Fly Away Fairfield, Victoria, Australia
By Biggles Bear on 16-May-02. Waypoint GC586C

GZ for this cache as become a lot less attractive since the cache was first placed, so we will look for a new location and perhaps redo this cache with a different end point.

Pickupfamily Dad failed to find the film cannister at GZ, although pretty sure I was at the right spot. Will send some photos to Biggles to confirm.

A very interesting set of locations I hadn't come across before. Certainly no fishing going on at WPT1; the walk down to GZ revealed some impressive rope work, I wonder who maintains that.. and GZ itself was quite spooky on dusk as the bats at dusk were starting off for the night. Thanks for the tour anyway BB despite my inability to find the gold at the end!

Rated: for Overall Experience

Biggles Bear has visited and confirmed the cache is gone, and generously suggested I can log a find as I found the right hiding spot. Thanks Biggles Bear.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Gathered fly fishing clues and after a false start when bad maths led me astray I was soon on my way. I am thinking that after reading the logs I was in the right tree but did not look hard enough perhaps.

New log strip installed.

This one had been on my list for ages so as I was riding home I thought I'd have a recce (the ducks were enjoying the pools). Once I'd got to the first point I couldn't resist going the rest of the way. It was getting dark by this stage but I still had enough light to find the cache OK in this very tranquil location.
Thanks Biggles Bear - I always enjoy a cache near the Yarra.

PS I removed all the coins (it was getting a very tight fit) and will place them in another cache.

Cokebottles and the cool girl decided to go caching via the river hiring a Kayak from the boat house we traveled close to the first clue ran up and got the info then back on the river to the next one the Co ords spot on. TNLN
Now on to see the Bats.

Dad took me out exploring today we Kayaked to here now were going to see the bats.

Found the rock selection and "cement ponds" at the first point then moved to the cache location area after gathering the clues.Gates are gone off the fence now but no one around at this location.Pottered around for a few minutes ,then nabbed the stash in the well hidden spot .All the foreign coins now gone and most are aussie 5 cent pieces.A great little tranquil setting and nice hide spot that will fool many.Many thanks to Biggles Bear.

Because I knew where the animals were, I started off on the wrong side of the freeway. Never mind, its a nice walk disregarding the bridge. Easily found, TNLNSL, Thanks Biggles.

Walked to the first way point got the hints then headed to the cache . This place is a little quiet and creepy until I got close to the cache , then it got noisy!!! Had to go "over" the fence , found the cache
TNLNSL

Found at 12:25. I was not sure if the name for this cache came from the first waypoint or from the hundreds of fruit bats flying around at GZ. Thanks B.B.

Found this one too even though we couldn't find a boat!!!
Oenze made the swaps and I filled in the log under the bats lair.
Thanks Biggles again.

Found at 5:05pm Accompanied by Chewinprickles.
5th Find out of 8 for the day.
We could'nt figure out the name for this cache till we got to GZ then it became visible.
In:- 3 x 5 Cents, Out:- USA Dime, Signed Log.
Thanks Biggles Bear....

As dusk was setting I managed to fit one more easy one in. Avoided a few stray golf balls on the way.

R + A - B

Found it - nice cache. GPS was reading a bit off so had to use the clue...

Cheers

In a now familiar area of Melbourne we gathered the clues for this cache, and after a enjoyable stroll we arrived at the GZ.
After a short search the words found it came from the others searching in a another location.
Many thanks Biggles Bear for the cache and showing us around another great area of the river.
Regards Mr.Coffee and the "Shoo the fly away" Clan.

Thylo found this one very interesting, did not know that a certain activity was done in that area, and he grew up just down the road. Got the clues and headed off to find the cache. Another beautiful spot down along the Yarra River. Found the cache and made our log. Will have to explore the area more next time.
TNLNSL
Thanks for another beautiful spot.
Thyla and Thylo

Found by Bob at 10:00

Those ponds at the 1st wp had me guessing - had me wondering why they would build such a shallow and geometric lake for ducks in such a location - wasn't 'till I returned to the carpark that I realized what they were (and also the reference in the cache name ). It was a beautiful morning for a stroll in this area, and the cache was an easy find.

TNLN

Thanks Biggles Bear

12.15pm
Found by Roma and Max.
Although well executed and hidden, this cache shouldn't have caused us the trouble it did. A classic case of Murphy's Law, where everything that could go wrong did. We decided to calculate GZ for both this and it's neighbour cache last week, and somewhere the numbers got mixed. We will say no more.
Thanks Biggles Bear, perhaps you heard the sighs of relief when this one came to light.
Romax.

Found at 12.05pm while on our way to the Dash for Cache event. Thought it would be a quick ride from the golf course, but then realised that there was a steep bank to the river that I had to get down. Found quickly enough with a good description in the cache notes. Thanks Biggles Bear tn/ln.

16:09 For some reason I made my life much harder than needed be. Found the cache eventually after I had a few goes at the nearby swing.

Found at 3PM in company with SDM Geo

A nice and easy find. A nice spot, even though you have to walk into protected area to get to GZ. Thanks for the cache from M.B

TNLN

found with xfking. i liked the bats in the trees at GZ.
easy find. TNLN.
thaks from scotto

The natives were not impressed with my stomping around when they were trying to sleep (or trying to squable?). I had never seen the original location, and I watched facinated as a guy filled it from a hose (ahh... no water restrictions).
It is a bastard lifting the bike over those stys though.
TNLNSL. Thanks, Robmc.

Found with Shimachic.

An enjoyable walk through some interesting locations. The final destination felt like we were in the Batcave - the trees were absolutely full of bats!

Took : UAE coin
Left : US dime

Very pleasant walk on less used paths along Yarra.

Found at 1:30pm, on another lunchtime walk with an objective. This cache took me to two places I did not know about before, despite playing many games of golf nearby over many years.

took US dime
left UAE dirham

Thanks Biggles Bear

Found by sbalogh53 at 4:30pm on 22/9/2004.
Lovely park area. Enticing ropes to try and climb. Fun tyre for kids to play on. Horrid bullants near tyre! One of them caused my 9yo son to start screaming in agony until I could get some anti-sting lotion from the car first aid kit onto his ankle. KEEP WELL AWAY FROM THE TYRE BETWEEN THE TREES. The trees and ground in that area are infested with stinging bullants. BIG ones! We got out of there quick.
Oh, I forgot to mention that before the bullant encounter we had found the cache and swapped some of its coins for some of our coins.

Found at 1245 by 4 Men and a Lady.

After reaching initial position was in danger of getting spiked by a stray muggle insect. Then a very pleasant stroll amongst the bushland setting and water.

This is one part of this recreational area we havent investigated so it was great to do this microcache.

Left: USA cent, USA dime, Singapore 10 cent
Took: Canadian 1 cent, Belgium 1 Frank and Finnish Penni

Many Thanks Biggles Bear

Found on 01/08/04 at 1520 AEST. At the first location there were many muggles flogging the water with their wands but no worries in collecting the first clue. With 3 monsters in tow I drove nearer to GZ and after a short walk and a quick search the cache was found.
IN: 5c
OUT:5c & 1fr.
Thanks BB

Didn't have the right sort of swaps today (that'll teach us to read the description more carefully).
After we found the cache we TNLNSL.
Thanks Biggles Bear.

We first found this clue before lunch, but assumed that the cache was on the other side of the water! Decided to catch up with this one while we were doing Rhyme Time later. When we got there, we found that it was 450 metres over the other side of the river.[:(!]
Funny looking 'play equipment' near by. Maybe it belongs to Hagrid. I will ask Harry later.

Maybe Biggles Bear is a 'Super Hero' in disguise.

Dak 5, Barcoder 2 (Still)

IN: Aussie 1 & 2 cent coins (polished for the occasion)
OUT: USA 1 cent coin & 100 Sen Jap. coin

Fly Away

Found at 1415 in company with barcoder--seventh of eleven for the day. We actually found the initial clue at 0945, but made the mistake of assuming that the cache was on the other side of the Yarra. As we would be over there to do "Rhyme Time" later, we left it until after lunch. When we got there, the GPSr told us that the cache was 450 metres on the other side of the river, or about 5km by road Note to self: look properly at the map on the GPSr. [:o)]

Beat barcoder to this one too, much to her chagrin! We are both still wondering about the purpose of the wooden structures nearby.

IN: Taiwanese dollar coin
OUT: Singaporean 20c coin

Found just before sunset on 14 June 2004. This is my 2nd try at this cache, got it easily this time.

Strange thing: Last time there were lots of bats up the tree but this time there was none. Perhaps it has to do with the time of the day?

Great location! Thanks for setting this up.

P.S. The cache is a bit full with coins. Perhaps the next person can just take a couple and not put anything in?

TNLN

Found at 1:00pm. After driving in from the wrong side of the river, we wisely (as it turned out) decided that the other side was the starting point. Around 30 or so of the local club (per the caches name) were actually partaking of their sport at the starting co-ords. I knew people did this for fun but not somewhere like this and certainly not in the way they were doing it .

This made an accurate counting of the rocks difficult but a clever logical deduction by young H set us straight. The walk to the cache was beautiful but I would probably question the word "short" unless you wanted to try walking it in a direct straight line

An easy accurate find at GZ.

Many thanks Biggles from D,H,S,K,H & A B-A
No Coins so TNLN.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found at 17:55. Took quaver pin and left 2x 10c Australian coins (not very foreign to us but all we could manage today). Another lovely view of the Yarra parklands and the final location being scarily close to the final location of another wonderful cache in the area!

Thanks Biggles Bear for another hike through the wilderness of inner Melbourne - a lovely place we are sure to revisit!

Cache still happily hiding after not being visited in a while. Left a US 1 cent, didn't take anything.

Very neatly hidden cache - no beating around in the under-growth! I left a couple of quavers and took a 500? note Cambodian - I must be in front!

A beautiful Sunday afternoon for caching and I found it (alone again) at about 15.35 hours. Excellent hiding spot!!! Swapped a 100 Yen coin (in) for an Ozzie $2 (out) 'cos I figured they were roughly similar value .

Yet another different view of the river, not to mention the recreational facility, that I hadn't seen before even though I've played the course many times (although I guess that's a good thing given the distance from the fairway ).

Well done BB.

Found at 2130 after being on wrong side of river and falling in some mud. Left unidentifiable foreign coin, took one Franc. Didn't read the posts so didn't know about the gate being changed. It is very close to the other side so it's not really a problem. Thanks Biggles Bear for a nice stroll.

We had been told about the barrier to this cache by The Ducks Guts team. We didn't think a mere fence would stop us although it was quite hard to get the dogs to jump the fence. The final search involved several trees but very quickly (for us) we had the cache in hand. Took 5 Belgian Francs and left 10 Finnish Penniä. Checked out the fence and found that it is relatively easy to walk down to the river end of the fence and climb around the end post - watch out for the guy-wire. In dry weather it is fairly safe but it would be more hazardous in wet weather. Be very careful not to fall into the river!

The land is public land so the only reason for closing the gate in the fence is to stop people walking a bit further along the river and then getting stopped by the golf course fence. Some people may then climb through that fence but more of them climb up the steep slope causing erosion. At the top of the slope they may actually be inside the golf-course which annoys the golf course owners.

Went out to check what was going on, after reading the last log. The chicken wire is certainly pretty new. However given the lack of signage and the fact that the path is still well utilised and the developing track around the end of the fence, we have no hesitation in declaring this cache still active.

Last cache for the day but couldn't get there! So sad, standing on one side of the fence gazing wistfully across the chicken wire at a really lovely, big gum tree, just the perfect site for a micro cache. Yes, the authorities have chicken-wired the gate . It looks a recent effort, and they haven't put up any signs explaining why, possibly environmental? Getting dark, so we left it, as it was still a long ride home.
Mind you, it was the Stoker with the GPS, so it still could have been the completely wrong spot.

Did this as part of a day out in the area. Lovely walking around on a sunny winter's day. Had a few goes at being on the wrong side of the river.
Found it with no problems once we took the time to look.
Thanks Biggles Bear.

found at noon by no.1. a very nice area for a sunday stroll, we needed a 4x4 stroller but the baby enjoyed the bumpy ride anyway. The gate no longer exsist you have to jump the fence. TNLN.
Thanks biggles bear

very nice walk to take up a sunday afternoon, no exchange thanks BB

Found 3:00pm
Fisherman training, now that is weird.
Easy find.
Left 500 riel

An enjoyable morning caching expedition after work. Found the clues and wandered to the cache location. My GPS was doing stupid things. So just searched around and within 10 mins found the cache, found at 0759. No swap made as I didn't have anything small enough.
Thanks Biggles Bear

Found by Alan-san at 3pm.
I wanted to get this one late Monday, but there seemed to be some strange coming and goings in the area at night, so I left it until Saturday. Beautiful spot - cyclists, canoes, river...
Swapped the USA quarter dollar for Japanese 50 yen (hole in the middle).
--> Sharpened the pencil to!

What an adventure. Caching without private transport turns caches into a 5 star rating. I will edit this log soon to add a pictorial account of my expedition.

Caught tram 86, because it looked like it went near where I wanted to go. Ha! A few people on the tram were intrigued with my GPS. Then a friendly gentleman asked me where I was going, and of course I had no idea.

When I got off the tram, I was still one and a half kilometres from Round the Bend, as the crow flies. Headed through some streets, into some bush land, up a hill, over a major road (still 1 km away), then got to some park land. Followed the track round (thought this way the bend in mention. Then realised I got to a place where I was 300 m away, but on the WRONG side of a creek! I thought it's not to hard to cross, as there were some rocks to act as stepping stones. Then sanity prevailed, when I remembered that I had around $2000 worth of electromics in my pockets and bag. I went further along, but the insanity regained control, and I loaded my PDA and phone into a plastic bag in my backpack, and crossed the creek, and scrambled up the steep inclined. Saw the warning sign when I got up there. Grabbed the first waypoint of Round the Bend, then realised that Fly Away was closer than WP2 of RTB. Worked out how many rocks there would be on my walk there, but when I got there, I could only see one less than that (from 15 m away). Went with my original guess anyway and headed off to grab the cache. On first arrival, my GPS was telling me it was on the OTHER SIDE OF THE WATER! But it soon corrected itself. Found the cache after a little searching. Had no foreign coins with me, as they are all in a cache I am planning to plant in Brisbane. So instead swapped a 1988 $2 AU coin for a 1989 $2 AU coin.

The adventure continues with RTB WP2....

Fran, Joe and Pete found this cache late in the afternoon. We couldn't find any foreign coins at home before leaving, so no exchange was made. We were amazed at the number of Belgian coins in the cache. Getting it back together did prove difficult.

Ran out of time to do Round the Bend. Will need to come back and explore this area more sometime.

Thanks Biggles Bear!

Found at 10.45am. We had some curious looks from fly fishers at stage 1, but cache was an easy find in an area of Melbourne we had not been to before.
No exchange made. Putting the cache back together took longer than finding it!!!
Thanks BB
K&M

Walked in from a nearby train station. Went with a friend who has not gone geocaching before. Found at about 12.50 pm. Forgot to raid my foreign coin collection before leaving home but left a New Zealand 5c coin that I had, and my friend took 1 Japanese Yen.

[last edit: 12/5/2002 9:43:11 PM PST]

Found this one very easy while on our way to another cache.

Came across the ropes course and didn't need to visit the firs waypoint as the discription of the location lead us right to the stash.

Swaped One Euro for $2 coin

[last edit: 10/29/2002 3:22:22 PM PST]

User's web page
Found this cache easily
No exchange made.
The cache is full to the brim.
Thanks Biggles

Joined Slider & Smurf for this one, which was fortunate as I seemed to have left my maths brain at home - chose the wrong number of rocks, then couldn't multiply properly... ! I was the only one with fingers small enough to retrieve the cache from the hiding place, but didn't have anything to swap. Thanks BB!

This one was a little more like what we're used to! We'd never seen a facility like this before - had to be careful counting the rocks to make sure we weren't struck by the chaps practising their art nearby.

Found the canister, but didn't have any coins to swap ... took nothing, left nothing. The toughest part of the cache was trying to fit everything back in after writing in the log!!

Thanks Biggles Bear.

Found on a Friday afternoon when there were no other people about. No problem locating the cache, although when I entered the co-ordinates while sitting on the rocks, the GPS pointed in a direction that appeared the cache might have been cunningly located on the other side of the river! The cache is very small and there was no room to fit in some of the larger coins I had brought along, but I did manage to leave some of the smaller Belgian and Swiss coins. Jonty the GPS dog helping me had a swim while I wrote in the log, and we both enjoyed the outing.

We managed to time it nicely between the showers and found the cache without difficulty at 1.45pm. We didn't have any foreign coins on us so didn't make an exchange. Greg and Bev

Found by Ray, Maya and Christine (Nomads) at 4:30PM on a wet and cold Melbourne afternoon. We noted that Gahpee just beat us to the cache earlier in the day. Greg, shouldn't you have been practicing for your concert next Sunday instead of touring Victoria?????? We had no foreign coins to leave so nothing was taken, though we did leave something. A very well hidden cache. Thanks Ray, Maya and Christine.

[last edit: 5/20/2002 5:34:27 AM PST]

Found it pretty easily after getting some very weird looks from the fishing people. Hey YOU'RE the ones standing there with a fishing rod and no fish to cacth . Took a chinese 10 cent thingy, and left 1 Euro from Germany.

Found the final cache location with no problems. Somebody had beaten me to it, but only by about 50 minutes.

I took the 'holy coin' and left a Singapore 20 cent piece as well as a US Quarter.

As an afterthought, I went back to the published start location to check if the number of rocks was what I calculated it should be.

[last edit: 5/17/2002 11:27:26 PM PST]

[last edit: 5/17/2002 11:47:54 PM PST]

Mary & David were first to log this one at 1245. Found the rocks OK and no flies on them either. Not a long walk from the car to the cache, where our recent Adelaide experience certainly helped. Took Singaporean 10c coin, and left a Kiwi one. River very tranquil with the ever-present bell birds, some kayakers, and numerous Little Lorikeets Thanks to Biggles Bear.

[last edit: 5/16/2002 11:02:55 PM PST]