GOLD #30 Wonga Park, Victoria, Australia
By Gunks on 26-Dec-19. Waypoint GC8H9NC

I solved this series soon after it was published, but up until recently my husband has not been interested in geocaching. Now that he is retired and he enjoys walking, I have been able to encourage him to come walking (and geocaching) with me.Today was a lovely day for a walk, along the Yarra River and back through the bush.While I was wandering through the bush, following the arrow on my GPSr my husband located the cache, in an obvious spot. The resident spider was not happy with it's home being disturbed.Thank you Gunks, for this cache and the seriesAdd an image

When I first saw this cache I thought it was a tiny miner's hat!I'd solved this series years ago but never found the right day to spend some time walking around the Warrandyte State Park. Well today was the day . . . a day off for Anzac Day, 25 April. I'm trying to find 250 caches on the 25th of the month for a challenge (https://coord.info/GCA000R) so I couldn't resist doing a third of this series on a lovely 3 hour bushwalk in the afternoon. We'd spend the morning at the Upwey/Belgrave RSL Service. Two of the kids were in the guard of honour for the parade as members of the Upwey CFA brigade. The other was in the parade representing the Upwey/Tecoma footy club. Zeus could've marched as he was an officer in the NZ Army about 20 years ago. It was a really special morning.

Found this lovely cache and now onto the next one.TFTC!

Tftc, #5 for the day

Cool container!

#1431 - Spent a very hot morning in some abnormal early Spring heat starting off the GOLD series with a nice hike. Tftc

Interesting container. Tftc

Can honesty say this was the first of these either of us have come across.

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.
A golden opportunity to test our metal.

Puzzle solved and cache found with dalerious .

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 .

Cool little container. Trying not to slip on the very slippery paths!

Cool! We liked the artefact hiding the cache... not sure what it once was. Slowly making our way through this series, but it is always a pleasure to walk these tracks. TFTC

A little bit of a downhill stumble to get this cache. After looking about for a bit I looked down and saw the obvious hide. An interesting artifact here, and I suspect what it may have been in a past life.

After doing some maintenance work on the back verandah this morning, we had to wait for the paint to dry, so we grabbed the deadly treadlies, and with Chewinprickles we rode some of the Gold series.
A beautiful day and nice trails although some were a bit challenging on the bikes, but a lovely ride with very few muggles spotted.
We will return for the last third and the finals.

I think we took a wrong track near here. It was tricky to get back onto the main track.
Thanks for this series, Robmc.

Decided to go after this series today which we did by bike. Must say some of the narrow steep trails were a bit of a challenge on the bike but we succeeded mostly.
Thanks Gunks

Cool cache container

Log replaced, all good!

A little stroll down the hill and found cache in random spot - hhhhmm most definitely odd.
Then had to make the decision to go back up the hill to safety of road or continue down the hill in a straight line that didn't look steep. Aas this was around the 20th find for the day, and many km's later, I DID NOT want to walk back up a hill if I can walk across. For once, the choice was the right one and we came across a great track across different terrain again.

Making our way to GZ Kbucky spied the cache in an Unexpected place. Well that was different. We then had to decide on weather to gamble and make our own way to the next cache. Or to play it safe. We took a gamble that paid off as we found a path that lead us on a beautiful trail.

We have chosen the GOLD caches for today. The terrain is a bit tougher than expected. This one found at a logical spot thru the hint. Logbook completely stuck in the container.

Thanks for placing and maintaining the cache

All fixed

Apologies, I will get to this very soon.

We didn't realise this one was disabled until we went to log it. It had been downloaded into our gps some time ago. It's still there but, as reported, the lid is missing.

First off just wanted to say congrats to this cache series for being a finalist for the 2020/2021 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards!

I am very keen on trying to find as many of the finalists for these awards as I can. So came out here today to try and work on this series!

This was my second trip out to Warrandyte State Park. I ended up finding #1 in the series back in April when I was working on the "Mystery Cache Monthly Challenge" (GC5MTHY).

The Warrandyte State Park is just absolutely gorgeous, and after a long stressful day at work, was exactly what I needed tonight to be refreshed.

The daylight by now was completely gone, and the night caching official started lol. I knew it was getting late. I figured I wouldn't continue on until I DNF'd another cache in the series. That would be my trigger to say its too dark, time to call it a night. Well I arrived at GZ and saw something that didn't seem to match the rest of the terrain and there the cache was.

This one was my 9th find for the day, and my 10th find in the series.

Thanks for all the fun tonight and TFTC.

Cache Maintenance Status:

The lid to the container is missing. This unfortunately has led to the logbook being fairly damp. It was still signable, but definitely getting a little tough. The logbook has also seen better days and is getting fairly tattered.

This geocacher reported that the container is damaged.

Need an inspection

The lid of the cache container is missing. The logbook is then getting fairly damp and edges are a bit tattered.

Good hide. TFTC

Easy find log ok, but the screw cap is missing but log ok,
This one was our last for today, so this will take us a few trips before we get them all.

Thanks Gunks

Fairly conspicuous hiding spot, but I legitimately thought it was unrelated scrap at first! Not bad.

With all the puzzles solved on publication, except for 2, it’s taken us awhile to get ourselves to this beautiful reserve. Today is our 3rd visit and each time we have been shown different areas with various terrains, all stunning in their own way.

Together with Crustyvarmint who had already picked up this cache and was there to help if needed, we’ve found the clues and accurate coordinates lead us to fairly quick finds, and as todays target included quite a big chunk of this series, was very much appreciated.

Love your work Gunks, love the park and love those glittery containers. Thank you.

I spotted a nice piece of rusty gold here today. Was about to snaffle it for myself when it revealed the hide. Damn it.

Left as found. ha

Found it, someone left there panning gear here too by the look of it! Fun series, thanks for placing all these. Cache missing lid, hope it doesnt get too wet 30 to go!

Wasn't sure whether to keep finding in order or grab this one nearby, decided to take a quick detour here before continuing on. No lid, but all in place. TFTC

22 February 2022 6:56 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 @ 6:57 pm.*
*Cache find # 12551.*

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.
After finding the lower section we now headed to this area so that we could work out where the final is, in the end we run out of time and had to head off for some dinner and a Event.
This one was far off from the path back so we had a look for this and then headed back.

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

Found at 16:44
I lost the trail on the way here but got here with a little bush bashing. The lid was missing from the container but the log was still dry.
Thanks Gunks for the cache

The problem with a calendar challenge like ** The Non-Traditional Calendar Challenge ** is that if you choose to skip finding a cache on a day you need to find, you put off completing the challenge for at least another year! So although the day was warmer than ideal for caching and I still had things to do before Christmas, it was case of "suck it up" and go find a cache... after all, next year might be hotter and busier!

And so I was back at my favourite hunting ground for "non Trad" caches... the GOLD series... not that it's is going to go one forever... I only have five more visits after today. Today's target cache was selected for its proximity to the car park... not that it is particularly close, it just that the others are even further away.

As usual, a nice easy find... although this one had a little difference. Thanks **Gunks** for the cache and the series.

A "heads up" with this one... I think the thread on the cache container may be damaged. It wasn't screwed together properly when I found it and I couldn't screw it together at all.

Out caching with Echidna44, I took the opportunity to find some of the gold series that I had solved. Echidna had already done this series, so I skipped on ahead to sniff the caches out, and she ambled along behind. All caches were found quickly and easily in the expected locations. An excellent series in a beautiful location.

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

Found it with crank1 TFTC

Date: November 2, 2021 Time: 3:50 PM
Find #11698

Out this Melbourne Cup day with SedgwickDave. Purpose of today's visit was a small shakedown hike getting ready for a 2 week section of the Australian Alps Walking Track later this month.

This series of puzzles had been solved many moons ago. It was a warm 30 degree day and the car park was overflowing with cars parked several hundred metres along the road.

As we were pretty unprepared as cachers today, we only had 1 pen with us and about 50m from this cache I realised the pen was no longer in hand so a 200m backtrack to find the pen was necessary! Thankfully cache was easy to find.

Thanks to Gunks for the cache.

Big things are continuing to happen! *Are you joining the fun again in 2022?*
[**THE**](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8EW45)
[**WANGARATTA**](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8EW45)
[**EVENT 2021**](http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8EW45)
*14th / 15th January 2022 – GC8EW45 – Wangaratta – Victoria*

Why is it that the caches closest to home seem to be the last ones that you look for. Had the chance to go for a stroll today and find some of this series with a couple of previous finders. Thank you for all that has gone into placing and maintaining this series is a great reserve.

Light hide! Nice.

TFTC, got the marbles effect.

Came out here for my birthday and we were not disappointed! Beautiful area we have never been! Thanks for this series! Note: All logs will be the same Copied except the last one!

Before turning back towards the cars, we continued on to pick up this cache. Thanks to Surefoot24, GJMMelb and Laidlaym for the pleasant afternoon, and ,once again, Gunks for his good works.

Some of the group had returned and some had already found this cache. CV and I had not so we pushed on. This one was a quick find once I got to Gz. Thanks Gunks
GJMMelb

Gold under a bucket! TFTC

A steeper climb down the hill was necessary here. Luckily my walking stick helped me keep my balance, as well as grabbing branches of trees with the spare hand also helps my confidence. Once found and log signed, you’ve then got to get back up to the road! Zig zagging up reduces the steepness but increases the distance you have to cover. Much more preferable for me.

Great spot and under such an impressive dome

#2025 - 1.20pm
With a group of 6 year olds leaving us behind in what would have been a trail of dust on a drier day, Heymissjo continued our meandering FTF hunt.
Okay, just maybe the old 'hound' in me was getting just a teeny tiny little bit antsy! Lol.
Still, the long walk which took in various vantage points of the swollen Yarra and the ongoing hunt for Gold were a very enjoyable preamble to what we had originally come here for.

The approach to this GZ reminded me of many caches I hunted in Kinglake back in a bygone time.
But it had a unique Gunks twist here!
I guess you can never have enough protection, lol.

Thanks so much for the fun day. It was a better alternative than instead quietly shivering in our cold, dark home during the current eastern suburbs power outage.
A MUCH better alternative.
Cheers Gunks.

Now, as for that FTF...

#1053
Love the camo! Nice to almost complete another circuit of this awesome gold series. During recent lockdown when we could only go no more then 5km, I looked at what caching options I could have… only twenty left in that radius and most were gold!!! Not that I went for them, I do rather wait til restrictions have eased a little… but at least I can finally clean up some more close to home. Thanks for the cache.

After a week of lockdown, and feeling pretty fed up, we used the extension of permitted exercise to 10km as an excuse to come here and find some 'gold'. These are roughly 6km away for us so we were unable to walk here during the previous lockdowns. We solved all of the puzzles during the first lockdown last year, and collected 12 of them in between lockdowns. After that, it was hard for us to get to this area because of the roadworks on Jumping Creek Rd. Today though, we were here and I'm so glad we came. This is my favourite of the three places we have been so far for 'gold'. This was a good bush bash off the main track. Thanks for placing and maintaining this series Gunks. This is the fifth for us today and the 17th overall. 18 to go! Now which way to go?

I started this gold series a year ago and still haven't finished, which is slack given I live so close! Headed out this morning to find a few more ... there was a very big roo nearby which gave me a bit of a fright but managed to find the cache fairly quickly. TFTC

All good here Captain!
Nice little off track hiding spot. Still loving those containers.
It’s been a great day.
TFTC Gunks 

We found this cache as number 6 of 12 on our Gold Diggers Warrandyte Tour Part III. We took a quick walk along another trail, backwards from where we were going just in case we did not come back this way. Enjoyed the case cover. Thanks from D and HA B-A

Second day finding Gold. Wow, a lot of exercise is one reward. I got the order mixed up here which gave me ever more exercise. Thanks Gunks

This was about as far(ish) that I'd be heading today and once at GZ, I quickly had the stash in hand at 16:15. One for the tin hat brigade.

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

I found gold! thanks for the cache

Another quick successful find.
So nice out here without any other humans!
TFTC

18:15
Seeing out the year with my first proper hike since before the roller coaster ride of restrictions... It's so good to be out. In all, ten klicks of trail walking for the evening.

Thanks, Gunks... had solutions for these caches straight after they were published, and have been anticipating a visit since. Well worth the wait.

Completing the Seven Wonders in the slightly more challenging way I'd chosen meant two fun loops via Stane Brae Track, which serendipitously put me on the best approach to this cache.

#5267

I like the covering

Out to find a little more gold today. Thanks for this fabulous series Gunks

Found at 12:55 PM GAFF1.
A 35 metre walk into the bush and a nice little set up was discovered - which was also home to a nice sized huntsman
Thanks Gunks.

Bingo bango! It’s GOLD of course. Can I forget? Also, YAPIDKA! Such a patch work park system. A few missions for the day include running - gotta get some fitness back and do enjoy exploring these parks. 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 an almost sunny but cold summer day, the park beckons. Great spot. TFTC

Having a lovely time with echidna44,but the showers and wet long grass and higher vegetation soon meant we were quite wet. This didn’t dampen our enthusiasm and plan to complete this Gold series A novel disguise here Thanks Gunks

Out with au.fait, we decided to complete the gold series in Warrandyte even though it had been raining heavily. We ended up with wet feet and knees from the long grass and dripping trees.
This was different again. Great use of old items. Thanks Gunks.

Yeah, I don't know how I missed this one! I was looking everywhere but no cache, until eventually I saw this item which you don't see everyday. I'm going to blame the angle I was looking from - yep, the angle.
Thanks Gunks!

I was looking for a place that would be fairly quiet and removed that I had these solved puzzles. I hadn't been here before and as such seemed like a great day to visit. Glad it was supposed to be a cool day, as I still got dam warm hiking here.

Afyer find #13, I somehow lost the trail to this one and boy was it a hard climb. Directly up hill from the river animal trail I had been following to this GZ.

It was getting pretty hot now, amd boy did I consider using this hat. After signing and returning the log, a kangaroo mob hopped along and around me and hadn't even seen me. It wasn't until I changed positions that they noticed and boy did they take off in a hurry.

Thanks for the cache Gunks
Hunter

A beautiful Sunday morning that lived up to its name. We decided that we will revisit Jumping Creek Reserve to grab a few more of the Gold series. Although the car park was full the trail was quite empty with just the odd muggle passing the other way.

Not quite sure about the 2.0 terrain from the direction we approached however it was very enjoyable. A quick find. TFTC.

5th find for the day while searching for gold.

I loved the camouflage on this cache. Tftc.

These tracks are getting busier and busier today. I guess everybody’s out and about today. Dan, still says no more shops to be open, maybe later on in the week

Find number five with Lamby29 today!

Our first time doing the Mystery Cache. We came in real hot thinking we were going to get all 35 in one day. Started off really well, 10 caches in 2 hours. But i forgot to add some waypoints into the GPS which threw us off our groove.

GOLD #20 took us a solid 30 minutes before giving up and sending a message to Gunks. A quick reply saved the day along with Fleabags entry. The hint helps too, makes sense when you think about it.

Managed to get 13 today but we will be back for the rest soon enough. A great walk in a beautiful area. We had no idea that this area was so close to home.

Thanks Gunks.

One more for the road on the way back to car park.
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!

Great to be out on a sunny winter day. No muggles so have the place to ourselves. Only one more lot to do to complete the set, although we already have enough info to do the final.

Just when you think you know how these are hidden you get a small curveball. Thanks for the cache.

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. After parking up we hit the trails and after following the river track first this was into different looking terrain. No problems with the find and we continued on our way. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log and visited some trackables. Thanks for the puzzle, the cache and the series Gunks.

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).

I hadn't walked this section of the reserve before and it was certainly interesting to see some changes in the landscape. No problems finding this cache. TFTC Gunks

Lovely walking through this parklands today.

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 .

Interesting hide! TFTC!

6/6 for the day. Thank you for another nice cache! Fun hide

I wasn’t sure about this cover thinking it looked bomb like but after telling roaming Howie I’d touch it on the basis he isn’t in my will yet so I need to be safe.. I did. Nice cover and hide. Thanks.

A gentle roll down the hill to this hidden cache. Log signed and off we go! Thanks for all these hides

Found nice and quickly on the steeper terrain. Just what is the covering it?

With another beautiful day forecast, what better way to spend it than looking for GOLD.
Again I think we approached this one from the wrong direction but we'll keep that under our hat.
Thanks Gunks for bringing us to this magnificent area.
Chiefton!!!

Find number 8328 at 9:59:34 am
A beautiful morning for a walk in the park.
Well, who would have thought this was here, quick find but time to head home now .
**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*

Ta

We had solved this series of puzzles a few days ago and returned for our second day of searching for caches in this series. We thought that this area might be quiet and there would be little chance that we would be in contact with others. This time we headed est from the carpark. 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.
Another cross country hike. Interesting camouflage!
Thanks to Gunks for this series

Just what I came for tonight, as bit of a hill, only little but worked the muscles

Today was the third and final pass to complete the GOLD series (and a few nearby extras). I set out after lunch time from the picnic ground with the aim of picking the last 17.

I made good time, picking up #2, #3, #4, #7 and #10 relatively quickly as I had become accustomed to finding the precious nuggets. I found the clue allowing me to decode the coords for the final cache and continued on for a quick find of #14.

However, things came to a grinding halt once I hit #20. I searched for nearly 20min before finally spotting it. Coming across the "sheds" was rather unexpected as was the kangaroo skeleton on the mattress!

From here I went on to find #35 (final) - KACHING and a trackable! Along the way I crossed paths with a black snake and some giant fungi.

The next batch of #15, #13, #30 and #29 were nice and easy followed by a religious revelation at #12! Here I also think I had a quick chat to the telefreaks family who I suspect may have just signed the log a few minutes before I arrived, the first sign I'd seen of other cachers out and about for the day.

A deviation from the series led me to find the nearby Mercator's Ghost followed by #26, which took me much longer than average and then finished onto #25 after which my handheld GPS's battery died and then a quick find of the last one of the day, #21.

It was then a short walk back to the picnic ground and my mouth was watering after passing a few young blokes roasting a large cut of beef on a spit.

All in all, another fantastic afternoon hiking around the Warrandyte state park and completing the wonderful GOLD series. Thanks Gunks I loved the ingots!

Starting off at 9am this was a great day to clean up some more caches in this series. Jules6 and I made our way along the undulating paths easily, until later in the day, when the sun warmed up and the hills started to take their toll. I was pleased to make it back to the comfort of my car's A/C having completed our haul of 12 gold caches for the day. Thanks Gunks

I’m on the homeward stretch for today at least. The gold will have to wait......

Our trek continues to complete this series of caches . This was an easy find . Thanks Gunks .

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!

I was on leave so I messaged Omegaman1971 to see if he wanted to go caching, I had to head to the area to take My Mum home so We decided to continue searching the hills for gold, we were soon joined by Day1976 who was in the area, I managed to get all but one finished today, I have to say the legs were real sore by the end. We also came across Spiffy and Flebag on there extreme bikes. I appreciate the effort made with this series.

Thanks Gunks for the cache.