Copper Blaxlands Ridge, New South Wales, Australia
By teamMerlin on 10-Apr-17. Waypoint GC727D4

Trying to play catch up with logging. Found as part of the CC24 crew. After the Colo River yesterday lots of extra stuff to pick up. Thanks for getting me out and about teamMerlin

Find # 13078Following an epic weekend including a on the Colo yesterday, a few challenges and trails today before the group goes their separate ways to head home.Always energy for just one more - with Smittengranny, KittyKatch, Joolay, and a bunch of others and signing at CC24 (Canberra Cachers 24) to save space in the logbook. Many thanks to teamMerlin for placing Copper for us all to enjoy. Your contribution to the game through the placement and maintenance of this cache over the years is appreciated.

It is now Sunday and we (the group who had driven up from Canberra) allowed ourselves a bit of a sleep in after the kayak adventure on the Colo River yesterday. It wasn't much of a sleep in though as there are just so many caches up here to be found - some of the mysteries having already been solved at home. The day dawned sunny and very humid, which didn't bode well for some of the hilly walks. However we were blessed with 100% finds of the caches that we targeted. This was one of them and the logs were all signed as CC24 (Canberra Crew) to save space.Thanks to all the COs for placing and maintaining these caches.

Found on a kayaking weekend with a group of Canberra cachers. We signed as CC24. TFTC.

Found with minniek and the rest of Team CC24 (Canberra Canoeists 2024).Day 2 of our Colo River Region Caching Adventure. After an amazing days caching yesterday mainly on the river, it was time for some bushwalking for caches today. The main aim were the Challenges and Yin Yang series (or at least as many as we had solved). Nice quick find. Signed, returned, and we continued on our way to the next one.Thanks teamMerlin !!

A quick dash hoping to not miss the lights but no need to rush as we still got stopped, just 60 metres away.Today the Canberra crew that had gathered in the area for the colo River caches, met up this morning for group caching. We started the day walking a trail of challenges, before moving on to ying yang puzzles. Our group consisted of kittykatch, joolay, contesta, MinnieK, Fitzy, search4, Aykayem, smittengranny, FurfacesLL, loci, Nibletricecakes, Gliss, TikvaNZ, sacada and myself. We signed as CC24 (Canberra Canoeists 2024) as our group name to represent all cachers.A nice walk through the bush for the challenge caches. The cicadas were loud, oh so loud at times! But a good series and a stunning view out over the colo River we had paddled from the morning before from the trad at the end.With our walk complete, we convoyed from cache to cache mostly doing the ying yang puzzles solved. A ferry crossing saw the last cacher cross, but the ferry sat on the other side chatting to the one car returning and after a long time waiting we turned and went of caching our own way unable to cross. Later, we crossed elsewhere only to meet up with the group returning!!! A warm day and the walks become too much for me with hills, a great day (Weekend) though and time to return home. A great area to visit and cache, thanks for your cache!

Spending some time caching around the NSW/ACT southern tablelands with lots of side trips. TFTC.Another day around the hills of Colo River collecting challenges, solved puzzles and traditionals.A great day out with the Canberra Crew signing as CC24. It was hot & exhausting with lots of bush walks over many hills. Wonderful scenery. A long convoy of cars carrying kayaks. Awesome.Many great puzzles that are well thought out. Many to still solve.

Found on a day out this way, doing some of the Yin Yang series, challenge caches and whatever else came our way. OCW with 4Rods, EverestHigh and Its_Dozzie, we managed to survive the heat, the hills, the bush and deafening cicadas. A few goannas were spotted as well, and we enjoyed the scenery in the many places we visited.This was one of the few along Packer Rd, and was easy enough with the extra hint. Good to see the road is maintained. TFTC

Not a copper to be seen out here, despite many speeding motorbikes. OCW Its_Dozzie, 4Rods and Brewmaker. TFTC teamMerlin

#6225Today, Smurfyguy and I travelled out to this area to tick off a few more of the Ying Yang series. Its been two years since our last finds in this series. Weve made plans to come back in the interim but have been thwarted by sickness, heavy rain, floods and bushfires.The last time we were here, we were accompanied by our good mate, Rama497. Sadly, he is not with us today to enjoy the hunt. We did however, bring along his Geocaching NSW hoodie so he was with us in spirit. RIP mate.It was good to solve the puzzle and finally turn this icon into a smiley.Thanks for the geo-fun teamMerlin.

A great day exploring the region with ESCR. We just selected caches and walks that looked interesting to get a feel for the area and ended up collecting a decent number. TFTC!

Spending a few days in the area for some hikes and a paddle down the Colo river. A beautiful part of the world. TFTFun!

On the way to a kayak adventure with The Rats and Steeba. One of the many caches we found on our way to the river.Cheers

Out for a weekend in and around the Colo River with The Rats and Hoojar to find plenty of caches- a fair bit of legwork needed beforehand though. Some enjoyable country.TFTC!

Out for a weekend caching with steeba and Hoojar. We targeted NW Sydney and the Colo area. With plenty of choices we had a great weekend canoeing and hiking.This was literally a drive-by findTFTC

It’s there

Found it - log to follow

What evil twisted sick mind came up with these puzzles....thanks to the cache owner for his patience and assistance helping me solves these puzzles. A quiet walk after showers this morning. Easy to find, I had looked at this for a gz in the past, far past and never did anything with it

Quick solve, quick find, restoring balance to the caching universe. Thanks teamMerlin.

Found today on a nice cache drive out this way with my brother, Dad, Mighty Minions and barefootjeff to get a few high-terrain caches and also some of the roadside yin-yang ones, had a nice time out here even though BFJ hurt his ankle at one of the first caches, we still had a really fun day around here!

TFTC

#5431
We were caching in the Colo/Sackville area today with Mighty Minions and barefootjeff, with a couple of good walks and interesting terrain and a handful of more roadside finds, we had a great day with perfect caching weather.
We decided on more roadside stuff for the afternoon, so headed out towards Sackville raiding solved yin-yangs as we went.
Samuel ducked in and grabbed this one, all in good shape too.... TFTC!

Out for a day of caching with Mighty Minions, lee737, Samuel737 and Oliver737. After injuring my ankle at Decoy, we headed back to the cars for lunch before going for a drive and doing some of the roadside Yin Yang caches we'd solved. This was the third one along and I hobbled over as close as I could comfortably get while the others made a quick find.

Many thanks for the hide and the series.

Found with my Dad and brother and friends! TFTC!!!

Out caching with Martin Cousins. One of the many in the Yin-yang series that we found today. Thanks teamMerlin.

An easy puzzle and quick find. On the way to the cache a deer darted across the road much to our surprise. I wonder how many more there are around here in the bush. TFTC. N

#8458 (5 of 5 today)

The Geocaching Calendar Gods still require appropriate propitiation, so I need to be somewhere I can grab multiple finds - which is getting harder and harder for me!

It's been a while since I've been up this way for some finds - and I've had a number of solutions to the Ying Yang series for a while.
Collected five today - was wary of the weather, and in fact I drove through rain to get here. Thankfully it stopped well before I passed through Windsor, as doing a few T3 bushwalking caches in the rain wasn't in any way appealing.

Found everything I went for. HUZZAH!
###END OF CUT AND PASTE SECTION###
Final find of the day - although not the final solved puzzle in this series.

Went past this twice before putting myself in a position to have a go at this one. A little scouting round and found a track going roughly where I wanted to go - or so I thought.

Finally the iPhone pointed true and I adjusted my trajectory and closed in for the find. Just glad I actually spotted this area from a distance.

The cache was signed, sealed and delivered... well signed and replaced, and then off to complete a few chores for the Geowife in the run up to the relatives descending on us for Christmas.

Pleasant hour or two chasing little containers today.

SLTNLN
TFTC

#9784 15:04
Today was a road trip around the Hawkesbury area. An ambitious list of caches to find as I set myself a target of reaching 10,000 finds by year end. Covid-19 lockdown put a spanner in the works and I now have only two months to find the remaining 200+ caches. So rather than interesting caches, I had to schedule a day in the car and go for quantity, rather than quality.

One of the few Yin-Yan puzzles I managed to solve. Finally with lock-down lifted I could get to this cache on my little roadtrip.

This is 41 of 61 finds today. TFTC!

Quick find TFTC

**The Series:**

I have been eager to do this series ever since it was published! I remember someone posted about it on one of the geocaching groups I am in, and I started to look at the puzzles straight away and solved a few before the first to find!

I solved a bunch of the easier ones by myself, and got some help with the tougher ones from a couple different people. I had a full set of coordinates a couple years ago now and have always wanted to visit, but this part of Sydney is a long way from where I usually frequent, and I was waiting for an excuse to visit!

I saw there was a Community Celebration hosted close by, which presented the perfect opportunity this weekend! Only had a single day to give these caches a crack, found a bunch of them but will still need to return for more. No DNF's either which was a blessing! Especially considering the condition of the bush some where found in, and the time between finds too!

This is easily one of the best series I have done, I really loved how the caches are all hidden in bush with varying Terrain ratings, I love climbing and sandstone so this was a pleasure!

TFTC teamMerlin!

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**This Cache:**

Have I mentioned that the coordinates have been absolutely amazing throughout this series?? Really appreciate that! The previous log just reminded me that I should thank you for that! Great work Especially helpful when there are lots of drops and rocks around - coordinates are important when multiple levels are involved!

A nice puzzle, because we could solve it quickly and without any help. As usual, it was a quick find at GZ due to the very accurate coords.

OCW PelDroedGwin


After an Apple pie in Bilpin and a couple of hours on tracks in the new 4x4 I was surprised to see how close we were to these solved puzzles.... couldn’t resist a few

A quick solve on this one.

My forth find of the series, still a lot of work needed !

A well hidden cache
Tftc

#5255- Out caching early this morning with thomo31 as is becoming our custom. She was heading off to the nearby cito and event, but we had 7 on our list to do before that. A nice, quick easy find, which thomo31 had done already about 3 weeks ago. Thanks

Out early to grab a few of these caches before the predicted 40+ heat. MrT was coming but he got called out on a search! So I only did 2 with easy terrain. Quick find and picked up the TBs. Signed log and returned as found. TFTC

A copper went past as I was copper. Nah not really. Quick find. Dropped 3 trackables took nothing. Tftc

Found this as one of 25 found today. Must be one of the gentler ones - I don't have notes, or traumatic memories of being vexed by it. Another easy but dusty find. TFTC

It's been 9 months since our last visit to this fantastic location, an occasion where we were strapped for time as we headed home, back to the dreaded world of reality. With only a selected few caches chosen for their DT value we vowed we would be back to finish what we had started and also have the final 3 puzzles solved.
After attending the Mega in the Gong we made our way north to wrap up this extremely difficult series, spending 24 hours hiking, rock scrambling and even a tree climb finalising the Yin Yang Geoart with great satisfaction.
A bit of unloved on this one, not sure why as it is an easy puzzle to solve.
Thanks teamMerlin for the massive effort put into these puzzles and hides making for a great series and experience , not only solving them but picking them up as well.

Today Finalf29 and I were on our way to my Aunty's 90th Birthday, so grabbed a few caches on the way... it's such a great way to break up a long journey.

Every time we come this way, I convince Finalf29 to stop for a couple more of the yin yang series... we are slowly finding the ones I have solved and from memory this was a quick solve. Also a quick park and grab at GZ. Thanks for such a great series, you have really helped my puzzle solving techniques... I know if I just keep chipping away at them I should be able to solve them all... and thus my smilies will be balanced

In the Richmond area today to pick up ten caches. Signed and replaced. Cache all good. Tftc

Yet again, out collecting this series with LouLou0212, in between moving house. The locations and puzzles are all fantastic with this series. Thank you for placing the puzzles and series teamMerlin. I’m sorry for the generic logs, but it was a while between solving and collecting the puzzles, and then a lot in a short period!

Out and about caching with BeckNmonts this week, this series has had some amazing views and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to find all of these - thanks for putting out this fantastic series - TFTC teamMerlin, I really enjoyed it!

The yin yang series has been on our radar for too long. After finishing up work for the week, we made the trip down for the weekend. Over 2 days we travelled around the different trails, finding all these caches. Thanks for the effort put into this series, it's been fun.

The solution came out pretty easy.

An enormous day out with the whole gang - M95, GD__, B7, 154C, MCMD.
Admittedly I did not and could not solve most of these puzzles. I was tagging along for the drive and physical manpower. Thanks For The Caches!

After alot of endless nights working on the puzzle series we had ourselves the coordinates needed to make a start on the series we now just needed to find a weekend the gang could all get together.muppet called out again late last week,this weekend suited us all so the plans were soon made to meet for a very early start.We cached all day and well into the night finding all the target hides,a good balance of terrain and difficulty provided perfect harmony.
Another really enjoyable day out caching with good friends.
Thanks teamMerlin for all the hard work you've put in setting up this series.

Apologies for the repeated logs
TFTC

Admittedly I had only worked part of the way through these puzzles but when I got the call to participate in some trail walking and bush bashing I was packed up and ready to go in nothing flat. Bit of a drive to get here from Wollongong via the Southern Highlands but the day was well worth the effort. I'm glad to have earned some hidden creature souvenirs while getting some great geo-art. Thanks for the caches and the series.

We've been working on this series on and off since they first appeared last year. Today we set our sights on a power-binge to snag them all in a single day... only to discover many of them were just as challenging to get as they were to solve. No matter, though, because we attacked them like a well-oiled machine and plowed through the lot with precision and determination. The weather was on our side and it was a perfect day to accomplish our goal: we were out before sun-rise, rendezvoused with the usual suspects, made the trip from the Southern Highlands, made the first find by nine, the last by seven, and scored two bonus caches in the process; then we had a bite to eat where we could reflect on the day's adventures before refueling and heading for home. All up, a challenging series of puzzles, definitely a challenging day out, and some great art on our map. Thanks Team Merlin for the caches and the series.

What an adventure it has been to get here…

This all started back in August 2017 when I was notified of the puzzle series. I was really on top of puzzle solving skills at the time, so I set to work on the GeoArt. The puzzling process reflected the Yin Yang philosophy – a balance of easy, hard and everything in between. By February, I only had 8 puzzles to go. A few emails between the CO and other puzzle solvers had set the last 8 straight. We have sat on the completed list for 5 months, waiting patiently for the stars to align.

Now that I am on session break, my time has been significantly freed up. It was by chance that I had a weekend day off work, which was an ideal day for the others. A few messages were sent around late in the week to see if everyone was interested in finally getting around to doing the Yin Yang series. We had enough interest to go ahead with the plan.

Rise at 5am. Rendezvous at 7am. Arrive at 9am. Cache until 7:30pm. Return by 9:30pm. Home by 11pm. We managed to find all 59 caches in the Yin Yang series in 10.5 hours. Just like the puzzle solving, the cache finding reflected the Yin Yang philosophy – some caches being effortless, extremely challenging and everything in between.


An absolutely mad achievement! We wanted to smash out the series in a day to appreciate the whole series in its entirety. A momentous day spent in great company! Thanks to teamMerlin for this wonderful series – a lot of time and energy has been put into developing such a cohesive and interconnected set of Mystery caches.

While typing this log I found this great quote I thought I’d tack on:
“Yin and yang, male and female, strong and weak, rigid and tender, heaven and earth, light and darkness, thunder and lightning, cold and warmth, good and evil...the interplay of opposite principles constitutes the universe.” – Confucius

Apologies for generic copy/paste logs. There weren’t many cache-specific field notes that we needed to record. We were just really impressed with completing the series as a whole and overlooked potential points of interest.

Geocaching day around Richmond and Colo valley.
After we solved few mystery of the series we can log it. At GZ quick found.
TFTC

No issues with the puzzle or the find. Only six or seven to go in this series for me. Thx TM!

We've been chipping away at this series for a while now, resulting in several visits to the area in search of the caches that we've solved. This extremely diverse series has since become highly addictive, and over the last few months, countless hours of frustration, puzzle solving, and eureka moments have consumed so much of our time. This weekend we decided it was time to raid the area of Yin Yang caches!
A nice and easy one. TFTC!
Cheers,
The Hancock Clan

The last find in this area for today. Many thanks to teamMerlin for an awesome series of puzzles and walks. We'll come back for more

We needed to find at least one cache today to keep our streak going, which will soon be at the 2 year mark. The co-ords for this one seemed to place it at an easily accessible point, so it was put on the list. Once getting near to GZ the hide was quickly identified and it was thankfully in the obvious place. Many thanks go to teamMerlin for this puzzle series and some easier to access hides when we need them. The only negative part was that the GPS was accidently left there and by the time that fact was realised and we had returned, it had had a wash from the showery conditions. Never mind, everything still works well.

Got to love daylight savings which gives me more time after work to get my cache. Grabbed the geodogs on my way through but they had to settle just for a drive as this cache didn’t require a good walk to get to, maybe next time geodogs. SL #3374 on streak day #1973 TFTC

Quick solve a little while ago.

Today work put me in the area and took the opportunity to check out some fire trails and the Bush. Focus was to collect solved puzzles with easier access back with Mtb at another stage to make those longer trails more fun. Spent a pleasant afternoon walking and driving on quiet roads. Kudos to the Co for the excellent series.

Quickly found signed and returned.

Out caching with Snoopy1976 late tonight and found this one just after midnight. TFTC

Day two for our grab on more of these great caches in this picturesque area. We managed to find all of the puzzles that we had solved and some of the other traditionals along the way.

The terrain ranged from nail biting cliff scrambles to easy flat walks that just varied in length. All of the hides were well tucked away and sometimes presented us with a challenging search. Some of the locations played havoc with the GPS and we found ourselves using the 'Where would we hide it' technique which also served us well.

We had a good solid day and certainly feel a bit stiff and sore but with a huge sense of achievement. Thanks again for the obvious effort injected into these interesting and challenging puzzles and for showing us a large portion of your backyard. We enjoy geocaching here and will return again for sure.
SL TFTC

Streak Day #1549 - Since we were out this way quite late we decided to make this find after midnight. TFTC

Found on the 02/10/2017 at 6:02:00 PM.

Today I set out to cache up to Wiseman's Ferry and around to Ebenezer to grab a good two dozen caches. After filling many bottles of water as I knew it was going to heat right up I was off!

I hadn't really looked far into this series until meeting up with some fellow cachers a couple of days ago, so I started to work my way through some solutions and managed to find another 8 before calling it a day.

Thanks for the cache.

I'd solved this shortly after the last Coffee, Cakes and Conundrums event, but our overseas trip put paid to the idea of collecting it anytime soon. I'd been down this road about a week before that, picking up a different cache. I could almost see this one on GoogleEarth ...

Today it was a quick stop and hop from the car. I didn't even take the GPSr along, going only on the description. It was a nice quick find, which was a good thing because the sun was getting low and I still wanted to try pick up two more solved puzzles.

Signing duties were concluded and one more of my signature small wire dogs went into the container before everything was put back where I had found it. Then on to attempt the last two finds for the day.

Solved the puzzle at home which was easy. With a break in the weather it was time to find this cache. The cache was found quickly and easily. The log was signed and the cache was replaced as found. Thank you teamMerlin for the series and placing this cache.

Out today with the garbageman, his two beautiful daughters and my daughter. The aim of the day to find 25 different D/T combos in a day, we really did appreciate good co ordinates at these caches it really made the task easier . Thanks for the cache teamMerlin tnln sl

Found with the help of the PHL caching cracking program. It also comes with an accurate and easy to "follow" navigation program. Every household should have one.

In town today in search of 25 different D:T combos, in the excellent company of my geokids (3 and 5) and the Mighty Minions. A wonderful day - filled with great family moments, about 8km of walking (the last kilometre by torchlight in complete darkness), some very cheeky hides, and most importantly, NOT A SINGLE DNF! Thanks to all the COs in the region - the coords today were consistently very good, and the caches and logs were by and large in great condition.

This was the twenty first cache of the day and the kids sat this one out in the car. They were flogged and wanted a rest. But 4 to go, we had to press on...

We will definitely come back and do the rest of these puzzles at some point. What fun they are (mostly - there's some beasts in there). A quick find at GZ - first place I looked - cache and log are in great condition. TNLN TFTC

#1349
After a 2 week hiatus, went for a nice drive to Sackville with geoWife to pick up a few solved puzzles. This was the fourth of six.
TFTC TeamMerlin

Out on a Sackville puzzle blitz this afternoon. Very much enjoying this series.
All the puzzles are interesting and nice to explore this area.
SL TFTC

I came for a drive to collect some puzzles I had solved over the last couple of weeks.

Another easy puzzle, walk and find.

TFTC.

After collecting the new puzzle we had these couple solved so continued along. No problems with the solutions and quick finds at the relevant GZ's. We completed the signing duties and re hid. TFTC.

My third find for the morning and the one I could park closest to GZ.
Cache quickly found, log signed and cache replaced as found. tftc

We did a number of these mystery caches after the CITO event today. This was the sixth out of eight. It was the first that took us off the sealed roads. When we pulled to a stop another car was coming the other way and the guy slowed, giving us a good look, perhaps wondering whether we were okay. We didn't gesture to him, so he took off again and were then free to make an easy find of the cache. Thanks.

#4,965

A simple puzzle, and a nice quick find for this one. Some of those boulders looked a little weird, like they had actually been carved, they were so square.

Thanks

Feels good solving this and finding it. Thanks for teaching us different kinds of puzzles!

Great puzzle! TFTC

#1124 solved this one yesterday & put it with my other solved caches unknown find date. After being over at Emu Plains this afternoon & finishing early decided that now is a good time to get some of these solved caches would be good to go for. Worked out where there was a group of 4 finals near one another so decided head there. As I was getting close realised I was about to go passed Copper so a change of plans occurred so I stopped less than 10 metre away. Didn't bother with the GPSr & made a quick discovery. Signed the log and replaced as found. Both the cache & log are in good order Thanks for the puzzle teamMerlin

The following TBs visited for the distance - 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, & 2016 phlphotos NSW geocoins, phlphotos' Spindoc Bob Memorial Geocoin & Rainbow Spirit’s Caching Dilemma's Geocoin,Help for Heroes Geocoin, Heart Strings, Matsi's First Geocoin, Jasmer Geocoin & Kitac 2

Published

[*FTF*] Seen this one of two pop up today soon had them solved and decided to have an early day. Jumped in the car and took a now very familiar path to the GZ. No need of any need of extra illumination today for a change. The iPhone had me wandering for a bit but I soon had the cache in hand after rechecking the hint on the phone after inadvertently leaving my printout behind in the office in the rush to get here. Opened the cache container to find a blank log. FTF 4.00pm. Thank again Team Merlin for the puzzles and caches. On to the next one. keep them coming.
Visited some Travel bugs today also something new for me.Auskage Ftruck #9,Jimmy B Travelling guitar Senior,Minz TB - Rennwagen cheers