Rabbit Island Winya, Queensland, Australia
By dahumbug on 26-Jul-14. Waypoint GC59K8V

Obviously the whole rest of the tree was a victim of one of the many heavy storms we had in the recent weeks. In any case, one single piece of burnt bark was all what was left.So, a team member went back to the boat, and replaced it in a nearby stump, with permission of CO.TBU joined in a team to hire a boat and to tackle caches on the Somerset Dam.We started our journey from North so this was one of the first caches.Tftc Dahambug

There was a plan Im not sure who first suggested the plan, but it involved Beardman75, Davinells, wayn0 and I aboard the recently renamed Karicka attempting to collect as many Lake Somerset caches as possibleMother Nature is really showing off now Id like to say this was a quick find, but it took a bit of back and forth through and around the lantanaThanks dahumbug

There was a plan. It was raining. It was early. I was on time. I forgot my quick-dry shirt. I forgot my rain jacket. I provide entertainment for the geobuddies. Thanks for the cache Cheers

Thank you very much to davidwazza for replacing the container.

It defies logic how this cache could dissapear....
I appreciate efforts placed to keep my cache alive.

VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.

Team GSW found these cache today. With Davewazza and Stairman.

I AM GUR

Team GSW spent a great morning on the lake today tracking down the last few caches we never collected yesterday. The hire boat has done us well. The fog has been very thick making navigating by gps only, an essential. We searched the whole area and came to the conclusion it has gone. A new one is now in position.

TFTC

With a name like Rabbit Island and a family-themed name, this was more than just a "must" to visit today. After visiting Orange Crew's geocache on this "barely" an island (just shy of a peninsula), we followed the track that was visible on our Google Hybrid maps and lead us quite close to GZ. We then spent a fair amount of time searching around the logs and branches immersed in lantana, as we approached this one as a group from different directions. It was [stairman1](https://coord.info/PR4R27Z) who found the applicable hint first, and had a good search inside with no cache apparent. I think we spent a good 10-15 min searching around, just in case those bunnies had pushed the geocache container into a small void, but no dice.

Having seen the previous DNF, I did reach out to the CO to see if they wanted us to replace it should the cache be missing, and sure enough, I had a few spares with me to make an appropriate replacement. With permission, we've left a fairly decent painted small sistema container and logbook in that same spot. I nestled in the container quite well inside the hollow, and covered with a couple of rocks; there is no way that any steroid-induced bunny will be carrying out the container now. We signed the logbook as Team "GSW" (as per [GurTheWanderer](https://coord.info/PRWMPWQ), [stairman1](https://coord.info/PR4R27Z), and David"W"azza). If this cache goes missing from here, then the only remaining logical explanation is a ranger or SEQ Water representative is aware of this traditional geocache, and is actively removing it (which may mean that its life is limited). Hoping it can survive another 5-10 years now; Thanks dahumbug for the cache placement and ongoing maintenance.

----------

During this extended weekend, it was a trip north to find the 65 Roses geoart in Kilcoy, followed by two days boating on Lake Somerset to defeat the Dark Side series joined with [GurTheWanderer](https://coord.info/PRWMPWQ) and [stairman1](https://coord.info/PR4R27Z).

Today, we were back on the water and after defeating the dark series lord yesterday, our plan was to head north and detour past the small traditional caches subset. The lake was at 80% capacity with not too many boating muggles about. We launched the boat from the Day Visitor Area's eastern boat ramp early at 07:00 hr, and the lake was still shrouded in mist/fog, which made navigation interesting. Another few hours passed whilst driving the boat and shuttled between geocaches, before returning back to the boat ramp to return our hire boat. We started to return home south passing through Somerset Dam before splitting, and my route was then south through Bryden and Dundas, and then west through Mount Glorious. My final drive/adventure was then the Goat Track up to Mount Nebo Road, and a walk from Boombana in D'Aguilar National Park. A near-perfect Winter weather day!

Found the spot as mentioned in the hint but sadly there was nothing there.

27/1/22 Travelling down yesterday from Mackay to do some GeoArt caches. On our trip down lost a bearing buddy from boat trailer near Rocky. Then near Gin Gin blew a boat trailer tyre. Got both issues sorted as had spare parts. Arrived at Dam yesterday and was raining. Setup our camp at Somerset Camp Ground and got a good nights rest. Woke up 530am and on the water at 615am. Rain has moved on. First lot of caches supprised me on the landscape as different to other dams I have done. The water shoes definitely getting a work out. Found caches secured and gps co ordinates good. Have Geokid CAITLYN1105 hiking around with me which is good company. Thanks for the variety of puzzles to solve and some I did get assistance on as good value mysyeries. TFTCs Signed Logs.

Down visiting from Mackay with alphag_25. tftc.

Logging old caches originally found with alphag_25. Now have my own account and logging them separately so that i can claim the finds or not as the case may be. TFTC.

I started just before 7am and finished my loop of 17km on kayak and walking on land after 4h15mins. It was quite windy by the time I came back to the launch point but I had a great time walking through the countryside and enjoying the quietness on the water.

TFTC

Georode

Down from Townsville for the mega we were up at the crack of dawn to collect this series after solving these months in advance.

With the master Karicka at the helm and Padewans BenM70 and myself we aimed to complete the art in one hit but started with a few traditionals with interesting DT.
Big day in the water which was most enjoyable. Mission complete.

My daughter will be disappointed I didn’t spot any rabbits here despite signs of their presence.

Thanks dahumbug for the massive effort in creating and placing these for us to enjoy.

2/4/21 09:20 Heading to the Dayboro mega from Townsville. Out with burgo78 and Karicka. A clean sweep of the Darkside was the aim as well as picking up a few Trads along the way. Thanks for placing this daHumbug. Do or do not, there is no try. Plenty of logs but found first lookFind them we must!

Boating with burgo78 and BenM70
After a few outboard issues we made it here.
Thank you for hiding this geocache dahumbug
Find number 22027
R

Many thanks to my son-in-law who took us out in the boat while he did some fishing. I had a good day picking up some caches. Nice quick find.TFTC

#4908
Lake Somerset Trip - Day 5

After finishing the nearby Dark Side series earlier than expected, we continued on to grab a few more high T caches. Took us a lap before we spotted. Saw an unhappy rabbit on the way back to the boat. Totally wrecked after 2 days on the water.

TFTC dahumbug

Day 2 of the GOMs Somerset Dam Assault.
Another wonderful day out in a little runabout with Crash, Canary and Tardis. This was collected at the end f a very full and wet day. This was the final for the day before heading into a very strong head wind and lots of waves.
SL TFTC

Full log to folow

Last on the water after two days out on the slow boat.

Another search through a log pile for the find not where we expected it.

TFTC.

Out for the day with our friends Steve (otherwise known as Urdera) and Michelle to see how many of these Dark side caches we could get plus a few other caches that were tantalizingly placed nearby. This being one of them. We were on the water by 8am and we left the water at 4pm. We were sunburnt, scratched, tired and had enjoyed a wonderful adventure. Each piece of headland was different to the last. Some quite hilly others nice and flat. Grass not too high but sometimes where no trail was evident it was bush bashing through head high lantana etc. We saw cows, lots of rabbits, a huge goanna, two snake skins and several turtles. We had leisurely stops in scenic spots as we enjoyed lunch and morning and afternoon tea on the boat. Our thanks to dahumbug for placing this cache series and enhancing our enjoyment of the area and we would not have visited this area if it had not been for the caches.

Wow another awesome time caching, I just love getting out and caching, a big thanks to 4ando for this series.

A couple of weeks back I tried to organise a few regular suspects to come and grab the dark series. It wasn’t looking good as only one solid confirmation and three can’t confirm till last moment. Then it was a mad week to finish of the rest of the puzzle caches and be ready. A bunch of phone calls in between and a rough plan in place all of a sudden things changed and we had a group to attack this series. An overnight camp Friday, a few drinks and a few laughs. Saturday night brought the excitement and the stories to tell after the event.

A great day, a long and fun day, lots of laughs and some awesome caches. With Team Tyrrell setting off on kayak while we waited for the slow boat to be loaded and launched, then it was Willis007, Simber15 and CHAMAD following up in a “hasty” pace, we had turtles asking us if we needed a tow, we even got passed by a butterfly at one stage, however this was just added to the fun of the day. The caches took us all over the dam area with some great views and some nice cache placements. Mrs Simber15 cured her phobia of cows and Willis007 learnt how to deal with angry magpies. The bird life on the dam is remarkable, there were a couple of sightings of roos and rabbits but nothing could beat the views from the tops of the hills, just inspiring; surprisingly no DNF’s and all caches are in good condition.
I really had a great day, the memories of the day just added to the great caching experience. Thank you to all that came along and be ready for the next assault on the next geoart. Thank you to the CO for the time spent placing these and setting this up. If it took us a long day to collect them it must have taken you weeks to organise and to set them out.

Included in our day were a few Traditional caches, “can’t leave a man behind”, we grabbed these in our days boating as well, thanks for the placements.

Puzzles were solved and a plan was hatched. We were going boating! It didn't take long for the enormity of the task ahead to become clear and so we parked the idea and the second half of the puzzles for another day. A week ago some geocaching friends invited us along for a weekend of camping and caching. An opportunity we couldn't possibly refuse! A quick scramble over a few days and the final touches were made and puzzles solved that had been neglected. We arrived the night before and made a plan of attack allowing for changes as required based on the flavour of the wind. An early start by kayak followed by the SS Slow Boat resulted in 11.5 hours on the water after first launching before the final cache was signed. We couldn't possibly have achieved this task without the help, support, entertainment, laughs and all round fun of Chamad, Willis007 and Team Tyrell. The scenery was stunning and the bird life abundant. Views from some of the hills were magic and we couldn't help but stare in awe up at the bright stars from the campsite of an evening. Mrs Simber15's irrational fear of cows was overcome on a few occasions and a brief encounter with magpies completed. A few times we found ourselves beached or engine stalled and then Chamad would remind us "I know boats" and it wasn't long before we were up and running again. This was a weekend of caching we won't soon forget! Thankyou for adding to the enjoyment of our adventure Dahumbug!

Up here to collect the Dark side series with a bunch of keen cacher's, Willis007 , Simba15 and Chamad.

This was cache no 4 for the day and an awesome, clear, flat and picturesque paddle had me near GZ. Co ords were spot on for a nice quick find.

TFTC

A bunch of dedicated cachers - Team Tyrrell, CHAMAD, Simber15 - and our high tech transportation fleet of a super fast kayak and what has become affectionately known as the SS Slow Boat - came, saw and conquered some lovingly placed caches in the most beautiful of locations.
A lot of bird life and cattle were seen through the day, along with kangaroos, a rabbit and did I mention magpies?? Thankfully there were no snake encounters given the super long grass we walked through in some places.
A long but very satisfying day with some great company, a lot of laughs and scratches, a day which will always be remembered.
Thanks dahumbug for placing this cache here for us to collect today.

It was too windy to put the kayaks in the water so we decided to hire a boat instead! We had great fun with Farket cruising through the trees and exploring this interesting island while finding the cache. Tftc dahumbug

Found with Davinells! Cool island!

Out doing Dark Side caches. Thought we'd clear these as well. Windy day on the lake. Getting wet in the little tinny.
Easy find.
TNLN, TFTC.

Fantastic day with Tenkae, Car0 and Stortigirls! We collectively signed as Team ACE A (our real name initials) or AACE or sometimes our caching names, depending on our mood.
We were meant to hire a tinny today but we were late to book a full day so Tenkae decided to buy a boat instead! She's always full of surprises.
Cruising was much faster and more fun! We managed to pick up 50+ caches including this traditional up north from 7 am to 4 pm.
Great day overall. So much laughter and catching up while caching. Amazing teamwork and camaraderie on board Oasis of the lake. Entertainment, food and activities were much better than the Royal Caribbean version, Covid-free was a special bonus.
Thanks for the cache dahumbug.

Wow... there are actually rabbits here. Thanks for the cache we dropped by after completing thw dark side series

COs- Currently in the process of catching up on my logging backlog- some of it, I'm embarrassed to say extends back a number of years.
I'm logging each cache on the date that I actually visited it, not the day I'm logging. Cheers??

??????????
We'd been busy beavers solving this series and could finally come and collect the goodies here. It took us 3 days in a slow boat but we had a great time out on the water and being away from home.
As Ratty?? said to Mole??...
“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
We didn't mess about too much though or we wouldn't have found them all in the time we had the boat.

The logs were signed as either team GERSH or sometimes GRESH, depending on the memory of the signee and the caches were where our coords led us and no issues were encountered.

We saw plenty of turtles and cows, both live and not so lively, also all sorts of birds. There must have been plenty of fish too by the number of muggles fishing. We had a good haul too but not of what you could have thrown in the pan.????

One highlight here was finally getting my first D/T loop with this series although sadly I wasn't aware of it at the time. Probably just as well as I may have capsized the tub in my excitement! No happy dancing possible in a plastic tinnie without soggy consequences!???????

TFTC??

TFTC smile 7151 out and about with Hatzoff, RoddyC,Snickersallan, having a great time boating , walking, caching ,and thanks to my fur baby sitter without you I would be up the creek without a paddle



Thank you, dahumbug for placing this cache for our enjoyment.

We decided to join forces for a few day's caching on Lake Somerset. Our first day, and we are motoring our boats to do the northern end where there are some traditional, caches, then start on the caches of the Dark Side series.

All logs were signed as "G.E.R.S.H." (Grannysmith1947, echocage1, RoddyC, Snickersallanandhatzofff).

Tied the boat and up the hill. Nice.

Cache located, log signed and all replaced as found. TFTC, dahumbug, at 11:25 AM on September 3, 2020.

Another Great day out doors and on and around the water.

Great day, great weather, great company.


All caches signed as GERSH (Granny Smith 1947, echocage1, RoddyC, Snickersallan, hatzofff)
TFTC dahumbug

Visiting from the Gold Coast and spending several days in the local area. This is our first day on the water after hiring a neat little tinnie to get us to and from the various islands and we certainly enjoyed every minute of it especially with the large volume of different types of birds flying around or just keeping a watchful eye on us combined with the herds of cows coming & going.
To save on paper, all our logs were signed as Team GERSH (grannysmith1947, echocage1, RoddyC, Snickersallan and hatzofff)
Well done CO, thank you.


TFTC dahumbug
Found September 3, 2020

Second weekend in a row the better half suggested a yak and bbq outing. We packed the car and headed north to enjoy the beautiful Somerset dam and pick up a few caches to boot.

I think I put in about 8kms of paddling in just over two hours.

Definitely felt it upon my return.

I’ll be back again soon to pick up some geo art caches.

Staying at Somerset and headed out to this one.

Once at GZ the cache was soon in hand.

Log signed and all returned as found.

TFTC dahumbug

Spent the weekend exploring the Lake with fellow members of The 6 Sith, enjoying a few laughs and filling the lake with perspiration. Started the day collecting the traditionals at the top of the lake then ridding the Lake of rebels through the Darth Art.

Plenty of wildlife to be seen including a couple of bunnies. With the bunnies idling around looking like they didn't have a care in the world, all I can say is the the foxes and eagles must be pretty well fed.

Thanks for maintaining this cache 'Bug'!!

To we who dwell in the Force, normal life is little more than pretense. Our only actions of significance are those we undertake in service to the dark side.
“To be a Sith is to taste freedom and to know victory.”
We were today The Sith and we indeed tasted the freedom of boating on the lake . At the end of a day where litres of sweat were lost we had claimed victory with the Dark Side conquered and a few traditionals as well !!! An enormous team effort and a few cows disturbed by the Force. A brilliant art and the trads were awesome too! Congratulations to Ardom on his 5000 find and 6th DT loop. Bestowing congrats on TeamARF for a 4000 target achieved ! What a day!!!

Group effort around the lake today - all logs signed as "The Sith". A few traditionals to get us underway. Quick find at the GZ. TFTC!

Out caching with a group of 6, plus one semi-muggle boat driver
With the Star Wars theme, 6 of us caching together today, and being Ardom’s 6th D/T loops we decided on the team name, The Sith!
The Lake was beautiful and quiet, I saw lots of turtles and turtle shells today - a ridiculous amount of inquisitive cows, and one cute little fox!
Another amazing adventure with an amazing team. Thanks for the caches and the effort that went into placing them

Finally come today has. Yes, hrrrm. Changed and evolved over the time plans have. Our name for the day the Sith was.. Yrsssss.. Found slowly caches were. Long and hot the day was. Hrmmm. Complete we are.

Enough Yoda! We truly had a fabulous day, the weather was perfect although very warm and humid. The dam ever so quiet thanks to the ban on ‘in water’ activities after the rains. We did get stopped by SEQ Water doing a check on all watercraft and thankfully we both passed being fully kitted out boats and four licensed drivers between the seven of us. I am thankful that we upgraded our motor last year as dang that spread is huge!!! Even though the second boat was much zipper than ours we still managed to hold our own and get the wind in our hair.

Huge thanks to my muggle husband who drove our boat and managed to get us in and out of some tricky spots. Lots of debris up the top end and we may have clunked on a couple of submerged trees. The turtles in the water were curious things almost as much as the cows who at one memorable point thundered past us and down the cow track to the skinny bit of the island about 2m from the front end of the boat where Mr JACS was having a catnap!

I was pleased to see the growing tick piles of caches done growing bigger and bigger, because I was done!!! So glad to be able to finally say this fabulous Geo-art is finished. Congratulations to both, Ardom who completed his 6th DT loop and 5000th Cache and Team ARF who achieved his 4000th Cache.

Mrs slow puncture and I had a plan today to turn Somerset dam into all smileys. We had gathered most of the caches here and mrs slow puncture only ended up needing I more and I needed 10. This was our fourth find today and the water was smooth as. A rabbit did run off as quick as when we got to gz. At gz it was in the last whole we looked in.. Thanks for taking us here and for placing this cache here for us to enjoy

This trip had many targets but things changed due to fires, lack of boat hire times on a Friday and so on. The end result was dahumbug and B@W spent two days on the water instead of one on the water and one on the Bluff which due to the heat the number of steps taken was probably just as well as despite having a boat we covered plenty of ground on foot not helped by some very low water levels and that the hire boat so slow.
As a result of the leisurely opening times we headed back into town to brighten the start to our caching day although it was not without issue.
We picked up the boat at Somerset Caravan Park and lets just say the speed to get us in the water matched the speed of the boat but we were grateful we could get a craft and it had a sunshade cover.
So with the late launch we changed our plans to two days on the water and decided to get these ones up north before engaging with the art work.
Saw some roos, rabbits, cattle and bird life on the way round.
This one is no longer an island with the low water levels and the rabbit numbers seem to have dropped probably due to the lack of food and an escape to the north.
The find took a little bit to spot. Maintenance check done for the CO and we completed the signing duties and re hid. TFTC
A favourite point for being one of the earlier water caches on the dam.

8558
Found whilst doing the Dark Side of the Cache Series

Thanks for the great Caches and adventure dahumbug

This Day in Music
22 Oct 1969
Led Zeppelin II was released on Atlantic Records in the UK. The Jimmy Page produced album which was recorded over six months between four European and three American tours, peaked at No.1 in both the UK and US, going on to sell over 12 million copies in the US alone, (and spending 138 weeks on the UK chart). The album is now recognised by writers and music critics as one of the greatest and most influential rock albums ever recorded.

Hired a boat to do some of the Dark Side of the cache series and decided to do a few of the traditional ones as well. TFTC dahumbug

Found

Out on the jetski with geowife Dora the Explorer and CDAH55. Overcaste but cooler day after hot weather earlier in the week. Reached gz and soon found cache

Found it but try thought shallow water lol TFTC

Heading to Somerset for a paddle this morning, then I'll be off to smell some roses in the afternoon and tomorrow. To cold to paddle real early, so I had time to round up some strays on the way.

9am was a good time to start the paddle. I had 3 to round up on the pond, and Kirkleagh was as good a place to launch as the other. The paddle from either boat ramp was almost the same distance to get to the caches I needed.

It was the perfect day for a paddle. The water was like glass as I set off. This was not far from my last find, but my next was further on, so I paddled along to it.

Lots of birds nesting in the trees on the lake.

I stopped at this one for my cuppa and muffin. It was very pleasant here. The only noise was the sounds of the birds until a herd of locals came trooping by on the track behind me. [^] The only rabbit I saw today was a dead one near the other cache in this island.

Sorry rabbit to disturb you

I had the kayak set up on the car yesterday, all ready to head to Somerset Dam on Friday, when a new batch of puzzle caches got published. After a late night of puzzle solving, I zoomed around Kilcoy this morning and got a few FTFs and then headed to Villeneuve to the launch area there. But it was a bit breezy for my liking, so I made my way back around to the day area at the caravan park and set off from there.

The weather was perfect and the water was glassy most of the time I was out on it. It truly does not get better than this! Plenty of birdlife around and not many humans at all... bliss! I searched lots of places here before finding the container, all safe and sound and dry. Thanks for the cache, dahumbug.

Our plans had changed today due to the weather forecast, we ended up out on the dam as we have only previously picked up one cache out here before, as we have always had the cache blockers aka our muggle teens with us tubing and seeing who can go the fastest on the ski. They were never going to give up that time to go and find a cache. Today the cache blockers weren't with us, neither one of us was brave enough to tell our muggle daughter where we were heading otherwise she would of packed up the tube and come with us and that would only block us again from grabbing the caches.

We came to the waters edges and then headed up for the walk. Wow rabbit holes everywhere, which proved to be dangerous for Mrs 4ando on the next cache that we find. Not only did we see the rabbit holes but we did get to see a rabbit go flying by as well.

Ok which is the best way to head over, a lot of long grass but low and behold a path appears out of nowhere and takes us pretty much to GZ. A bit of looking in all the nooks and crannies before long we discovered the fantastic plastic.

Tftc dahumbug

Out doing some caching today with Dora the Explorer!

This was our second cache for today. We walked to here after finding a nearby cache.

A pleasant paddle to here as we were with the wind. Not so easy going back.

Saw some rabbit warrens and the odd rabbit take off through the long grass.

This took a little while to find. There are so many places that the cache could be. Dora the Explorer! found this cache. I was almost on top of it looking in other areas.

All is good with this cache.

Find #1421

TFTC ***dahumbug***

Took a little while but found after a systematic search. Was fun.

We are nomads. Having left Perth WA in February 2014 we now live in our caravan and go wherever the will or caches take us.

catching up with El_Peregrinos for a few days so up to Toogoolawah we moved. Dratz so did the wet weather. Still the boys headed out onto Somerset Dam at 0630 for a morning of fun.

TFTC dahumbug

It was an early start to the morning with FelixII to grab the caches on Somerset Dam
The good thing was the rain held off so it wasnt a really wet morning.
Thanks for placing the caches. Somerset Dam is an old favourite place of ours.

We'd almost come to the conclusion the rabbits of Rabbit Island (even though we hadn't seen any) were the reason we weren't finding the cache. After circling around a few times it was eventually seen from a different angle and an empty spot 7 metres away that fitted the hint so nicely wasn't it at all. Very happy to finally get our hands on the log - this had been the furtherest cache to get to and a DNF was not in the plan. With our last cache on the dam found we paddled back to the day camp with a little cross breeze behind us. By now the boat ramp had a continual stream of boats launching. Glad we got here earlier! TFTC dahumbug.

Some family friends were heading up to Somerset Dam for a day of wake boarding and invited us along. This provided a perfect opportunity for me to have a paddle out on the dam while the rest of the family was otherwise entertained. A paddle out from the Somerset Park day use area and back looked a fairly daunting proposition but some further research revealed an opportunity to be dropped to start the paddle a lot closer to my first cache target and continue on a one-way paddle to meet up with the family at the other end, saving a considerable amount of paddling.

Arriving at the starting point, there were a lot more cars in the parking area than I had expected. While I unpacked S.S. Portokali (TB8N7QF) and the rest of my equipment, my wife and daughter were being entertained by another would-be mariner who was having all sorts of problems with his engine and had to end up paddling back to shore to rectify matters. No sooner had the keel of the kayak touched the water, than my wife and daughter sped off in the car in a flurry of dust. No long, tearful bon voyages here!

The weather at the start was perfect for paddling - not too hot and barely a breath of breeze to stir a ripple on the water. Despite the number of cars in the car park I only spotted a couple of other boats trolling in the distance, and only the odd pelican and other water fowl to keep me company. Landing on the island, I could see my target area and walked on up. As I got closer my trepidation was building. I was sure every snake within the Somerset Region was lurking in the pile of logs waiting to strike. Shorts and crocs certainly weren't going to protect me from certain death I started at the spot my GPS was pointing at and tentatively poked around. No hissing was evident, nor any sign of a cache. Moving round and round the pile, checking place after place, and repeating the process, I was building up quite a sweat in the growing heat of the day. I kept coming back to the same spot but no luck. Eventually I climbed to that same spot from a different angle and spotted something that had been covered by foliage on previous inspections. Finally I was able to put myself out of the misery of my own making. Time to keep moving, with plenty more paddling still to do. TFTC

After finding the other cache on the island we paddled on closer to this one. This was our fourth cache find today. Didn't see any rabbits around here tho'.
Thanks to the good hint and good coords this was a quick find. Cache and contents are in great condition.
Thanks dahumbug for adding more fun to our day.

Found Ok

23/07/2016, 8:46 AM Find #941

After finding Somer Island, I headed back here. Even though the wind was now behind me, I felt uncomfortable and unco in the yak so I was glad it was only a short hop.

When I landed, there was a cow on the beach regarding me with her big eyes. I'm not sure how the cows get onto the island. I'm guessing the water level sometimes drops enough to walk across? I stowed the yak behind a tree stump so it was less likely the cow would step on it but she took off as soon as I got out anyway.

On the way to the cache, I stopped a couple of times to admire the view. It was a beautiful morning with unseasonably warm weather.

The cache was located quickly and I signed the log. I also took the TB. Now, onto the next one.

TFTC

A lovely day for the pirate boat's maiden voyage and what a long paddle it was. A whopping 14.1 kliks on this trip and it was close to sunset by the time we arrived back at the put in. Maybe next time Ruzzelz doesn't get to choose the launch spot

I had an agenda on this outing as you now know, and hiding my cache was actually the last port of call It will be interesting to see just how difficult it is to retrieve when the water level rises.

Back to the boats after a short break with Stella at the nearby cache and Ruzzelz suggested we, er, float our boats to the next cache I tried, I really did, and maybe it was the warm frothy beer we downed at that cache but I was soon sitting in the lake in a fit of giggles. Seems it was safer to hop back into the Ginger Ninja and paddle to this cache.

Another easy find and still no sign of those fuzzy wuzzy bunnies! I do recall a conversation about cows and Ruzzelz assures me they can swim.

TFTC dahumbug! Awesome afternoon out on the lake A FAVE point for you.

Well this was a challenging cruising to this one from the Eastern launch point but I do like making caches entertaining and exploring parts of the world where other cachers may not have ventured. With the rainy cloudy weather clearing we set off a tad late for this journey and made it back to the launch point a tad late in the afternoon. All told about 14. 1 km round trip and a worthy maiden voyage for the Orange Pirate vessel captained by my accomplice for the afternoon the sea wench Ms Maddy.

After downing a barrel of rum to celebrate making landfall at the other nearby cache it was time to raid this cache and remove any supplies.

I suspect Ms Maddy may not be speaking to me when she realises the alternate route was significantly less distance.

Log to follow. Tired... Zzzzz.

Dropped off the Kate's Smiley geocoin to continue its trek around the world.

MM

Nice view.

Out for a few hours on the water at Somerset with the Geowife IolantheK
Put in at the day use area at Lake Somerset Holiday Park (Parking Co-ords P1)
Paddled north for about 3km before the over land (island) to "A Warren Full of Kits" and "Rabbit Island"
Random thought..I'm always amazed at how dry an area can be when there is water only meters away!
IolantheK showed me where Brother Colin and her gained access originally to the island by swimming, it's almost a wade at the moment
Nice easy finds both caches are dry and in good condition [^]
TFTC dahumbug

Another easy find today, and think we can walk to the next on as the lake is quite low at the moment. Haven't seen any rabbits yet! TFTC

3rd for the day Lovely day for caching and nice island Stopping for a picnic after finding next one TFTC

Out on the lake this morning with our captain Trumanato and my geobuddies, stortigirls and Nurseyjulie. Our captiain set us ashore and we made our way to GZ, where we made a quick find. We added our names to the log, rehid the cache, then headed to the next one. TFTC

A day on the lake with SelvaGirls, Stortigirls and our captain Trumanato. We alighted from our craft and made way over to the GZ. TFTC dahumbug

A great day spent on the water today with Selva Girls, Nursey Julie and Trumanato in his very impressive boat The goal for today was a particular cache, but of course why not make use of the opportunity to clear the area of caches the other CO's had so kindly placed and maintained? Beautiful scenery and good company made for an enjoyable morning of finds . Tftc dahumbug

Great spot and saw a rabbit..

Found with barbbowman and fasted59 having a family day on the dams.

After clearing up Wivenhoe we were so far ahead of schedule we decided to head to Somerset and clear up this dam.

This was the number 3. After dodging all the weekend warriors that have no idea of the rules of the water, we soon closed in on GZ and docked the boat.

A short time later we were soon at the GZ. A quick find, log signed, cache replaced.

TFTH

more lizard island
they are everywhere
water camera not quick enough for pics of them

bubba will be most pleased to read cache description ... we thought they were snake holes [:o)]

took domino
left green ribbon

Found with my mum mnance101 and my sister pinkypie05. TFTC!

While camping at the Lake, my daughter pinkypie05, my son mazza151 and myself decided to do some of the lake caches in our blow up boat. We followed the cow trail most of the way to this one. Three cows kept staring at us! It was nice to give our arms a rest. TFTC! Now to get the next one and head back to camp. Grabbed TB.

While camping being at Somerset Lake, my mum mnance101, my brother mazza151 and myself decided to do this cache. TFTC!

Not real keen walking around in the long grass in thongs! Easy find. Thanks

Tftc. Picked up track able.

Logged TB as retrieved by mistake

With only a handful of empty spots remaining on my DT grid, a plan was set in place to find some of the rare DT combos residing in this Dam. Slow Puncture was available for a trip, and when I found I could bring the boat rather than paddle, things were looking up! After grabbing the first two, we headed over to this one. No rabbits today, but plenty of evidence they were here... Little poop and burrows everywhere. Quick find exactly as advertised, thanks Dahumbug for placing this one you inspired us to return the favour!

1189

Saturday. Slow Puncture ventured out with Cap'n Kieran to retrive a few caches around the Somerset area.

Hey hey, it's Humbug! This one wasn't here last time SP were on the dam, so it was a treat to have a new one to find. We parked the water-jalopy and trudged through the longish grass. We soon realised that hidden rabbit holes presented a hazard, so eyes down as we headed towards GZ.

After spying a few places on the way where we thought it may have been, we then saw something out of place, and sure enough, the container was there. Yahoo!

On our way to the cache, we came across a REALLY LARGE rabbit skull, picture attached. Kieran thought it may be a cow, but it's not called Cow Island is it? There ain't no cows hiding down those holes!

This was the 1st of 4 caches we found on this trip.

Thanks [Blue]dahumbug[/Blue], for showing us this excellent place.

Dropped off TBs "Blue Gecko" and the imaginatively named "Discover Me Tag"

Out and about with Brother Colin for a road trip to Mount Mee

BC is a great fan of NOT taking the easy way to a cache, and when we were planning our outing today he wanted to add this to the list, and said we'd better attempt to swim to it What?!?!? We are going to Mount Mee, and that's a long way from there. And besides it's not exactly warm today, and how far do I have to swim??? Geez Well, I conceded, we MIGHT attempt it if we have time!

Fast forward to 4.30pm, and we slowly made our way along the track past the airport to the fence, where we kitted up and took the last kilometre on foot at a fair speed, as we were pretty keen on not running out of daylight! At the water's edge I realised it was only about 100 metres across to the island so off we went Easily done, then a short walk across to GZ where we made a quick find. Very glad about that [^] We watched the sun set, then made our way back. Quite an adventure! TFTC, dahumbug. A favourite point from me.

This entry was edited by IolantheK on Wednesday, 20 May 2015 at 07:02:22 UTC.

Out and about today with IolantheK heading to Mt Mee region.
This one was on our wish list if we had time.
So we made our way out here by car. We drove around the airport and out along the track. A short hike from the locked gate, then a really short swim.
A quick find once we got to the island.
And then we watched the sun set. Now to reverse the whole procedure back to the car.
Thanks for the cache.

Tftc sent Geohubby in for this one. Grass and prickles. All I could think of was snakes.

Gotcha !!! Paddled the Kayaks about 15Km today with my sister and Poodleman Muggle in search of a few specially D/T rated caches I need to complete my grid. Picked up a few others on the way. TFTC Visited Travellers and a fav. point from me.

Sometimes when I suggest little adventures for scattsmadhouse I really should think the plan through, do some measurements, remember how lazy I am etc. But why start now? Naturally when I suggested this trip Matt was eager to go. Within days he had booked a 2 seater yak and we had a plan of attack. Text message read " if we do more than 10km we did something wrong". Hmmm this should have been where I got worried. The day arrived and the yak was collected , time to hit the road. Before long we discovered our launch point didn't have a gate to allow us near the water so we backtracked down the road ( adding to the 10km paddling plan) . Before long we had the gear set up and we were on the water.
The water was lovely, Eagles flying over , little flocks of ducklings swimming along . Omg the ducklings ! " if that eagle attacks the ducks you're gonna need to rescue them Matt !". Smiles and laughs at me .
It's ok the ducks were fine.
We had plenty of time to get out the Sony action cam and film the local wildlife. So amazing to see the fish jumping out of the water around us.
This cache was #3 of our journey so once we were on land we looked for the cache, made the grab and found the nearest shady spot to sit and chill.
We didn't see any rabbits whilst here which was a shame. Being from South of the boarder I am used to seeing the little critters around occasionally .
A lovely spot and a great day out. Thanks humbug

After a day out kayaking on Wivenhoe yesterday, I hadn't got around to taking the kayak off the roof racks. So my solution to this, was to go kayaking on Somerset today. Truth be told, I was pretty keen to pick up a certain rare D/T combination found nearby to fill one of the two remaining blank spots on my grid.

It was hot, but oh-so-pleasant to be on the water again today. It was even better when I paddled past the 6 knot markers and the chance of getting run over by a ski boat was much reduced.

I decided to do the long paddle and grab this cache first and then return with shorter paddles between caches on the way back. The best part of the day was the paddle next to Rabbit Island. The wildlife was amazing - birds in their nests in the trees, fish in the water, turtles jumping off the rocks into the water and even snakes having a swim! The only thing i didn't see today on Rabbit Island was a rabbit.

A short walk from my landing place and the cache was found exactly as described - though I was super wary as this looked like a great place for a snake to warm itself.

Thanks Humbug - the paddle along Rabbit Island was a highlight today and worthy of a crooked favourite point.

Pete

#2,131

This log is continued from the cache Somer Island ... http://coord.info/GLFH13FF

The Captain and I planned it so we could practically float the whole way over to Rabbit Island, using the wind instead of paddling. It worked and before too long we were there. So. Many. Bunnies. I know that they are a pest but boy are they cute. We spent most the time of the walk to GZ following a black rabbit.

I managed to step on prickles twice, once it pierced my thong and went into my foot, but eventually we were at GZ. We somehow missed it on the first round but got it as we circled again. Thanks for the cache Dahumbug, even though the paddle was hard I still had a great day out with the Captain.

Oh my, I will be remembering the adventure for this geocache for a long time.

Net88 was super keen to visit Somerset Dam and grab the two geocaches there. I'd already done them, but always happy for an excuse to go for a leisurely paddle. Then, a short time before we headed off, this cheeky new icon appeared on the map. Joy! Something extra in it for me!

A few weeks back we had paddled 22 kilometres on Wivenhoe Dam in perfect, calm, sunny conditions. Today could not have been more opposite. There was a westerly wind blowing about a constant 20 knots, gusting to about 30, occaisionally 40 plus (I had guessed a little lower, but the Bureau of Meterology keep a better record). The drive out in itself was a challenge with the canoe threatening to catch the wind and blow us all across the road, but we safely arrived at Kirkleigh, threw the Roo in the water and headed off. This was going to be a difficult paddle - but we ain't no quitters!

August truly lived up to it's name as we paddled along. We hugged the western coastline, staying in the wind shadow of any small landmass. This worked pretty well. When we had to cross an inlet however, it was a darn lot of effort to keep the boat steered on somewhere near the right course. When we had finally grew tired and somewhat worried that we might land ourselves in a predicament, we pulled up on shore (coincidentally, not far from the first geocache). We had a bite to eat here before heading further north. I grabbed a few heavy logs to throw in the canoe as ballast to push it more into the water and out of the wind. For the record, this did help out quite a lot.

The wind on this leg picked up somewhat and by the time we arrived at Somer Island we had battled some hectic wind, white caps on waves and my arms were screaming from paddling hard, often almost sideways to keep us on course. From here, it was directly east to Rabbit Island. Luckily, it was also directly downwind. Getting there would be easy at least.

We pushed off and held on. For this 700m leg, we hardly paddled. The wind whipped us along at 6+ kilometres per hour and I merely steered a little. The waves were as high as the sides of the canoe and helped nudge us along. At least it gave our arms a break! With all that speed we careered into the island, some 400m from the geocache. Canoe be damned, we are walking. I heaved the canoe 100% out of the water and we headed off.

Obviously rabbits are a colossal issue in Australia. This island exemplifies that. The area has been well and truly decimated! Nothing green is left and there are holes all around the place and except for a few birds, no other critters. While I wished I had packed the air rifle or a powerful slingshot, I hoped these rabbits might overpopulate and die out before the water recedes again. There is certainly hundreds of them here. We spotted even black ones among them all bounding around us.

The walk was long, windy and somewhat cold, but once at GZ and a few moments looking around, the geocache was located. All in good condition here and I was forced to sign the logbook behind a log to save everything being blown away. It was rehidden and we wandered back to the canoe. Another bite to eat and we pushed off to paddle home. This was going to hurt. Paddling direct into the wind was not all bad, at least the canoe tends to tack directly windward quite nicely. We did have waves breaking into the boat though, and one large gust actually made us lose ground, even while paddling.

Back around the island and some more painful tacking across the wind but for the most part, the return journey was a small amount less taxing. Our tired arms were thankful. I did hop out and just walk the canoe at one point to save our arms for the last stretch across open water where we dumped the ballast and happily landed back near the car. Done and dusted. Good to have another hidden on this dam and a true challenge for us to get here today. TFTC dahumbug

Our son dropped by at a loose end, so decided to go for a paddle. Conditions on the lake were perfect with very little wind. We eventually arrived at the island and were amazed at the number and size of rabbits popping up everywhere. Certainly couldn't believe the damage the rabbits are doing to the island, burrowing under stumps or tree roots and eating everything in sight, including the leaves on the lantana bushes. The cache was easily found in a likely spot. Thank you for the *FTF* dahumbug

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