Fontainbleu Dam Picnic Area Whroo, Victoria, Australia
By BernieH on 21-Apr-14. Waypoint GC54RTQ

Along with my friend Crustyvarmint, we set out to explore the area and hunt for the caches hidden along the rail trail. After a successful search, we decided to venture further and eventually made our way to this serene location, hoping for a peaceful night under the stars.When we arrived, we noticed a lone man sitting by a campfire. He welcomed us to join him, and we spent a few minutes warming ourselves by his fire. Despite the warmth, there was something a bit unusual about our new acquaintance that made the conversation feel a little off. After a short while, we politely excused ourselves and headed to bed, eager for some rest after the day's adventures.Thank you, BernieH, for bringing us to this unique spot. I'm sure I'll find my way back here again someday, perhaps for another adventure or just to enjoy the quiet and beauty of the place.

Ive had this on my list for a while now. Today, along with Juzzmagic, we came to this area to find the caches along the rail trail. Upon completing that task, we drove out here, located the cache, and settled in for a quiet night.There was one man already there, and he invited us to join him at his fire. Well, he had a nice fire going, but he was a very strange unit, and we adjourned to our beds at an early hour.Thanks for bringing us here, BernieH. I expect to revisit at some time in the future.

Found nice and easily with ilukaperi. There were some muggles around but we were able to nut out the coordinates and make the find easily.

Camping weekend with day1976, I do love the old mining areas! We stopped here for lunch and then went in search of the cache.Good to have a decent compass app for this, since theres no reception here. thankfully had no problems finding it.

Dropped past to check on the hide and...All good to go, now come and find it!---Don't miss finishing the Ballarat GeoTour before it ends on 4th March 2024. A list of the geocaches can be found [here](https://coord.info/BM9GWJ5). The final GeoTour Event is the [Farewell Ballarat GeoTour](https://coord.info/GCAFQ8B) on the 18th February 2024!You can also get prepared for the 2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards by checking out our preliminary lists [here](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/information/great-caching-lists/).

Thank you

Some sort of event going on here today but my beautiful wife and I managed to sneak away and find it. Thanks for the cache.

Went away for my birthday weekend to the rushworth area in the forest. Grabbed a heap of caches in the area over the weekend and left a trackable in one of them. TFTC's

My gps had me some distance away for this one but i widened my search and came up with the goods. Cheers...

6 August 2022
11:59 am
2462

Hi BernieH, I found Fontainbleu Dam Picnic Area today. Well that was a tricky one. I’m going to collect my third attempt. But this time I bought the big guns, my husband! Finally found what I don’t want before.

Many thanks BernieH for providing and maintaining this game piece for our enjoyment.

21 January 2022
4:47 pm
1504
Many thanks BernieH but today was not my day!
I will have to return another day to try again!

The fact that I did not find this is no reflection on the actual cache. It’s more a reflection on my navigation skills. You see, I don’t usually do this sort of cash by myself. However Muggle hubby was working today so I gave it a crack on my lonesome.

Originally I projected the coordinates using an app and had no success. Then I completed an entire circle the radius of 158 m. No luck.

It was just too hot to even continue. I’ll have to go back another time.

Found some time ago while at a nearby scout event but only now discovered that I hadn't logged it

Took a random bush track approach from Nagambie through Bailiestown. Interesting to see the vestiges of old, now forgotten activity around these parts.

An easy enough find once the range/offset thing got sorted out. A muggle pickniking right at the nominal GZ was easily avoided by working out where to go without having to start at the beginning.

Whoo hoo - a multi thrown into our mix of traditionals today - and by a well known cacher too! Mrs Harrowang had already done the projection, so it was a quick walk from the camping area. There was one vehicle setting up their camp as we arrived. It has been a few months since the last find, but all was in good condition. Plenty of water in the dam, but it doesn’t look very palatable! SL at 2.04pm TNLN #8297 TFTC BernieH

Camped here for Nissan Nightmoves Car rally. Fantastic spot to set up & finding a cache here was a bonus TFTC

3355 fltf fav

After finishing the Whroo trail nearby we double backed and made our way to the Fontainbleu Dam to do this multi.
We done our projection and we were on our way...that was until the cautious Triton spotted a black snake a metre in front of her......
Thinking it looked like a rubber snake momentarily she stopped and looked, then reacted, "Chris keep walking a snake!" then looped the long way around the peaceful reptile.
He was happy sunning himself and didn't even flinch at us two geocachers as we stumbled by.
We did make it to the cache but made sure we went the long way back to the car, carefully watching our feet.
Thanks BernieH for the multi placement and my first sighting of a slithery out in the wild.

Muggle father-in-law found this one when we were about to give up! He’s never been so excited!!
Tftc

Process of elimination assisted with this one as well as some idea of the correct direction and my phone assisting me with distance from gz. I have not attempted one of these before but loved it. Out with Xy and Nen. TFTC

Away for the weekend with Happy pants and omegaman1971. We were heading to Shepparton to do some caching, in an area we hadn't been before.
Many laughs and fun were had over the time, along with a variety hides found in some different areas.
Got to starting co-ords and worked out what we needed to do. Made our way to GZ and was happy to make a quick find. Pleased we didn't need to break out the kayak for this one.
Thanks BernieH for placing the cache and doing the maintenance, so we can enjoy the find.

Omegaman1971
The Omega Empire
@ 6264 finds
In town with Happy Feet and Happy Pants trying to escape the COVID-19 craziness back home.
Had a awesome weekend full of laughs and finding some great caches.
Unfortunately we did have some DNF's.
After doing the required work we soon had the log stamped.
Logging as Happy man.
Cheers for the fun cache.

#3958 Headed west today from home for work in the hope the smoke from the bushfires would be less but that didn't work out too well. Came here for a lunch break en route, enjoyed reading about the history of the site on the cache page and then set forth to find the cache. Only had the geophone today and it wouldn't settle on where gz was, so ended up picking off each potential hidey hole one by one until found!! TFTC BernieH, all good here with the hide.

Catnap777 & OZREG formed a team on 10 May 2020.
Logging FOUND Caches as individuals on approximately same dates since 07 July 2019, this
is one of those found Caches, and backdated as shown.

Team OZCAT (OZREG and Catnap777) touring the gold areas of Victoria. Tftc, we really enjoy the offset multi's

Team OZCAT ( OZREG and Catnap777) out and about touring the gold area of Victoria. Tftc

Even though the name suggested a dam, we were surprised to see as much water as there was when we arrived. Great area. Thanks for the cache.

One of the last caches that we have to do in this area so couldn't pass it by. Great to see that there was some water in the dam whilst we were there. Thanks for the cache.

We found this one today as we proceeded back into the Whroo Forest to finish off this series by Romax, it was completed after we had grabbed the two multis near the old Balaclava mine site. We then proceeded to the dam and had a quick BBQ chicken wrap lunch after putting out some careless campers, campfire that was still smouldering/burning. It was then find the GZ and step off in the correct direction for the correct distance. After a little quick search we had this one in hand and log duly signed and returned.
The GZ distance was around 169m (+/- 3m) according to our devices.
TFTC inspectorrexteam

For ages, dalerious had been saying that he wanted to do the trail of caches in the Whroo area and I'd recently left a couple of caches there so that I'd have something to find on that day! [^]
Today was that day and so we headed out for lots of fun in the scrub and I even managed to end up with 3 finds for the day

As I have been 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

I love the bush sights in Victoria [^] and the history and stories of the determination of the pioneers. [^]

TNLN. SL. TFTC BernieH

Found with locus cache.
Ok found BY locus cache.
I had no idea. I had headed off in the totally opposite direction wishing I had brought along a real compass while my compatriot downloaded the right waypoint projection app and headed straight for it.
Well almost straight to it. She seemed to think the coords were out by 11meters but I would have to take her word for that.
Anyway you may be pleased to know that I have since learned how to make a waypoint projection with my caching app and look forward to the next opportunity to put my new skills to test. [^]
Thanks BernieH for another well placed cache and a good bit of fun.

Had a little trouble at first, and as usual self-doubt started to creep in as to whether I had done the calculations correctly, but thinking it through, all was good, and increasing my search radius had the cache found quickly. This is a great area for caching. Thanks for the hide.

Interesting back stories about the area and people who once lived and worked around here. There certainly is evidence around the entire region of reef mining - either that or some monster wabbits have been hard at work!

Enjoyed tackling the offset too as it made a nice change to rocking up to a GZ and plucking the cache from nearby shrubbery!

TFTC

Interesting history lesson and a different kind of cache for a nice change.
TFTC

What are beautiful Easter Saturday morning. With the Easter Market warming up in Rushworth we thought we would duck out and knock this multi over. Thanks for being us here, beautiful spot. Intend coming back for a bbq....that’s if we ain’t out caching. TFTC BernieH

I wasn't overly stumped by this hide, nice area.

My sincere apologies for the late log. I have geocaching finds dating back to 2011 in my GSAK database that I am yet to log; amounting to several thousand un-logged finds across the last 9 years.

So, what to do when you find yourself in this administrative caching 'hole' nightmare? Well you seek out a 'personal assistant' (thanks GoodLook), to assist to remedy the situation of course! I thank the CO for accepting my tardy log and for your understanding.

Thank you BernieH for placing this cache.

Suscoe enjoyed a big day out to the east of Bendigo.
The day started out foggy and that gradually lifted to a cloudy and sunny day at times.
The countryside varied as we travelled out as far as Whroo and back again in a big loop. Beaut farmland, historical areas and bushland was enjoyed and admired by us.
Thanks to BernieH for this cache, we came prepared and soon found the cache.
All good. dry as a bone.
All quiet here today, no one else enjoying the views.

A day for some maintenance on our Whroo series of caches and a few cache finds along the long road home.

After the maintenance needs were taken care of we headed a bit further into the scrub to this cache and a relatively quick cache find.

Thank you, BernieH, for this cache.
#3914. Log signed at 1136Hrs.
(I often signed the log book as "W+W" to save paper/time/ink)

Hey there BernieH after being unloved for 16 months we have signed the log today all good and dry.
Dam brimming over with water. Trees have benefited from the rains as well as the paddocks. Thanks for bringing us out today. It is such a lovely spot. Log signed and returned.
My father used to bring us out as small children as he was a contractor supply wood for Stanhope and Girgarre factory boilers.

Tftc

Been waiting for this for ages finally did it today. TFTC

Today, we did a loop from Shepparton to Corop, Colbinabbin, Whroo & a few towns in between.
The weather was great - not too hot, and the roads dry and dusty.
We found a good variety of traditional, multi caches and a few puzzles.
Many thanks for placing this cache, BernieH, for us and others to find.

Me drive around today found me headed for this delightful patch of the forest
A spot I have not visited before.
And it is a nice spot

Not a soul around.
Nice campsites too !!
The damn dam was only half full though and looking a bit black and murky [:o]

Silly me wandered around following the GPS to "GZ" [:o)]

Standing in the middle of the dam, I suspected that this cache might just be a multi

I read the notes

And after a short stroll .... found no caches [:o]
Oh !! Wait !!
Me GPS is set to the wrong sort of 'bearing'

I made an adjustment and headed off to find me a cache
Easy peasy !! [^]

TFTC.

A lovely ride on the bike had a stop and found a cache at a great place to have a rest TFTC

Nice one! Found quickly, TFTC and greetings from Germany

Got distracted by the goanna sprinting across the road and up a tree but after we got the starting point figured out (GPS a bit jumpy) a short hike to the cache. TFTC

What a very interesting place. Thanks for the experience

"I'm off to visit my friends in Ballarat tomorrow, do you want to come?"

They were the magic words that my wife said to me yesterday.

How to respond? Well I wanted to start a happy dance and throwing high fives willy nilly, but I took a more restrained option.

I waited a few seconds and said, "Well, I might find a few things to do to fill in the day if you want a day to yourself."

YEEEEAAAHHHHH, day pass.

So off I went. Leaving early in the morning I decided to head out the other side of Bendigo.

So BernieH, how is your hearing? Could you hear me curse and swear? Could you hear me take your name in vain? Could you hear me cuss?

I'm surprised you didn't.

I tried to find this using a compass but had a massive fail. I therefore jumped on Mr. Google and learned pretty quickly how to project a waypoint.

Once I did this I pretty much ended up on top of the cache....after 3 other attempts.

There is no way in hell I was going to let this beat me.

TFTC, it was a lot of fun at a beautiful, peaceful place.

Slink1 and I decided to do something with our Sunday so he headed off towards Nagambie to tackle some caches we missed the last time we were in the area. We had a great day and also picked up some random caches on our journey to and from the area. Many thanks to all the CO’s for the placement and maintenance of these caches. In all cases; TNLN SL

Dunko and I decided to head off to Whroo and ride the trail today, Sunday turned out to be a great day for caching with the mild weather only downside was the dust from a few random cars. we managed to collect many other caches in our travels. A very big thank-you to BernieH for the time and effort in the placement of this cache

With stunning navigational skill, we projected a waypoint some 24 meters from the cache.
We estimated we should have used a bearing of 100 degrees for a distance of 167 meters.
TFTC

This entry was edited by Riddell on Sunday, 27 July 2014 at 10:16:26 UTC.

What a lovely spot and a good road up to it for my little Corolla. The dam had a lot of water in it and we would have had very wet feet if we'd actually tried to stand on GZ. Fortunately I was able to use an old trick I'd learned in Scouts to be able to take a back bearing, and we were able to locate the cache, thanks so much for putting it here and bringing us to this lovely spot.

Many thanks to Cybergran V and ben.ro for their persistence and assisting me with this cache. It was a bit different and Cybergran V employed her scouting techniques for assisting to solve this one. TFTC.

Cybergran V's scouting experience proved very helpful in locating this. Lucky we managed to find it in between visitors to the campsite. Thanks for the cache!

Found at 3.30pm,

What a lovely spot - so peaceful and the perfect spot for a picnic.
We headed off, with our GPS showing us the way and after a brief look around soon spotted the hide.
Nice one.
TNLN
Thanks
K&M

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found by Roma and Max.
With some routine maintenance planned for our nearby Whroo series your two new hides provided us with the incentive to push that plan forward and to accept the challenge you have offered here!
We chose to use the compass and distance readings on our GPSr and only fall back on projecting the wpt from within Oziexplorer, if our first method failed!
Using the compass meant we did have to extend our search area by about 30m to make our find, but are pleased to report on calculating with OE on our return, comparing a reading taken on our receiver at GZ, we came up with only a 3m difference in numbers!
Thank you BernieH for bringing us back to this lovely ironbark forest, for choosing this interesting spot for a hide and for a good sized container well hidden.
Cheers, from Romax.

Published