Lightning's Playground Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
By RandomExplorers on 14-Sep-18. Waypoint GC7XQAM

Wow!!! This EC was AMAZING! I loved learning about this feature and looking around at all the little bits and pieces and colours and all. So fascinating!Thank you for this EC. Five fave points awarded by me...oh, dang, I can only add one. Thanks.

Spending the weekend on Moreton Island with Beardman75, Peppa, Now-Tomorrow and wayn0 running amuck and seeing what this beautiful island has to offer. We arrived just as a bus full of tourists pulled up to go sand boarding. They went one way and we went the other way to this very interesting location. Mother Nature is fascinating isnt it? I enjoyed learning something new here and what a great location. Thanks for the cache RandomExplorersFind #6570

We are on a mission to Moreton Island to get Peppa a milestone with an apparently "secret" plan involving Davinells, wayn0, NTM, and myself. After listening to a tour guide tell a bunch of tourists how to throw yourself face first down a sand dune without getting a face full of sand, we wandered over to GZ to ponder the science lesson. As a bonus we got to watch a bunch of tourists hurl themselves face first down a sand dune and get a face full of sand.Thanks RandomExplorers and happy caching

Davinells had a secret plan A weekend on Moreton Island in the still Chainsawless Pajero that required much consultation with the oracle that is Wayn0 With the promise of Glamping, the tides were read, charts & maps examined, and secret plans confirmed Coming across very early Saturday morning meant Venus was in alignment with Scorpio and we would experience all the joys of Moreton without having to float the car down the beach or at least thats what I heard but I wasnt party to all the secret planning, so Did I mention we got to Glamp!!!I will admit that this was an interesting Earthcache and I can confirm that you will continue to find sand in your mouth for many days after completing the tasting component of this cache Thanks RandomExplorers I know my friends will submit the required answers on my behalf because Im a

I am down under for the very first time. Visiting Australia has always been a dream of mine, and I cannot believe it has come true. Australia's nature and wildlife really captivated me. Over three weeks, I saw many wonderful beaches, sunsets, animals such as , and I found great geocaches. My tour guide was mostly geocaching, and through it, I discovered many beautiful places I wouldnt have seen without our great hobby. I mainly stayed in Brisbane but also visited other gorgeous places such as Noosa Heads and Springbrook. I spent a few days on the Gold Coast and Moreton Island, and I went to New South Wales to have visited a second state in Australia. During my stay, the winter and early spring in Queensland were very warm, the sun shone every single day, and I did not see a single drop of rain. My time down under was so beautiful and unforgettable. Australia is such a stunning country! Today I spent a day on Moreton Island. I really like this gorgeous island and I explored beautiful places. I also looked for a few geocaches like this one. I tried to answer all the questions of this -cache and sent it to the CO. Very interesting and I learned a lot! Thank you for this geocache says Mr. J. Cacher from the other side of the world

This was a great area for sand toboganning, and after a few enjoyable toboggan descents towards this main tree cluster, we found the nearby traditional cache [Eatin' Sand](https://coord.info/GC1XAMM), and then walked back to the car via this EarthCache. This small area had a cool feature in a sandy desert that was remarkably different to the nearby sand dunes and ridge, so it was interesting to see. Observations were collected and note, and answers sent to the CO for validation. Thanks RandomExplorers for the EarthCache placement and ongoing maintenance. ---------- This trip, [@jesswrigley](https://coord.info/PRNW59T), baby Cottontail and I had a Moreton Island extended weekend staying at Tangalooma Resort. We took a northern island circuit on Friday visiting Cape Moreton Lighthouse, and then on Saturday was a driving expedition to the south visiting Mount Tempest, Kooringal, Rous Battery, and the Desert. On our final day on Sunday, we relaxed and enjoyed a couple of swims that included a stop at Tangalooma Wrecks. A family weekend adventure that we made the most of with the weather that we were dealt!Today, the weather was remarkably better, and we planned to visit the southern half of Moreton Island. We walked/hiked Mount Tempest as our starting morning activity, and following that hot workout, we headed south with a planned stop at Mirapool Lagoon that fizzled (not the calm lagoon that we had hoped). The Gutter Bar in Kooringal was an unexpected highlight, and we setup on a nearby beach for a dip and swim. During our return, we stopped at Rous Battery and other nearby structures that were also an island highlight. Before returning to Tangalooma, in the late afternoon, we stopped at the Desert for a sand toboggan down the sand slopes.

Day 14 of our Australia holiday, today consisted of sand tobogganing and a walk around the desert, as well as dolphin feeding and a beach sunset walk; it was a very enjoyable day.
Spent a little while exploring this area, very interesting. Answers sent.
Tftc, #1681.

Number 8 for my Meandering Moreton weekend. It is always fun to learn environmental info about places.
TYFC ️

TFTC, brought us to a beautiful and surprising part of the island.

Is there anything this island cannot do!? Seriously this place is next level, and our trip to the desert today did not disappoint. Your earthcache brought us further into the desert than we would have trekked, and after reading about fulgarites we were on the lookout on our walk back, and we found them! So many! Really fascinating and the kids loved digging 'lightening' out of the sand! Thanks so much, a fav from us.

On a quick camping trip before the school hols, camping just under the desert. What an amazingly adventurous day we've had!
Submitted answers to the earth cache questions to the CO.
The highlight was finding fulgurite pieces - lots of them! What a cool earth cache!
It really helps selling geocaching to our muggle friends, who are on Mulgumpin heaps and realised how there's always more to learn, amazing knowledge shared, beautiful places revealed.
Thanks so much for that RandomExplorers! I'll give it a fave aswell, definitely my favourite out of the last ten or so!

It's been around 20 years since I last drove on Moreton Island. On that occasion I was staying at Bulwar for a fishing and buck's party weekend. This time I was here for an extended weekend camping with friends at Blue Lagoon campsite. We were surprised to have the whole camp area to ourselves for the whole stay, apart from attacks from marauding crows who trashed the place in our absence while we were out fishing and sight seeing, eating their way into food containers and packets.

After an enjoyable 3 nights stay it was time to head off this morning to catch the barge back to the main land. We were a little ahead of schedule so called in for a visit to The Desert on the way through. I had never heard of fulgurite before and was surprised by the apparent quantity found around GZ. Great to learn something new from this earth cache. TFTC

Afternoon walk from the resort via the bush track.
The sand was hard from recent rains, made the last part of my walk easy.
Observations made and answers provided to CO.
A great place this arvo!
Thank you RandomExplorers for hiding and maintaining this geocache for the community.
R

Tftc!!! Beautiful Walk with my husband.

Really interesting walk as we listened in to a tour guide from another group behind us !! We learned so much on our excursion.

Answers sent.

Log to follow

Spent a couple of days at Tangalooma so naturally going out to play in the Desert was part of the fun activities.

A muggle friend and I took a walk out here early in the morning while the girls remains sungly tucked up in bed.

Wow what a spot and it was fascinating to observe the fulgurite close up.

On holiday from Canberra and got the opportunity to visit Moreton island. Although I was told that it was not a time to go caching, nothing can stop me from making some observations. Answers have been sent to the CO. Thanks for the fun and interesting earthscience lesson!

Came here on a school excursion and not disappointed. Great to be able to share it with my students. A rare visit to Moreton Island so I had to grab as many as I could.

I AM GUR

My family came to Tangalooma Island Resort the previous weekend. It is such a lovely place. As part of our stay we did the Dessert Safari Tour. I did one of the scary toboggan rides down the sand dunes, thankfully managing to not get a mouthful of sand like my husband did. I didn’t feel like walking up the steep dune again so my daughter Pinkypie05 and I went for a little walk to GZ instead. We gathered the information we needed and I finally messaged the CO today. TFTC and for telling us about this interesting and amazing place!

Away sailing for the long weekend and happened to be anchored at Tangalooma Pt and remembered that there was a walk to the Desert from the beach that we wanted to do. Took the dinghy to shore and found it a bit hard to find the walk sign at first as a bit overgrown back from the beach. Nice walk up the dune to start - steep but nice and shady. Great view over the bay (and our catamaran anchored below) from the top lead light.
Ventured further up and through the interesting bush with lots of fluffy ferns and banksias until we reached the Desert. Always an awesome sight when you reach it. We've driven and walked from the other side before but never approached this way on foot. We headed off into the middle with little specks of people sliding down the steep dunes in the distance.
We soon arrived at gz and were amazed at the weird rocks here that now we know are a result of lightning strikes. Certainly learnt something new here today which is what earthcaches are all about. We observed the sand to make our interpretations of the questions then headed towards the dunes to complete our desert circumnavigation.
We ran down the nearest one to the east before a steep walk back up to the bush then a nice downhill stroll back to the beach. A great walk this time of year, but I wouldn't recommend it in summer. I thought it was Mulgumpin but it seems to depend which source you look at.
#2802 . Sent message to CO with answers.
TFTC RandomExplorers ️ ️ ️

Thank you for this Earthcache and for bringing me here. Arrived early morning to beat the heat. Beautiful and interesting.
Cheers

This weekend, I had the pleasure of being invited to tag along with Fangsoki, 1MinnieMoo, Pprime, Herbz, Radnoski and Crew 153 for a terrific adventure on Moreton Island. This was my third trip to Moreton Island since I started geocaching, and each time it has not been a disappointment

We completed a variety of different caches while we explored the area and generally, had a great time while we were at it. Pprime submitted our group response which has been accepted by the CO.

Thank you RandomExplorers for placing the cache and for maintaining it for everyone to enjoy

An epic long weekend away on the beach with mates. What could be more perfect than this? Well, a cache or four beckons as well. Fangsoki, Herbz, Just-a-Trifle, Radnoski, 1MinnieMoo, Crew153 and I rolled up here to the Desert as our last day started to wind towards wine-o'clock. This EC memorializes one of my thoughts last time I was here - what if a thunderstorm happens while here? Well, little chance of that today, there was a wind, but the sun was out and the day was dry and warm.

I wandered over to GZ, found a comfy seat, read up (again) what I needed to know here, and looked around. Came up with a few thoughts, tried them out on my fellow travelers, amended and updated and collectively decided on what to send through to the CO ... who kindly accepted them. Woohoo. Nice rocks - I like rock.

Thanks RandomExplorers for bringing me to this location.
*{Overall find #7986}*

9/8/20 Find #4001

A group of us have been planning an assault on Moreton for quite some time now. But with one thing and another, followed by Covid, it just wasn’t happening. And then finally, we had a date set hard and fast!
And this weekend it was finally time for the group of merry travellers to board the barge and set off. Fangsoki, Pprime and Mr Herbz were the 4WDing chauffeurs for the weekend, while Crew153, Just A Trifle, and I were the cheerful passengers (to later be joined by Radnoski).
Now all the others had been to Moreton previously, so this was extra special for Crew153 and I, as it was our maiden Moreton voyage.
Today was our last day of island adventures. We made our journey to the Desert. Well it certainly wasn’t deserted! Managing to find some space to pull the geomobiles in, we exited the vehicles and prepared to head over. Now everyone knows deserts are hot places, right?
The Desert didn’t know that, as with those August winds blowing on down it was just plain freezing!
We headed along, with Pprime leading the way, when suddenly we notice he’s laid down for a rest against some rock, in typical Pprime fashion. Ahhh ok well looks like we are here then. Some discussion was had in regards to the answers, which were quickly agreed upon, partly due to the fact we didn’t want to stand there too long in the freezing winds. Some admiring of the varied styles of sand tobogganing happening opposite, before we headed down into the trees to shelter from the wind and search for a cache.
Answers sent courtesy of Pprime for the group, which have kindly been accepted by RandomExplorers.
Thanks for the earthcache RandomExplorers.

Our group of cacher friends were having a great time on the island but this was our last day. We plowed through the soft sand in the car park and then braved the bitingly cold wind blowing across the sand. ( I thought deserts were supposed to be hot).

Pprime had arrived before us and he was lying on the ground soaking up the atmosphere (or something like that). We read through the questions and worked out our responses and then headed down the slope to find the nearby cache.

Pprime has forwarded our group response which has been accepted by the CO.

TFTC RandomExplorers

1MinnieMoo, Just a Trifle, Radnoski, Team Herbz, Crew 153, Pprime, and I were on Moreton Island for a bit of a break from Covid-19 and the city.

We pulled up into the carpark, kitted up and head toward GZ. We arrived and Pprime found something that resembled a rock so instantly laid across it to have a rest (as is a Pprime's want).

We set about collecting and discussing our clues in the interesting area.

We went and grabbed the nearby cache for those that didn't have it. It was then back to the car to test our "driving through chopped up sand" skills.

Our answers have been kindly accepted by RandomExplorers.

My one and only find on Moreton Island. But I really don't care that much. It's more about being with good mates and seeing them succeed in their geocaching goals. TFTE RandomExplorerers. A very interesting area

A visit on the island, also to eat no sand during sand surfing.
Danke an RandomExplorers für diesen Cache
***CADS11***

Answers sent to CO by Dora the Explorer!

Dora the Explorer! and I had a day out on a jet ski as the weather was predicted to be calm.

After completing the other cache near here which we walked to from Whaling at Tangalooma we headed over to this Earth Cache.

It was interesting to see something completely different amongst this expanse of sand. There must be millions on tonnes that has been moved to this area.

After Dora the Explorer! and I had worked out the answers and sent them to the CO, we headed back along the track and back along the beach to the jet ski left near the logs near the resort.

Find #2168

Thanks for the Earth Cache ***RandomExplorers***

Found after doing other cache in area. Answers sent. Walked here via track from tangalooma whaling.

A great location for a cache. TFTC. D M O S & N

We arrived in Brisbane on Sunday to get a cruise on Tuesday spend Monday caching in Brisbane managed to get 9 3 virtuals yay. A big deal as New Zeakand doesn't have a huh amount. Then off we set to this lovely island so beautiful the water is so refreshing. Even saw a dolphin on our way over. We set off at 9am did the trail to our first cache got that at 9.15am thought shall I go on get the other caches at the sand dunes a nice day track mainly shaded so why not. Well it was a bit up and down but track was good nice shade then finally reached the 400 meters to go even though my GPS said 800 meters to go it was down down down steps then a steep sand dune I'm not the fittest so I was getting a bit tired well alot tired and nearly ready to turn back but no my stubborn mess kept me going. Finally reached where I needed to go I think. Took photos of lovely sand dunes so beautiful soft and hard to climb. Thank you for bringing me here even though I felt tired and probably be very sore tomorrow I wish it was a 4 difficulty for what we just went though. Next time I'll hire transport. So then it was time to set off back to the dock that took a while but I decided to do the beach way this time only 1.3 ks to the beach then my phone said 822 to walk down the beach to get some iced cold water nicely supplied for free. Thank you for placing a multi out here it is so worth while fir all to enjoy. Gets a favourite point from us.

Sorry forgot to mention sent answers to CO

Had a great time playing on the desert dunes with this cache. Couldn't spend too long playing with a long walk ahead of us!

Geo adventure for team eatmorchikin, 3 day hike, over 40km on sand. Starting at the barge, walking down to The Desert and then on to Rous Battery for camp. Day 2 was crossing the island east to west across Big Sandhills. Major storm after setting up camp with half of team EMC losing the battle of tent vs storm. Day 3 was all the way backup the beach back to the Barge. Fantastic long weekend and some great stories.

We were here at Tangalooma and visited the dunes. Didnt realize there was an EC here so now we have something to do when we return next year.

FTF! While spending a few days on Moreton, I walked from the beach up to "The Desert" to check out the renowned sand dunes (that is, to tumble down them repeatedly like a child), and also to look for the traditional cache that I knew was lurking here from a previous visit.

Once I'd logged that, I turned my attention to this new earth cache. Unfortunately, my phone coverage was gone by now and I couldn't pull up the required details. So, I spent some time wandering in the vicinity of GZ, in the hope that I might be able to see and learn enough to answer the questions retrospectively. (In case you've not been here on foot, it's a decent walk from the pier at Tangalooma!)

It turns out I did have enough – just. (The COs were kind enough to go easy on my vague-ish answers!) I knew nothing about this topic before now – amazing stuff. Thanks for the great cache, RandomExplorers.

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