HQ HOLDEN PANEL VAN Forestville, New South Wales, Australia
By antpadgem on 16-Jul-05. Waypoint GCPR6C

A revisit after a DNF in August 2023. Back then Mrs Gaztek was still recovering from a knee replacemen5 and was just not confident to make her way down to the levels below. JackScruff suggested a joint assault and we gladly agreed. Made our way to GZ using the recommended parking WP. Not a muggle in sight on the track, just a diligent man gurneying his driveway at the track entrance. Once at the electrical towers we took our time assessing an entry point and we did the same thing when we realised we had to descend further. Took some scrambling and care on slippery leaf litter but very doable. Suddenly we spied the former panel van and it has definitely had much better days. The view from the GZ area of the river below and the wooded hills is excellent. Now a bit more bush bashing to the hiding spot revealed in the clue and we sat and did our signing duty. Mr Gaztek was very excited to leave a Rolex watch in the container. Never mind that he bought it for a couple of dollars in a market in China and it never worked!And, so, satisfied with a good hunt and find, we headed back. And thats when the fun began. JackScruff spied a leech on the toe of her shoe. Before she and Mr Gaztek could pluck it off, it slithered inside through the tiny holes in her runners. OK, shoes off and lets get this little devil. No luck, despite valiant attempts including using the torch. Meanwhile Mrs Gaztek found one on her sock and then another one. Quickly plucked and shaken off and beaten then flicked with a stick, one of them continued to climb back up the rock to try again. Yikes! OK, JS, shoes back on and well check again at the top, Oh, no, Mr Gaztek found that leech, it had jumped on his hand when he reached into the shoe. Lets get out of here - quick! Back to the car and the gurney man was still at it. Leech check. Now Mr Gaztek has one of his own. He pulled it off and tried our tick spray to put it down - no luck! Lets go. Not three minutes later and Mr Gaztek found another one, on his thigh this time on the outside of his pants. Pull over! Out it went leaving blood stains on his pants. Whoa, thats five leeches. Driving home through slow school traffic, twenty minutes later and Mr Gaztek got a hat trick! This time on his calf. A quick pull over to the side of the road and that one got tossed out too. What an adventure! SL TN L Rolex watch TFTC but not for the leeches! Cheers Gaztek

I've looked at this cache icon many times over the years but just never got round to it, one cache all alone up here in Davidson, then the Pipeline Series was published. I came over here several times for a dog walk and a few caches on that series each time but never managed to get down to this one. OK so I decided an assault on it was called for.I read some logs. Well maybe it wasn't so easy and not something that should be done alone. I noticed Gaztek had been here unsuccessfully.So after some messaging it was decided we should attack this together.We parked where Martin cousins suggested and walked along the track. Finally a spot was reached where a descent into the valley was required. After checking several spots a place to climb down was chosen. At this point we did think we should be able to see the HQ but with all the new fresh looking growth from a couple of years of wet seasons there was nothing to see. Down we went and soon Mrs Gaztek calls out there it is!We examined the vehicle. There's not much these days to indicate what make and model it may have been. Then it was off to find the cache. The hint "funky tree". What makes a tree funky?Well the tree we chose must have been funky because it revealed the cache. On the way back up we enjoyed the views of the valley, until a leech was spotted! With very few visitors down here they must be desperately hungry because they were even climbing up the rocks towards us! So that's 2 types of slithery things in one day for me with a red-belly black snake on my caching travels this morning and now a leech squeezing into my shoe. Once at the top we contemplated the path the HQ must have taken to head over the cliff. Very satisfying to find this old one.Thanks Gaztek for accepting the challenge of a combined assault.TFTC # 5870

Found the blue painted black yoghurt, container, Spied the correct tree, somewhat 19m SE of GZ.The log is dry enough to take it in took a bit to get down here after the pipeline series. Love the cache

Out for a longish practice walk in preparation for the Six Foot Track so backpacks, water bladders and hiking boots on today. We tackled the Pipeline series and thought we’d continue over here. Really enjoyed the bush walk up to near GZ. But once there we really couldn’t find a safe way down to where we thought GZ was. Never mind. On the way back to the Pipeline we took a side path hoping it would lead down to GZ. Not far along we heard an unfriendly back ahead on the trail. As the dog approached we called out asking the owner to hold him. The owner did and was much friendlier than the dog. As it turned out the path took us back to the Pipeline the scenic way with lots of early spring wildflowers coming out. We’ll have a rethink before we return. Cheers… Gaztek

Sometimes scum dumping stuff in the bush can be good. Nature is reclaiming the wreck. Nice walk in Tftc. Tnln.

That was very very hard work. But we’ll worth it. Took several attempts to reach right level. Then finding the cache proved even harder not sure about that direction - or my iPhone compass is on the blink. Then I had to find the way back up. Also took several attempts. Log was very wet. Couldn’t actually write on it so maybe pen impressions in the papier mache. Have photo proof too. TFTC. TNLN SL (sort of).

Logbook very wet but still managed to sign it. TFTC

2 new nearby caches popped up and this one had been on my radar for an age so decided to finish the weekend off strong with a crack here.

Parked end of Cambage Ct, past the no entry Sydney water sign as others have mentioned and down the fairly well defined track to the pylons.

From here got a bit more interesting. Tried the direct route which is a terrible idea (especially solo) and saw some folk had mentioned to go west from the pylons. Got to a better level where I could wrap around the cliff and see the car. Needed to go one level further to get to the cars level.

Got my orientations mixed up wbcih made the hint hard, but cache was found in a pretty accessible location. Log is sodden but have take a pic of where I scrawled.

Overall pretty fun adventure - not too long, cache to car took 13 mins for me (680m) including a few stops to check for leeches etc.

A cool wreck and I even fell in a deep hole! TFTC

No bloody bush track on this one!!
Was wearing my good hiking today thank god!
Log to wet to write on so piccie as proof!!
TFTC

Nice bush bash to get down to this one, the log is wet beyond help. Picture is my proof

Bush bashed on way down….now let’s hope I can find a way back up!
Hint for cache…..hubcap

Fun and pretty difficult find. GPS bouncing around sending us off in the wrong area for a little while. Hint was helpful to find it! TFTC - a favourite!

We followed the pipeline then the contour. Saw the remains of the HQ and then a funky tree to have CIH. Twelve months unloved for us as a bonus too. TFTC

I read about this cache several times over the last few years, but somehow thought it might be (a) difficult and (b) not wise to do it alone. Today I came here with Brew, and realised it was not difficult, and very safe with no big cliffs or rock-climbing involved. Nice walk down pipeline track, then a sparse Bush bash to HQGZ or is that GCHQ. Found cache in funky spot. OCW Brewmaker. TFTC antpadgem

Well that was an adventure! Bush bashing and climbing up and down rock platforms. Eventually I came across the remains of the Panel Van RIP old girl. I searched a number of nearby funky trees and then tried 16 long steps which got me to the right spot. Such a great location. FP from me. TFTC!

Good bush bashing and some climbing but quite nice fun and a pretty cave.

Someone must have collected all the golf balls
I didn’t see one

Previously logged under team account BoogieRogue. Re-logging with my individual account. #Find#: 2130 #

Found on: 9 May 2019 14:35

Buddies: none

Muggles: none

Weather: drizzle

Cache condition: good



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Clearing up some of the unloved ones around work. Great little hike to GZ and the expected wreckage.

**TFTC antpadgem TNLNSL**

#Find#: 2130 #
Found on: 9 May 2019 14:35
Buddies: none
Muggles: none
Weather: drizzle
Cache condition: good

---
Clearing up some of the unloved ones around work. Great little hike to GZ and the expected wreckage.
**TFTC antpadgem TNLNSL**

Nice hide

Golf balls everywhere! This is close to the top of my GC.com hit list so while I was in the area chasing FTF on some new GCA caches for the Summer Scavenger Series game I thought I best give it a crack! Find the way down safely enough and paid respects to the worst parking job ever. Cache located soon after, now to find a way back up! Great spot, cheers for a worth while cache.

Find #: 1,407
Companions: None
Muggles: None
Weather: Warm spring afternoon
Cache condition: Good

My wife's aunt lives nearby, and I have often mused about finding this cache during quieter moments, but it clearly isn't a "pop out while waiting for the Christmas pudding" kinda cache. I was therefore determined to find it while in the area; I had spent the day at the House With No Steps as part of a Community Day for work. It finished early, so I decided to find some caches before heading home, and this was my second for the afternoon.

I parked at the recommended spot and followed the pipe down to the trailhead. I followed the trail down to the pylons, and then found the cliffs mentioned in previous logs. Hmmm. I headed west until I found a safe way down, and then headed back along the bottom of the cliff until I found the HHPV. I then followed the instructions to find the cache, surprised to discover that someone had visited earlier in the day.

I admired the view for a bit before retracing my steps back up the hill. When I got back up to the pylons I noticed a couch (!?) near the cliff edge, but decided not to stop for a rest.

Thanks, I enjoyed the adventure.

#958
Having just found Pipeline Pete, I noticed this cache was not too far away as the crow flies. But the path to get there are at least twice that far. Oh well - nice day for a walk. Followed the pipeline track down to the water and then followed a trail NW along the water until I met up with the Bungaroo Track. As it was such a nice warm day, I was very tempted to make a water crossing to Governor Phillip Track but extended my walk a bit further to cross at the designated rock crossing. From here, things started to look familiar from my Oxfam walk 2 years ago. Passed the pipe again and continued along until I was about 130m from the cache, where I left the track and headed up hill. Finally found myself at the panel van and after a short break in the shade took the required number of steps and had CIH. I think I stumbled upon some kind of secret golf ball farm as I found heaps of them lying around - or perhaps this was once a golf course???

Now to retrace my steps back to the car in Hunter Ave

TFTC

This was a lot more challenging than I had anticipated. I came in from St Ives and the walk was longish but pleasant. After reading logs I decided to start my bush bash at the same level as the cache to avoid having to descend and the way there was very clear and I even found a faint path to follow. Upon arriving however, I realised I needn't have bothered as the cliff was rather small. Finding the cache itself was really difficult thanks to horribly misreading the hint and an uncalibrated GPSr compass. I finally got there though. Unfortunately there was work going on the power pylon overhead and the serenity of the area was interrupted by really loud welding. I can imagine it would be a nice spot most days. Thanks

This one was great fun !

Joined the trail after climbing the pipe and banged to find the easy way down.

Identified the funky tree and made the find.

Tftc

#2806 (1 of 5 today) (Streak day 290)

A bit hotter than I'd have liked, but decided today was a good day for a bit of a bushbash - all the aches and pains from my Feb 29 frenzy. Have had one particular cache on the radar for a while, so thought it was a good primary target as there were more easier traditionals close by.

In the end, went for five and got them all. HUZZAH!
###END OF CUT AND PASTE SECTION###
This was the primary target for today and so went for it first. It's only a three terrain, how hard can it be?

Harder than I thought. Parked in the nearby cul-de-sac and followed the road in. Then past the fenced off DO NOT ENTER Sydney Water property and found the trail.
Went the long way until... how do I get down to GZ?

A bit of scouting around and finally spotted a way in from the north. Careful climb down and by the time the Panel Van came into view, I was sweating like crazy.

Had a look at the van and checked the iPhone. OK - closed in on the cache and... my phone went off. Geoson #2 wants to know if I can pick him up from the station in 20 minutes. My reply - no chance, and you're lucky I have phone coverage to tell you that.

Made the find in a logical spot - sweated all over the lid.
Completed signing duties and replaced.

Now to get back out. More sweating and took a shortcut up from the electricity towers.
By the time I was back at *The Hademobile* I felt more knackered than I did after walking over 10km down Windsor Road on Monday.

Great spot though. A favourite.

SLTNLN
TFTC

Been meaning to do this for some years and today we finally fetched up in Davidson. Straightforward find once we'd navigated a safe descent. All serene and cache in good condition. Took nothing; left a blue highlighter. Thanks.

First geocache! Lots of bugs in the cache (I cleaned them out).

Found after a great scramble down and watching a very inquisitive rock wallaby suss us out. The old van looks a little beyond help these days and must have made a big bang when it landed all that time ago to its resting place. Scrambled back up a different way which was a lot easier than the climb down. SLTNLN TFTC

Good bush walk, quite tricky to find

Great cashe. 16 steps south of the van, but it seems the funky tree has been lopped.

Found during a Sunday afternoon bike ride and walk around some of the caches of Davidson. Rode to second WPT then hopped the pipe, followed by a pleasant walk to the top of the cliffs. There is a safe way down around to the west and I wasn't taking any chances being there on my own. The old girl has seen better days and their is not much of a cache left. Still, its always grand to read a antpadgem rhyme. Many thanks - a favourite point from me!

Well what an adventure that turned out to be. We decided to have a go at this one after kids school drop off. Parked in Maitland Street, next to the playground, and walked down Davidson Track until we reached the brown (Water Board ?) building. Here we climbed over the water pipeline, found the trailhead (TR), and then followed the track down to the two power pylons.

Followed the GPSr to within 16 metres of the Panel Van. We could see it but there was a nice vertical drop (cliff) between us and it. Looked for a safe way down but ended up taking a path West of the power pylons which took us too far down into the valley. Worked our way back up and around toward the van, following the GPSr, and finally arrived at GZ. The poor old HQ Holden Panel Van looks like it needs more than just a tune up. Checked the compass and headed off to find the "funky" tree, and the cache.

No problems finding a log book, as mentioned by the previous cacher. The cache and contents were in good shape, except someone had deposited their empty chip packet and lolley wrappers into the cache. We removed this rubbish and took it back with us (CITO ?).

SLTN but in honour of this great Australian icon we left a 1964 Australian Penny, which I suspect is probably worth a lot more than the Panel Van is in it's current condition.

The way back up the cliff was much quicker & easier, as this time we found the obvious (correct) path that we missed on the way down.

Thanks antpadgem for this great little adventure, and for the cache.

Many thanks for fun adventure. Common sense and recent fires helped. A little aussie token left within. Detritus from homo yobbo removed from nearby. Rewards were beautiful views of bush, a wallaby and some self satisfaction. AH. 24/8/14

btw I didnt find a logbook?

Good hiding spot but what the heck is a funky looking tree?

Forgot to say i left the lollie

Great cache

Well hidden with good car/ tree hint. If near Sydney Water station/ cross over pipeline and look for the two power pylons and definitely bush bash down. Left a golf ball and cute Gomu - ate the lolly. Now to get out of here.......we are super dirty from charred trees!

I found et

This is brilliant.
i am 14 years old and me and my mates discovered this geocaching 2 days ago. We are in the school holidays and are bored so yesterday we found pipleline pete within 10minutes of looking.

we live around this are and know it very well, this geocache is near a track next a rock that we call 'jump rock' we visit jump rock so much in the summer and so we climbed down through the bush (not the recommended way) and found the car then we climbed down to it and i found the tub.

Another mate of mine lives right next to this bush and the fire here destroyed the area.

Anyone living in this area please contact me as i would love to talk with other 'Geocachers"

Thanks very much for this entertaining find.

Awesome cache! Bush-Bashed up from the creek track for about 30 minutes before finding the van. following the clue found the cache. Not many logs in logbook, but after reading the computer logs not many people have found the physical cache. Well hidden, TFTC.

Houston control found it looked good
we all liked it bit burnt from fire no box

We had been wanting to do this one for a while given its proximity so being in the area it was the nearest so headed off. Like some others we missed the first way point probably due to the fence around Sydney Water Building which hides the track. So we followed the pipe line down the hill and then realised the numbers where going up instead of down. We should have read previous logs and turned around to go up the steep hill. We did consider a bush bash but given the burn out we were not properly dressed. Once at the correct way point it was a much easier track and we soon got to a spot with nice views. A quick look around and we spotted a dry way down. That was certainly a big reverse park for the final landing. We found the tree and hubcap and tried to sign the bottle as a temporary log but the CO should really do a maintenance check. TFTC

This entry was edited by bella at waggy on Saturday, 24 May 2014 at 07:47:43 UTC.

We are pretty sure we found it but the tree has been burned out and sadly the geocache is gone. We left a little empty bottle bottle of brandy to commiserate. Simon, Jordan, Matt and Wes

We found the hide, burnt out though, no go box, hubcap in base still. Bush growing back, particularly the black boys.

Found it, nothing really left after a brushfire that's gone through the area. Still had a lot of fun, this was my first geocache and was a real adventure!

Well the area was pretty well burned in the backburn in October, the likely tree was well burnt out, including the hubcap in the base

SMH.com article about a bushfire in this area today - take care!!!

Hmmmm. I am thinking crispy and chard. Looks like I have to check on this one.

#2258
Well well well....after reading all the logs over the last many months I was trying to work out a day I could spend 1-2 hours trying for this cache. Today was that day, and I was surprised how fast I actually did it in.

Parked at the start WP and walked past the 2nd WP at the 'Bridge'. Did the same a KRS and walked about 300m down the track along the pipe till I read his log and realised I needed to turn around and climb back up that steep hill.

Crossed the 'bridge' and found the track which took me to about 50m from the cache. Now I choose the alfyboy way and actually found if your'e careful, you can make your way down the cliff going from rock to rock and make it down rather fast. Not for kids though. Got to GZ and started searching around. Found some neat hides and even a cave type place under the big rock, but nada cache.

After around 15min I read some past logs and got more of an idea of where to look. Went over there and made the find. AHHH! SL, TNLN and replaced it again. Yes definately quite a few metres from GPSr GZ.

I then made my way back and even Purplepeopleater would be proud of me with some impromptu rock climbing I did to get back up. Made it back to that car in under 1hr. Nice to knock this one off as it was the closest to work. Great little adventure. TFTC.

3/09/13. 7:40 AM. Cache #866. Current streak: 5 days. Ah, Mr Pipeline, we meet again. I saw you at Pipeline Pete to the west about a year ago, and at Pipeline People to the east, back in June. Boy did I do this cache the hard way! I parked at the designated P waypoint and headed west following the pipe towards the trailhead. At this point my mistake was in not getting to the other side of the pipe where I would have seen the proper trail start. Instead, I assumed the trailhead WP indicated the path that followed the pipe down the hill, so that's where I went. When I got to 200m from the cache, it was obvious I now had to head south into the bush but there was definitely no trail here.

So the topo maps on the Garmin now came into play and I followed the contours around to the cache; a sweaty bush bash in thick scrub that was at least going to put me at the panel van site below the cliff and not above, so that's what I did. When I got there I spent about 15 minutes in all the wrong places - has cache creep moved this over the years from what I would say is the only tree around that could be called funky? Resorted to rereading the logs and only had to go back to zargfinders' log to get the help I needed. There was the cache. SL and took the flatfoots Milhouse golf ball to add to my collection of Bart, Maggie & Smithers. Had nothing to exchange so will balance my caching karma by dropping something in for nothing at the next big enough cache. Returned back via a slightly different bush bash a bit higher up and following the power lines and it wasn't till I was almost back at the pipe that I found the fire trail. D'oh! TFTC }:)

We wanted a couple caches but are having visitors over this afternoon (and didn't want to get up at a ridiculous hour) so had to find some caches close(ish) to home. This and a couple others were the only close ones left so they were on the agenda today. This ended up being the first of two we found.

It was a lovely walk in (enjoyed walking on the pipe and then over) and then we ended up on a cliff. This doesn't look right.. Read a couple past logs to confirm that we could access elsewhere and found another path down.

It took us maybe 10-15 minutes to find the cache because the hint is a bit out. I'd add about 5 and have it about ESE.

Great bush cache though, haven't done too many good ol' bush caches recently.

TFTC antpadgem

I was coming back from Pipeline Pete. I found the track behind the pumping station - I had seen it on the google aerial photo.

When I got to the end of the track I followed the gpsr to 35m from gz. I was at the top of the cliff and the drop was very intimidating. So I went back a bit and found an easier way down then skirted around the base of the cliff.

I found the wreck and the cache was in the 3rd tree I tried. It was in excellent condition. I signed and the climbed back up to the track.

TFTC

Very Very nice
Cool Hiding spot.
Thanks for bringing me here
TFTC, TNLN, SL

I feel like Rocky. Walking back home now. Just found the cache. Found a few leeches too, though may have got one of them twice.

Found the pipeline track first then on my phone realised I was not going to get there that way. Had to double back and go round the station. Big cliff, wondered a couple times if I was in the right place.

I really don't know how you get a car down there but glad they did - it'll be hard to top that cache, and it was only my second...

Happy hunting!

Well, I knew from the previous logs that the key to this would be in finding the trail head, so I headed off along the pipeline with my eyes peeled. I didn't spot anything at all, and the waypoint was somewhat over to the left, so found a convenient spot to hop across, and there was this lovely big path! After a short walk. I arrived at the pylons and the cliff line. Scooted a bit to the right to find a way down and made it in one piece (although some sharp grassy bush thing sliced open my finger and the blood went everywhere!). After shuffling back along the bottom, I spotted the icon, and started looking for funky trees - there are quite a few of them, but eventually selected the correct one and there was the cache! TFTC x

My first attempt at this one was way back on 1 November 2009, a long hunt and a DNF. Today with a bit of time on my hands I thought it was time to try again, so I climbed back down the cliff face and along the bottom, straight past the van without seeing it and stumbled straight into the cache without even looking. It was just sitting there with almost no protection....
Funny how things turn out, as I headed for home I almost fell over the old van even more hidden that it was two and half years ago.
No sign of any TB though.
TNLN, SL TFTC

An epic cache. We came in from the bottom after finding Pipeline Pete, and having trekked a fair way upstream to cross the river.

We then followed the path along the river south of the pipeline but soon realised there was no way to the cache. Time to read the logs.

We then realised we had to follow the road up to the pump station. This is the steepest road in the universe. Any steeper and it would be called a cliff. Thanks to Yurt for his log explaining how to find the path - so following the exit gate on the lower side of the station we found our way to 2 massive power poles. Lots of gammas here. We headed straight past them and found a manageable route to the wreck by following the cliff southward.

This is the ultimate form of litter, isn't it, yet it kind of fits in as well as it provides a bit of contrast to the unending greenery and rock formations. We then found the cache after looking at the hint.

Had a great time and took the straight up route to get back on the track - lots of fun and a favourite.
TFTC

This one has been sitting at the edge of our radius for a long time and today was finally the time to go and grab it. So many times I've been in the area and it has shown up on the GPSr but I knew it was no simple park and grab so planned to get it right when we finally went for it. Months ago I looked at Google Earth and read all the logs, knowing that getting to GZ could be tricky.

Well today all that went out the window and we simply turned up and hoped for the best. Less than the best saw us at the bottom of the hill after following the pipeline and not looking at the waypoint. A very steep concrete driveway with grades of up to 20 degrees (according to my spirit level app!) took us to a fishing hole at the bottom where large fish swam around out of reach of the fishermen's hooks.

Reading the logs I saw that it was far too awful a trip to try and come at it from the bottom so we did the long climb back up the hill to the pumping station and started again. The entry to the trail is not obvious but when you spot the road runs through the yard and out into the bush you know you're in the right spot.

From here it was a simple stroll along the boggy track to the power stanchion and then down the best track we could find to below. Plenty of options with differing levels of danger. Once down it still took us a while to locate the wreck. This being a cache from the era when you didn't have to give the exact coords we knew there was more involved. The coords are the car and you need to move on as the clue says or you'll never find it.

Well I searched along those lines trying to follow the clues others have given about how much further it was but the direction was somewhat wrong and ended up too low. A PAF put me on track for the find. It's closer to the cliff than I thought and it was a relief to find it. I wasn't going to DNF this one and have to come back!

Signed the venerable log with a story and swapped TBs. Put it all back, this is unlikely to be muggled, and headed back up the hill.

Thanks! Finally this one is off the list! Life won't be the same.

I tried following flatfoot's guidance but found too many 9s. Still, it is good advice to keep heading down hill past the towers for a bit, and then spiral down to GZ, rather than attempting a beeline. Found the box of goodies about 18m SSE of the old bomb; I had -33 44.919, 151 11.635.
Took Echidna TB. TFTC

Not one for the kids, or those scared of heights, or if you are short on time. Highly recommended. Saw the biggest golden orb weaver and a small rock wallaby sat grazing in front of me for ages - until I took the phone out to get a picture

Been looking at this one for ages and has been the closest unfound cache to home for while. Kids are back at school so came alone to try to find it. Probably best not to do this one alone.
When you are twenty metres away you still have a long way to go. If you are standing at the lower power pylon look for the number 9 and enter the bush there for the easiest and safest clamber down -I only discovered this on the way up.

The hint is a bit off. South east more likely and those sixteen are mighty big steps in this terrain. Easy find after that though left coin and our calling card golf ball.

Tftc

This entry was edited by flatfoot&family on Tuesday, 31 January 2012 at 04:17:35 UTC.

Came here to find the last TB for Geocash. What an epic search at GZ. So many funky trees, so many opinions on what funky is!?!

TNLNSL. TFTC.

Find track by pipe. Check
Check satellite for hidden track, Check
Find safe path down cliff, check
Bush bash to car, Check
Did I bring a compass, no
Which way is south, a guess has a one in four chance.
Search for funky tree. Are you kidding, we have different opinions of funky.
Covered in soot, sweat and almost tears I have come to far for a dnf.
Eureka!!!!!
Now were is that tb I was after. Damn, that wasn't this cache, why am I here?
Oh well, I will drop off the echidna tb for someone else to experience.
Thanks for a great cache, don't want to know what you were up to to find it.
Cheers

Some people like hiding tupperware containers in the woods, others like hiding HQ Holdens

Wow - remote

had a hard time trying to find GZ after a look around found the cache round about 20m south east tftc

This entry was edited by angelo_g on Monday, 29 August 2011 at 10:27:49 UTC.

Dnf.will come back

Found panel van though.

Visited with Supalux on his second cache. Found the car but not the cache. We left geokids with geomum and geodog on the cliff, so didn't want to leave them alone up there for too long! Will have to come back and find it some other day!!

What an epic geocache. Started off by parking the geomobile at the designated start coords, but then due to a bout of over confidence, didn't read the notes as closely as I could have and walked straight past the trailhead. Not a huge mistake as the walk I took along the creek at the bottom of the hill was spectacular. Not so special was the walk back up the hill to the trailhead, but I probably need the exercise. Then followed the trail to within 16 metres of GZ, only to discover I was close but at the wrong level. Loathe to give up whilst so close to knocking this one off, I set out and scrambled down to GZ where I found the remains of someone's pride and joy, and began the search. After some 40 minutes of slowly loosing my mind, it turns out that the cache may be slightly further south than suggested in the hint! Success! A truly epic adventure that will remain one of my caching highlights for this year. Thanks antpadgem!

Find #1055 - 6 for today. Found on 5/06/11 2:18 PM
Took the walk in from the recommended parking spot to the trail head. All smooth sailing until I came to the high voltage tower. Hidden pathway?? Must be very hidden because I couldn't find it. Decided to scramble down towards GZ, zig zaging to find a easy descent. Eventually came across the "van" or what's left of it, still has the number plate on it. Now to the cache, this took some time to locate, going by the hint it should of been close by, GPSr was of no use down here. After widening my search area eventually located the correct tree and the cache. Now for the trip back, decided to go a different way, only a couple of easy climbs then a bush bash to the track. Still couldn't find the hidden track. Thanks for the adventure. TNSLLN

Finally got a chance to do this one after having planned to do it for many Sundays now. It was a beautiful afternoon, not too hot but not raining either. This probably would have been a simple walk-in-walk-out (with a bit of climbing) cache IF we had initially seen the hidden pathway that leads right to GZ. Instead, we (Scottmcb, athompson and I) walked all the way down to the river, had a lovely stroll along there, before deciding we must delve into the bush... Unfortunately what lay ahead was nothing short (no pun intended) of a tall cliff-face. Athompson couldn't join us with his massive camera, so scottmcb and I set off to find a way up. After splitting up slightly and finding our own ways up the cliff, we bashed on, only to encounter yet ANOTHER cliff... This one was slightly easier but required taking the long way around. We finally made some progress and discovered that we were actually too high up! (my poor GPS's 3 axis compass wasn't working ) So we scuttled down another cliff and there it was! The Holden! We'd found it! Or at least... we'd found GZ. Finding the cache from there shouldn't have been that hard, except that my GPS was acting up and so would only show direction if I walked a few metres in a straight line... easier said than done with huge boulders and trees littered everywhere. Well, after some blood from both of us (scottmcb took a nasty fall), I found the cache and couldn't have been more relieved. 'Ha', I thought, 'Wait till [athompson] hears about how hard it was to get to this one!' Then suddenly, as if out of no where, a figure appeared on the precipice of a nearby cliff. 'COOEE' it yelled. It was athompson, looking fresher than when we started. 'How did you get here???' I asked, thoroughly confused. 'I took the path', he responded. Scottmcb and I looked at each other in disbelief, and yet at the same time, relief, for it meant that we could take the 'heroes' exit from what had been an epic bush bash. Definitely a memorable day, cause as they say, the journey is half the fun. TNLNSL. TFTC!

Well this one was certainly an adventure! My partners in crime and I started out and began heading down the hill we remained optimistic that, despite the track twisting and turning away from GZ as it headed downwards, a path of sorts would eventually twist and turn its way back in the intended direction....how wrong we were. It seemed that that logic (which to be fair has more often than not proved rewarding) would not pay off in this instance and that we would instead end up at a much lower elevation than we had hoped with no clear path upwards. This didn't stop 'Joshua.Hamey' and 'scottmcb' mind you, with Joshua leading they both began scrambling their way, at times, vertically upwards towards GZ. I however, being a little more civilized decided to find a way to reach our destination that better suited my mood and headed back up the way we had come down. It was then, looking at my GPS, I noticed that GZ was quite close to some power line poles and thought to myself something along the lines of 'there must be an access path for electrical utility employees to access those' and decided to look for such a road...I found one...right back near the pumping station. I casually headed down towards GZ as close as the path took me and spotted my very battered and bruised partners, the look on their faces when I told them was priceless. TNLN TFTC

As I set out on the long-planned cache with Athompson and Joshua.Hamey we walked past the trailhead (not knowing this at the time) and went for a lovely stoll through the bush with the hope that the track would wind back around towards the cache... How wrong we were. Once we decided that the track would not wind back around Joshua.Hamey and I decided that we would bush bash our way to GZ while Athompson decided that he would continue with the track due to his large camera. As Joshua.Hamey and I set off for our treck to GZ we realised that the cache was much further away than we thought and much harder terrain than what the description said. After climbing up 2 cliffs, tripping on many dead, rotten branches, climing up vertical rock-faces covered in reeds and a few cuts on my legs and arms we reached the top the multiple cliffs. Checked the gps and my phone and realised that we were too high. So we worked our way around and found the holden. Then we found it! Oh no... That's just the car's mirror under some rocks and dirt. Which led to a huge spider about 3 centimeters from my leg. Then while searcing for the cache near a boulder the leaves I was standing on gave way and I took a heavy fall. Then, finally Joshua.Hamey found the cache. As we signed the log we heard a shout from the distance. It turned out to be Athompson who had back tracked and found the trail-head and had come our way. Which was a HUGE relief to know that we didn't have to treck back down the cliff and back up the track.
Was a good cache, however our path made the terrain a 5 difficulty haha.
TFTC, TNLN, SL.

This entry was edited by scottmcb on Friday, 15 April 2011 at 08:28:25 UTC.

Unsuccessful. In 32.8 degrees celsius heat wearing jeans and a t-shirt the search was cut short due to the unbearable heat. A previous log states they wish they wore long pants - good idea, just make sure you do it on a cool day as there is a lot of bush bashing otherwise you may die of heat exhaustion.
Also my phone's gps cutting out made the cache much harder. I think I'll limit myself to caches that definitely have access to optus reception.
I may go back for another go with a friend who has an actual gps rather than an iPhone. A better hint would be nice.
So overall - probably a good cache, just was too hot and too difficult with no reception on my phone.

This entry was edited by scottmcb on Thursday, 10 February 2011 at 01:31:02.

Why bother finding a way down from above, when you can bush-bash in from below?
Hmmm... After that experience, I think I'll recommend the official route!
I came here from 'Pipeline Pete', and 'enjoyed' the trek up and back down the hill.
Why, oh why didn't I wear long pants today?? I could hardly see my hand in front of my face (I think the vegetation has enjoyed all the recent rains),
and it was difficult to find a place where one could see those helpful artificial stars! I had to dead-reckon my way and keep an eye open for a likely Holden Dive location.
TFTC... my last for 2010?? We'll see!

Decided to combine a post-xmas run with a bit of caching and thought I'd try my way up from the trail along the river. I can definitely not recommend trying it this way as it was quite thick bush. Eventually got near the GZ but was too keen with the climbing and found myself on top of the cliff. Rain had started and it looked a bit scarier going down than up, so decided to leave for another day. I'll be back...

Quickly got to a spot where we could see the old girl,but getting down to her was another story. Some 30 minutes later after some nail biting climbing we were down to the GZ. Found the cache fairly quickly thanks to the hint. Liberated "Special Agent 006" geocoin.

Found long ago.Our log seems to have been lost

Our SMTBP Special Agent 6 USA Geocoin is in this cache.
it was logged out by mistake just a few days ago. We have straighten everything out, and now placing it back in the inventory of this cache. Sorry for the extra log / email

Lost Scouts

Stopped off at the cache to drop off a TB that I have had for too long. I gave the cache a good clean out and also dropped off a few toys replacing a few of the worthless items that were in the cache. The lid is not closing as well as it should but apart from that it is dry and in good condition. Even though we had done this cache a few years ago, it still too us a while to work out how to get down to it and about 20 minutes to locate it.

We had some directions from Ruffas' on this one, but missed the vital turnoff on the way in from the east, and ended up bushbashing our way across from the creek.
If you come in from the east, climb over the pipe immediately past the pumping station, next to the chainlink fence, this will put you onto the track towards the cache.
Once on site, we had some discussion on what was the right way to pace out the steps to the funky tree, but soon got to GZ. Satanas66 claimed the first to find for us here today.
Thanks for the 'fun' we had at this one.

TheHunterGatherers were visiting Captain Paul, and needed some late afternoon exercise before starting our evening of eating and drinking. Found the HQ quickly and easily, but getting to it was a little harder. After a short search (and refering to the clue) the goods where in hand - The Captain's first ever find. The cache is still in good condition. TNLN. Thanks antpadgem.

Rated: for Overall Experience

This is the second closest Cache to home by road and has been on the cards to do for a very long time. First we headed down to Pipeline Pete but missed the tide and could not cross the stepping stones, so then we headed back up to the Panel Van.

After reaching 20m from GZ and tackling the climb down the cliff we assumed that the rest was going to be easy. One down with the Geowife not wanting to tackle the climb, three of us set about the search. Using the clue we were not sure quite which tree to go for so went for them all. The GPS insisted we were within 4m of GZ but could we find any sign of a cache within half an hour? NO....

So after two complete failures it was back home a little dejected but few beers and a barbie soon perked us up, I guess life isn't that bad.

With only a 2 minute drive and a 5 minute walk I will be back again to find this one!

It's times like these I wish I had of read the previous logs before attempting this one but hey what's the fun in that. Started my way down from the top following the pipeline to the creek then along the track thinking that there must be a pathway leading back up to the catch. With a 140m to go I realized this wasn't gonna happen.
So up I went on one of those epic bush bashes climbing and stacking all the way to the top ( board shorts and singlet not recommended). Spotted the cache without looking for it as the gps was still saying 20 more meters then i saw the HQ. Did the caching duties and thought there must of been a easier way out but didn't want to risk it so tumbled and slid back down to the water. With legs and arms bleeding I though I may as well give pipeline pete ago so across the river i went.
Thanks Antpadgem these are the caches I remember and like the most and is the reason why I started caching.

definitely needed the clue for this as GPS was way out. Some ants had made a home in cache. TFTC TNLN SL

After an aborted attempt with the North St Ives Venturers a couple of weeks ago, I was determined and prepared to get this one. Of course I didn't read all the logs so I bush bashed my way to the GZ, and even had a swim (which was actually nice as temps were soaring today).

Found after a long search of multiple funny looking trees. Great hide, and I love the hubcap.

Took glass easter egg, Left Commemorative 50c piece. Found the easy way home.

We had a good ol' bush bash to this one, starting from the south and somehow working our way up. After much grunting we made it to the point but then came the fun on finding the cache. Just when we were about to give up the other bunnie spotted the hiding spot and we triumphantly stomped home on a much easier track to the west. Were rewarded with 3 ticks discovered later on our flight back to Melbourne . Thanks for the adventure.

What a cracker, may I just say ruffasgutts4x4 I am glade that:
1. you are safely home (ignoring the attention you received from the lady of the house - the pain goes, I should know) and
2. that my cache is responsible for what will probably be a much remembered experience......sorry.
I am sure you know, but when you lay a cache, you have all the right intentions...........until someone else tries to find it. This cache has certainly been the thorn in many a side. For those less adventuresome, a track leads pretty much to this one – but where’s the fun in that, eh ruffy?
Thanks heaps for adding to the caches tradition and the effort you put in. See you out in the middle of the bush somewhere or the waiting room of a marriage councillor. ANTPADGEM

This is the story of how to completely blunder a cache find and then just about stuff up the trip back as well.
2:15 PM I'd just knocked over 2 quick nearby finds and decided I had enough time up my sleeve to knock over another 'quicky' before I was due home to look after the other two of our tribe until their Mother arrived home. We parked at the beginning of a fire trail on Koola Avenue and then followed it down for one hundred metres or so before spotting a likely way towards our destination, beauty only 430 M to go!
No we cant go that way we'll work our way back where we we've just come from and see what comes up. 'Hang on there thats the way' we spied a way down to the bottom of the bushy cliff line we were on and then made our way down, after about 20 minutes walking we found ourselves at an unexpected creek there we saw a small tinny wharfed, and shortly on a couple wading through the below knee high water, "come on hurry up" they said "were not piggy backing you across!" and so it was that I piggy backed my Geoson across the creek and never got the water above my knees!
However once across we still had 150 odd metres to cover.
We followed the track around heading East but it quickly became apparent that this would not lead us to the prize.
There was only one thing to do, we'd have to bash it 140 metres and 45 degrees up there! So my 7 year old geoson boldly followed in my footsteps and we slowly but surely made our way to the cache. Yep it's certainly a HQ though the interior light was the same as that in my old mans HZ?
Perhaps it's not! Anyway the caching duties were done shortly after and we dropped a coin. No swaps! see write notes following.

We decided after what we had just been through there was no way we were going back down that cliff line(not to mention going up the other side) We made our way up and eventually found a fire trail which bought us out at a reserve eventually. We refilled our water bottles and rang a friend to hopfully bail us out, what's that your still at work!
Take a Ruffasgutts4x4 pill and never let work get in the way of caching time! Anyway we tried to arrange a Taxi from the reserve back to the car but there was no way of knowing just how long we'd wait for one so I opted to make our way back via the way we came in, how hard could it be? At least this time the hard part was all down hill!
So we bashed it down to the creek again but this time an unexpected thing occurred! The water had risen and we could not get back across, sorry mate we'll just have to leg it up stream till we can cross. Now 5:00 PM we made our way upstream and after about what seemed like 1 to 1.5 k's we found a spot where some fisherman were trying their luck, and for us a spot to finally cross the creek!
We made our way across and headed back down to where we expected to make our way back up to the car (incidentally a Holden Panelvan) However after a while we went back underneath the water pipe and noted that another creek flowed out from our right hand side. Bugger now what that can't be crossed. Oh well we'll follow the pipeline up to the road I've done this cache by 2dogs already so was well aware of where I was. So made our slow but ever forward accent to the road. Now we had another problem despite being back on a road we still had one hell of a trip back to the car, Maybe just maybe a caching friend can rescue us?
Thank God we have a guardian angel in the Wandering Wilko's
after a short wait he arrived with beverages and sweets for the geoboy! And so at 6:30 PM we were picked up and shipped back to our waiting car, Thanks SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Much for your help Wandering Wilko's We still would not be home if not for you. Let this be a lesson to all would be cachers the "crow flies" way is not always the best way and most of all keep a close eye on tides, I never thought it would come this far inland but what a saga it ended up.
At least we got the cache! Thanks for bringing us here (I think). P.S may be the last cache for a while at least until the beatings from the geomrs have worn off. Cheers!

I left the geokids and the GPS at home and headed back to look for the cache after work. It was 3rd time lucky! It's amazing how fast those spiders build their webs, but there were some big ones on route even though Antpadgem had been the same way the day before. Getting down to GZ is reasonably easy from the top of the rock face if you stand back and plan your route. This time, once at the car, I widened my search and found the cache within 10 minutes. The route back to the top of the rock face was a little more challenging. I'm sure that there must be an easier way, but the sun was setting and I wanted to make sure that I made it back before it got dark. This is definately a challenging cache and well worth the effort especially now, thanks to the trail head co-ords, that bush bashing is no longer part of the criteria! Thanks Antpadgem....

Ok infamous Five, you got your wish. I have made this a little easier for you. No bush bashing required. All you have to do is figure out how to get down. Probably best to leave little uns up top - Cache is still there waiting for you. PS I even removed all the spider webs for you....the hard way

Yet another DNF on this one. Bush bashed for over half an hour to reach GZ as the trail head is by no means obvious. Searched for almost an hour using the clue but alas no cache. There were signs or recent muggle activity in the area so I think that we will wait for the next confirmed find before trying again. Maybe it's worth recording the trail head to make this cache a little more accessable!

What a great cache. A real challange and test of your orienteering skills. Tried from below on another occasion but decided decretion was the better part of valour especially with the younger cachers in tow. Today armed with map and compass as well as GPS I still took two false attempts before finally being able to grab the goodies. At one stage 16m from the target I could not see the car and had to reconsider the route. As usually happens once the cache had been reconcealed it took less than 5 minutes to reach a main track and less than 10 to the car! How had I wasted so much time scrabbling and bush bashing away earlier. Left Romina the Beetle Bug. A mini VW volkswagon. Seemed appropriate but hope the same fate doesn't occur to it as to the Holden!! Took a US Quarter Dollar since Goerge W is in town.

Found the car and the cache after approach from below - there is probably a better way. To get out we kept the altitude going around the corner, and soon came on to the pipeline and the road.
TFTC. Took frog 'Kermit', left screw driver. It might come in handy to fix the car.

We got this one on the second attempt. Like others we got stuck about 80 metres from GZ. Went to the horse’s mouth for some guidance and was told of a very easy way in. To think we bush bashed for a hundred metres whilst there was a track nearby.
Found many funky trees before finding the right one. The last Cacher left the lights of the HQ on so now the battery is flat as well as the tyres.

Left: Prime Mover
Took: Key Ring



TFTCSL

Another one of Antpadgen's caches where we got to within 450 feet of but no closer. First tried to approach it from the top end and could not find a trail so decided to take the Davidson track down to the main trail where we got to within 500 feet of the cache but could not find an obvious way up to it. On my own I would probably have bush bashed but it's not such a good idea with a five year old in tow. However, the walk along the river way very enjoyable and definately recomended.