Don't Do It Cal Lal, South Australia, Australia
By Ian Mac on 08-Oct-03. Waypoint GCH1N9

TftcGctman

Kidless

**This Cache**This was an awesome location! This cache is exactly why I geocache, to find hidden & interesting spots like this! Well done, a great find! Thanks to the person who has left a new container with the old container too, as it was looking a bit disintegrated! Favourite point from me for taking us off the beaten track to this location, would have never known otherwise! ---**Today:**Day 1 of 2 of the trip back to Canberra! Renmark - BalranaldWe decided to take a long and tough route, specifically for a combination of old caches, an interstate Wherigo and an off the beaten track virtual cache! This involved hundreds of km's of dirt driving on Wentworth - Renmark Rd. Definitely not ideal in a very small 2WD car as we felt every bump, but at least the road was in good condition the entire way! We managed to get a handful of excellent caches and even finished the night with a bunch of brand new caches in Robinvale which was a bonus! A 12 hour day before we finally arrived at Shamrock Hotel in Balranald, where we enjoyed the best meal of the trip! A HUGE plate of Chinese for a great special price. Well worth ordering off the Chinese menu as they also did the standard pub meals but they were more far more expensive and likely more generic too! Thanks to the CO's

I found this cache during my trip to the South Australian MEGA in 2024 sometime between the 23rd of February and the 9th of March 2024. Not sure of the exact day that I found this cache as I found over 1500 caches for the trip and decided to log them all when I got home. This cache was signed DSD or DARKSIDEDAN or AB or Adventure Boys. Thank for the cache and the adventure.

Tried to get here but the first track was closed. Drove down to the locked gate and followed the track besides the fence line, got to 160 meters before it changed in to a walking track. Nice old bridge at gz, i certainly wasn't going to walk arcoss it. quick find. fav point.Out with Mogni for a 3 day weekend, leaving friday morning and coming back sunday night. The plan was to go to Cowangie in Victoria and then head in to Murray-Sunset National Park then head on to Mildura and come back via Rufus River road ( in New South Wales ) to South Australia. Night 1 was in the Murray-Sunset National Park at Mopoke Hut camp ground and Night 2 at Mildura then going back to Adelaide. It must have rained recently in Murray-Sunset since the sand wasn't like fine power as expected and other sections of the National park had bypass tracks around the water filled ruts in the main track. Going around one of the bypass tracks i staked a tyre on the friday but didn't notice it to saturday morning. The stake went right beside the tread and the inside wall of the tyre, the stake was the size of my finger tip. Also turns out that i got a screw in my rear tyre thrusday night leaving work. There was alot of reinflating tyres this trip. The flora change in the national park was surprising but i figured that is due to weather or not the ground was sandy or muddy. When we got to Mildura we targeted the 2 multi's mogni wanted to do and of course they were the ones with 7 and 11 stages. After that we targeted the caches with high amount of favourite points and then left the next day via New South Wales so we could get the virtual at Lake Victoria and some of the older 2003 around the border track. A good weekend away 4x4ing.

We went for a stroll found this one the container was broken but have replaced container so it may continue to be found TFTC

Camping at Chowilla on the Anzac Day weekend. Went out for a little drive to get this cache. Initially couldn't see how we could get in here but on the second drive past we saw the dirt road and followed in. This was a great old bridge and made for some terrific photos. A little bit of hunting eventually found the cache. Thanks Ian Mac for bringing us here.

Second day of our roadtrip to SA. J+J.AU and I are targeting some series, but the first days are all about getting there. Today starts in Wentworth and gets us over the border to SA. Again great weather and very enjoyable caching.
TFTC Wilbert67

The day is really heating up. We are travelling on a caching trip with Wilbert67,
We discovering interesting locations.
Thanks to all the COs for their hides.

Found it

This weekend, I headed to the Murray Riverland around Berri and Renmark primarily to attend the celebration event, but also to join others in some kayaking geocaching adventures. I hadn't visited this region before, and I left really enjoying the picturesque nature of the rivers, the wine-growing areas, and pretty towns. I ended up visiting Kingston on Murray, Barmera, Berri, Lyrup, Renmark, and Paringa. Three other highlights worthy of mentioning was Chambers Creek, Katarapko Island, and the historical SA-NSW surveyed border area.

Today, it was back to Katarapko Island, but a different section to what we visited yesterday. It was a quick paddle across, and a shorter walk on the island today. After that, I made a long drive with Brad&Janet towards the NSW border visiting Chowilla Game Reserve, and some of the older caches around there. I then slowly returned back to Renmark and civilisation, and with the last few hours of daylight left, visited Paringa. A very cute town. A final detour through Berri and then on to Monash, before returning home for the evening.

This cache didn't seem too difficult and looked like it was just near an existing track. However, Brad&Janet and I couldn’t approach since there was a locked gate. Brad&Janet decided to bid farewell, and so I then walked/jogged the 900 m to the bridge / GZ. My route there was along the track that curved around, but I decided to make the direct approach back to my car across the plains. However, as I was jogging back, I noticed a **snare trap** that looks to still be active (but old). From then on, I decided to carefully walk back. So perhaps stick to the tracks in order to access this.

Once I arrived at the bridge, I needed to around for five minutes until I finally saw the cache container wedged in. The cache container and logbook were in good shape, so possibly some recent maintenance conducted? Thanks Ian Mac / Mac & Missus for the cache placement and ongoing maintenance. It was nice to have found this oldie 10/2003 hidden cache. A good location!

Found on a trip to the Riverland with FeatherWaite.

It was nice to be able to finally get out and about again for a few days of travelling, camping and caching. We were lucky with the weather, with mostly sunny days, relatively warm temperatures and no rain to speak of.

We targeted specific caches and areas and found a good selection of traditionals, multis, puzzles, letterboxes, a wherigo and an earthcache. Most of the containers and contents were in reasonable condition, although we did have to replace a few.

Surprisingly we didnt come across any many other people on our travels. Perhaps it was just a product of where we went, or maybe people are holding off for the June long weekend.

We followed the 4WD track from the Wentworth-Renmark Road to the bridge, then continued on to ‘Radio Todd’.

What a great spot for a cache - worth a favourite point.

Thanks Mac & Missus for the cache.

Found on a trip to the Riverland with e.gregory1 that saw us travel to Loxton via the Wandering Heroes series, then to Katarapko, Berri, Cooltong Conservation Park, Renmark, Chowilla and Danggali Regional Reserves, then visiting Barmera and Pooginook Conservation Park and returning via Waikerie and Blanchetown. It was nice to spend a few days camping out in the bush and visiting many scenic locations, staying at great campsites and finding an assortment of targeted caches as well as the satisfaction of clearing up some remote spots on the geocaching map. Thanks for the cache Ian Mac!

Such a sad sad story. A very well constructed bridge in its day. Thanks for bringing me here. Not sure if aloud with signage saying no entry but hey it’s caching.
TFTC

What a sad story. A really well built bridge to for its day. So sad.
TFTC

All the roads were nice and dry, so made for a great drive out to the bridge.

After doing a bit of research I came across some information as to how the bridge got its name. The story has been handed down through generation and it goes like this.

The authorities wanted a bridge built across Lake Littra inlet, so a contractor was hired, but unfortunately he built it in the wrong location. Due to this mishap the authorities refused to pay the contractor which meant the contractor couldn't pay his debts and sadly committed suicide off of the bridge.

As we wander the great land what an interesting and great bridge
Thanks to Mac & Missus for placing the cache for us to find.

I had a phone call from some of my interstate friends. There was a FTF up for grabs up near the SA / NSW border. Only 230 kms from my home as the crow flies, but as I can't fly it was more like 300 by road. So I enlisted the aid of Anymules for a day of caching up that way. Three hours after leaving my house we started caching!

What a great place for a cache. Yet another place I would never have known existed if not for caching. [^] A quick find was made and a FP left. We didn't even dare walk over what is left of the bridge.


**Thanks Mac & Missus for this cache. **

We came and looked, but we didn’t. What a great structure.

Thanks for the cache Mac & Missus.
Found on 20 May 2019 at 2:36 pm.
Find #8905

We didn't do it.
We did however drive all the way to GZ, with one tricky, sandy spot to negotiate.
A great piece of Lost Heritage out here.
Thanks for bringing us here.
TNLNSL

Careful of the container, starting to show it's age. If a future finder can bring a fruit container, or same size to replace for CO, would be great. Needs to be same size to fit in it's hide. Bigger OR smaller won't work.
Let's help keep these oldies going!
Thanks

Wow! A cache that hasn’t been found in a while to find its still here and in good condition! Our trip to this cache was a big adventure. Definitely worth every moment! We cannot count how many “wow” noises came out of the 4 of us. Coming to the cache we saw hundreds of Kangaroos! The kids were so excited and the adults amazed! On our walk from the car to gz Miss 4 spotted a scorpion, we watched it for a while, eyes open wide at such a magical experience. Gobsmacked at the bridge. Although the sleepers on top are quite damaged the structure itself looks very strong. Wouldn’t it be great to rub the crystal ball and see it back in the day in use. Quite impressive. Fav point for the experience. I don’t have words to describe how great it was! Thanks!

Geeze this took some finding lol, was so easy in the end. We drove right to this one which was fun.

Thanks good one

Came out this way to suss out some camp sites and grab some caches. Amazing little bridge which has stood the lengths of time. I definitely did not attempt to cross it and would've had to be pretty brave to cross it many years ago during a storm! Thanks for an interesting cache. FP for this one!

Back in the riverland, took Jack for a drive around some of the tracks that might be less fun after the rains come.
Took the advice from an earlier log and came from behind, after several other caches in the sticks!
After a short search of the structure (which I couldn't resist crossing on foot) found the cache.
Then leaving was on the wrong side ot THAT gate!
Luckily there was a way around - as by now the rain had started
TFTC Mac & Missus

Found It!
Took the back way into this one with Moneydork and locus cache. After a bit of wandering around we found the well hidden cache!
According to the following webpage, the bridge's name doesn't come from people jumping off, but from the fact that it was a very dangerous bridge to cross during storms and floods - hence "you would have to be suicidal to cross it" [link](http://apps.planning.sa.gov.au/HeritageSearch/HeritageItem.aspx?p_heritageno=63)
TFTC

Brodie, muggle partner and I were at Berri for an event Monday.
So today we followed Moneydork and Tounga around the area and also bumped into Freddo, GoodLook and Laighside Legends at times, too
Especially after LL got bogged in the sand near Ewe Scab
16 fun caches today.
Unless mentioned otherwise, please know that your cache and log book was in good condition.

It was almost 3 years ago when I was last in this area and we were on a tight time schedule as CP had to be in Murray Bridge by 9pm.
So we did 3 caches near here but today, after having to head this way to make sure Laighside Legends got unbogged from his sand bog, we had time to come in here and do this cache
Saw baby emus, kangaroos and found the cache while muggle partner enjoyed driving Harry through here

TNLN. SL. TFTC Mac & Missus

Was disappointed when I couldn't access cache off the main road, due to No Access signs.
Come in the back way through the park and found nice old structure.
TFTC!

Found no worries. Its looking a bit rickety now but the government isn't spending much on maintenance these days.tftc

For Fathers Day Papa Cat wanted to take the family out sight seeing to a place he spent a lot of time at as a child "Chowilla Station" when we found there was caches out here the trip was a must as he knew this area well he knew that the pig face is in bloom this time of year. This was number three cache for the day. TFTC

Good drive

Found it

Found it

I was Trip leader for our 4WD club this weekend and one of our muggle group found the cache.
Thanks for the hide.
Barra - High Range 4WD Club

.

Unfortunately we weren't able to find the cache, but really enjoyed the old bridge anyway. As you can see from the photos, there has been a lot of rain up here recently. Thanks for showing us.

The track from the main road was completly under water and the ground was ultra soft so took the advice "don't do it" and gave it a miss. Will return in a drier condition.

Found with hubby. Thanks.

A very interesting old bridge - very very rickety.
TFTC

i didn't do it
amazing how the bridge is still standing reasonably strong after more than 70 years.
TFTC!

Found on the way to Adelaide for work/holiday. Another interesting spot pointed out to us thanks to fellow cachers. TFTC

Heading off from Renmark being an Official for the Readyplan Historical Rally Association to Mildura via the Coombah. Took a bit of searching but finally found it.

Visited with Skippy in the Gee You Patrol... Couldn't find it, but the water has recently been quite high. Replaced the container on the current coordinates in the place we are fairly certain it was originally. Great place for a cache!

Second attempt still no luck will try again later.

Loved the name on the map at this location. The local structure was rickety enough for foot traffic let alone driving the cruiser over it. Disturbed a couple of emus at GZ shading from the v hot sun. Took spider left mobile holder. TFTC

Found it and very intresting old log wooden bridge history.T.F.T.C

The area was steadily drying out - I doubt that it was passable not too long ago. Loved the item at gz and there were clear signs of recent flowing water. Thanks for showing this Ian Mac.

Lovely old bridge in the middle of nowhere, there didn't seem to be much need for it as the creek was dry even with all the recent rains. Great spot.

What a great drive, especially when wet.
Found with Doheng & Growingupisoptional.

Team NKJ

What a great bridge. Geohusband wanted so much to drive across in zoomy but even walking was a bit difficult. TFTC

So much sliding.
Thanks a lot for bringing us here.
A great spot.
3rd cache for northern renmark attack.

We wondered what the title meant. But nevertheless, we were tempted to 'do it' when we found the site. We didn't. But some kids along the CITO journey did. And it was safe (thankfully). A quick, easy find while on the CITO event. Got some nice pics along the way. TFTC.

We all enjoyed checking out this structure whilst on our Chowilla Floodplain CITO event today. Some were definitely tempted to do it! The carpenter cacher paid particular attention to this handmade construction!

Found with polkys quest. good cache

Another visitor as part of the Riverland Rendevous 2 CITO event. A great piece of wood work, but why didn't they travel on the river?

You didn't need to tell me not to do it I took one look at it and knew there was no way I was setting foot on it. TFTC

very interesting site and a part of history.

TNLNSL

the only one i found as a group yeah for me lol geo kid walked across this very rickety bridge older geo kid chickened out SL TNLN TFTC

As a carpenter who appreciates anything made of timber this bridge was my favourite cache of the lot done during the day.
It certainly makes me thankful for the invention of the circular saw, nailgun and other modern tools as you look at the hand adze marks on the timber bridge bearers and think about the poor bloke who had to bore all the bolt holes by hand!!

A big thankyou for giving me a reason for coming here.

TFTC

Found while on the riverland CITO event! A fascinating old relic of years gone bye! TNLN TFTC

Seeing the country as it is after so many years of drought, it is in-conceivable that such a bridge would be needed during floods. Not sure how much longer the bridge will be there as it is getting thin in places. TFTC.

Day 267 of non-stop caching.

Nice spot to visit, altough felt quite guilty after taking a road less travelled through the guts of the "wetland" area to get to the cache...
TNLN TFTC

A bridge to nowhere! A nice spot for a hide but we approached from the wrong direction. For all future finders, prehaps it should be noted to take the road immediatly after on the right you pass the cattle grid. Other ways are not as easy to follow! TFTC

Rated: for Overall Experience

See added description regarding bridge

Travelled here from Radio Todd, then found an easier way to the cache on the way out [|)].
Great to find this bridge, but what was it actually built for [?].
Took path tag. Left bulldog clip. SL.
Thanks again Ian Mac .

FINALLY.... 4 years and 240 days since I logged a DNF on this cache (10th April 2004) a return visit has seen the cache in hand!!
can't believe how easy it was to find this time round!! how the hell it was missed last time round is beyond me! celebrated the find with a walk across the bridge.... TN left a gypsycacher pathtag and SL..... cheers 4 da cache Ian Mac!

Found by baby&Mrs gopher at 1430 Cobb and Co was popular back then.Took a dog leg track into here but found an easier way back out.There has been water in the creek over the last few days.TNLN Tnx Ian Mac

Found by Bwpbwin 10/5/08 at 12.20pm.
What a silly place for a bridge!!

Took Tombowler (big marble)
Left green lizard

Found @2:39:09 PM (Cachemate time)
OK so we didn't, but maybe our 4WD could.
T: N
L: Screwdriver
SL
TFTC
30/04/08

Found the cache at 1.50pm. Wow very interest about bridge - Bridge built in 1932 = 76 years old (hard work) no electric... SL. Thanks Ian Mac for organising the cache and hunt.

FOUND BY PODDY 1 GOOD SPOT EASY FIND HAVE TO CROSS THE BRIDGE BEWARE OF THE TROLL. TNLN

Another great spot that I've visited before but not while cacheing. TNLN.Had a great day out Geoching in Chowilla. Thanks Ian Mac.

Yes you would have trouble jumping off this one to any great harm I would suspect. Managed to negotiate the scrub to drive to GZ then the cache was quickly in hand.

Found cache easily, but had difficulty relating the bridge name (Suicide Bridge), didn't look as though you would do too much damage to yourself, even without water, if you jumped.

30/12/07 Team: A&R 10.50am Day 60 of our November Challenge
Stop 5 for the day, no snakes spotted, that bridge is a doozy, took pictures, quick dash & grab find, TN LN SL TFTC
Flies still abound!!!!

what a spot.... it must have been hard back in those days .........watch out for snakes!!!

0328 re-logging due to name change

The Loxton Probus Club is active in the area and probably thanks to them we have these sort of remnants around the area. TFTC

Cache found by a group from the Loxton Probus Club. In the mid 1990's a group from this club repaired this historic bridge. The notebook was read, but no items were taken or replaced.

Find #50 @ 1.35pm
Note to ones self - Always take printed map even when going paperless geocaching. After following two tracks to nowhere, we stumled upon the right track and logged a find. And it also happened to be our 50th find. Having found the cache, the next drama was getting back on to the main road. Through the gate and a further 2kms up the track and we were back on the main Wentworth Road - and mighty relieved also!
Took: Keyring
Left: Ladybug Figurine
TFTC - it was a memorable one for us.

8.30am
Found by Roma and Max
Getting to this spot and the previous cache required some back tracking as, traveling in our mobile home, we have to be somewhat cautious in this type of country, and today there is some urgency involved as heavy rain clouds are gathering.
We have our fingers crossed as we still have some river flats to negotiate later on today to complete todays caching plan of attack!
On reaching GZ, we definitely wouldn’t do it, even on foot!
In: Another Mondo Figurine.
Out: Puzzle.
Thanks once more Ian Mac, for these challenges.
From Romax.

Drove reasonably close but still had a bit of a walk to get to it. I think it would be suicide to use it nowadays! TNLNSL, thanks Ian Mac.

Found by Wombat Warriors, easy find, Took nothing except photos of this rustic bridge in the middle of nowhere.
LNSL, thanks

As if the journey wasn't enjoyable enough, we just love it when geocaching takes us to such places as this - thanks heaps for bringing us here and for the history

looked arround but no luck

Sorry but we did it. Been past here (as a muggle) a couple of times previously. TFTC

First of Ian Mac's for the day. Had me a bit puzzled until I looked in the 'obvious' place. Fun drive out here - the Penguin-mobile was clean before this trip TFTC.

Interesting craftsmanship. This one was again found by one of the young ones. TNLNSL. Cheers, Turnarounds.

Nice little detour. Took a short while to find. TFTC.

After close inspection I was not in the slightest bit tempted!!!
Took nothing, Left a frog. Cheers.

This was an interesting find in the middle of nowhere. We decided to turn it into a lunchstop. TNLNSL. Cheers and thanks.

This was an interesting find in the middle of nowhere. We decided to turn it into a lunchstop. took yowie left puzzle Cheers and thanks.

what a great historic spot, the kids and i had great fun climbing this one and looking for the cache.

We didn't do it but we did find the cache.
TNLNSL

Didn't do it. But did find it. what a pity for something like this to be built but not used. Thanks for taking us back in history and making us appreciate the bridges we have now.

Gunnell was going to give me $100 if I drove over this bridge, I would have if I had his car, We drove to within 30 metres of GZ. It was a waste of &70 of tax payers money for pulling this bridge here and not maintaining it.

we ended up driving past this bridge again after Ewe Scab

Miniskip took the $100 keyring and Left Kangaroo

Thanks Ian Mac for bringing us here

Got the Mazda 121 to within 100m of this but decided to play it safe and proceed on foot - such a remote feeling location, so it was interesting to find another visitor to the bridge, none other than the famous Freddo and tadlets in tow! First time we've ever met a fellow geocacher (that we didn't already know!). Turned out to be a busy day for meeting other cachers in the end. What a fantastic location, never knew such a bridge was here
TN, left a paperclip.

SA_Parrothead did one this along with Gordon Patrick Samuel and Skippy and Miniskip. We worked out later in the day that we could have had an easier approach. We almost went and played in the mud. TnLn but did take lots of pictures as we scrambled around structure looking for the cache.

It's places like this that make Geocaching so much fun. How would you ever know this bridge was here if it was not for a geocache being put there? Took a while before the group found it so we became quite intimate with all the nooks and crannies!
TNLN Thanks again Ian!

Once a jolly swagman camped by a broken bridge
Under the shade of an old gum tree
And he sang as he watched and waited for his cache to fill
"Who'll come a-caching Matilda with me?"

Down come a Big Daddy with a green cache in hand.
Up jumped a swagman and grabbed it in glee
And he sang as he stowed it away in his tucker bag
"You'll come a-caching Matilda with me'".

Up rode the Wibbles a riding in their thoroughbred
Up rode the Cachers - one, two, three, Skippy, GPs and Parrots
"Where's that cache you've got in your tucker bag?",
"You'll come a-caching Matilda with us".

But the swagman he up and jumped from the broken bridge into the raging torrent
Drowning himself by the old gum tree,
And his ghost may be heard as it sings by the broken bridge,
"Who'll come a-caching Matilda with me?"

All together now.

"Caching Matilda"
"Caching Matilda"
"You'll come a-caching Matilda with me'".

And his ghost may be heard as it sings by the broken bridge,
"Who'll come a-caching Matilda with me?"


Apologies to banjo and the rest of the country.