Sprung @ Springvale Blaxland, Queensland, Australia
By Maintained by Griz066 for Speedmistress on 08-Sep-08. Waypoint GC1G3JF

CACHE CONTAINER NO LONGER EXISTS.

decided not to replace this one!

will look at this one this weekend.

Suspect that cache is missing. Did find spring that was mentioned in previous log, but no log inside. Also found fishing line around tree wich may have been from cache. Area around GZ has been disrupted by earth works. Still, no cache found but was spectacular with hundreds of cockatoo's flying around and squaking was nearly deafening.

Hmmm !! Just revisiting this cache page and reading the previous logs and the cache page and name properly gives me an idea
The one thing I did find lying around at GZ was well sprung and I hung it on the new fence.
I didn't look too closely at it and realise now that it may well have had a cache inside it
Aaaaargghhh!!! [:o]

I took the detour out to the river crossing this morning
And after negotiating the track to GZ, which includes a tricky little detour to avoid a fallen tree these days, I found meself at a sort of picturesque riverside location.
Sadly, like so many potentially beautiful and iconic Australian locations, this area has been destroyed by litter bugs and bulldozers
Sure you could camp amongst the mess, but to me this is yet another 'classic landscape' ruined by modern day Aussies
McDonalds has a lot to answer for !! [:(!]

But the real reason for the DNF was that the bulldozer and fence construction crews seem to have destroyed GZ [:o]
I really think this cache has been buried under tons of dirt [:o]

Ah well, back to the long drive to the next cache

9416 kms travelled in 21 days, one awesome eclipse observed near Mt Carbine in Northern Queensland and 712 cache finds, including a small handle of FTF's.

This was a trip I'd been planning for over 12 months with the main reason being to observe the solar eclipse on the morning of the 14th of November. I had decided to drive to Palm Cove and back, where my penthouse accommodation was located, while the rest of the family flew up and back. I love the drive and the unknown adventures that lay ahead; and I even think the last time I did one this big may have been for the previous eclipse in Australia which occurred over SA.

Apart from the great experiences, awesome scenery, and the characters met, the other reason to drive was to also do some serious caching, with the plan to stop at some power trails along the way including the Fruit Run and A.S. series near Stanthorpe on the way up and the Mid North Coast Wander series, just out of Port Macquarie, on the way back.

I had five days to travel each way with ten days in between spent in Palm Cove holidaying with my family. My route up took me from Melbourne to Tocumwal and up to Glenn Innes, through Toowoomba, Rockhampton and the coast road to Cairns while my route back was a bit more erratic. Heading from Cairns to Townsville then via Charters Towers to Rockhampton. From here it was through the amazing mining region to Roma then across to Dalby down through Stanthorpe (again) to Armidale, Port Macquarie, Wagga Wagga, Tocumwal and then home - phew.

Today I made my way from Roma, through Dalby and Millmerran and onto do some more of the A.S. series out of Stanthorpe that had been added; before crashing in the car in a great little spot I found just off the New England Hwy somewhere south of Tenterfield.

I parked on the opposite of the gully so left the Prado and made my way on foot to GZ. The clue made sense once the hide was found and a really well constructed one too. Really enjoyed doing this one. A favourite for me. Found and logged as I made my way into Cecil Plains. Thanks.

Great hide.
The fallen tree as per previous comment is still there. Hopefully the next finder has a bow saw with them. The fallen tree is only skinny.
Thanks.

Some one has dozed a fence line around GZ recently and some tree branches have been pushed on to the home of the cache and hamper the retrieval of the cache. A well hung spung. TFTC Speedmistress.

Road tripping to dalby town with Sez28 on international geocaching day & hoping to both reach 100 finds!! Tftc

This cache was awesome I love finding something different

Number 6/12 on the quest to 100 for International Geocaching Day with JES5. TFTC

Hello from Sweden

I'm still racing to get 1000 before I leave Aus.

Not many to go, but only 2 days left. [:o)]

So my brother(Brother Colin) picks up me and my son(Sweet Bacon) at 7am.

TFTC A Favorite Point as this is the first of this type of cache I have seen

Out and about going west with my sister (doscrapbooking) and my nephew (sweet bacon).
As the morning progresses my furtherest west will be changing as we go.
Very carefully we retrieved the cache as kept 'grabbing'. All good in the end.
Thanks for the cache. It is in good condition.

The log is very wet and very mouldy, we couldn't sign the log.

4.20pm and we're heading back to camp after hunting GC down at Cecil Plain's, we had stopped at this one earlier but found ourselves on the wrong side of the creek so we tried a different approach and soon had the cache in hand - Note the track can be very boggy after rain. TNLN cheers

Ok this one had us stumped, not the cahe which was quick in hand when we got there but finding the way in. Just remember you DO NOT have to swim, sometimes it pays to retrace your steps (roads) or widen you search for an entry to the cache area or if you can't find it SWIM. LOL (Have seen this get up before and love the idea for cache hides.)

Very clever hiding spot.

A chilly, bright sunny caching day following a day and a half of rain. Approaching the area we spotted one track that looked very wet and a bit churned up so kept going looking for a spot to pull over. Crossing the bridge we spotted another track, again wet, so pulled up across the road on a bitumened area. Chose the closest track first....ummmm...definitely the difficult one....pass! Back to the road and a car with one male occupant slowed considerably and then drove off. As two females in such a isolated area this gave us the heebie jeebies. Walking down the very soggy other track we came across tracks obviously made this morning after yesterday's rain. Two people and two dogs - one with paw prints the size of the palm of my hand. Didn't feel like coming across anyone, nor a massive dog in such a secluded area. Second thoughts as we proceeded quietly along the track. Soon we found tracks heading out as well, making us feel somewhat better. Still feeling quite uncomfortable we continued when a flock of birds alighted from the grass about a metre away scaring the living daylights out of us! Continued to ground zero and spotted the glint of sunlight on a car. Hearts jump....ohhh ....that's ours. Found the device, had the cache halfway retrieved when we heard a crash in the grass across the track. Freeze. No more noises. Probably a wallaby or a falling branch. Complete the task at hand and we hightail it out of there. So relieved to be back at the car. Despite two silly girls working themselves up, we loved the cache. Thankyou.

Great cache very clever

Found it with "FeltInspired" .........TFTC....Loved it keep them coming

Great cache! I even made it up the track in my mighty ford fiesta! TFTC

Awesome cache

Found in the dark by myself at around 6:40 pm. I ended up on the wrong side of the river on the first attempt and rather than swim I went back and searched for the correct path to drive down. TFTC - another great cache Speedmistress. This was my first ever night caching expedition - it was loads of fun.

Sprung into this one with heaps of enthusiasm, but struggled to find the correct entry. Should have been looking more closely on the drive to this one. Eventually found after Mr Dannza came up with a likely entry point after deciding it was too cold to swim the river. Enjoyed the cache type and location. TFTC

I'm not going to lie, it took me a while to find a way in on the right side of the creek. Soon found it after some tracking and backtracking. The mighty Corolla once again went places she was never built to go, but after some bush-bashing and nearly getting bogged in one spot we were near GZ. Loved the hide, not dissimilar to one I have hidden myself in Hervey Bay. Signed logbook and was time for more slipping and sliding to get out and to hit the road again. Lovely area for a cache TFTC.

Log sheet has now been replaced and there is now a nice new one in there thanks to Muff1

Very interesting place, and great idea for a hide. There is a maintenance issue, but I will PM this to keep the secret. Spent quite a bit of time here arguing with two GPS's to convince at least one of them that it had enough batteries. Ended up having to work blind, but found in the end. Thankfully one GPS had enough battery for me to look up the hint.

What a fantastic place. The Sulpher Crested Cockatoos where flying over head. The cache was out of place and muff1 put it back where it belonged. This was a new one for me. Thanks Speedmistress.

Muff1 checked this one and has noticed that the log is damp, this will be replaced as soon as one of us gets back that way, it is still possible to sign with care

Very clever hide, the paper was a bit wet so we dried it as best as we could. The flood height has set a new bench mark as the cache has been at least 6 inches under water during the flood.
Thanks for the cache.

Toowoomba 10.11. I never did find the way in to the correct side of the river, and despite the heavy rain there was no water in the river, so crossing was easy and the cache was fun. It even only rained lightly while I was out of the car. Thanks.

4153.189 TNLN
Visited: World Traveling Gold GC A#6 & First Geocoin in Orbit Gold A#106

Albida

I evidently took the wrong route in, because I found myself on the wrong side of the river. Fortunately for me (unfortunately for the river), there wasn't a lot of water in it, and I was able to get across without getting very damp. Arrived at GZ to find a multitude of potential hiding spots, but fortunately the cache sprang out in front of me. Nicely done. TFTC.

Found at 1000Hrs. Found the road in and we were happily proceeding along in this deserted little spot and then found a couple of fishermen having a cuppa close to GZ. So we had a chat to them and after a while they left. Sometimes out waiting fishermen can be a lengthy process, but we were lucky this time. After they left the GPS indicated that we had parked 3 or 4 steps from the cache. Now that is a type of hide that I hadn't seen before.
Thanks Speedmistress

3259.

I am lucky I picked the right road to get into this one. I loved the cache retrieval device.

Thanks Speedmistress for the cache

TNLNSL

After negotiating and interesting connection road on the way the cache was sprung in its hiding place at 1645hrs. The river looks really sad, it would be good to see it with water again.

TFTC

Found the easy way in but even that was a bit wet done at night L micro coin T micro coin TFTC

Interesting cache, as expected we ended up on the wrong side of the river but the GPS showed a couple of other ways around. The first attempt put us on a property but the next try got us to GZ with no problems.
Great idea for a hide and is working well, thanks Speedmistress for the hunt.
TNLN SL

Dorik

13:38 nice one being involved in a bridge replacement project made me feel at home this area.
TFTC

Found it No. 1146 ... best one yet stopped on the wrong side of river - no water walked across and landed a blue fish ... TNLN

We too ended up on the edge of a river, about 90 metres from the cache... What to do?

We doubled back to check to see if we could find another approach, and we found a road that took us to GZ. That's better!

We had a chuckle when we saw the cache. All in good condition.

No swaps - thanks for the cache!

[This entry was edited by NastySteve on Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 11:35:18 PM.]

Decided to give up when I couldn't find an easy way to GZ. Looking at the map, I think I know now how to get there... next time.

Happy New Year Third find for the day of the Geodaughters driving lesson to Dalby and return. 17 caches found all up and 280 Km travelled. Went one way and the realised no matter how I think.I still can not walk on water. Don't tell Geomum but her new car does go off road and makes getting to thecache easily.A bit damp inside so semi dried and placed back above the high tide mark. TFTC

The long way was the only way.

Fantastic, I love these caches where there has been a bit of imagination go into setting it up. However nearly tripped up when it came to imagination as to how to get to the cache !!. Got there at last after a couple of Km driving back and forth !!!c
TFTC
TNLN SL

Our second attempt at this on after having to abandon play on the first due to bad light.
Let me share a funny story with you.
Geo Mummy and I aren’t exactly brand new anymore; however we are not ready for the knitting and bowls clubs just yet.
If there is an easy way into this cache, we didn’t find it. We came to a gaping chasm that we almost drove into in the dark the first time. It is the site of a now defunct and demolished bridge, GZ was 85 metres from our side, Mummy decided she would brave the chasm and made her way across, by the time she made the other side I realised I still had the GPS. Oops, so I drive the Mazdarati around the road hoping to get to GZ from the other side, nope not happening, the chasm has doubled back on itself and I am still on the same side. I make one attempt to scale down the side of the chasm but give up about 1/3 into it. Mummy is till on the other side and I shout a rough vector to her but to no avail. I drive back to the place where Mummy has crossed but there is no sign of her on the other side and shouting till my lungs near burst doesn’t get a response. A little apprehensive as to the health of Mummy and still having the GPS I decide to cross it myself. This is fraught with danger with crook knees as there has been a log jamb here which it appears an attempt was made to clear by burning it. This has left 300mm of ash and river sand mixed together on top of unstable logs and tree trunks plus a fridge and an old bed frame and some other bits and pieces. Walking on it makes the sand fall through the logs and as I cross I can see a fractured leg coming up at any moment.
Safely across I call to Mummy with still no answer; I find the cache (nice one Ledgins) but Mummy has the pen. I shout some more and head off in the general direction of the last place I saw her. Stopping at a huge dead tree to get my bearings I hear my name called from behind me. Mummy has made it back to the Geomobile with the Geopack. I tell her I need a pen, she again makes the crossing and we fill in the log book. We both head back to the crossing with me lagging behind to get a couple of photos of Mummy making the crossing, by the time I have changed lenses and taken a few snaps she is back at the Geomobile. God love her, on her travels she has found where the road meets the track on my side and offers to drive there so I don’t have to risk my “Dicky Knees†traversing the gap. A fine idea which I would have eagerly taken her up on if I hadn’t had the keys in my pocket…
TNLNSL

Thanks Ledgins
Thanks Speedmistress

Sprung @ Springvale was transferred from LEDGIN'S to user Speedmistress

Found with geo-uncle Lat&Long Junkie on our Great Western Raid weekend. Chose the easy drive in way with the Bedmaker mobile and walked the last few feet. This one surely won't get wet next time it floods around here. TFTC

Number 24 on the great western raid with "Bedmaker". Did a few U-turns before finding the way in. Drove to within 5 metres of the cache and were congratulated by "LEDGIN'S" the next day for doing so [^]. Retrieved the cache and signed the log. Did one more U-turn and headed off to 'Saint R'. TFTC.

Found with Temingi. We chose to do the last part on foot... i'd suggest a form of footwear other than thongs... they probabaly weren't the greatest choice, much to dad's disapproval! TFTC

Did the walk in. Found cache certainly above flood level. Well Sprung !!TFTC.

Will have to come back another day, we ran out of daylight to do the find.
Take the track to the left or risk driving off the edge of the Earth.
Track needs more ground clearance than a stock Mazda 3 has.

Found at 1200 today. GPSr wanted me to go one way but could not drive that way and did not want to walk across the "Ditch". Followed the way in mentioned in the description but did not want to drive in so walked in the 300meters. There was a Government ute parked right at GZ but could not see any people. Very clever Idea and clever hide. Would have to be a massive flood to wash this one away. TFTC

Rated: for Overall Experience

Published