Void & Empty ~ A-Zoo Series Little River, Victoria, Australia
By Na'wal on 16-Oct-14. Waypoint GC5EYKX

Zoo has run out of funding. Sorry that the zoo is now permanently closed ??

TFTC Arachnid and wet log Inverted the container to drain and prevent further water ingress TNLN

Found it with jez

44 gallons (with Jono)

Tftc log container full of water. Log soaked couldnt sign it.

Found but full of water. Drained it out but couldn’t SL. TFTC

Found during a bit of a bushwalk through the area.
TFTC

As we are back in the area for a little while, we decided to pick up some more of the Zoo series while out hunting with ilook4geo. This was an easy find and both names were placed on the log sheet. As the area is quite clear of vegetation in some parts, we could head across country in a fairly direct route between caches. There were no animals to be seen and not many birds either on this day of blustery and cold winds. After doing the duties to keep things in order we continued the hunt in this southern part of the zoo.
This one was swimming in water, which we emptied out as best as we could. The log was wet, but could still be written on OK.
Thanks, Na'wal for creating this series.

Just doing a few of the Zoo series today, with goingplaces2. The walking was easy going and we didn't stick to the tracks. Found each of the caches we were looking for, added our names to each log, then moved on. TFTC.

this was another one where we could short-cut a corner for a search (well, a triangular short-cut if you know what I mean ) so we took it. Once at GZ, the hiding place was obvious and we were soon signing the log at 13:10 wondering what the fake plant was all about

TNLNSL, although our BYO pen geocoin had a visit to mark the occasion. Thanks Na'wal.

Another corner cutting shortcut to find a cache and catch the group. A quick find and log and we were off again.
thanks Na'wal

Tftc. Found with Ashton 96.

tftc

I headed to the You Yangs for a day of walking, mountain biking and caching. I decided it was time to visit the Na'wal Zoo in the afternoon and I had unrivalled access to the exhibits all on my own.

I didn't choose the best approach to this one and ended up tripping over quite a few branches as I walked through. The cache here was found easily though it has seen better days. Able to sign the log but this one might need some TLC. TFTC

Out and about in the You Yangs today , we had intending doing the "Great Circuit Drive "series but the road was closed , so instead did the Puzzle Time and the Zoo series . Most were quick finds while others led us round in circles until finally found

TFTC

Last find for the day. Will have to return to do the final section of the zoo another time. Again had to make my mark on this log without a pen but you can still see where I made an effort. Tftc!

Caching with thomo31 finishing off the zoo series. Found TFTC

Found with teamashy. Log and container are wet. Added fresh paper in zip log bag till CO can check it out. TFTC

Font this cache but its full of water .

The last time we were in the area was when we were Hunting For The Na'wal, a caching experience we really enjoyed. So when we saw the Zoo Series, they went onto our "to do"list very quickly. We went to the Zoo today, our second last day before returning home tomorrow night.

We saw an object from a distance as we approached GZ and closer inspection revealed the cache. Unfortunately there was water inside the container and the log was damp, although still signable.

Thanks Na'wal for this cache and the series,

Random cache this one tftc

Out with au.fait & xambo4u, we spent the day visiting the unusual animals in this open plan zoo. A great day had by all.
We enjoyed the variety of animals and caches, which had us searching among the trees in sunshine and rain. This area was empty, but we gained a smile anyway. Thanks Na’wal

A wonderful day out with the lovely echidna44 and xambo4u to visit this zoo We met up.early with blue skies and sunshine although this didn’t last all day as several showers dampened us but not our spirits as we wandered from one end of this imaginary zoo to the other. Saw lots of tiny green hood orchids valiantly flowering amongst the dry leaf litter as we headed into the void here TFTC Na’wal

Out and about with Echidna44 and au.fait for the day. The weather was forecasted as doubtful but that was not going to stop us. As our progress the weather was favourable. Really enjoyed our nice easy walk through this new to us area. We wandered around a big due to tree coverage but soon had it in hand. Glad to see some greenery. Signed off and ready for our next animal discovery. We are enjoying you all the work you have put into this series. Thanks for it all Na'wal and another great day out girls.

GZ spotted from a ways off, though slightly incongruent with the container.

Container is damaged, very leaky, couple of cm of water in the bottom, log damp but still usable, maybe time for a new container.

TNLN TFTC

Another easy find after a nice walk in the beautiful Youies. Thanks for the hide

1953 fltf new zippy bag

Travelled from Bendigo today to hopefully complete the Zoo series. Nice winter day for family Sunday - Funday. What better way to spend a day out Geocaching. Log book wet - found and signed (just)

Some unusually warm weather for late May today so we decided to head out not too far from home and see about finishing the Zoo series.

While this enclosure was indeed vacant, on our way to GZ from the path we disturbed an couple of wallabies and saw them bounding away. Not the only wildlife we encountered today but certainly the best!

Thanks Na'wal

jandaw's 602nd find

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13:07, 31 march 2018, #562, out with Ali and riddleywalker doing the area. Nice quick find and lots of spiders webs everywhere TFTC.

Making good time on all these cases

I had wanted to tackle the Zoo series in this part of the You Yangs for a while primarily because I thought it would be a great excuse for a very long walk whilst trying for twenty five caches in a day. I knew there were a couple of tree climbs required and not being much of one for them I thought I'd add a couple of extra caches not in the series as backups. The fact that both those caches counted towards challenges I was working towards didn't hurt
All of the series bar two which required tree climbs and one furthest from the main set of caches were found. I really enjoyed the finding as I got the sense I was in the bush without the associated difficulties of finding bush-based caches in thick scrub and hilly terrain. Now don't get me wrong, there's a place for those types of caches but if you're aiming for twenty five finds in a day you're unlikely to achieve the goal with those types of cache.
Highlights of the day included: 14km walked, 10 months of unlove snaffled (don't ask me why the Nocturnal multi hadn't been found for so long) and a koala seen up close as I walked back to the car after a long afternoon of caching.
Thanks for the series, Na'wal. A great use of (what I think) are toys which have been outgrown by your kids. A favourite point for the series will be added to the final mystery and I'll try and post a photo of the koala on that page as well.

its long walk and lucky perfect day and its heaps mosquites....with whitepaws9

Lovely sunny day for a long walk in the bush with Laker63.
Thanks Na'wal

Warm sunny afternoon. Cheers. TFTC

Yep

Out today to finish off the zoo, been too long awaiting a time to get there... the winds today were peaking at 109kpm, the trees were swaying and bending... with runners on it was off to gather the caches.
the old GPS had a lot of trouble with gz finding today kept jumping all over the place... had to resort to pick a point and circle around until caches were spotted.
thanks to Na'wal for this series
TNLNSL

TFTC

AutumnTree and I found most of this series during the Easter school holidays last year - so it was well past time to finish the series off! Gathered up the pleasant GeoKids and headed out through the fog around home to a beautiful sunny day here - perfect for wandering through this part of the You Yangs!

Yep - always at least one enclosure with no animal in it at the zoo. The eldest GeoKid was the proud locator of this one, although she wasn't quite prepared to retrieve the cache.

Log signed and all replaced as found.

TFTC!

Out today with MaggieDot and 3 geokids today for some school holiday fun and to (finally) finish off this series. The day started off foggy over near our homes but here it was a clear sunny day, just right to wander through the You Yangs.
The biggest geokid sussed out the location for this cache straight away as we approached the right spot.
Thanks for this series Na’wal.

Found it

Hubby, 3 boys and 1 geo dog went out on an adventure. Some were dragged, 1 wouldn't stay home, no way no how. The aim was to get out in the sun, find some caches and get away from computer games. Success on all 3 counts! Quick and easy finds on this summer day.

Another find by the McPhail family... TFTC

Last one for the day and no animals in sight. Even in empty spaces there is always something to see. Thanks Na'wal

great series... just not good to do with 2 kids under 3

Found on a day of walking, driving and caching around the western You Yangs and the Brisbane Ranges.

After taking park in the inaugural You Yangs parkrun this morning I was feeling quite energized and motivated by the stunning spring morning sunshine. So I made my way out to the western section and decided to walk/run to a couple of caches.
Heading into the middle of the 'woodlands' I again struggled with my GPSr here. But I aimed for a logical area and was pleased to find GZ was not void or empty.
Thanks, Na'wal.

Tftc

Lovely bush walk to this cache in fantastic series tftc.

Found this one.. But lost our pen.. So we couldn't sign off.

30 July 2016
Nice hide. The clue helped a lot tftc

Good find

Quick find

Plant has me thinking

Found it

Weather is just holding up. Hopefully we can finish the series today before the bad weather sets in! Tftc it is a nice secluded spot.

??

Found just as the rain starts

Left swap

Found it

TFTC

On a beautiful day Bogonghazy, the Geodogs and I planned lots of walking. So we went to the 'zoo' at the You Yangs and completed the series. Loved this series and the beautiful surroundings. Many thanks

Found it!

Headed out with Leetalicious and geodogs Tessie and Worf for a great Sunday's caching. Knowing from experience that Na'wal's caches are always good fun, we knew we were in for a good day, and so it proved.
This container had a couple of big huntsman on guard duty, but they were happy to let us sign the log and be on our way.
Thanks again Na'wal

Very easy to find because there was something that just was not natural in a forest but was still a great cache!!

A quick find.... While people on horses passed by!

After grabbing a ftf acros the road and up a bit, I decided to knock a few more zoo caches off the list. After previously finding other ones mainly by sticking to the paths, I strove to strike out in confidence and just walk straight in the direction of the cache. Stange thing in the middle of nowhere, who put all these rusty things in the You Yangs? Tftc.

#260

While travelling with Mutex I’ve found a lot of caches all over Australia. You know, I like the discovering, especially in nature, but am not that much intopcs and internet ..and logging. So we spend a whole day together to indicate all the caches we found together out of his list. Hope you don't mind the standard text aslazy me has to log quitea few now. HopefullyI'm gonnawork on that

Thanks!

[url=http://www.geopt.org/link.php?gctools=4]Logged by Geopt Geocaching Tools[/url]

While spending 16 months abroad, travelling through all states of Australia and also having a two months break in Thailand I did a lot of geocaching.
After many, many caches accompanied by the strong will not to write any standard logs, I ended up with more than 700 finds, all waiting for an official log. After intense considerations and carefully weighing my options, you now receive this special limited edition numbered log.

---

This is my unique non-standard log #256
You Yangs National Park Cache #73/77

Being in Melbourne all the time gets a little boring after a while. So DieRooneys, Mutex, Pfote and I decided that we should leave Melbourne for the weekend. We had a look at the geocaching map and the You Yangs National Park seemed just perfect. Heaps of geocaches with good ratings, camping spot nearby and it wasn't too far away from Melbourne

We started on Saturday with the northern part of the zoo series and did roughly three quarters. We found all 19 caches we were looking for this day and they were amazing!
Really cute ones, cool ideas, everyone was different. I haven’t had so much fun geocaching in a very long time! Thanks Na’wal for your creative zoo caches!

And after having a good night’s rest in Little River we were fit for another day. We did the whole You Yangs Circle Drive today and found all of the caches. And there was even some time left for an earthcache and two traditionals afterwards which makes a total of 32 caches for me today (I already found YYCD #3 on another day). Thanks a lot ThePacman for crafting so many perfectly camouflaged caches!
We let the evening end with an awesome burger dinner buffet. Since it was already dark we were wearing head torches But I think that’s how it should be on a good camping trip

DieRooneys and Pfote went to bed earlier than Mutex and me. We decided that there was still some time for a little mystery solving battle. We were puzzling till 3 am and managed to solve seventeen of the ‘It’s puzzle time’ mysteries. Today, on Monday we did the outdoor finding part
Even though our last day was broiling hot (maybe the hottest day I experienced so far) we found all mysteries we solved the night before, the rest of the zoo series and two traditionals on the way, 26 caches in total.
Thanks TR! for so many different mysteries. We had a lot of fun solving them!

It was an incredible weekend thanks to all owners and my amazing companionship!
But the highlight was that we’ve seen a wild Koala relaxing in a tree after finding our last cache for the day

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Thanks a lot for taking care of this cache, showing me this place and turning my travels into an adventure!

Greetings from Germany.
Keep on caching!
Theatralis ?

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That’s roughly the route I travelled:
Germany – Sydney – Cairns – Cape Tribulation – Biloela – Armidale – Sydney – Canberra – Melbourne – You Yangs National Park – Tasmania – Melbourne – Boinka – Adelaide – Alice Springs – Darwin – Adelaide – Melbourne – Perth – Rottnest Island – Denmark – Perth – Melbourne – Thailand – Brisbane – Sydney – Adelaide – Boinka – Melbourne – Germany

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And finally some statistics:
Days abroad: 188/487
Days geocaching: 80
Geocaches abroad: 256
Geocache of the day: 22/26

Australia Trip
Day 16 of 49
On Cache tour with Theatralis, mutex and Pfote.

German Log:
Nachdem wir das Fragezeichen erledigt hatten, ging es nochmal in den Nationalpark, wo wir die restlichen Zoo Caches erledigten. Als wir dort ankamen machte ich meine erste Begegnung mit einem wildlebenden Koalabär. Wie auch der erste Teil, war dieser einfach großartig. Diese Tour gehörte zu den besten Erlebnissen, die ich in Australien gemacht habe. Dies war auch der heißeste Tag, den ich in Australien erlebt habe. In zwei Stunden hatten wir den Rest der Runde erledigt und fuhren anschließend zurück nach Melbourne. Vielen Dank an Na'wal für diese kreative serie.

English Log: (translated with Google Translater)
After we had settled the question mark , it was again in the National Park , where we did the rest of the zoo caches . When we got there I made my first encounter with a wild koala . Like the first part , this was just great . This tour was one of the best experiences that I've done in Australia . This was also the hottest day I have experienced in Australia . In two hours we will do the rest of the round and then drove back to Melbourne . Thanks to Na'wal for this creative series .

TFTC
The last Rooney
Greetings from Munich, Germany!

At the moment Pfote and me are on a work and travel backpacking trip through the world. After I've spent a full year in Australia Pfote joined me for my second year down here. We will definitely try to collect a lot of boxes and all the special things in every state all around and through the middle. 

During this after weekend caching trip Pfote, Die Roonies, Theatralis and I made a trip to Geelong to cache ourselves through the You Yangs Park and the surrounding.
After we did around three quarters of the zoo series the first day and the YYCD yesterday we made a little mystery marathon the last night and solved seventeen of the 'It's Puzzle Time' series and went for the outdoor part today.
Some traditionals on the way to the series, and the leftovers of the zoo series afterwards made quite a long trip in this ridiculous heat of the day. But nevertheless we found all of the boxes without any problems and left the area right to the beach with the happy smile of the successful cachers.

TFTC and greetings from Germany.

--- This log is trackable! ---
-- Feel free to discover --
-- Please mention, in which cache you've seen this code: --
-- QR3BZF --

--- Dieser Logeintrag ist trackbar ---
-- und darf discovert werden! --
-- Bitte erwähne, in welchem Cache du diesen Code gesehen hast: --
-- QR3BZF --

Enjoyed the scamper through the bush thtc

This one was laying out in the open with the camo overturned. We put it back into place as best we could. It's always hard when your favourite zoo animal exhibit it closed, but we all need a break from time to time. TFTC

I’ve been wanting to have a go at this series for a while on my previous visits to the You Yangs but ran out of time. Today I had the day to myself to go caching so I decided to make the drive back out once again. I’m glad this was where I picked to come because the variety of the hides and the creativity gone into them was first rate. I thoroughly enjoyed zig zagging across this part of the You Yangs marvelling at the time that was spent putting it together and having a chuckle on more than one occasion. I managed to successfully find every cache in the series, thanks very much Na’Wal for all your efforts, fantastic!

This one fooled us! Great hide

Walking up to this I made an off the cuff comment there it is. Mrs kalianda09 said ha I doubt it. After walking around Mrs kalianda09 finally checked what I said. Sure enough there it was. Now off to the final for us.

Tftc log is slightly wet but can still sign

Found at start of a full day of caching at the You Yangs.
Hoping for a big haul of caches, from the day.
Evening hike after refuelling with bacon, egg and sausage.
TFTC

Out with poptoppete on a 10hr mission of hikes with bikes to try to get 50+ cache today. Will see how we go. Looking forward to cooking our bacon and eggs at half time. Tftc

The second find for us in this series. Very peaceful in here.

Book is a little damp but useable. Tftc

A nice early start to this fresh June sunday and we're checking out the Zoo. A well constructed cache and a clever hide. This one was a bit of surprise as I said on approach 'there it is' but my GPSr was telling me something else, turns out I was right. I really like this part of the world, thanks Na'wal for giving me a reason to revisit.

This part of the park did seem to be emptier than other parts. As we approached we a little short of GZ when we thought we should check that out. It did turn out to be the cache. Probably the clouds and the tree cover were giving us a different reading. The container has water in it, so we cleaned it out and the log was still nice and dry.
Thanks to Na'wal for placing the cache and bringing me here.

Looking at this one, I was thinking "now how the heck do I get that out"
Lucky I had geo boyfriend with me coz man I felt silly lol. TFTC

Found on our caching day in the You Yangs. TFTC

Found on a lovely day with caching humour and fun with The Empire and TMT .
Can see that much effort was put into this series .
TFTC Na'wal

Found by The Empire @ 12:50pm with tackle_head and TMT
Find number 21 of 29 in and around the You Yangs today. Thanks for the cache Na'wal.
- M

that stood out. why was there a plant in there

Found on another caching adventure with Trailrunning, A public Holiday meant time off work and more Hours to Cache, we headed to the You Yangs and North Geelong, We found some novel hides at the Zoo and a couple of Challenging Hill climbs as well as a few easier caches around the Geelong Area. Thanks Na'wal for the cache.

Rebel Acts and I had the chance to get away and cache in Geelong North and surrounding areas. Great day for caching with 60 caches collected. Thanks for the enjoyment.

With the temperature in the mid 30’s Slink's idea of a good time was to do some more caches over this way. I was seriously doubting my sanity whilst we strolled and bush bashed our way for about 4.5 Hrs including taking some time for lunch. TFTC TNLN SL

Today we all decided to take on the open range zoo , The temperature in the mid 30’s did not prevent us for our stroll - bush bash we completed what we set out to doin about 4.5 Hrs including lunch, many thanks to Na'wal for the effort and placement of this cache. TNLN SL

Great walk through changing terrain. TFTC.

Strolled over to this next enclosure to find there was no exhibit here, so spent time admiring the fernery and graffiti-ing some paper in a jar instead.

Thanks Na'wal for the cache!
Log signed & replaced. TFTC & smiley face
#1185

Pleasant walk across the scrub to a not so empty void, raining all the way.
I let the object out for some fresh air and moisture

Found by Mary & David at 1740. This cache turned out to be a little slower to locate with all the new growth around the immediate area. However, after a few minutes spent in a careful and systematic grid search, the container was found. Our thanks to Na'wal.

Nice find

Having discovered that the supposed paths shown on our map were more trouble, we set out cross country style for this one, the struggle with our pram eventually becoming too much. We soon had a two year old on dad's shoulders, the pram folded up under mum's arm and a sulky four year old dragging behind insisting she should be sitting in that pram. After swapping arms multiple times, mum was soon complaining that these things really ought to come with back-pack straps (a quick e-bay search at home later revealed that they do - hmmm, might be making a trip to Melbourne next week).
The kids having very helpfully run ahead, had made the find and were waiting with the log ready for us to sign. TFTC, Na'wal!

[:(!] Located with geograndson and his geodog.

I like it

Another one of the list

TNLNSL TFTC/TFTH/TFBUH Na'wal [^]

18 January 2015 11:31:00

Another spot that was a little differ.

At some stage it loks like there has been more human activity round here.

The cache was a fairly quick find.

TFTC