that will not be the case in the longer term. I thought the track was a 'doddle' and not worth putting the hubs in and it was. That was to change a little later as the caches went by. Thanks to Team Crackers for the cache and for the experience (and the mud luggers).

We found our 46th Team Crackers cache at 10:15am as the first of 5 on our Bunyip Madness 4x4 trip. Pprass had organised this trip a while back with the wonderful premise of 'Let's do the Gentile Annie cache series in winter'. We arrived first at the BP service station starting point after seriously miscalculating just how much time that new Pakenham Bypass saves. The rest of the crew - Fullonphil, Vombatus, Coffees, Crackers, Pprass and Acts2youthgroup soon arrived too. A great idea to have Team Crackers (cache owners) and Mr Coffee (first to find) along for the trip. Once all were lined up we headed on to the first cache. In the excitement of heading up the first bit of a hill, we overshot the cache by a good 250m. I had to dive out and scuttle back down the hill to nab the prized 2TF before Pprass with Acts2 on board could catch up. I managed to nab the cache and log it just as soon as I heard them calling out to see where I was. I had just enough time to grab the cache and stuff it back into its hide with no cover so Pprass could still gain a GAFF1 but I think that Eric picked it up first and GAFF5ed it for him anyway. I tried. Our 80th 2TF for those who give a hoot . Thanks for the cache from D,S,K & H B-A.

With the rain absent from the horizon today the decision was made at the last minute to go for a drive and mix 4 wheel driving and caching in a area that can prove unforgiving to those unprepared.
Not knowing what laid ahead I gathered the usual 4wd goodies which included snatch strap, tree trunk protector, extra shackles, spades x 2, exhaust Jack, tyre pump, drag chain, winch extension strap, riggers gloves, 3x GPS units, spare batteries, extra hand held UHF radio.
This equipment is my security blanket and I am always happy to show what I carry to other 4wd geocache enthusiasts.
Anyway back to the cache: After loading the gear we headed off and with the fog lifting to a bright and sunny day we made our way along the freeway to the cache area and the wonders of the Wombat State Forest. It was not long before the wheels hit the dirt and we made good progress along the track to this cache.
With a distance of 40 odd metres we parked the Hilux well off the track and with good coordinates the first cache of the day was found easily and a FTF was logged without a hitch.
Our thanks to Team Crackers for placing a cache here in what could be described as a Berwick cachers back yard. It is now off for the next and probably a bit harder to reach cache.
Regards Mr.Coffee and the “Mmm this seemed too easy to drive to, what lies ahead?†Coffee Clan.

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