le Franaise Numro 2 Fairhaven, Victoria, Australia
By geofreak on 27-Oct-02. Waypoint GCA1B5

I have signal! That was unexpected!I love the view! So peaceful here!Please somebody puts more caches on this island!

super Ausblick schnell gefunden

While on the Island with my bush walking group we ventured up. So pleased to be able to pick this one up on my walk. Interesting island to visit but not to live here. Great to see some koalas on our way back to the ferry in the rain. TNLN. Thanks so much geofreak for putting one here. Cache in excellent condition.

Find number 13357 at 2:17:33PM on Monday the 6 May 2024Travelled over to French Island with gmj3191 for the day with our e-bikes in tow (thank heavens for that) to gather in the geocaches and check out the scenery. We have been planning this for some time now but have just been waiting for the right time and today was it, absolutely glorious Arrived at Stoney Point in time to catch the ferry at 7:50 in the morning, chilly but promising a beautiful day. Ended up travelling about 50 km for the day, arriving back in time to catch the 3:45 ferry back in the afternoon.After almost 45 kilometers on the trail across the island and back we arrived at The Pinnacles Lookout and what a magnificent view it was. Found the prize quickly, enjoyed the view and headed to the cafe for a coffee that we never got, struggling for time we grabbed a quick cold drink and headed for the ferry.**Thanks GeoVicAus for maintaining all these French Island geocaches**---The nominees for the [**2023 Victorian Cache of the Year Awards**](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/2023-victorian-cache-of-the-year-awards) have now been announced.Find as many of these amazing caches as you can before voting opens later in the year.The full list of nominations is available on the [Geocaching Victoria website](https://geocachingvictoria.com.au/2023-victorian-cache-of-the-year-awards)

Found while on a day trip/hike with amazing views, going OS (literally!) via boat. TFTC!

Such an awesome location and cache. Older than me!

First caching with my dear Anissa. Pick the nice day to visit the island. Thanks for the geocache.

It doesn't happen often that we come across a cache that already existed before we started Geocaching!We spotted a total of 33 koalas that were more than happy to point us in the direction of the cache.TFTC!

le Franaise Numro 2 was transferred from Cache Guardians to user GeoVicAus

Found it with rex46 & Mitzi 123456

With mitzi123456 and dot558Lovely stroll and viewsThanks for the cache

Well worth the hike after all our walking we found it yepee With Rex 46 dot 558

Great day for a stroll. TFTC

Tftc geofreak. First time on the island, first chance to search for some caches. Brought my mountain bike with me and did a 35 km tour of sorts. Looked for 2, found only one.

This is as described, quick find.

Today Geopartner and I set about making the most of the sun and took our bikes to French Island. My first time here and highly recommend. Saw plenty of koalas and a very gentle 15km ride. All in good condition at GZ.

Thanks to geofreak for the fun and the adventure.

Nice ride on the island with a dozen of koalas on the track!
Thanks

Tftc mate

An annual ride with good mates became an overnighter this year. French Island is amazing - we saw koalas, a tiger snake, an echidna, cape barren geese and battalions of soldier crabs. The General Store was awesome - great people, great coffee and an amazing example of living off grid.

And the cache. An epic ride up sandy trails! Great view! Thanks to n0w0rries for looking after this old timer.

TFTC

We decided at the last minute to head up to the pinnacle at about 7.30pm. Rode bikes from the campground. It was a beautiful night and we managed to ride the whole way. Luckily it was a quick find as we got absolutely smashed by mozzies! We had to hightail it out of there quick smart!

Went on a walk, saw some koala friends, found a cache TFTC

Easy find! Maybe the easiest we've ever found

Found easily while on a walk with my local bushwalking club. Thanks for placing a cache in this beautiful location.

Fantastic views from the top, well worth the hike up! Quick and easy find to start the day. Tftc!

Out for a ride around French Island. Ended up here at the Pinnacles and hadn't intended caching, but then I checked and this one was 10m away. I could hardly not find it then! Thanks

Found while hiking French Island with Team Justice. Such a unique destination - tried to count the number of koalas we saw on the trails but unfortunely all lost count at 10 (more koalas than fingers I guess). TFTC and apologies for the late log.

Myself and Clint&Abby had a great time on our French Island exploration. Amazing spot in Victoria that not many people visit. Cache was in good order.

FBTJ #3256

TFTC

Find 2717
This was a very nice adventure. The day is sunny and just perfect to visit French Island. We rode our bikes along the Coast Road and then onto the Pinnicals Track. The track in was sandy in places and with some quite steep sand hills that we pushed the bikes up. At the top the views were excellent. We could see Hastings and the Sub from here. The search for the cache commenced and after a bit of a search we found the well hidden cache. The log was signed and all back safe again. We took a TB to move on. We then took the other road out.
Thanks for putting this cache out there.
It is one of the oldies

Certainly the most remote cache we’ve found
Thanks so much for getting us out here - must come back!

Tftc what a lovely view from up here!

Easily found during a trip to a French island. It finally stopped raining but I was still not able to find any koalas Nice nature. TFTC! Greetings from the Czech republic.

Hurray! Not sure what name this crew should go by but found with the crew today on a hike on French Island. The mozzies were bad but bearable and we topped it off with a cold beverage at the general store. Life could be worse. Thanks for placing this cache!

I was back in Melbourne so I decided to actually visit one of the places that I had been putting off for ages - French Island. The scent of a potential FTF also sweetened the deal.

The weather was a bit average this morning, but it had cleared up as I got off the ferry. Before too long I realised that the whole of the roads on the island were sand/dirt which would slow me down and make cycling a bit interesting if (read: when) it got wet.

I cranked myself up the Pinnacles and took a photo with the trig for GCA, and had a ginger beer before picking up the cache. I was looking at the wrong tree initially, but after looking at the GPS I figured out where to look. TFTC.

Day two of our three day scout hike on French Island brought us up to The Pinnacles for lunch. We'd camped at the Fairhaven camp-site the previous night and had an eventful morning, going down the wrong track a couple of times and spotting two koalas before eventually finding our way to the Pinnacles. A quick find and log book was in hand. From the Pinnacles we headed to the Bayview Chickory Farm where we camped overnight and enjoyed the hospitality of locals Lois and Keith Aire's. Thursday we hiked back to the ferry and all too soon we were home. Despite being advised the island was one of the most snake infested areas of the state, no snakes availed themselves of our company during our hike. We were almost disappointed. Head to French Island - its a beautiful and remote part of Victoria.
TFTC. Twiggy&Co.

Spotted from the path under the tree. Signed log and returned with a bit more coverage. Great spot for a cache on French Island. Staying here 2 nights in the camp ground. Tftc

Cold and wet, but I emerged triumphant!TFTC

Last week I was doing some caches down at Flinders and as I was staring at the map I noted the two caches sitting over on French Island and thought it could be an interesting adventure.

6am this morning I wake up and ponder whether to aim for the 7:40am ferry or sleep in a bit and get the 10am one. My wife had been out partying until 12:30am so I hadn't really had much sleep but thought - the best adventures always start early! So I rolled out of bed, dressed and hit the road for the 1 hour drive to the ferry. Roads were empty, which is always great. Driving up to the ferry terminal I find a manned guardhouse with a lowered boomgate and stop sign. I ask where to park for the ferry and they guide me in and point out the kiosk for ticket sales (though you can buy tickets on the boat too). There's no cars on this ferry, so you're either a walking passenger or pay a bit more to take your bicycle which is what I'm all about.

Ferry arrives, everyone loads in the gloomy fog and we're off. Everyone on the ferry is clad in layers of down and heavy winter gear, I'm dressed in skin tight lycra, cycling shoes and helmet (though given that there are no police on the island you can ride without I imagine quite happily). It's 15 minutes to Tankerton and the deckhand gives me some handy advice about being careful with the patches of sand on the roads despite the serious mountain bike I'm hauling. Sage advice - it can be treacherous.

I was having minor bouts of nostalgia mixed with anxiety, the last time I was here was as a young scout on a bike ride across the island. I had a puncture early and managed to patch it so that it was only a slow leak but was allowed to take a shortcut to the prison farm but having to pump my tyre up every couple of kilometres to get me there. I ended up getting a lift on the police boat at the end of the trip.

We arrive and everyone disappears again. I ride past one of the passengers walking along the jetty and that is the last person I see for several hours! I've decided the way I want to go is left up the Coast Track, right up the Pinnacle Track to this cache. The roads vary between firm and soft sand. The bike handles the terrain easily and apart from a couple of steep pinches with soft unrideable sand, I make it to the Pinnacle with no issues and the fog still thick and the sun attempting to burn through. There's a pair of binoculars sitting on the base of the structure. I imagine the view from up here is awesome but nothing to see this morning.

The cache is quickly retrieved and signed. A nice new container. I nearly left the rubber seal behind as it fell out of the lid when I opened it but lucky I noticed it and reinserted it before returning.

Ah what a view, after our guide for the day showed us the way up the trail I heard some rustling in the bushes, to which I was immediatly alert to see what was in the shrub, turns out it was a big echidna. After spotting the little fella we continued up until the landmark was soon visible. Upon arriving we were told all about the area and the significance of this tower here in relation to the placement of the bouys at the entrance of the bay. It was soon after when we arrived at GZ that we noticed that there was a problem with the cache. over the long time being placed and facing all the elements it had finally worn out. Luckily this was a maintenance run and we were able to quickly fix it up by replacing the container for a sturdier more permanent solution. Either way had a great time here and now we are off to do the nearby GCA trigpoint. Anyways thanks for the great cache and the fun adventure on the island.
*You don't have to be a hero to accomplish great things---to compete. You can just be an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.* -Sir Edmund Hillary

Geocache and logbook replaced. RL

A very early start saw me arrive at Stony Point in time to buy my tickets for the ferry ride over to the island. buhfuhguh was waiting for me out on the jetty and as the ferry arrived, so did our tour guide for the day. After introductions were made we set off across Westernport. Needing to wait for the ferry to collect Surefoot24 from Cowes, Michael and I settled in at FIGS - French Island General Store for coffees. With the crew assembled we headed out to explore the area and find/ replace some very old geocaches. Chris was a mine of information both on the flora and fauna, geology and history of French Island. A must see area for all Victorian geocachers who have looked longingly across the water and mud flats but (like myself), never visited before.
After visiting the first cache and checking out the old jetty and prison farm we went back to the store for some lunch. Driving over here and then a short walk up the track, we spent some time admiring the views (including a couple of Echidnas) before retrieving the cache. Since the container was damaged and all the contents a bit moist, a new container and log book were placed.
We also indoctrinated our tour guide who has now signed up with his own account
Left some swag for future finders.
madre6095's - Happy Birthday, Canada! - Canada 150 Official Geocoin - payed a visit.
Thanks for placing these caches for us to find geofreak.

Taking CO around French Island with a local/new cacher : Yambuldai. Replacing old, damaged cache with sparkling strong new cache. Some swag swapped to new cache. Wonderful spot. I've never been to before despite having visited the Island a few times for various reasons over the last 30 years.
Perfect weather on a mild, sunny winters day.

Great day out with nOwOrries, buhfuhguh and Surefoot24. Perfect weather and easy walking

Box all broken
Tftc

10/12/2016 3:57:00 PM
After discovering a flat tyre at #1 and walking back to the General Store and cooling off with a cold drink and ice cream Scouter 101 and I headed off here and despite making a premature turn that took us to the wrong location we enjoyed our journey the GZ and found the cache quickly, The mosquitos once again appeared in battle formation and strength once the logbook was opens so we hastily signed the book and ran for our lives.
Thanks for the adventure

I've always wanted to get onto French Island, and earlier this year Dog-gone and I almost made it onto the island while circumnavigating it (by kayak, but that is another story - the bottom line is that we didn't have the opportunity to get any caches on the island that day ).
So here we are, a few months later and taking the more sedate option of catching the ferry across from Stony Point with our bikes.
Starting at 8am and finishing by 4pm we covered an enjoyable 55km along the gravel roads and tracks (some of which were more suited to hardy 4WDs), and had great fun exploring this unusual island and its eccentricities. Heading first in an easterly direction, past the Bayview Chicory kiln to the old prison at Freemans Point, then heading north-west around Mt Wellington, and finally taking the 'scenic' route back along Link Road and Clump Road. We finished up the day at the general store, having sampled the eclectic delights of the island's colourful inhabitants and its fauna and flora.
We obviously cached along the way as well, and finished our grand tally of 3 for the day here at the Pinnacles after navigating our way around Long Swamp. Loved reading the older entries in the original logbook!
After taking in the views it was time to head back south towards the ferry along some less technical gravel roads. It seems that some of us differ in our definitions of what can be classified and labelled a 'road' on a map, but we enjoyed it all anyway and found the day's journey a most worthwhile adventure.
Thanks geofreak and Cache Guardians.

Well this the end of a huge day on the bike around the island.
Over 50km for the day on some very rough, hilly, boggy and sandy roads.
A great day
What a buzz to find such an old cache.
We could even see a submarine in the water in the distance.
TFTc.
Cheers
Doggone.
Check out our day here

https://vimeo.com/185088404/3c39dbc6f4

Easy find. Will cover again.

After a nice walk from the ferry greeted by lots of koalas we were very happy to find this cache! Tftc

Île Française Numéro 2 was transferred from geofreak to user maccamob

Île Française Numéro 2 was transferred from maccamob to user Cache Guardians

Yay. One hell of a climb for a unfit cacher

Maintenance check : None needed ....Cache in perfect condition and in good co-ords ready to be found ....

With Natree gefunden
Tftc

11:10 AM #1334
A plan was hatched a couple of days ago that we would tackle French Island today. As it was 88andy88's idea, I let him do all the organising, timetabling etc.
We loaded up the bikes and headed for Stoney Point, where we were joined by an enthusiastic SteMicMitSar.
A nice ride across on the ferry, we soon disembarked and were on our bikes. The first thing we noticed was the corrugated roads.
How does one explain that ararararar noise that we all make as kids when being "jiggled"?
Just like kids, we laughed and giggled our way to just near the gz, where we decided to leg the last few metres. Wow! What a view! [^]
Thanks for bringing us here, geofreak!
Cheers!

What an adventure....
Today OzHockeyChick , Stemicmitsar and I decided after a little of planning that we would set sail on the local ferry with our MountainBikes and hit the trails of French Island....How hard could it be we said..........BZZZZZZZTTTTTT....first and final stupid statement Andy was going to make all day......
The tracks were sandy and random hard so after getting to 30km's per hour suddenly we were swerving like a mad man aiming for rabbits and almost facing the wrong way.....The very FLATTISH TERRAIN.......HA......NOT EVEN REMOTELY TRUE.....The damn Island was up hill no matter what frigging direction we travelled N , S , E or W.....
We brought enough water to drown an elephant in and still had to buy some from the locals.....
The Flies helped though as they carried us part of the way everywhere.....I think i actually poisoned myself with "Piss off" spray and the flies just smiled at me and asked for more....
The whole trip took us approx 9hrs and we covered 50+ km's of ground according to Steves GPS but we felt more like we covered 200+ km's.
On the final trek back towards the ferry back to the mainland we dropped in the local post office to grab a drink of water and low and behold "BEEEEEEEER"
WOOOOOHOOOOOO.....never thought i would ever say this is the drink of true champions and mean it but today Steve and I celebrated our battle win with a coldie from the post office and Kirsten celebrated with a solo and a bottle of water...
Epic trip and we all will suffer our wounds of the trip but we LOVED IT all the same....

The Buisness end of this cache though :
Awesome view and a challenge to get here but cache was safe and dry in its container and now hidden a little better than it was .....

16/01/2016, Found @ 11:10 AM, Find # 5001.

At an event the previous night, a mission was discussed about heading to French Island to find a few caches.
This morning when I woke up, I decided that I would join this mission, so I gathered some necessary stuff and headed off to the meeting point, once there I joined 88andy88 and OzHockyChick, where we set off on our day of adventure and a lot of hard work and pain.
We made our way along the different surfaces, which were corrugated gravel roads, soft sandy tracks where you would be riding along nicely, then all of a sudden you would be doing a 90 degree turn when you didn't want too as well as the grass tracks that had hidden dangers.
This was the closest one from the point where we hit dry land and the first one we tackled.
We made our way to GZ but left the bikes behind for the last 50 metres as that was the easier thing to do.
Once there it was an easy cache found as it was a bit exposed, our 3 names were added to the log and then the cache was replaced with a bit more cover. The cache is still in very good condition.
It is certainly a good view from here and after a few photos were taken and we had a look around it was time to continue our journey but not before getting the first capture on a munzee that was deployed a bit over 2 years ago that is here.

Thanks to geofreak for placing this cache.

Along way to come for one cache! But a fab walk on a perfect day. Nice views from the Pimple oops! Pinnacles. Thanks to whom ever left the aero guard came in very handy. Having a short break before finishing our walk in time for the ferry. Thanks Monsieur geofreak.

Merci beaucoup pour c'e cache, M. geofreak. A lovely place for a cache. Found on what is now a glorious day on l'isle francaise. First find for quite a while. Cache container in good order. Was exposed so covered it lightly with ambient bark. Still will be easy to find. Jimmytherat.

Day 4 of our R&R so I thought I would leave the family to go to the Chocolate Factory while I went for a bike ride on French Island. I had hoped to do all 3 but when I found out that one was on private property with a great big 'Do Not Enter' sign I decided to just do the two.
It was a great bike ride however don't believe the brochure... it is flat from start to finish with a few hills thrown in between. The rutted roads are challenging. I had no issue with mozzies... just flies. The sandy track is also challenging as is the final push to the GZ.
On the way back I stopped at the General Store for a couple of cold drinks. TFTC.

We spent some days on the bike to visit French Island. On our way we logged a couple of caches and want to thank all cache owners for their work, love and effort they put into creating and maintaining these caches.

Whoo that was my first geo catch.
Tip: don't go in the morning, the mosquitos are unbearable.

After initially thinking my gps was inaccurate, i trusted it and had the cache in no time. Tftc!

Had a nice day and was met by a koala at the cache location! I don't think it needs maintenance - certainly couldn't believe it was 12 years old!
Thanks!
PS to future seekers, TAKE MOSSIE REPELLANT

Took a while but finally found it, great spot beautiful view!

Found it!. Took a while walking around in circles, and getting attacked by mozzies!. Awesome view from the top!.

Bonjour.
The bananas asked the locals what the road to here was like and were promptly told not to go here as it was a waste of time.
The day would be taken up with a ride around the island but with 2 not so keen teenagers. It would be like herding cats.
The view though was great and the appropriate repairs to the container was carried out for a new container was bought with us and on closer examination only the lid was required.
So after looking at the logs put down 24th Nov 13 as the date of the last container update.
The contents of the container are in perfect condition and the container covered with a bit of bark to keep out the UV rays.
Wish we were covered in bark as everyone got themselves sunburnt on a day that never got above 18 degrees although we carried the protection required.
I think I will be dead before I finally learn.
Thank goefreak.
Merci Beaucoup.

The 2L systema container is broken and needs to be replaced.

This entry was edited by Sikma on Sunday, 06 October 2013 at 02:44:03 UTC.

Thanks for picking up on that gmj3191. It was tucked under a low lying branch for cover but was still exposed to light.

2013-10-04 09:17 Wow, after planning to tackle these caches for the last nine years I finally made it.

Making my way here along Coast Rd I was blocked by a puddle covering the road. I thought, I have to ride through as I have come all this way. I was also thinking is this a sign of the track conditions to come? I rode through OK but my bike was now making crunching noises. I couldn't quite tell if it was the crank or the gears. I thought, hopefully my bike makes it as I was only 1km into a 50+ km ride. As I gained some altitude the tracks dried out. I made it to the cache and it was a nice easy find. As I picked it up the 2L systema, the lid disintegrated. It wasn't covered by by much so it has obviously seen a lot of UV exposure over the years. I signed the log, wrapped it up in a plastic bag and stored it upside down and covered with bark from the gum. Hopefully that keeps it dry till it can be replaced. I was going to drop off the Tesas Mayan Geocoin but decided against it as the container was now not sealed, I popped it in my pocked and headed off.

I made my way onto Clump Rd and headed down a trail that was going to cut across to Mt Wellington Rd however that track was flooded big time. I turned around and headed back up Clump Rd thinking that might be better even if it adds kilometers to the trip. Boy was I wrong. Clump Lagoon and Long Swamp were flooded and sure enough I didn't make it with dry feet. It slowed me down something awful but I pushed on. When I was on Link Road near Mt Wellington I checked my pocked only to find the Tesas Mayan geocoin was missing. At this point I was pissed off with myself and thinking what else will go wrong?

To cut a long story short, from this very point, the track conditions all improved and I made good time. My bike was no longer making crunching sounds and nothing else went wrong and I found Île Française Numéro 1 and enjoyed a brew at the Tankerton General Store. Despite some of the flooded tracks and losing a geocoin, the weather was fantastic and it turned out to be a beautiful day. I saw plenty of wildlife, like Echidnas, Koalas and Yellow Tail Black Cockatoos. I highly recommend getting out here. My thanks to geofreak.

This entry was edited by Sikma on Sunday, 06 October 2013 at 02:48:13 UTC.

That would be the 2L sistema I left there in 2009 to replace the previous one. It lasted 4.5 years which isn't that long.
It wasn't in the sun when we left it, but things change. An ammo can would be the go.

Too cold and wet for the 7.5 km ride, so just took travel bug to visit

Taking a virtual tour by satellite and this one caught our attention. What beautiful country this is and wish we were there. Thanks for letting us visit.

Nice easy find on a lovely sunny day exploring the area by MTB. Only problem was the tiger snake guarding the cache! Thanks for the cache, Tony, John and Liam.

Found during an overnight camping trip to the island.
TFTC

[purple]iGude[/purple][font=Comic Sans MS]

Today we decided to do a little FI bike ride ... and find a cache. Well it worked out however the strong winds and some rain-showers weren't in our favour. I thought about leaving a TB but that would have been mean - This cache doesn't get found too often.

[green]Dankeschön & Cheers
Philipp[/green]

[url=http://nightcaching.org][green]Nightcaching Australia[/green][/url]

14:45
A location that we have been aware of for a long time but, until Geocaching, had not bothered to actually visit. We had done a bit of research by reading other logs and chatting to people. The question was would be able to do both island caches and then catch the ferry back home in one day. Today (Tuesday) was a good day because there was a late ferry (17:50). The weather was also in our favour as it was not windy and the temperature was cool to mild. Considering we have not done a lot of bike riding we were pleased with our two hour ride to reach Île Française Numéro 1. Although the roads were not as rough as we thought they might be, we certainly endorse the need for mountain bikes, which we had.
We reached the intersection of Tankerton Rd and Chump Rd at about 14:00. We found the first section of Chump Rd easy going but then, after the last house, the road became sandy and was difficult going even with mountain bikes. The final climb up a narrow track from the slashed track to the GZ was walked and we were wondering just how it got to be the “highest” spot on the island as, according to the altimeter on our GPS’r, other locations we had been to during the day were a similar height. We found out when we got to within 30m of the GZ, where we found a very steep section of sand, as though a giant had scooped up a heap with their hands!
Log signed we returned via our inbound route to the General Store on Tankerton Rd, where we enjoyed homemade ice-cream and had a long chat with the store owner. We easily made the 16:30 ferry and returned back to Stony Point after an hard day’s activity and sore bottoms!
TNLN . . SL . . TFTH geofreak.

The C&C family was staying in Shoreham with our in-laws, a result of C&C mum's brother bidding on a holiday at a trivia night! Looking for something to do on Sunday, we decided to venture where we had never been before, French Island. And what a great place to find a cache or two.

We hired bikes after landing on the island, but if you think riding bikes with no gears is a bit rough, bring your own (mountain) bike. The terrain is according to the brochures mostly flat, but it didn't seem that way, expecially for the kids. The roads are pretty second rate and sandy, and he going is pretty tough. We all rode to the general store and then to the Chickory Kiln where the kids enjoyed some close contact with some very friendly farm animals and got a great view of some koala's. The proprietor was very friendly and she let the kids feed and pat the animals and then we sat down and had a coffee and consumed our sandwiches.

I should get around to mentioning the cache I suppose, which required a fairly major deviation on the route back to the jetty. There is a GCA Trig point cache very close to the GZ which I also logged (our 750th), so if you go all the way to this, don't forget the Trig Point cache.

The rest of the C&C gang and the in-laws came with me to the base camp, well Camp Road, but were too spent to strike out for the cache so I went alone, although not in spirit. Getting to the cache from the Camp Rd intersection required riding and pushing the bike along a sandy slightly uphill track for several km's and then near the cache, a journey up a small track up a hill past bushes alive with blow-flies. The last 20 metres was up a 30 deg slope and I was pretty done in when I finally got to the top of the hill.

After taking the necessary photos of me at the trig point to log the GCA cache, I went looking for this cache and had it in hand after a minute or two.

As I tried to sign the log book, I was constantly attacked by dozens of mosquitoes, so my entry is brief, and barely legible as I had to keep contantly moving and waving my hands around to avoid being consumed. Perhaps in winter it would be ok, but my stay at the top was brief due to this factor.

I headed back the way I had approached, ie from the North, and then proceed Eastish, but the track led futher north and led me though some very difficult terrain including a marsh. It took me some hours to find my way to the coast road and I seriously considered turning back. If I were to visit again, I'd either go back to the West the way I had come in, or go down the hill to the South from the cache. (I don't know for sure that's ok, but I suspect it is.)

All in all, a very memorable experience, and well worth the visit. Thanks geofreak

Being a member of the Thompson family, who were one of the oringinal families to settle on French Island and farm sheep & chickory, I was determined to do the 2 caches on the Island from the day I got hooked on geocaching.

I've played cricket for the French Island Cricket Club for the last 16 years and both my father and grandfather played before me. I've attached a photo of the club rooms in the distance taken from GZ in a southerly direction.

Today I was on the Island building a machinery shed on our property on the south side of the Island and managed to drive out to the Pinnacles in between trips to the barge to meet the concrete trucks.

Find made @ 1000 with the cache in excellent condition.

TNLNSL TFTC

After the tragic fires earlier in the month, we wanted to finish up February with a day well away from the affected areas. We chose to visit French Island, to score dashpoint GD92-YKYM, and visit the Ile Francaise Numero 2 cache, to replace it’s container as the owner, geofreak, seems to have disappeared.
.
The day started with Trish and Ian (DashingDogMac and Madam Dash) arriving at our place in Sandringham at 6:40am, part of our plan for them to leave with Pam and I at about 6:50am.
We had an uneventful drive to Stony Point, arriving with a comfortable buffer in order to catch the 8am ferry to Tankerton Jetty on French Island, which docked there at 8:20am.
We set off walking north along the Coast Road, which was for the most part surrounded by bush on both sides. The going was not pleasant as the road was badly corrugated and quite sandy in parts, although from time to time the vista across Westernport Bay towards Hastings was quite scenic, and being surrounded by bush is always nice.
At 9:33am, we left the Coast Road and veered north east on a well defined 4WD track through the spindly vegetation, and headed directly towards the dashpoint, still 1.3 km away. As we got closer, the track became less defined until it was a little difficult to see exactly where it was. With about 230 m to go to the dashpoint, we had to leave the track, which veered north. To get closer to the dashpoint, we had to beat a path through dense bush and saplings about 2 to 3 m high. It took us about 15 mins to get to the 95 metre point, which was close enough to score, and as close as we wished to get to it under the circumstances. At this point it was 10:03am and we had covered about 8 km.
We retraced our steps back to the track, and cleaned ourselves up after the bush bashing. I had cuts on both arms and needed to stem the bleeding.
Having scored the dashpoint, our next objective was to find Ile Francaise Numero 2 geocache at the island’s highest point, and replace the container which the Squalid team had found to be brittle and broken, and had left the whole thing wrapped up in a plastic bag. The potential route I had planned proved not to be viable due to the thick bush, so we headed north until we found another track which went east, and which, after a bit of meandering around, got us to Clump Road, a north south sandy track which was not very impressive at the northern end.
Walking south along the track, it improved somewhat to become a gravel road, and we eventually found the track leading off to The Pinnacles, the 66m elevation, highest point on the island and the vicinity of the cache. When we arrived it was 11:50 am, and we had walked about 15 km.
I found the cache without difficulty, but it was a bit larger than my 1 litre Sistema box could cope with. Luckily Trish had packed her and Ian’s lunch in a 2 litre version, and she happily donated that to the cause, allowing a proper repair mission to be completed. We had lunch sitting on the concrete foundation pads of the large triangular navigation marker, then rehid the cache. I took nothing, and left a $100 key ring.
Then we set off for our next target, the General Store.
We trekked back to Clump Road and then headed south for another 3km, and then after reaching the main Tankerton gravel road, we headed west for another 2 kms and arrived at the General Store. We stopped for a break, and a drink. It was the only public eating facility on the island, and we stayed there from 1:35pm until 2:50pm, as the next ferry was at 4:30pm and we had time to kill. Then we set out for the wharf.
Another 3 km and we arrived there at 3:30pm with an hour to spare.
We found a conveniently placed park bench to sit at for a while, until the ferry came and we left for the mainland.
After we arrived home, an analysis of my track points in the GPS showed that we had walked a total of 23.8 km, a good day’s exercise in anyone’s book.

Thanks for the cache geofreak.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Just thought I should tag the cache as needing maintenance, as it does need a new container.

Forgot to mention in my log, that two geocoins visited the cache (photo to follow): JMCz's Geocache America 2007 geocoin, and Whitney 1950 Benchmark ex hi pressure geocoin. I decided not to leave these , as there is a long time between visits for this cache (3 years!).

Dec 20th, 2008 that is! Having received a map from our host at the Tortoisehead Lodge, we headed off to find the cache. We went on foot and it was a long walk. When we reached the summit another couple arrived at the same time from the opposite direction, much to our surprise! They hung around for a while but then left when they realised we weren't going to.
With them safely out of the way we retrieved the cache, making a lot of noise doing so as it was a sunny day and we were concerned about snakes. There proved to be no snakes guarding the cache today however.
We took nothing and signed the log. It has been a very long time since the cache was last found! The plastic lid of the cache container was so brittle that we put a hand through it by accident, and it shattered. We managed to wrap the whole thing up in a supermarket plastic bag (see, they are sometimes useful!) which was all we had available. As the cache now resembles a bag of rubbish it would probably be a good idea to replace the container asap.
There was a great view from up here and it was well worth the visit. We managed to walk home via the beach, and this was very enjoyable, very beautiful. A lovely cache, thanks a lot.

Setting off from #1 in a little group of 4; euDes, Lukey-boy, ssmc4 and myself. We headed off following and "trusting" euDes on what, according to the map, was the shorted route. It was the shortest fair enough and saved us a considerable amount of time compared to alternative routes, but the terrain was nowhere near as friendly. We well and truly got a good workout on this track (or lack there of), and on many occassion wondered "where are we?". It's OK euDes knows!? We even had a chance to see some of the local livestock (cows), on what we though was en even better shortcut, but sadly we had to backtrack from this option. Mentioning animal life, the positive side is that we did see a koala or two, Des saw a snake and we seemed to be on the flies party list.

Even so we made it to the cache in good time to catch up with most other geocachers, but sadly missed that oportunity to catch the 1pm ferry as we thought it was later.

Thanks for an almost extreme cache and a great day out with fellow cachers. TNLNSL... I think.

And so onto the second of the 2 caches on the Great French Island dak Attack of 2005. With thoughts of a 1 o’clock ferry trip home at the fore, we needed to get to number 2 relatively quickly. The “ever reliable†MapSource map showed a more direct route to the second cache so it was only logical that we go that way. Even though the map was becoming more like paper pulp with each passing minute, it still showed the “roads†that we needed to take to reach number 2.

At the junction of McLeod and Mt Wellington Roads, the sandy wheel ruts north were a tad off-putting but we carried on regardless (or should that read “in spite ofâ€). When confronted with a groove between some bushes on the “road†east though, the locked gate into a farm looked more enticing. Could it, in fact, have been Clump Road? Well, it wasn’t and the 15 or so lost minutes at the farm left us with a choice of backtracking and taking the long way to the cache or take the groove between the bushes. No prizes for guessing which choice we made .

After much cursing, we were soon on the Clump Road expressway south and an east turn had us near the cache and, surprise surprise, back with the main caching group!!!

The cache was retrieved and we were logging our find along with the other groups at 12:50, while we calmly watched the 1 o’clock ferry pull into Tankerton and depart some 5 km away. D’oh!!!

All in all, it was a fantastic day in the company of great people (including another Hungry Jack’s fiend ), most of whom I had never met, that was extremely well organised by dak’s Emu Mob who unfortunately couldn’t make it along. Many thanks go to dak for the sterling job of organising this multi-team attack. I hope all went well and we see you back on the trails very soon.

TNLNSL. Many, many thanks to geofreak for the two wonderful French Island caches .

Having left Numero 1, EuDes, ssmc4, Alan-san and myself thought this would be a piece of cake to collect this last cahce and catch the 1 pm ferry. What we didn't count on is EuDes's ability to interpret faint squigly lines on maps as being roads that vehicles/bikes oreven the odd horse can travel on. Well thanks to EuDes's glass is half-full approach to life, we definitely got to see a side of French Island that most bike riders wouldn't (and probably shouldn't) see. We eventually got to the cache at 1pm. TNLN.

Lessons learnt ....

Do not listen to EuDes when caching/bushwalking/riding a bike anywhere .....

Thanks for the cache .... a great day which will remember for a long time.

wow what fun it was riding back to this cache mostly up hill and a massive head wind made riding tough going finnaly got there worth it in the end with great views and a easy cache find did not need a gps nutcache just said its in there he new his cause hed came out with geofreak to hide them but never logged them these were the days of pre caching days for him
thanks geofreak for these caches next time im taking a bike with a motor

The group of ssmc4, EuDes, Lukey-Boy and Alan-san headed west for the assault on the 2nd island cache. Some of us saw a snake, and others spotted a koala. When we got to the corner of Mt. Wellington & Macleod Rds we were faced with a decision: a) do we go down the southern conventional/safe/known route which may be longer; or b) do we laugh in the face of danger and boldy venture into the great unknown? Being hardy geocachers ("We've got a GPS, what could possibly go wrong?" ), we chose option b) and elected to head north, then west. Of course we ended up at a farm with no more "road" . After 10 minutes of pillorying EuDes we then chose to proceed west along a very overgrown tractor trail until we reached what the locals call Clump Rd. Whilst riding I found out that it was possible to mutter "Bloody EuDes!" at least 47 times per minute .
We eventually got to the general cache area around the same time as Geof and walked the final 300m to the GZ at 12:50 and were rewarded with a fantastic view.
TNLNSL.

On the way back to the jetty we had quite a bit of time to kill, so a milkshake and relax at the General Store was quite nice.

Well done and thanks to:
- geofreak for the excellent caches;
- dak for organising the expedition;
- to the hardy 12 cachers who took up the challenge; and
- EuDes for both the vehicular transport and facilitating a "value added" French Island experience that will be fondly remembered once the aches and pains subside.

This cache was a long hard ride back from the first one and we found ourselves having to walk up some of the steeper sections as we were also battling a head wind. The ride off the hard bumpy road and onto sandy overgrown tracks was a welcome change and added to the interest and challenge of this cache. The short uphill section close to GZ had me exhausted and my legs were cramping as I pushed the bike up to the top. Tickford found the cache as I lay on the ground recovering (Matt had left us at the end of Clump Rd to catch the 1pm ferry). We sat and ate our lunch and were soon joined by the last group. After a break, the others headed off south to seek refreshment at the store and Geof, Tickford and I took the western track to head straight back to Tankerton. We arrived back at about 2.15pm and waited for the 4.30 ferry. I really enjoyed the ride but realised how unfit I am. We probably could have taken more breaks as we finished with plenty of time to spare. Thanks for the caches and memories of last time I was here . Thanks also to Dave (dak) for organising the trip, I hope you recover quickly.

Found during a Victorian Cacher cycling trip to French Island. Spectacular panoramic views, well worth the ride.
TNLN (fortunantly didn't need the bike repair kit)
Thanks for the cache geofreak

Found at 12.30pm GAFF3. After getting to Ile Francaise #1 in quick time by being assisted by that sweet breeze, we then headed off to #2 after a 20 minute rest. The main reason for the quick turn-around was that both Rabbitto and I didn't want to cool down and have our muscles virtually freeze. The ride from east to west proved to be tougher as we were now heading into the wind. However we still managed to get to #2 at 12.30pm - which took 2 hrs to travel a distance of around 16 klms. All in all we pedalled nearly 50kms, left the jetty at Tankerton at 9.00am and returned at 1.35pm after a 20 minte rest at #1 and a 30 minute stop for lunch at #2. Took: CD, Left:Smashing penny. Thanks geofreak for the opportunity to explore this island and also thanks to all who made it a fun day, including my riding partner Rabbitto who helped me get throughthe tough bits. And of coarse thanks to Dak for organising the attack and hope all goes well with you.

[This entry was edited by pprass on Saturday, November 12, 2005 at 2:16:37 AM.]

[This entry was edited by pprass on Saturday, November 12, 2005 at 2:17:47 AM.]

Second cache for the day. After leaving #1 it was into a head wind. After a few miniutes of riding I found my legs geting rather saw. It turned out that my seat had gone down a bit. I stoped and put it up and tightened it up. This time I took the high road along the edge of the park then headed south to tankerton rd. After making clump road my legs and body was saying it was lunchtime so at 12:10 I stoped under a shady tree for lunch. Nutcache & Tickford passed me by. Lunch finished I headed on fealing better for the food and stop. Soon after I got to the gate and met up with the Northan bush track(?) / bush bash team who were geting ready for an assault on GZ. We headed up and I grabed the cache that the others had put back for us. After that the groupes went there seperate ways. I went back and got my bike and joined the Nutcache - Tickford group who headed straight down the track to the west coast. Thankfully we all stayed on our bikes even with a bit of sideways action to boot [:o]. We got back to the warf with about 2 hours or so to spare, told caching yarns and I helped pprass grab a locationless cache too.
Left a second tyre repair kit. Should have put it in #1.
Took a geocoiny type thing.

Thanks to Dak for Inviting us all and proposing the idea. Just to bad you couldn't come - I hope you make a speedy recovery.

Thanks also to Geofreak for tempting us over. I think it's an interesting place I may have to see more of some day.

Found at 12.30pm. After a 20 minute break Pprass, Team Kittens and I took off from #1 before Rigor Mortis could set in. After enjoying the tail wind to #1, it was only fair we had to pedal against it on the way back to #2. Most of the crowd had already arrived at the first cache by now, although we met up with the last group still coming into #1 a couple of km back dowm the track (Including one very weary looking geocacher who shall remain nameless and will no doubt tell you of his exploits in his own log).

A couple of the larger hills against the wind got me off to a walk but the downhill sections allowed us to make up time again. Not so Alex from Team Kittens who seemed not to notice either wind or hills and got to the cache about three quarters of an hour before us. The last km was too sandy for my narrow tyres so it was mainly a walk for me at that point. Pprass and I arrived at the cache at 12:30pm. Great views from Phillip Island to the Dandenongs. After a 30 minute lunch break, most of the others had arrived. We then found out that our ride home was mysteriously back at the jetty and able to catch the early ferry. Although we could see the ferry pulling in from our stand point. Pprass thought we may still have a chance to catch it too and took off like a man posessed down the alternate sandy track. (I tried to take off after him but my bike on the sandy steep surface meant I couldn't stay upright for any more than about 10 metres at a time and my progress was pretty slow.) We missed the ferry by the merest of margins ie 45 minutes. Although we had a long wait for the other ferry, we still enjoyed the time chatting with all the other geocachers, a lot of whom I hadnt met before today. Thanks Geofreak from D B-A. Thanks also to my riding partner for the day Pprass, Eric from Acts2 for the ride to and from, and to all the other Geocachers who came making this one of my favourite geocaching days ever. Special thanks to Dak for organising the day's proceedings.

[This entry was edited by Rabbitto on Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 4:12:03 PM.]

Been a while since I have ridden in sand - think I had erased it from my memory. Should have fitted the knobby tyres.
Beautiful view. Generous sized cache.
Took: Lizard, Left: Airplane and spade whistle.
Thanks, Robmc.

Finally got a chance to get back to the island.
I didn't need to rush as I was staying on the island.
What a great view of the west & north of the bay.
Took some freinds along & introduced then to Geocaching, who knows they may become new part of Geocashing.

Left the dice.

Freeby & Friends

Through the heat, flys, mosquitoes, flys, sand and flys we rode till reached the dizzying hights of the summit.

Took blue duck, left Port Arthur 10 of clubs.

Had lunch in shade of trig structure then headed off to general store for ice-cream.

Tried Île Française Numéro 1 the next day in cooler weather (pouring rain). Flat tire 8km to go, oops the pump is back in Tankerton with the main gear.

Owwwww.... Some 3 hours after finding the first cache, I made it to #2. Actually, I was surprised to be doing so well on the hills and dirt tracks considering my lack of riding experience!! By this stage though I was starting to push the bike along sandy tracks and down steep hills (too scared of falling!). It was a relief to make it to the top of the hill and enjoy the views. The cache had been replaced by the time I made it to the top, but it was soon located: I swapped a water-spurting fish for a bendy chicken! Absolutely wonderful to return to our starting point, and even better to make it back home and have a nice loooooong lie down! Thanks geofreak, but I don't think you'll see us on bikes again for quite a while!

[last edit: 2/28/2003 6:25:09 AM PST]

Found at 1430. After leaving cache #1 the sand and bumps really began to slow down the progress. David, quite out of practice, was always to be found at the rear of the strung-out strike team, just plodding along. As we turned off the 'main' road for the final approach, there was almost as much walking as riding. The sprinters rode on ahead and rehid the cache so the stragglers could enjoy the fruits of their hard labours. The views were wonderful, and the cache soon rediscovered. Took keyring torch, left model Jaguar. After the obligatory photo shoot, the party headed off down a steep sandy track towards the coast. The deep sand and steep hills prompted yet more walking, but eventually the coast road was reached and we had only a bit over 2km to go. Felt every bump along the way, but even a small snake wasn't going to stop progress now. While some of the others stopped to look at it, I bounced not-so-merrily on. Made it back to the jetty after about 50 bone-jarring km. We had about 40 min to spare before the last ferry, and I was grateful for starting out so early to have the best chance of completion in one day. Thanks in pain to geofreak, and thanks also to my travelling companions in the strike team for waiting for me time and again.

[last edit: 2/1/2003 9:18:27 PM PST]

Well. well. well. I'm writing this log the next day. I can almost feel my legs, I can almost feel my feet. I still cant sit down. This was such a great trip and I can confidently say that in terms of pain factor this one beats even Australia's Highest. 50kms on a bike on sandy, cccorruuggaatteeddd roads was too much for the geobutt. I was 3rd last to this cache but had no intention at all of looking for it. I wanted it to be found for me which David and Jo did exceptionally well. I did once mention on the forums about a mountain bike cache and Geofreak has delivered. Thanks to Geofreak and the other riders for a fantastic day.

First solo cache for team Boodi.
(We have been to several caches previously with team Biggles bear, but didn't feel right logging them)
IdF#2 was a lovely spot. We travelled French Island with JoMac, Maccamob, Embi and Bigglesbear. I staged a breakaway about half way between #1 and #2. I was planning on leaving just enough time to get there, find cache, log it and hide it before the others caught up. A cow paddock full of flies kept me peddling hard and I ended up arriving about 15 minutes b4 the rest. Plenty of time to find and hide the cache and climb the nearby vantage point and watch the specks in the distance become my travelling partners.
A good energetic day. Wouldn't advise trying it on a hot (>28deg) day or with less than 8hrs (unless you are a proficient rider in a small group). Sunscreen and aeroguard a must!
Being my first real cache find, I forgot to bring something to swap. I promise it wont happen again.

Found 14:25, by this time the riding was more painful than pleasant, and curses aplenty were being rained down upon the name of Geofreak. Luckily the view that greeted us when we arrived at the cache location more than compensated for the hardships endured by the strike team.

Took Monsters Inc. toy and left tourch key ring, thanks Geofreak (from between clenched teeth {from pain of course}).

Addendum:

Stats.

Total riding time: 6:48:00
Total distance riden: 51.39 Km
Average Speed: 7.5 Kph
Top Speed: 44 Kph (EMBI recorded 46 Kph)

Trivia:
QUASAR's Hill claimed 2 more victims. Half of Team Biggles Bear and Half of Team Boodie.

[last edit: 2/1/2003 12:54:43 PM PST]