Wild Dogs Megalong, New South Wales, Australia
By The Rats on 12-May-05. Waypoint GCNX27

Solid stroll. Thank god I live in such a wonderful LGA, and that excercise and recreational activities are still allowed!

Tftc. What a spot!

Cache check for the CO, cache survived the fires.

Amazing spot, amazing day, with great company TFC

Great spot! Fantastic cache and contents too. On a rainy couple of days my friend and I decided to hike out to Splendour Rock overnight. We got dropped off at Dunphy's, walked the main trail to Splendour via Mobbs Soak. We only had patchy sprinkles of rain all day bit as soon as we reached splendour rock the fog/clouds engulfed us. We hoped for views in the morning but unfortunately the fog only lifted an hour after we set off from camp. Such is the nature of nature! The fog was still beautiful and eerie, but we never saw the famous views! On our return we went via the ridge line over Wombats Parade and around Mt Warrigal then finished at Narrowneck. The route we too back was not well trodden, fantastic bush walking but only advisable for the experienced and having a GPS as there was no track on a good steep and slippery stretch! A great overnight outing and my friends first cache. Thanks!

Found this cache on Anzac Day morning after attending the dawn service at Splendour Rock, which was just a wonderful experience, with so many young people in attendance – scouts, school groups etc. Nearly 100 people turned up, so after finding and replacing the log, it was good to continue on down to the Cox’s River for two days exploring around before returning for home. My phone battery died so was not able to post it until today. TFTC

See photo of the ANZAC Day Dawn Service

Found after attending the inspirational NSW Bushwalking Clubs' Dawn Service. Met up with 1st Tambourine Bay Scouts, Venturers and Leaders - some of whom we had met over the Easter long weekend just four days prior to this.

Found on an expedition with Scouts and Venturers from 1st Tambourine Bay Scout Troop to attend the ANZAC Dawn Service at Splendour Rock

We came out here for my birthday and camped for the night. It was a beautiful spot with great views! TFTC it was a lot of fun to find!

As a bushwalker I've been meaning to visit this place for years, and today I finally got around to it. A very aptly named place it is. The GPS suggested I should go somewhere that looked a little too exciting, but I searched around in some of the more sensible locations and soon found the cache in a logical place. No need for any crazy acrobatics. Hoping to come back for the Dawn Service...must bring a camera next time.

These days it is a long time between caches for us but I was fortunate enough to be out in this area for 3 days "enjoying" the ups and downs of the nearby terrain. The cache location is amazing, spectacular views in all directions and I would imagine it would be a very moving experience to be here for an ANZAC Day dawn service. A previous logged mentioned a Harry Potter trackable but i did not see it in the container, hopefully it has not gone missing. TFTC Rats, we have certainly enjoyed your caches over the years.

I see the Harry Potter trackable has been left in this cache and I need it to complete a series of caches. I am physically unable to complete the trek to reach this cache so it would be greatly appreciated if the next finder could retrieve the trackable for me. Thank you in advance.

It seemed only fitting with a caching name of a dog that we would at some stage we would head to Wild Dogs.
We were on an over night trips to Konangaroo Corner with Team Canary, Purple People Eater and a muggle. It was about a year since all 4 of us had done River Deepening and Fearless so was great to be back on the track again.
Plans were made to start at Carlons Farm and we got on the trail a bit after 9am. A few Roos around at the start but we did not see too many along the way.
As Team Canary and ourselves have not done Wild Dogs plus Team Canary was coming up for a mini milestone of 7900 finds we looked at the various track to the rock with PPE suggesting the south west approach having done it before. So around lunch time we reached the said turn off and Team Canary and ourselves dumped the packs for a went for a detour to Splendour while PPE and co headed to camp.
It took a few steeps to adjust with no back pack but all good. A few steep spots on the way up but well worth the views which got better and in most directions up the top. Plenty of old camp fires so it must get busy. Past the bush walkers log book and out to hunt for the cache. Team Canary spotted something and soon made the find of anmo can. Our names where added and we the headed back down the main trail and the packs. TFTC
It was then on to our camp for the night. Not too much elevation change out to Yellow Dog. From here it was a long and windy path down, down to the Cox's. At one stage the GPSr said under 400m to GZ and the camp spot however there was still a big elevation difference. The river crossing was eventually reached. The river was sized up but no Noodles chest high crossing for us. Knee deep in the small Rapids section. Yep it was cold and we could not wait to get to the other side. Boots back on and off to camp to find a camp fire already going thanks to PPE and co. Plenty of signs of wombats and pigs. A bit of cloud cover for a not too chilly night. Up with sun rise to see a few Roos across the creek and then after some breakfast the three of us headed to GZ. A wave to the land owner and the cache was found shortly afterwards as the nearby horses looked on. Sure glad we did not try this at night given the number of wombat holes. Logged signed, camp packed up and another barefoot crossing of the Cox's. Surprising not as cold yesterday probably due to a fresh start. A few running repairs to our heel and the up, up to Yellow Dog. Good to knock the climb off early. TFTC.

7900!!!

On a long, long hike to Konangaroo Clearing from Dumphy Canpground with Bella at Waggy, purplepeopleater and a muggle.

After stopped just west of this cache for lunch, Bella and I took the direct, steep route up to Splendour Rock.

We stopped to take photos at a few vantage points before descending so I could make the find.

Then it was back down and down and down to the campsite.

Sadly we were finders 35 and 36 in 12 years. This needs more visits.

TFTC.

What a beautiful spot for a geocache. Took a group of D of E students up here and it was well worth the climb. TFTC!

Find number 9 along a 9 day hike through the Bluies. Passing through Lithgow, Hartley, the Engineers Track, Grose Valley/Blue Gum Forest, Lockley's Pylon, Katoomba, Kanagra, Jenolan Caves and then back along the Six Foot Track, all up a few K's on the shoes!

A very touching location, on which i won't forget. Full writeup on Nontrivial #4 multi. TFTC!!!!

Found by geoson as part of his Duke of Edinburgh (Silver) hike. In his words:

After the steep but enjoyable hike up to I found the view incredible, after that it was a relatively quick find in a safer point than I had first thought it to be. I spent a while just sitting there taking it all in while explaining the concept of Geocaching to a few friends.

Geodad very jealous that he couldn't make it to this one - and thankful that geoson could put our name in a great cache (from the photos!) One day I will get there!

TFTC The Rats

Found whilst on a hike to commemorate fallen bushwalkers for ANZAC day 2016.

Excellent views of the sunset from the cache site, and equally spectacular views of the sunrise during the commemoration.

Spotted by cstebbings, the nimble navigator, on our trip to the Anzac day ceremony.
Well worth the climb as the views and ceremony were perfect.

Having missed this when i attended the 2014 Anzac Dawn Service i had this down as a "must do". Spurred on by Hoojar's comment that i camped within 300m of an unpublished cache of his on Saturday, as soon as i arrived at Mount Dingo camp i set off to find it. I was surprised to find a fresh (relatively speaking) logbook with no entrys in over a year. Signed and read the messages that friends had left in the past. The cache was in good condition and well stocked. Thanks for the cache in this magnificent spot.

Took a chance on the weather and headed out from Dunphys with a full pack. Brilliant walk around Warrigal, over Merrimerrigal and then on to Mt Dingo. There was no one there so I elected to set up camp and stay the night. Found the neatly hidden cache without difficulty, and then just sat back and enjoyed the views and serenity for the afternoon. The weather was perfect all day, a stark contrast to the soggy Easter so far.
Thx The Rats for a fabulous cache.
SL TFTC. Took GC & TB

Perfect day for a long walk. The overnight rain cleared and I left home at 5am for the 160km drive to Dunphy's. Been here previously a few times but never walked down the Carlons Creek trail.

Probably a good thing. The trail down to Breakfast Creek is pretty average. However....

Crossed the creek and started up Black Horse Ridge. Almost trod on a black snake half way up. He/she looked beautiful so I'm glad we didn't get any closer to each other.

I really liked the Black Horse Ridge trail and the Blue Dog Ridge trail. The bushland is so wonderful on those trails.

Reached the end of Blue Dog and climbed up towards Splendour Rock. Missed the climb up the rock and had to come back a bit.

Then I got to GZ. The wind was howling but that's just how it goes. I stopped to enjoy the place first. Read the plaque. Signed the bushwalkers book. Had some water and trail mix.

Then did the cache search. Stayed well away from the chains. Stayed away from the edge. Found the cache in a really nice spot.

Signed the log and started back. It took 3.5 hours to get to GZ. It would take 4.5 hours back via Wombat Parade and a bush bash around Mt Mouin. Then Medlow Gap.

Thanks The Rats. The cache is in good shape. Found at 11:33 am. Took skiing shaun TB, left Brony TB and Bunbury GC.

I've been out to this wonderful spot a fair few times in the past with Scouts and then for the dawn service a couple of times. With the long weekend, good weather and an itching for a decent overnight hike we set out. Camped at Dunphys Farm on the Friday then had the relaxed walked out to Mobbs Swamp via Medlow Gap where we camped the night in the cave to ourselves. On Sunday morning it was a nice quick walk up to the top of Splendour Rock where we spent another night.
I didn't read the previous logs so searched in some more precarious locations before finding the final GZ. Other cachers take note, there is no need to go near the edge! I sat and admired the views whilst signing the log before returning to set up camp.
Thanks for the cache 'The Rats'. Definitely one of my favourite spots and a great place for a cache to be.
TB dropped.

Definitely the most amazing location of all my finds. A very blokey set of swaps. I coveted the SES patch but hadn't brought any swaps myself. Thanks!

This entry was edited by artemidorus1 on Tuesday, 27 May 2014 at 07:48:57 UTC.

Great Cache. Great Views. Found this on our 3 day hike staying at mobbs swamp the first night and then staying at the cox's river the second night. Just keep in mind that you don't need too go close to the edge to find this this one.

We have just completing a 7 day walk from Yerranderie through the Blue Breaks via Lacys tableland and Broken Rock range and continued north to Splendour Rock and finish at Green Gully. It was day 7 and we had lunch in this beautiful spot. What a way to end a spectacular walk but with a spectacular view. Great spot will have to come back again for a longer visit.
TNLN TFTC

I left Dunphy's at 2:00am for a moonlight and headlamp walk along the firetrails & Kennell Flats track to get to the Anzac day dawn service. Lost the track a few times after Mobbs but made it with 15 minutes to spare. Saw Hoojar for the first of many times. After the service I went down to the cache to look for the geocoin I placed there on my last visit a year and a half ago. It's definitely been knicked

I came back via Warrigal Gap, and was overtaken by Hoojar on the descent. when I reached the Kennel Flats track I was very chuffed to see right at the track junction was a hat I must have dropped on the inbound leg. My pleasure turned to pain 10 minutes later when I realised I had dropped the jacket with my keys somewhere between Dingo Gap and Mobbs. I retraced my tracks as best I could back up to Warrigal Gap, then over mt Merrimerrigal. The scrub on Mt Merrimerrigal is pretty thick and I thought the chances of me backtracking exactly where pretty slim, just as I was abandoning all hope I saw my jacket on top of a bush turkey mound. Woohoo!

I then met up with some fellow SBWers who had also been to the service and tagged behind them up to find the easy way from Warrigal Gap on to the Wombat Parade. I left them at Blackhorse mountain, and went down down down down down Blackhorse ridge to Breakfast Creek. I didn't fancy the nettles on Carlons Creek much so decided to take my chances with Bellbird Ridge. I was a bit stymied when I hit the cliff line at Bellbird Point but eventually found a partial pass on the west side followed by a slightly exposed scramble up the nose. It was all downhill from there - I got back to the car just after 2:00pm, and passed Hoojar for the final time on the drive out.

A grand adventure . Thanks again The Rats - I think this is pretty close to "The Best Cache Ever". Also thanks Webguy for first suggesting I do this on back in Dec 2011. TNLNSL.

I walked in here for the ANZAC Day Dawn Service. It took four hours to walk in last night via Medlow Gap and dinner at Mobb's Soak. I left a birthday message for the cache owner.

Today we walked out in seven hours via Knight's Deck, Blue Dog Ridge and Iron Monger Spur.

Another fantastic walk in one of my favourite places.

As Jonosan's log mentions, we bumped into each other several times throughout the day.

Cheers

Bit late in logging this... But Found it! We were sad to miss the anzac dawn service, maybe next year. We had a beautiful three day trapsing around in the wild dogs! Splendour rock, what a view.

Chapter 2 of 4
Can't be done! We're the words uttered as I mention to an old caching friend what I planned to do, with this one.
I have to admit it was one of two sites I was quite concerned about.
But as it turned out we were able to drop a skid down long enough and safely for me to make my dis-embarkment.
I wasted no time going about the search, but as we had experienced most of the way here and back there was something strange going on with satelites this morning, and only after nearly ten minutes of searching did the gps decide to work for me, all the time my ride hovered nearby...

Finding the ammo box adrenilin pumping in my veins I could scarcely hold the pen to sign the log book, . good thing I had one of my trusty silver stickers close by!

I took some picky's of my adventure, and cache in hand, then completed the cache duties.

No coins or trackables did I see, and not concerned about swaps, I quickly returned the cache.. rocks in place, and it was time to make my way back to the helicopter..

Few people will be able to claim they found Fearless and Wild Dogs within an hour of one another!!
What a rush!

Now it's time for Chapter 3 Cloudmaker...
Not far from here as we have it anyway...should be there in 5 minutes!
Thanks so much for the cache Rats, well worth the effort however you get here!

We sure did pick a hot weekend to come out to Splendour Rock and we ended up walking a one of the harder ways in. We started at Dunphys and walked out the service trail to Medlow Gap. I must of been chatting away to much and we missed the turnoff to Kennel Flat.We pushed on and found ourselves up on top of Mount Mouin for lunch. It didn't feel too hot up there as the wind was blowing quite wild. After a short stop we followed the ridge down to Blackhorse Gap and over too the Wombat Parade. Thats where we started to feel the heat. The wind was blowing from the west which meant we weren't getting any and the air was hot and sticky. We finally made our way to Warrigal Gap where we had to make a choice. Splendour Rock or Mobbs Soak. We were desperately low on water having gone through about 4 litres each but we really wanted to spend the night out on Mount Dingo. It has been over 20 years since I had been out this way but I remembered some flat rock up on playground of the dingos that would hold water after rain, which we had had a few days earlier. We took the risk and it payed of. After topping up our water supply and having a cool down at the pools we trudged of to Mount Dingo to find a place to camp.

Rest and water is what we needed most and that is what we did. Many photos taken and it wasnt until morning that the cache was hunted out and rituals were performed. During the day we took our time walking to Mobbs Soak where we lounged around all day drinking water and rehydrating ourselves.
Day 3 had us wondering back to the car via Kennel Flat and the service trail. A great time was had but it would of been much more enjoyable if it wasnt so hot.

TFTC... we had a ball

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EM-r64L5Ko

A hiking friend of mine, who lives in Canberra and is about to move to Brazil for four years, mentioned that she hadn't hiked in the Blue Mountains. I asked her where she wanted to go and she mentioned Splendour Rock. How lucky for me I thought, there's a cache just nearby.

A few weeks later, with backpacks loaded (including around 12 litres of water between the two of us), we headed south from Dunphy's campground at 11:20 am. We took the route via Medlow Gap and Hobbs (Mobbs) Swamp, making a water drop on Black Dog ridge. With the Sun quickly setting, we scaled Mount Dingo and made our campsite on sunset (6.5 hours after we started). The tent was set up and dinner was had before we called it an early night.

The next morning we had a quick bite for breakfast, packed up camp and wandered down to Splendour Rock. I left my friend to take numerous photos of the mountains in the early morning light, while I ventured down to find the cache. Ah! A classic ammo can. I opened it up and read through the logs. It appears quite a few people other the ones who have logged online have found it. With my words added to the log, I returned to my friend and we headed off.

Our route back to the car followed the plateau from Mt Dingo to Mt Warrigal and down to Blackdog Ridge. Instead of taking the shorter (but harder) route north along Black Horse Ridge, we retraced our steps to Medlow Gap and up the service trail. With less weight on our backs, we motored back to Dunphy's in 4.5 hours.

All up a great (and challenging) cache at the end of a great walk, which contains a wide variety of terrain and scenery. Our only regret was not getting up early enough to see the sunrise from Splendour Rock. Thank you for a brilliant cache and a great way to break in some new boots.

Found the cache whilst on a friends green chord hike for scouts.
Lovely scenery, prime spot for a cache. Took a while to get there.....

TFTC

Great spot found while tagging along on scout green cord hike

After failing "On The Loop", I was determined to redeem myself with another good hike, so 2 days later set off for "Wild Dogs".

I picked up my traveling companion at 5:30AM and we got to Dunphy's and brewed up some coffee on the fuel stove about 6:30, then packs on and up the steep slope to Bellbird Ridge. We made pretty good time on the the fire trails, getting to Medlow Gap shortly after 8:30.

The walk along Kennel Flat was beautiful, still lots of birds around and the greens looked great in the gentle morning light. We headed up the track through Blackhorse gap and the traverse across the top of the ridge was really fun. We lost the track a couple of times but by staying up high and continuing SSW we always found it again.

We reached Splendour Rock about 11:30 and had a glorious meal and drink break, signed the public log and then continued on to find the cache, where I dropped in a geocoin. In the public log there had been several visitors over the previous weeks and many of the entries made mention of the nasty stinging nettles on the track along the creek so we decided to stick to the fire trails on the way back. We did however drop down Thommo's Chains and traverse back to Dingo Gap under the escarpment.

I was expecting there to be a turnoff down to the Mobbs Swamp track but we must have missed it. In the end we just followed the fall line down Dingo Gap. The going was pretty easy and we picked the trail up soon after. At one point our path was blocked by a 4ft long Goanna, we decided a short detour off track was better than getting too close to his claws. By the time we got back to Medlow Gap we were definitely feeling the effects of a long days walk, especially with the hot sun beating down. We wondered how long we would have to wait for a helicopter to land, but in the end decided it was probably quicker just to keep walking. The final slog on the fire trails was a bit tedious and we were very happy to reach the car about 5:00PM.

A great day out. Thanks for the challenge The Rats!

I have not been up here since about three months before I started caching... well too long really! This is truly one of the most amazing views in the Mountains!

Having been asked to run a Scout Leader assessment course for Bushwalking, I knew where I wanted to take them; here! I planned to head off track from Black Horse Ridge, up and over Mts Warrigal, Merrimerrigal and Dingo, and then on to Splendour Rock. Sadly I had over estimated the abilities of my participants, and we had to pull off the high terrain early and camped at Mobbs Soak (plenty of water at the moment).

On Sunday we got up bright and early and headed to Splendour, via the chains, just for something a little challenging. Amongst the ooohs, and ahhhhs of the participants who had not been here before, I turned on my Oregon, only to discover the batteries were dead, and the spares were back at Mobbs. This left me somewhat dejected! However, I decided that there was a cache here... somewhere, and I just had to find it. Thankfully within 5mins of searching I had found the cache. It's been a long time since I have let out a woohoo that big!

It was pretty cold up here in the wind, so my writing in the log book looks like that of a five year old But at least I can cross this classic Bluies Cache off my to-do list!

Thanks to The Rats for hiding a cache at one of my favourite locations!!

Two of the Best Caches we have found ,Cloudmaker and this Great spot! Had the place to ourselves after the ANZAC Comemeration .
Heading north to Katoomber- Traversing the high ground,but lost the track on Blackhorse Mt and dropped onto the main track
Thanks From The M SITE

Took TB Memories EJWTOZ (not logged in the cache?)

Found whilst visiting for AMZAC Day ceremony. TFTC.

There for the Anzac Service and released my first travel bug

Took a side trip from our K2K walk to check out the spectacular views from up here. The place was very busy with muggles (and it seem cachers) getting ready for the Anzac service in the morning, unfortunatly our plans did not allow us to stay here for the service this year and I plan to return for the service another time.

This is an amazing spot and I *recommend* this cache to everyone.

Thanks.

awesome cache in a magnificent spot. we had quite an adventure with the chains.
TFTC
Fimbles

Great location for a cache - Splendour Rock. Thank you The Rats. Fine weather for the hike from Dunphys Carpark - down Carlons Creek, over Breakfast Creak and straight up Blackhorse Ridge. Then over Blackhorse Gap and to the east of Mt Warrigal, over the top of Mt Merrimerrigal and Mt Dingo and over to Splendour Rock. Took the DVD and left TB #524120 from The Lakes District. Great day. Many thanks.

Up early in the morning, the moon all aglow
For I knew I had such a long way to go
A couple of weetbix and a hot cof-fee
The views are outstanding, as far as you can see

Out past the gap, turn right to the trail
Keep your eyes open or you'll miss where to bail
The going is easy, but such a long way
The GPS said thirty nine ks for today

Up to the rock and the cache was found
A spot of lunch whilst viewing the hound
Took nothing out but put three items in
Its great to see a full ammo tin

The bug it had stayed as long as it could
To travel with me, it thought would be good
Cache duties done and all the books signed
The way down the mountain, the track all aligned

Thanks to the Rats for placing this cache
Been forty years since I last visited this place
Took me 9 hours and a little bit
A great cache to do in one day if you're fit.

The weekend started with a warm, beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky, we walked from Carlons Farm/Green Gully Car Park/Dunphys Camp Ground (you choose which!) to Medlow Gap filling up with water at Breakfast Creek. (If you are staying over night at Medlow Gap water is must).

We pitched tents and had a very leisurely lunch before a side trip up Tarros ladder and Clear Hill. Back at camp a well earned dinner followed by copious amounts of chocolate was only topped by the huge full moon which came up over Mt Debert and lit up the camp ground with a wonderful silver light.

The following day started with a lie in until 6'ish. A bowl of porridge, and a quick check of gear and Tronador and I were off!
The track in is in good condition but some parts are suffering from branches growing across the track, but still really good going. Along the way we saw 2 definite sets of fresh tracks, one was of a wallaby the other set directly over the top was of a large dog, I dont know how that one went...

We stopped off at Mobbs Swamp and I showed Tronador the Camp Cave, then, back to the job at hand, we made good time getting to Splendour Rock. The gps showed the GZ somewhere over the edge so obviously a different route was needed. After finding the Spikes and Chains I had a look over at the first step and decided that the cashe would have to wait until another day. Luckily that wasn't to be the end of the search, and we found ourselves with a good lock and easily found the Cashe, after signing the log and reading the other logs we went up to the Splendour log book and signed that also.
The obligatory photo session followed, and a brief heart stopper when tronador tripped at the Void and left some of her bark at the memorial. As we sat and had lunch I pointed out a lizard on a ledge to Tronador who then got quite excited as another 4 heads poked out from under the same ledge a meter away, there must have been a family reunion!
Lunch and a big drink had us off again to Mobbs and Medlow where we decamped, the walk back was a lot warmer than the walk in and sapped a bit of energy so plenty of fluids and choccie bars were the go, and we arrived back to the car around 3.00m.
If you are going to enjoy the Wild Dogs and the cashe you can choose to do the lot in one day or you can enjoy it as an over night walk, which ever you choose you wont be disappointed, the views are splendid and the cashe is adventurous, well worth the effort.
Thanks Rats for this inspiring location.

TNLNSL

Cheers The Old Sod.

Another adventure out in the bush. We set out from Dunphy's camp ground on Sat. morning. ( after a little confusion on maps and a discussion I discovered that Dunphy's is not Carlons or Green Gully, that's another 1.5km up the road.) The Old Sod and I were on an overnight back pack with a few others and we were throwing in a cache to add to the adventure. We powered up the Bell bird ridge track until it met the Black Dog track. Then it was a 7km road bash to Medlow Gap where we set up camp, after collecting water from Breakfast Creek. After lunch it was a steep climb up Tarros ladders to admire the view from there. Back down an alternate route via Duncans Pass, which we all agreed was not worth it.Sleeping out under a full moon it was like a street lamp was posted right beside my tent. Sunday morning TOS and I rose at first light and set off for Splendour Rock via Mobbs Swamp, while the others had barely stirred and slept soundly. We had a cache to find. We set off briskly for it was still cold. We made good time, stopping briefly at Mobbs Swamp to admire the camp cave. After another 2 km we found the small track that led straight up to Mt Dingo from Yellow Dog ridge. Not a particularly well maintained track and very steep and slippery with many loose rocks and leaf litter. The best bit was near the top which involved a bit of a scramble up the rocks depositing us on top of Mt Dingo. From there its an easy stroll along the top out to Splendour rock. And splendid indeed. there was not a cloud in the sky, no wind. Just a picture perfect day. We admired the views briefly ...making sure to return after the cache was found. Off we went and followed a land of nooks and crannies, wedging ourselves through tunnels until we found a void. The spikes and chains are very interesting and intrigued us. But the cache continued to call. It was located with ease and retrieval was not hard but my flexibility was put to the test as I contorted myself into.... well I'll leave that up to the imagination. Let's just say it was a sight. Heaving and hoeing the revealing stone was removed and the cache extracted, squealing at being dragged from its home. An ammo box, yeah always nice to find a well stocked cache. We found the perfect spot to do the caching business and sat down to read the log book. It's too bad there have only been 8 cachers out here since it was placed. I took a look at the contents but hadn't brought any swaps so took nothing but left a SwissKiwi07 TB. Maybe this will encourage someone else along shortly to come rescue it.TOS returned the cache to its hidey hole and we went about the business of taking photos of a few other surprises. We finally surfaced and sat on top of Splendour rock to have brunch and to admire the distant views over the Wild Dog mountains and watch a family of lizards sunning themselves on a 2cm ledge.
Regretfully, we packed up. Not wanting to leave without the obligatory photo of the plaque I jumped across the void, tripped and landed splat on Splendour rock itself. Not moving, TOS didn't know what to think. I didn't move, not because rolling left meant toppling into a hole over the edge but I was trying hard not to mutter profanities at the pain I was in. I can truly say I left part of me on Splendour Rock. But I'm OK I told myself. The graze stung and the finger wouldn't stop bleeding but I'm OK.. I picked up my pride, took the photos and even smiled for the camera. Coming back across the void I took a little more care.We returned the way we came and arrived at camp to find the others had departed after their trip up Mt Mouin. We hastily packed up our tents and did the big slog with packs along the fire trail back to the cars. The hills oh the hills... I don't ever remember walking down hill on the way in. We made good time despite my moaning and were back at the cars 1.5 hours later. This is a brilliantly placed cache in a special area .Thanks Rats for providing another reason to have an adventure.

Finally, after wandering this region for over 20 years, I have been to Splendor Rock. The Wild Dog Mountains have been one of my favorite Blue Mountains escapes. Definately one of my Top Ten Geocache locations.
Took Bruno TB along for a visit and photo, but decided not to leave him there. Could be there a long time, and his owner wants the little fella to roam freely.
Took Altaires geocoin.
TFTC Rats.

After first taking care of some necessary number padding, this crisp dew laden morning found us at the excellent NPWS track head at Carlon’s Farm. The sun was catching the tree tops, the valley yonder was filled with fluffy cotton wool mist and the clear sky beckoned us hither with the promise of a sunny cool day – perfect walking weather. We’d opted for the fire trail route and this entails an immediate short stiff climb from the car park which gets one into the swing of things very quickly indeed.

Fire trail pounding is seldom overly enthralling, however this one is thankfully vehicle free and has some good tree filtered views on occasion. Rearing sandstone buttresses gaze out over their domain with serene indifference to all and sundry. The ticking of our clocks is of scant consequence to them.

The redeeming feature of fire trails is that they aid and abet fast walking and thus it was we were comfortably at Medlow Gap by mid morning. Here we bid farewell to the road and picked up the much more pleasant foot track which eventually deposits the walker atop Kanangra Walls – if one happens to be going that far. It’s a good track although we were somewhat surprised at a couple of quite muddy sections which we encountered en-route to the aptly named Mobbs Swamp. Last time we were through here the track was quite dry. The track up to Warrigal Gap runs shyly away just before reaching the campsite at Mobbs. We simply went up a nice open ridge which we thought a better option anyway than the track which we followed on our return. Whichever way you go requires a short steep ascent/descent.

Once at the top however it’s an easy wander over Mt Merrimerrigal and Mt Dingo with great views at times to both left and right. Splendour Rock is an outstanding lookout with terrific views particularly towards Kanangra and over towards Lake Burragorang. The cache was soon located and we carried out the duties over lunch whilst taking in the glorious views and simply enjoying the peaceful grandeur of this special place.

We thoroughly enjoyed this excellent walk. We took the picture frame and candle, leaving a USB stick and an unactivated coin. Great cache Rats! One of the best.

Looked real hard for it last weekend, U sure its still there?? could you give me some pointers to finding this one for next time i go out there for my second attempt to find wild dogs

10:16am
It's about a quarter past 10, and I am sitting here on a rock at the end of Mt Dingo, over looking some of the most spectacular wilderness that you will ever see. There is not a cloud in the sky, the views just go on forever and I am signing the 2nd log book of the day. It had taken us almost 6 hours to get here.

This was a fitting cache for my 500th find, and for Wing Nuts 200th find! I want to thank Dave Nut for coming with me on this trek and Dave Rat for placing a cache way out here where so few would bother coming. Oh yeah, swapped a bug cloth for a 4 way chuck key.

This is the short version of the log, the long version won't fit, so, it will be posted to my website soon: http://geocaching.diveoz.com.au/Stories/default.asp

A little while back Webguy asked if I would be interested in an attempt on the “Wild Dogs†cache, and so the adventure begins:-
We camped overnight at Dunphys camping area just past Carlons Farm. The night treated us to a spectacular thunderstorm over the Wild Dog Mountains, but the sky had cleared when we rose at 03:30 with light scattered cloud and some moonlight to help with visibility. After packing up the campsite and a quick breakfast, we headed off into the darkness.
We chose to use the longer fire trail route as previous reports of stinging nettles were confirmed by some returning walkers with rather angry looking thighs. The walking on the fire trail was relatively easy after the initial steep climb from the campsite and followed an undulating path until the junction with the walking track. The walking track was well defined and we followed it to Mobbs Swamp where we stopped for a break and removed a few leeches. From Mobbs Swamp we made the steep climb up through the bush to Warrigal Gap where we picked up a trail that lead to the pass giving access to the top. The walk along the top to Mt Dingo was pleasant with great views along the way. The view at GZ is amazing, and well worth the effort to get to this location. I quickly located the cache after admiring the views, but it took a while to perform the cache retrieval process. After Webguy and I did all the usual caching stuff, the cache was replaced and we commenced the return journey. The return route was the same except that we used the worn path down from Warrigal Gap which was very steep and slippery, much worse than our route up through the bush. We were both very happy when we finally arrived back at the car and were able to remove our boots and relax.

Total distance walked for the day was 29.7 km

This was a memorable and fitting challenge for my 200th cache, and congratulations to Team Webguy on their 500th cache find.

Took CD Case.
Left Photo Frame.

Thanks to Webguy for the invitation and good company, and thanks to The Rats for placing a cache in this great location.

With daylight savings just around the corner, it was time to re-adjust the body-clock and get on with some early-morning caching. Leaving home at 5h30 allowed us to start hiking from Carlon's Farm at 8h00 with an anticipated long day ahead. Walking down Carlon's Creek to Breakfast Creek had us a little peeved as some sort of stinging nettle was in full bloom and impossible to avoid - it only took about 5 minutes for our legs to be showing many many local swellings despite the use of gaitors.

While the light cloud cover reduced the heat from the sun, it did much to increase the humidity. The shortish climb up Blackhorse Ridge made us sweat like pigs on the spit, but once on the top it was go, go, go. A short while later, we stopped for a bite to eat at Mobbs Swamp, and what we'll never understand is that when a path enters a clearing or camp site, it never continues straight on through. Some serious bush-bashing later, we were back on the path and preparing for the climb up Mt Dingo. It seemed like the first real views of the day were from the top of Mt Dingo and they were really worthwhile. Finding the cache was easy, but actually getting our hands on the cache was something quite different - lets just say that I got so close to the rock that Mrs funigalo started to get jealous.

Once the logbook was signed (TNLN), it was easy enough to retrace our steps, but instead of braving the "stingers" again, we opted for the longer fire-trail route back to the car. This route proved substantially shorter in time and is recommended for future cachers. Also, there was no water along the trail and the 8 litres that we carried was just enough to get us to the end.

Overall, it was a great day out as we would never have made the effort to do such a walk to such a great location if there had not been a cache at the end. Thanks for that Rats.

With the beautiful clear night skies we been having it was time for some celestial navigation practice. So up nice and early at 03.00 and after a bowl of 12 weet-bix it was off into the ominous dark and spooky bush. After a few kilometres I realised I was not alone and it was not a possum that was keeping pace with me. It was big but not as big as an elephant and it was defiantly bigger then a possum, could it be the Black Panther?
Getting spooky isn’t? Here I am in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black with some creature stalking me. After 15 minutes of this I got a bit bored with whatever it was so I turned the tables and ran at it. Turned out to be a dog so I persuaded it to go bother someone else. Must be a lot of wild dogs around as I heard a few howling and never saw any wildlife for the whole walk.
The track around Mount Warrigal is a bit interesting in the dark it seems to be made of all that loose stuff where if you place a foot wrong it all collapses and you go with it. The worst parts always seemed to be near a major cliff or some other abyss where you would surely plummet to your death. Then dingoes strip your clothes, eat your flesh and boil your bones and finally finish you off by selling your clothes on ebay. It was funny walking back in the light the track looked quite safe and was easy walking.
I just got up the tail of Mount Dingo in time to watch the sunrise. The transition from night to day was just magic as the sun prepared to poke its sleepy head over the horizon the sky changed from black to a deep blue with just a touch of red. Then horizon was set alight going bright red for as far as you could see with this narrow band of colour topped off with a deep navy blue sky. As on cue just as the sun rose the wind picked up and was soon blowing a gale and looking west the clouds looked heavy with snow.
Luckily no snow arrived and I soon had the cache in hand and did the caching stuff and strolled back to which I had come.
While on the return disaster struck I had eaten my last ginger bear and was forced to survive on the two kilograms of banana chips and if that was not bad enough I just remembered Miss Nude Australia was at Campbelltown today sizzling sausages and handing out autographed pictures and I had missed it.

Passing TB through the cache

This was a very enjoyable walk with some spectacular views. I chose to leave the logging of the cache for another day. I didn't even peak at where it was hidden, promise! Here a few of my photos from the trip. http://www.uow.edu.au/~sah/photos/OutdoorFun/2005-05-SplendourRock/index.html