DM #95 - Big Tree Olinda, Victoria, Australia
By ahomburg on 08-Mar-15. Waypoint GC5P1X9

A quick dash out this morning before the rain drove me back indoors. I recall looking for this multi sign last time I was here with Snips and it was an epic fail so ulterior methods were put in place today to find this cache......saw lots other signs today .....old pear tree signs from the 1970's not sure the trees were still standing but the signs were..

Not sure I picked the right day to tackle this one but I got to GZ eventually and thankfully the cache gave up with out a fight.Thanks ahomburg for the cache.

Define short walk?I went as far as the dam without seeing a sign. The did a loop down to Red Dog Hut and up to Lookout Rock, on the way finding a three panel sign where some but not all of the letters matches.So I assume its closer to the start?

Went out for a couple of hours with the wife and dogs and grabbed a few caches before the rain started.

Saw that last time this was a DNF so was keen to find it.

Lots of tracks still have trees across them.

Found this cache and the fresh booklet to sign.

TFTC

So I needed to *take a walk down the hill keeping an eye out for a 3 paneled timber sign*... Well, I got to the dam and hadn't found a sign... not sure it I had missed it or if it has gone missing or I hadn't walked far enough, I decided to call this one quits for the day.

Old log book removed, contents dried out and additional plastic bag and log book added to the log sheet iTEEM added. Thanks to iTEEM for the maintenance help.

Big things are continuing to happen! *Are you joining the fun again in 2023?*
[**THE**](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC9MH9M)
[**RUTHERGLEN**](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC9MH9M)
[**EVENT 2023**](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC9MH9M)
*6th / 10th April 2023 – GC9MH9M – Rutherglen – Victoria*

Up super early this morning to get two iTEEM members to work at the nearby lavender farm by 0600.
After taking the scenic route and searching out a few caches along the way, this was one of the previously DNFed caches which was my main target today.
I had been given by a previous finder, a general direction to head to find the sign, but still couldn't see it.
Messages were sent seeking more information, but no replies were forthcoming.
After assistance from another PAF on another cache, I asked them if they knew the whereabouts of the sign, and they did!
I headed downhill again and finally spotted it, realising then that I'd walked past it several times over two visits .
Some counting was performed, and it was more downhill to GZ.
The container was a little exposed, and seemed like it may have succumbed to gravity on the slope.
The container was also wet inside (unusual for this type of container), but for the second time today, the O-ring was missing.
The logbook was so wet it was unsignable, so I added a supplementary log sheet in a new bag, and signed that.
The cache was reset to match the hint, slightly uphill from where I found it.
So glad to have finally achieved the smiley for this one.
TFTC, the challenge, and the pleasant walk ahomburg

many years ago, we visited california
we made the pilgrimage to yosemite and then out to see the redwoods
yes, those big trees are famous for being tall
but, from a perspective on ground level, we have always found it hard to grasp just how tall a tree is
instead, what we remember of the redwoods is their girth
you can go up to and touch one of those trees and feel yourself between dwarfed by that thick circumference

coming to a place for a big tree, we were hoping for that similar sense of dominating scale
but
in comparison
the trees here seem like mere saplings

we will have revisit in a thousand years’ time
then they will truly be big trees

*Found on the 2 Jan 2022 @ 2:14 pm.*
*Cache find # 12225.*

Well that took a lot longer than I thought it was going to be, after not finding the sign, I reached out to the CO, he replied with a photo, I still couldn’t find the sign but now I could work out GZ.
oh well the track I wanted is now closed so the longer way it is, picked up a trad along the way and on to GZ where the cache was found.

**Thanks to ahomburg for placing this cache.**

Braving the rain and hail, I trekked hither and thither, but couldn't find the sign required.
Reading previous logs, I found I wasn't alone in this.
Will try to obtain some more info and try again.

Found @6:35 AM #7897
Started this one on Sunday but finish this one this morning. There is still alot of trees down which made for a gymnastic approach in places. In other spots the extent of the storm damage can been seen. With the calcs it turn into a few guesses to make the location fit and align with the hint. Turns out it was C that I got wrong or maybe a correction is needed on the page. Well with a warm sunrise this morning it was a great bit of exercise to clear ones mind with a quick find helped by the hint. [^]

Day 452 of ...
TFTC ahomburg

Find number 9673 at 12:09:29 pm on Tuesday the 21 September 2021
Yeah, back into the Dandenongs again, a nice walk in the park, just managed to miss the sporadic rainfall as well
Quickly decoded the clues but had to make one arithmatic adjustment when the location looked a little odd and off I went. Made a slight detour on the way down due to massive trees down across the main track, still remaining from the wind storms a couple of months back.
A nice quick find, cache container is in good condition but the log book was slightly damp.
**Thanks for placing this cache ahomburg**

---
We’re all going to Wangaratta to participate in Victoria’s next Mega!
*Are you coming to join in the fun?*
[**The Wangaratta Event 2021**](https://coord.info/GC8EW45)
*15th & 16th January 2022 - GC8EW45 - Wangaratta - Victoria*

Out on my own today trying to tick of some more of the DM series. Surprised to see so many people about on this miserable wet day. Did the first part of this some time ago and needed to wait till today to get to it. Glad to put on another smile here. Love the views in this area. Thanks for the cache ahomburg. Enjoyed the multi

With Crusty K9, I set out to find this cache last week. We couldn't, however, find the sign, even though we walked for a considerable distance down the hill. Talking with the tenacious Team Knight_shift about it, I found that they had located the sign and taken a pic. Armed with that I was on my way to calculating the coords for GZ, but I still came up short. With a bit more help I had the information required and, this morning, we returned in thick mist and drizzle, for the walk to sign the log.
As we approached, we realised that we had been within 80 metres of it on our previous attempt. All good now, and thanks for the fun Adriaan. We are gradually getting through the DM series.

I headed over after finishing work, and day1976 had already worked out the final location for this multi, which made it nice and easy. It was a steep walk down the hill to the find, a quick stop to sign the log then we continued further down the hill to get a few trads.

The sign I spotted first time, but I could see why others might miss it. But actually reading the sign was VERY difficult. I thought maybe my eyesight might be failing me in my old age. But with a bit of educated guessing and some googling to find latin, I came up with a plausible answer. I then walked back up the track to meet my caching partner for the afternoon. I decided to test it and yep, she totally missed the sign, and also couldn't read it. So, not just my old age.

We made our way to the final via a WP for another cache and the container was found nice and easily. TFTC!

My goal today was to clean up some DNFs I have from this series - with the hope of completing them all by the years end.
I had been here twice previously but had never found the elusive 3 panel sign. Last week xambo4u sent me a message letting me know the sign had been found and sent me a picture which enabled me to figure out final coords. I walked down the track again and even though I knew what it looked like I still couldnt find it! I must be going crazy. Anyway it was a quick find at GZ, TFTC!

It was a spur of the moment decision to tackle this multi, so a quick glance at the cache page as we were off...... to the back of the toilet block looking for the sign. Re-read the page again and we were back on track. Problem was, we ended up on every track. I swear this CO is either trying to get me fit, or kill me in the process.

Like others before us, we came to a sign that looked promising until you start working on the figures. So we walked, and walked, up and down hills and came to another sign that was broken with only two boards. Hoping the third board was close by, we picked up our pace, only to be disappointed again.

After what seemed like hours, (less than 2) I finally spotted this elusive sign. With the coordinates for GZ now in hand, we made our way to an area we had passed in our travels, and at least made a quick find.

Thanks ahomburg. Beautiful area.

Out and about for the school holidays. after visiting the William Rickets sanctuary we decided to find a some picnic tables and ended up here. Tftc.... Beautiful walk on this beautiful day.

This is the second time I have tried this multi now and have still had no success - I just cant find the correct sign! I have walked up and down all the paths but cant find it! Reading the logs some have mentioned the sign is broken - I wonder if the sign has been removed? It is also very possible I have missed something altogether! Will watch and wait.

Fun cache. Took a while to find the correct sign but it was quickly obvious the first was not going to work. Unfortunately my phone battery died just after getting the numbers last week before calculating the location but with numbers in hand it was a nice easy find today, while dog walking to the golf course!

Thanks for the cache ahomburg!

Found it... lovely walk out here

Last week I made a real mess of this, as I couldn't find the sign with the three panels. But that's because I didn't read the description properly.
I repeated the same mistake this morning when my PAF gave a hint that didn't make sense - so I reread the description, ahh....
I kept my eyes peeled for the sign, keeping in mind what Spiffy said in his log. Luckily I spotted it and worked out my maths. My friend verified my coords because I only had 15% battery left and yes, I got one digit wrong. It's one of those days. I made my way to GZ and the cache was a quick find.
Thanks ahomburg

Found on 22 Apr 2018 at 5:01 pm.
The plan this afternoon was to head out with Fleabag- to get a few more in his 15km zone, do the berry picking series and some more dandenong meander caches as well to cut down the list of our outstanding solved puzzles that we hadn't searched for yet. A couple of really tricky ones today but ended up with no DNF's out of 22 finds.
We continued our drive back towards the big hills and decided to find a few solved puzzles we had done a while ago now as well as a couple of other in the loop from this car park with a lovely view.
On our way down the long hill and not finding a sign Fleabag- wanted to head back. I decided not to which ended up being a good idea. Eventually Fleabag's keen eye spotted the broken sign we need off the side of the track and we put it back together the best we could with no tools.
A short walk later at GZ there was only place matching GZ but no cache... a short search expansion though soon had the cache in hand.
We noted down the clue in the lid but currently have no idea what it's for.
Thanks ahomburg for the cache, the adventure, the hunt and the fun.

Spiffy- and I decided on cleaning up some local mountain caches and puzzles that we had solved some time back. Pretty much gave up on this figuring ee missed the sign. But by fluke after quite some distance I saw it laying broken on the ground. Did the maths and it looked plausible. At GZ we took a few minutes to find. Noted the hint but no idea what its for! Thanks to ahomburg for placing this cache.

Found this one today while out walking through the area grabbing some much needed exercise and also a couple of caches while I was out. Initially I missed the sign and "enjoyed" several other trails before back tracking and discovering the sign needed and caught my breath while working out the final co-ord's and then set off again this time to the final gz and soon found the good sized cache. Thanks ahomburg for the multi and hide.

Today is just the most beautiful weather and we’ve been loving exploring the Arboretum with the geokids. Thanks for placing this cache Ahomburg

I went for a bit of a walk this morning while a muggle was walking in the nearby commercial gardens. I found the other multi in the area when he phoned to say he was ready to be picked up. Lucky he was up for a walk as he agreed to come back and make this find with me. Of course we just had to continue on and find a few others around here on our long way back to the car. TFTC ahomburg

Just catching up on my logging.... Thought we'd "quickly" get the co-ords for this multi before heading to the golf course but, of course, that's not quite what happened. Its a long walk down hill which can only mean one thing. We thought we had the right numbers but the only big tree near there didn't yield a cache for a us A great walk with lovely scenery though

Thanks ahomburg, we'll be back.

Great place tftc

After getting the email seeing the co replaced the container after collecting the coords last week timing was perfect to come and collect this one on the way home from work. Tftc as always

Checked this one today, required sign is in place. Cache was missing after some council pruning. Cache replaced with a 90ml Poly pipe painted black

Found the correct sign, found what seemed to be the correct way point, but nothing found at location (which matched hint). Might need checking on, but it could just be DD19 and I failed to find it. TFTC in a beautiful location and drawing my attention to the giants!

Initially went to the wrong sign, but I had already seen the correct one, so I quickly switched across once the first sign became impossible. Cache was exactly where I was expecting, had quite a bit of water in it though, which I tried to empty out. Log book smelled mildewy...

Having read the warnings about there being more than one sign, I managed to avoid the first pitfall, although I was surprised at how far I had to walk to it. My first set of coords did look a bit odd so a re-check found my error, fortunately. From there it was plain sailing and all in all a good walk down and back up again on a lovely day for caching.

Out and about with TrailStevo tonight collecting a few of the new cache in the area and an old multi that had eluded us in the past. Beautiful clear night, sooooo many stars. Not to much wild life about but doc spy some deer, tawny frogmouth and a glider of some kind TFTC

Found the sign, worked out potential coords....wrong! Found another sign, much better result. Quick find although a little out of place. Tftc

(.-0) and I off to collect a couple more caches on our usual Thursday meet up. She suggested this so off we went. we eventually came across a couple of the 3 wooden panel signs and quickly worked out the coordinates. Phew it is on a track...that is always a good sign, especially here in the Dandenongs!! Soon located after only looing behind one Big Tree. Thanks Adrian. Excellent as usual.

Out with Morcs4 on our weekly caching adventure. I love this place, and this cache was pretty easy -- for a Homburg cache that is. Thanks ahomburg.

TFTC!

Tftc!

I'm heartened to find that I haven't been alone in pausing at the wrong sign and realising the mistake only when the numbers become implausible. But the right one was not far away. While I was squatting at the sign I was passed by a pair I feared might have been geocachers, given the knowing tone to their greeting. ( *Genuinely* fearing: maybe it's an illness, but I don't want to encounter random geocachers in the field.) After a modest stroll through possibly the eeriest, 1970s-iest (and therefore possibly best) plantation in the greater Melbourne area, the cache revealed itself pretty swifty. Pretty groovy. It had been raining quite heavily before I dashed down the track and I was testing my luck by attempting to complete *Still Dam Hard* in the same trip, but I only really got significantly wet in the final couple of hundred metres of the return trip to the carpark. Thanks ahomburg!

Final cache for a long day of caching with Danozz. Slightly delirious by this stage, and took us a while to figure out we were reading the wrong post. Would have been nice to know approximately how far from top of the hill we needed to walk to find the sign, as we ended up having to go up the hill twice, as we had been right by the spot earlier in the day (struggling at this point). Rewarding find for the last smiley, thanks for the tour of the Dandenongs ahomburg!

Wandered down further after completing the Dam multi, kept going, decided we would stop soon and give up if we didn't find a sign, went a few more metres, found a sign…found the wrong sign. Figured that out after 5 minutes of messed up maths that wasn't working!

Got to the right sign, discovered we were going to backtrack from our earlier walk and cover some ground we'd already covered! Ah well, just a bit more energy to burn and wrap up a big day of caching in the Dandenongs. Thanks AH for all the caches & another reason to explore a beautiful part of Melbourne.

Found it. Pretty small find and quite a challenge. Nearly missed the sign.

Found it

More like "didn't attempt" arrived at dusk and realised I had too much work to do and too little light. I keep letting this one slip through the cracks because few of the meanderings have been multis. I'll try to remember the next time I am in the area.

It is a long way down to the sign. GZ was a long way out (over 20m), but the clue sent us to the right one.

I had a free day today so I made the most of it! It has been a while since I went walking in the Dandenong's so I combined a couple of walks with a few caches thrown in. This was the first of the day. Having walked around in circles at the posted coordinates I read some of the previous logs and set off down the hill... and kept going. Part of me wondered if the timber signs had been replaced with metal ones, but I found the correct sign in the end. After that it didn't take too long to work out the next stage. At GZ my GPS was slightly off, so I resorted to the hint to make sure I wasn't trampling anything I shouldn't. The cache is in fine condition. Once I had replaced it I got the legs pumping and struggled back up to the car park... I need to get fitter! TFTC!

4:37 pm #481
Lived in the eastern suburbs most of my life and I've been up and down these hills many times. However, I have never been to this little piece of awesomeness - until today. A beautiful little after-work hike. Thanks for bringing us here Adriaan!

On an afternoon after a days work OzHockeyChick and I thought we would go for a little hike since we are in flight of doing these DM series caches we thought this would be a nice little hike.....Now we started at the start point and headed downhill towards the first information point and .....sucked in .......Wasn't the first 3 panel board...lol........
So we established that we needed to keep on trotting down the hill a bit more.....
Ahhh found another 3 panel sign......sucked in again.....lmao
We were stating to think Adriaan was takin the peace out of us but ALAS.....a shining light shone down...no up the hill to another 3 panel sign which had an important piece of information on it and this time ....sucked in Adriaan.....we were all over it and had some co-ords locked in ready to go for another little hike back DOWN the hill....so we were up and down like a lady on the nights draws but we found the cache soon enough and logged the find......
Very nice little hike......
Thanks for bringing us here ahomburg the first views are breathtaking and the area is awesome....
TFTC

I'm going to be lazy and refer to The Rusty's log and say, "What she said!" Really, my log was going to say pretty much exactly the same thing! So just to reiterate - you need to walk a loooong way down before you get to the 3-panel sign; make sure you use the sign on the right side of the track that refers to the title of this cache; and be prepared for a steep walk back up to the car park.

Hera and I were in the area sorting out our (yet to be submitted) multi and we decided to find this cache. We walked and walked hoping we were on the right track until, by fluke, I noticed that the species of trees had changed and we stopped in front of a sign that told us we were close to the where we needed to be. The first three panel sign happens to be on the left of the path but only a few paces further is the correct three panel sign on the right of the path. We worked out the final coords and walked down,down,down to GZ, where the cache was in hand quickly. We were expecting the walk back up to be quite hellish but having just cleared out our lungs getting coords for our multi in an equally steep part of the world we did it pretty easily.
TFTC

This entry was edited by The Rusty's on Tuesday, 26 May 2015 at 21:05:30 UTC.

Found in the company of Biggles Bear on our monthly caching trip, this time out east towards and in the Dandenongs. We weren't sure how far we needed to go, but eventually found the right sign, not the first 3 panelled sign, but the first we found. From there it was off to GZ where it was a nce quick find.

My thanks to ahomburg for the cache and the enjoyable walk.

Found 12:08:00 PM, in the company of Muzza during our March caching day out.

TNLN, thanks ahomburg.

FTF! Yay! Weren't expecting to be, given we'd taken our time heading out. Nice stroll down the hill, during which we picked up another cache that had been eluding us for a while. Lovely day for a walk. No nearby muggles. TFTC

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