Ash Wednesday Memories 1 Beaconsfield Upper, Victoria, Australia
By Da Bugs on 17-Jul-04. Waypoint GCJYWG

Rebel Acts and I spent another enjoyable few hours wandering the eastern and southeastern suburbs looking for plastic containers. With many hills conquered I was able to hang up the boots tonight with 42 finds. A few drinks later and I was fast asleep content with the experience. Thanks. Archived but available.

Found @ 7:35am, find # 3446.

This week I was running solo, so I decided that I would go for early morning run, I left home and the weather was fine, only to find the weather at my target area to be not as good, oh well a bit of moisture is not going to hurt.
We will call this reserve, the two for one reserve with the five new Pinkpiggy caches as well as the five old archived caches from Da Bugs, but one seems to be missing, plus another that I had already found.
This one wasn't far from the car park, I headed over to GZ and I was able to make a quick find.
This cache is still in good condition.

Thanks to Da Bugs for placing this cache.

Having just had a series of caches published in this park, we were alerted by another cacher that there was previously a series in park, but they had being archived.

Tried to find out where they had being and stumbled accross the series, and noted a a cacher (Biggles1024), who had gone looking for our caches had also found some of these on the same day, well we figured we may as well go for the hunt, this series almost meets the 161metre seperation from ours, accept for one, so it turned out to be interesting.

Well we found Caches 1, 2 and 4. 3 appeared to be missing, and couldnt solve the final without the clue from 3, although will try to piece together some co-ords if we get time.
Was fun seeing where these were in comparison to ours, the 3 caches found all all still in good condition.
tftc Da Bugs if you still get these emails.

2/07/14 10:42 AM
Find #1339

My goal for today was to head to Upper Beacy to find three caches that were published about a month ago and then head back to Hallam to find the remainder of the caches along the Hallam Trail. Imagine my surprised when, just as I was finishing breakfast, five new caches were published in the very park where the archived caches might be.
I expected some local cachers to get there first so I wasn't in any great hurry and just ambled my way northward.
My second archived find of the day. This cache was just a stone's throw from another cache that I had found on a previous trip. The container was just sitting there, no camo so I just walked over, picked it up, retrieved the log, signed it and put it back. Too easy.
SL TFTC

We are no longer involved with Geocaching so I will archive this series of Geocaches.

Found with Spladem and Sir James Oz while on a late night run. We all really enjoyed the walk in area at this late hour. A nice little series too. TFTC

Found with C@H and Sir J Oz after the well attended 11 11 11 @ 11 11 event just down the road.. This place had a bit of an earie feeling to it at this hour of the night.. Thanks Da Bugs for bringing us here for this nice little series.. We took turns making the finds and soon had em all in the bag.. TNLN Dipped various bugs and coins.. find #1849

Found @ 2:12. I tagged along on a post 11.11.11.11 event cache run with C@H and Spladem to do this series. We divided up the tasks at GZ, with Covert logging, Spladem cleaning up the cache contents, and I grabbed the info for number 5. Covert made the find on this one. Took detritus, left nothing, log was signed and an enjoyable time was had. Thanks for the cache.

Book full but good cache

Basic but tough at night

Wicked at night

Found at night with narre boys.

Fairly easy find with large crew!

Good find by disco. how's the serenity.

1.55pm

I was in the area and on the hunt for a group of caches that were not micros and I could walk between them, this series hit the nail on the head.

The track started to head sharply up. This was another very unexpected hiding spot, I was initially searching the wrong side of the track again, but I checked the clue once again and was soon put right. Now to put all the collected numbers together and find the series final.

Thanks to Da Bugs for the cache as well as the whole series.

11:40 - found the site easily enough but no cache, and suspect that it may have been muggled. Still managed to find the remaining 3 caches and had a guess at the missing information and found the fifth in the series.

Well guarded by mad bull ants,but managed to avoid them.Log book is almost full.
LNTN S/L

This series of caches was ment to be a relatively quick find on the way to dinner but due to how steep it is I was late to dinner. Good series of caches.TFTC

Easy find with crank1
TFTC

Found at 1600

Out with Datruk and geoson

TFTC

1000hrs

Out for a few quick grabs today on the long way home from Cuboree 6.

TNLNSL
TFTC

11:50 am. Easy find. TNLNSL. TFTC. Kems

Nice easy find in a lovely quiet reserve.
TFTC

I had a meeting this afternoon in Berwick and was hoping to pick up all four in this series, but the light beat me, I only got two of the caches. I had trouble with this one, I was tring to make it much harder than it needed to be. Got it eventually. Thanks

@ 8.17am Find #646
This one was the first find in the series not far from where I parked. Gathered the required info and on to the next
Thx for the cache
Da Bugs

Give us sweating to look for this because we follow our gps but it was not right due of weather, and plenty of trees.. Almost give up, Everlasting yell to ask for help, as she have pain her back so I quickly came back to help but she fool on me as she found it... Phew... Found with Everlasting and myself.. we would like to go other places but dont have a time because of getting dark time for us to back to home... TFTC

Hee I make fool with crank1 oops.... We have been so hard search due my fault as I didnt read the hint properly - next time more careful read the hint.... Looking forward to next cache when the weather getting better.... Smile.... No swap. SL. Thanks Da Bugs

Thank you Da Bugs for this good cache, and good series. Found it with rohanmedly.
TYFTC TNLN.

found with Ryanlg. Thanks for this cache and the seris

Had another look for it with my brother ,sister and mum. This was a great chance to try out our new Triton 300. Nice easy find. It fit the description perfectly. Coordinates were spot on. Keep up the good work Da Bugs.

Did it at night so my dad and Icouldn't see the hiding spot. Must be hidden quite well. Bit dissapointed but i'll look for it tomorrow.

24-01 1st find of the day at 14:09 and 851st find in total.
It's always good to get the first find of the day but this one almost wasn't it.
With the GPSr saying 10+m downhill and the hint saying "in", Echo spent a lot of time here (and we mean a lot) with no success until the obvious place was checked more thoroughly.
Why didn't we do that first...
We later found out when we got to #2 that we had forgotten to note the puzzle clue but at least we knew where to find it the second time
(''\(OoO)/'') Thanks Da Bugs for the caching fun!

quick find TFTC LNTN

Short search had it located. (edited to visit a personal trackable)

This entry was edited by tmann421 on Thursday, 05 December 2013 at 21:03:29 UTC.

Found and signed this afternoon in the late sunshine. This was an easy find but well covered in what I assumed to be the original position. It looks good to me. Thanks.

#1/5 FTD. We did the whole series in one go. It was a great day for this hike. No rain not to hot, just perfect. Note of concern as indicated by the previous logs. This one is a bit exposed. We hid it again behind original position and try to cover up a b it. Don't think passers by will see it. TFTC and cash series.

[This entry was edited by GPHUNTERSinOZ on Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 3:06:49 PM.]

Suspect the original hiding spot for this one has been trashed, because there's a lot of chopped up logs in the immediate vicinity and the cache was sitting out in the open when we got there today. I've move it to behind the original hiding spot, but it's now out in the open as there's no obvious cover nearby. That said, it's not likely to be seen by any passing muggles

Not sure what can be done to come up with a better hide, short of moving it some distance away.

Well, we nearly didn't find this as the cache wasn't where we thought it would be. The log is not really hollow, so there wasn't any room in it. We left the cache where we found it, very near, and hidden from casual view. This series has certainly emphasised a certain lack of fitness, acquired over the winter months, and we thank you for bringing this to our attention! Thanks for the cache also.

Found this one with squalid today. It's no longer where the hint says, but we've replaced it within 0.5m of that spot - the original hide seems to have been destroyed. While the cache is now out in the open, it's not likely to be muggled.

I took some time to read the plaque on the way to the cache here. The Ash Wednesday fires were a bit too long ago for me to remember but I did study them at university for a subject on bush management. The experience of the recent fires probably helps paint a picture though.

Thanks,

R - B

Decided to finally do these caches. Parked nearby and proceeded to this, the first cache, despite the previous log by vk3jap I think this is a great place for a cache series.
Cache was exposed so I covered it up the best I could.

TFTC

First of the series found! We had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful area.

Very glad we took the 3 wheeler pram for the 2 y.o.

Took a magnifying glass, Left a cat! SL

TFTC

Hello Cachemaster - We're Interested in Ash Wednesday history.. but wondering - what's the point of this cache? I wonder as there's no history on the cache page? perhaps it's..;
1. just an awesome spot worthy of a visit
2. an excellent cache for GeoKids to find and get excited about..
3. A place of real significance from Ash Wednesday (Story to follow perhaps?)
4. something else..?

Thanks,

Ian - VK3JAP

Found this after a fairly easy short walk from the car. Great area, live locally but didn't know this place existed. TFTC. Left Winnie the Pooh - Took Green Spiky Ball. Singed Log. Found at 11:55 AM.
davidman (+1)

Last one for the day. 3yo cut his hand and was over-tired. Will be back to finish up this series soon.
TFTC!

Have been to area before, as a member of the CFA, to see the plaque. It certainly brings back memories of fires I have attended, but none of course to the extent of Ash Wednesday. But the risk of uncertainty was still there. I enjoyed the hunt for the cache.Found at 1145 hours.
Took Micra Man's Tee B.Geocoin
Left rickshaw keyring
TFTC

This was our fourth find in the series.

We found 2, 3 & 4 this morning but had to head home for lunch with the parents/in-laws. Headed back out to the area in the late afternoon to find this nicely hidden cache.

Now know all we need to find memories number 5 but with light fading and children getting hungry we'll have to return another day.

Also took the opportunity to wander down and visit the memorial. Quite sobering to realise such devastation can happen. A truly tragic event and serves to remind us of how brave all our fire fighters are.

Thanks for this series of caches to bring us to the area and highlight te memorial.

TNLNSL TFTC

Found at 13:40 hrs.
After we found the elephant and the mouse we're here to have a nice walk.
This 1st one was an easy find.
TNLNSL.

A nice day to cache. Found this one nice and easily. Got to drop of a coin that was stuck in my shipping.

First find of the day TNLNSL

Found at 1915. Fourth find in the series. Nice work.

TNLN. TFTC.

Find# 1868 and 18th of the day at 4:37pm. Accompanied by Feathertop on another caching day in the Dandenong area. Easy find almost a drive-by got the clue but will have to come back to finish the serries. TNLN, Signed Log, Thanx to DaBugs....

0247 re-logging due to name change

TNLNSL TFTC Da Bugs

On the way to finding this cache we passed the Ash Wednesday Memorial. It's certainly a sombre reminder of how such a tranquil bush setting can change so dramatically to take away the lives of those that protect us. I do remember this tragedy as a child, but I didn't know where it happened. Now I do.

Found the cache at 4:10pm. Took TB Bangee Adios, LN & SL. Thankyou - this cache find now enables us to go look for the 5th!

ok i made this harder than it looks.
after a mega down pour i headed down the track and proceeded to go heavily bush (3 star terrain) and what do you know. i didnt have to at all. The terrain rating i would say is a little overstated otherwise TFTC! left horsey bug TB

We had just come back to finish Line of Sight down the road and we stopped in for the walk in this park. The ground was a bit soggy but the first cache was quickly found.
Thanks, Robmc.

First of the series done! And easily. We parked near here and headed off walking around the series. As stated a bit steep here and there but not too bad.
Thanks.

Found by Bob at 1015

Having parked near the lower entrance to get numbers 2&3, I drove up to the main entrance to tackle the rest. This one was another that was close to being affected by the recent burnoff, but I'm happy to report that it is still safe and secure and in good condition. Another good, sensible hide given the terrain and tree cover in the area .

TNLN

Thanks again Da Bugs

We decided to tackle this whole series in the morning .
We found number 1 @ 10.30am & completed the series by finding number 5 @ 11.55am just before the afternoon shift
Thanks to Da bugs for bringing us to a very unique location in Australian bushfire history Our thoughts go out to the lost Firemen & their families....
TNLN TFTC
Cheers
LIVERPOOLRED
(Y.N.W.A.)

[This entry was edited by LIVERPOOLRED on Sunday, February 04, 2007 at 10:57:49 PM.]

Managed to park quite nearby and then this was a quick find. Trees weren't helping the gps but the good clue did. TNLN thanks Da Bugs.

A quick find from the nearby carpark. On now to AW4. thanks Da Bugs

I remember Ash Wednesday well. In fact I remember it twice, because in SA we had two Ash Wednesdays.

On this, the second, I was on Eyre Peninsula, and for most of the day the sky was red with a massive dust storm, and then as the dust cleared the smoke appeared.

The first Ash Wednesday I was in the thick of it. We were fortunate that the fires were not in our district, although they were both to the north and the south. We had two backup crews on standby ready to change with the crew on our truck that had gone to the south. We also had the old 1956 International 4x4 truck still in the shed. After much debate on whether to hold it in reserve in case of a breakout in our area or send it to the fire front, around 6pm it was decided we should go.

This was before aerial bombers and in steep and inaccessible areas all the cement mixers of Adelaide were loading up with water, driving to the ridges and pouring the water down the hills. And it was effective.

Allocated a no through road ending at a reserve on fire, our job was to protect the houses at the end of the road. On one side was a timber house on stilts. Under it were stacked old newspapers, around it weeds. No one home and the lights were off. The other side a brick house surrounded by lawn, sprinklers running, flood lights on and the home owner had the BBQ going to feed the fire fighters. Fortunately we stopped the fire 50m from the houses and didn’t have to make a decision which one to save.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Found @ 13:56 with Scooters Mob. T: Snoopy L: Cooky Monster + Next! Stamp SL. TFTC

Found @ 13:50. Sixth of 10 for the day out caching with Next!. In Car Out Mini Mouse TFTC

Found at 10:15 am by the Swaggies in the company of Romax. Little did we know what lay ahead. This was the easy start.

Took Mondo.
Left Poppa

Thanks to “da Bugsâ€. (Later on I was wondering whether to thank them or curse them.)

10.15am
Found by Roma and Max together with The Swaggies.
We have been looking forward to devoting today to 2 cache series requiring some extended exercise of the walking variety and we suspect some mental activity later on today. We started off well with number 1 easily in hand after visiting the memorial. It is hard to imagine, on a day like today, overcast, with intermittent heavy showers, what a terrible place this would have been on that tragic day. We swapped a Mondo Figurine for a Yo Yo Key Tag as a memento.
Thanks Da Bugs,
from Romax

Found on 30/10/05 @ 1112 AEDT. The 20th of 58 caches for the day with Facitman for the Spring Caching Carnival.

After Ash Wednesday 2 & 3 we were expecting a longer walk, but this one was a very handy distance from the car park and quickly and easily found

Cheers Da Bugs

Facitman & Rhinogeo's
SPRING CACHING CARNIVAL
A 50+ CACHE SPECTACULAR

Found by Facitman and Rhinogeo at 11.12AM
No 20 of 58

Headed to this our third Ash Wednesday Memories cache and this time I walked straight up to the cache.

TNLN
Thanks Da Bugs

Facitman & Rhinogeo's
SPRING CACHING CARNIVAL
A 50+ CACHE SPECTACULAR

set out on a drizzly cold sun morning with no one around .got to first cache in 2min.took plane...left yoyo.thanks.

I certainly did this series all upside down. This was my final cache and the one closest to where I started but somehow I managed to do it last. A great series. TNLN. Thanks da bugs

Nice little park. It was not the area that I thought I would find the caches.

Be very carefull if you are doing this in the dark and trying to save the batteries in your torch. Made a beeline for the waypoint and nearly took a tumble down to the track. Found the cache without any trouble at about 7:15pm.

TNLN

David.

Nice hiding spot, found after a short search. First out of four.

found by chefs on the Run
[?]at the start we couldn't find the park then we found it
the first was a easy one .
tnln
thanks
from chefs on the run

Friday Night Craziness 1 out of 5.

After trying to find a good entry point to Line of Sight series I gave up and went for this one close by. A good choice and what a great park to walk in.. Found this one easily at 9.30PM..

Thanks from M.B and S.B-A (team rabbitto)

Quasar, Skyfox, Paul and Shayne attempted this series this afternoon. This first one was very easy, but they soon got harder, and Shayne had to be carried for part of it. I think we went around the wrong way from this one, as we had to backtrack at the end.

Found at 2:20 on the way to the line of sight series. This one seemed nice and close so we thought we would stop. Made our way to it in the rain and found quickly, thankfully, as our GPS told us GZ was still many meters away. We took the cow (of course) and left a pig. Looked far too wet to go clambering around hills so we thought we would leave the rest of this series for another day (little did we know how wet we would get today).

Found at 9.40am
GPS was a little confused during this series of caches.
We kept getting erratic readings
We were sent 15m down the hill initially,
Soon found the cache
TNLN
Thanks
K&M

Found by Mary & David at 1118. Our first glimpse of this reserve that would occupy us for about the next hour and three quarters. Found this one easily enough. Took nothing, left cow. Our thanks to Da Bugs.

Found by caughtatwork at 10:45am
Out for a day of caching far, far away from home (well, about 90 minutes anyway) and thought I would try this series.
My first problem started when the GPSr said it was 12m over there, and damn it, it wasn't. I bashed a bit of bush (along with others by the look) but tried to be environmentally friendly all to no avail. I accidentally discovered the cache while wandering backwards and forwards trying to get a better satellite lock. No better lock, but I didn spot a (now) obvious hiding place.
TNLN but I did sign the log.
Thanks Da Bugs, off to number 2.

Found with Sikma at 13:03 and our first of the Ash Wednesday series. Thanks Da Bugs. TNLN.

Our first in the Ash Wednesday Memories series. Being involved voluntarily with emergency services this one certainly gets you thinking. We found it at about 13:03. Thanks to Da Bugs.

After doing the Line of Sight series, we were ready to do the Ash series. However GPSr troubles were plaguing us all day so we were taken way down the slope, only to come up again. Found at 3.25pm tn/ln
Thanks Da Bugs.

What a great series of caches to find on AFL Grand Final day.

The area here must have been horrific on that fateful day in February 1983.

Thanks for this cache series DaBugs

Took Shark Key Tag bottle opener

Left Bluey Day ribbon

Found this one without any problem. Had never seen where the ash wednesday fires were now i know. Interesting place.

Seeing that we were out this far and so close to the Ash Wednesday group, it would be silly not to do them. Dak did them back in August but suggested a plan of action. He did the gentlemanly thing and held the umbrella while I followed my GPSr to the first of these five with the rain starting to become annoying. Obviously no problem with fire in this area today. Mother Nature is so clever at healing the land. Found what I was supposed to find, so it is on to #4.

IN: Shark bottle opener
OUT: Karabiner compass

Found this one easly. Actualy found it will runing in the rain but returned to open it when it stoped.

TNLN

Thanks Bugs

My find count was 198 after doing the nearby line of sight series. This was an easy find to bring it up to 199.

Which one will be 200????

TNLN

Doh... started looking for this one at "Ash Wendesday Memorial" It's steep once your off the track.

Started with Number 1 and then headed for 4.

If you follow this same route, after 4 don't follow the fence line track, this takes you to private property and a couple of nasty dogs. You need to follow the 'closed' track (I'm guessing they mean the horses)

Found after a short stroll down the track. It was overcast, had been raining so it was slippery underfoot.

in: plastic crab (sorry, in pieces)
out: knight

I decided to tackle the caches in the order: 1-4-3-2-Final, so this was my first of the "five-fer". I approached via St Georges Rd, so this one was very close to where I parked. It was an easy find at 1055. It wasn't a brilliant day, but the sun was shining when I found the cache. (Future cachers should read my log for AWM3 about the dogs near the western border of the reserve.)

IN: Mondo figure
OUT: 2 x dice

Kiwideb used one of my old tricks on me - while distracting me in conversation, she was paying attention to her GPSr. As we walked along, she stopped, indicated where she thought it would be, then proceeded to uncover the cache.

I took a tube of glitter and left a squishy lizard.

Found 15:20, Took gecko and left compass on a clip, thanks Da Bugs.

My 4th of 7 caches for the day and I beat Muzza AGAIN. Not that its a race . Cache found at 2pm. Swapped a Grasshopper for a bath ball.
Thanks for the cache Da Bugs.

Well we had been beaten to number 2, 3, 4, & final by team Crackers, and knew Rabbitto had beaten us to #1 & the Finale. Today we had about 2 hrs spare & so I convinced Mother Hen to leave the nest & go treasure hunting with the young chicks!

This time we entered from the other end of the park (off St Georges rd), -very different. Mothers Hens 1st comment was Wow this hidden park gets 10 points! We quickly had #1 in hand, (found by Chick1), and then got a fright! As we opened the log book we found that Mr. Coffee had been –Had he done all 4 pre-requisites? Had he also hit the Jackpot? I said to Mother hen “ lets get a move on in case the Coffee’s are still going at itâ€Â. To which our 4 year old chick said [8)]“ Lets go before Team Crackers comes†– I think some little ears have been listening well & remembering very well! Fortunately the little chick (just 4y.o.) did not know we had already been beaten by Team Crackers.

I had already been enthused by Rabbitto’s logs, and now was again being enthused by the thought of a race together with the Coffee’s. I knew we had been beaten by two teams –but was it going to be three[?][?]

Took Dinosaur Left Pair of dice (die)

Thanks to DaBugs for doing a fun easy to find regular cache series, all within easy walking distance for the kids – Very well done!

Mr.Coffee and Shelby drove and found this cache minus mud holes designed for 4wd's.
The decision was based on Melways Page 111 which suggested it was easier to drive than walk, and since the light drizzle had stopped we thought it would be healthier to drive.
Thanks again Da Bugs for this cache our 90th to date.
Taken Rubber bands (needed in Landcruisers)
Left Coffee card, bath bomb, temp tattoo.
Regards
Mr.Coffee and Shelby

Found at 3:00pm. Saw this series pop up last night but we didn't have a chance to head out till mid afternoon. We thought we would be too late for a first find and sure enough, we had been beaten to the prize by Team Crackers. Having no other logic to guide us, we decided to tackle the caches in numerical order.

Just as we were about to search for the cache a group of three ladies on horseback rode past and stopped for a break about 5m from GZ. We stood around pointing at the trees, pointing at the grass pointing down the track and engaging in deep conversation about the universe in general. After a couple of minutes the horses and ladies had moved on (little did we know we would meet again - see #2) and we claimed and logged an easy find.

Thanks Da Bugs from D & S B-A.
Took a green dinosaur, left a blue dinosaur.

Rated: for Overall Experience

This was our second in the series and armed with new batteries off we headed. Nice easy find, even though well hidden. Met a walker, said hello and waited for him to pass and returned the cache. Must be something with this park as with Rabbitto we met again at #2
Took Mongoose
Left Green Dinosaur.
Thanks once again DaBugs for a very enjoyable mornings caching