The Illawarra Upper Escarpment Trail - Challenge Balgownie, New South Wales, Australia
By paulyman on 08-Jan-14. Waypoint GC4WNFH

Find# 11427YAY!!!Weather was in our favour and a great day to complete the trail.We had a free day to create some "Smileys".Maintenance was carried out where logsheets were mush, missing or caches damaged. TFTC paulyman & snorris 28 June 2024

We have completed the 19 caches required and logged our finds to satisfy the requirements for this challenge.This included[ Who Broke Who's Nose ](https://coord.info/GC407D)on the 29th of October 2006, [Toona ciliata](https://coord.info/GCYTEY) on the 20th of July 2008 and completing 17 caches along [The Illawarra Upper Escarpment Trail](https://coord.info/GC4VCTX) on the 29th of May 2024. (nearly 18 years to fully complete)Considering the recent weather and how often it's logged we had some trepidation as we headed off to endeavour finding this geocaches location and if it was still in situFound the aged cache, added a new waterproof log sheet and replaced as found.FP Given

Team Groodle found it. Next.

Thank you for the amount of effort put into each location. Great fun very adventurous

After not finding this particular cache some time ago as part of the series I collected that day, and recently finding out about the challenge after collecting Toona Ciliata , I thought well, I’m going to have to do something about this and the other of the series that I missed out on that day. So trudged out early on a moist and leechy day, and came up to this area. So after finally nailing the previous unfounded required caches, I made my way down to this. The highway was rocking this morning, and I kind of wondered if anyone may have spotted a leech covered idiot in the long grass and wondered what the.....

Tracked down the sucker, and thanks to the previous, actually had something to sign!

SLTNLN
TFTC

OCW the Bebes and Everest High. Found this in prep for completing the hard to get cache when we will convert to find.

OCW PelDroedGwin & EverestHigh

A grey and windy day for the escarpment trail.

We’ve done the trail and Who Broke Who’s Nose - we’ll see how we feel on Toona Cilita later

Completed the Illawarra Escarpment Trail and Found Brokers Nose. Will find Toona Ciliata another day. OCW The Bebes and PelDroedGwin. TFTC paulyman

Well 6 years after finding the trail caches, and 5 years after finding Toona Ciliata, I came back and re-found #5, which was replaced last year, then found the challenge cache.

As the previous log said, the cache is still fine, but it’s missing a log. I had a notebook in my backpack so I tore out a few pages to leave there.

TFTC!

After finally finding number 5 in the series as it was missing last time, and toona ciliata, I finally qualify for this cache. Upon arrival at gz I found the cache upside down and empty with the cache contents spread out everywhere. I managed to gather a lot of the cache contents up and I placed them back in the cache. The container is in good nick, but i wasn’t able to find a log book and I didn’t have my caching pack with me so I couldn’t replace it, but I managed to get my name on the lid of a bubbles container. Thanks for this amazing walk

Wow what a great walk, thanks for the caches. Great job.

I have completed the 17 caches along The Illawarra Upper Escarpment Trail as well as completing Who Broke Who's Nose and Toona Ciliata. The total hike took loci612 and I just over 3 hours. Fell down the cliff doing Toona Ciliata its a bloody hard cache to get to.

Not too sure how this challenge has only a 2.5/2 rating! That damm "Toona Ciliata" cache that is required to qualify is a bloody hard cache, that terrain is lethal and took us a long time to conquer! The D/T of this challenge should reflect that!

Regardless, myself and DSD had a goal. And that goal was completed To log this challenge cache which had over a year of unloved!

With all the other people at the mega event close by, and everyone else who did the trail, we were the only ones who were brave enough to find that final cache!

Thanks paulyman, a tough challenge that was a lot of fun to complete!

Wow that was wonderful! Thank you!

Found with nissan 65 Glad to finally tick off last one #2 . Now can claim the unknown cache. Thanku for the cache and great series

Found with cullum68 finally collected number two so we are able to claim this one thanks for the cache

Walked straight past it at first. A long and hard walk over a few attempts in the last 12 to 18 months and even harder was Toona Cillata but well worth it. TFTC.

Found this one way back on Jan 26 2017 but could not log as a find as I had not found the no. 2 cache. I found it today so now I found em all.
TFTC and the series P&S.
I enjoyed this series so a favorite from me.

I almost forgot to get this cache! The day I did The Upper Escarpment Trail I ran out of time to do Toona Ciliata.The day I did Toona Ciliata I ran out of time to do this mystery. Today I remembered! And I was passing by! Thanks for this cache. I love caches that make you do a series. GC4CY5W and GC22TG4 are two others that have been super memorable. Much appreciated

Got it did the whole trail was a great trail

Found on a rainy day with one of my Ventures. Did the hardest last, and then it started raining. TFTC

now I can tick this off the list after finding Toona ciliata. signed this back on the 20/4 while completing the rest of the trail.

I did find this cache & signed the log.
But reading the rules I still need to find T.I.U.E.T. - #2.
I will come & find it next time I come down this way and then log this one.
Can you please check on T.I.U.E.T. - #2.
Thanks, 3mu.

T.I.U.E.T. - #1 was my 600th cache, so I thought I would celebrate this milestone & Australia Day by doing this series.
Starting fairly early (8.30) I made my way around the escarpment on a not to hot, overcast day. A very nice walk, only saw 1 cyclist & only heard 2 people (near Broker's Nose)
I did find Toona ciliate, GCYTEY, back on 14/March-2015, with Hillster, & finally got around to do the rest of this series today.
TFTC PM & SN.

Soo close.

Found the cache but won't log yet, additional to go

Tftc

Set off with Brewmaker from southern Sydney on a cloudy day, heading for the Illawarra Upper Escarpment Trail series and nearby caches. Unfortunately by the time we reached the carpark near the first cache it was raining. Luckily I brought some extra wet weather gear, so made a quick clothes change. This is a good trail, not always flat and easy (and it took a bit longer than expected), but it takes you to some interesting places. We were sometimes walking in rain, which wasn't the best, and it would have been much nicer on a sunny day.
We made the 17 trail finds plus the 2 extras (just) and so qualified to log the mystery challenge cache. Found this cache under the big tree, signed the log and returned the cache. Phew - all done.
TFT trail and great to discover a new area with some beautiful rainforest (but not so the leeches).
My second ever challenge cache find

We finally completed the 17 on the trail, plus Broker's Nose and are now on our way to Toona after heading back to our car. If/when we find that, I'll post a Found It. For now, just a note to confirm we found this challenge part of The Illawarra Upper Escarpment Trail.

OCW Mikev1 in an effort to do this trail along the escarpment. As we arrived the rain began to fall, and although I didn't bring any wet weather gear, we headed off. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk through this bush setting, as the terrain and vegetation changed so many times from #1 to #17. An interesting trail along the escarpment. Thanks for bringing me to a place I didn't know about before today.

Having now found Toona Ciliata, I can log a Found It. What a day! Over 4 hours of searching with no DNFs. Thanks for setting up this great trail. It's a pity the weather hadn't been against us. But we had a great time, despite the leeches! A favourite from Brew.

And there was only one photo remaining, so we left for the next finder. TFTC.

Out for a stroll along the escarpment to finally tick this trail off my list. I'd done both Who broke whose brokers nose & Toona Ciliata many moons ago. Excellent trail & challenge cache to showcase the beauty of the Illawarra escarpment bush & views. TFTC

What a great day. Took us seniors 6.5 hours but we managed to find all 19 caches. Thanks for the great walk and TFTC.

I am on my way back to Sydney after 2 weeks house sitting in Batemans Bay.
This series of caches with a challenge cache on the end looks like a good reason to stop and get some exercise.
It took me a little over 2 hrs to walk around the tracks and find the first 18 caches and then this Challenge cache. So my name is in the log book. [:^]
Unfortunately I could not find Toona Ciliata after 1.5 hr of searching. I found what looks like a good spot for the cache there but no container. IS it missing[?] Would not be the first time I did not see the cache either. I ended up searching every tree in a 50+m radius as well.
And I could not find any pink tape either.

So the Challenge is not complete.

Nice one.found it and thanks for the achievement bonus
Picked up the TB from here.
Thanks again for the series!!
TFTC

This was a nice find. The achievement bonus was very nice indeed. Thanks for all the work of a well put together series. The walk back to the carpark was easy (we stayed on the safe side of the barrier).

Done all seventeen, broken nose and the horrible one at the bottom of the cliff. Challenge is done! TFTC!

Having completed 1-17 last week, today I scrambled to Toona Ciliata and then headed back to the top for the final cache - challenge complete. What a great experience, thank you for all the effort you put into this. There was a great range of containers and hides around the trail. I was very proud to collect my "I survived" magnet, and I left some batteries and a pirate coin. The hardest part was finding my way back to the carpark.

Found with tokyospaceman sykamore

What can I say?

Amazing. Especially Toona Ciliata, we love a good bush bashin

Done and done. It's around 7 now, time to drive back to Sydney. It's been a good day. TFTC

I did this one today with the family after we completed the trail. Can't see me ever completing the last find I need to log it though due to my issues. If I do, I'll log it as a find later. Thanks.

We found this cache as part of the Illawarra Escarpment trail series. Usually, there's a cache like this at the end of a series as a reward, but this one is unfortunately a challenge, meaning the Toona Ciliata cache, which is not in any way comparable with the rest of this series, is required to log it. We took a brief look at possible entries today for that cache, but we're not locals and couldn't find one quickly, and simply had no time left in the end, anyway. So we're unable to give a favourite to this cache, which is fairly customary for a mystery at the end of a trail. I awarded the favourite to another traditional in the series, instead, which was my favourite spot on the trail. Thanks for the whole series.

Log to follow

I found The Upper Illawarra Escarpment Trail on the 25/7/2014.

11 months on, I came to tackle Toona Cilita with NationalSteel today.

We have both now satisfied the Challenge!!
I came back to the Series Challenge cache to make the official log in the logbook.

My Favourite Point represents the whole series and experience!!

Found it, cheers for the magnet!

Found it, Great trek!

On a mission with JD. TFTC

We made it! Have been planing on tackling this for a while. Thanks very much, had a great afternoon!

Finally found the last remaining cache called Toona Ciliata. Now completed the whole series. Thanks for getting me here.

There is now a Project-GC Challenge checker for this cache.

FINALLY! had a great day. Will try Toona Ciliata next time. After all I did walk up to Sublime point and back from Conniston rail yesterday!! (73 Year old great grannie)
Thanks to paulyman for this wonderful experience. Keep up the great work

What a great way to finish the walk. It was enough to have found the lot, but to have a reward at the end was a surprise and I congratulate paulyman for a job well done, great caches, well planed walk and caches at easy distances. I can see you have done a lot of work, but we did enjoy it very much. The forest, views, caches and trail get top points from us.
seaker200

Having made truncated sorties to this series a couple of times, figured a serious attempt (longer than 90 minutes each time) is required. When can I do that? Christmas Day, of course.
The remaining caches before eligibility was #7, #8, Toona ciliata and Who Broke Who's Nose.
Coming down from Sydney, figured the most efficient approach is to head for Toona Ciliata first. Then back up the hill for the other three. The difficult today was a forecasted storm and rain for the afternoon.
Toona was completed but due to traffic problems, I didn't get to the upper escarpment until 2 pm. By then, the clouds were rolling in. So did #7, #8 and Broke Nose at double-pace with one eye to the sky - which made for a good aerobic work-out!
Out: A "Completion" fridge magnet. THANKS!
In: TB\Nut Bear's Birthday Hippo
Christmas Tree Bauble
Rubber die (or is that a dice eraser?)
Some assorted bits and pieces.

This has been a brilliant series (certainly worth an FP). And looking back, I'm glad I had to return multiple times as I ended up discovering much more about the area than I'm sure I would have with just a single-day romp. On signing this 'final' log, it was almost like saying farewell to a friend. Such is the impression this series has left. I will be bringing friends to this area.
Thanks for this cache, and this series Paulyman, Snorris.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

postlog:
As it turned out, the rain started just as I got back to my car and it poured down in earnest as I reach the M1 turn off to Sydney. All in all, a great day caching.

Tackled the Upper Escarpment Trail and Who Broke Who's Nose today. We lucked out on finding Toona Ciliata last winter before this series appeared. It was a fantastic afternoon for hiking. Thanks paulyman & snorris for putting this series together!

A couple of epic hikes and a nice reward. Thanks for the series.

Started the Illawarra Escarpment series about 9.20am this morning, finished Toona ciliata about 1.40 pm. What a great day out with the Geowife

Picked this one up prior to completing Toona Ciliata, but will only log it now after logging Tc.

What a fantastic series - thank you so much for bringing us down to another new area to explore. What a cool little surprise at the end as well!

Thank you for a great series

Found it .... I start walk from #1 to #17.. 10.15am to 4.43pm
thank you for I take one photos[Time to Find: 8 min]

This brought an end to a long day trekking through the escarpment. Nice surprise inside. Last week Toona Ciliata, this week this trek, need a month to rest!!.

We could smell something funky on the way from #17 to this one, is that Koala's??

Please tell me there's another way back to the car, walking along the freeway with cars and trucks whizzing by was a bit scary!!

This brought an end to a long day trekking through the escarpment. Nice surprise inside. Last week Toona Ciliata, this week this trek, need a month to rest!!.

We could smell something funky on the way from #17 to this one, is that Koala's??

Please tell me there's another way back to the car, walking along the freeway with cars and trucks whizzing by was a bit scary!!

Did successfully complete Part 1: #1-17 TIUET + Who Broke Who's Nose.


Spent 1hr going at Toona, with no luck.
Will be back to complete Toona.

This brings to an end an adventurous night of caching. TFTC

Tftc! Have been away from caching lately and thought a good way to counter this was to do this trail. A fun way to spend a morning. It took roger explosion and I about 3 1/2 hours, we made a wrong turn and had to back track, so yeah, a nice leisurely walk!

I logged Toona ciliate in September 2013 I think, I know I did a maintenance run with tails. I found who broke who's nose today and the rest of the trail today.

I really like the idea of your trail and the surprise at the end was a nice touch. Fave for this cache and the trail, a beautiful area I wouldn't have gone to if I had not started caching.

Reperio at 0700.

Came down from Newcastle this morning ahead of the 10K Milestone event for The Rats this weekend, and this was one series I was looking forward to doing as I hadn't been to the Upper Escarpment for a few years.

This was the first stop in this series...and parked not too far away to enjoy a short walk to GZ. Thoroughly enjoyed the series which took approximately 1hr 45mins to complete...along with 'Who Broke Who's Nose'.

Gratias paulyman.

This challenge was enjoyable, well with probably the exception of Toona Cilata completed some time ago. My geo-partner and I casually walked this trail and admired the changing landscapes and wildflowers. Stopping off to get Who Broke Who's Nose and completing all of the Illawarra Escarpment series allowed us to qualify today for this one. What a lovely surprise to open this cache. Thanks a lot!

H E L P M E.

Can someone please urgently get our TB "John" from the cache and send him on his trip to Germany/Europe or take him to an nearby event? It's really important and time is short.
Many thanks to all visitors,

Team
Tasmanian-devils

Having to pass this one anyway on the homeward stretch, did a recon ready for when the one final cache of the challenge is completed. After struggling with exhaustion, wind and a lot of (probably unnecessary) bush bashing, decided to sign this one today with a confirmed date to be advised for the official claim rather than come back.

Decided to get this one today and relog when the other has been found. Very angry vegetation almost had me sacrificing my pants and pinky finger in the process.

We didn’t do these trail because for us from the Netherlands it is strange to leave your car on a resting area along a motor way.

Bugger. Found this cache after completing the trail (and Broker's Nose several years ago) but we still needed to find Toona Ciliata in order to be eligible to claim it. Toona Ciliata has been on our to-do list for a long time now and this bonus cache gave us an extra incentive today to find it. The plan was to spend the remainder of the afternoon finding Toona Ciliata, hence why we found this cache first, but it all went a bit wrong
The starting coords given strangely put us in someones property so we decided they must be wrong and instead walked up the old mine road to where the track starts and attacked the cache from the east. How hard can a 400m bushwalk be?!!! Well, a nasty twisted ankle, many cuts & grazes, several leeches and a few dodgy moments hanging on to vines next to big drop-offs in the hope they don't snap and we couldn't find it!
Almost 3 hours we spent at GZ to no avail. Yes, the terrain lived up to it's rating but the 1.5 difficulty, nooooo way! We love a good bush bash but this was a needle in a haystack and without a decent clue we doubt we'll return. To that end, this cache too will have to only be a 'note' which is a shame after the hard work we put in. Left a TB

I found 'Toona ciliata' on the 25th of August 2013.
I found 'Who broke who's nose' on the 6th of April 2013.
I completed the new escarpment trail on the 7th of January 2014.
Today as we made our way down the coast I stopped in and grabbed the final of what was a great series. I have recommended this series to other cachers and I think that the best part is you can start and return via different tracks that means you aren't walking back past the ones that you have found. The series can be done at what ever pace you enjoy with or without the little tuggalongs.Thanks for the fun. SL..TFTC

A nice way to finish off the day and I love the little surprise in the cache at the end.
Straight to the pool room.
Toona Ciliata - 5/2007.
Who Broke Whos Nose - 7/4/2007. Wedding anniversary. Big trouble on this one as it took too long.

TFTC

Ironbark.

Thoroughly enjoyed doing the whole trial!! The other two requirements I did a long time ago. Really had to dig into my archives for that!
Toona Ciliata 29-07-2009
Who Broke Who's Nose 18-08-2009

The second one not a big thing to do along the trail, but if you include Toona Ciliata at is going to be a rough day!

TFTC Wilbert67

After work this afternnon The Rats, Hoojar and myself tackled this series. I enjoyed it because it was really a nice walk with my mates which we caught up on all things caching and along the way found a whole stack of caches!

I used to walk up to Brokers Nose as an older kid all the time so it was nice to be back.

Thanks for putting together this series.

Thankfully all three of us also qualified for this one after completing the other 17 in the series and also having found (or placed!) the other two caches in the past.

The contents of the cache were also great- I always like it when people go to a bit of effort . TFTC!

Headed out for a late afternoons caching with steeba and Hoojar. In what was a very hot day we were pleased to find this area so much cooler than the bottom of the escarpment.

It'd been some time since I'd been in this area and at many of the spots we enjoyed an ever changing view. Sometimes it was looking out to the Illawarra, other times it was a nice bush vista.

As we made our way around the caches I couldn't help but think of my lost opportunity. This is a great area for caches. Well done Paulyman and Snorris on a great mini series.

Having completed all the caches required to qualify for this challenge we soon had the cache in hand and were rewarded with our own prize. A nice touch,

Thanks for the series.

I had completed the Escarpment trail and Who Broke Whos Nose yesterday. As I was logging them I realised there was another cache to be found. So I went back today and finished the rest of the challenge requirements, (that hill wasn't that bad!). Now to find some more in the area...

As soon as we saw this series, The Rats, Steeba and I planned a trip to go for an evening walk. Tonight was to be the night. A perfect evening to escape the heat by walking in the cool escarpment forest.

The last find of our walk, back to the cars it took 95 minutes all told.

I found Who Broke Who's Nose (reloaded) on 08/06/2006. It was only my 7th find on my second day of caching. Back then, there were not many caches in Wollongong, or the Illawarra, to find.

I found Toona ciliata on 21/01/2007. I was accompanied by my sister and brother-in-law (Mr and Mrs Rumplstiltskin). As I recall, I was wearing thongs! The cache owner lives in Moranbah in QLD these days.

And I found all 17 caches in The Illawarra Upper Escarpment Trail on 14/01/2014. A most enjoyable evenings walk.

Thank you very much for the excuse for the walk, and the caches. Favourite point awarded.


Cheers

Published

*F.T.F.* Whoohoo! Yipee! uh-huh, uh-huh! w00t! Yeah, baby! Challenge set and Challenge met.
I found 'Toona ciliata' on the 25th of August 2013.
I found 'Who broke who's nose' on the 6th of April 2013.
I completed the new escarpment trail on the 7th of January 2014.
So what's a girl to do.
Cache easily found and I jumped for joy. The trail was very enjoyable and to top it off with this with a first was the icing on the cake. Thanks paulyman for all the effort you have injected into this series. Thanks for the magnet. Added to my favorites. SL. TFTC