Those Dirty Rats Kimbolton, Victoria, Australia
By stooy on 03-Sep-13. Waypoint GC4MJ6E

the hardest thing about today's caching was not the kayakingnot the heat not the rugged terrainit was the launchingspecifically where to do so for other treasures on the lake, we spent way too long trying to find the ideal launching place driving down many dirt roadsrunning into many dead ends and private property signs coming up with no good options we ended up cheating hauling the kayaks over a fence and bang: into the water here we were dreading a repeat but thankfully no:easy peasy a boat ramp an easy entry as long as you don't lose your boat

*Found on the 24 Sep 2023 @ 3:06pm.**Cache find # 15097.*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 to this one, making land in a short time, the next thing to do was to locate the cache but on the first look it wasn't spotted, after a minute or two we were back at where the cache is for a better look, this time it was spotted and retrieved. **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!! Not being one to launch at public boat ramps for fear of making a twit of myself, I found a spot where the road ends. A 2km paddle found me here. The only rats spotted were on jetskis making my flat water paddle a bit bouncy. Many thanks for placing here - I normally paddle from Mangans Lane to avoid the speeders. The log has been wet but now dry again ?????????????????????????

dalerious and I decided to take the geo hounds for a drive and run, but we didn't have the time for a long drive, so the decision was made to take a trip to Lake Eppalock, of course visiting caches along the way .
The dinghy got pulled out of retirement for this one, as only the girls had the courage to enter the water on this chilly day. Only had time to paddle to two of these beauties today, so we will be back for the other's another time in the not to distant future.
TFTC stooy .

Thanks for the cache and hide. Both doing well. Long arm’s required for this one

Different part of the Lake, but still Stella views. Good bidding spot that will last for years.

TYFTF

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 easily spotted but only just reached it lol. Thanks for the fun! Super experience!

Aaaarh, nothin left b them salty dogs but a scrap a paper, aaaagh

Great little spot

Out doing a reconnaissance for work and could not resist at least one.

Quick easy find

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

We presumed if the Lakes were full you'd have to boat your way to it, could tell it had been a while that they had been full, easy find on a beautiful day

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
Cache found in good condition. Shorty could just reach it.

Found 31 Jan. TFTC.

Noice spot. Found it fairly quickly. Thankfully we could reach the island and the cache

Awesome spot

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.

Fun!! Thankyou xx

Great hide! TFTC

A drive out to go for a walk saw that we were able to access these caches!
A quick find
Tftc

Found by G & C ️

Easy find

My arm almost wasn't long enough for this one. 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. Once at the location for this cache, I was able to locate it quickly.

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

13:07
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!
Great- the Dirty Rats have not been over to move the loot!

Our thanks to 'stooy' for adding this cache to the geo-gameboard.
26047

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

Scary spider webs

Find No. 2972. Found at 12.20pm

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.
This one 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 here there were other cars parked - not cachers but metal detecting people. A short walk to this one which was quickly found. Signed the log and now we continue our journey finding caches along the way to the multi.

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. Once we had found the right road we made it to GZ. Thanks for placing this cache 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. Half expected to see a nasty here but all was cool and easy.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 didn't 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 11:33:00 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.

Trust a pirate, not likely, trust a rat, certainly not, trust our GPS that is a definite yes. 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. Rats. They put it here? But where else? TFTC stooy

A lovely day to be out and around the waters. A lovely breeze blowing to keep us cool.

Thanks for the cache stooy.
Found on 18/11/19 at 18/11/19.
Find #10058.

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.

A quick find - right where we expected.

Thanks stooy for the cache. [8d]

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

Found lucky I had someone with long arms

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

I dont think conditions could possibly be any better for bagging this well placed cache. [^]
The late Autumn weather was perfect, the water levels were low allowing for track access and not a pirate to be seen anywhere.
This well floodproofed cache was found, signed and returned to its dirty rat hole in good condition. [8)]

TFTC stooy.

Only whilst logging this find on line did I notice the name of the nearby ski club proudly diplayed on the map. [:o]
I really hope they have a line of club paraphernalia. I would love to own a "Werribee Ski Club" T-shirt.

Having looked at our maps before leaving home, it looked as if this island would only have been accessible by water. dalerious had come prepared with an inflatable boat that he’d borrowed from a mate, when he saw that Eppalock was 38% full. He needn’t have bothered, we were surprisingly able to drive on a good track, to within a very short walk to GZ.
How apt was the name of this cache!
No danger of it floating away if the water ever rose to that height.
Thanks for the unusual D/T rating and more smiles on our maps.

Cache found to be found and all in good order. Thanks for the adventure out this way

Bit of a wet day to be caching, spose it adds to the excitement. TFTC!

**Find #2445**

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. Looking forward to using the YaK's for many more caches.

Thanks **stooy**

TFTC.

Tftc.. the lake is looking a bit low.

Drove across and found it fairly quickly with Gurishka. TFTC

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

Not really an island any more at present with very low water levels. 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 .

We moved fast on this one, finding it before those dirty pirates moved it on to another location.
Thanks stooy.

11:38 am #5385
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.
Indiana Jones theme song running through my head. Why?
Thanks for placing and maintaining this cache, stooy

Only one boat, no waves, little sun, perfect paddling conditions.

We had a great day out and about around Eppalock today. Every bit was worth it, including carrying the yaks. So glad I finally made my way up here, thanks once more for the caches.

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. This was the first of today's kayak caches and just a short paddle from my launching place. Great day for kayaking on the lake -- flat water and no wind, and the sun was out mostly. Found the cache without any trouble.



My thanks 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 and picked up the caches there. Now onto this first island. I think the rats have been here, as it took me a long time to find this cache, even with PAF conforming I was in the correct spot. I think, the rats buried it! I eventually uncovered the cache, signed the log and re-hid. Now, all I need to do is paddle back to the car. TFTC stooy

This was my second stop today.

A short island hop and I was on the hunt.

Great to see so much water in the lake.

TFTC

While having some water play fun with friends, we thought we would chase "Those Dirty Rats".
We looked and looked but no rats to be found only a treasure (cache) safe and sound. TFTC

Spent the day out on the water skiing with friends.
Having a blast and decided to check out a few caches while we were enjoying ourselves.

Woohoo! Successful day so far sun is still shining...

This was the first of several caches we found on this pair of islands. The next couple of hours here saw us walking from cache to cache and having a great day out.
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. 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.
**Thanks for placing this cache stooy**

The water is low at the moment and we were hopeful of finding a dry approach with car. It took a bit of work but eventually we found the right approach and crossed to the islands to take on the bunch. A good afternoons entertainment. TFTC

Thank goodness I didn't have to swim to this cache, the Geo mobile made it across ok. A short walk and the cache was in hand. Thanks stood.

Well being a Thursday I didn't see any pirates but I did here their outboard motors in the distance.
I kept my head down and soon plundered your cache
Thanks stooy

Pirates are nice to me because I drink rum too!! The treasure was easy to plunder! Tftc

Pirates are nice to me because I drink rum too!! The treasure was easy to plunder! Tftc

Lucky we didn't see any real dirty rats!! Tftc

Found the treasure easily, but no sign of pirates thankfully. Tftc

A nice easy find on a lovely summers day. Tftc

Quick find with Tassydevil. Thanks

found with bill goss tftc

Another great spot!

Found it! I took the aquatic geomobile over to the island to do some caching today with my geoson. Great hiding spot. Thank you for the cache Stooy

Well, as I was here I decided to collect the others on the island. Despite the name of this the cache was fine.
Thanks for the adventure stooy

Reperio at 1255.

On the way from Shepparton to Bendigo today, and decided to stop off and find a few select caches along the way. Came down with the kayak in preparation for a few water caches, including this one...but was quite surprised to find that it wasn't needed. Managed to get the 4WD in closer than expected, and from there it was a nice walk to GZ. Would love to see this area when it's covered in water.

Gratias stooy.

Find # 2593

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

Rats.

I hate rats. Not like in the same manner as Indiana Jones' Dad, but close. I was so glad that this didn't involve a rodent!

I made my way to the island today on my good ship, steady and true.

Then to GZ. I made sure that I grabbed a stick to poke around with it first. After all, there is one thing worse than rats.....well two if you include politicians, three if we include bank managers.

Nothing popped out except a logbook.

TFTC

Thought I would have do dive. Lucky I didn't have to. Caching with McLookers today.

Got to GZ and thought we would have to dive. Fortunately there was another option. Thanks stooy, a few boats out today enjoying the great weather.

Epic journey to this island. Wonder what it looked like before the lake? Found the cache high and dry, OK, but didn't see any water rats let alone dirty rats!

Found at 11.45 am 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, grabbed after a short walk from the car

TFTC

We headed up to Lake Eppalock today with ST37E and Wozzle 68 to have a bash at the T5 caches on the Lake. We found this one high and dry . Thanks for placing stooy. We love your hides.

Very happy to have my name in the log of this one thanks a lot stooy!

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. Beautiful skies and a stiff wind blowing saw us land on the island in swift time and the junior pirates were off to seek their second treasure for this trip. The treasure was found with views to boot although a junior pirate missed the easy way to land this treasure. The second bounty was enjoyed and another ‘X’ left to mark our spot.

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. Thankfully do dirty rats to be found today only a cache in good condition. Thanks stooy, this fills in another spot on the grid for me.

Another cache for the day nice spot 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. Actually I needed to create a new Pocket Query for the Lake Eppalock area before my journey since I'd deliberately filtered out all the T4's and T5's from my previous queries, thinking I'd never be able to get to them. Well, I know it's not exactly an honest way to obtain a T4½, but it was certainly worth the journey just to be able to drive across this amazing landscape that's normally under water. In my 2WD I had to be careful where I drove to avoid getting bogged in the sand and stay clear of other obstacles, but once at GZ I had no problem finding the cache. TFTC!

Haven't been to Lake Eppalock before and having the day to kill thought it a perfect opportunity to grab some T4/5 that wouldn't normally be in my grasp. Tftc

Really hard to get to the island by boat! Thanks for the experience and the cache.

After the Bendigo Event we teamed up with becca85, chan02, neish07, boo09, GemmaSistema and 5 geokids- 12 people. Our mission to drive onto the island the kids thought this was fantastic!! And complete the caches, we didn't realize how big it was until walking around it. Its nice to have these evil green icons turn into smileys, that i never thought id be able to do. Was a great day for it to with a few boats on the water. 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

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 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. 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.

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.

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.
Thanks stooy for the hide.

A nice walk along the island and grabbed this one easy. TFTC!! The smell of the eucalyptus is amazing!!

Warmer weather and low water levels, I took this opportunity to revisit these isles and check on the pirate booty.
Happy Hunting