GOLD #22 Wonga Park, Victoria, Australia
By Gunks on 26-Dec-19. Waypoint GC8H8R5

Off for a morning geocaching run, and I selected the Warrandyte area again. The focus was more of the Gold series and then an oldie and a puzzle. Left by 7.30 am and was back before 12 pm after finding 12 geocaches and only 1 DNF.First find at 8.30 am. The GZ tree has been broken from about 3 meters up, but the cache container is still all good at the bottom.Thanks for the cache, Gunks.HunterPS. Log full.

Found at 2:31 PM GAFF1.Nearly DNF as once again I couldn't find anything in the hole, but after a bit of digging the gold bar suddenly appeared! So how the heck did this cache get so buried in 5 months!Thanks to Gunks

Managed to squeeze our John Doe in here down the side. Log is full and I'm out of suitable paper for the cache.

Started working our way through the gold series today with this being the first one. What a surprise when we discovered the cache! It fits the theme perfectly. The logroll was full here. Thanks Gunks.

Full log. (Yes we checked both sides ). We managed to squeeze our names in, but next visitors will struggle.

This is GOLD! [^]

This series first came to our attention when we were chasing caches placed on any Christmas Day. We solved and found the few we needed for that challenge. Ever since then, this entire Geoart (including those not placed on 25th December) had been on a list of mine I named "Christmas Gold".
Today catnap777 and I set out to find as much "Christmas Gold" as we could, and totally amazed ourselves by visiting them all and signing all bar one DNF and the three caches we found last time.
This was probably our longest hike together and now we are feeling like we can do anything.

TFTC&Series Gunks.

Puzzle solved and cache found with dalerious .

This one was signed at 0908hrs.

We had a big day planned, and we were doing the lot, yes the entire series on foot. All but 3 which we signed on another trip.

An awesome series Gunks, and the majority of caches were found in excellent condition. We replaced the log paper and plastic bag in 2, and 1 was a dnf.

We had two things on our mind for this weekend, Gold and Cachemas caches.

Firstly, we were off to Warrandyte searching for Au, and I am so excited to say that we walked the entire park, and we signed all but one of the series. We even added a couple of other caches that were positioned around the area that we were hiking.

My knee has issues but I am built of sturdy stuff and made the entire walk from begging to end in the one day .

That was the Saturday. On the Sunday we concentrated on the Cachemas caches, picking off the ones that were in the vicinity of where we were staying. One ahomburg challenge cache was situated in an area that required quite a steep ascent.

We enjoyed a very successful weekend of caching, and thank all the CO's that have been busy placing out so many caches for us to find. There were some truly remarkable caches placed out .

TFTC. A lovely bush park to wander and enjoy.

I started this series quite a while ago while out with a chum. I had always planned to return and finish the job. This has been a lovely series, with no DNFS and all caches in good condition.

Log full as was 24 but forget to mention in log
After seeing hand surgeon went to catch up with my lifelong best friend. Stayed the night and convinced her to come geocaching with me while I was down as we both need to train for upcoming walks. She booked restaurant for lunch and we went exploring prior to earn our lunch.
She was not loving hills and possibility of snakes and never ventured off path btw - we did not see any snakes today
TFTC Gunks, by contributing to our game by placing and maintaining geocaches for us to enjoy. Another step closer to finishing your awesome series started some time ago.

Almost there, hoping that I'm able to find the last one, so that this series can be ticked off my list.

Another nugget! 2nd in the series. No pen, will swing past the car before the next one!

Another day and another congrats to this cache series for being a finalist for the 2020/2021 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards!

Still trying to find as many of the finalists for these awards as I can. So today was another trip out here to continue to work on finding even more caches in this series.

Today was my fourth trip out to Warrandyte State Park. Another beautiful area of the park and the weather held out which made for a great day of caching.

This one was my 8th find for the day, and my 32nd find in the series. A fairly quick find one I got to GZ. TFTC.

Thanks for the continued fun, I have really enjoyed working on this series.

Cache Maintenance Status:

The container was in good shape, and the logbook was in good shape, clean and dry with plenty of room for future cache finders to sign. However, the logbook is basically completely full.

Another quick find. TFTC

Out with Geo-wife and 2peasinapod2012 to pick up some more of the GOLD series,
Another quick find.
Thanks Gunks

Safely stored under a puddle of geocaching stuff

Our last for the day.
Off for a swim to strengthen the back a bit.
Slowly but surely making our way around this series.

#2249 - 4.40pm
The gentle incline was starting to test my horribly poor level of endurance.
I looked at it again.
Was it even an incline?
Barely.

At least I had finished my previous log this time and had time to pull out my map - only to see Heymissjo at GZ giving fairly sizable hints and suggesting that I find this one

I guess I can't be a back seat passenger the whole day...
I've at least progressed into the front passenger seat!!

Thanks Gunks.
All is well here.

#1283
Laughing as we go, The Welder and I quickly made it to gz. But with The Welders hit rate so far low (or zero)… I held back and said I wonder where it could be! Look around…. Perhaps a suspicious pile of logs, or a suspicious pile of rocks also known as a SPOR! But seriously who uses that acronym!! I think this is the first time I may have used it in a log! You are good for firsts Gunks!

I really don’t even stumble across SPOR very often but was recently reminded of it in an interview that I had to prepare for on ABC radio. You see I was contacted by the word nerd or word guru David Astle and was asked to come onto his Radio Melbourne show… of course it was to be all about words…. And no surprises the subject was geocaching! It was a delightfully, surprising, and very nerdy thing to do… but I got to share in the delights of SPOR, TOTT and many other geo-cool things!

Oh yes… and I did let The Welder make his first find of the day! Thanks gunks! He is happy! A big smile for him today.

Its been over a year since we picked up some of the caches in this series, what with lockdowns and other distractions, so it was great to get back to this area today panning for more gold.

This part of park is very quiet, which is perfect when looking for caches. Another very appropriate container found, log signed, then it was onwards to the next one.

Thank you Gunks for this series, the creativity with the cache containers and maintenance.

Another quick find. Thanks for the series

Thanks Gunks for the cache.
Found at 10:50 am on 20/3/2022.
Find # 2473

#22 fitted the 22.2.22 theme. It’s been a while since I’ve been here, and I’d forgotten the handiwork that’s gone into the hides. I liked it. Thanks Gunks

22 February 2022 5:23 pm

Log your caches buhfuhguh, stop being lazy buhfuhguh.... well after what has seemingly been a large break in time in writing this log and finding the cache. Well a lot has happened to keep me busy a d looking elsewhere but ah well life get that way sometimes. Anyways thanks for the cache and the little adventure.

*Found on the 22 Feb 2022 @ 5:24 pm.*
*Cache find # 12543.*

I headed over this way with buhfuhguh to attend an event later in the evening but as we had a bit of time to fill in so we headed for the hills in search of some Gold.
We found a good parking spot and left the car behind as we hit the trails that connected this group together.

**Thanks to Gunks for placing this cache.**

Managed to find a few nuggets today while exploring the lower end of park. Saw a rabbit, a fox, a kangaroo and a deer!!!

I'll be back another day to find the rest of the gold.

Found it with crank1 TFTC

Accompanied with silence49, we had a great time finding your cache Gunks, thank you so much for placing it.

It was a glorious Melbourne Cup Day morning to head out and find some gold.
Having solved this series during lockdown, I headed out on the MTB to find this section.
I'm no geologist, but the mineral camo on this one seemed appropriate.
TFTC Gunks

It was a beautiful afternoon for a gentle walk, so I drove down to Warrandyte and strolled around. Passing by, I located and logged this cache, noting there are others close by to fill my "non trad" grid on another day.
Thanks for the Gold series Gunks.

Out n about within 10k. TFTC

TFTC, another nugget

Found Gold in them thar Trees!

Unfortunately geokids are getting tetchy, so we have to call it a day here. We'll be back to search out more of Warrandyte's golden treasures another day. TFTC signed TFF

Took a little longer for this one.

Here I am again today hopefully to complete this wonderful series. This time I’m away from jumping Creek car park and in the other side of the park. Very different terrain and very different bush. Enjoying the varied scenery. I’ve already had a fox run across my path.
First find for the day and very well hidden I must say.
Loving this series Gunks
Tftc

TFTC!

20:53
An evening search for GOLD, this time on a part of Warrandyte State Park on the opposite side of Jumping Creek Road to previous visits.

Parking at the northern end of Fire-Break track, I zigzagged between that and Haslam's Track in the fading light, collecting a total of eight smileys before the darkness beat me at the ninth.

Thanks, Gunks. By choice, the walk from the previous find to this was the longest of the evening. Good to have a nice easy grab at the end of the road.

#5314

Although I have made this month my **Multicache Month Challenge Cache** month I also have an eye to the ** The Non-Traditional Calendar Challenge ** that I am working on. With 89 days to go (including today) I still have quite a way to go so I don't like to miss an opportunity for a suitable cache when I can.

While a Multi would have suited me better, my day didn't work out that way... so as I was driving home past the State Park, I decided a short walk in the bush to find another *Gold* cache (or two) would mean another day crossed off for my longer term project... although as I trudged uphill, I did wonder if steel capped safety boots was the best choice of footwear!

With spot-on co-ordinates the cache was an easy find... but a little damp as it was under its ingot rather than in it. No real harm done as the moisture was all outside.

Thanks **Gunks** for the cache and the series.

Very pleasant walk around the park on a warm (not hot) Sunday afternoon. It took me a little longer than Dave. Thanks Gunks for all this GOLD!

Thanks for an appropriate cache container.
A nice and easy find.

I'd solved all bar 2 in this series some time ago, most probably like many while we were locked up. This cluster was a good place to start my journey so having parked the beast, I took the stroll to GZ on this glorious summer day for a nice, quick find at 15:45.

A cleverly crafted cache container, the start of the series for me and a pleasant walk through Victoria's golden past all earns a fave point.

TNLNSL, although our BYO pen geocoin had a visit to mark the occasion. Thanks Gunks.

Found @08:17 #7448
Worked on these puzzles during the 1st lockdown earlier this year, it was a good distraction from those crazy dark days. Well today the forecast was for cool temps and so starting on the pickup task for this series now was the goal. Today the focus was the southern section.
Enjoyed the jog and off track sections with a number of kangaroos and rabbits spotted.
It was a function section completed in just over an hour.
TFTC Gunks

Had this series solved in the hope of getting over here to search with the grandkids who live nearby.
We loved these unique containers and collecting the clues in the smaller ones in this gold area here. It was cool enough for geocaching in comfort.
TFTC Gunks

Hard find like the container TFTC

Quick find

There's a horrible dog that lives at the entrance to this park, which barks its head off every time someone walks past - I remembered it from last time I was here on caching business. After my warm welcome, I headed for this one first, where more gold was found. Thanks Gunks

This was our third visit to the area and we decided that it was time to complete the Gold series of caches.

A quick find. TFTC.

Got it thanks

It is lovely around here, I’ve never been here before. It’s very quiet, I feel like I’ve got these tracks to myself on this gloriously sunny day

Date: October 31, 2020
Find #11089

With lock-down restrictions easing and a 25km restriction now in force, I was just able to get to this one within the COVID-19 Rules. Solved this one along with the others in the series some time ago, not too tricky. A pleasant walk in the park and a quick find.


Thanks to Gunks for the cache.

Big things are continuing to happen! *Are you joining the fun again in 2021?*
[**THE**](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8EW45)
[**WANGARATTA**](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8EW45)
[**EVENT 2021**](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8EW45)
*13th / 14th November 2020 – GC8EW45 – Wangaratta – Victoria*

It’s GOLD of course. Will I forget? Also, YAPIDKA! Such a patch work park system. A few missions for the day include running - gotta get some fitness back and locating that very old cache not far away on the hill. So this clutch of caches a bonus, partly so I can run rest run rest etc etc! Each GZ has been very accurate and along with the hint I had plenty of bingo bango moments. Melbs on care duty and luckily it’s close by so given it’s a sunny winters day, the park beckons. Great spot. TFTC

I progressed uphill from Gold #28 hoping the path would be dryer.
Quickly signed the log and proceeded on my way to Gold #24.
Tftc

I haven't been out caching in AGES - its been about 5 months I think, but today was the day to get out there and find this series that was solved a while ago. It was a beautiful day today and I thoroughly enjoyed walking around this beautiful area - so good that it is now filled with this great series Thanks to gunks for creating these caches - so much work, thought and creativity has gone into this, and I massively appreciate it - I had such a great day. I was aiming to complete the series in 1 day but I ran out of sunlight, Ill be back soon to finish it off This series gets a massive fave from me and will get my vote for best series in the next Cache of the Year Awards. TFTC Gunks!

Like many of the early gold prospectors, echidna44 and I were also on the hunt for gold. Unlike so many of them, we struck it rich, finding many sizeable nuggets. We had a most enjoyable day walking both on, and at times ,off track. The weather was temperate, the company excellent, as well as the riches of golden clues. Thoroughly enjoying this series so far. Thanks Gunks

Out with au.fait, we decided to look for gold and had a very successful day finding lots of nuggets. A lovely walk in beautiful parkland.
Thanks Gunks.

A lovely winters morning to take a wander around this nice and quiet park I've been slowly finding the gold series on my morning walks, they are a great motivator to get out of the home office and appreciate Warrandyte's beautiful bush. TFTC

Found on my second visit to Warrandyte, walking along the Yarra and finding heaps of Gold caches. Thanks for the variety of hides in some peaceful parklands.

Annoying Tarbit and I headed out towards Warrandtye for a bush walk and hoping to find lots of gold along the way. It ended up being quite a big day in the end with all 35 Gold caches found and a few traditional caches thrown in for good measure. The best part was there were no DNFs (for a change).

Another quick find at GZ. TFTC Gunks!

First time since lockdown that I arranged to meet someone else to have a day out caching. Lost_and_found_79 and I had planned some decent walking to tackle the Gold geoart series around Wonga Park. I had solved these not long after they were published but this was the first time I was able to head out and look for them. This was our final section in the series and after moving the cars the long way around due to a road closure we parked up nearby. My feet were aching after a long day of walking so glad to be getting towards the end. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log and visited some trackables. Thanks for the puzzle, the cache and the series Gunks.

The grandkids solved these ones while being in lock up for school activity. Now it was a day to pick some up. This has bought us to an area that we have never walked before. Nice easy find. Thanks for the cache and the series Gunks, we are loving it .

We struck gold again! Hoping to find one more gold today. TFTC

4/4 so far. Thank you for another nice cache!

We went out for a lovely couple of hours hike today and found as many as we could in the time we had....loved the area and adventure....will be back to do more soon!

Found on 20 May 2020 at 11:16:06 am. Out today with Roxyp and finally a quick find. Great area .
Thanks for the adventure Gunks!

Getting tired after a huge day of caching but managed to find this one under the watching eye of a large number of kangas.

Quick find on a great walk through the park this afternoon. Thanks.

We were in the area (on official business) and decided to stop by for some 'exercise'.
No problem locating this one in this quiet part of the reserve.
Thanks Gunks for the puzzle which thankfully wasn't too challenging and thanks for this series of caches which has brought us to this magnificent area.
Chiefton!!!

I enjoyed walking around this piece of remnant bushland. I blessed Parks Victoria many times over for looking after this reserve for us. Tftc

Grabbed this cache during the week as dad and boy sought a little fresh air. We headed back up the hill from our first find, making this find quickly after using the hint.

This is a great series which we’re part-way through. Not sure when we will finish. TFTC.

Find number 8257 at 12:13:53 pm
Ducked out for a lunchtime walk, hopefully the rain has stopped for the day.
Bush looks much nicer after a bit of a drink and washing the dust off.
Cache found quickly
**Thanks for placing this cache Gunks**

---
Big things are continuing to happen in Victoria! *Are you joining in the fun?*
[**The Whittlesea Event 2020**](https://coord.info/GC8EW40)
*14th & 15th November 2020 - GC8EW40 - Whittlesea - Victoria*

We had solved this series of puzzles a few days ago and decided to head out today to start the search for this series. We thought that this area might be quiet and there would be little chance that we would be in contact with others. We started with the southern set of caches and did not see anyone else in our travels. In the main the logs will be a little generic although I will note anything of interest for a given cache. Most caches we searched for were usually found quickly and the GPSRs were quite accurate.
Number 5 in the series in our search this morning.
Thanks to Gunks for this series

I solved the GOLD series puzzles a week or so ago in addition to Bernie Goetz with a tip from GJMMelb. I was intending to dedicate a whole day of a coming weekend to get out and do the whole series in one hit.

However, with COVID-19 situation I have begun to work from home. This morning I woke up with what feels like a mild cold and so decided to take the next step and self isolate. Given it was such a nice day and being home alone I thought the Warrandyte State park would also be pretty isolated. Given this I embarked on the first of what I suspect will be several tranches to get the whole series and restricted myself to one section.

An hour later I had 10 finds in the bag, saw no other people and had a lovely walk in the bush. I did realise part the way in that I forgot to note one of the hints as I was a bit cautious in retrieving one of the caches as a European wasp nest has sprung up right next to it. Doubled back later on to get it.

Looking forward to doing the next batch.

TFTC

Wow, what a great day. Knocked off all 35 of this series on foot (well mostly, I moved the car twice). Arrived at around 10 for the first lot (the souther ones) and enjoyed a walk around that area. Back at the car I drove to the next lot and parked in a tight spot. Thats when I noticed a familiar licence plate and messaged the owner (Rebel Acts) who was indeed out with Omegaman finding some in this area. My faster walking pace saw me catch up to them eventually and we enjoyed some caching together, before they ran out of caches and I had one to grab still in this area. So, jogging my way to the one I needed still I was still able to find it and meet them back at the car park before car move number 2.

Grabbing a few other caches we met some other cachers on the trails, it certainly was a great day for it. RA & OM and I enjoyed finding some caches, albeit it was a little slower than I am used to, but it was nice to have some company. Unfortunately at one stage OM had to retire hurt, but RA continued on with me until the very end, although the pace was getting slower, I still managed to nab every one of them in the day. Very happy with that achievement.

Messaging my usual caching companion on my way home, she was a little bored so I dropped by her place and we went out and found 7 more before calling it a day, so one big day out caching for me. Thanks for all the caches, all found with great co ordinates and all log books in excellent condition. A great series of caches. TFTC!

Found at 2:34 pm.
When these were all published I was way down on the Flinders foreshore at a CITO event but had a quick look and worked out mostly what was required but put them on the backburner for a little while since I was no chance for any first to finds. A few days later though I had them all solved and was ready for a road trip.
So today with the weather cloudy and cool we headed out with both the bikes on the back of the ute and the last speed bump into the main car park caused one of the bikes to nearly fall off but all good after that.
We rode around and collected the whole series in one go today and once I got back to the car the bike only had 6% battery left from all those hills and super tight hilly tracks draining the life out of it. The iPhone 11 fared much better, it still had 50% battery left.
At the end of the ride with a lot of scratches and one bull ant bite it was a very fun and satifying trip. A couple of them were quite tricky to ride within 25-30m or so but we managed it ... you have to maximise your laziness to override the lack of fitness you see.
At one point we met Rebel Acts, Omegaman1971 & day1976 on our travels but never saw them again after that. We started at the north end first and they started at the south. Just a tip for future players ... start south, you will work out why later. Wasn't a huge drama but we had a couple of extra rides to do backtracking over already covered territory by starting north.
An awesome series with an lot of effort put in to all those containers and hides.
Thanks Gunks for the caches, the puzzles, the hunts and a really fun day out.

I lived in East Doncaster very close to Warrandyte for 26 years and even went to Warrandyte High school. But back then Geocaching was non existent and I didn't explore the area very much. The Warrandyte tunnel is always an interesting place to visit and now I am also chasing gold in the town.

Geobuddy Spiffy- and I had this series, plus another random cache in this area. With no real plan on how to best tackle these we took our Stealth Electric bikes and off we went. The hils sure sucked down the battery and some fallen trees and steps made for a tough terrain, but all in all we found lots of "Gold".

The effort on the containers was brilliant - very much appreciated. I did get caught out a bit when putting the log book "container" back into the cammo only to have it fall back out the other end.

Thanks Gunks for an awesome series.

Solved the Gold puzzle, now off to find the caches.

The Geokids little legs were getting tired by this stage. Luckily this was our second last pick up for the day. Thanks for the cache Gunks

On a roll! Might have to leave the others till another day thanks for bringing us here today lovely walk

Found at 09:59
Another nice hide. Another quick find. It's nice to have this whole section of the park to myself.
Thanks Gunks for the series

Omegaman1971
The Omega Empire
@ 6156 finds
In the area with Rebel Acts after meeting up at a event earlier in the day.
With the sun getting hotter and the batteries looking flatter we decided to make this our last for the day, but we will be back very soon.

With today being the leap year I had three events lines up and I needed to find 29 or more caches for a challenge cache in the US that I will be finding later in the year, had a great day out, mainly chasing puzzle solves and doing a few traditional's and Multis along the way, did a few caches with the Omegaman1971 as well.

Thanks Gunks for the cache.

! Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! To Australia - famous gold quote

Thanks Gunks for GOLD #22

#4520

A cool morning. Ideal for a walk through a lovely part of the Warrandyte area. Thanks for this series which I’ll slowly work my way through. It’s a great reason to get out and about and find some of the Gold in them thar hills

Published

I solved these puzzles after visiting for the first time, so it's not surprising I didn't have much luck finding the caches before the others who had the solutions already loaded!... (G' of GJMMelb tried to wirelessly transfer the cache to me but it failed for some reason - not unusual, although sending the other way seems to work more reliably - perhaps an issue with the 600 series Garmin Oregon?) Anyway, I think we bumped into OzHockeyChick on the track so while we chatted G' and some of the others made the find

Continuing on and marvelling at the energy level of Rabbitto’s Grandson, young Z, this was next on the list. As we were walking along we bumped in to Oz Hockey Chick just near GZ. She was com8ngcoming back from the other direction. Had a bit of a chat and we all determined this park would probably be it for the day as it was warmer than expected! GMelb found this one I think?? I seem to have lost my list!!
TFTC Gunks and the series and fun arvo, and nearly 10,000 steps around this park! - GJMMelb

We found this cache as number 7 of 9 on our Gold Diggers Warrandyte Tour Part I in company of GJMMelb and Quiet1_au as we now shared a walk and a chat for four caches. Ozhockeychick was coming back from another cache so we had a chat about all that we had seen and done so far today. Thanks from D B-A with K, Z and P H.

2:11 pm #9206
{FTF}
I thought Rabbitto might have made it here by now. Surprised to find another empty logbook.
A couple left at this end, then I’ll need to backtrack to go get one I’ve missed. Doh!
Thanks for placing and maintaining this cache, Gunks

FTF gone.

A quick find on a sunny afternoon walk with Roaming Howie thanks

Finalising this section of the trail this morning. TFTC!