Ducks Ahoy Harrietville, Victoria, Australia
By Ronice88 on 20-Oct-22. Waypoint GC9P827

Found by Mary and David at 17:10. Back in mid-September, our VIC1 group planned a couple of days at Bright to tackle the SNOMO and F.L.A.K.E. caches. Today we started at the top of the Old Coach Road and cached our way down the mountain. Then we did the caches along the West Ovens Track, before tidying up some unknowns, trads and multis close to town. Finished off the day with a delicious dinner at the Harrietville Hotel. Answers submitted for the group by Feathertop. Our thanks to Ronice88.

Done with a Group of cachers who also collaborated on the puzzles. We had a most enjoyable two days in the area. Many thanks for all the caches. Signed as Vic1. The answers have been sent as the CO knows!

Had the kayak on board. A nice quick paddle as we all took turns. Great spot, would have loved a dip. Answers sent. A favourite from me.Thanks for the cache Ronice88.

Found whilst on a quick paddle on the lake. A wet bottom was had by all by the end. Thanks from D & HA B-A

A group of us made plans for 2 days here in lovely Harrietville. A T5 virtual meant the kayak made the trip too.Found today with maccamob, Muzza, Alansee, micaparamedic, Rabbitto, Mclookers and ThePacman.A favourite point for location. Answers sentThanks Ronice88

A group of geofriends hit the Bright and Harrietville area for a couple of days caching, concentrating on the F.L.A.K.E. and Snomo series. Many other caches were found as well, this being one of them.Answers sent, thanks Ronice88 for placing this Virtual Cache, enhancing the game board and adding to our enjoyment.

I came to a CITO here a little while ago, and the CO had her kayak here for us to do this cache. I was on my way home, so elected not to do it. Today, with a number of other cachers, we did a number of the SNOMO caches and ended up here. Answers have been submitted as a group.Thanks to Ronice88 for the cache.

While perusing the map of Harrietville, my attention was drawn to this virtual.Instantly, it was placed on the bucket list.I have only taken the plunge for two virtuals now, both of which are coincidentally in Victoria.Y'all must just love your water clearly!This was my last activity in Harrietville, and after looping round the lake I decided to take a plunge.The water wasn't as cold as I thought surprisingly, or maybe it was so cold that my body couldn't quite articulate the temperature since everything was numb!Took a rather pleasant swim while my family was able to capture some nice photos from above because I was for sure not bringing my phone in there!After I started shivering it was a good call to get a towel and start moving back.Thanks for this excellent virtual Ronice! Favourite point easily

I have a similar water based virtual in Sydney (GC7B8K9), but it is shallower, saltier, and at least 10 degrees warmer.A consistency though is the dubious logs (including this one) where the instructions are not 100% followed In this case I was very unstable on the foam padding taken from the garage at our holiday home, so got the geowife to take a reverse photo. Hope that is OK? I'll grant you a geospouse photo on my cache too

Found by The Empire + HAfter arriving in Harrietville, we made our way to the Tronoh Dredge Reserve, a serene spot known for its picturesque walking trails and history. The reserve was once the site of gold mining, and today, the remnants of that era can still be seen amidst the tranquil surroundings.We followed the trail around the lake, its calm waters reflecting the surrounding trees and distant mountains. The walk was peaceful, with the sounds of birds and rustling leaves filling the air. The path wound through a mix of open areas and shaded pockets of forest, offering plenty of spots to pause and take in the beauty of the reserve.As we circled back, the history of the area was evident in the landscape, but nature had long since reclaimed it, making the Tronoh Dredge Reserve a perfect blend of heritage and natural beauty. Good fun here with the nephews ready to help us out - favourite point added! Thanks for the cache Ronice88.-MVirtual #263

One duckie set sail into the calm waters of the hole, while the other stayed behind to handle the paperwork. We brought the inflatable yak on this trip specifically for this cache, and Im so glad we did. Im definitely coming back in summer for a dip.It was a beautiful morning, albeit a little chilly. Steve paddled out, took the obligatory selfie (which is never flattering), then paddled back to shore without even getting a toe wet.Thanks Ronice88 for showing us this little piece of paradise.

Good fun, jetty slippery in winter be careful

We struck lucky here. Just before torrential rain hit. So bad had to bolt to the car. The amazing little bakery around the corner was perfect to stop in out of the weather. Home made chutney with the pies, at no extra cost. Lots of interesting memorabilia on the walls. Truly felt like we were in Harrietville. I'm glad there are more caches now around this little town, its such a great spot to visit. Hope to return again soon and explore some more. FP for the great location.

What a magnificent spot to swim, fish & paddle on Australia Day with great mates TheClazzas & Cristabel. The original plan to grab this virtual involved a SUP or inflatable something (we took many options ). As we were setting up for a day of R&R, the teens found the floating pontoon & we hatched a new plan. SUPs were tied to the pontoon with ropes, and the teens towed MrsClazza, MrsCristabel & MrsWackyweedo out to the middle. The required pic was taken, and we continued on the teens tour over to the waterfall. It was here the teens untied the ropes, gave us their paddles & we had to paddle the pontoon back to the beach! Thanks Ronice88 for permission to log & this fantastic virtual! We loved it!! Fav for sure

A perfect day in the sunshine with the Wackyweedos and Clazzas. Luckily the right equipment was on hand and some willing teenagers towed us out on their SUPs to get the required snap. What a terrific spot for a family picnic and swim. Thanks for sharing it with us!

What a beautiful little lake this is. I've enjoyed my time in the Harrietville area, and caching with friends. Today I was with Kbucky, Cybergran V and Weirdobiker, as we paddled out and took our pics.Thanks for bringing us here Ronice88, and sharing your little slice of heaven. A favourite point coming your way.

Found it! Oh wow! A morning of walking and caching and now an afternoon for kayaking and caching! Thank you very much to the CO for offering the use of her kayak. After an impromptu afternoon tea, we mounted the kayak on the car and headed off to the pond. Between three of us, we got the kayak to the shore, I managed to get in without falling in and I was launched onto the still blue water. I paddled to GZ and fumbled a photo without dropping my phone in, then after a small lap, I headed back to shore. TFTC and photo added. Again thanks so much to the CO for the use of the kayak.

On a previous visit this was deemed impossible for me to achieve.However after attending the CITO in the morning, followed by the lunch event afterwards, a devious visit was successful and, thanks to my wonderful geocaching mates, I ended up back on dry land, without ending up in the water.Thanks Ronice88 for the adventure and the Virtual.

Today I teamed up with SnipsnCo, Tiz13 and CracknLeeLee, otherwise known as Fish Attack 4.Arriving at the dam, was like a fairy tale with the emerald green water and towering trees.The nearby muggle was kind to share his kayak without questioning our strange behaviour and then lent a hand to 'crack' the special yak to pack away.thank you for sharing this treasured location.

congratulations on your COTY nomination With cybergran V, crustyvarmint, weirdobiker and SciFiRukz, we each found our way onto the water for the required pic. The fisherman was not happy but realised we werent going to be long and waited patiently. Loved the scene here today - fishing, swinging off the rope, the pontoon, Kayakers of all ages. A positive, lasting legacy of the dredge. Tftc fab virtual - definite fave

Such fun! We had kayak, we had phones, we had sunshine, what more could you want!The 4 of us took turns on Tiz13's fancy kayak until a random stranger offered us his... without even asking why we were paddling to the middle and back again! Such a nice guy. He even helped later when we were packing up. Love this place.We giggled and waved and laughed and paddled, perfect location, perfect virtual, thanks Ronice88, such a treat to have been here. I don't know why I wasn't smart enough to take pic of toes but I did get the gorgeous Kristy's Adventures photobombing!

Found. With the help of kbucky and Crustyvarmint I entered the borrowed kayak and paddled out to take the required photo. We took turns in the kayak and probably annoyed the fisherman who was positioned at the end of the jetty trying to fish. Luckily we didn't take too long. Then we collected the information required to answer the questions. Thanks for the different Virtual cache Ronice88.

Visiting the area to attend a few events over the cup weekend. After a wonderful group paddle on William Hovell Dam yesterday, Harrietville was the target today. I wasn't expecting to do another paddle until what is now known as Fish Attack 4 (Tiz13, Kristysadventures, Snips and Co and LeeLee) ventured here. Tiz's kayak was the chosen vessel. We had lots of fun swapping turns to paddle out. A guy with his family lent us his kayak also as he could see we were on a mission. Thanks Ronice88. Lots of fun had

Fish Attack 15 became Fish Attack 4 as we gathered at this location following the nearby CiTo with a serious mission. We read and re read the instructions many times before taking turns on my kayak. I have christened her the Hot Chili. We also took turns in photo bombing each others photos much to the amusement of on lookers. We gathered the answers, and Snips and Co delegated herself as official sender of answers. Thanks girls (Snips and Co, Kristysadventures Crack'n'LeeLee and muggle Kate) for the fun. Thanks Ronice88 for a fun Virtual and for bringing us to this cool location.

# ***Congratulations*** #
Your geocache has been nominated for the Best Cache Location award in the 2022 Victorian Geocache of the Year Awards.
With your nomination, your geocache has been placed in a geocaching.com [list](https://coord.info/BMC8QYR) with all other nominees so that the community can more easily find the nominated geocaches. You might expect to see a little more activity over the next several months leading up to the voting period.
I hope you can make it along to the Awards Ceremony later in 2023 at a time still to be determined. More information will be available on the event page when it is published, you will find a list of upcoming Victorian events [here](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/events/upcoming-events/).
You can find out more about the awards on the Geocaching Victoria webpage [here](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/events/victorian-cache-of-the-year-awards/2022-victorian-cache-of-the-year-awards/)
Thanks for contributing to the community.
**Geocaching Victoria Inc.**

# ***Congratulations*** #
Your geocache has been nominated for the Best Regional Cache award in the 2022 Victorian Geocache of the Year Awards.
With your nomination, your geocache has been placed in a geocaching.com [list](https://coord.info/BMC8QYR) with all other nominees so that the community can more easily find the nominated geocaches. You might expect to see a little more activity over the next several months leading up to the voting period.
I hope you can make it along to the Awards Ceremony later in 2023 at a time still to be determined. More information will be available on the event page when it is published, you will find a list of upcoming Victorian events [here](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/events/upcoming-events/).
You can find out more about the awards on the Geocaching Victoria webpage [here](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/events/victorian-cache-of-the-year-awards/2022-victorian-cache-of-the-year-awards/)
Thanks for contributing to the community.
**Geocaching Victoria Inc.**

In all our travels we would not have even thought to travel to this location.
(HaHa). In your dreams, these cachers do.

[:(!] Thanks for an awesome effort.

Devilish

Brilliant and Clever

I like it

Another one off the list

TTBLNSL TFTC/TFTH/TFBUH - Jamin Appleford [^]

The OSHFAM clan including geo dog Roxy came up to Punkah for a few days to spend time in our shack before school starts next week. On Saturday lunchtime, I sent the family home and Roxy and I stayed on for an extra night on our own.

It would be my first time away from my 3 kids since they were born 15 years ago. I had decided that when they left I would find something bat s**t crazy to do. Ronice, your Virtual here fit the bill perfectly.

It was a stinker of a hot day at Harrietville today. I arrived around 2pm. Every man, woman, child and their dog were. They brought their variety of preferred water crafts down ranging from inflatable donut rings, life vests, floaties, kayaks, paddle boards etc......

Me, well I brought a truck tyre inflatable donut ring, and Roxy. Lucky for me I also spotted a plastic waterproof sleeve on a lanyard on the floor of my car. An item amongst many of random items that can be found on the floor of my mum mobile.

Whilst everyone was wearing swimsuits and appropriate swimming attire, me, well I was the crazy woman fully clothed in my custom made bright blue geocaching embroided polo top that Beck made for me and long black yoga pants, swim shoes, carrying a big black donut tube and Roxy on the lead. My hair was particularly buffy from the humidity making me look like a crazy cat lady, which I proudly am mind you.

We get to the banks of the water and Roxy nearly pulls me in with excitement. I'm not a water person at the best of times. The water felt freezing upon entry, however it was quite pleasant once I got over the initial shock.

I didn't have a plan how I would achieve the task here. I was winging it all the way. I did promise myself that Roxy would have to be in the photo with me. I wasn't really prepared for how bloody hard that would be to get. Roxy had other ideas!!! She's no small dog. A Bull Arab X, so she's got decent body mass and muscles. I only had the lead to hold onto her.

I started off sitting on top of the tube thinking Roxy would just pull me along. After 10 mins of false starts with Roxy turning back to the bank of the hole, it was time to try a different tact. I decided to lay face forward over the tube hoping Roxy would stay ahead of me and pull me along. Again, she did not. She went straight back to the bank. She was having none of it. What to do? I WANT that photo to claim the smiley here. I'm not leaving until we get it!

Right Roxy, I'm taking charge here. She must have felt my energy because she started paddling out into the middle of the hole. Thinking we were at the right spot, the unthinkable happens, I drop her lead. Well she was free, free as a bird. She was off. I desperately tried to paddle to grab her but she was too fast. She paddled further and further away from me. I'm not only the fully clothed crazy cat lady haired lady in the middle of the hole, but now I'm crazy lady calling out for her dog in the middle of the water whilst balancing on a donut tube. ROXY! ROXY! ROXY! COME BACK ROXY! ROXY!!!!!!!! RRRROOOOOOOXXXXXXXYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!! Well she got back her senses and came back to me. Thank the Lord.

Roxy was now getting tired and circling me. I grabbed her harness and held her afloat whilst trying to stay afloat myself. How am I going to get this photo. I somehow turned the tube around into a position with the Joop Jetty behind me and positioned Roxy in a way that when I let her go she would swim for the shore and could be seen in the photo. Good plan right. It was, except it took a few of these manoeuvres and many frantic camera button pushes to finally get that elusive shot of both of us in the photo. My camera roll tells the frantic story well. I have attached a few of the failed photos.

So I had a really fantastic, crazy, epic wild adventure here with Roxy. I will definitely bring the whole fam here next time we are up at Punkah.

Thank you for the adventure and virtual here Ronice88 A big fav point from me

A family getaway to Bright and a few caches too...

This cache was at our planned rest stop after a trip up Hotham.

Great fun floating out with a tight grip on my phone.
Fav.
Thanks to Ronice88 for the fun and the adventure.

We had a great swim with the family today at this old pond. And I had an extra special bit of excitement taking my phone out in the water on a floating toy. All held up well and nothing got dropped or badly wet.
Very busy today with kids jumping off the swing rope and enjoying the pontoon.
Such a cool experience on our little holiday in bright. Thanks for the fun!
Another favourite point for the cool cache

This was shaping up to be a hot day and it was definitely the spot to be for the locals. Gathered the info before changing into the swimmers, grabbing the GoPro and reliving the glory days of school swimming carnivals. The biggest challenge ended up being lining up the shot while treading water. Love the challenge of this one - another favourite point to the CO. TFTC

Joint [FTF] with dalerious .

We couldn't believe our luck when we saw this one published. We were heading out to Harrietville to spend the night glamping at the CO's, and dalerious and I had a plan hatched that we thought would guarantee us rights to be first to log this awesome cache.

We were up early. A craft that the CO kindly offered for use was lying dormant out our front door. We had no way of taking it with us, and since we only had our trusty SS ATLANTIC with us, (dinghy built for one), I had to hatch another plan.

Yep, there was only one thing left to do. Who said cat's cant swim!

Even at that hour in the morning, 0730, I was very surprised how lovely it was.

This cat took to the swim like a duck to water.
The rest they say is history....

Thank you Ronice for providing this T5 Virtual.
Your efforts are greatly appreciated .

A favourite point given.

I can’t make the Mega next weekend so I decided that the offer of two event types in Harrietville on the one day to have a crack at improving my number of cache types in a day. I even convinced the kids to come (the geohound was happy to have a day out). A bit of planning meant that success was achieved - 10 cache types (+ AdLabs) signed for the day (despite only signing 15 caches and 12 AdLab points). Very happy with that.

Cache type number 5 and one I thought I would have to drive for (saving Howlong and Corowa just for this day but the former is underwater). However the CO gave me a heads up this one was coming so a nice D/T combination as well. After racing back from the CITO I jumped in the provided inflatable kayak and paddled the pond. The rain was just starting (it got heavier later) but I got a lot wetter as I jumped out (really should have put my sandals on shorts on). Failed on first attempt at the questions but the CO was very kind (I blame the pouring rain at the time).
TFTC Ronice88

Lovely to be able to get 2nd to find. Answers to be sent to CO when I finish at the CITO today

Ftf gone. Ltf

##Published - thanks for contributing to Geocaching with this Listing.##

> *Interested in finding out a whole lot more about Geocaching?
Why not visit the geocaching travelling educational exhibition [**GPS Adventure Maze**](https://coord.info/GC9N1CX) appearing at Whittlesea on 19th and 20th November 2022.*

dalerious and I are looking forward to paddling out and taking our happy snaps Ronice.
You always provide so much fun!
A perfect way to start the weekend . See you tomorrow .