Dig Tree ... knot! Moonee Ponds, Victoria, Australia
By Alsume on 24-Mar-05. Waypoint GCN6XA

Cache has been out of action for nearly a year.
Time to archive?

I'ts been a while. If the container has been shredded and you are looking for a new spot, you may as well make it a new listing.

Drove past tonight and sure enough the pruning was pretty savage and removed the branch holding the cache. This cache has been more ill-fated than the original Burke & Wills Expedition! First the cache container was eaten by a rat and now it has probably been put through the wood-chipper. I will find a new spot and rejig the calculations sometime soon.

Had a good (~30mins) search for this one this afternoon, but no luck. A couple of major limbs have been removed from the tree at GZ and a lot of small pruning has recently taken place (sap is still wet). I think I had a fair idea of what to look for, but couldn't find anything likely - so it may have disappeared with the limbs, or else its a really trick hide! The GZ for wp2 was way out for me, so maybe my final GZ was at the wrong tree (although I did detect evidence of previous searches, and I did check several of the nearest trees too).

I'll watch this one with interest!

Thanks Alsume

2nd attempt at this one and a second DNF. I'm sure I would have found it but the park was crawling with little muggles and parents, or teachers and when one headed my way after I had loitered a little too long. I thought I'd better try again at a more opportune moment. I'll probably be back with Robmc next time as I often find this lone caching a tad difficult.
Thanks anyway.

Found at 11:58am Accompanied by GeoDano.
2nd out of 2 finds for the day.
After getting our 5th FTF (Flower Power V2)we were still keen to get another cache even in this rain (Yes I know we are a bunch of nutters !!!). The Mrs. sits in the car and works out all the clues we give her via UHF radio, she literally sent us up the garden path searching in the wrong place, but after a while told us the error and we soon were in the right place. It took a little while to remove the cache from its hiding place but managed it in the end.
Thanks Alsume.....

Back in action with a new log sheet and the damaged cache container replaced.

Temporarily offline for maintenance. Cache container and log sheet have been severely chewed around the edges by a sharp-toothed animal (see pictures). The cache will be back in action soon.

[This entry was edited by Alsume on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 at 5:01:53 AM.]

Dear Alsume,

We found your cache today at 8:30pm or should I say, most of it. All went well in finding the location of the cache. and "H" spotted the likely spot after only a minute or so. At full reach with two fingers though I could only just touch the cache. Something was amiss but I didn't know at this stage what it was. Then it started. 30 minutes I spent trying to manouvre the cache with sticks until I could get into a position I could get it out. When finally extracted, the problem was found. Some blighter has nibbled most of your cache container. The log scroll, or at least the remaining 75% of it was still in the hole which I also managed to extract. The most eaten part was the signed parts from other cachers. I had used both seal bags that I had with me on other caches already today so I did not have anything to repair it with so I have replaced it as best as I can giving it as much protection as I can and hopefully making it easy to extract when you come for repairs but it may not last too many days in this state. On the bright side though, this beautiful green park was a welcome relief after the dry dusty hills we had been navigating all day. Thanks for the cache.

Regards,

D & H B-A

Found 10:45, an interesting and pleasant cache to start our day with.

TNLN, thanks Alsume.

We started this cache in the rain and dark on the 19th on the way to the airport to pick up mate from Nauru. Collected all the answers and headed off to GZ. After about 15 minutes of searching the skies really opened up so we decided to give it a miss and head towards the airport. Having to take Bill back to the airport tonight we decided to try again. Diane rechecked all the maths and found a mistake that had had us searching in a very likely location about 22 metres out. With the corrected co-ords and with lightening flashing on the horizon and as yet no rain we found the very well hidden cache after about a ten minute search. Signed log at 19.20, replaced the cache just as the drizzle started

Cache seventy of seventy seven for the day: in what we called The Big Assault eighteen hours of none stop caching
A great piece of history, but oh so tragic. I really liked this park it sure had some great trees and I was impressed by the artillery at this location.
Thanks for a great cache.

After a major headache (literally - migraine) caused me to just mix up coordinates all over the place yesterday, I came home, sorted out what I was doing wrong, then returned this morning to find a clever container just at the right height for me to reach.

Amazing where technology now puts us 150 years later. So many have visited a number of the landmarks of the expedition, all without any of the problems encountered by Burke and Wills.

Don't know if I messed up the calcs or not, but the distance on the GPSr at the real GZ was 15 metres, so this was a GAFF3 at 5.05pm when we found it. In June of this year we explored the area around the Dig Tree on the banks of the Cooper Creek. Also went to the actual location of where Burke died and also the location of where King was sighted by one of the rescue parties. Last year we did a cache that takes you around the Melbourne Cemetery which took us to the grave of King. Interestingly he only survived a few years after his return from the doomed expedition. Thanks Alsume for more of the story.

Team members included Diceman, Keymaster and Queen of Hearts. We've done a few caches in this park before. Beutiful location! Found without too much work. The hiding spot was a trendy one! great camo!

TNLN

Thanks Alsume

7.00pm
Found by Roma and Max.
This was a very interesting and well put together multi which we enjoyed unravelling. It's sad to see the vandalism that made one of the plaques hard to read at night.
Thanks Alsume, we have driven by this spot many times and not known the significance of it.
Romax.

Great hide. I had to resort to the clue. My gps was a bit of color. Visited the real Dig tree last year while riding Motor bike through to Dimantina national park. Surroundings are certainly miles apart. Thanks for the city journey brought back memories.

Sixth of 13 finds for the day. I have always been interested in the Burke and Wills expedition. I've read a fair bit about it, and have actually visited the real dig tree, north of Innamincka. So, I enjoyed the history of this cache.

After reading Muzza's log and considering the cache name, I reckoned I knew which cache Muzza was talking about. I found the second waypoint to be 22m out, but the sign was pretty obvious, so that wasn't a problem. I did the final calculations and headed off to the cache. Although I knew what I was looking for, it still took me 10 minutes; I think it was hidden rather better than intended. I had to work to extract it. I signed the log at 1155. Thanks to Alsume for the cache.

I found this cache to be historically very interesting. After collecting the required answers I headed off to GZ and had a case of Deja Vu - a container almost identical to one of mine - (ah but which one? - no hints to anyone there).

After waiting a short time for some passersby to disappear, I quickly retrieved the cache, logged my visit, and returned it to its resting place. Thanks for the history lesson, and for the cache.

Excellent! Nice spot. I wish I was taller. Didn't know there was another one here. Will check it out next time. Lots of muggles around today. Thanks heaps Alsume.

Love Thyla and Thylo.

This was the last attempt for the day and i'm very sorry to say, was a failure. Our final co-ords put is right in the centre of Windy Hill oval and we kind of knew it wouldn't be there. On the way home over a coffee we redid the numbers and found them to be in the said park where you would expect them to be, so maybe we'll get it next time. Funny though we couldn't find Eshan's cache either, which is in the same park. By the way I,ve read Burke and Wills story and been to the Cooper creek where they died and some of the other famous and infamous places they passed through. It's a facinating story and more so when you see first hand the country and realize the hardships they would have endured.
Thanks Alsume, even though we failed we didn't fail if you know what I mean!

i was in AWE as i collected this cache...
spent time at other trees, lookin at all the likely spots
then decided i came here 2 FIND this cache.. read the hint & spotted camouflage soon enuf!

took a photo cos am motivated now, by the extent u guys go 2 make this game so much more challenging! geo-cachers in singapore will benefit Alsume! thank you!

Quick visit of a Saturday afternoon. No problems and a clever disguise.

Such important monuments to reknown travellers that most people would just pass by in the blink of an eye. An interesting bit of history in the heart of what is now the bustle of suburbia. Now if only B&W had the luxury of a GPS, things would have been different. SL. Thanks Alsume [8)].

Edited description to make map clue unambiguous.

On a night caching haul with ssmc4, this one was in the immediate vicinity of our last find. Off we headed to WP1 and jotted down the answers. Or so we thought. Due to an enormous piece of misreading on my behalf, we headed off to WP2 to nearly have us knocking on someone's door so we could see their backyard !!

Realising the error of my way, we backtracked to find WP2, at which I was relegated to torch holder . "S" made the calcs and we were off to GZ. Once there, an e-spanking for Geko saw us with the cache in hand at 23:20, an hour after our last find just nearby.

What an amazing piece of history. The expedition really did some serious trekking on that first day. At least they wouldn't have needed phones, they could have just yelled any messages back to the start !

TNLNSL. Thanks for a real beauty Alsume and, by a pure coincidence (seriously), my 250th cache find !!!

Perhaps like Burke & Wills, EuDes & I found that our own minor expedition tonight took a little bit longer than planned

I'm in awe at the astounding scale of Burke & Wills' proposed task. What they attempted was truly amazing (....and most of us have a grizzle when we're stuck in traffic on our way to the shops). I think it's a good thing that we have so many memorials around Melbourne to remind us of the true Aussie spirit.

Great cache Alsume - thanks.

Found by Mary & David at 1930. A great historical lesson. The monument near the zoo marking the starting point of the Expedition is probably better known, and has its own cache, but we were delighted to learn more of the story here tonight. Perhaps one day we'll get to see the Dig Tree itself. The coordinates were spot-on, and the cache skilfully disguised. Our thanks to Alsume.

Found by caughtatwork at 3:05
Having nothing to do this afternoon I thought I'd grab this one as it's only 14.8 k's from me.
The first waypoint had me a little bit confused. I didn't expect it to be there so I didn't trust the GPSr. Damn it!
The second waypoint also had me a little bit confused as I could see two names not just one. Trying the most logical one sent me a reasonable distance away. The other, too far.
Getting to GZ I started the hunt. The GPSr was nice to me at this location and I soon spotted the cunning cache.
Took nothing, left nothing.
Thanks Alsume. A wonderful park where I was a best man in a wedding some 13-14 years ago and some great history that I didn't know. I'm constantly surprised by the amount of history that I have learned from caching that I probably should have listened to in school.

Thanks for another history lesson.
Great clues and an excellent hiding place.
Jonty & DD

Found at 1205 on 26 March 2005 by 4 Men and a Lady.

An ingenious hide and another excellent lesson in Australian History from Alsume.

Another FTF to 4MAAL - Whoooo!!!

TNLN - Logged Only as requested

Many Thanks to Alsume