Salt Of Awaba Teralba, New South Wales, Australia
By Marcus Vitruvius on 03-Aug-15. Waypoint GC60V52

This smiley has been a long time in the making.I gathered this water about 2 months ago from the nominated location. I thought I'd be clever and allow the water to slowly evaporate off and so I set aside a wide / low container in the garage... and waited and waited and ... forgot about it... and waited... and maybe got some sawdust and bugs in it which I had to pick out... [not very high tech or high precision ultimately!]Eventually it seemed to get to a stage where it just didn't want to release the last bits of moisture. Tonight I finally needed a non-traditional cache (for a streak) so I resolved to finishin it off in the oven. I too was quite surprised to actually SEE the amount of salt left over. Answers sent to CO. Thanks for a cool cache, and a nice location!

Lovely morning for a paddle in Cockle Creek. Took the chance to sample the water Not to drink of course as I am old enough to remember the Sulphide plant at Boolaroo.Answers submitted to the CO.TFTC

After visiting the local community gardens near by, SLElliot and myself decided to do a mini science experiment and grab some water to do this cache. Good thing I still had my gum boots on from the garden as it was low tide. We did the experiment as we finished some other things at SLElliots house and came up with our answers. Thanks for the lesson, we certainly learned something. It was interesting seeing the salt at the end. Sent answers to CO and now the Salt of Awaba has given me extra fuel for Cosmic Quest. TFTC

We're heading slowly south after spending a few months in Queensland and decided to stop for this earthcache while we were in the area. This is one of currently only 14 earthcaches in Australia with a difficulty rating of D4 or over and since this one doesn't involve a boat trip or a multi-day hike, we were keen to stop for it. Due to what I assume was a particularly high tide, I could only get to about 20m from GZ to obtain my sample and once home, I set about conducting my experiment. While my equipment and methodology wasn't particularly scientific, I was still impressed with the results!Answers sent.A favorite point for the fun of an experiment!Thanks for find #5328TNLN

Finally got around to doing the experiment for Earth Cache weekend. Great location.Interesting concept and a favourite point given.

Had my eye on this EC for a while so was glad to do it on an EC weekend. Was at Speers Point on Friday night and tried to find the correct spot in the dark, but couldn't do it. Turned out I was only a few yards from the right area! Loads more salt left than expected! I can tick off boiling lake water from that bucket list now TFTC and a fave point!

Those water-measure caches are quiet intresting, this is my third in Australia so I get to use my new geo-tools!

Thanks for the cache.

/herrFamaxe from Sweden

TFTEC. I grew up at Warner's Bay and would come here many a time to the pool or the park etc. So I love walking down memory lane when I come here. I collected the water after an event I went to in Newcastle and have been meaning to post what I have found and did but life has been way too busy. The day I came was a very busy day in the park with pop up food carts and music etc. I might have some experimental error, well everybody will have experimental error but I might have a tad more. Got watching a soppy movie while evaporating the water and the salt decided to spit everywhere. I gathered up as much as I could but luckily I still had a good heap in the pan. Ill send my results via email now.

I have wanted to do this Earthcache for a very long time now! I spotted it during the Oz Geomuster that was held in Morriset a number of years ago and drove past it. However at that time I only had my water bottle and didn't come prepared with a container large enough to hold a litre of water. I was disappointed, but left it for another time.

Fast forward many years and I finally found myself in the area again! This time I brought a suitable container for the water collection! Pic uploaded of me collecting the water at GZ coordinates.

I then had to convince my semi-muggle friend to perform a strange science experiment at his house, which I was staying at I didn't want to hold the water for up to a week or two, so thankfully he agreed, and I got to work!

Answers with results have been sent to the CO!
Thanks for something a little bit different!

While staying in Newcastle for a couple of days we had to meet our granddaughter at Costco so we had time to swing by the lake & collect the water for this EC.
We returned home & have at last been able to do the experiment, surprised by the amount of salt we collected.
Only one other EC we have done with an experiment & that was in NZ. Nice to do something different.
FP given
Thanks for the EC Marcus Virtruvius

We completed this cache today and sent our answers to the CO.
After a day at Speers point park we ventured down to get what we needed for this cache.
Thank you for taking us here and teaching us something new. Our 900th cache in total

This is a different sort of earth cache.

I have collected the water and just need to complete the experiment

KTB and I are headed southwards along the Great North Walk and as we stayed in accomodations posher than a tent last night I was able to make a rudimentary science lab to answer all the required questions in this earthcache.
I found this all to be quite interesting and it gave us a far better understanding of this great water body we walked partly around and later in the day down upon from Heatons lookout. KTB was quite impressed with my rambling mansplain about the salinity levels and the waters movement.
Our thanks go to Marcus Vitrious for this earthcache, quite enjoyable in that it's more than just 'read the description, look about, take a photo, move on' which although enjoyable in its own right lack the hands on understanding from ECs like this. Bravo sir. Cheers!

-- This log is trackable ! --
-- Feel free to discover --
-- Please mention, in which cache you've seen this code: --
-- 3TABQX --

This was on my way to the Wangaratta MEGA event, it is a slow drive down as I was stopping off at many of the unusual and interesting places. My trip down south is mostly centered on the older caches and ones for challenges or d/t grids, but I was also stopping at a few as I passed by.
Now for the mind numbing exercise of logging all my finds.
I am sorry to say that I do not remember all the caches of the trip (there is a lot). Luckily, I have Cachly to help me out.

This was definitely a different type of earth cache to do, I am glad it was not about rocks again. On the road it is a little hard to boil water and get the results using a set of scales, another TOTT I’ll have to get but I did get understanding to what was required. At GZ today it was quiet and a lot of debris in the water plus the area was very smelly. Thanks for this cache. This one gets a favourite point for your thinking.

GrimRaider and I picked up the water sample on a recent drive up to Morisset. I carried out the experiment and sent the answers to the CO. Another cool earth cache that I really enjoyed completing. So cool to learn more about a location and I love hydrology.

It was great to be out exploring the area. Thanks for placing this cache Marcus Vitruvius

Love this lake. Many fond memories. Tftc, was lucky enough to get my chemist hat on with the kids.

Finding some caches in the area and getting some exercise .

I took the opportunity to sit and admire the view at GZ before taking my water sample . I brought it home to realise I didn’t actually have any scales , so I asked my mum to bring over hers when she visited . Her scales were 54 years old and were in ounces . My mum did not believe there would be any salt left behind and was quite shocked as was I to discover how much salt was actually left behind . So we both learnt something . Thanks for the cache Marcus Vitruvius. Def fav point for the great location , the fun and creativity and teaching my mum and I something

My youngest son was playing his GF today, on Macquarie Field, so i planned to grab the sample while waiting for the game to start. Some of the other parents were a little bit intrigued as to what i was doing with a bottle of Lake water. Tried to explain, but not much interest was shown. We stayed and watched the next grade as well, so we got home reasonably late, so i did the boil up on the Monday. All answers sent, hope i pass. I find this one of the more interesting EC's , as their was the field test you needed to do, which is a little different. TFTC. Fav from me.

Recently collected my sample and today measured out the required amount, placed on stove then went out. Lesson learnt, don't leave kitchen when stove is on. upon returning found salt splatted every where and saucepan blackened. After collecting all the salt was then able to calculate salinity and complete the required experiment. Have sent off answers to CO for check. Hope to get a tick of approval for my efforts but enjoyed doing the experiment on a different type of cache. Worth a fav point. Thanks MV for this interesting type of cache.

Nothing there

I found lots of caches on a roadtrip holiday up to Byron Bay. Over the course of the week, I targeted a variety of caches that worked towards different statistic-based goals. Thanks to all the Cache Owners for their contributions to this fantastic recreational activity.

Answers sent. Thanks For The Earthcache!

Aquilus1 and I made a point to drive by this one to collect some water... we got 2.5 litres, just in case I messed up the boiling. The water sat there for a week before I pulled the finger out and did the experiment..... then I discovered my electronic scales would not turn on....

But, answers have been sent in, not the results I was expecting! Fave point for an excellent Earthcache

With GreyHams we made the planned detour across to this cache, it was one of the caches he had discovered while looking at what to visit in the area and it sounded worth while. Very pleased we did as it was something very different and also very interesting. Never would have picked the results but he entire process was very fascinating. GreyHams has sent the results in for us both, huge favourite point, thanks Marcus Vitruvius!

Trip details...
With GreyHams we continued onwards with our NSW counties trip, started as a need to collect a few to make up some missing numbers to qualify for a challenge... ended that we wanted ALL. OF. THEM!!! This wasn't the planned trip we thought was next but with no flights it was our plan B and still a needed one any way.

The focus was on the 7 counties around the Hunter region, however I did have 11 North Sydney counties I was keen to collect. GreyHams was gracious enough to help me get them despite having them already. He also was the best navigator to assist me to drive through the crazy of Sydney traffic! Planner, Navigator, finder, signer... yep, he does it all!!!

This trip was about quality, counties, oldies, sizes, interesting, type. If your cache made it to our list then it was one of these. We found three 2000 caches and despite living so close I finally found Lane Cove, my first Australian 2000 cache and also my 20th.

Sydney caching took its toll and the day got away from us. We made the move to return to Hornsby and luckily scored the last 2 rooms, as we often do! Placed us well though to continue with a few counties close by before continuing on to the start of the needed 7 around the Hunter way. Kurri Kurri murals also led to a great lunch at the local chippery, the fish burger was just the thing! It has to be said that the bats up this way are of some impressive size, good enough to be off the roads before night fall and saw us stopping in Dungog for the night.

Dungog was chosen as it was close to 'frying pan' an awesome 2000 cache in a stunning location for the next morning. It turning out to be a great place which was a massive bonus. Again we managed to last two rooms upstairs at the local Hotel. Great priced rooms, great food and super convenient. Beautiful countryside around this quaint town and the local bakery we stopped at for breakfast is a must.

Rain the last morning didn't slow us too much, even made for the trip out to Frying pan in the morning as a more beautiful experience with everything all wet. Loved the evidence of the old logging history as we made our way through the area and then it was time to head back to home. Never a direct route though it was very full and enjoyable day as we continued through to the last of the caches we had time for along the way.

Many thanks for you cache that led us on our journey, another counties trip ticked off but another great trip it was!

Found it

I'd brought YGAT up to Marmong Point to give a talk at the local hall and, while she was occupied there, I drove back to Speers Point to attempt this earthcache.

The device I used to take the readings provided some unexpected results. I have sent my responses to the CO.

Thanks Marcus Vitruvius for establishing this interesting earthcache.

Collected the water for this earthcache yesterday morning, water very dirty and very smelly from rotting vegetation. Weighing and boiling done this afternoon, and I was rather surprised with my results. Message sent to MV with results and responses, so now logging to receive the Earthcache souvenir. Tftc MV, fave point from me, I have to make sure I have fave points to spare before attempting a MV cache

Answers sent. We had a bit of fun doing the salinity test for this. Luckily we collected 2 litres of water and, due to not watching the poil boil, we needed the second litre. Had to wipe bits of salt off the stove all over. For the second litre we weighed the empty pot the boiled off the water then weighed the pot with the salt. Seemed to be less messy that way. All in all a fun cache that we had been meaning to do for ages. Thanks MV

As with a lot of science experiments, this was a work in progress. Sussed out GZ on a bike ride on 1/4, collected our sample at the Farewell Event on 2/4 and have now played around being sciency at home (and impressed a couple of grandkids along the way) [^] on 9/4. Not only a great spot to visit and some very interesting facts revealed that we wouldn't have otherwise thought about, it had the bonus of a hands-on practical experiment. If for no other reason, the experiment was worthy of a fav point but combined with the others this was a top earthcache and a heap of fun. TFTC Marcus Vitruvius.

#3890 I grabbed 1L of water from GZ while I was up at the farewell event of the Mega since it was about 200M away. Today I slowly boilt the water down to reveal a whole bunch of salt. I did some measurements and answered some questions. What an interesting EC. Nice to do something a bit different. Answers sent to the CO.
THTEC MV.

Before the Farwell Event mizmaz and myself visited GZ and grabbed our needed water samples.
Using sports drink bottles I needed to be careful the entire following week during my holidays not to drink from the wrong bottles.
Once home I boiled down our samples and found the results to be quite surprising.
I had alot of fun with this EC,a fav point given
Answer sent to CO before logging my find.
TFTC

Answers submitted by ChooknChunk on behalf of micaparamedic and myself.

A FASCINATING earth cache which included some chemistry - awesome!!

What a nice little get away.....I needed some R&R and so decided to head across the border from SA to Victoria and then NSW to attend the OzGeoMuster Mega with friends.

I mainly hung out with the lovely micaparamedic and the fabulous ChooknChunk and I also enjoyed many happy moments with others.

Some of the stand out moments included: camping in Belanglo State Forest and doing a night cache at 1am; 4wding and having water over the car bonnet; sitting around and chatting/chilling; sleeping loads; relaxing continuously and then watching some fab fireworks (thanks Team Crackers), and all in all a much needed break. Gary and I slowly made our way back to Bendigo before heading back to Adelaide.

Thanks so much for the earthcache Marcus Vitruvius!

Arrived a little early for the nearby Mega Farewell event so had time to collect the required ingredients for this EC (and would save time locating another for today’s personal 11 type challenge). Had completed a similar EC on Sydney Harbour last year so will be interesting to compare results. I needed to head home asap due to a family medical issue so left samples with Bonfire7 to finalise the experiment which we’ll discuss and send a combined answer shortly.

We visited this earthcache on 2 April with GoodLook and Micaparamedic, and took our samples home in 2 x 600ml water bottles. We then used the TDS method to determine the answers, boiling the water in a saucepan on the stove, then measuring the remaining salt. Lots of fun. Answers sent.

Thankyou Marcus Vitruvius for this very interesting and informative earthcache. It made all those old high school chemistry lessons come flooding back.

Specimens collected with Freddo, the morning of the CITO, who has sent answers to CO for review and gave me an interesting lesson on salinity.

Rapidlywild suggested we head up to the Oz Muster event when it was first published, so between us and a few others we set out to solve the puzzles around the area, not that we got to all of the ones we solved, what a shame we will have to return one day to collect them when the mosquitos are not as active.

We had a great time over the weekend, grabbed lots of caches and met some fellow cachers.

Samples collected for testing, Rapidlywild has emailed CO the results.

TFTC and thanks Rapidlywild for another enjoyable geoadventure.

Its GeoMuster time around the Lake Mac. Been planning to attend this one for a while and was happy to see it get Mega status. Very enjoyable weekend away with FurfacesLL #1 and catching up with so many different cachers.

Its been a big weekend for myself and FurfacesLL as we are trying to squeeze in as many caches as we can. We did alot of prep work for this by solving heaps and heaps of puzzles (alot more than we actually got to... always the way).

After attending the CITO and Goodbye Event, we wandered over to the required location to gather the required 1l of water so we could conduct our experiment. Really enjoyed this EC, boiled off the water and scraped all the salt out for weighing. Answers have been submitted across to the CO on behalf of myself, FurfacesLL and Roostaman. Thanks for this EC, adding a fav through to this one.

Thanks for the Earthcache and lessons Marcus Vitruvius its been a fab weekend!

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**# 20920** Found on the start of our mega adventure to ACT, NSW, QLD and beyond.
Another fine warm mega day to go to the farewell events with rapidlywild and FFLL.
A lot more muggles and cachers around today too.
This one was on the must-do list after the farewell event nearby.
Answers sent and a very interesting result and education as always. Fav point added too.
Thanks for the Earthcache Marcus Vitruvius,
***Roostaman***

Answers sent to the CO for review. We used the micro Siemens method.

As part of a shortened Easter caching weekend, steeba and the Rats headed north to be part of the Geomuster mega weekend around the Lake Macquarie area. Traveling as far north as Frying Pan ck and down south to Doyalson we managed to find a good splattering of caches, including a new personal record of most types in a day.

Thanks to all the CO's for placing the caches, the interesting locations and cache containers contributed to our great weekend.
This was a big day which started at dawn and culminated with this earthcache at and nearby event as we set about claiming our 12 types in a day.

Back home I had a bit of fun playing in the work lab as professor Rat don'd the white coat and set about cooking up my samples. Answers have been sent to the CO.
Thanks

Collected a sample of the water this morning after attending the near by event.

StueyGow got his feet wet for the cause.....

Once back at home in Sydney we set the pan on the stove and started our experiment.

Answers sent to CO

A fun Earthcache in a beautiful location

TFTEC

After the Farewell Event for the Mega, we collected a sample to be tested back home. The Bebes will supply answers to CO when all experiments are completed. TFTEC

Not sure if this will ever get converted to a found it log, but I thought I would share the story so far ...

Spotted this interesting earth cache while still over in NZ, and realised that it was very close to the final event. I had a 1 liter water bottle with me, so managed to get a suitable sample (dry feet are overated, especially on a very hot day!) Now for the second part.... It's the last day, so how will I be able to do the experiment? I drove down to Woy Woy, with the precious sample safely in the car. Hmm must remember to drink the water from the other bottle not this one! Stopped by a pile of rubbish put on roadside for collection, and spotted a pan, so things were looking good!

Then got to my relatives place. Was about to ask if I could borrow their stove when there was a thunder storm and we lost power for two hours!

Overnight, I remembered the alternative method and asked if he had a circuit tester, he did, but not a working one.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get him a replacement, and I could not take the sample onto the flight back to New Zealand... So I had to abandon the attempt. Interesting concept though.

485m car to cache for the DGSC distance challenge if I had managed to complete it!

The Bebes and I collected our sample after the Mega event and after braving the traffic back to Sydney on this long weekend we boiled off the water and weighed the residuals.

Great fun Cache with interesting facts.

A long tiring day today as we drove right around the beautiful lake grabbing a variety of caches and enjoying the beautiful views. Thanks to ACTChil, Darzee Di, GrimRaider, Joolay and Kittykatch for your company and fun times as we travelled around together as Capital Crunchers.

All logs were signed. Thanks to all COs for placing and maintaining these caches for us to find.


Message to come once home.

Out and about in the area for the Morisset Mega with Swellerfungus, Seff (seffnjarah), SeffJunior, and Ms Krankenwagon. We were talking about gathering the necessary raw materials for this cache when we realised that in making the teenagers thoroughly clear out the car yesterday, we had accidentally got rid of all potential containers. At that very moment a bin appeared into view and off trotted Seff to see if it contained a suitable bottle. It did, but Seff being a smidge vertically challenged soon came back seeking reinforcements in the form of an elongated Fungus who grabbed the Fanta-rip-off bottle with ease (Orangee anyone?!). At GZ it was me who braved the guano-covered rocks to gather the required 1L (plus a little bit spare!). Answers will be sent to the CO shortly, TFTEC, a very cool concept!

After a bit of bin diving by Swellerfungus at the nearby Wherigo cache to retrieve a suitable receptacle to hold our water sample, Dez (JezNDez) was designated as water sample retriever. With the sample surviving the long trip back to Brisbane, all that was left was for me to fulfil my part of the project as head chef. Doing my best impersonation of a crystal meth cook, I ended up with a rather surprising amount of salt residue in my fry pan after boiling down my carefully measured 1L of water. Answers have been sent to the CO for approval. TFTC

This was a really interesting idea for an earth cache. I am not sure how much the level of salt varies around the world, and it was surprising how much salt there was. My favourite moment of this cache was when SNJ was boiling it down for us he commented that he did not know what was more boring - watching water boil, or the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth games! Anyway the answers were sent to the CO, and s we are now logging this earth cache. Thanks for the fun!

Answers sent to the CO. What a fun earthcache. Found out all about the salinity of sea water. I had fun collecting the sample and boiling to get the required info.

Find No: 6299. Collected the specimen after removing shoes, collected joeys in the feet on the way back to the car, boiled the water, made my observations and sent off for approval?, thanks for the cache Marcus Vitruvius!!

Not sure when to log this one as we only just got round to performing the experiment tonite (14/7) but we collected our sample last Satdee when we took the trek up to the nearby Speers Point playground with granma muggle so it makes sense to log it for then. It was a spur of the moment cache so I didn't come prepared ..so lets just say that in the process of finding a vessel(s) for our sample, we managed to perform some CITO as well lol. An interesting EC which the kids found rather fascinating. Have been enjoying a rather unique spate of ECs of late. Thanks, MV. Answers have been sent.
#457

On our way up northwards we stopped off for a detour to grab a sample here today. The playground nearby was also a hit! Testing done and answers sent off- a nice little EarthCache- thanks!

My geodad EverestHigh sent answers to the CO. TFTC Marcus Vitruvius

Enjoyed a walk around the creek and the lake. Learnt a bit about the history and the 'geology' of this area. TFTC

It was a very hot day so it was nice to be down by the water. The cache sounded interesting so we came prepared with a 2 litre jug to collect a large sample of the water. The water was slightly murky so we let it sit for a few days to settle (plus ended up busy doing other things). After boiling down an exact litre of the water to just salt we did our calculations and sent our answer off to the CO. This was a fun little experiment and an entirely different caching experience. TFTC!

As MrsFish needed a drive we headed up to Toronto for lunch and then on to this interesting cache. Getting to the listed site was not easy with a very high tide and surrounding shrubbery that I did not want to walk through on such a hot day, so getting wet shoes was the only way. I took the sample as I do when testing the pool, but in a much larger container. With no way of cooking there we headed home to continue. Boiling the salt was easy but took quite a while before only dry salt was left, then it was weighed on the kitchen scales despite MrsFish's protests. There was lot more salt than expected and it did not look clean, I certainly would not be using it on my fish and chips. Calculations gave me an unexpected salinity which I attempted to explain in my answers to the CO. Thanks to Marcus Vitruvius for a very interesting earthcache, the first one of this type I have seen and involving an experiment I have not done for over 50 years!

I'd considered doing this one for International Earthcache day a few weeks back but other commitments got in the way, but finally had the chance this week.

Before leaving home, I measured how much water a one litre milk container actually held, pleased to find it was a little over a litre, so headed off with it to GZ. Just as I was about to collect my sample, a couple in a boat came close in on their way upstream, giving me a good stare, so I fished an apple out of my backpack and started munching on that, which seemed to satisfy them.

Sample taken, it was then back home to do my witch's brewing using an old pot - just as well as it now has spots of corrosion on the base from the salt! Satisfied with my results, out of curiosity I dashed over to Umina Beach to collect some seawater from the surf and repeated the experiment with that, getting a result that was pleasingly close to the Bureau of Meteorology's reported salinity level for the Broken Bay region.

My answers have been emailed to the CO. Many thanks for this fun and educational Earthcache, which will be receiving an FP when I next have one available.

This has been my closest unfound cache for a long time. With international earthcache day approaching I thought its time had finally come. I organised to meet BillHill531 and Orrsome86 here for some sampling fun. Once we met up we took our samples I expected to go home and boil up our litre, but BillHill had some other equipment so we started boiling it up then and there.Before it even started to boil the first little gas canister ran out and we got out our second (and last). With the water now boiling it seemed it would take a long time and our boys were getting restless, some Orrsome took another sample and headed home, while my wife took our boys. I might have been the only one that read the cache description and I remembered it wrong, as I thought it said 35mg/L not 35g/L, so I was freaking out we did not have scales that went down that low, so we started adding more water to the pot so we could scale up our experiment. Sometime after adding the third litre I was informed I had read it wrong and it was grams per litre and that I was a fool. Ok. Luckily it was down below one litre when we ran out of gas and rebottled it to take back and continue at home. It was getting much more concentrated and so was the fun. When the salt started to appear it spluttered once or twice, but we got it to dry up pretty well and eventually had our results. This was all a lit of fun and very different to any other cache I have done, so favorite point.
Thanks the the different experience, souvenir and earthcache!

TOMBI! and I came here to do an earth cache for a special badge. We waited for Orrsome to turn up. I came with a pot and stove to eveporate the water, Orsome found a flat base for the stove to sit on and a burnt out fridge made an exellent windbreak. We managed to reduce 3litres of water down to 700 ml, before running out of gas. tranferred this to a jar and finished boiling the sample at TOMBI!'s place. This was to much waiting for Orrsome, so he took another sample to do this at home. While we were here we observed some pelicans breaking the speed limit.

Logged with permission from the CO.

Needing a earth cache to get the souvenir. Tombi suggested we do this one. i was early so me and the little one went for a very short jog while waiting. then we sat down in the shade at the wrong end of the park. got a phone call asking where we were. so we wondered over to find Tombi and BillHill waiting for us. we then took the pram along the rocky foreshore lucky it was low tide. Bill Hill had bought a gas burner so we tried to boil the water on the spot. after 30mins the little one after sitting and trying to eat the rocks was getting restless. so i took a sample of water home to boil leaving Tombi and BillHill to it. at home i then proceeded to watch water boil which is slightly more entertaining than watching paint dry. Like the_garbageman i didn't like the spitting hot salt so got it as dry as i could on the stove then stuck it in the oven. After some number crunching i came up with an answer. TFTC i haven't done that since high school and uni science experiments.

We started this on 27/2/16 and it took this long to try and get the water out of the sample because of the high humidity, we think. Interesting exercise, thank you.

Logged with permission.

While out for a drive to find a couple of caches for the New Years souvenir I stopped by this Earth cache. With a prepared bottle already in the car, I soon had the water needed and information needed so home I went to start the evaporation process. This was my first science lesson in over 30 years! Thanks MV.

Logged with permission from the CO.

What an adventure this was. Despite living the closest (I think) of all the local cachers we took a while to get around to this one. So glad we did though.

My biggest geokid and I took the sample together - she collected a few shells and we waved to some kayaker too. We know this spot as we put our tinny in the water from time to time from the nearby ramp.

Boiling up the sample was fun, but once it started spitting hot salt at us we sent it outside to evaporate the old fashioned way. Sadly we forgot about it (went caching I think) and it then spent a few days on the kitchen bench and then rehydrated somewhat from the moisture in the air. I blame the rain and our largish indoor fish tank.

On top of that we discovered our scales were broken, which after taking them apart actually proved to be a flat battery of a stupid and rare size and 5 shops and 3 days later I had the necessary item. Who said geocaching is free? $8 for a single tiny battery? Wow.

Tonight we went gourmet and made twice baked salt and stuck it in an open oven with the fan on to finish the drying process.

This was a really unique caching experience from start to finish. Very deserving of its recent recognition in the HAVOC awards. An FP from me. TFTC

We were heading to the Lake today for low tide for a certain mystery cache, so thought we'd take the opportunity to do this earthcache on our way. The temperature was rising fairly rapidly this morning, this was a nice place to be, the kids enjoyed tossing rocks into the water and generally exploring. My aquarium TDS meter came in handy to quickly make the required measurement! Thanks MV....

Thanks for the cache, we have some saltwater evaporating in the backyard, with some distilled water next to it to see the difference..... TFTC!

Sample collected on today's geo-run with Opa-Shrek.... And now for some science fun with the geo-kids... Stay tuned....

Headed up the M1 with Mumma-Kel for a second time this week in order to check out some of the COTY nominated caches around the Lake Macquarie area, along with a few random others along the way. I like this 'learning by doing' approach to an earthcache ... it's really cool. Thanks MV.

As required, we collected the required sample and our school science experiment will be undertaken over the weekend with help from Mumma-Kel's geo-kids ... good learning for them too. Our report on this experiment will be submitted, as required, by Mumma-Kel when the experiment is complete.

Congratulations your cache has been nominated in the COTY Awards. Below you will find your nomination tag that you can place onto your Cache page or Print out and place in the cache.
Congratulations on your nomination and good luck.

Picked up mr_roo for another caching roadtrip into the Newcastle area today, hoping to checkout several of the COTY2015 Nominations once again.

I've kayaked here a few times and know of regular races being held here. Testing the waters here to find its Salinity is something would never of occurred to me for an EC. In my travels elsewhere, kayaking, we often taste the waters to see where fresh waters begin. Some Hot days make the lake's waters so salty that everything is coated in a scaley coating of salt, faces, hands and the whole kayak.
Great idea, havent done anything similar since school days up at Somersby Creek.
Some surprising results, not what I expected.

[green] - Found It on Saturday ... at 11:35 AM ...
TFTC! - [blue]Marcus Vitruvius[/blue] ... [/green]
Total Finds now ... 1891
[blue] This log was posted with CacheSense v4.30, available on Android and BlackBerry ![/blue]

Found with DOC WHO today. Did it the hard way and went bush bashing to gz. Got what we needed from gz. It was then up to DOC WHO to do the hard work TFTC

[Blue]This cache was found at around 10:14 and brings our overall cache find tally to 9213.

This one was a cool EC. I have done one similar in NZ and boiled up our water in a hostel! Today in the rain I came for a visit and took my sample then had the chance to share the science lesson with the kids at home.

Thanks Marcus Vitruvius for the cache. [/Blue]

thanks for the great lesson , we all enjoyed the experiment and researching the result
done with AussieBen and Scales9

thanks for a great cache, did it with kingfisher_au and Aussieben

We decided to choose this earth cache for our international earthcache day souvenir. Collected our water to boil down- well three litres just incase, there were three of us( kingfisher_au, scalex9 and myself) I'm sure lake Macquarie is not going to miss those extra two litres we did not need. Thanks for a great earthcache Marcus vitreous. Favourite point from me.

Luckily I had a salt meter in my shed. Unluckily the batteries were flat and when new ones were placed in it wouldn't read this high anyway. But with dilution with demineralised water I got there in the end. Message sent with answers. TFTC

**FTF**

#4426

I saw the notification come through and with the bad weather yesterday, took the opportunity to go down this morning to gather my samples. I grabbed about 4.5litres just to make sure and came home a started the boiling process. It's amazing how long a watched pot takes. Haha. I couldn't find a set of scales so luckily a neighbour came to the rescue and I was able to get an accurate weight. I've sent an email to the CO with the answers and had a fun experience learning a bit about the lake and something about I didn't know before

Thank Marcus for a great Earthcache.

Published