Letters of Love/Hate 3 Caloundra, Queensland, Australia
By 4ando on 15-Jan-19. Waypoint GC82GYX

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from Donnybrook aboard this tinny ship. The mate was a mighty police captain, the skipper brave and sure. Four passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour, a three hour tour.The tide was still coming in, the sandbars they did toss, if not for the courage of the fearless crew the Karicka would be lost, the Karicka would be lost.The ship set course along the shore of this charted mangrove passage with CaptainVimes, the skipper too, Peppa the travel princess and his supplies, and Davinells the navigator, here on Pumicestone Passage.The tether broke when I touched it so we happily replaced it with some cable ties Again, no letter. Thanks 4ando and happy caching

A trip down Pumicestone passage has been on the cards for a while and with a midday high tide we took our opportunity. With Beardman75 at the helm, first mate and boat minder CaptainVimes, Peppa, with his ever entertaining yoga display on the bow, and myself set sail in Karicka for an adventurous but fabulous day on the water. A slippery, muddy walk with some very interesting noises coming from our feet. Found the cache but the tether broke as we picked it up so we reattached with a cable tie. Thanks for the cache 4andoFind #6394

CaptainVimes had a plan That plan started with a very casual I think Ill sell the boat. Well that got everyones diaries and calendars out So here we are taking Karicka back up the passage it last visited just over three and a half years ago with a very different and far more stylish crewJust like that cruise years ago, Karicka found the sand bars, more than once There was discussion about vintage port and hardwood sideboards, but I was occupied ensuring we didnt maim any mermaidsI acted as anchor so Karicka didnt float off with the strong currents Thanks 4ando for getting us out here today, I can appreciate the attraction, still not sure Id go fishing though

TFTC and muddy feet!

Love Hate # 3
We headed out to Donnybrook boat to put the geo boat to get some water-based caches today, while grabbing the information for the traditional series, multi, adventure lab and the puzzles we covered close to 80 kilometres. So, we set out to find the list of caches we had saved and to FINALLY turn it them into yellow smiley faces. While out for the day we found 16.

Before leaving the new geocar (Track my adventures here D78QWZ) we read the description, hint, confirmed the difficulty and terrain, checked we had all the caches in the offline list and pervious finder logs. We set off to start moving through the water. BrisLions was directing us to where we needed to go. Once we got to GZ, we started to walk towards GZ, we were discussing about where this geocache could possibly located. Has these caches have been on our radar for a long time.

We found we needed to maintenance a few caches throughout the day we had spare containers, tie wire, ziplock bags and log books. Thankfully after a decent search we worked out we were in the incorrect place then we regrouped. Shortly, we the cache in hand, and we added our little ink mark to the logbook.

Thank you for the cache placement and maintenance 4ando
Thank you for the Hunt
Thank you for bring us to this beautiful location
Took Nothing, Left Nothing, Signed Log
Replaced the cache exactly as found

Team Signed as Mumma Bear and the Cubs / M B & C, Muggle 65, The Green Geckos and BrisLions

Found this cache with Tiny 1508, Princess 1005, Captain Monkey 96, DFC_JLK2019, The Green Geckos, Muggle 65, BrisLions

Love Hate # 3
We headed out to Donnybrook boat to put the geo boat to get some water-based caches today, while grabbing the information for the traditional series, multi, adventure lab and the puzzles we covered close to 80 kilometres. So, we set out to find the list of caches we had saved and to FINALLY turn it them into yellow smiley faces. While out for the day we found 16.

Before leaving the new geocar (Track my adventures here D78QWZ) we read the description, hint, confirmed the difficulty and terrain, checked we had all the caches in the offline list and pervious finder logs. We set off to start moving through the water. BrisLions was directing us to where we needed to go. Once we got to GZ, we started to walk towards GZ, we were discussing about where this geocache could possibly located. Has these caches have been on our radar for a long time.

We found we needed to maintenance a few caches throughout the day we had spare containers, tie wire, ziplock bags and log books. Thankfully after a decent search we worked out we were in the incorrect place then we regrouped. Shortly, we the cache in hand, and we added our little ink mark to the logbook.

Thank you for the cache placement and maintenance 4ando
Thank you for the Hunt
Thank you for bring us to this beautiful location
Took Nothing, Left Nothing, Signed Log
Replaced the cache exactly as found

Team Signed as Mumma Bear and the Cubs / M B & C, Muggle 65, The Green Geckos and BrisLions

Found this cache with Tiny 1508, MummaBear66, Captain Monkey 96, DFC-JLK2019, The Green Geckos, Muggle 65, BrisLions

Out today with boat load of cacher. The team of The Green Geckos, Muggle65 and M.B.C. We had the Love/ Hate series as our main target. With adventure labs and multi for side dish.
I had done some caches at the top before on another trip.
My total for today was 12 finds. The breakdown is 8 traditional, multi and 3 waypoints from Adventure Lab.

Lots of fun was had and few tale were told. Couple of showers today but still got back to the vehicle dry.
4Ando *TFTC* 6447 *Finds*

We had a rather full boat today but the more the merrier they say. That might not have been the perfect description but nobody died and we didn't sink the boat. Thank you for the fun

, MB&C, Bris& myself are up the creek with a motorboat today collecting a few letters of love & hate. Putting in at Donnybrook we meandered up the passage. Along the way we found we needed to fix & replace a couple of containers & logs soo

Love Hate # 3
We headed out to Donnybrook boat to put the geo boat to get some water-based caches today, while grabbing the information for the traditional series, multi, adventure lab and the puzzles we covered close to 80 kilometres. So, we set out to find the list of caches we had saved and to FINALLY turn it them into yellow smiley faces. While out for the day we found 16.

Before leaving the new geocar (Track my adventures here D78QWZ) we read the description, hint, confirmed the difficulty and terrain, checked we had all the caches in the offline list and pervious finder logs. We set off to start moving through the water. BrisLions was directing us to where we needed to go. Once we got to GZ, we started to walk towards GZ, we were discussing about where this geocache could possibly located. Has these caches have been on our radar for a long time.

We found we needed to maintenance a few caches throughout the day we had spare containers, tie wire, ziplock bags and log books. Thankfully after a decent search we worked out we were in the incorrect place then we regrouped. Shortly, we the cache in hand, and we added our little ink mark to the logbook.


Thank you for the cache placement and maintenance 4ando
Thank you for the Hunt
Thank you for bring us to this beautiful location
Took Nothing, Left Nothing, Signed Log
Replaced the cache exactly as found

Team Signed as Mumma Bear and the Cubs / M B & C, Muggle 65, The Green Geckos and BrisLions

Found this cache with Tiny 1508, Princess 1005, Captain Monkey 96, Mumma Bear 66, The Green Geckos, Muggle 65, BrisLions

Found the same wire cord that was on the rest of the series, but the actual cache and letter weren’t there. The wire was spot on with the coordinates though

Found it on my kayak tour.
I found only the letter but no cache container.
TFTC

Orange Crew had organised with karicka for a boat ride up the pumistone passage to grab a few caches of the adventure lab and the letters series. So we rrrrr pirates of the passage today, rrrrrr. I wasn’t sure as to why I got an invite but it soon became obvious I was the cabin boy, galley bitch and roust about for the day. I didn’t mind it turned out to be a really fun day, a few laughs and with a good number of caches found and/or replaced with the CO’s permission.

We launched at Donnybrook and with an incoming tide it did make for an interesting journey around the passage. Thank you for this series it has been on my to do list for some time so I was glad for the opportunity to grab them today.

A day on the water I was keen to bring the tinny as I have been looking at these a few times.
OC suggested a trip in pumistone passage, we found a Saturday with a good high tide.
Chamad joined as third made and galley slave.
Launched from Donnybrook and made our way here on the slowly rising tide.
Broke my good thongs in the mud here
Thank you for hiding this geocache and keeping me entertained 4ando
R

This series has been burning a figurative hole in my map for a long long time. Finally I decided to rope in karicka to skipper us in his boat, and chamad as our scoundrel first mate.

We picked today as we needed a weekend day with a big high tide during the day, so we launched early from Donnybrook and headed north to Caloundra.

There was plenty of muddiness early in the series until the tide started to rise

#10369 @ 08:05
Thanks 4ando for giving us a reason to visit.

.........@__,
/|___||_/__________|\
\\_______/_TGQNRV_/
~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~

For the vast majority of this year, I have been looking at completing this series. Not owning a boat, and realising it's too far to paddle, I have been planning the trip in my canoe with it's 2HP outboard. I'd depart Donnybrook, putt up the passage, stopping at each geocache, camp the night at Caloundra and return the next day. With a top speed of 10km/h, it'd be a slow but enjoyable adventure - a bit beyond anything I've tried before.

The tides were right, the car and trailer were loaded and I arrived at Donnybrook early this morning as per my plan. Not per my plan was the wind. For some time I watched the waves and re-checked the forecasts. I decided it was marginal but forecasts had the wind ease slightly and I intended to be at Caloundra before the possible storms arrived. Let's go then!

I am extremely confident in my canoe. It's never let me down and I've spent many hours in it. But the leg from Donnybrook to Mission point across "open" water, in a howling northerly was some of the least enjoyable time I've ever spent on the water. I couldn't drive at full speed as every oncoming wave poured over the bow. However I couldn't go slow, for then I have no steering. I was wet and being bounced viciously. I pressed on in the slight lee of Bribie Island.

Getting my phone out to check where the geocaches were (I really ought to have drawn them on my Beacon to Beacon) was not an option and I just pressed on until there was some dry land to pause on. Thooloora Island, a sandy beach, mostly protected from the wind. I bailed out, unsure exactly where I was to dry out and check everything in the canoe was dry and to refuel.

Already I knew I'd passed Letters of Love/Hate 1 and checked where 2 was. Sure enough, behind me. I decided to not lose ground and with a calm forecast tomorrow, I'll get it on the return trip. Back in the boat, I aimed for Letters of Love/Hate 3 and could thankfully hit top speed behind Thooloora Island through a gentle chop, rather than the waves of the channel.

From such a low vantage point, navigation is tricky, but I eyed the island and carried a bit of speed into the mangroves and into relative protection from the elements. I checked my phone and sure enough, wrong island. I'd need to press on some more, so I did.

Second time the charm, I arrived near GZ. Inside the flooded mangrove forest was by contrast, so serene. I tilted up the outboard and paddled to the exact location. I could bonk my head on the geocache once I'd spotted it. And the display of the clue was.. very different. I like it!

Naturally, I forgot a pen! I snapped a photo and by this time knew there'd be a return trip either tomorrow or another day if all else failed. With a photo snapped, I figured I'd press on and aim for Letters of Love/Hate 4 now.

Despite the crap weather, progress could still be made and I had faith I'd complete this series this weekend. Even if I've already driven right past two target geocaches. But at least, I got a smiley here. Thanks for this adventure, 4ando

Yeah we made it to the supposed turned around, water had been lapping in my kayak and I was now wet. Which was most annoying after successfully getting in my kayak at the start with no more than the sole of one shoe getting wet! I am not the most graceful of kayak enter’er or departer. It was here we realised that we would have 6.5km paddle back against the wind, chopping water and current. Or did we dare throw a rescue call out to my wonderful parents and attempt a Roy Road pick up and transfers. With the others having sore shoulders from various injuries and what not I put the call in to our knights in shining armour! Yup sure we can do that - love my folks. So we gave ourselves 2 hours to paddle forward and arrive at the meeting point!

It was at this point we intended to turn back and paddle to Donnybrook where our cars were parked. But the wind did not like that plan, and the tide was also not doing what we expected... A quick phone call and a pick up at Roys Road was arranged. TFTC!

The day of paddling was suppose to end at this cache. With the wind strengthening from the boat ramp direction, the water level dropping and (dry) bars materialising out of the murky water, a PAF was placed for a pick up further north. Confirmation received, we were off to collect the last 3 LoLH along this stretch of Pummicestone.

Avoiding the exposed sections of water, cut a few corners while admiring the sea grasses, a sting ray or two, a good selection of bird life and a few aquatic creatures which periodically popped their head or fin out of the water. Rather tranquil really. Found the clue and cache rather quickly, just as the mozzies found us quickly. Cheers 4ando for a chance to get out in the great outdoors.

Number 3 and was meant to be our last but the wind and outgoing tide made the 6.5km trip back very unappealing! Lucky for us 4 JACS has awesome parents who came to our rescue collecting us at Roys Road and giving us the chance to collect the rest we needed!!!! Fabulous views of the GHM! Weirdly my bung shoulder seems to have untangled its unhappiness! Nothing like a good paddle to loosen up!! ?????

This was the third and last of the Love/Hate caches we attempted today (it still ended up being a 14 km round trip, so not too bad an effort). On the way to this one we stuck close to the Bribie Island shoreline and as we came past the Lime Pocket campgrounds we saw heaps of very cute stilts and oystercatchers, a massive goanna and two white brumbies! This would be a great place to camp - we were eyeing off a couple of the campsites - I couldn't believe that no one was already staying there (it might be different over New Year's though). After a quick snack, we made our way over to the mangroves and I soon had the cache in hand. This time there was mud underfoot BUT it wasn't the sort that sucks you down, so nothing to HATE here. I also LOVEd that the letter clue was a bit trickier to find. My favourite of these caches so far . I survived the paddle back to Donnybrook with a full-on headwind for the last 3 km...I HATE kayaking may have been mentioned more than once at this point...but I did LOVE my day's adventure. Geohubby has already asked me when I would like to go and get the other caches in the series - I think we'll head out from either Hussey Creek or Coochin Creek - see what the weather and tides are doing. TFTC 4ando, I'm going to give this one a favourite point for the sneaky clue

TFTF

Found it after trekking across the island.. through the mud. Seems like the clue might have been carried off by the mosquitoes though. Any chance of a clue?

Here we found the cache but couldn’t spy the clue despite our best efforts. I’m sure it was there though. Love these caches and pumistone passage. Tftc Jabiru pic below

My back was starting to get sore and it was a bit longer from letters 3 to here . Around 3km so it was great to get out for a stretch. Took awhile to be able to stand up straight and it was nice to see some sand in amongst the mud. Love the sand. Hate my sore back. Love this cache

4227

Saturday. Now this cache took some paddling to get to! I hate that . The 3 point something km it took to get to this cache seemed to take forever! With me saying, the cache will be just at the end of that line of trees (for about the 6th time) – I think Que Sera was starting to not believe a word I was saying after this point. It’s funny when the estimate distance is only ever done in a straight line, but with so many sand banks to avoid, a straight line was never going to happen! But these same sand banks are full of jumping fish and amazing bird life - I really love that. With me saying “just over to the end of the tree line and again saying the same thing, I think I have zero ability to estimate a km or two when I’m on the water! I hate that [xx(].

We watched as a couple of boats sped past and then a small flotilla of jet skis (with me looking very carefully to see if any were geocaching). So so much mud here (I love that). The tide had retreated and we could managed to walk through the mud and flip up mud everywhere! Spotted the cache in a logical spot (our arrows where having trouble at some of the spots along the Passage) and then the letter which was tethered tightly to its secure branch (I love the size of these things!) We left this spot with our names in the log and pics taken of the letters we needed to help solve the final puzzle for this series. We looked back at the mangrove tangle of roots and were amazed at the popping sound that was around here. No idea what was making the sound, but possibly the air bubbles as they escaped or the crabs as they popped their heads out of the holes. I love this area. I couldn’t leave without taking some more pics of the pelicans and numerous bird life around here. A FP awarded because of this lovely location.

This was the 5th of 7 caches found on today's trip.

Thanks ***4ando***, for showing us this place.

A great day to be out on the water. Growife had bought a Seadoo named McSeadoo Face jetski and this was our virgin run with it. So all very nervous. Had CDAH55 along as he was a expert in reversing at boat ramps. We couldn't reverse to save our lives. CDAH did a great job in reversing otherwise we would have never got in the water. As usual I was told I was driving the ski first. We all got on and off we went from Donnybrook. 3 up on a jetski, 2 being seniors. Trip up was very smooth, little wind and reached first cache in the series. We had success at finding each cache as we continued up the passage.

Had trouble seeing beacons in the narrow channels due to my shortsightness and angle of the sun. Dora and myself swapped over as drivers to get more experience on the way. Wife told me to slow down several times which is new as I drive my car to the speed limit.

The narrow passage was the hardest to navigate beacon to beacon but checking maritime maps CDAH55 kindly provided helped alot. We soon got into a routine in landing, anchor and take off again and confidence in driving the ski increased . The location of each cache was not too far from the water. In most cases not too much bushbashing. Mossies around but not too bad on this day. Reached Caloundra and anchored off Bribie Island to do last cache.

While wife and CDAH55 worked on a puzzle I watched were boats going south in passage went so we would pick the right channel going back from Calondra. Trip back we could see beacons better and more aware of shallows even though stiil in high tide. Trip back took 55 minutes. One lady who saw us comjng back thought 3 up (like in Asia) very funny.

Everyone had sore bums and bit stiff from time on ski and bouncing along chop mentioned by all. But sure beats kayaking that distance. I might have to retire thr kayak. Don't tell the kayak though.

Quick and easy find. This was when I decided I would take over driving and got a couple of funny looks from my passengers. I thought there was going to be a mutiny on board. At one of these caches there was a bit of mangrove bashing and we were cursing the co.

This was the maiden voyage of the SS Seadoo GTI 90 containing 3 crazy adventurous souls on board, being CDAH55, Phil Serenity and I. I mean who gets a new jet ski and goes 3 up on their maiden voyage, who does this? Us.

During the week I had annoyed Mrs CO with lots of questions about Jetski workings, such as where do I store flares, what do I use to make an anchor. How will we go travelling 3 up? Which she answered you might tip.

We launched from Donybrook. CDAH55 did an excellent job of reversing the trailer down the boat ramp. Great launching ramp for noobs.

We got out in the water but CDAH55 acted a little bit like a princess and didn't want to take his chances until we could prove to him, that we could control it and do a quick circuit so he could see that it wouldn't sink.

I have taken CDAH55 down mine shafts, up trees for technical tree climbs, overnight kayaking adventures to South Stradbroke Island and Fraser Island. Mountain Climbs, long 20km hikes, rock climbs. He has passed out, thrown up (several occasions) and still comes back for more. So he must have thought this was another crazy idea of mine.

We all took it in turns of riding at the bow, stern and middle. So we all had a go at being the meat in the middle of the sandwich. Nobody fell off and the jetski didn't sink. Nobody threw up or passed out. We may not have been the fastest machine on the water but we had fun.

Cache No. 3 of 9

Firstly I will apologise for the generic nature of the logs for the Letters of Love/Hate series of caches.

A new water craft (Jet Ski) was obtained and needed some time on the water. What better opportunity then to take it for a run and pick up the new caches recently released along this stretch of water.

Dora the Explorer!, Phil Serenity and I headed off to the Donnybrook boat ramp and not long after had the Personal Water Craft in the water and after testing some features we were off to find the caches.

It was a glorious day with very little wind however the sun was hot and some of us were a little red at the end of the day.

All the caches were relatively easy to find however some of the clues proved to be more elusive.

It took us 3 hours and 40 minutes and covered some 63 klms for the all round trip.

Thanks for this series of caches ***4ando***

Find #1915

We had been out kayaking with Captain Terror, fangsoki and Crew 153 about two weeks ago when the topic of the lack of caches placed in the Pumicestone Passage was discussed. We all concurred that it was certainly a worthy stretch of water which cachers should be encouraged to explore [^]

Lo and behold, a great little series of caches suddenly appears in our notification list A quick check of the tide times and weather and a plan was hatched to head out early and keep our fingers crossed that the weather would hold to enable us to find them all

Our mode of transport today was the tinnie and we decided to launch from Donnybrook to make a start at the beginning. While we didn't hit the water as early as we would have liked, the tide was still coming in and the water looked like glass as far as the eye could see something we have rarely seen when we have launched from Toorbul

It took us about 4 hours to find the 9 traditional caches and then another 1.5 hours to return back to Donnybrook. We were lucky that the wind hadn't picked up too much otherwise the return trip would have taken us much longer and would have been quite uncomfortable As it was, when we reached the Coochin Creek area it became rather interesting with the run out tide against wind creating waves about a foot high Other than that, the water on the return trip was still relatively smooth which made for a very pleasant, if not tiring, day out in the boat

All the caches were quite easy to locate, although the clues were sometimes a little harder to spot We loved all the caches we found, but we have a sneaking suspicion we are going to absolutely hate that letterbox in the series

Thank you 4ando for having placed the cache and for maintaining it for everyone to enjoy We have added a favorite point for the effort and adventure of our {FTF} hunt.

Published