No Salt Dalyston, Victoria, Australia
By pprass on 26-Dec-08. Waypoint GC1K464

Better put this one to bed as it is now in a sensitive area.

After a year of not being found I didn't have much hope for this cache. Long walk along the beach, when arrived at gz only found wombat holes but couldn't find the cache.

Might need checking as its hasn't been found for a year.

OMG! Walked for miles along the beach, past the smelly rotten seal, up the hill (mountain goat stuff) and got to within 15 metres of GZ and was met with imprenatrable bush. So no, I didn't find it.

Mountain goat terrain. Big wombat hole next to GZ location, but could not locate it. Scraped knee will detol it when home. Very rugged foliage. Please check if GZ is still there as wombat holes are monitored at the desal.

Great walk to get to this one. Really enjoyed the cool sea breeze on a very hot day. Good fun getting to GZ and then trying to find our way out again:) TFTC pprass

I have found it! Thanks.

Its quite a walk to this one but found when when Slink1 and I got there. SL

took a little while to get this one THTC SL

I was doing a lot of walking today but I did need it. At gz I took a few minutes to find the cache but in the end it was a highly logical and normal hide.

If the drought of the last few years is anything to go by we will need this item one day soon enough. However, if the figures I have recently seen are true, the cost is horrendous, and both sides of politics have failed us badly.

A bit of a walk with a toddler but we got there. Took us a while to find the cache as construction workers were working right on the fence line. TFTC.
Took dinosaur
Left lanyard

09:45
Driving to the carpark it is difficult to tell whether the concentration of salt is increasing or decreasing. Does one year of over abundance of rain justify the lifting of water restrictions, given that there has been a change in community behaviour, having become accustomed to reduced water supplies?
On the way back to the carpark we had chat with the cache owner who was casting a line.

TNLN .. SL .. Thanks for the hunt pprass.

Found by Mary & David at 1530. An interesting hike along the beach, looking at the big rig off shore. Then up into the dunes to see over the works that are costing us all so much. Took a couple of circuits of GZ before the cache revealed itself. We'd been looking forward to seeing pprass and cprass tomorrow, so were delighted when pprass appeared at the GeoPrado window back in the car park, along with Phetlern, Ian and Penny and squalid. Our thanks to pprass.

TFTC, Found while out and about caching in the great weather with covert; a nice walk along the beach to get this one. Alot of dead birds along the beach; arrived at GZ for a quick find and watched the Desal action for a bit. Enjoyed getting down to this lovely area.

Once we found the car park we enjoyed a nice walk to GZ and then watched the proceedings going on at the desal nearby. TFTC

Found on fathers day outing with hearse068. Due to surveyors marks dont know how long this one will be around for. Blasted Desal !!!!!!

Found on a Fathers Day outing with Gonefishen07
BLOODY DESAL

Thanks, found with jindi kid after a walk along the busy beach. There was a fishing comp today, but luckily there weren't any fishermen where GZ were.
TFTC SL TNLN

found after short hunt on long beach. thanks
TNLN

Another of those places we would not have found except for geocaching
We noticed what looked like fairy penguin burrows at the foot of the hill. Hmmmmm
Quite a challenge, but a nice day for a walk
TNLN SL
TFTC
greynomads

Found by sunnyindiatilli 2/7/2010
Long walk shame to see all the construction
Took kangaroo
Left snake

Dipped Going South TB in for a visit

Found at 3.30pm on a cold afternoon and wet afternoon. The walk from the beach carpark took a while but a successful find made it worthwhile. This cache is also at someones front door - hope we don't meet up with him on a dark night!! TNLN TFTC

C&C family were camped with a scout group at the nearby Powlett River caravan park. I'd noticed that we were were only about 1.5km from this cache the previous day, so at dawn Sunday morning, I set out to walk along the beach to the cache. Early on Sunday morning, the beach was pristine and glorious in the early morning light.

Getting to the GZ was a bit tricky, but I managed it in the end. I kept a low profile and found the cache after a short search. After signing the log, I made my way to the top of the next higher hill and took a few photo's of the construction site. Lots of activity, but not much above ground yet. See photo.

Just seems an awfully expensive way to get water. I hear of a potentially better alternative recently which I see the opposition has predictably taken up. Still worth a look if your interested. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzXrmioDk9U&annotation_id=annotation_914141&feature=iv

Thanks pprass - Most interesting and topical.

Found this one at 12:25 while some serious shopping was being done in Wonthag . A glorious walk along the beach and into the dunes for a nice easy find . The difference between each side of the dunes was amazing: on the south-west, beautiful natural sights and sounds; on the north-east well, you have to see and hear it to believe it but I guess it's ultimately called 'progress' .

At the risk of being overly political and a BANANA* to boot, let me get this straight, 2% power off the grid (contributing how many more tonnes of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere) to create fresh water so that we can pump it 70-80+ km to the nearest storage point!!! And originally it was done without even a sniff of an environmental impact assessment . (We can't even burp at work without one of those .) Oh well, that's life in the 21st century I guess. Maybe we should at least build a nuclear power plant nearby to generate the electricity . Here endeth the sermon .

TNLNSL, although our New Year geocoin had a visit to mark the occasion. Thanks for a thought provoking cache pprass.

* Build Absolutely Nothing Anytime Near Anything

A bit of a walk this one.Picked up
A cup of free salt on the way out

A bit of a walk this one.Picked up
a free cup of salt from the desal
On the way out

After a short walk down the beach we got to GZ , some nice views here and after a quick search we found. it. TFTC

What a pretty location, the beach was deserted. Took a bit to find but again with Allan's help we found it. TNLN.TFTC.

Out in the Wonthaggi area today with some new comers to geoching and looking for a few caches.Parked at the beach car park and took a walk down the beach , got on top of the hill to see some views of the new desal plant. After a a quick search the girls and i found it.TNLN.TFTC.

Construction appears well under way on the desal plant ready to bring much needed water into the system by the end of 2011
Adjacent windfarm was also working although wind was quite calm

Very pleasant stroll along the beach but much relieved to have cache in hand after a longer than needed bushbash (get that when you approach things from the wrong direction!)

TNLN Many thanks to pprass

FlyingPigSquadron has landed!
No salt?! No sense!!!
Cannot believe what they are doing here - such a lovely area, including the ocean being vandalised when there are so many other more sensible, sensitive options that don't affect the other inhabitants or land of this planet!!!
Went in by the beach - wind so strong and blustery that we took the 'back road' option back to the carpark - somewhat more difficult.
Whale still there and seems remarkably well preserved considering length of time its been there - unfortunately its tail missing - don't know if this is a recent mutilation or the reason it was washed up!
Thanks pprass for bringing us to the area
TNLNSL

Found with Elaine while attending a dance at Phillip Island we parked the car at the car park and made our way along the beach towards gz half way along we came across a beached whale although it was dead it didn’t look like it had been there all that long I know it’s a bit morbid but it was interesting having a close look at one of these giants of the sea Found the cache after a little searching. Thanks for the hide

#1160@15:03
A nice view over the beach. The whale is still there, and the smell is ...
TFTC SL

Had to do a bit of bush bashing, but it was worth it, for the view. TFTC

nice area shame its all going to be closed off the whale is still there went in along the beach came out via paddock and bushes wasnt 2 bad except for spider webs

tnln sl tftc

Thanks Pprass for the hide. Thought I would run into Dr Livingstone at one stage. Pereservered and found my way through. Enjoyed the walk, the climb and the bush bashing.
Maxi and the Jackpot.

Out and about with fellow cacher pprass for the annual Easter stay at the Cape Patterson Caravan park. It has become a family instituation now with daughter having her own site now. We left the fellows fishing on the beach for tea and went for a stroll. The beached whale was attrating quite a bit a interest and did not smell at all until we got past it. We had a couple of goes at chosing the right track to get up there but nice and easy to get back. TNLN. Thanks for the info

We saw plenty of fishermen and an official site with security signs on the way in.
Far along the beach near the cache site we found an ancient lady who has walked these beaches forever or nearly who said she had never seen a whale beached here before.
There was a whale beached on the sand and it was a bit on the nose by now. I'll post a photo if I get around to it.
The cache was found after a bit more effort, more or less exactly where the GPS pointed me which was great.
I think I'll pass on the salt too.

This was my second long beach walk today and the hardest as the wind was whipping salt spray off the waves messing up my hair which had just been expensively prepared in a salon.
Spent a couple of minutes with the now deceased whale before finding the cache and beginning the long walk back.
Thanks pprass.

My biggest sook will be the extra cost of the water but we need it. I'd have gone with another Dam or two though, or how about a free water tank for all residents. In any case a look at the Thompson told me we'll soon be in more trouble than the proverbial Werribee Duck.
Thanks indeed Pprass. Enyoyed it!

We looked at the GPS and it said 670 metres to GZ. The sand looked pretty soft so we knew we would be in for a bit of a slog. But at least it was not hot and the cache was easy to find. On the way back we saw plenty of fishing folk and one of them told us that when the de-sal plant goes in, the area each side of the pipeline for up to 2kms will be blocked off. So go and get this cache now geocachers, because when it is up and running you won't be able to get in. TNLN thanks pprass for the experience.

Found while caching with Nav Nuts What a walk Sorry for delay in logging forgot about this one. TFTC

Long walk with Geokids, that was our workout for the day! Great location, lots of chidhood memories fishing here.
T Mr Nervous L QANTAS Lanyard TFTC : )

Strange, I didn't notice that Hell+back with thinking "excellent find" as she struggled back throught the thick and low Teatree bush, after deciding on a short-cut back
For future caches, I would suggest no matter how soft the sand on the beach is, it is the better way back.
We did get a good look at the Desal plant though. I thought they had got a bit further with the construction, not much there. Seems to be a really stupid idea when there are many other cheaper alternatives for recycling water. Water doesn't get made, all of it is recycled - even the stuff we drink out of plastic bottles!
Thanks for the walk and the thought provoking cache, Robmc.

Had a nice walk along the beach to this one, and found the cache straight away - co-ords are spot on. The de-sal plant seems to be progressing.
I have a solution for the CO2 emissions: Why not pump the excess CO2 into the generated water. Then we could have fizzy water from our taps that is only slightly more expensive than Perrier.
Took nothing, left Mr Nervous. Thanks for the cache in an interesting location.

[This entry was edited by squalid on Saturday, January 03, 2009 at 5:16:11 PM.]

despite another big load of burrs & what seemed like hours of bush-bashing after an abortive short-cut back, this was an excellent find because I got my hands on it before RobMc did! For future reference, take the beach route no matter how windy it is. And say NO to desal plant, ill-conceived for any number of reasons, put the money towards funding Melbournians to pour grey water onto their lawns! Thanks ppras.

5th find of the day and 1723rd total find at 14:15.

Well the family are all doing their thing for New Year, so we visited friends and shared a few good red wines.

Took: Nothing
Left: Screwdriver
Thanks pprass for the cache.
Ian and Penny

We found our 27th Pprass cache at 4:20pm as the 7th of 12 on our Cape Patterson or bust tour. As we arrived at the beach, we were sandblasted by the high winds coming in from offshore. The wind was so strong that "H" gave up about halfway to the cache and took shelter until we returned. It was also so strong that the effort required in going up the steep sand dune at the cache site with a tail wind was about equal to that of coming back down with a head wind. Although the co-ords were fairly accurate, it was one of those hides where if you miss it on the first pass, you can spend a fair bit of time going over all other possible hides before coming back to it and we did the latter and took 30 minutes to make the find. Kudos to Pprass for highlighting one of the greatest potential ecological disasters facing mankind today - the haystacking of small cache containers in fragile ecosystems. Thanks for the cache from D,H & A B-A.

(PS - Yes, I know I will pay for that but it seemed funny at the time)

14:16 *FTF* King Jnr with my Queen and Squire building sand castles in support nearby.

A cache of duality.

As a bloke living in suburbia and working close to the city, it is fair to say I don’t get out much – so when standing high on a dune and I am asked the question “What is my opinion of the Desalination Plant†I needed a few days to log my views and find.

On one hand - my initial reaction was “Water – like other essential services - we all need it to live – if we don’t have enough – government (which ever is in power) – fix it – and fix it quicklyâ€.

On the other hand standing high above I watched the waves, the surfers, kids playing cricket, my wife and son building sand castles, listening to the birds. And to the north rolling pastures and farms…..

Looking around at GZ the first thing that came to mind was the initial scenes in the movie “2001 A Space Odysseyâ€. Think of the theme music and evolution to the moon exploration scene. Later I thought of another parallel with the cache “2001 A Space Odyssey name (GC110)†– I will attach the photos from that (our first find) cache here too.

There has to be a better way – What is the government doing about reducing big business “miss use†and could the money be better spent heavily subsidising grey water reuse in households. I would have built a dam (no I don’t know where, and yes it no good having a dam with no water to fill it).

So standing high in the dune – adding my mark in the log, I decided to add my mark in a different way too – getting back to nature (See Geocaching Australia cache “Nude Up for A Smiley!†GA0337) Lets all reduce the impact we are all having and governments – how about some more longer term strategic thinking that does not force crisis management solutions.

In the spirit of our environment and in the spirit of CITO I spotted blue blob in another dune – I removed it on the way down and it turned out to be an inflatable seal that squire now plays with.

On the beach while contemplating The Meaning Of Life, on the walk back to the sand castle builders, I met the Jyetara family – nice to meet you – glad you guys found it too.

Thanks Pprass, a great thought provoking cache, a nice walk in a great setting that I hope everyone has the opportunity to enjoy.

#### 2TF ####
Met Solomanfamily on his way down. Missed it by THAT much!
Nice Easy Find. Almost a Drive By.
TFTC

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