Point Of Some Regard Berowra Creek, New South Wales, Australia
By Tyreless on 13-Dec-14. Waypoint GC5HR8G

For some reason, I had thought this trail was a good cycling track; probably because other cachers who have logged a find here had come by bicycle, too. But that was quite some time ago (three years?), and in the intervening months and years things may have changed. Also, I'm a self-confessed wuss when it comes to technical trail riding. I'm sure there are plenty of MTB riders who would cycle a trail like this before breakfast and not even break a sweat. I'm not one of them -- I'm more likely to break a collar bone!

I should also qualify the statement above about the condition of the trail a bit more: the trail is definitely fine for walking, with a few eroded parts and some branches across the track in places. The flat bits were actually generally easy to ride. It was the ascents and descents that were quite eroded in places, quite possibly from the recent rains causing lots of run-off.

Well, I was committed to heading out to Coba Point. It was already afternoon when I started on the trail, so I wasn't going to opt to walk. Besides, not having been along the entire trail the first technical section I encountered could have been the only one. Nothing like a bit of adventure to find out.

And an adventure it was, that's for sure: it was a serious challenge for me to keep an eye on the placement of the front wheel, duck overhanging branches, keep my balance, look out for huge spiders in their webs across the trail, avoid fallen branches and just put up with the sting of every spiky shrub that whipped my legs as I rode past. Some parts required my carrying or pushing the bike -- now I understand why Aussies refer to a bicycle as a "push-bike"; I'm more used to pedaling a bike! There were occasional curses I uttered, best not repeated on a family-orientated site; but boy was it fun and exhilarating.

The kilometres to my destination ticked down fairly quickly, and soon I was at the point where I was to abandon the bike and finish the last few hundred metres on foot. I found a spot to hide the bike behind some grass trees and made my way down the grassy slope and towards the rocks and ledges near GZ.

I had seen the last cacher had reported the only DNF here, but that cacher hasn't found any caches to date. Thus, I didn't make too much of this and was looking forward to a quick and easy find. Alas, after about 45 minutes I declared defeat. I sat on a rock and enjoyed a snack and some water, and then headed back to the bike.

Soon I was running the gauntlet again, dodging huge spiders (I felt very guilty when I didn't manage to avoid them and ruined their webs ... so much hard work they had done to try and catch me! Again there were portages on mostly the uphill sections that I had ridden down (some, I had ridden, some I had carried the bike), but the going was fairly good. I even opted to stop and visit the historic trig beacon which was definitely worth the short detour.

And so my odyssey came to an end when I hit the main fire trail again and had a very smooth and rapid ride back to where my car was parked on Bloodwood Road.

So, no yellow smiley for me on this one. I'm not saying the cache isn't there; just that I didn't find it. I have messaged the CO to see whether I might have been looking in the wrong spot. And I'll try get some more intel from a previous finder or two.

Would I go back to try again? I'm torn between the longish walk and the tricky ride. But yeah, I probably will if I think I'll find the container. Was it challenging? Indeed, it was quite a ride. Did I have fun? Hell, yes, absolutely!

looked for a good 45 min. nadda

A much longer hike from the book exchange and some seriously hot weather. We struggled with parts, re-applying sunscreen and looking for shelter under the limited shade available.

We followed the points to keep on the private property and eventually made it to the end in one piece. Good cache hide, only one or two spiderwebs in there.

After staying for the breeze, which was mercifully blowing at GZ, we started back. Dropped by Denny Trig on the way back which was an interesting little find. No idea how the CO knew that it was even there as there is absolutely no trail to it.

Back at the cars with sore legs, we were very relieved that the saga was over. Not recommended on a super hot summer day, but in other weather, this would be a nice hike.

Thanks for the cache!

Well I have had this and HLBE in my sights since doing armchair cache recce of the Berowra area earlier in the year and with the mention of treadlies, I figured it would be perfect to do with the kids in the holidays if we could just land a good day on the right day. A few months back I did GC119JM *Not Another Berowra Cache* and loved it so I have been looking forward to this one for a long time and it did not disappoint.

21° and sunny today we loaded the bikes into (& onto) the Green Lantern with muggle friend (soon to turn geocacher after today lol) and headed out to end of Bloodwood Rd from the central coast for the epic day.

The Neverfail Trail and the Coba Point Trail are two different animals. Neverfail is fairly dull but very flat and ride-able but Coba Point Trail for starters ain't level (it's quite undulating and steep in spots) it's a tough ride but a wonderful route through the bush! It was disappointing to see recent trail bike tracks all the way out to Coba Point which had caused significant damage to the trails and flora. Kids did real well to ride all the way to the lookout at ~1.4kms from GZ (just before you get to the old car) where we stashed the bikes and continued on foot from there. Via the final waypoints, we made it safely to GZ where we found a not-so-awesome hide in a most amazing spot. We signed the log and replaced as best as we could with what we had but it was still a bit exposed. It could just be hidden a bit better is all. Then made our way back up about 30m or so for a spot of lunch with a view.

The cache was coming up 6 months unloved but this was as far out as I could leave it in these holidays at least - no big deal. On the way back we also visited the old trig and logged a find for it at GCA, and then continued onto HLBE. Interestingly we saw no wildlife today except for a bull ant hill near the trig and of course birdlife. I suppose everyone is still sleeping thru winter. I wouldn't really want to do this on a day any hotter than mid twennies. Today was absolutely perfect conditions which I'll keep in mind in future for caches like this with medium-long hikes. Loving the Berowra caching! Cheers, Tyreless, for bringing us on this lovely journey. A wonderful day today spent with these fine young men. Pics below...
#468

24/2/17. 1:18 PM. Cache #4780.
2nd of 2 today - Berowra Creek (via Fiddletown)

Just like "Hawkesbury Lookdown Book Exchange", this one was also a long overdue visit. It makes little sense to get this one without also getting HLBE (and vice versa). So, knowing that at my fitness level this pair would take at least 6 hours (and that assumes I'm biking as much of it as I can and excludes the drive to & from Bloodwood Rd), I had to wait until I had a 6+ hour caching window.

Hence this weekend; the girls are off to Bathurst for a hockey carnival and I'm foot loose and fancy free. But there's rain forecast for Saturday & Sunday so it has to be today. In 30ºC+ heat. Also, my own bike is a hybrid with a lot more road bike DNA and thin tyres that would not be up to the job. Hence I've been borrowing bella at waggy's MTB for a few weeks in anticipation of such a day.

I'm not the most confident of mountain bikers at the best of times. Lack of fitness has me walking the bike if an uphill grade is much more than a few degrees (if it's a long uphill); if it's downhill I'm riding the brakes and if there's rocks everywhere or the deep sand has me fishtailing, then I'm also walking the bike, even on flats.

But despite that, I pressed on and made good progress.
By 10:45 I had found HLBE and rested a while.
At 11:12 I was back at the Coba Point / Collingridge Point junction and had reconfirmed I could press on to this one instead of going back to the car.
At 11:45 I stashed the bike when it looked too steep for too long, about 500m south of Denny Trig.
At 12:42 I was quite overheated and stopped for a long rest about 900m below the "Off Trail 1" WP, finishing the first of two water bottles.
At 1:05 I was at the Off Trail 1 WP; 1:10 at Cairns and 1:12 at Rejoin the Trail.

By the time I got down to GZ, one feature looked obvious and didn't fail to disappoint: cache in hand! I took a short rest and took in the views, only a small amount of my 2nd water bottle knowing I had far to go. Nowhere really comfortable to sit or lie down here anyway.

The return started OK...
1:36 at Rejoin the Trail; 1:39 at Cairns and 1:43 at Off Trail 1 WP.

But I didn't get back to the bike until 3:15, with so much uphill walking getting me overheated and having to lie down to avoid heat stroke on a number of occasions, though there was little shade and few comfortable places to do so.
3:39 I got back to the Coba Point / Collingridge Point junction after a lot more pushing than riding.
3:57 back at the South Coba turn off, finishing the last of my water with 2km still to go. And the iPhone finally loses battery.
4:10 back at the car. A third bottle I had saved in the car was hot but still went down. Stashed the bike back in the car and took off, with the phone soon turning on and me having to help some PAF requests I had ignored during my return. Salvation in a cold drink and snack at Dural Macca's then returned home for a cool bath.

I'd like to give you a fave point but the 19km return is just overdoing it a bit much. I'm shattered! TFTC.
} : )


PS Not counting new caches (8 published in February) or events (2 in Sydney and Galston plus a CITO in Putney), these two today were my closest unfounds to home at 20.6 km and 24.1 km respectively. The new title holder is "Splash 'n' Cache: Davy Jones' Pipe" at 24.3 km.

PPS After today, my only unfounds in Hornsby Shire are "The postman always rings twice" (new, unsolved), the puzzle solving event in Galston, "Ancient Orange" and "Tower 126"; the latter two also being long walk caches that I have put off.

#699

I started the day with the milestone of my 700th cache in mind. I was contemplating the Monty Python multis at Oxford Falls but then decided to go for some special caches closer to home. Hitched the MTB to the back of the car and set off through the gorge and to the end of Bloodwood Rd which I had visited earlier this year for other "nearby" caches. It was a spectacular winter's morning - sunny but cool and not a cloud in the sky.

After a short detour to Yurt's Hawkesbury Lookdown Book Exchange and Denny Trig, I continued riding along the trail. Had to get off and push in a few spots but most of the track is ridable. Stowed the bike near the private property sign and did the last bit on foot. I can't get enough of this type of bush cache with a great view and hide as the reward. It's actually been a huge week - having ridden out to Waratah, Paddy's Castle and Bairne on Monday. Flicked through the log book and noted that it's been just over six months since the infamous Heart of Darkness expedition. Sat on a nearby boulder and had a quick bite to eat before heading back to the car. All up, the adventure took 3 hours and 15 minutes. So definitely time for one more - How Far Down? (book exchange)

Thanks for placing a cache in this wonderful spot Tyreless! +1 Fav

Number #4 of the Heart of Darkness Tour 2016.

Had a few challenges finding a good access point for the geoboat, but once ashore the climb and trek was pretty straight forward. A beautiful spot.

SL TFTC

Paid another visit to this cache, something I can't believe I'd ever do after the 20km walking slog last time just to be 2TF. This was a more strenuous approach from the water but, in the company of the Heart of Darkness tour, wasn't that difficult. The cache was not as well hidden as when I found it so a better effort was made at concealment. It appears all this land is up for sale so it remains to be seen how long access lasts. Probably years away.

Caching on the Heart of Darkness Tour 2016 on the SS Titanic. Thanks to Baktrak for the boat and being The Skipper. Purplepeopleater had the Gilligan rocking. Yurt and I were busy fighting over who should be The Professor and Thurston Howell, III.

This was our fourth stop.

The Skipper had a little trouble finding a landing spot that wasn't private on the eastern or western side that had a method of ascent without sheer cliffs. Eventually he settled on the eastern side about 350 metres from GZ, but a long way below. We changed into hiking boots and began climbing up and around as the rocks would allow. But after a pleasantly, surprisingly short walk we were at GZ where Baktrak made the find while I was too high. The descent was much easier.

I think Purplepeopleater and I are the first people to complete the Point Of Some Regard and Point Of No Regard double!

TFTC.

The Heart of darkness crew took the Titanic around both sides of Coba Point, looking for a landing spot that isn't private property, before returning the east side and tying up in a protective sea of floating bamboo. In fact, it turns out that the entire north end of the point is private property and it's up for auction.
Although we'd avoided the long overland trek, it was quite a climb to get the top where we found a trail that led straight to GZ. The cache was a quick find as it had been left in plain sight. We all signed and returned it to where Yurt found it over a year ago.
Thanks Tyreless.

The oars have been withdrawn from the water, the wake has subsided and the two men in the dinghy have disembarked from the SS Minnow. Able Seamen Chudles and EDF are back on dry land, and it is time to note a few recollections from the success that will be come to be known as the Excellent Adventure on the Hawksbury and her tributaries.

It was quite appropriate to find this cache near the home of the esteemed Dr Flannery as we were two men in a dinghy as mentioned above. I figure Chudles was Flannery as I cannot picture hiom as rampaging Roy Slaven. Although the speed at which he cuts through the bush was near on rampaging, he is as fit as the proverbial stringed instrument.

The cache was easy to find, and Chudles thought it could have been hidden better. All is now explained by the logs that followed ours the day after, and I am glad to hear that one of their party had seen it before and hid it in the right place.

A fine spot for a cache and not that easy even from the water.

TFTC Tyreless.

Cache #2 on trip #2 on the SS Minnow with EDF. Now, for those who are observant you might have guessed that we took the aquatic approach On the way past to gather a tide dependent cache we eyed out a likely landing point that wouldn't annoy any residents. Then coming back, we pulled in - edged our way up the first 20m of altitude gain, and then had quite a pleasant cross-county trip to GZ.

Thanks for not putting it right at the top!

Bit of an adventure to get to here! Shortly after this cache was published, I studied the map and saw that from my house to the parking spot to back home is about $40 of fuel. For a broke teenager, this is some serious money to find one cache! I also must admit, 18km of fire trail was sounding a little tedious as well!

Jump forward to last weekend... A quick look at the Geocaching map, and I spied this one out of the corner of my eye. With some unloved months accrued, it was looking like a likely candidate for Saturday's adventure! Noting that the cache was a short distance from the water. It also was just 6km by kayak from the north side of the hawkesbury river bridge. Just $10 of fuel, shorter travel time and kayak? Sounds like a better deal to me! Disappointingly, the Geodad had use of all the kakaking gear! Not to worry though, postponing this for another week meant he could come too!

A bit of a late start, but a truly magnificent day was before us! Unfortunately, I didn't check the tides... So we fought the tides both ways! To make things harder, a strong flow of water from the release at Warragamba Dam made strange turbulent currents in the water. This halved our cruising speed and almost trippled the energy required in Milsons passage. Almost an hour after we launched, we landed exhausted and starving hungry on the north side of milsons passage. Feeding our face and waiting for the outgoing tide to ease, we sat basking in the sun. The next leg of the trip was seemingly easier, but still took some considerable time. Stopping for lunch on Bar Island, we pulled a smorgasbord of goodies from our kayaks including wraps with salad, blue cheese, chocolate and of course ice tea! Our relaxing lunch had given the tide enough time to settle, meaning that the next leg of our journey was paddled at a much better speed! Arriving to the shores of Coba Point, we were "greeted" to a cacophony of barking and a man who bluntly told us to park our boats around at the National Park when we asked to walk through his land. I hope not all of Tim Flannery's neighbours are so hostile! The tide again played havoc with our paddle as the low tide revealed a thick black mud for us to squelch through! Parking our crafts out of sight, we scalled the hill to reach the top for some impressive views of the bay to the west of the point. Eventually, we stumbled across the trail leading to GZ. A short search soon led us to discovering a good size container. Signing duties complete, and it was back down the hill to compete with the incoming tide! This hard slog did come with benefits though! Beautiful afternoon sun, a sunset and blue phosphorescent bow waves in the moonlight! What a top way to finish a truly amazing day. Although we had a bit of bad luck with the tides, the rest of the day was truly magic! I highly recomend the kayak option. Thankyou Tyreless for an epic adventure! TFTC!!!!!

Pic

HLBE/POSR combo. These two (Yurt's Northern Bookshop and Tyreless' Point) have been on our list for a while. Today with some time available and good weather seemed a good day for a ride and walk. Our timeline below:
10:50 Mr and Mrs Asbestiform pedal away from the car
11:32 Snack and look at the view after signing the log at HLBE
12:07 stash the bikes and start walking to POSR
13:20 sign the log at POSR and have a snack/drink
13:32 start the walk back
14:26 back at the bikes
15:05 back at the car
(end joint)
After visiting Yurt's Book exchange we got back on the bikes and returned to the branch track to the north. This looks at one time to have been a fairly rough firetrail that has been left to nature a bit. It's now a fairly wide singletrack that runs nearly all the to GZ. There are some rougher sections and we made good progress, but these bikes more suited to flatish fire trails so stashed them off the side about 800m in and started walking. Stopped at the Denny trig point to take a photo. The bike tracks we saw on the trail to the book exchange continued along this section and stopped near the wrecked car where there is a clear view available from the cliffs nearby. Continued walking north and followed the clear instructions to take us to GZ. Mr Flannery certainly has a nice quiet spot ... I wonder how much fuel he uses to go to and fro? Took us a little while to find the cache. Initially GPS settled at 4m above a small drop off and we focused our search in this area but mainly above. Then the GPS unsettled itself and we expanded our search area. Found a great little cave up slope that contained some webs but no container. Then we re-traced our steps to the first spot and Mrs Asbestiform went to a lower level to pull out the prize. Signed in third. Our GPS at this point suggesting the decimal minutes to be S620/E718 after a couple minutes of averaging. Replaced and had some snacks and water then started back. Saw a crunched frog on the way back but no other wildlife. Thanks Tyreless for some great exercise and an enjoyable outing!

I'd corresponded with the CO about a newly rediscovered trig in the area and he'd set off to find it last weekend. Later I learned he'd placed a cache out that way all in the same general area as my "Hawkesbury Lookdown Book Exchange" cache. This was published on Wednesday I think and as it was a long walk out there I didn't think anyone would manage it until the weekend so I thought I might make a morning of it on Saturday and chase my 100th FTF. On Friday another MPFC series cache was published not far from home but I ignored that for the time being as I was a bit busy and wanted to find this one for the milestone. Well lo and behold, bella@waggy the cacher with the most geocaching-friendly employer, swooped the pool and not only found this on Friday but on Saturday when I was on the way to this cache, got FTF on the new MPFC cache I'd not pursued!

Not feeling bitter or disillusioned one bit I set off out to a familiar area - I already have five hides in this area - and left the car at the end of Bloodwood Rd at 815am. I tried using a phone app to measure the distance but it kept crashing so I just went old school with the Garmin. A crow could fly there in 6.14km but I knew it was longer. The first 3.6km of this path is along the quite dull Neverfail Fire Trail - I know it because I've walked it several times - so I was looking forward to the turn-off. Once on the Coba Point track, which was once a full fire trail but has been allowed to decay into a single lane track, the going was more interesting but I walked through at least a hundred spider webs.

Much of the trail doesn't seem to head in the right direction as the metres ticked down very slowly. I approached Denny trig but then walked a fair way away from it before coming back to 50m from it and bushbashing to the old veteran for my photos. Then back on the trail and on and on. Down a bit of a hill again to find the abandoned Holden - chrome does last forever. This proves the existence of this as a proper fire trail once. Finally made it to the turning off point just before the "private property" sign and followed the CO's orienteering course across country and back to the trail - was this to avoid the private property I wondered? Eventually made it to GZ but found nothing at 1m. Headed down a bit and looked in a few more promising spots but nothing. Fanned out to 15m from GZ and then went back somewhere dark I'd not looked in properly and made the find. Good old ammo can. Signed as 2TF and replaced. Unlikely to ever be muggled here.

Went up top and enjoyed my morning tea and the view which would be markedly improved by a chainsaw but don't let Prof Flannery hear that! Took some pics and then followed the trail back. On the way I headed up onto a prominent rock outcrop which had plenty of honeycomb caves and got a brilliant view both ways from the top. Also stopped at another lookout further on. It was quite the long haul back with the sightseeing and it was probably 2 hours of walking each way with me getting back to the car at about 1245pm with all my break time. I think my pedometer said 11 500 steps to get there with a slight deviation to the trig.

Great fun. This should be the next "Panorama Cache" and deserves many more finders than it will ever get. Was pleased to be the first to do it all on foot.

Thanks!
(favourite)

A little surprised on getting back into town to see this one was still unfound although 19km may slow a few people up. A quick look at the sat view and decided to bring the mountain bike which made short work of getting to the trial head turn off. Here the track narrowed and got a bit rough in a few spot. We had an interesting moment when a stick lodged and locked the back wheel, luck it was not the front. We got to a point where we thought it was time to ditch the bike or the bike would ditch us so headed off on foot. In hind sight we should have wheeled the bike a bit further as there were some more ridable spots. This did get us to within a few km as the crow flies of GZ in about 30min. Incredibly while on foot we did see the rustling remains of a FB Holden wagon off the side of the track but can understand how they did not get it out. We saw some wallabies, a few goanna and plenty of bird life. As we got closer to GZ, a few hundred meters away we were surprised by a private property sign but soon saw the faint track to the right and then a large amounts of cairns which then linked up with the foot track. Nice views off the point and after a bit of search and removal of spider webs found the hide. We opened up the log and confirmed **FTF** (thanks for the prize) and then completed the signing duties and re hid. On the way back we detoured up on the sandstone cliffs to see some more good views some interesting formation and then then onto see the old trig and carry on with the CO’s ritual of giving it a hug. We also took the recommendation and detoured down to Yurt’s Hawkesbury Lookdown Book Exchange and saw another big goanna. A nice bit of exercise. TFTC. A fav pt from us

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