Where Has The Rum Gone? Kimbolton, Victoria, Australia
By stooy on 03-Sep-13. Waypoint GC4MJ34

thank the gods we were with someone else thank the gods they were braver than us finding the treasure was easy enough retreiving was a very different kettle of fish the hiding place was crawling crawling with ants more ants per square centimetre than you would think possible early probes did not yield promising results that cache was wedged in hard in swooped our intrepid hero one clenched arm in to retrieve the gold precious time spent jostling all the while, ants spreading over skin like wildfire the treasure plucked ants shaken off in a fit the prize could be claimed soif you are coming soon make sure you have some member of your party with a cool head around an anthillor just bring some mortein

*Found on the 24 Sep 2023 @ 3:17pm.**Cache find # 15098.*After attending a couple of events, it was now time to head out onto the water with the hamfish and go for a paddle in the kayak's.After launching from near the boat ramp, we made our way across the lake.well, this one was a very short paddle from the previous find, and it didn't take long to locate the cache but it did take some time to get it out of its hide.The hide was totally cover in ants but to make it even trickier, there were a couple of small bits of wood on top which were wedged in making it hard to get the container out, eventually after many attempts and bushing off hundreds of ants out of my arm, the container was finally released from the hide.Log was signed and cache replaced without those stupid little pieces of wood.**Thanks to stooy for keeping the game going by placing this cache.**

The SS inflatable T5 was packed and put to good use again. A few targets on the lake and good conditions with light winds. Having done Paddy’s and Picnic Islands it was off to the northern group.
Met a local and says the finishing for Red Fin is Plentiful. A quick paddle over to Token Island for the first of 3 before another short paddle to get to the next island for the next two in between kanga mobs hopping by.
We completed the signing duties and re hid. TFTC.

Merry Christmas. I relaunched from Token Island and navigated the turbulent 180m to Meridan Island. Dodging shipwrecks & other obstacles. There were traces of recent life by way of fire remains & the rascals obviously looted the rum prior to rescue. Not a single drop was left for a parched paddler. Many thanks for placing ?????????????????????????

Driving through to Bendigo for the day, I decided to grab this beauty that I missed last time I was here .
Thanks stooy for keeping these going.

Thanks for the interesting cache

Was stumped there for a while, but logged it in the end anyway. A good view after a good kayak and walk.

Beautiful walk across the islands. Great view from this spot!

On camp at the nearby scout camp and decided we couldn’t go past these caches. Took an experienced cacher and a couple of newbie kids who loved it. The wind made paddling over hard but we got there. We then walked to all the caches on the island including the multi. Great hides all round. The paddle back was harder as the wind kept pushing us sideways!
This was found in the second spot we looked - started at the wrong end at first.
Thanks for the fun!

Aaagh, a thought t meself, a wee drop t cool me boilin blood, but nahhh, the cache twas dry as me parthed self. Aaaaagh

Absolutely loved this!!

The geo-vehicle turned amphibious today as we "sailed" out for some island caching. Although the fun of actually being on the water was missing a good time was had. TFTC

Another one we could get to by car..... the Lakes must well and truly low to be able to do this.

HEEM Eppalockdown 2021

We headed out for a drive today with the geopups. LeeLee use to spend many weekends here waterskiing around this very island. Today we could drive to it. Sad to see the lake this low, although nice to see people still enjoying it.

Thanks stooy. A great view from here.
Cache found in good condition.
Left swap

Easy find, great coordinates. TFTC

Nice and easy find

Arrrrrrrrrrr awesome idea! TTFC

I spotted these on the map on my way across the countryside heading out towards Ballarat. By chance I checked the satellite view only to find these were likely to no longer be surrounded by water. Sure enough I was able to drive the well worn paths of fishermen and others alike onto the island and almost directly to the caches in most cases. Now a park and grab.

Thanks stooy for the cache.
J

Great spot.... no rum. Lol thankyou xx

Found it! TFTC

The hill was a killer but we found the stash!
Tftc

Found by G & C ️

Found by G & C ️

??

Smart hide. Tftc.

I leaped out of bed very early this morning to meet up with DAB to make the most of 2020's leap day. We were keen to get out on the road early and see what was in store for us. We had a list of caches we wanted to check off. We packed the geo wheels with plenty of supplies and took off in the early hours of the morning. And what a fantastic day it was!

I have not been to lake Eppalock for some time so it was good to be back here. I was shocked to see the water level as it was today, but still a good bit of water for people to play in. A quick find in what I guessed would be the hiding spot on arrival.

**Our thanks to stooy for placing this cache for us to find and enjoy**

Finally got a chance to drop this trackable off I have had for while, whoops !!

12:53
After spending time with HP's 90+ Y/O Dad, it was time to step out into the real world and put some smiley tokens on our geo-map!
There is a saying "Whatever floats your boat' Geocaching certainly floats our boat! Today we were able to add our name to this log without even getting our feet wet!
Sadly the brown bottles we found were all empty!

Our thanks to 'stooy' for adding this cache to the geo-gameboard.
26045

*This log composed and published using Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK).*

Don’t need a boat when the waters this low!! No pen!

Found it.
TFTC

Find No. 2973. Found at 12.25pm

A days drive down to Lake Eppalock to find a few caches in the area. Went in the van and took Geodog Penny with us. The day turned out to be a rather warmish one and we enjoyed all the caches we found. By the end of it we had done heaps of walking which we don't mind doing at all. Would love to see this area full of water but glad there was not much today as these caches we could walk to.
The first one in this area we could nearly drive right up to but because of the soft sand we didn't as we didn't want to get bogged. Not far away from where we parked there were other cars parked - not cachers but metal detecting people.
This was our second find in this area as we continue our journey finding caches along the way to the multi.
Definitely no rum here but certainly a great container to store it in.
Signed the log and off we went to the next one.

TFTC

Today we targareted 6 caches in this area, with an early morning start we made our way to a parking spot to do the walks first and to finish off with the ones we could drive near to GZ.

Cache and contents were in good condition.

Thanks for placing and maintaining this cache for our enjoyment.

Out with xambo4u, we set off early to do some caches in the Lake Eppalock area. With a lot of talking, extra walking, and extra kilometres, we achieved our aim. We were lucky to find the cache, but the rum was long gone. Thanks stooy

Out and about with echidna44 for another long way off caching day. Our target was for some of those higher terrains in the Lake Eppalock area. Now for the walks and talks, laughter and which way to go. No problems with this one but certainly no rum here today
Thanks for the cache stooy

This and it's five siblings had been on the todo for a long time since they had very nice D/T's and were accessible with the TOTT we could bring up from Tassie, we had a great time making our way with care to each location and we were very pleased we found all of them, one was a bit of a panic when it took up 20 minutes to find but that's what you expect on a high D/T isn't it.

Thanks for the cache and interesting location.

This was our last day and thus a drive to Melb and then fly home but we just had to collect a few caches along the way didnt we!

We had selected a few interesting caches and added a few more as we had time before we had to get on the plane.

This was the Mega trip that started out as a simple trip to St Arnaud for just the Mega and turned into a mega road trip starting with myself and GooseandEgg flying into Adelaide to collect a rental 4WD so we could drive an indirect route to St Arnaud and then on to Melbourne so we could fly home again.

The Goose had put a lot of planning into the trip so we could both complete or get close to completing our D/T grids, collect a number of good interesting caches and cache types we didn't have many off.

For me this was the best organised Mega I have been to, the stand out was how the committee had managed to get the whole St Arnaud community to welcome us all to the area, just about everyone we meet knew what we were there for and I had no awkward moments explaining what Geocaching was.

Found on 18/11/2019 at 11:37:00 AM
The best caches I have found so far by type are:-
Traditional [Moorgreen P3:1, Penny Pincher](http://coord.info/GC32Z5B) By [Sven&Cup](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=6596795)
Multi [CoaledHearted](http://coord.info/GCKGZ5) By [CraigRat](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=256663)
Unknown [Men In Black Holes](http://coord.info/GC1DVB0) By [SG-3](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=918045)
Letterbox [Rolf's Letterbox](http://coord.info/GC5NCYM) By [membsec](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=5318842)
Earthcache [Alum Cliffs and Gorge](https://coord.info/GC5KVHA) By [jandalfan](http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=2409043)

After a big week we were on our way home from St Arnaud to Melbourne airport and on to Hobart. With a late flight we took some time at Lake Eppalock to find a few caches.
We took the SS Prado out to Token and Meridan Islands to find the good D/T caches here. With a ‘low tide’ we were quite lucky. All four caches were found before our amphibious transport retuned us to the mainland safely.
Thanks for these caches stooy

When planning the St Arnaud mega trip I was keen to incorporate some missing D/T’s from my grid. Stainless steel rat suggested flying to Adelaide ‘on the way’ and driving across so a route was planned and a fun week of caching began. I cherry picked in my planning so as not to run out of time for the ones I wanted, and we added a few on the day if there was time. We met up with various teams along the way including a planned rendezvous with Tassie Trekkers in Kaniva for a fun days caching. I ended up with around five hundred finds (including labs) for the week, and still had plenty of time for socializing along the way. It was great to catch up with some old friends and of course make new ones.
Special thanks to the St Arnaud mega committee for a great weekend.

Out with a group of geocachers left over from the St Arnaud mega event. We did not find any rum here today, but surely, after the small climb up the hill we were entitled to a wee drop. SL TFTC

A plan was hatched last evening so early this morning I set off with muff1, also accompanied by brisal5, AnyMules and locus cache on an adventure to Lake Eppalock Another island and another adventure but the rum had all gone TFTC stooy

Day 8 of our epic trek to the St Arnaud Mega via Geelong. As you do. 
The constant was my travel companion for the entire trip, - Anymules but we were joined by other cachers in our travels.

With the event finishing yesterday we continued caching around Bendigo where we were based.

Another quick find although there was no way my big mitts were getting it out. Luckily others could and I was able to stamp the log.

Thanks [owner] for the cache.

*Found with [Geooh GO](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobiltal.geoohGO)*

A short journey from the last cache and this one was quickly located. Good thing I have skinny arms.

Thanks for the cache stooy.
Found on 18/11/19 at 18/11/19.
Find #10059.

Nice find

Out on a cold misty wet day. Where walking around was quiet and peaceful. Tftc

I dont shink condiditions could poshibly be any gooder for bagging this very thirsty cachey thing.
The late Autumnmn weather ish was perrrrrfect, the water levels waz low (needs ice) staggerrring from trax access and not a pirate to be seen anywhere.
This well cellared cache was found, drinkeded and va emptys returned to its dirty rat hole in good but empty condition. [8)]

TFTC stooy.(hic) shink ishll as a lil lie downow. Zzzzzz [xx(]

Aaaarrrrrrhhhl yer right, somebody got to the rum before us! Not a drop left. And after such a pleasant stroll to the cache on a lovely autumn day, dalerious and I would’ve loved a drop of the good stuff. However we were still both happy to find a dry logbook and be able to sign it, without getting our feet wet in the process.
Thanks for placing it here for us landlubbers to find.

C azche found to be all good and in order. Thanks for the find out on the island. It's a nice and secluded place. I'll be back in the summer.months for sure!

Bit of a wet day to be caching, spose it adds to the excitement. This wasn't too hard to locate the pirates stump. TfTC

**Find #2446**

After an Ariel Recon Mission, and noticing that the Lake water level was low and the caches where all exposed to a Land assault rather than amphibious. However before we left the Big Smoke, a stop off at Anakonda had us equipped with our new Geo-caching Kayak's. The plan was to grab the caches and then have some fun on a beautiful warm sunny day and paddle around and just relax. An easy drive by with accurate co-ords. Was looking forward to some Rum, but "Where Has it Gone? Filled in another D/T on the 81 matrix with this Find.

Thanks stooy

TFTC.

Lovely cool breeze off the water today. Tftc

After the gps settled, did not take long. TFTC

TFTC day out in the tinny on our first hot summers day

Another quick find. TFTC and for getting me to paddle across.

Despite the overcast weather this was a great day to go out paddling with Jacko and OzHockeyChick.
We started at 10am and were off the water by lunchtime, having covered 8km criss-crossing Lake Eppalock. Of course caching continued in the surrounding areas well into the afternoon .

Who was FTF here? Seems they took all the rum and left nothing for us. Except an empty container and a logbook. That calls for a duel at sunrise!
Thanks stooy.

11:31 am #5384
When I saw that Jacko and Pacman were planning a paddle this week, I set about rearranging my work schedule to join them today on this lovely lake.
Another short paddle to this one, then found quickly.
Thanks for placing and maintaining this cache, stooy

I'll just let the photo do the talking for me - a unique viewpoint

Thanks Stooy -appreciate you putting these out, awesome.

Short trip and kayak onto the lake. Weather was prefect. Landed on the island. Proceed to GZ. Yeah cache in Hand. TFTC

Day two away with my kayak, and heading back to Lake Eppalock to attempt the other four caches, plus a few random caches on the way there and back. Second kayak cache and another by stooy. Again, found nice and easily after a very short paddle from the last cache.



My thanks again to stooy for the cache.

After a fantastic day at St Arnaud yesterday, I headed over to do some kayaking caches on Lake Eppalock. I set out on my trusty kayak, and was half way to the first cache when I realised that I left my pen in the car. Now I didn’t fancy my chances of a shop on the island, so I turned around and went back to the car to retrieve my trusty Geocaching tool. Back I paddled, wondering if the fishermen thought I was daft. I soon made my way to the second island, where I went in search of rum. I think I know where the rum went - in the previous Geocacher’s stomach as there wasn’t any left for me!!! TFTC stooy

A weekend on the log and a little cache hunting.

We set sail and anchored not far from GZ.

A quick walk and was soon at GZ.

Signed the log and was on my way.

TFTC

Island hopping fun! Littlest spotted the obvious find. Log retrieved, signed and returned quick as a flash!

Another find by the McPhail family.

We were very upset to have found no rum here [:(!] but at the same time happy o have had such a good time out here exploring for the day
TFTC.

Yesterday we spent a great day in Ballarat with another cacher who, in incidental conversation, mentioned the low water levels in many of the lakes inclusing Lake Eppalock. Last evening we checked on some of the caches and noticed in recent logs that numerous finds of the caches on one island had been made without the usual equipment. So today we visited Lake Eppalock and after one false start, we found a way to get to a group of four caches - Shank's Pony over a dry lake bed. It was obvious that many (not necessarily cachers) had driven to the island in the 4WDs but we were reluctant to take our low clearance 2WD - in hindsight the car would have made it easily to the island but would not have negotiated the vegetation on the island.

Accurate coordinates led to a quick find. The cache and contents were in good condition. The only problem was that the flask had not been refilled - the rum is still "gone". Thanks stooy for the cache.

On our Easter camping weekend out at Majors Creek near Nagambie and today we are headed to Lake Eppalock for some T5 caching with SaharaH99, KH2ici and AngelaChris.
Put the kayak in 4x4 mode today and drove to the cache, still a challenge to find the correct way in.
Nice hide and good recycling practice.
**Thanks for placing this cache stooy**

Rum has all been drunk. Love the name and enjoyed finding our way onto the island. TFTC

Who was the last Geo cacher here? No rum was to be found, but we did find a log and were able to leave our mark. TFTH

No signs of rum here, not even a sniff in the cache container.
A beautiful morning out here
Thanks

Lol! Hmmm the rum vessel looks familiar!! But alas the rum has evaporated leaving nothing but a log sheet in its place. Tftc

This was a cool adventure getting to this one! We had to quickly jump aboard the boat before it took off! Tftc

I had fun getting to this one, but Sean.75 was a bit upset there wasn't any rum left. Tftc

What no rum? Lol. I've seen one of these caches before, in fact a friend has one in her ute. Tftc

Found with Tassydevil. Lake water level quite low. Thanks

very pleasant day geocaching tftc

Brilliant. Thanks.

Another quick find on a lovely afternoon out caching with my geoson. Took advantage of the fact that the water was low enough to drive to the island. Thank you for the cache Stooy

Oh, it was so hot still. A nice cool drink would have been good. the rum was gone but not the cache.
Thanks stooy.

Find # 2595

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.

Got over to the Islands easy enough, but I must say I would be the only one, in a while, that had managed to get wet while hunting all these down. Just as I hit the "island" the storm cell had hit overhead and I was in the middle of a down pour... Dirty Rat.... not me, I was the Drowned Rat taking on the island hopping.
Surprisingly with the heavy cloud cover and trees My GPSr still put me spot on to all cache hides.
I was off the mainland for a good 45min, and I think getting wet for about 30 of that.


TFTC stooy this will be a memorable adventure

After sailing across to the island I got to ask, where has the rum gone?

Well, I don't drink rum. I am a single malt man myself. My wife though drinks rum. I'd be too scared to hide her bottle and ask her "Where has the Rum Gone".

So I will keep it quiet, ok. Shhhhhhh

TFTC

This entry was edited by strange quark1 on Saturday, 31 October 2015 at 21:42:34 UTC.

Saw a snake on the way to the cache. Lucky it was crawling away and I found the cache. Thanks stooy.

Looks like the last cachers drank all of the rum!!! There were some muggles not too far away but they didn't see us! Thanks stooy. Caching with Tomstache today.

Had to take a lot of care getting close to GZ here due to the disturbances left by previous vessels. I guess the Rum had gone long ago, and that was correct. We did have fun doing this cache.

Found at 12.05 pm on 26th September 2015. TFTC.

Found with Glanville Girls & Wozzle68 after making the trip from Ballarat to retrieve these high terrain caches while the water level is low, after a short walk from where we had parked the car we managed to make a quick find on this one

TFTC

In the area today with ST37E and Wozzle 68. We quickly made the find on this one. No chance of this one getting wet with this type of container. Thanks for placing STooy.

As with others I heard about some times to be had at lake Eppalock so the Glanville Girls ST37E and myself made our way here today to take advantage of low tide. Thanks for the cache

After hearing about some recent adventures of fellow cachers, Lake Eppalock was on our radar to try and fill some more D/T combinations. With International Talk Like a Pirate Day upon us, today was the perfect opportunity to set sail and seek our bounty. We had secured the treasures on Token Island and had made sail to the treasures here on Meridan Island. Cacher lore spoke of many treasures hidden on this island. The title of this treasure disturbed us as any good pirate would be worried their rum was gone, however we had a treasure to find which did not disappoint. We had good views to ensure there were no rivals vying for our treasure and we could see no other soul in sight. Log secured and ‘X’ marked for our presence. Off we went to seek further treasure.

Thanks for the cache stooy.

The main aim of my trip to Bendigo today was to go via Lake Eppalock and pick up these caches on the islands. I really enjoyed my walk here today picking up these caches. This is my very first T5 and I could do with some rum for a celebration, unfortunately as the name says "where has the rum gone". Thanks for placing these caches stooy. Giving it a fave for my first T5

3rd for the day bit windy enjoying the day out tftc

Having heard at a recent Bendigo event that this one could be accessed by car, I thought I'd take the opportunity to grab it. I know it's not exactly an honest way to obtain my first T5, but it was certainly worth the journey just to be able to drive across this amazing landscape that's normally under water. After signing the log, I replaced the zip-lock bag since the old one was developing tears along both sides.

This was the second and last Lake Eppalock "island" cache attempted today. I couldn't trust my 2WD getting to the others without incident on what looked like a more risky track, and with two very tired children in the back a foot-journey was out of the question. I'll certainly be back to get the rest (by foot) at a later time though. Thanks for the cache Stooy!

This entry was edited by claybol on Monday, 14 September 2015 at 20:09:28 UTC.

Trying not to get blown off the island on this bitterly cold morning. Lovely views with the sun shining off the water. Brrrrrrr. Left a bottle cap swag. Tftc

Arrrrrr....... We thinks the zebra pinched all the rum. Bottle was empty and zebra was laying around with old man lion. Looks like they have both been stuck into the bottle!
Tftc

After the Bendigo Event we teamed up with becca85, chan02, neish07, boo09, GemmaSistema and 5 geokids- 12 people. Kids thought it was great to be able to drive on the island while the water level was so low. Good to have some Stooy caches turn into smileys that i can actually log instead of stare at them up high in a gigantic tree

After attending the Lake Weroona event with becca85, ReganSeekers, neisha07, GemmaSistema & chan02 we headed out to grab some caches. A huge group of us and lots of fun! TFTC!

Headed to Bendigo for the event and then continued on caching with becca85, ReganSeekers, GemmaSistema, neisha07 & boo09. A great day was had doing some cool caches. TFTC

Backlogging... After attending the event in Bendigo, I headed out with becca85, boo09, chan02, GemmaSistema & ReganSeekers to do a few at Lake Eppalock. Such a fun arvo! TFTC

Today I headed to Bendigo with the geokids (4 & 6) for the event. After sausages I tagged up with ReganSeekers, becca85, neisha07, boo09 and chan02. A total of 3 cars and 12 bodies! We headed to the lake whilst the water levels are low to grab a few tougher caches. A super fun time was had by all. Easy finds and a lovely area. Never knew the lake was so big! A few boats out and about today as it was a lovely arvo. Thanks for placing these for us to enjoy.

We headed over to Bendigo for the event this morning then spent the arvo adding a few smilies to my Bendigo map. My Geokids chan02, neisha07, boo09 and myself teamed up with ReganSeekers & GemmaSistema -quite the large group including kiddos- for an enjoyable arvo caching.
I hadn't been to Lake Eppalock since Year 7 school camp- almost a couple of decades ago. Kids loved that we drove to the middle of the lake. A great arvo had by all. 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. Had an absolute blast in the lake. There were a couple of boats enjoying the water today. TFTC stooy.

Found while enjoying our quick trip over onto these 2 small islands. 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.

No rum here. It was fun to explore the island though. Thanks

Decided to park the car and walk into this one. The 4by would have been better with the sand. TFTC. Nice hide. TNLN

Second find on our stroll around the dry lake. This time geokid5 made the find. Lovely day for caching! Thanks, stooy!