Where am I – Illawarra Coniston, New South Wales, Australia
By The Rats on 23-Jul-08. Waypoint GC1E9ND

Was going to replace the log in this one but decided its served its purpose so time to archive.

Cache container is still in place, but needs replacing due to water damage.

Wow. Not sure if I can say I enjoyed the search for this one. I’m so glad to have worked it out and found it on my own. Was a bit worried I was getting lost finding the cache. Which by the way needs replacing because it’s water damaged. I would have liked a cooler container after all that effort though. TFTC

Tftc. Log soggy. Found a slightly dry piece to sign.

Spotted the slight error then Google Maps and Street View helped me figure out the rest. A very random spot but it has to be to fit in with the puzzle. Got to the area then followed a track until about 70m to go then bushbashed. Luckily the vegetation is quite sparse. Log very wet and unsignable. Photo attached. TFTC.

I had this one solved a while ago and today I was in the area to have a look around for the cache,A really enjoyable walk out to GZ in a location new to me,Coords had me in a ditch but geosenses soon had me the cache,on opening it was filled to the top with rusty water from its contents,log was soaked within the in plastic sleeve but I managed to get some ink on there,I dried out what I could but really needs a good fix up,the snaplock lid on the cache doesnt snaplock anymore.
Anyways...great puzzle and nice to find this one
Thanks Rats for the cache

17 Jun 2017
I solved the first part of this puzzle earlier in 2016. Today I made it a priority to come to *The Gong* to check out the final clue from piecing together the information obtained on the cache page. I headed to the Waypoint and obtained the clue. A little math and I was happy to discover I was right on the button when the Geochecker gave me the green light. Now I have my final coordinates ready for the find.

With only one more find needed to qualify for the 15 Year Unfound Challenge and my target for this weekend (two birds with one stone on the August Challenge) being logged yesterday by someone else ( grrr!), I was not taking any chances in losing this one too. Sorry to the other watchers who may have had the same goal in mind, but this one was mine! Have had the co-ords solved three times (with one attempt at unfound time thwarted by the 15 Year Challenge owner no-less) and I was not missing out again. Despite an icy nip in the wind, a bad cold and medication making me see stars, as long as I saw the cache, I was determined to push on along the relatively short bushwalk with thankfully no leeches [^] As the trees creaked and the arrow bounced around a bit, suddenly the stars turned into a familiar container out in the open and my name was added 371 days after last logged (I only needed 199). Replaced cache a little more securely than how I found it and rescued the two TBs that haven’t moved in ages. Now back to a nice warm bed and some chicken soup.

Signed back in to the gc website. Backlogging a majority of finds over the last year. Started my own account and it's time to sync it out. To avoid confusion I wont change the date logged. Send me an email (via profile link) or a message in the message centre (also via profile link) if you have any concerns.

TFTCs

This one has been on the Mystery To-Do List for a while.
Now that this one is complete, I have a big open gap in my map on the Eastern side of the Princes Motorway!


Not being a local, it took me a couple of attempts to crack this one from my computer.
I had thought about this for a while and it finally clicked! Street view couldn't help me all the way to the end. Over the last 8 months, I have been back here at least 4 times, as I have taken photos of the numbers, but have misplaced them, and screenshots of GZ co-ords.

Recently, I have been tackling caches near and along this road, so I thought I better stop in here and grab it while I passing through. Shorter walk than I expected and not as 'bushbashing' as I expected.

I somehow followed a clear, flat and comfortable trail in, and from 20m off, I could see the camo surrounding the cache - again, I was expecting worse after a couple of people mentioned GPS can jump.

Woohoo, signed a damp-but-usable log, took some snaps. At this point, I had no leeches, until halfway through taking pics, one miraculously fell from somewhere and landed in my knee-high gumboots.
I was able to pick him up and flick him away before I drew blood! Seriously? In knee-high gumboots, how?

Anyway, back up to flat terrain, a vehicle flew past along, but not bothered me. Then back into the car and onwards and upwards to the next cache!

TFTC The Rats!

TB Drop -

TB3E26C - JA-SI Tiger Geocoin
TB6HN5Q - Geocaching Logo Travel Tag

Accidentally, I didn't take down the Tracking # for TB6HN5Q.
As a leech landed, I was in a hurry to pack up and move onward -
I forgot to get the TB Tracking code to move it out/in to the caches.

I had been intending a pure numbers run of Wollongong today but spotted this one and decided to have a go at it. Since publishing my Fifty Forgotten Years challenge I'm not actively chasing unfound time anymore, but this hadn't been found since January so was at least worth a look while I was in the area. I'm not a Wollongong local but a couple of words stood out to me in the text and soon I found myself looking around on Street View, confirming some of the other hints. Once there I soon had the coords confirmed and noticed that someone else had tried to confirm the coords two days ago! To the GeoMobile! Ahh, the familiar thrill of the chase, and soon I was approaching GZ, and looking around while the GPS completely failed to cope with the heavy canopy. After a while I decided to think more like a cacher and started eliminating obvious landmarks nearby.. soon enough I spotted something out of place and made the find of a very dirt-encrusted container, so surely it hadn't been found in a while. Indeed, the last entry in the log was from January. My celebrations were cut short by a familiar feeling on my shin and a small leech was flicked off. Another had attached to my other shin, but my guitar-pick thumbnail made short work of it. Time to retreat to the car, but on the way back I found a larger one had gotten through my sock on my ankle. I thought three was it, but two caches later I found another one! Definitely going to need a Loratadine with dinner. I haven't had a shower yet so I may find more bites still. Anyway, this was a fun puzzle and a nice explore at GZ, and it's also kinda neat the way the numbers lined up for you. TFTC!

This entry was edited by NationalSteel on Sunday, 14 December 2014 at 14:36:10 UTC.

Our 8155th overall find.

Found with FarmerFrentzen on our Christmas break caching trip. Having solved this one previously I took the chance to grab it today. The puzzle for this one was tough for an out of towner but I got there in the end. I enjoyed the walk in and to the GZ. With the tree cover it made the cache search a bit tough though FF eventually found the cache.

Thanks The Rats for the cache.

Found during a run down to Wollongong with Big Matt and Shell.

It had been a little while since we had cached Wollongong and with the publishing of the LIPT we decided it was time to make another trip down south. The weather was near perfect and a very enjoyable day was had making our way around Lake Illawarra and surrounding areas.

Big Matt had done the work to locate the box and from there it was simply a matter of putting the numbers into place. A nice early morning walk into GZ and after a short search the cache was in hand.

Thanks The Rats for the cache.

That was a tuff puzzle to crack. Took a few failed attempts to find the location of "the box". Read the clues over again then the penny dropped. Just happened to be around the corner so a quick trip and I had the numbers needed. Once the co-ordinates were solved realized I had been within a few hundred metres of GZ a few days earlier. Returned to the area and got the cache. Great puzzle, Thanks.

I thoroughly enjoyed interpreting the clues and finding the right place on google maps. Today we made our way to GZ and found the cache after a brief search.

Needed a hint on the cryptic clue and there was a bit more bushwacking than expected which led us to more difficult bushwacking than was required, but we can finally tick this one off. TFTC!

We had no GPS reception but managed to find it when we were standing still trying to decide which way to go. TFTC.

Finally! As a non-local this one had me stumped for a long time. I new what I was looking for to get the coordinates, but couldn't work out where to find it. Snorris worked out the where and I found the coordinates. Today was the day, we found a few caches in the general area and then made the find. Noticed a collectible spoon in the cache, we could have used that at Keira Capers. TFTC.

This entry was edited by paulyman on Saturday, November 10, 2012 at 5:48:00 AM UTC.

Well this one took a bit of time to work out, after a few visits to some wrong spots we finally found ourselves in the right spot to grab the coords. Once done we grabbed lunch at the nearby pub. TFTC took 2 TB.

found the coordinates but coouldn;t find with my iphone. Need a better GPS!
!

Worked out the coordinates the other week and waited until a beautiful day like today to go searching for the container. Once we had figured out where to actually park the rest was a piece of cake. Left two TB's....a cat and a frog! TN SL TFTC

The winds today are very strong, but it didn't deter us from the hunt !! Locations similar to NZ where we been on a holiday, except they dont have leeches . Nice spot. TNSL. TFTC

Managed to tackle a number of great bush caches today and although it turned out to be a bit of a tuff day we were glad to find all the caches we were aiming at today. Thanks Rats. SLTN..TFTC

Did this puzzle when it first came out but never went to GZ to find. Found the sheet in the, to be done pile, in the garage and seeing I was in the area today ducked in for a look.
Took a while but eventually found it looked on the wrong side twice, then looked a third time and there it was. Signed and then beat a hastey retreat befor I had all the goodness sucked out of me. Metho is my friend.

TFTC

Ironbark.

Found this Cache on Worktour .
Thankyou for hide this Hardcore-Cache .

Finally made it to GZ today with hubby and miss 4 in tow. After a short stroll miss 4 and I stayed on the walking track while hubby went bushbashing.He retreived the cache and signed the log and was back with us within 5 minutes.We took some colouring pencils and left some neclaces. We also took th GC to move along to another location. Thanks again to The Rats for bringing us to another beautiful part of the Illawarra and for another great cache.

wow this one really threw me for six!!! having only lived in wollongong for a year and having hubby away who grew up here i had no idea what i was looking for!!!!!! i couldnt call hubby as he was on night shift so i dare not wake him so i hit the internet and came up with some possibilities but still no idea where the rectangle box was...after googling nearly all day i decided to email a fellow geocacher for a hint.not long after this i hit the internet again and decided to google something i thought would have been a dead end but bingo i had the location on the map within a few minutes. i felt so relieved and emailed the fellow geocacher again to tell them thanks anyway but i no longer needed a hint. after punching in the coordinates on the gps i went to the area gz was in but have decided to wait till hubby is home on thursday to go retreive the cache as i was not going to start bushbashing on my own.....bring on thursday!! thanks the rats.

Happy 100th cache find to me! Woohoo. After an initial attempt (and failure) at the cryptic clues I grovelled at The Rats feet and was given a subtle point in the right direction. I solved the clues and found that the box I had been searching for is visible from my lounge room window a mere 300 or so metres away! Haha. Anyway, I had to wait until today to tackle the final piece of this puzzle and decided to take the moto for a spin to as close as GZ as possible. I parked and after a quick walk I was close but the GPS didn't want to make it easy. I gave up on the device and just started looking for spots it might be and it wasn't long before I had it in hand. I signed the log, savoured the 100th find moment, and left a Groundspeak Blue Switch Geocoin to celebrate. Thanks Rats for a great cache.

Ive started to try and complete all the caches nearby and this was actually the closest I hadnt completed. I worked out the coords just before my holidays 8 weeks ago, so now was thew first time to try and find the cache. It was a pleasant short walk to GZ from where I parked and I often ride past this area when out for a Sunday Morning Bike ride. Finding the cache was relatively painless, except for the couple of leaches that hitch a short ride. The cache contents and log book are all nice and dry and the container is still in good order. Thanks Rats, I enjoyed this puzzle cache a lot.

Found the box and worked out the coords (brilliant concept!) but didn't get time today to get to GZ. Currently logging this sat around the campfire at Killalea after a day caching in the area and due to find more puzzle caches tomorrow, hopefully this being one of them...

This cache was on my list of mystery caches that I had solved (a number of times!), but every time, before I managed to go hunting, I would lose the sheet... repeatedly! Finally I decided to get myself organised & set up a system to finally knock these off my list! It had been nearly a year since last activity, but found the spot relatively easily. De-leeched the container (then de-leeched myself back at the car!). TFTC

WOOT! My 150th cache. I had been holding off finding others so this could be my 150th. It may seem small numbers to some but an achievement for me, nonetheless. So on a surprisingly hot day, I ventured back to GZ. Even more prepared than previously with big boots, long pants, a Dora the Explorer drink bottle (thanks Care Bear!) and most importantly a fat clue from the owner. Probably good to have the clue as I was getting GZ +/- 30m. But with the clue restricted where I needed to search so I abandoned the fail phone and started searching. Boy was it humid in there. After not too long, I stumbled upon the cache UNCOVERED. LOL. Probably should of found this the last time. I was literally 1m away but missed it. Did I mention I am a bad geocacher? Did the log duties whilst fighting off a cache guardian (leech). Covered up the cache again. But note to future cachers, it ain't that well hidden. But there are no muggles so who cares and the vegetation coverage is thick, so hoping you have better luck than me in finding GZ.

Summary : great cache and an adventure that spanned many months.
TFTC
#150

The road between Mt Kembla Village and GZ has reopened.

Sigh. I went up to GZ early this morning. No Tbone and surprisingly no leeches. But with a long and sweaty search, I came up empty handed. The GZ on my fail phone was jumping around so much I didn't have much of a chance. At one time, it was pointing to a bottom of a waterfall. I wasn't going there but helpfully it jumped 40m away with a minute. I did receive a hint from Team Casho so I can brim full of confidence. There is so much vegetation I could of been standing on the cache. Probably not being able to find a GZ was the biggest killer. Actually, seriously, it must of been muggled by a deer.

This will join my list of Rats caches to do when I am a grownup.

Typical result for Tbone and I - find GZ but not the cache! So not being a local by birth, I actually solved the puzzle amazingly quickly. Actually a few months ago but given its location, I pondered whether Tbone and I were ready to take on the challenge. So....... another early Sunday morning adventure started with the journey to 100 caches nearing.

No problems getting to the general location and then getting to GZ. Tbone is not the most patient cacher so within a few minutes, he is like "Can we go?". I ask for a few more minutes and say to hang out on a rock to stay away from the leeches. Well apparently GZ is leech central. Wilbert didn't feed them enough a few months ago and they were hungry! Everywhere were waggling tails. Socks, shoes, pants! Tbone's nightmare came true. So next 10 mins spent extracting leeches and then a quick bolt back to the car, empty handed. Well it was a lovely spot (minus the leeches). I can't believe we missed a "large" sized cache but hey, that is a reflection of our experience levels and time available at GZ. There is always another day (and a big bag of salt).....

Poeh, poeh,
Without local help I probably would have never come past the first stage of this one. But after finding the right box the rest was not that difficult?? I thought!
I didn't expect the cache to be this far from the first hint and first drove around just following me arrow on the GPS. This finally brought me to a totally unexpected area where I had been before. I went in on a nice track by foot but after a few 100 meters this wasn't enough. Ended up whit some bushbashing as well. The only thing easy about this one was finding the container once I was on GZ!
TFTC Wilbert67

Well after looking in the area we thought was correct found no idea as to what the box was as we were advised by the Rats that what we thought was correct was not.
After some help today at the 3rd ISCGT today we were off on the hunt again.
With new co-ords plotted we soon had the cache in hand despite the gps having a few problems at gz.

Went to leave a tb collected today but it was to big as cache was quite full so left nothing and took TB

What a great hunt! Found the rectangular box after putting a lot of thought into the cryptic clue and one false start. At GZ the GPSr reception was very poor initially and had me looking way off the mark, but it eventually settled down and the cache was in hand. A very rewarding cache and a walk along a new track to be investigated further in the future. T: TB & GC + SES Patch. L: TB, Dog and Whale. Thanks Rats.

We had a few ideas on this one, thankfully one of them was the right idea. A Rats cache is never straight forward so it is always good when we are able to log it as found. Signed the log proudly on Australia Day and took nothing but a leech.

Well done Rats TFTC.

A small hint from the Rat gave me new heart, and eventually it all made sense (zoom levels are important!). The required information was collected from the box, and it was off to GZ. After some bush-bashing we got to the indicated location, but then we started to doubt our information, until something out of place was spotted, and the cache was finally to hand. This one brings up 500 GC for us! Thanks Rats

Left: Unactivated Geocoin & TB "The Great Aussie Coldie Opener"
Took: Delaware Geocoin and Matchbox Car

Rated: for Overall Experience

Had a bit of a wander around the streets of Wollongong looking for a rectangular box, but a lack of inspiration meant that I gave up in frustration. I simply have no idea where to start with this, and google hasn't been of much help either. Oh well, better than being stuck at work!. Thanks Rats

Rated: for Overall Experience

Always satisfying to find a Rats cache and the puzzle sounded just to hard but with some help from the family and local knowledge we cracked it without any search tools or other help. I had the wrong union in mind but it got me close enough to check my next hunch. Some of the clues didn't even click till afterwards and there is a bit of history I think I still need to research. Like steeba, close to home - sort of - but I was abandoned at the final approach due to my geopartner's fear of leeches.. and they were only little ones. I am curious to know the sequence of development for this cache given. Dropped a coin a paper holder and collected a new SES trophy. Thanks Rats.

#1149

This one came up at the Wollongong Invasion weekend with a rush to see who would be the FTF. It had me stumped- Google got the rough location referred to then eba had some ideas. I then did a few sorties examining possible locations- even paying for parking at one! So back to the drawing board.

After discussions with a fellow cacher about possible locations it was nutted out and I got enough info to get me to where I needed to be. Even then I thought I drew a long bow but the numbers made sense.

I've been on a week long caching drought hoping to clock up #1150 at a great cache so didn't have any great plans to find this one. In case, plugged the co-ords into google maps and discovered the cache wasn't too far from home (well sort of) so headed out.

The drive in itself was worthwhile as I saw not one but two echidnas by the side of the road- and they didn't even rush off.

One at GZ I had to phone for help but in retrospect the GPS got me to within 10m eventually so probably would have been close with some persistence.

Grabbed the Unite for Diabetes coin and very glad to be able to tick this one off as found- a tricky one!

ps saw a lyrebird on the way back too!

Found it , but not without help.....twice. I was never any good a cryptic crosswords so I knew what I was in for. Anyway, clever cache just a bit too clever for the average cacher. TFTC and the help. Greg.

I've never made a secret of the fact that I am not a fan of puzzle caches. But all the same, I had to find it anyway. I've lived in Wollongong for the last 23 years, and I've got to say that I would still have never found this cache without a push in the right direction from a fellow cacher. And even then using all of my local knowledge I struggled. I'd say that anyone from out of town would find this nigh on impossible.

Once the clue was found I plugged GZ into a map, well I knew the area where the cache was at least... from my MTB days. So we jumped into the geomobile and off we went.

Gizmo lost coverage when it told me that GZ was still 70m away, with no track through the scrub I feared that this was going to be a write off. But persistency paid off, and eventually the cache was found after much looking and guessing and grumbling on my behalf.

Hmmm what to say for this cache....

Well it was my 200th! So that is a celebration in itself. But i think that i will wholeheartedly agree with what Hoojar has written about about the local knowlegde.
There is no way that i would have figured this cache out without intimate local knowledge and heck of a lot of time on my hands. I wouldn't have found it at all if it wasn't for Hoojar. And the amount of guess work that went into looking for the cache at GZ was silly. Sure we might not have had the best gizmo in the world, but loosing satalite reception 70m from the cache... it was all a little much. Couldn't say i enjoyed this one.

Took the coin though.

Half a tank of deisel and still no idea........ All my internet reaserch was good for nothing. I think I'll just search googles street veiw for a few more hours.

Headed off to GZ this afternoon with Krafty Charlie who made the actual find. Coverage was a bit sketchy. My PDA lost out but Krafty's Magellan got us to the finish line. It was Wet Wet Wet. BTW Rats GZ was exactly on my plotted line - not that it helped in any way! Left a TB and Took a TB SL Thanks for a cache that promoted some good competition between the locals.

The internet gave us many avenues to search, but in the end it was up to the old grey matter for this one. When we stood in front of the final numbers, all the clues fell into place. Ran out of light last night or maybe our eyes are just too mature for night caching. Today Mrs KC sent me off with Gribbly and there it was just 10 metres from where we were standing last night.
Special note: There are deer in the area (with BIG antlers)so thank goodness for good braking on the little geomobile.
T-Geocoin and stubby holder
L- Stubby holder, Geocoin and a TB.
SL Thanks for a great cache

This one proved to be much more of a challenge than we had first expected. After the research that we had done the night before proved incorrect we ended up at Wollongong City Library to do further exploration of the possibilities. Still not being 100% with our findings there we went back to the car to pursue other ideas we had uncovered. At this point all those ideas also fell over for us and it was only by luck we stumbled onto the rectangular box we needed to find. It was then we noticed that everything fit together but were we correct? Luck not being on our side so far we were reluctant to believe our calculations for GZ but continued on anyway to finally find a cache which was so full of goodies that it was a puzzle itself to repack really highlighted our total experience.
Many thanks to The Rats for a fantastic adventure….

I know where you are and grabbed the FTF along with Woodyson. Jagged the box by luck and the cryptic clues came to me. You know you are at the right box when the clues all fall into place. Well done Rats!! No clues will be given out so don't even try asking. I have sworn Woodyson to a painful death if he squeals. T FTF prize and left Coin, bandage (you might need it on the way to GZ) and carabina compass for when your GPS'r looses reception leaving GZ.

Good one Rats,

Tried your other two new ones today but no luck their yet. Found the box and will be off to GZ very early tomorrow and beat the invasion from pinching it from under my nose . (Hopefully I have it correct)

Tagged along before tennis Very clever with the clues. Takeing bribes for hints

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