Mitcham Quarries #2 Car Crash Crag Belair, South Australia, Australia
By SIDEandHEEK on 15-Aug-09. Waypoint GC1XCD8

The time has come to archive the Mitcham Quarries series and let another geocacher set some in this area.

Looked every which way for the cache under the bee hive except the bee hive itself

TFTC

Was doing some watering at a nearby house so decided to make a slight detour on my way home to come and find this cache... Well sat-lock was very haphazard and the only beehive I could locate was ~30m out... So, it was really a matter of systematically checking all of the possible hide holes at the base of the cliff. Eventually the cache was spotted... I looked up and there was the beehive!! Still there. Haven't explored in here before so it was very interesting. Thanks SIDEandHEEK for the challenging cache!

This could have been a really nasty cache. Luckily no ropes were required to retrieve this little number.
Our cars were safe as well, although being parked on Old Belair Rd with peak hour traffic zooming by, could have easily caused a crash

Since we were in the area we decided to tackle this cache as well. With a poor lock our faces fell when we reached the area and saw the prospect before us. Huge craggy cliffs and lots of rocks and bushes and.... A micro! Oh no. We thought our chances were very poor and were on the edge of giving up when we finally spotted the old beehive remains and searched more fully in the indicated area. we still could have missed it very easily, but luck was with us and we left the area with a smile on our faces. Arrived back at the car to find some poor motorists filling up with fuel from a Jerry can. If I had a choice about where to run out of fuel it would not be part way up old Belair road. Thanks SIDEandHEEK for the extraordinary sense of achievement when we actually located and signed the log and for brinigng us I to this excellent and interesting area.

That was very sneaky!
We spent ages looking around and finally found the beehive. It was a bit hard to spot since it is no longer in use. We found the area and still couldn't see the cache. I looked a bit harder and my efforts were rewarded with finding the geocache. TFTC. I will be visiting two more of your caches in Randell Park again soon.

Oh, THAT beehive. Managed to find a different one last time! Beautifully cool inside the cliff itself. Don't even bother following your GPSr with this one. Sneaky little hide. TFTC.

Found the item mentioned in the hint - which worried me, as previous finders had said it was no longer there - although there are traces of an older one a little further down the cliff, so perhaps I was in the right spot after all. In any case, didn't have time for a thorough look this morning. I'll be back!

no bee hive! loose sat lock 1/2 hr search .Again no luck.I,d love someone else to find this one to give me a bit of hope.cheers TV.

afer a very long hike up the hill from BH creek we crossed old belair rd and continued up the hill only to find the cache was about 50m below us. A 10minute walk relocated us at GZ sat lock was poor we searched the area then started to run out of light. I now realise that if i had read the clues provided locating this cache may have been a lot easier. Any way we failed to find it but promise to return soon to put this one to rest!

Well - that was tough! Took about 1/2 an hour! Certainly the item mentioned in the hint was not there any more, so it was just a shear search! Nice spot though! Thanks SIDEandHEEK.

A beautiful day to be out caching and seeing we are staying nearby in the Brownhill creek caravan this one was on our radar for today. Found after a short search. With thanks to SIDEandHEEK

Hive looks long deserted, found after a few minutes looking

Made it back today but this time I brought another pair of eyes in the form of FourW. Between us, we stumbled about looking for that little something to point us in the right direction. The bees hovering around all parts of the quarry face were certainly not much help. Inevitably, I stumbled across that little something (and I mean little). It was only after we found the cache that we fouind the hive, a great retrospective clue. Thanks FourW and TFTC SIDEandHEEK.

Got an email from TigerMuffin who suggested a lunchtime attempt up here, so off we go. Fortunately we took the easy way up in the car, not a route I had noticed on the map. (Steep, scrubby and hard work).
The cache notes said poor sat lock is typical here. Not wrong!! It is amazing that after travelling all that way through the ionosphere, stratosphere, past clouds and aeroplanes, the signal suddenly decides to bounce off a cliff and give us 8-14 m variation in distance to go, regardless of where we stand. No matter, we look, and look, and try around there, and a bit more. Eventually I decide it's got to be on the other side of the scrubby bush when TigerM says "got it". Extremely well hidden.
Thanks for the cache, it was a tough one.

Best cache ever and I didn't even find it. Bumped into some climbers in the quarry and starting chatting. After some 'climbing chat' I was offered an opportunity to do so climbing, something I haven't done for well over 10 yrs. Awesome!! Thanks to the random climbers at the quarry making this the highlight of my day, a 12m climb up into the quarry face. Will come back to do the cache another time.

Find 1279
Found with FeatherWaite during a beautiful hike in the Mitcham area.
We Have The Technology but once in the quarry the GPS were useless.
Almost gave up until I took the phone a friend option.
Thanks to SIDEandHEEK for the cache.
Fine Elsewhere

Found in company of Bob from Elsewhere during a pleasant day's walk in the Mitcham area. The beehive is now gone but there are still the waxy marks left on the cliff face. Found the sneaky cache about 5 metres away from where we initially thought it might be. Thanks for the cache SIDEandHEEK!

Amazing bee hive! So far the best cache we have found. Brilliant!

Went in from Old Belair Rd but climbers there so retreated and went to find other caches in area.
Returned later found lots of bees buzzing around an area up the cliff so started to look in cracks beneath that but didn't find anything today. Couldn't get a good lock on gz but will try again.

Great hide, struggled to find both an easy way in and out.

Gps was dodgy but after walking around for a bit it clicked in.

TFTC SL

canipa

Last find for the night . Again, this looks like some interesting climbing . Havent done that for a while but nothing like finding some new faces to inspire reaquainting the ropes with the great outdoors.. TFTC

A spot I have known about but never spent quite so long there. It was a bit coolish here and I didn't see any tell tale bees. Why is there never a bee around when you want one [?] [:0] Anyhow, the search was made all the more easier with a seemingly good GZ considering the surrounds. For sure, you would really prang badly here if you went over...... Clear skies.

This one took quite a while to find, firstly just finding a way into the quarry was a bit of a puzzle.
After finally getting in there, we spent ages looking in all the cracks with no luck. Mrs TiedyeSmileys finally spotted the hidden bee hive and looked for the cache harder there. Still took quite a while to find as we were looking in actual cracks, especially hard today with the soursops growing so thick and tall at the moment.

TFTC

Yay, after a long walk and a slippery scramble we found it. Had to use the hint! Tftc

Made a little easier by the fact that I've spent plenty of time here climbing, also I know SIDEandHEEK. But he didn't give me any hints! Thanks for the cache B!

Second find for the afternoon while caching with The Penny Drops. With everything green and damp now it was great to be out on a good autumn afternoon. Thanks SideandHeek

I second that, what a fantasic day to be out caching.
Pikapene and I did some serious walking this afternoon and it was fantastic
Great spot thanks for bringing us here.

GPSr was not much use with the signal bouncing off the wall and sending that little red arrow pointing all over the place. Resorted to the clue and geoD spotted the behive (eventually) and geoP spotting the prize.

TNLN SL TFTC

Another example of GC taking you places you never knew were there. Almost gave up on this one. It was hard find (I had to use the hint - I was not getting a good enough fix) - and one I almost gave up on until hanging my head in defeat I said to myself "hang on, what that!"

Found with Mooshell. TFTC.

Wrong time of the day to do this. Found cache finally after a good look around. What a headache trying to get back onto the road. Way to much traffic.TFTC.TNLN.SL.

This was a cache of false starts for me: first I tried getting close in the car - got to 200m but there was a steep hill in the way; then I followed the GPSr arrow and got within 70m but there was another hill in the way and I wasn't trusting what was on the other side - a rock face?; third time I followed a different track and got lucky.

Found the engineering marvel mentioned in the clue then spent a short while looking for the actual cache.

Log signed and clue noted.

Found with Ma7:7hew and SA_Parrothead on our Australia day run originally planned to do all the Mitcham Quarry series but injury and exhaustion led us to abandon those plans after #4 and do a bunch of easy ones. It was great to find this one easily after a previous DNF with Parrothead. TFTC

Found with Parrothead & someuser. There were rock climbers nearby, but they seemed oblivious to our presence.

Then we tackled number 2.
Last time Someuser and I were here it was wet and slippery. We searched for ages but ended up giving it away.
Today was a different story with Someuser spotting the bee hive straight away and myself coming up a winner with finding the cache.

Walked in from the top before eventually finding our way down to the base of the cliff. Like Freddo, we looked and looked and looked some more until the sneaky little bugger was finally located.
Thanks SIDEandHEEK.

Accompanied by Everlasting and Snapper!!!. We enjoyed our walk towards the cache. In the end up we got spilt up in three different directions but we managed to find each other again. I was 6 metres away from the cache but Snapper!!! found it before me. No sight of bees today. When we walked back to the car, Snapper!!! made friends with a Koala on the tree and it let him pat it. Wow!.
Thanks SIDEandHEEK for the cache.

Accompained with Everlasting,Lava 12 walking towards to cache .Nice Quarry area.I found it good hidden before Everlasting and Lava 12. Saw beehive but no bees this time glad no bite us.S.L. Then walking back to car Everlasting took some photos whist I made good friend with Koala on tree I pat their back cute Koala about five mins great.


T.F.T.C

Accompanied with Snapper and Lava12, We all enjoyed walk along to the cache (GZ) . Beauty colourful cliff etc... saw the beehive but look alike more dead snake skin??? - What a beauty Koala - so friendly - Snapper patted (see pics). SL. Thanks SIDEandHEEK for organising the cache and hunt.

Yes that is exactly what I thought when I first spotted the beehive, it does look like a snake skin from a distance. B

This one had been annoying me every-time I head down the hill on Old Belair Road, so today was the day. Looked for the bees in the sunlight although it looks like the hive has been long abandoned. Spotted the cache. All the time there were some kids on the other side of the trees having a rest with their mountain bikes. TFTC.

unfortunately the hive is now deserted and so there was no help from busy flying bees to get started. I'd been here before and Ransom was going be directly above where this cache is now 3m down from the top at one stage however I decided the rock at the top was too loose and crumbly when there are people below. Took quite a while to find and after this and the #1 I was willing to go for one more before changing over to a hiding day rather than a finding day.

I spotted the slide marks of the previous cacher, who ended up being 10m too far left. A wet day made the bees scarce but eventually I spotted one and tracked down his rocky home.

Satlock was at an all time low here at times going from 3 metres to 100 metres without moving. So SA_Parrothead and I looked everywhere for a beehive and came up empty handed. The weather today made this one very treacherous too so we moved on to the next cache before we broke an ankle sliding down the hill.

Found at 12:30
I've been in here for several other caches. We parked in a reasonably close spot this time and found the cache quickly. I then walked around to Ransom with Winterdragon, but he was not game to go for it.

I've been in this area before as well, but not to this section. Nice easy stroll in from where we parked the car, and then Uni spotted the hive. Happy to report that no cars were dumped on us while we searched.

TNLN - Thanks SIDEandHEEK!

A quick impulse find while passing. On arrival at this magnificent spot, a couple of rock climbers were having a go at the base of the sheer cliffs. And here I was thinking cachers were crazy! Nice hide and nice beehive, too - like others, it was a vital part of finding the cache as the GZ was signficantly out, which isn't a surprise given the location. TFTC S&H.

Found at 1100 hrs.
The hint was more use than the GPSr which repeatedly had us some 8 m from GZ.
However once we spotted the beehive and a couple of out-of-place stones the rest was easy.
Incidentally, ‘The Torrens Park Estate,’ pp. 232-233, records that this is the Sugar Loaf Hill Quarry and that there is a strong possibility that the freestone for Torrens Park House (now Scotch College) came from part of this quarry in 1858.
TNLNSL
Thanks SIDEandHEEK for the cache and hunt.

Been caching in this area several times. On the road you are 100m from the cache but that would not do. Parked at the best location and walked to 400m to GZ. Spotted the beehive and looked. And looked. And looked. And looked. And looked. And looked. And looked. And looked. And looked. And looked. And looked. Made a phone call. And looked. Ah-ha. That is a sneaky hide.

With all these new caches so close to home I couldnt resist a couple of hours of searching this morning before other commitments.
This was my first stop and it took me a while to spot the beehive as well but as soon as that was done the cache was in hand within seconds [^]
Cheers

Published

2nd place on the 2nd!
An early morning walk in the mist on way home from work, and still got the silver, bugger.
Eerily quiet here, once you go over the ridge.
TNLNSL
Thanks

Pretty damn close to a Zee cache?

yep, should be just over 160m away. I'd be guessing where this is but I choose my place further enough away to allow others to put something here.
My first location was 3m below the top, 5 star...

Bob: Google maps out by about 5-10 metres by my reckoning

Sorry everyone, theUMP hasn't published all my new Mitcham Quarries series, because some are too close to existing caches. I'm unable to get out to move these until the weekend now. It was my intention to have this whole series go live simutaniously rather than staggered. I'm working on it... B

First light, hiked to base of the cliff
And for half an hour sniff sniff
In the dawn haze
No bees caught my gaze
But then fin'lly my first FTF!

7.05am Thanks for the exciting adventure! Nasty! Barely a stone left unturnered in a QUARRY, in the end none needed to be.