Spirit of Salts, Byrne Docker, Victoria, Australia
By chewinprickles on 12-Mar-11. Waypoint GC2Q3H5

Nice one

Whoops wrong buttonFound it

When we return the rental car at the end of the week the person that washes it wont be happy. There are about a million bugs that have had an up close and personal with the car. Weve also been down a few dirt roads chasing hides so it looks like a well used vehicle.Song: A Hard Days NightArtist: The BeatlesAlbum: A Hard Days Nighttftc

Find 4503 on December 30, 2023Found on our holiday that took us from Ballarat to Sale. Then over the mountains to Dinner Plain and then Myrrhee for a couple more nights. Today we focussed on the Greta and Milawa areas. Nice quick drive by in the shade of a giant. TFTC chewinprickles

Got very confused at first with no hint on what it was in the log book but partner found it pretty easy nice spot just have to be careful of snakes in the grass in the heat

Another easy find by ConnieandRick. TFTC

Looked in the wrong place first, then a quick find. On our way to Wangaratta for a day, but can't resist stopping on the way.

Yeah, love easy finds

This cache was really tricky! We almost gave up on it, but my partner laid eyes on it as we were leaving! Onwards!

Tftc!

Day #19 of the find a cache on 20 different days challenge done ️. Love seeing all the original station signage along this road. Thanks for highlighting with caches chewinprickles. Quick grab on our way past.

A quick find today while out on a day trip to Powers Lookout. The ground was a tad boggy so making sure we didn't get our feet wet was fun. Cache was found, log signed and replaced.
TFTC

Done

What a magnificent tree!!!!
All good here even though water everywhere after recent heavy rain TFTC

Good cache TFTC

On our way to Whitfield with Geowife and Geodog exploring the area, having a great day. All good here. Now onto the next one for the day. TFTC

Took a little bit but found it after looking properly lol. TFTC

Nice hide tftc

Be careful of ants and prickles! It is a heat cache loads of fun
-walker fam 2023!!!

TFTC

Too wet

We're caching out in the country area outside Wangaratta today and decided to try this series. A quick find with the aid of accurate coordinates, TFTC

Two TASSIES out and about for ten weeks. Two days to go before the big swim back home. Today being a rare spring day (of late) we are on a first expedition into King Valley wine territory and ...... wotdoyaknow ! there's a great string of caches to grab here and there as we go ! Probably expected this to be in one of two different places, but instead it was in the third. Whilst being susceptible to moisture it was in fact in good condition. Thanks for looking after these caches along the Proseco Rd.

Once I had the cache in hand you could hear me a mile away
TFTC

Well I was now supposed to be on my 6 week adventure up to Outback Queensland but with my knee failing me I just had to turn back around and head home.
So after 3 weeks of rest at home I was getting cabin fever so for the last week I just had to get out so Western Victoria beckoned so I could grab a few LGA’s and UBD Country VIC maps which would not involve a lot of walking.
So after finishing of Western Victoria I’m now heading to North Eastern Victoria to do the same.
This will be a 4 day whirl wind tour of a lot of Victoria.
After finding a couple of Hume and Hovell monuments earlier that were my target this morning I could now continue on with the maps.
Travelling towards Myrtleford I had time to find a few more along the way.
A great series that I will have to come back one day and find a few more.

Thanks chewinpickles TFTC.

Another quick grab
Tftc

Another quick grab
Tftc

Tftc!

Camping caching with Flaggys and MooFlagg. We had a great time doing this mini trail and racing to find the caches. Love all these signs. Tftc.

We have finally moved on from the Mega Wangaratta and our target is to do the caches around Glenrowan and the NKH series. This one was right where we thought that it would be.

Found . Great to see different containers along this series keeps us searching. No 15th log......

A mega jaunt with endeavour3 saw us caching this cache and writing in the log, then we moved on. A lovely place to explore.

Thanks to Chewinprickles and **clear skies** from TeamAstro. [^] Cache the planet! [^]

Watawieh from Norfolk Island South Pacific.

I have joined forces with TeamAstro to attend the Wangaratta Mega. Found on our return to Wangaratta after visiting Edi to visit another geocacher who was camping there

Found & logged using Cachly for iOS

Nice feed of plums whilst looking for the cache, yummo, thank you!

Woohoo nice new log book to sign!

On a 2 week break so travelling around Victoria and finding some caches on route..
Started out in Castlemaine and then heading to Hepburn Springs and Daylesford area.
Next was onto Heathcote and now we are staying in Milawa.

Weather has been pretty bad for caching in the last 4 days with lots continuous heavy rain..

Spent the last couple of days exploring Beechworth and then the Milawa to Oxley Rail Trail and
then along the King Valley.

Headed over to Dal Zotto for lunch so grabbed a few on this trail on the way to Milawa

Thanks for the hide and the cache
Log book has been signed and returned
Find #989

On this adventure:

Found 78 Caches
DNF 5 Caches
Placed 4 Travel Bugs
Found 0 Travel bugs
Found 1 Path tag

Checked and removed the excess cache. Good to go.

Tftc

TFTC

2 for 1 ! Quick find tftc

Twin caches at tis location, not sure if the hiding spot is correct. Both containers are together. Quick park and grab! TFTC

As Hexograb said, she found one cache and I found another so there is two here with logs in them. Now both in the same spot, hopefully the correct one. May need checking. TFTC

Grub62 and I were on our way back home to Melbourne from a weekend at Wangaratta. We through that a few more caches on our way would be a good idea. TFTC.

This is find 6 for today with Bunadoorian. Bunadoorian and I are on our way back to Melbourne via Mansfield after a weekend of accomodation booked for the original MEGA dates. We decided to stop and pick up a few caches while the weather was being kind. There was so many railway sidings on this road - thank you for showing them all to us. TFTC and for the Spirits of Salts series of caches - chewinprickles.

Nice quick park and grab to keep the streak alive! If only the fruit was ready - yum! TFTC

tftc

Headed out with Wright_stuff for a well overdue catch up and caching day. With the border now open we decided to cache around Glenrowan, and the King Valley area.
A quick find, and an enjoyable series

Awesome big tree.
Another rather large tree. Makes you wonder how old some of these are.
Thanks for the day out Stephenson5

This has to be the easiest one I've ever done

Easy find. TCTC.

Found (again) under torchlight (again) this time with the company of catnap777 on our way home from a bit of midwinter fun in a dinghy on Lake William Hovell.

TFTC Chewinprickles, my apologies for failing to log my visits on your excellent series the first time I was here.

On our way back home from a wonderful day spent exploring the King Valley and all of it's delights. Dalerious had done this series long ago, but had forgotten to log them, so we decided to re-visit them as I did not have them all. It was night by the time we signed the first log, and we could not get over the amount of cars on the road. It truly was like Bourke Street. Thank you for keeping this great series alive. Caches found in good condition.

Out today to finally make a start on the basketball GeoArt in the Beechworth area. The aim is to get as far as I can during the day.

I was helping out with a quick maintenance check nearby and so grabbed this cache on the way home.

Thanks howjen567 for the cache.

After a couple of dnf happy to have a smiley

Thank heavens all good here at the Spirit of Salts Byrne cache SL TFTC

Good find

Great find for the little geocacher. TFTC

Found with Anne Therese TFTC 05/01/2021

Found with Lazdaz on 05/01/2021. TFTC

Quick find and drive off. Another sneaky hide. Thanks chewinprickles.

Replaced the entire cache although looking at the logs I'm now not so sure it was gone. Wasn't where I left it anyway.

Placing this entire series on hold, mainly because there is much needed maintenance required and I am unable to legally attend to this while the Covid restrictions remain.

Great way to jump back in after a break and a cute b&b over the road

Found quickly once the correct side of the road was established.. TFTC

A few weeks ago I looked at my tally and thought I would struggle to crack 1000 caches for the year. But a consolidated effort over the last few weeks and more than I expected on the recent work trip numbers suddenly things looked positive - had a few calendar holes to fill and some potential trips to get the last 22 required. However when the offer was made to visit Milawa for lunch and the suggestion of taking two cars so that I could go geocaching afterwards was made I jumped at the opportunity. So after morning tea at Brown Brothers and lunch at the cheese factory I parted ways with the rest of the family (I took the geohound) and started on the caches around town. 23 caches (and 1 DNF) later the magic number was reached and now the challenge is to beat last years total.
Thought this one would be next to the impressive Eucalypt tree but it wasn't to be. Spotted the camo when I turned around and the log was quickly signed. Once again all good with the cache.
TFTC chewinprickles

Quick find TFTC

A hesitant walk into the shrubbery and I soon had the prize, plenty of cover for this surprisingly busy little road
Tftc

Was fun

!

Great little spot

Tftc and series

Ilukaperi and I were on a mission to bring ammo cans to the big smoke. Well, we were heading up to Wangaratta to pick up a delivery of ammo cans for people back in Melbourne. Anyhoo, why head up the boring old Hume Hwy, when you can take the back roads? So we decided to cache between Mansfield and Wangaratta, via Whitfield. I took over the driving at Mansfield, either because she was scared of driving on dirt roads or she wanted a good laugh at me trying to drive a manual car for the first time in 10 years. Whatever the case, I had done a bit of caching along this route before, so she had more finds than I did today, but not this one.

TFTC

Awesome old gum, day1976 sat closer to the road as I hid behind a bush and signed the log.

Nice quick find on our way back to benalla via some easy p&g's. At GZ I made my over to the obvious spot and there it was. TFTC

Today we have moved to Malawa, staying at the Brown Brothers RV area. From here we will cache from Wangaratta and Beechworth areas
This morning we drove along the Spirit of Salt trail & in the afternoon into Wangaratta.
This was a good way to visit your area.
Thanks for placing this cache howjen567

On the way to Mansfield. Cache OK

Tftc

We could not find it

Thanks ChewinPickles for cache and series LS

A 5.30am start today to get into Wangaratta by 6.00am. Muggle son from Melbourne participating in the Police Legacy bike ride, Wanga to Melbourne, and we wanted to wave him off, and take some photos. Driving with the group as far as Greta, we finally lost the bikes and started caching. We decided we would cache until our legs dropped off, or became so tired that we had to stop. Or eat.

Quick find chewinprickles - thanks for the cache and the series

1 September 2018 12:40 pm Found with Gonefishen07 while in the area for a bike race. We took the time to do a few caches while waiting for Thing no2 to do her 115km race. Thanks for the Cachechewinprickles.

Found with Hearse068 while in the area attending bike race meet. We did a little caching while waiting for niece to complete her 115 km ride TFTC

Found it

Quick find on the way to Whitfield
TFTC

A few years since I’ve been in the King Valley - took a fam visit and country drive but keen to come back ON a sunny day! TFTC

I needed a cache outing and so begged dalerious to come out for the day!
OK so I didn't really twist his arm all that hard before he jumped up and said 'yes'
We had a brilliant day travelling far and wide and made 35 finds and only 2 DNFs which made for a great day
Finally I've found all bar 1 of the Spirit of Salts caches after finding my 1st one of the series in April 2015 at Whitfield when I came across to Vic and did the High Voltage series [^]
Oh and there were 2 FTFs found today as well and the stunning views and the fun of snow caching in the dark made the day a day that will long live in my memory [^] ... and that's saying something as my memory is screwed!
We found the 1st cache at 11.11am and the last cache at 6.46am... the following day! [^]

As I am 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

TNLN. SL. TFTC howjen567

#11413 Found and Logged at 11:57:00 AM
One of 24 cahers for the day in the Oxley Milawa and Moyhu area
Great weather to be out caching
Thanks for bringing me to this beautiful part ov Victoria howjen567
Lgoody

Very much in the countryside enjoying this series. Tftc

Not being too far down from the old school site, we stopped off at the Byrne Siding for a bit of a look around.
Once again, tremendous views of the ranges surrounding the valley and beyond.
The cache was soon found in good nick, and we retrieved and replaced with a steady stream of traffic passing either way.
SL at 3.15pm.
Off from here heading to Moyhu. TFTC howjen567.

Quick find whilst in the area today.

Cheers

Found

Mega as over for us and heading back home. We stopped and picked up caches along the way. Beautiful morning and the weather looks great for our journey. TFTC

Great quick find on our way back from the mega event in Alexandra.
TFTC Wilbert 67

This is our fourth trip to the northern island this year. The first three were primarily for family events but with some opportunities to do some caching along the way. The fourth trip is different as caching is our focus. After getting off The Spirit of Tasmania we are heading north to cache at Wangaratta and then Yass before heading into the ACT and Queanbeyan for a week. After that we will travel to Jindabyne for a few days with summiting Mount Kosciuszko being our main target for this part of our trip. Then we will visit Cooma and Tumut before heading back down the track through Wangaratta and Mansfield as we make our way to Alexandra for the MEGA. After the weekend we will continue to make our way south and back onto the Spirit of Tasmania for the “drive” across Bass Strait. We are really looking forward to three weeks of intense caching in great areas and, hopefully, catching up with some geocachers in each of the areas we will visit.

After staying in Corowa overnight, we headed over the border into Victoria. Our first task was to visit another waypoint of a multi which started in Canberra. Then we visited a section of the Warby-Ovens National Park to locate a trig point which was required to meet another step on the GCA Local Government Area (LGA) Trophy Challenge. Whilst there heavy rain started and much of the walk to and from the Trig Point was in the poor conditions. There were three GCA caches closeby and we took the opportunity to look for those. Then we headed back to Rutherglen to look for another trig point before going to Wangaratta for lunch. We took the opportunity to look for a small number of caches in Wangaratta. With the rain persisting, we then headed south towards Whitford looking for caches in the Spirit of Salts series. At times we sat in the car on the side of the road because the rain was just too heavy. From Whitford we continued south through the hills and finally arrived at Mansfield where we stayed the night. By now the rain had stopped. We checked into the motel straight away so that we could get out of our wet clothes. Despite the inclement weather, we still managed a reasonable days caching.

During previous visits to the area we had found a small number of caches in the Spirit of Salts series. Unfortunately we hadn't kept a record of the clues we had found in those caches. So today we revisited the caches we had found previously and then continued to find other caches as we headed south towards Whitford. Despite the inclement weather, we still enjoyed following the rail trail south. We could appreciate that in the days when other transport options were very limited, the railway line was the very important link between Wangaratta and the communities in this valley.

Accurate coordinates and a logical hide location led to a quick find. the cache and contents were in good condition. Thanks chewinprickles for the cache and the interesting series.

***** We are currently writing detailed logs because of a challenge provided by Project-GC. "The Author" Badge challenges geocachers to average one hundred words or more in each log. On 1 September 2017 our average was 86 which seems close to the 100 target. However given that we have found so many GC caches, we have to write many logs with well over 100 words for a long period of time to get our average to the target. Apologies to anyone who finds the logs tedious but it is the only way that we can strive to attain this challenge. After 408 caches (which includes all cache finds up and including yesterday), the average log length is just over 97.0. We are now entertaining the possibility that we might be able to achieve our gaol before this trip ends. Progress has been better than anticipated.*****

Firstly apologies for my generic logs. I am staying with a cousin so can’t be too anti social but need to keep up with logging all caches before the weekend.

Most caches were found to be in good condition, though some that have been reported as needing maintenance still need some TLC. All caches were signed, many as SG, which is what I often do in small caches to save space.

Today we commenced our journey to the mega event in Alexandra with the daunting goal of achieving my next milestone - 4000 finds, with 99 caches still to find.

In deference to Pa, a friendly but often impatient muggle, I was up early, on the road by 6:20 am and didn’t start caching until after leaving Wangaratta. We travelled down the Wangaratta to Mansfield Road collecting 21 caches on the way. Some I sacrificed to keep Pa happy with our progress; some were quick, easy finds; others took far too long especially for caches that were only 1-2 difficulty and I had one DNF - again supposedly a relatively easy find but no luck for me. ????

Many thanks to all COs for placing these caches for us to enjoy during our travels.

I love trains and wonder what it would have been like to ride this line.

A quick find - TFTC

Great find. Watch the traffic. TFTC

Another one found, TFTC.

Tftc :) thanks

Loving the drive down this road and the collection of caches along the way. Interesting to note how close the railway sidings are to each other. Shows the great contrast between "distance" in the early 1900's and the early 2000's!
TFTC