Major Walk - Saddleback Drop Dookie, Victoria, Australia
By Team BGF on 10-Feb-20. Waypoint GC8B0GR

TFTC i appreciate the effort that has gone into creating this cache- interesting and creative. Well done. My only worry was the fear of stepping on a snake as I walked through the very long grass to get to the cache.

With the rest of the family in Sydney and a busy few weeks coming up at work I decided last week to have a day off to go caching. Looked at the map and initially thought about Shepparton but then saw an intriguing collection at Mount Major so that became my target. Picked what would be a sunny day (was raining when I left Albury but was fine most of the day - though very windy). In the end a successful day with 26 caches found and one DNF. Turned out to be a Team BGF day.

A nicely designed mailbox. Initial waypoint quickly found. I devised a plan and set a distance and just followed the line. Having a description of the hide really helped. Walked past a Fire extinguisher (assume from the buildings as I wouldn’t want to lug that up here) and I soon had a spot that looked likely. Contents have been wet but log ok to sign. Forgot to check last logger (suspect they just found the map) but good to get this one that isn’t found by all.
Another FP
TFTC Team BGF

Found the map. The cache is a decent distance from here

13:01
Lucky to have a few days by the river at Yarrawonga, today our GPS'r headed us toward Shepparton in search of a few caches, we only got as far as "The Major" before we were surrounded by hidden treasure.
We were right into the walking now! Like others before us finding the map was quite a challenge. GZ smoother sailing once we got things lined up.

Thanks Team BGF for placing caches in such interesting locations.

Challenge accepted

TFTC!
Last one for today....should have came up here with a back up power bank.
Well at least I’ll be back!
Thanks again for all your hard work!

Finding the map was pure and simple. The projection though was much more of an adventure, and l sure was glad that l had dalerious with me to overstep the mark again, to which led to finding the cache, again! May our journey also continue in all directions. Cache found in good condition.

The map was a good hide but the cache, no, we were outsung by heat and the thistles. Will come back in cooler weather with trousers and gaiters on!!

We had made a few attempts at this one! Today we were determined. We combined our rogaining skills with the added clues from former logs . (Thanks to those who wrote such detailed logs - definitely helpful!)

We were very close on our last attempt, however 20 meters can make a lot of difference!

We wore gators this time too. The dry grass and thistles were chest high for us at times (yes we are vertically challenged) just gave us a little more confidence to go off track.

I was so excited to find a monkey stamp that I forgot to write the date in the log. Oops. This was our first letterbox cache and we thoroughly enjoyed the challenge!

Thanks to Team BGF for this awesome series. A favourite for us.

Tried without success last time, this time all good. We considered getting this one on the way down and turns out, we were very happy that we didn't. Great to tick it off the list. Thanks

BettyBoo3747, Howjen567 and I took off for Mount Major to complete (for Howjen and I) the series on the Mount.
Surprisingly, we were the only one on the Mount today.
Bettyboo did a clean sweep of all caches here.
We also did a few caches in the way home including the Winton Historic Adventure Lab series.

Not so many rocky out crops today as the grasses buried them all!
Took a slightly different approach this time and found GZ.
The cache contents were wet, but we replaced the plastic bag. BB will message you about the rest.
Thanks, Robmc.

#17472. It has been a while since I have been out caching and today Robmc, Howjen567 and I made an attack on Mount Major. Rob and Howard had done some of these back on 6th July but this was my first time here. We arrived at the carpark at 9.30am and were back again in 4 hours and 20 minutes. This included a few long side treks and a decent lunch break at the top. We were the only ones here today which surprised me as most people have had to contend with many walking muggles. Fortunately I had a walking pole but even so I found the downhill back to the car rather difficult. Walking is most definitely not a favourite sport for me. Give me a bike any day.

The fellows had fallen short on this one at their attempt in July so here we are back again at the start and trying again. I decided to read a few logs - firstly dalerious's as he was the last finder and his log led me to read Jamin's log and with those and Rob carefully walking and re-walking the line we were suddenly in a much more likely area and bingo there was a likely looking suspect at GZ. Popped the log book which was in very good condition in a new plastic bag as the current one was damp.

Thanks Team BGF

Excited that there was a letterbox cache on this walk, made us more determined to find it. Once we worked out what to do, set out directions to where to go, hesitant, but hoping it was right and off we went. We looked around for the most obvious areas, redirecting on the path and come up with the final goods- thanks to our caching nous. Ecstatic and an another fantastic view to go with it too. Another different one to add to all the 13 caches we found on this mountain as it stands to date. TFTC.

VINDICATION!!
After an earlier DNF (a long way from here), I climbed this hill in setting sun for just the one smiley.
These evening jaunts to Dookie are becoming a bit of a habit but the caches on Mt Major are my closest to home and have been aiding me on more than one calendar type challenge I am quietly working on. I am constantly fighting the temptation to grab them all at once.
I had tentatively walked out my projection last time I was up here, but missed any real clue to know when to stop as "too far" seemed way too far. With new information (thanks Jamin for your detailed log) I had a better idea of how far to walk and yes... the hide is much more easily spotted coming back from overshooting the mark.
I found the cache without it, but turned my head lamp on to sign it's log and get back to the car.
TFTC Team BGF. It is always so much easier to sign off a day with a smiley than with a DNF.

I remember seeing a few of these get published a few months back and thinking I’d like to get over to check out the area at some stage. Then lockdown 2.0 happened and I forgot about them.
After collecting a number of the wonders of the world souvenir challenge tokens recently I then discovered the final two I needed happened to be on the Mt Major series. I spoke to the wife and we hatched a plan. Today wasn’t supposed to be to wet or cold so we set out from Wangaratta just before lunch.
So we left the car at 12:18pm and had a great afternoon out, we scored 10 caches by 3pm and had hit the home stretch. Arriving at the posted coords we calculated the projection quickly and I said to Em, “Can Cass and I go looking for this one? We’ll be right behind you after that”. My good wife said yeah no worries, took the car keys and headed on down the track.
Cass and I proceeded to follow the bearing. This is where the pressure started and the adventure set in.
We followed the bearing looking for a hide along the way, we reached the 10% distance and although at a pretty solid location to hide a cache we didn’t feel it was THE spot. A paf was made and soon we realised we were a bit further along and probably shouldn’t have hopped the fence. With some encouragement about the cache location we called Em just as we could see her getting back to the car. She said no worries again and back up the hill we went.
It didn’t take long to locate the cache, certainly a lot more obvious coming back up and seeing it.
The log book was dry and we had no issue making our mark. The contents of the cache had been water damaged but they were still usable.

Great views at GZ
Found at 3:40 #11 Another phone call to the wife was made....

TFTC

A letterbox cache - One of our favourite kinds. Came to the listed co-ords and soon had the instructions in hand. We did our projection and headed off in the direction of GZ. More of that basalt to pick our way through, did we mention it is rocky on Mt Major? Found cache after a bit of a wander. It was quite damp inside, so we dried it out, Stamped log at 1.34pm, stamped our book and double bagged everything to keep it dry. Left: blue wren. #7082 Time to partake of our sandwiches, to give us energy for the next adventures on Mt Major! TFTC Team BGF - loved the hide. ️

After driving out of the pea soup fog in Wang, I arrived at howjen567's house in brilliant sunshine!
We set off for the Major Walk series, and joined the hordes walking up the new track. Not sure where all these muggles came from, but there was plenty of room on the track for us all.
Fantastic views from the top across to Mt Buller and Bogong, both snow capped (and Wang still in fog!)
The series (as it is atm) took us about 3 hours to complete, including lunch at the top.

We had located the instructions on the way up, and decided to look for the cache on the way down.
We tried to walk a straight bearing, but there were stacks of rocky out crops and it felt a little like a needle in a haystack search.
We will do a bit more work on this one and return.
Thanks, Robmc.

Found the first part of this one but drew a blank on the cache. Will do a bit of home work here and perhaps be more successful next time.

Coordinates changed from:
S 36° 21.446 E 145° 41.551

Coordinates changed to:
S 36° 21.450 E 145° 41.555

Distance from original: 31.2 feet or 9.5 meters.

Slight tweak to coordinates after check. Final also slightly altered.

Found it by accident on 8th June 2020 at 1:09pm. There were no other signatures in the book at the time that we could see, so we were not sure if we were first to find or not (not worried either way).

It is a very appropriately decorated cache (full marks for the decoration).

A lovely spot for a cache, a nice walk too. Thanks for a good Cache.

Joint FTF with gleesonstribe. Wow...what a view! This is the first time we have climbed Mt Major, and now I know what all the talk is about...the views are spectacular. The walk up is a good workout, and the kids did a awesome job! Thanks for bringing us here Team BGF!

Joint FTF with WeAreGleesos. What a walk! Especially carrying the toddler up. Shared the load going down. Thanks for bringing us out together as a family & for showing me such a beautiful place I never would of visited otherwise! Breathtaking! TFTC!️

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