The Ballarat Howitzer Invermay Park, Victoria, Australia
By sally_mally_616 on 30-Sep-18. Waypoint GC7YD1D

Found nice and quickly on a busy Saturday night. Was lucky enough to put my hand on it straight away, otherwise muggles would have become suspicious. Nice container and thanks for the hide.

searched just about everywhere except where the cache is

Quick find with good co-ords and having seen a hint in a log... saved a lot of time, unlike I have on other cache of similiar GZs!TNLNSL Thanks

Man did this take some finding. Well hidden

Took a while, found it. Some good tips on location.

TFTC

Fun find by Haz101

Nice easy find! Thank you

TFTC! 24 March 2024 5:44:57pm 7681 thanks to sally_mally_616 for the cache! Looking in the wrong spot the first time, came back a little later to do some recycling at the machine. Nice container, found after reading some logs.

Raced out to find a leap-day cache at night, but of course the closest one was a nemesis cache... not sure how many times I've tried this one before (seemingly always during a storm/ sudden rain lol). Looked at other logs so knew where to look this time, took a while and was almost about to give up before I rechecked the cords, located a likely hiding spot and... tada! Finally! TFTC and thanks for bringing us here!

Very glad hubby was with me as I dont think I would have found that one on my own. TFTC

Oh, that was good. Now one of my favourite hides for these things. Still took a minute, but all went well and my name is in the log book.Thanks sally_mally616...fav point for the hide...and the container was pretty cool as well.

Found it avenged a DNF after looking at the logs TFTC

A last minute change of plans and LeeLee set off to Ballarat for an event and some targeted caches. After the event LeeLee set off with Tiz13. We had a great time and teamwork worked well for the caches we had in mind. Driving past another stop at this very busy spot. Not long and the cache was in hand. Thanks sally_mally_616 app good here.

Following a nearby event and a group assault. Crack'n'LeeLee (LeeLee) and l decided to continue on with our own afternoon shenanigans. This was one of the random stops we made. Team work prevailed as we found this cache..

Took a bit to find as I am short but found it in the end

Used my height to my advantage

Stopped in at the golf club for a hot date with Nelzarama and the fam and grabbed this one afterwards.
Cool spot, the kids thought it was pretty cool! TFTC

The canon is a good distraction but a well placed cache.

Easy thank goodness
TFTC

Out to lunch today at the RSL with Cogs06 so went and searched for this one. Little littlecogs was intrigued by the old gun. Quick find.

Took my Gran out for an adventure to find some caches!

New where it should be according to the GPS. We hunted around and the vertically challenged Mrs Cogs spotted it. So like a knight in rusting amour I came to the rescue. Cache was soon retrieved, log signed and cache replaced..

I’d been forewarned a tall person may be needed so I brought my husband along and lucky I did. Cache found, brought down to my height so I could sign and returned. TFTC

Found by Omegaman1971


Out in Ballarat with Rebel Acts on a cold Saturday Morning.

Nice quick find here today.

Cheers for the cache l

Couldn't find it

Thanks for the cache. The 10 yr old nearly gave up. But came up a winner

Found by caughtatwork on 29/12/2022 at 12:37:00 PM
A challenge to find today, but persistance pays off.
Took nothing, left nothing.
Thanks for placing this geocache here for us to find today, for without those who like to hide geocaches, there would be nothing around for those who like to find geocaches.
*Overall Experience: 3*
GAFF1

Rated: for Overall Experience

This geocache was an easy find. Thank you for this find

**Out and about enroute to Horsham**

The thing I love about caching is the interesting stories, the extra interest and attention you take when traveling, the sight-seeing, the history, the interests of the individual CO’s, *the fantastic photo opportunities* and sometimes finding places that even some locals don’t know about. I, like most cachers, look for more that a mint tin or a container under a bush. I appreciate the time that most CO’s take to construct a cache and write up a comprehensive listing and to create an interesting cache. **I love traveling this big land of ours.** I love taking the roads less traveled. I love the diversity of the land, the different scenes in the different seasons, the fresh air, the open plains, the lofty vistas and the magnificent waters. I love the different coffee shops I find. I enjoy the times I cache with others but I usually cache on my own.

This cache is not one of these…

Thank you sally_mally_616 for adding this cache to my real-life treasure hunt. I appreciate your efforts.
- P

*Took*: Nothing
*Left*: Nothing

**Warning**, this hobby can be addictive. It can lead to learning new things and finding interesting places you might not have known existed otherwise.

Cache on!
**#17551**

I have been searching for this one sooo many times. Tonight I was able to find it straight away. Feel like I know every inch of this howitzer!
Tftc

Lucky not many muggles around here.
Love the cache
TFTH

13:44
Following the Franklins Bridge Reserve August Planting event we took the opportunity to revisit a few caches, including this one, which we had been unable to find previously on two occassions.

We thought we had checked everywhere, returned to the car, P-P went back for a final check & you guessed - came up trumps.

Thanks to sally_mally_616 for placing such innovative caches on the gameboard
32696

Thanks for the cache

We were very impressed with this cache. We had parking, and we had a cache that was quickly found. Loved the gun. SL TFTC

Third time lucky, with the help of a taller person than me TFTC

Found with Roostaman on our Feb/March Vic trip down South.
Another fun caching trip and lots of smilies too. .
Thanks for the cache sally_mally_616,
***MrsRoosta ****

Finally found this one after quite a search. Very relieved it wasn't a nano!

With work encouraging us to take some holidays and Mr SKI having quite a few weeks up his sleeve it was time to take another short break and do some sightseeing and caching in parts of Victoria we seldom visit.
This time we decided it would be Ballarat. There is a wide variety of cache types and quite a number of Adventure Labs to do, so the area is quite attractive. And that doesn't include the historical and interest aspects as well.
We organized to meet up with some friends while there so we would have the opportunity to do some joint as well as solo caching.
We have already had some great adventures on a few challenging caches that generated a lot of fun and as usual always good to find some pre-solved puzzles.
All logs signed as SKI Pair, RASP (Rebel Acts & SKI Pair or SP depending on size of logs and availability of space.

Thank you for your efforts in creating and maintaining the cache sally_mally_616.
**SKI Pair****

Found with MrsRoosta on our Feb Vic trip down South.
Another fine Summer day for a drive around the Ballarat area.
We usually dread these ones but it was not too hard.
Thanks for the cache sally_mally_616,
***Roostaman****

Exploring Ballarat and surrounds in company of my teen and EarthboundChief. The weather started off looking a bit glum but the sun came out soon enough. After attending the CITO at the cemetery, we made our way here.

At GZ I had a look and chat about the Howitzer before having a look around for the cache.
After a short search the nicely constructed cache was in my hand.
The cache and log is in good condition.

Thank you for the cache here sally mally 616

I was actually driving past when the last two catchers found this cache, sat in the car park for a little bit to make sure that they didn’t need any help. The smile on their face when they found it certainly made my day!

Found
Very sneaky

Thank my lucky stars for amadds1980 as I would of never have found this. A terrific tricky challenge. Thanks for the fun

Sorry for the late log and a generic log. A combination of some heath issues making me not able to look at the computer for any length of time and a mishap with my phone that has caused me to lose my list of saved caches.
Found on a trip out with AusFox;.
Thank you for the hide

It was a chilly start to the day, but it didn’t stay that way. A perfect day to grab a few smiles around Ballarat with SimsFamily.
We searched for awhile for the tricky which was eventually spotted by SimsFamily.
Log signed and replaced as found.

Thanks for the Cache Sally_mally_616
#6,506

A day trip out west to Ballarat today to attend the events and grab a few more caches.

This one took some time to find. In amongst dodging muggles walking by, we continued our search which is aided when you are not vertically challenged. After already looking in this spot before, a TOTT helped to spot this on the second pass. It then took us just as long to extract the log from the cache!

Thanks sally_mally_616 for the sneaky cache.

Found by Rebel Acts

With three event on offer in the one day in Ballarat I decide to have a couple of days exploring the region, after completing the Geo Tour yesterday I had a more relaxed day today attending the events and concentrating on some solved puzzles as well as doing some of the Multis and Wherigos around town. the weather was just nice for caching today with a nice breeze blowing.

Glad to tick this evil hide off the list.

Thanks sally_mally_616 for the cache.

Today we found The Ballarat Howitzer on our travels. We are in town today to attend the events. After hunting down a few caches in the cemetery nearby we came here to try our luck. We have never had a great success with tap caches! The terrain rating suggested GZ was somewhere else, the Chief decided to ignore that and soon had the cache in hand. Getting the log out was another matter entirely however and we returned to the car for a tool to extract it. Name added soon after and cache returned.

Thanks sally_mally_616 for being part of our geocaching fun.

Cache has been fixed and also a new log book has been added. Cache returned to its home.

Cache has been fixed and also a new log book has been added. Cache returned to its home.

Cache is currently at my house temporaily, being fixed. Will be placed back within in the next week

I'm so sorry, while attempting to open the cache container, I broke the camouflage.
The cache container and camouflage have been replaced where I found the container.

My first real day caching around my new home town. Found with SirJ-Oz and Annoying Tarbit when they came up for a visit.

Apart from the small 'issue' at this cache (good one SirJ-Oz) we made the find!

Thanks for the cache sally_mally_616.

Apologies for the late log. A great day of caching with myself and SirJ-Oz heading up from the big smoke to visit LouiseAnn at her new abode and get some caching done locally. A 'no-pressure' day was planned with solved puzzles, Adventure Labs and whatever else we found on the way on the menu.

After a mix of finds in the morning and a break for lunch we headed a little further west. This was next on our list as we passed by. Tricky one and it certainly took a while to check out the various options around GZ. It was SJO who spotted it in the end but in his excited state he managed to damage the camo/container. Took nothing. left nothing, signed log and visited some trackables. Thanks for the cache sally_mally_616. Good to see you got back there to fix up any damage we inadvertently caused.

Find #4731. Found @ 14:26 with LouiseAnn and Annoying Tarbit.

With LouiseAnn's relocation to Ballarat, Annoying Tarbit and I made a long overdue visit to her new abode... and to drag her out caching.

During the Melbourne metro lockdown, Annoying Tarbit and I had been regularly catching up over Zoom and solving puzzles all over the place, with Ballarat being one of those places - so we had a fair collection to choose from. We barely scratched the surface of that list.

The plan for the day was to go with the flow, and just cache without any particular agenda... but I skewed that slightly by noticing that I'd not cracked the ton for 2020 with COVID curtailed caching, so wanted at least another 20 to get there. We easily made that happen.

I have to come clean with this one. We searched for a bit and came up empty, then tried something different and found the cache, but in the process of opening the container I broke it. The camouflage has come away from the container, but been replaced back in the same place that I found it.

Took nothing, left nothing, signed log and visited some trackables.
Thanks for the cache sally_mally_616

??

Lots of fun finding this one. Very sneaky hide!

Find 3640 on 15 November 2020

Nice find with the boys while we cleared out of home to allow Mrs Fergzter to do an exam. Great history lesson and a million questions from the youngest Fergzter as to how the howitzer worked.


TFTC sally_mally_616

#292! What a great hide that was. Signed and replaced. I really liked this one! TFTC!

Quick find, however couldnt sign log as I couldn't get it out. And the GZ took me to the wrong spot. Cool find though

Must be a great hide as we spent ages looking and couldn’t take out the victory

Stage 3 Restrictions End tomorrow, Yay!

With Ballarat bring back in stage 3 restrictions as of 05/08/2020, this geocache is currently disabled because I support the government's non-essential activities restrictions that have been introduced because of the COVID-19 virus crisis. I encourage you all to suspend your geocaching activities ASAP. We must all work together to stop the virus spreading. The cache will be enabled in the future

Tftc, found this on my 2nd look. Very quick today. Had to use something to gain height to put it back.

With restrictions being lifted, I am enabling caches again. Please still remember social distancing rules

This geocache is currently disabled because I support the government's non-essential activities restrictions that have been introduced because of the COVID-19 virus crisis. I encourage you all to suspend your geocaching activities ASAP. We must all work together to stop the virus spreading. The cache will be enabled in the future.

There was no way we were letting today pass us by without logging a cache! Im a little competitive when it comes to souvenirs!!!

As we were in Ballarat visiting family we decided to just grab the nearest cache to where we were staying. “Theres one on the next street over” exclaims geohubby! So off we trekked with two of the geokids. After reading the other logs, we were perplexed to say the least!!! After about 15 minutes of fruitless searching by myself and the kids the geohubby was poking and prodding where id never happily put my hands he was rewarded with the pesky little blighter!!

After taking care of business in towne this morning,
I headed out again on the trail of caches
Caching in the 'Rat can be frustrating at times [:o]
So I was 'cherry picking'

This cache looked possible !!
"Who was I kiding ??"
A micro on a gun ?? [:o]
Which to me translates into "A nano on a gun !!"

Finding GZ wasn't hard
It never is where howitzers are concerned
Finding the cache is the tough bit.

This howitzer is not the normal type I'm used to,
so me system of looking in all the obvious places first,
wasn't working here
At least the muggle count here was zero

With no success after a while,
I stood back a bit and scratched me noggin.

That did the trick,
and a couple of minutes later,
the tickley cache was in paw

Evil ... I thoroughly approve [^]

Found this one with the family on the way home.
We had been here before but this time we found the sneaky hide!
Thanks for the hide.

Found with McAdies and Geo_Eddie.
A nice hide at GZ thanks.
Thanks for hiding the geocache for us to find.

Finally managed to knock this sneaky cache over.
It had been a while since our last visit and today was the lucky day.
Thanks for the hide Sally very sneaky.

Found

After a hunt around we located this one with DS16 DerpyLizNerd

Checked on cache, still in correct spot

No luck again. Hint please high or low

I came I looked and I didn't see. Then I tried something else and I still didn't see, but I was close. I went and did another cache and while there bumped into another cacher who had done it and they gave me whisper. Back I came and I found out just how close I had been earlier. Thanks sally_mally_616 for adding to the game.

Was heading home but there is always time for one more although a Howitzer could take some time and certainly isn't one of our favourites. Too many places to look. Well, we looked around, in, under on and anywhere else we could think of. Even searched further afield, when OHC stood back and took a good look. She spotted the cache but . . . . . lol. Thanks for the cache. This is a nice first hide with an interesting twist.

4:39 pm #7745
Spent way too long looking for this, until I stood back to have an overall view and spotted something.
Cheers sally_mally_616

Found by Mary and David at 13:20. We had tried for this one after the "Geocaching in March" Event, and had even searched where we found it today. As the saying goes, don't know how we missed it! A cold day in Ballarat today, but the temperature was at least just into double figures. A very special tribute. Our thanks to sally_mally_616.

Mrs Riddell requested Mr Riddell to recheck with his phone, somewhere he had previously felt. And bingo.
It didn’t match our co Ord’s at all except we were on the correct side of the shelter.
We feel that perhaps it may have moved from its previous hide, but we just replaced it as found.
TFTC and the challenge... a cute find!

16:06
Four of us (including a previous finder) looked high, we looked low, we looked in, we looked out, but today there was no way we could work this one out!
Unfortunately this 2/1.5 didn't want to show itself to us today!
(wonder of the TR is corect?)



Thanks for the hunt anyway sally_mally_616.

Ty

Road works are now finished .
Cache is still in good condition

Checked on cache this morning while on my way to work.
Cache is still there, in good condition ready to go

Not a good way to end our day. Came here after a DNF at the cemetery nearby, hoping to make amends here. Should have known better than to try for a micro in that environment, so we ended up with two DNFs in a row. Maybe we'll have better luck next time? Our thanks anyway to sally_mally_616.

We managed to find time for one smile today, the workmen were busy away from the area , and the youngest team member was excellent distraction so it made the search easier, log was soon in hand signed and replaced, TFTC and the fun and history lesson here

with a flying visit to buninyong to drop off my old geo truck to it's retirement home on a farmlet i caught up with team Cherad & we added a smile

It could be anywhere so after exhausting the obvious stretched my search zone and found the well hidden blighter where I had previously looked- not hard enough though.
Very nice first cache and Howitzer, thank you sally_mally_616

Find #2062 for me. Found at 4:05 pm while on my regular Sunday trip down to Ballarat from Bendigo. This was my last find for the day which took me all over the outskirts of Ballarat finding some of the newer caches that I hadn't yet got to. This was actually my second visit here. On my first visit the kids were waiting in the car and I was a little uncomfortable poking around here with so many cars parked close to GZ, all of which had owners that could return at any moment so I didn't say long before deciding to leave it for another day... then as fortune would have it, I recently received a watch-list notification on this cache that gave a lovely detailed "hint". A mistake for sure as I later found out so it was quickly deleted, but at least I now had a good idea of where to look. Then with the nearby road-works I wasn't even sure if I could get to GZ but on closer inspection it was fine. With the recently acquired hint I made a quick find which I was grateful for since there were still a lot of muggles around, but thankfully the road workers weren't there which would have made it near to impossible. Loved the camo! I have to say that I haven't seen that one before! Could have had fun with the kids with that but they were at Mum's so I was alone. Thanks for bringing me here today sally_mally_616 and thanks for the cache - great first hide so well done!

Just so everyone is aware. There is currently roadworks out the front of this cache and along the road till the end of March 2019.

That is sooooo awesome!!!!!!! TFTF

Found this morning before the heatwave hit town.
My original plan was to do a wherigo cache at the old cemetery with my geodaughter while taking the dog for a walk.
When i got there i realised i forgot to download the cartridge so i couldn't do it and so as this was my next closest unfound cache here i am!
Thought i had a quick gps lock and starting nagging a feel around but couldn't locate it. Looked back at my gps and it was 12m away! Stepped out from under the shed, let the gps settle again and the cache was found with a range of .4 of a metre. You can't ask for much better than that!
Well done Sally_Mally_616, a great effort for your first cache. A FP for its sneakiness and accuracy! Hope to see more in the future. Cheers

After caching with the kids and muggle husband on the way over, I dumped them at GemmaSistema's house and headed out with her for some more.
A nice trip across town to fill in a Saturday arvo.TFTC

A spare hour or two saw becca85 and I head out and nab a few caches. Lots of looking here and it was becca who came up trumps. Nicely done. Many thanks for the cache.

Found as Nicnax with PapaGrouch, MazzyMay and Dippa46. In the evening we went on a bit of a caching run. This one had us looking all over the place, I was having problems with the GPS so decided fresh batteries might help. I had narrowed the search area down and asked PapaGrouch to do a bit of investigating in the area. I was just getting out my mirror to search there too when he let out a squeal - he had found the cache. We had a laugh at him then signed and replaced the cache. We liked this one. TFTC

Found with SciFiRulz, MazzyMay and Dippa46 as team nicnax TFTC

Out for an evening and we found it with a bit of a "wake up!!" It made it back to its home after the excitement. TFTC

Once again out with SciFiRulz, PapaGrouch and Dipa46, Team nicnax. PG made the discovery while the rest of us investigated any likely spot. He is now 10 years older and the cache had flying lesson. Much mirth followed. Safely returned awaiting the next lesson. FP. TFTC

Another time