OH 8 OH 8 OH 9 Checkmate Axe Creek, Victoria, Australia
By Phetlern on 08-Aug-09. Waypoint GC1WNYX

Today we explored Bendigo and surrounds using geocaching as a guide.We enjoyed travelling through the countryside and visiting new, to us, locations.We found a variety of hides with varying degrees of difficulty.Many thanks to all CO's for your cache placement.

Got bored on long service leave so a quick call to Ghihash to see what he was up to on a sunny Friday and suddenly we were out getting a few caches.

We got the south co ords correct but while sitting at the pub having dinner working out the East something went wrong. We called Locus Cache for a PAF and we grabbed this one on the way home
Ttfc

Sitting at the pub having dinner with K9team while solving the puzzle we had torches in the car and ready to find one more cache for the day. Our coordinates didn't match the checker but we knew we were only out by seconds in the east coordinates so we took the risk and went for it.
As We jumped in the car we used a PAF to ensure we would find the cache. Thanks Locus Cache for your coordinates.
Quick search by torch light and we had the cache.
Tftc

This is one of the caches that we had the opportunity to find whilst in the area to attend an event. We are pleased that it didn't take as long to find the cache as it did to find the finals coords. Thanks for placing the cache and maintaining it for so long.

Back up at Bendigo after quite a long time so took the opportunity to search for, and find this cache. I always like to try and find the older caches so am pleased to have a smiley here. Thank you for keeping this cache active for so long.

What a great puzzle - I was doing it during a quiet spell at work & despite people asking to see, nobody actually helped me ?? Great hide too - I had "Who lives in a house like this" running in my mind. Unfortunately the container had water in it. The logbook was outwith the perfectly good bag & is saturated & slimey. Many thanks for the adventure getting here ??????????????????????

10 December 2022 1:57 pm

Day 2 of my little adventure in the Goldfields today, with a good chunk of Castlemaine completed I knew I would set my sights on Bendigo today. With myself holding an event in town today as well also helped in dragging myself out there. But regardless I couldn't have picked a better day for it all in all weather wise. And regardless, thanks for the cache and for being part of the adventure!

I was shown this puzzle by my partner dalerious as he enjoyed it so much when he first saw it. I was never privy to the game of chess, as my childhood was not of games, but of work in a family business; strategy without the intrigue, one might say.
The story associated with this puzzle I also was not privy to, but reading about it now, I find it intriguing.
Thank you for an enjoyable journey of enlightenment Phetlern.

**17/02/2022** 10:23
OM Check - cache OK and final coordinates adjusted.

Out of checkmate now, nice little drive in the bush too. We have never been here either. Cache in good condition. Thanks for the hide and puzzle

Beautiful morning after some rain for a drive in the country. May havw been caught by the local farmer on this one

Awesome cache! Great puzzle and sneaky hide.

Woohoo. Bit of unlove on this one! Easy find if you approach it the right way.

So BackpaQer calls me and says let's go to St. Arnuld for the day and finish those mystery caches... the thought of 7 hours in the car to cache for the day was not so appealing... so somewhere nearer was required... So Bendigo it was... BackPaQer packed up some electric scooters so we could do the rail trail in Bendigo... what a great idea and it gets us out of Melbourne and away from the rain. So we headed to Bendigo a 2 hour drive and stopped on route to grab a few park and grabs.. also completing a did not find from earlier in the year. So we park at one end of the rail trail and head 4km along the rail trail grabbing a few caches on the way then head back to the car and move it up 10km so we can head back on scooters and travel in each direction from the car. In the middle of course it starts to rain so took a detour and found a couple of the mysteries i had solved the night before. One of which had not been found for 10 months.. poor thing...

Really great day out and no did not finds.. 31 finds in total and I left one travel bug and grabbed another.

Wow this one had not been found in 10 months.. fairly easy to work out the co-ordinates and then a bit of a drive to the middle of no where... great hide.. Favourite point coming up.

Thanks for the cache and the hide
Log Book signed and Returned
Find #673

Oh no! Oh no! Oh Yes!
This puzzle was started a long time ago, put aside, and begun again when I knew we were coming in this direction, hurriedly finished it, compared checksums and plotted the Garmin.
Today we were heading in this direction to an unloved GA Cache and thought we’d kill two birds with the one stone. Not so, found the first cache and headed into the Knowsley Forest for this one. Oh no! Not to be located here. Walked back to the car, luckily had just enough coverage to google required answers again. Oh no! I’d miscalculated, wrong by one number, now the checksum tallied, but the cache would be many kilometres further on, in the direction we were heading, almost!
It was an interesting drive along roads we’d not travelled before.
When we arrived it looked quite obvious where the cache would be.
Oh no! Not there. Maybe here then. Oh no! Search further.
Oh yes! dalerious located it and can claim 12 months unloved on it.
Thanks for the puzzle and the scenic drive to ground zero.

Found with Cybergran V on a day chasing older caches in and around Bendigo, filling JASMER slots and bashing a few bugbears that have eluded one or both of us over the years.
The days caching was all about quality over quantity.

I love that I knew the fable this cache is built around. [^]
I have been known to regail the tail to an opponent or three.
Not sure though that I love the story that tells of my vintage.

TFTC Phetlern.

I had a job interview in Ballarat and so Rex and I headed off for a 3 day trip which gave us the chance to spend some time in the bush around Bendigo on the way Harry gets into some amazing places and a couple of motorbike riders couldn't believe their eyes when they saw us
I didn't get the job (although now I have a much nicer one![^]) and we did get to cache some great spots and views! [^]

I got to see Kryal Castle (well the outside at least) which I had visited about 34 years ago when my daughter was only 2 years old , I saw the fog and cloud from Mt Warrenheip as we cached in drizzly rain , I found what I thought might have been a puzzle cache GZ but it sure wasn't [xx(][xx(] although it was a plastic container in a hole in a tree [xx(] and on the way home, we had memories of Adelaide as we found a cache in the Mount Lofty Reserve

All up we DNFd 3 caches and we found 34 caches.

As I have been about 8 months behind in logging, I'm resorting to template logs to catch up.
My heartfelt thanks to the COs who have placed some tricky, funny, exercise required, scary, interesting and devious caches in some amazing spots! [^]
Rex and I have had some amazing adventures and enjoyed some incredible moments thanks to this fantastic hobby

I love the bush sights in Victoria [^] and the history and stories of the determination of the pioneers. [^]

TNLN. SL. TFTC Phetlern

After a day of riding trams around town, going underground into a gold mine and stuffing ourselves with the best icecream ever it was time to head back to the Park Lane Holiday Park but I had a slight detour in mind as I usually do. As the egg often says 'it looked close on the map!'
I had solved this a few weeks ago during a lunch break at work and enjoyed researching the answers.
It did feel a long way out of the way but we loved the countryside and bush as we drove to GZ. I even stopped to double check I had entered the coordinates correctly. We were rewarded with a quick find at accurate coordinates. Thanks Phetlern.

10:45
Thanks to the recent logs, we were made aware the container was no longer weatherproof. Replaced today as we made a quick trip to Bendigo.
[:(!] It would be interesting to know what became of the trusty ammo can!

A quieter day at work allowed me to investigate this chess mystery. Looked forward to finding my first ammo case. A quick drive as night fell had me at the GZ. Road had just been graded so good drive in. Lots of indications that someone has been searching the area, but no sign in the log.
Found cache, water inside but log dry. No ammo can ️
TFTC phetlern

I'd worked this puzzle out a little while ago but today was the first opportunity I had to come out and find the cache. It looked like it hadn't been found for a while as it was a bit tricky to remove from its niche and had some water in it but amazingly the log was dry. Emptied the water so it should be all good now. Thank you for the fun puzzle and for the cache Phetlern

Having solved this one quite some time ago, I was in the area today (on my way to see 'Marilyn' to make the find. Thanks Phetlern for the puzzle and the hide.

As we knew nothing of King Kaid of India, some research was required before we could proceed with this puzzle. Once the puzzle was understood, it was a comparatively easy task to generate the required number and, hence, the coordinates. Late tis afternoon, we went to look for the cache. Accurate coordinates and a commonly used hide led to a quick find. The cache and contents were in good condition. Thanks Phetlern for the puzzle and cache.

Loved the chess puzzle! Sorry to the little lizard we accidentally disturbed when lifting out the cache! Hopefully he moves back in when we're gone

Coordinates changed from:
S 36° 48.710 E 144° 23.710

Coordinates changed to:
N 36° 49.276 W 144° 25.066

Distance from original: 36031773.7 feet or 10982484.6 meters.
Published co-ords moved at request of CO to facilitate placement of another cache.

Coordinates changed from:
N 36° 49.276 W 144° 25.066

Coordinates changed to:
S 36° 49.276 E 144° 25.066

Distance from original: 36028923.3 feet or 10981615.8 meters.
Whoops, wrong hemisphere!

20:00
Fiddling finished - all set for new players.

Disabling while conducting maintenance!

Find # 2612

Having a long weekend I decided to head off on another of my solo caching hunt trips. My main aim was to go and have a look at some of the caches in and around the Lake Eppalock area .

The day turned out to be a typical Melbourne day, all four seasons. From high humidity, to chilly winds and even a torrential down pour with a few cracks of thunder and a little lightening too boot.

From walking across lake beds to driving down rutted and dusty roads, it was one interesting day.

This one has been sitting in a big pile of "Bendigo Solved Puzzles" for some time now so seeing I was out this way I decided to make a detour to GZ in the attempt to make the pile a little smaller.

TFTC Phetlern

We seem to be wandering all over the place today trying to collect caches that we have had solutions to for what feels like forever.
We need to use the more modern method of research to find an answers to the questions. We feel that we have been to the place where the cache is hidden but a browse back through the log book shows that we have not signed the log before. SL TFTC

Picked this solved one up on the way to Lake Eppalock to grab a few over that way. thanks for the cache.

Found in the company of Glanville Girls while spending a day in Bendigo, nice quick find after making our way to GZ

TFTC

We were in area today with ST37E to attend the 2 Months to the Mega event and decided to collect a few solved puzzles. ST37E had worked on the solution to this one. And with the green light from evince we had a set of coords and were off. It was a nice quick find at GZ today. Thanks for the hide Phetlern.

Worked out the required information the night before and had a lovely drive with PaddyJak and Jett my four legged helper. I love working out puzzles that are challenging but at the sametime not impossible like some, thank you! When we arrived at gz Jett was excited by the amount of sticks to be thrown so with him occupied Patty and I made the find while Jack was roped into a few games of fetch! We then followed the road along to see were we would end up! TFTC

Tamzy worked on the info and then we headed off to find the hide, haven't found one of these containers for awhile, nice quick find for us TFTC

This was our second day caching in the area on our extended weekend. Today it was a smaller group, only The_Tritonz and myself. We still had puzzles to collect, as well as some other caches with unique D/T combos. Another very rewarding day was had. The weather was on our side as well, even though it did get very cool around tea time. Some great hides were are reward for solving some very tough puzzles. Can't wait to return here. TFTC Phetlern

Up in Bendigo for a 2 day assault in the company of DAB grabbing some good DT caches and pre solved puzzles. We love caching up here admiring your bushland and architecture and with so many in the area we will certainly be back many more times. As we headed back towards Bendigo from Lake Eppalock , this was 1 of 2 mysteries that we had to pick up. Thanks Phetlern for the puzzle, it certainly had us on our toes.

Took the time today while track was drier to grab this one. Found and signed log . All good at GZ . Thanks for the puzzle!

This puzzle was fairly easy to solve but it was fascinating to read the story King Kaid Of India to get the correct numbers. I found the cache quickly. Interestingly the only animals watching me from the adjacent paddock was a mob of kangaroos, but unlike cows or bulls who usually approach out of curiosity, the kangaroos hopped off in the opposite direction. TFTC!

Saw a familiar CO name up in this area and thought we'd have a look at the cache. We were familiar with the game but had forgotten the story, though Google helped out there. A very peaceful GZ and cache in great condition. Road was fine for non 4WD. Thanks for another great cache Phetlern.

In Bendigo today and grabbing some long solved puzzles and this was next. I had solved this one ages ago when on a rainy day I solved something like 14 puzzles in the Bendigo area - now I could actually hunt some of them!!!! Drove to within 40m of GZ - some interesting holes in the road into here, don't drive it too fast as they are hard to spot! Once parked followed the GPSr straight to GZ where the cache was a quick find. Thanks to phetlern for this one.

I had help to show me how to do this puzzle. I made the find fairly quickly with spot on co-ords. Thanks for the puzzle and the hide Phetlern.

Find #481

Spending the weekend in Bendigo visiting a few friends. Tarbit knows the area pretty well having lived here a bit over the years but this was our first time caching in the area. I went out on an evening caching run to pick a few up. We had solved this earlier in the week and I knew where to head. It wasn't too far out of my way and was a fun location to see in the early evening. Once I got to GZ I found the generous cache pretty quickly. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log and visited a TB. Thanks for this interesting puzzle and a great cache Phetlern. A favourite point from me.

Just happened to be up in the area checking out a bushwalk today.
Looked at this last night with Mr Google and soon had a good set of numbers.

TFTC

A classic maths problem that I have given my students! Thanks for the cache.

Suscoe's 21st find of 25 on this delightful Saturday as this warm spell just rolls on and on.
We had an enjoyable day doing the rounds of Bendigo visiting caches here and there.
We were joined by the muggle sisters for a while and we had lots of fun with them.
This was a nice walk down memory lane and accurate co-ordinates put us in the right spot.
Thanks to Phetlern for a nice cache. All good and nice and dry.

Done homework before heading out to south Bendigo for the day.
Oh beauty... found it... CheckMate!
Thanks for bring me here and cache

Nice little puzzle leading to a nice cache find.

tnlnsl. Thanks for the puzzle Phetlern .

This was one of Tag-along's favourite stories from the Victorian Readers and he often quotes things from them.

I soon had the puzzle worked out albiet with a few errors here and there. Once Evince was happy, this was added to my 'to be found' pile.
Yesterday was the day to visit Bendigo and yes the cache was there. I love that.
Thanks for the fun, maths and the trip down memory lane Phetlern

Todays caching run is enroute to Bendigo via the Northern Highway and Lake Eppalock with Square_pegs. We started the day before sunrise with a crisp clear day and swung past here to find this cache. This is a clever puzzle. Thanks Phetlern.

It was interesting to read the story and solve the puzzle. Another one in the series completed, and a great view of the sunset at GZ. Thanks for the cache.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon I sat down to tackle some puzzle caches whose posted coordinates I keep riding past around towne
I also made an effort to filter the cache types in my pocket queries to avoid riding to any more posted coordinates which don't contain caches

In the last week I have stopped outside the church at Axe Creek on four occasions before checking the cache notes and realising "Oh yeah, that's right it's a puzzle cache !!".
Today that cache symbol was banished from my caching map

It was a nice, dusty drive to GZ.
There is a very nice view across the paddocks to a distant mountain too
I found the cache safe and sound in it's spot.

So TFTC and a great little puzzle and story.

Found at 1.35pm. I'm attempting to increase my stats before year end. The puzzle wasn't too hard, just a matter of knowing what quadrillions etc are. The puzzle was worked out this morning.

Once a t gz, finding the huge container was easy and rewarding. Obviously, this containers goodies were all in good condition. I didn't take anything, but I did leave a DVD, Bad Teacher.

Thanks heaps for the cache, and very glad to have found this one. TFTC. A favourite.

did puzzle with Mrs Whit and found it with GeoKeegs while on school holidays. TNLN TFTC

A little bit of a drive to the actual cache. Also found out how little clearance my car has. Ouch! Soon had the cache in hand at the GZ. Thanks

This entry was edited by DoorMatt on Tuesday, 07 August 2012 at 06:02:32 UTC.

great one once we had the right coordinates. found it with DoorMatt

Calculated the coords for this some weeks ago and finally got the chance to look for it today. Parked 200m away to give the dog a bit of a walk and walked through masses of monarch butterflies in flight. Quick find TFTC

Enjoyed this one. Startled a Frill neck lizard on the way. Thanks

did puzzle in bed this morning retrieved cache this afternoon tftc

8590 OH 8 OH 8 OH 9 puzzle solving stalemate soon sorted… an interesting drive out to GZ to checkmate the find.

Many thanks for a cool puzzle and cache Phetlern
Greetings from New Zealand, Cheers YuGeo4

Nice hide! TFTC

Another day, another cache. Nice one .TFTH

Found in the company of Skullracing on our Bendigo weekend!
Worked on this puzzle with my good friend google and came up with the numbers that agreed with Evince.
Made it all the way to GZ in the 4WD's, can clearly see why the road is "closed", however, maybe the sign should say "Not closed to Geocachers in 4wd's".
A quick find at GZ and we were off on our merry way.
Many thanks Phetlern. TNLN SL

#1096 @ 11.10am. On our last day in Bendigo with team Haveanez we attempted this one on our way back through to town. Managed to solve this one prior to coming here and although there was a road closed to GZ we thought we'd suss it out as we were in 4WD's. The creek crossing had survived but beyond that a huge bog hole that 2WD's wouldn't be able to negotiate however we had no trouble going around. TFTC Phetlern - still more to do in this series but have enjoyed it thus far [^]

Took: Bookmark
Left: Red Car

Co had the Coords sorted out before we left on friday afternoon for the FME on Saturday afternoon.
When we got to GZ and battled our way through spider webs and Huge Mobs of Kangaroos, eventually we found the cache.
TNLNSL......................Many thanks for a nice puzzle.

Found this at night. Road was closed but we made it all the way through. Left a $5 poker chip and took nothing. Thank you.

Unfortunately the road is currently closed due to flood damage so we parked the car about 600 metres from GZ. We walked to the cache site at dusk and disturbed a mob of roos. TFTC.

Great container would like some land out here mini cacher come up with the goods on this one

did the nice puzz a little while ago and finally got to go see it today after a 30k turn around on the mtb.. im done. Thanks for the nice target to aim for. though I wish I had more time to explore out there.

I was a bit worried about this one, but luckily evince agreed with me (for a change) and we enjoyed our visit to the GZ. It was a really lovely place out here today.

Thanks for the clever puzzle.

11th find for the day on my caching trip with my caching buddy, Marty (Quasar3671) in Bendigo for two days of non stop caching fun. Solved this one in advance and headed to GZ on the way in to bendigo for a quick find. Thanks for the puzzle and the hunt.

Found with Blacklegend17 during our Bendigo cache run. Had the puzzle solved previously and it was on the way into town so we decided to grab it. Found not a problem. TFTC.

I knew the story and game well, so the calculations were not a problem. Still not sure about the wording of the clues though. A bit of assistance, and evince agreed, so off we went.
We thought it would be harder getting to GZ, but there were good roads all the way there.
A good sized cache.
Thanks, Robmc.

Last find for today's mystery tour of Bendigo and we managed to navigate the roads more easily than we expected. Really enjoyed the puzzle thanks to googleassist. TFTC

First find for the day.
Nice area although it is still rather dry.
Took Mini Footy left Slinky
Moved TB but didnt get the No off it.
SL TFTC

It was the perfect Sunday afternoon for a drive with the geodog today. Solved the puzzle (with the help of my friend Google) and was off to find the goods. It was such a lovely drive with all the green crops around, my beloved canine hanging his head out window and Lee Kernaghan on the radio that I didn't really want it to end. A nice quick find once I arrived at GZ. It was my first container of this type (can you believe it!) I have seen them on the internet and heard about them but never found one.
TFTC

CP found this one solo. Good camouflage and good hide. Our 190th find. Thanks phetlern. SL. Left Crazy Head Pen Guy TB.
~ Crazy Creels.

Found 1.00pm
Worked out the puzzle last night and made this cache the last one of the day as we needed to get home for other duties. At GZ we found a very nice container so we knew that the contents would be nice and dry.

TNLNSL
Thanks Phetlern we enjoyed the puzzle and the cache

Homework with a friend before come to Bendigo. Enjoyed drive the car along to GZ. Good hide place. SL. Thanks Phetlern for organising the cache and hunt.

Had the coords well and truely worked out before I headed out, once at GZ found easily.
Thanks Peter and Helen for the cache, TNLNSL

Don't know how we managed it but we didn't find this cache at all, it was 1 OH 1 OH OH 9 - OH What A Cache. So thanks Phetlern, maybe next time. We've had this puzzle in the bag for months and had it on our list of to do's today but went to Hanseekas cache instead. OH OH OH What a stuff up!

[This entry was edited by the old blokes on Friday, December 04, 2009 at 11:59:21 PM.]

[This entry was edited by the old blokes on Friday, December 04, 2009 at 11:59:52 PM.]

Find # 3110 and 24th of the day at 3:54 pm. Accompanied by Feathertop on another cleanup day out caching in Bendigo and beyond. Its always good to go caching with Owen because I am still able to find the more difficult mystery caches I had trouble solving, , TNLN, left my mark in the log, Thanks Phetlern....

An enjoyable puzzle where I was able to learn something new.
As this cache was right on the route we were travelling (almost) it was the logical penultimate cache of the day.
A nice big container too where I removed a TB from for further travels.
As this was the last unfound OH series cache I say a big thankyou to Phetlern for them all.

With a damaged muffler this was to be my last cache for the day. I enjoyed the theme for the puzzle and had fun solving it. It's a maths problem I have encountered a number of times with minor variations. My students have also enjoyed it over the years. It was great to see an ammo can used here, after caching around Adelaide for a week I'd forgotten what they look like! Many thanks for a fun day and for this series of caches.

Cheers,

R - B

This was cache # 39 of 41 for the day, in the company of Alansee on our tour of Bendigo. An interesting puzzle and a great piece of bush land, it was getting dark by now and we had to watch out for some roo's that jumped the fence and crossed the road in front of us. My thanks to Phetlern for the cache.

A good puzzle which was fun to do with the aid of a spreadsheet. At gz it was starting to get dark but the roads in were quite good until near the end, and the cache was a quick find, thanks Phetlern.

Found by Mary & David at 1330. The Engineer did the calculations and is a better player than the Nurse. Her dad was a teacher and she remembers those books. At a display event in Melbourne many years ago we were able to buy the full set. Great puzzle and another great landscape - patches of red earth, grey striped trees with ragged bark hanging like an old lady shawl. Our thanks as usual to Phetlern.

husband hanseeka solvedv the puzzle then the whole family was able to find it. The clapper was extracted by kids and oh yes we wish we'd left that in the cache! It's all about fun though and we loved the area it was hidden in. Tftf

Rated: for Overall Experience

My 77th find and 2nd of the day.

Found with Hanseeka, Zarzeeky and Kaztrekka.
Dad had the coords figured out so we headed out and found this one in no time.

Took clapper left mexican had. Signed the log, TFTC Phetlern
Jonti.

Thanks for the cache I took a mini thong.
signed log. ZarZeeky
)

Thanks for another interesting puzzle which I enjoyed solving.
TFTC TNLNSL (F71)

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found by Bevfre 2.30pm After having lunch we decided to finish the day with finding this cache of Phetiern TN LN SL Thank You Phetiern

Published

2.30pm
Found by Roma and Max.
What an interesting subject matter you have chosen for this puzzle.
We must admit we resorted to the more modern method for finding the desired numbers, as both of our early schooling days most probably pre-dated the Victorian Readers Fifth Book referred to!
Roma enjoys puzzles that are solvable and found this one to be just to her liking.
With another new hide published about the same time as this one, our decision where to search first turned out to be very opportune, as it made our find at the other cache all that more pleasant!
We signed the log and made no exchange, but thank you Team Phetlern for the gift we earned, as we are planning a journey later this month and our navigator will be able to put it to good use then!
From Romax.