Old Railway Dams Somersby, New South Wales, Australia
By GeoMonkeys (maintained by mrnoo17) on 10-Mar-04. Waypoint GCHWRJ

Parked at Reeves St, 150m up from the bend in the road and following a faint trail thats marked on trails map. What a mission, trying to stick to this trail as I lost it few times, crossed the dam, by walking on top of the first dam. Seems, not May walkers were using that trail.130m to GZ was a bush bash in, quickly found the large container. Read the description write up, can say the visitors to these dams from the public is near enough to zero these days.Thanks for the placement GeoMonkeys and general maintenance mrnoo17

I had good intentions, and had a good go, but got to a cliff, and really could not find a safe way down. I started at the telepole, and followed? some trails, trying to stick to the yellow line on the map. I found 1 bit of pink tape at the southern end of the first large rock platform, which gave me confidence to continue, went through the zig zag, but then the trail blends in with a creek bed, and goes over the cliff. I may have found a way, but by then was on the wrong side of daylight hours. Over the years i think the "T" may have changed a little upwards. I shall come back to tackle "Another day" with more daylight hours, and maybe a friend to hold my hand.

Great find after bushbashing to get to the dam, crossing dam wall to start our way to GZ, bushbashing some more and deciding it was all too much….back across the dam wall, follow track (wow! A track!) cross creek, more bushbashing to our find. Great spot.

On our way back, got lost. Stuck on wrong side of creek….eventually found our cross point and on our way about 100m further up to see a beautiful cave and the other dam.

What an adventure. TFTC

Hard to get to

Full log to come

Thanks for the cache! Loved this hidden adventure

Walked up from Narara end, all the way to the road at the top and then down the track, which is surprisingly not very well worn and not always clear but someone has marked it with some pink tape which assures you that you're on the right path. What a great spot in general, I'm so surprised it's not more trafficked. The cache was well hidden considering I don't think anyone would go on that side of the dam in that area without a reason

Hard spot but cool one

This one we had been meaning to do for a long time, We did get close when doing the ones below the falls but conditions where then not right to attempt. Being on the north side we tried to find the way point. Heading east gave us a fence with razor wire and nasty signs while shifting over looked like a storm water path but was behind a fence and not shown as an online easement plus there was a lot of activity in the corner lot so as it was not clear we headed to S33 24.085 E151 18.999 by the power pole and followed a track down which was probably a bit nicer. Saw a few nice features and found an easy spot to cross about 35m from the cache. A bit of searching at GZ and the prize was soon found of the nice sized bucket. We completed the signing duties and headed to the downstream dam and saw more of the close development from the corner lot. TFTC

1st day geocaching and I found this one with a mate. Loved it. Have been going to the dams for over 20 years so it was a good memory going back.

Wasn't really sure where to go from the instructions, but hopefully avoided private property as I made my way to GZ. Thought the towels/ribbons were pointing me there until I ended up about 100m from GZ... Eventually got there though. Wrote an extensive log... Tftc

Cleaning unnecessary needs maintenance logs. Please bring a pen as you should.

Tough to get too. Lots of bush bashing but great day

I mentioned I was going to head out for a walk today and suddenly the numbers from members of my family kept growing, We ended up with 3 children and 6 adults. We parked at the trailhead to the fire trail and started walking . We walked along beside the barbed wire fence until we found an opening and then we walked along the banksia trail for a while and then we found some cool caves and then after crossing a small log over the water we went around the dam. The black cockatoo's were awesome and so was the banksia in bloom. The cache was found quickly with accurate co ords. My poor niece got bitten by some savage ants and my cousin fell over but everyone had fun. My brother carried some rubbish we found out with us . sat and took some photos at the dam wall before the walk back out. Thanks for the cache Elev8!on tnln replaced as found sl

Found with bedlem2 nice hike

That was a bush bash. Trail is now no existent. We pushed our way through and up. Cache is still safe and dry.

We got lucky with this one - just walked on over and spotted it straight away.

Found on a trip down here with BillHill531. This was our third stop. From number five we went a little further, then we seemed to find some very old tracks. Clearly not used for quite some time, but still just there. We followed them happy if they take us close to either of these caches, and it basically took us straight here. A short search and we had the nice sized cache found. After we followed the water to number seven, but not finding a way down, headed back up to number five, back past number four, but cut the tip of our journey off, but going down the steep bush. This worked mostly ok as we missed all the horrible ferns under the power lines, but the end we did not line up properly and took a bit longer to find our way out. Was a lot more fun this way, but sure not a good idea for going up the mountain.
Thanks for the great adventures, climbs, slides and caches!

Found with TOMBI! doing some harder caches in Gosford area. After doing I'll do it one day #4' Wallaby Apartment and I'll do it one day #5' Hobit's Honeypot, We made it to here, to find this large geocache with plenty to swap. TFTC

What a fun spot! Thanks for bringing me here. Not sure whether I came the right way (I used the hole in the razor fence) but got here in the end. Tried a different way out and somehow ended up wandering up someone's driveway. Maybe not as discrete as would be ideal. TNLN TFTC

I went to the suggested parking coords and found an access point to a fire trail. I followed it for a bit but it wasn't heading towards GZ. There was a razor wire topped fence to the right and I followed a track along it until there was a hole cut in the fence. I note a recent finder used this way but I wasn't prepared to wander through private property risking dog attack or worse. I followed the other track but that simple led further away to the Reeves Road/Street cave cache. Returned to the car none the wiser. Some instructions might be handy. No fun if no one can get there legally.

Pretty much dropped downhill off the driveway, and bearing left came across some sort of path which led to the dam.

Cautiously crossed the wall and made reasonably easy crusading on opposite rocks to cache.

What a great spot - all serene at 2:30 ish fri arvo

This entry was edited by Lavinian on Friday, 07 August 2015 at 07:22:26 UTC.

I took a trail marked with pink. You have to do a bit of rock hoping but its not too hard and its easy to follow. Took me past the upper dam first and then it was easy to follow the trail to the lower dam and GZ. Cache is dry as a bone. Great spot to visit even if the weather is rubbish. So quiet.
I took the trail marked with yellow on the way out. I do not recommend that way. I am 90% sure The banksia walk mentioned in the last log is on private property. Also what is up with the sign for Willoughby Council near the sign for the Banksia walk?
I couldn't find any gaps in the razor wire fence and had to walk back up the house driveway.
I left a hot wheels, a carabiner, a key ring and a toy cat as incentive for the next person.
Really liked this one!

This entry was edited by mccannadam on Sunday, 19 July 2015 at 22:18:40 UTC.

Found it! Woohoo!
We followed the old fire trail to where the formidable barbed wire fencing was, followed the fencing until a little opening broken into the fence, went inside, followed up to a formed pebble path which we soon found out is called "Banksia Walk", walked up what looked like someone's drive way before turning downhill down a trail to the dam. Leisurely stroll around the dam then some hilarious bushbashing to GZ. Beautiful area. TFTC!

2 pens not working.
Otherwise in great condition.
Future GC's will need to BYO writing stick

Field log: first to find in its new incarnation.

Home log: Mr Noo says in *Continuation of update 2015*, "I have added some new trailhead coordinates", but the only such coordinates I could find were the parking coordinates which put me at the corner where Reeves Road turns into Dawson Street. From there, there's a fire trial with assorted side trails leading down the hill to Reeves Street (nice confusing combination of names), and a track along the razor-wire fence that others have mentioned, but nothing I could find leading to the dam. I did find some impressive caves on one of the tracks, though, which some day might make a good cache location, but while the area is part of Gosford Council's Coastal Open Space Scheme, it appears to still be officially private land.

In the end, I went back to the starting point of the new track mentioned in the link provided by seaeagles1997 a few years back, which is at S 33 24.084 E 151 19.000, where a somewhat confusing set of trails eventually leads down to the wall of the top dam, and from there another trail marked with yellow ribbons leads to the creek between the dams.

From there, it took me a while to figure out the best way of getting to the new GZ without some pretty serious bush-bashing. In the end I found a track right at the beginnings of the lower dam that led up and around past the old GZ and, with a little bit of rock-hopping, to the cache's nice new abode.

It was good reading through all the old logs, each individually sealed for its protection - great job on the restoration, Mr Noo!

The new log signed and everything hidden away, I then returned to the edge of the lower dam and stripped off for a swim to claim the bonus point.

Thanks so much for adopting this one and giving me the chance to cross it off my must-do list. Now to ponder the new one at the bottom of the dam...


This entry was edited by barefootjeff on Saturday, 17 January 2015 at 09:47:01 UTC.

Back again. Have fixed up the description and the cache.

Coordinates changed from:
S 33° 24.276 E 151° 19.124

Coordinates changed to:
S 33° 24.276 E 151° 19.103

Distance from original: 106.6 feet or 32.5 meters.
Coordinate update. Cache has been shifted from original location which was vulnerable to weather and the ever increasing muggle activity.

I have not forsaken this cache. I plan to give the whole cache a little reworking while still keeping the original description as more like a "story" with some of my own information to be added in there about how to access this location. A few things have changed since Geomonkeys put this one here. A new house in the way, heaps more muggles, a geotrail to the cache, and a rather nasty hole in the bucket. I am in the process of drying out the old logbook as it is a fascinating read for any cacher. Also seeing if the container can be repaired as it has only minimal damage. The container is also historic as it had the original Geomonkeys sticker and so many memories. I hope to fix this up completely as well as add a couple of trailhead coordinates on saturday. Anyone up for a bit of a walk feel free to come along, just give me a quick email first to sort out times and all that.

Cheers!
-Mrnoo17

Old Railway Dams was transferred from GeoMonkeys to user mrnoo17

maintenance required.
If you are a keen - 'doing it for them' cache hunter. you are welcome to visit in the next week or so and retrieve this one for me.
otherwise i will be visiting after new years to retrieve this one, and archive the location.

Log wet (soaked through ), and lid had signs of being something's dinner. We did as best we could to keep this one alive awhile longer, but may need some owner love

Nnooo!!!! Don't archive this one! I will gladly replace it and maintain it. This cache has too much history to simply archive! I can go up in the new year and replace the container to a more water tight location.

Found 12:42 pm with MummaKel. The log book is all wet and soggy, the contents pretty much wrecked due to water. We tried to remove as much water as possible, MummaKel replaced a bag and removed all the ruined bits of items that were not worth retaining. It took a bit of bush bashing on our part to reach GZ we came from the nearby fire trail that I took the 4wd down until the track started getting too overgrown. We then walked a few hundred metres to cover the rest. From GZ we could see some boys had decided to make camp near the dam and were enjoying the water. It didn't take long to find the cache but due to the water ingress decided to place it in hopefully a better spot. Log book still needs better drying and maintenance. Thanks for the cache.

This cache has been sitting on my radar for quite some time and I had just never bothered to look more closely at it, until Mr Damage started suggesting it as a target for one of our joint-expeditions. Today we headed out together to collect this and another nearby cache from the 'one day' series. We decided to try out the fire trail access first, and I was well pleased I was travelling in Mr Damage's 4WD today because with an open access gate we headed in.

We paused briefly just before the creek, when we realised there was another 4WD, that appeared to be stuck in its tracks...Mr Damage assessed a more preferable route around this bit and we stopped at the creek junction. While The young fellas in the other car were trying to work their way out of their situation, we headed the opposite way so Mr Damage could grab the Fountain Falls cache (which I already had) - returning to find the lads still stuck tight....we observed for a moment or 3, Mr Damage offering his services/cable should they need it, but they looked to be getting themselves sorted, so we headed off further down the track.

We went as far as we dared via vehicle, deciding to stop around 650m from the cache, and followed the narrowing trail to its end before pausing to check the maps. With 150m to go, we could hear voices, and knew we were close to the dams, but it looked like a bash thru the shrubs from here, but we managed to find a few 'trails' that lead us to within 30-50m of the cache, so the 'bash' was not as bad as expected before it opened out onto the rocky shelf.

With the dams below us, we did little more than catch glimpses of the dam, which was a little disappointing, but we could ascertain the voices were coming from some youth who seemed to be camping down by the dam's edge....we could see a tent, suggesting perhaps there was a more defined trail leading to the other side, but it didn't matter, as we were there now. We moved over to GZ and started looking about spying a ledge I went to change elevation to check underneath where I was standing but instead spotted something obviously unnatural in its location. Shifting the large stone aside I was delighted to have found the good sized container.

We opened it up and poured out the contents, and it would seem the cache is trying to morph into a dam for all the water inside - the lid appears to have been nibbled at, allowing water to enter....the log and everything inside was drenched. Sadly the log is now pretty much illegible, and most pages are stuck together I scrawled our names with a marker, and we did our best to dry out the contents - replaced the sealed Baggie around the log, and included one of those absorbent towels to try and dry things off further...I had a spare muggle card, so that replaced the soggy unreadable one, and any of the other waterlogged things I took out with me too. Hopefully the cache holds up a while longer yet...and to help it along, Mr Damage tried to replace it in a manner than perhaps will keep more water out in future, but this cache will probably need a bit of CO love sooner rather than later.

Thanks for bringing me to another cool local spot I would otherwise never have enjoyed GeoMonkeys!

Ah the Old Railway Dams! I had heard about these a few years ago, and had tried to get here even before I discovered geocaching, but had been blocked by various private properties. Until today.

After the Kids Day Out at Kariong, on a whim I got my wife to drop me off at the trailhead that heads to Fountain Falls. I probably should have prepared more, as I had little more than some bottles of water, a small swag bag, and a teddy bear "for emergencies". What was I thinking? Also I've just looked at the website the shows a MUCH simpler path than what I took. That looks like a much more promising way to bring my son along another time.

The 4WD road from Fountain Falls is good but disappeared roughly south of the Dams cache. The trails I took down rapidly got less and less trail-like until I was pretty much climbing through pure bush. Found it hard going and hard to keep a good bee-line for the cache. Had only one glimpse of the water before finding the cache.

The cache had water in it, and the log-book was mostly damp. Got rid of as much water as I could, and signed the log, but the logbook may not properly recover from the partial soak. Took a little gorilla, and left some plastic soldiers and some stickers.

Thanks for the cache GeoMonkeys! Certainly a hard one taking the path I took.

I have never been here before or even heard of this place so I was pretty keen to check it out! I used the website which seaeagles suggested and the tracks are spot on. It was a short stroll down to the 2nd dam on a path that was slightly overgrown but was fine. I found a more established trail to walk down to the first dam along the creek. It looks as though it has recently been cleared and is good.

Got to the first dam and quickly found the cache and signed the log. I then spent a bit of time exploring the areas caves and the dam itself. There is quite a drop down to the bottom and I had a quick search to find a way down but didn't find anything. Will be back to make my way to the bottom and explore the caves! Thanks for bringing me here.

TFTC cheers

Tftc. Hard but worth it.

tnln

That was a wild old bush bash to get to here. The last part from the other dam was ok as someone had cleared a path and tied yellow ribbons to trees to mark the trail.
Navigated to GZ and spotted something with the rocks and soon had CIH.
SL took Lucky Charm TB.
TFTC

My son and his mate had built a cardboard/foil/plastic/tape boat and were keen to sink it with thrown stones, so I suggested we go to the Old Railway Dams. I hadn't read through the logs and, like others, we ended up at the cliff at the end of the wire fence. After some aimless further wandering the boys had had enough and wanted to go elsewhere (so not really a DNF?) Oh well, at least I didn't have to fish a soggy dead boat out of the dam.

So if you are just reading the last 5 logs or some such, I would suggest plan a different way in other than from the corner of Reeves & Dawson.

Thanks for the hide. I will be back!

Far out I was made to earn this one. Came in pretty much a straight line from the nearby Hobit's cache, but boy was there some thick scrub in between! One in the area, found the cache quickly. Then it was quite a traverse along the ridge line (got a good view of the wtaerfall at the dam overflow), and then finally bar down to my car on Narara Creek Rd. It was unseasonably hot today, and I was drenched in sweat by the end - but I didn't regret my long pants one bit!

Nice easy find on the way to the dam. Had to bush bash a little but nothing to extreme. Good find, Great day. -sightUNSEEN92 (A.K.A Matt)

An easy find with a bit of bushing. A great area although has been spoilt by people leaving litter and broken bottles around the creek area - we removed what we could. Be prepared to take out some more litter if you can. TFTC

Difficult track from the west to get in, located after a quick look around.
Great location.

Thanks - easy find.

Out this arvo with Jfindit seeking a few caches around the area nice spot didnt know these were here Thanks geomonkeys for the hide

Great Cache, Found in company with the xPhenom. Another elisive one crossed off the list.
Thanks GeoMonkey, TFTC

Sunday 30 December 2012 - an overcast day perfect for rock climbing and bush bashing. Great to be back in my childhood stomping ground having already returned over the years with my own kids, siblings and friends. Access is NO longer possible via crown land at the coordinates provided as all property in the immediate area is now privately owned to the dam edge, and under video surveillance. We were granted permission by the property owner who was wonderful. Otherwise you will need to access the track from the Fountains Falls cache. Regardless of access location it is recommended that you have appropriate clothing for the bush bashing, leaches and snakes. Although well prepared with water, hiking boots, gaiters and walking stick I still managed to attract a leach that got thru multiple layers of clothing. The leach was very large when it was discovered in my left sock a couple of hours later. Yuk! Fortunately no snakes were encountered this time around. Explored the top ridge some 300 meters above the cache, and explored around both dams. The photo of the artwork provided by a previous geocacher was painted by teenagers living in the region - sorry. Picked up the Aqua Sphere travel bug. Thx to muggle husband who suffered the 5km bush bash with me back down memory lane. Worth a favorite point for talking me back again to a very beautiful part of the bush. TFTC

This entry was edited by StarsAlign on Monday, 31 December 2012 at 02:58:51 UTC.

Thinking back now before I start this log its taken me some 2 decades to finally get here to see these dams!
We had some trouble last weekend even just finding the way down to them, but a quick search after reading previous logs netted us a rough map and starting location. The way down to the upper dam began with a little rock hoping and bush-bashing but eventually we found a twisting trail which is starting to get that dis-used look and feel due to New growth and fallen limbs.
Soon enough we got to the bottom and spotted the lakes expanse after first hearing its approach with the sounds of Frogs croaking. Heading left we then followed the waterside trail for a very short distance to find the upper Dam's wall with its pleasant little cascades.. Not immense, but still very spectacular. There was a steep stone cut stair going down to the creek below but it looked quite slippery so we opted to cross the dam wall at reputed great Peril!
I tested the heavily grown moss for sturdy footing and it felt quite good so we began our crossing, I lead the way with dolldoll in tow. when we got about 90% of the way across the wall, it lowered to allow slippage and so we got our feet quite wet.
Now on the other side GZ was about 200m distant, and the hesitant bush bashing began once again. it wasn't long and we were stopped by thick twisted lantana, vines and thicket. Several times we backtracked, searching for easier trails to the GZ. Stopping too long here in the thick leafy ground covering earned dolldoll her first leech, it was the smallest leech I've ever seen, but she did get another one on her shoe later when we were leaving. I'm writing this log several hrs later and just taken my socks off to find what's left of a leeches proboscis still attached to my left shin, all dried up and yucky!
15m from the cache we found rock platforms and leech safety ahhhhh
Cache found no problem, had a nice relax, dropped 2x travels bugs and some swag.
Short on time we headed back the way we came in, but this time we followed a narrow dry stream bed which was so much easier going. Almost at the top of the trail near the house we were met by the owner, very nice gentlemen. We chatted a good while, discussing bushwalking the area and geocaching. With his permission we exited to the road via his driveway.
The trail seems to skirt his property quite closely, as white boundary markers can be spotted at several places. There's no need to follow the markers though and the trail down is easy enough to find. This has been yet another awesome adventure, thanks for bringing me here.

[green] - TFTC! [/green]

[size=1][I][blue]Log posted with CacheSense v2.6b for Android ! [/blue][/size]

This entry was edited by DOC-WHO on Saturday, 01 September 2012 at 12:03:06 UTC.

Found It! Although we made the same mistake as others, went from Fountain Falls directly to this one. Followed a track which was getting us closer for a while, but then had to bush bash for a while, before we ended up right on the cache...without even seeing the dam!! We made a quick diversion as we could hear the water to check it out...

TNLN, TFTC

2nd attempt after our last attempt of following the creek down from the cache Fountains Falls. This time we Followed the route suggested by this website; - which worked really well

http://www.diamondspirit.net/adunk/railwaydams/railwaydams.html

The track is quite useable and Definitely recommended.
Shame there was a house built on the easiest entry.
Finding which way to go was helped by some friendly locals that had stacked rocks on top of each other which marked the way down.
We enjoyed a nice Saturday afternoon walk down to the Dams. The only problem was the leeches.
Once we reached the bottom dam the cache was located within seconds of reaching GZ. It is quite a large regular in size.
We explored around the area that brings back so many memories of when I was a lot younger. Found some nice caves and some cool paintings on the rocks, that i assume weren't Aboriginal.
Since it was a really quite hot, humid day we went in for a swim. Not long after we spied a rope swing that someone had placed on a tree. Spent a couple hours playing around and had stacks of fun jumping into the water!!
Thanks very much GeoMonkeys for bringing me back to an amazing spot that I have slowly forgotten about.
The cache is still in good order. For the fantastic location I left the TB Pepper On Tour for the next cacher to discover.
Got some super Photos while there. Perfect cache for #90.
Geodog also enjoyed the walk and helped us find our way back up to the car
Glad to finally get this one ticked off the to-do list due to its close proximity to home.
Accompanied by SuperAdvancedMedia, MrNoo17 and Allturners.
TFTC

This entry was edited by seaeagles1997 on Saturday, 29 October 2011 at 09:56:14 UTC.

Yes!!! finally came back with Alturners, sea1997 and S.A.M. moved from here about 8 years ago and have been vowing to come back. not too much has changed since other than the acces track had been bought up and there is some mansion there now. but we found out on the council site on how to get there. followed and unoficial trail down but with lots of rock stacks as markers. sea1997 and alturners found it this time. had a great swim and jump off the rope swing there with sea1997 doing the odd trick (as you can see in his photo) and hopefully alturners will post up one or two group photos or single shots of people. forgot to bring the tb to put in it but put in the thong that i got out of my first cache that i did by myself for this truly speacial place. So happy to return here. planning to come back. TFTC!!!!!

This has definitively got to be one of the better locations on the Central Coast. And an even better spot for a geocache. This cache called us up to Somersby as a nice Saturday afternoon walk. Seaeagles1997, mrnoo17, SuperAdvancedMedia and I soon found the track after realizing that a house had been built in front of the main entrance to the dams last time some of us were here. So we found a few human cross animal tracks through the bush so we decided to follow them down. A few tell tale signs made by others (mabye geocachers) showed us through the hot bush and finally to the dams. But man! Was it worth it!
We quickly took a quick dash up the hill, into the bush and geocache in hands. Decided to explore the rocks around the dam and soon stumbled across some amazing Aboriginal paintings. Who knows if they've been retouched or not, we didn't care they were cool! Soon SuperAdvancedMedia was calling us to try out the rope swing he had found on the other side of the dam. After a bit of depth testing, we took the plunge and even snapped up a few good shots as well. Thank-you very much Geomonkeys for showing us this awesome place not even that far from Gosford.

Accompanied by mrnoo17, Allturners and Seaeagles1997
2nd attempt and made it this time with the route suggested by Seaeagles1997
Amazing spot and defiantly needs more visitors because the tracks are over grown
Awarding this one a fav point
Loved the rope swing that is still in good working order
TFTC SL

What SuperAdvancedMedia said pretty much sums it up
Will have a look again soon, taking the proper track next time i assure you.

Finding Fountain Falls sea eagles and I decided that it would be nice to grab this one while we were out this way, little did we know we would be out bush bashing for over 3 hours. Not reading anything about this cache before we left home we decided to head strait from fountain falls to this cache, so we went straight into the bush. finding an old over grown trail to a stream/waterfall. We thought it would be ok and just follow the stream. we did this for the next 2 or so hours but not just down the stream we came to some high water falls so we went down through the bush on small animal tracks. On our hands and knees for some of our journey and climbing down and up cliffs quickly changing this cache from a 3/5 star rating for terrain to a 10/5 star rating. Long story short we end up find the fire trail just as we could barely see anything. RECOMMENDED TO STAY ON FIRE TRAIL
Loved the spot even though we didn't quite make it

Not fussed about the bush bashing involved with the new suggested entry, we walked past Fountain Falls cache then along a fire trail heading south west. A kilometre later the track dropped to a large rock platform and a smaller trail branched off north. We followed this to a rock shelf 80m from the cache, a great place for lunch as a leech wandered out from the wet leaves for some tucker too, but missed out. From here the track petered out through the light scrub then we broke into a clearing 5m from GZ. The guardian made us jump as he popped out then scuttled away to release the cache, dry and in good condition. We left a koala keyring in payment. Thanks to GeoMonkeys for another great hide, so much better than the driveby Eclipse tins we have visited lately.

Awesome to come and find this with my family. Haven't been here for nearly 20 years!! TNLNSL. TFTF

Our 1st find - in the company of wee gits!
Older kids loved the bush bashing, the littlies and the Mums were terrified of the ants & leeches! All worthwhile at the end when we got to see & swim in the beautiful dam, with lots & lots of bubbles appearing in the centre. Not a bunyip but methane I think.

Found this accompanied by the whightantz. Thanks to Shifter Brains for updating the new entry instructions. Following the rocky outcrop we came across a newly made track that led eventually to the upper dam. The bush bash along to the creek was fun, considering we had a combined total of 7 geo kids aged from 6 months to 10 years plenty of angry ants and a few leeches.
The cache was easier to find than the dams! The container is still in good condition and dry.
Most of us enjoyed a refreshing swim, it was good to hear the dam filled with the sound of splashing and laughter again. It didn't look like too many people were visiting nowadays.
Rather than walking out the way we had come in, we simply walked through the yard up the drive to the road. We waved to the gardener and were relieved that there were no dogs. It does look as though you could possibly access the dam by heading down the fence line between the properties at the corner of Reeves (green fence) and Dawson St Red fence). One day we will try the walk up from Reeves St Narara.

TFTC it was a fantastic location, highly recommended for a dip in the warmer weather.

Tried to go in from the parking spot recomended. This finished up along a razor wire fence with a sheer drop at the end. Hmmmm! After reading the logs we now know there is another way in.

OMG! What an adventure. Bit off a bit more than I could chew here but very rewarding cache.

Beautiful day after some rain overnight - what could be better. Read the logs and realised that traditional access had been blocked off so followed sugggested new route i.e. 500m nw from GZ. Before I descibe the trek, let me paint the picture. There was me, mrs ds (who just happens to be 8mths pregnant but very active), ds jr who is 3yo. Mr and Mrs geofriendly and their 8mth old in a baby bjorn and their 4 year old girl. Perfect team for a walk. We headed off along the rocky outcrop nicely guided by the cairns and while the going was a bit rough, so far so good. Then the excitement began. A quite steep climb down into valley. Slow careful going but no issues. Down the bottom however, the trail gets quite hard to find. We bashed around a bit and eventually picked up a trail again. At this time I happened to glance down at my feet to see my shoes alive with leeches. No harm done. Sorted out quickly and continued along a very vague track along the creek to the wall of the upper dam. Scaled down there. Rocks very slippery - just slow and careful going. Walked along a very vague track to the lower dam and then guided to the cache. Very rewarding after a 90min walk in.

Took measuring cup, left chicken in car.

Sat and had lunch on the rocks overlooking the lower dam. A beautiful spot. The team high on spirit and low on energy, took the shortest way out (not endorsed).

TFTC. It is great to get in and see these amazing reminders of the history of our region.

For an alternative access to this cache look at this site: http://adunk.ozehosting.com/railwaydams/railwaydams.html

Only a non-serious attempt today. Didn't read the log about the new waypoint for access, and parked at the suggested place - only to get to within 200m of GZ to find our way blocked completely by a new razor wire fence which extends to the cliff's edge, with lots of very intimidating security signage.

The new waypoint mentioned, is that the fire trail that leads to Fountains Falls - and eventually around to the south side of the railway dams, or is there a less obvious and more direct route that you're referring to?

Great spot found it. Not sure we came in the right way, but did not need to go over any fences. Looks like a fun spot. We relaxed our feet in the cool water, did not go for a swim today. TFTC

cache is still accessable. although access is via a trail that is much longer thatn original walk via dams.

the trail is located about 500m West North West of the old access location... Waypoint will be adjusted shortly.

acess tothis cache has now been alomost totally blocked off by someone who thinks ( and probably does) own the land around the dams.
you may be able to access cache form a trail some several hundred meters north of the location now.
i have not been able to determine this at this stage.
whilst you are still welcome to attempt this cache, i can not gaurantee your access to the final location.

very disapointed with this cache
who gave the yuppie muggles (on the hill), the right to fence of the through fare to this very peicefull place that people have been going to since the dam was built and useing the same trail to get there!
(who said money isn't every thing!)....
1nce at gz though it brought back old teenage memmo's very good cache though with the help from paradox (who found the cache shortly befor i did ), the memmo's of mi pushy blowing a back tyre , and testing chemical fireworks of the dam wall hehehe
i am not disapointed with the cache ,it was a bit cold to go nudy though but, very good .
TYTY
TNLNSL

This cache has been on my 'get to' list for ages. Things have sure changed since I came up here last - over ten years ago. Someone building a house on the hill above the dam and have fenced off all the accesses. Big private property signs and no entry signs posted all over the place. Takes a bit longer to get there now going bush to get around the fences.

Made it down to the dam and found the cache without to much trouble.

TNLNSL.

TFTC.

Slowly going through the caches closest to home that we hadn't found yet.
Teamed up with Liz and Bruce again.
Walked in from the recommended parking area. Walked around the fences quite easily and crossed the dam (feeder creek actually). The cache was easily found.
The cache was about half full with water (there are a couple of holes in the lid rim). We emptied and dried out the cache. The log book was slightly damp so that was left in the sun to dry. The zip loc bag for the log book was replaced, as was the stash note. All the damp contents were dried and placed in a large zip loc bag. The damaged beyond repair contents were removed. A new container may be in order soon - unfortunately we did not have one with us. But the contents will hopefully stay dry for a while.
Took damaged goods left stash note and plastic bags
TFTC.


[This entry was edited by Shifter Brains on Saturday, February 25, 2006 at 2:10:38 AM.]

Good to team up with Shifter Brains again to do this one. We gingerly went forward and were able to wind our way around to the cache. Lovely location and the cache was found easily. TNLN. Thanks guys.

Parked at the suggested coordinates only to be confronted with a wall of construction fencing plastered with "Private Property" and "Construction Zone" signs. Tried to make my way down along the track running beneath the power lines only to be confronted with more fencing. Unless there is another way in this cache may be cut off by spreading developments.

A big disappointment as this one has been on my to do list for a while.

Met up with Geobrother, got into Geo4wd to look for the Geocache. Went to the place we used to park when I was a teenager which has changed a lot. Met a friendly dog who took us down to the dam. a couple of muggles were around so we went for a walk up to the top dam for a look. Beautiful spot with some lovely fauna. Then it was back for the cache. Gps was spot on and soon we had the cache (geobrother found it, we may have another recruit) Took fish magnet, Left a couple of party toys, signed log. Thanks Geomonkeys another magic spot, will be back in summer.

It’s winter so it must be time to swim to a cache again, so after stripping down it was into the water. Struth it was freezing, even colder than a dark canyon but made it across before turning blue. Did the caching stuff and decided to walk back this time rather then swimming.

We thoroughly enjoyed this area and will be back when the weather is warmer to enjoy a swim in the dam! What a beautiful setting for a picnic or camp!
The GPSr was playing up near GZ, so I climbed up higher and re-initialised it. The effort was worthwhile as I was lead directly to the cache after the GPSr was receiving again.
Took Calculator
Left Personal Alarm/torch.

Thanks GeoMonkeys.

This is a really nice spot, would be a good place for a picnic. Well, the Dam would be... not the spot where the cache is. Discovered Marty Monkey(TB) sitting there taking in the scenery. Looked like he's been here for a fair while, so took him with me to see if we can get him started on his world tour again.

nice spot good walk in been to the area b4 but never had any idea this sort of thing happened there
only found out when i went to a friends place.
was to late for a swim the day i went.
left travel bug marty monkey

This is a very weird coincidence or the world is getting smaller. Marty Monkey TB which we had found in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is now in the Australian cache I had found for a friend travelling to Australia to find to place another TB we had found (Surfer Girl Kelly). Turns out my friend put Kelly in a different cache (Old Scraggly Gum or something) but when the note came up on Marty and Old Railway Dams it blew me away. I think there may be a cosmic portal between Old Railway Dams and Edmonton. May be a cheap way for Canadian and Australian geocachers to visit each other. Happy geocaching in Australia! Our snow is starting to melt here so the caches are easier to find but we'll miss those perfect times when you get another cachers footprints to follow right to the cache.

Found with Grank

GPS heaven here. Like 99% accuracy. son-of-Grank stood at a close vantage point with me, and we just pointed and said to Bensel "7 meters in that direction" and that was that. Nice area. Colourful fruit now replaces the bear faced jar.

~Update of Team Account~
twi$tie$ and Sc00t

We took option one and after a short, pleasant stroll found the cache with the perfect coords given. What a great spot and a perfect way to finish the first day of our 2005 Gosford Geocaching Holiday. We went for a great swim and no leeches!!!

What a fantastic spot!!! the wildlife, view and serenity make this cache worth the drive! If you get a chance jump in and take a swim. Read more and see some pics at www.teambooya.com

What a lovely spot. Perfect day to visit as it was extremely hot and the dam looked very refreshing. Well hidden cache, but the coords were spot on and found it easily. Took froggie and left an octopus massager.
Hid the cache so it was again invisible.

found TB Surfer Girl Kelly in Old scribbly cache today.

Wow what a lovely area - no wonder the locals like to keep it a secret.
Well worth the visit.....so everyone get off your butts and make the effort!!!
"Surfer Girl Kelly" TB was not in the cache. [?] No evidence of Muggle disruption though - cache was in perfect working order.

Well. I certainly havent been back, maybe someone has found the cache but not logged it here yet! I know of at least one geocaching crew who don't always log thier finds as soon as they get home.

we'll just have to wait and see.

An honorary member of Bush Creatures visiting Australia on holiday from our home in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada found the cache without difficulty and left our favorite babe, Surfer Girl Kelly and her travel bug. Kelly is hichhiking to Maui the long way. Her jet lag was rough but she's now ready to move on. Hi to all Australian geo-cachers.

Ahhh, the old Railway dams - another teenage stomping ground. This one really brought back memories. Got to the carpark and headed off towards GZ. About half way there we discovered a patented Geomonkey Sticker; had the cache been trashed? Practicing good Cache in - trash out we picked up the sticker and kept going. We got to the dam and took the recommended way around which was advisable as daughter couldn't walk across a log going across a side-stream. What she would have done on the dam - the mind boggles. A shortish bush bash and the cache was ours.

Well hidden monkeys - I doubt whether the local yobbos will find this even though it is a popular place in summer.

BTW there is another way to this area. At the end of Reeves St (NARARA) a track heads to the bottom dam. This way is a fair bit longer and harder than the suggested route but the overall walk is much nicer - you get to see the waterfall from the bottom. From there it is a short climb to the next level (GZ). Also recommended by the Monkeys is the upper dam. Again, well worth the visit.

No swaps. Thanks for letting me relive some great childhood memories.