ORNP - Gate 14 (formerly gate #9) Blewitt Springs, South Australia, Australia
By TeamHurtle on 01-Jun-06. Waypoint GCW6KE

Found during a hike in Onkaparinga Gorge National Park, five caches in the company of Team Waldron and a further six going solo a little later in the morning. Enjoyed the walk in a scenic area, very happy for a coolish day. Noticed over 28 months of unloved on this cache, being well covered with a layer of dried gum leaves. Dug deep and came up with the goods! Thanks for the cache TeamHurtle!

This evening with the weather looking pleasant for some trail running, I headed to Onkaparinga River National Park to explore some of the eastern side of the park accessed from the south (parking at Gate 15 on Chapel Hill Road). I first jogged along the *Baker Gully Track* passing a few kangaroos, and seeing the creeks and rivers running quickly. I couldn't get past the Onkaparinga River along that track, so backtracked back to the car park, and then proceeded towards the rock climbing zone. I had been here a few years ago rock climbing with a few friends, and so interesting to see the facilities and stairs access installed in recent years. I made a final jog down to the river along the *River Hike* trail, before returning up via the Pink Gum Campground.

I had been eyeing off this multi-cache for some time, but it was just that much more further away, that I really needed a few hours to make this visit worthwhile. So today appeared to be that day. The various waypoints were visited, and I had a feeling where I was headed to fit the theme of this cache. As I hit the dam, I decided to make the crossing here over a few large rocks, and in the end, it turned out to be a good decision, as the track crossing over that creek was flooded, so I had to return to this small dam returning back over the creek.

There was only one waypoint that I could not find: the survey marker. I searched all around at GZ, and certainly looked around the area/vicinity. I found a metal post close-ish to GZ that could have had the usual survey mark is 0.5 m left/right etc., but there was no information tag on it, and checking around the ground area, all I found was rocks and soil. It could still be around there somewhere, and just camouflaged within the soursops and weeds, or it could just be missing. I had to make a PAF in order to get that information, so hopefully it is still around there somewhere.

I finished my walk up to GZ, where an obvious location presented itself. Checked quickly and no go, so expanded around a little. I then returned back to my initial spot, and searched deeper, and sure enough, the container was hidden after so much time of having not been found. The cache container and logbook were in good shape. Thanks TeamHurtle/Hurtle for the cache placement and ongoing maintenance. It was also nice to have found this cache with 371 days [12.2 months / 1.02 years] of unfound love since its last find on 21/08/2019.

What a journey, a nice walk along the trail collecting the way points l, had a bit of an issue with finding the grill but all made sense in the end. Made the short walk to GZ where the cache was found all in good order

After seeing a FTF chance pop up, down this way last night I decided to leave it as I thought some others closer may go for it. Woke up this morning at 5am and saw still no one had claimed it so off I went for a drive.
After getting and FTF I decided to do some caching around Onkaparinga River National Park.
Everything was going well under a rover crossing got in my way, decided to take the leap of faith and walk through it. So slippery I went waist deep. After checking I still had everything I discovered the car keys were gone! After searching for about 30mins in waist deep water and still no luck I had to give up. Thanks to JJ52 to coming to the rescue and helping me out.

TFTC

Thanks for a great stroll

Walked the eastern end of the NP today with a hiking mate on a crisp morning that had a mixture of sunshine and showers. Excellent walking conditions and good views in this secluded area of the park where we picked up 7 caches for the mornings 8km walk.
Grabbed the interesting info at the waypoints, did the final calcs and made the find in the first place we looked. Fav point for a fun multi!

I came down to ORNP in 2010 with Everlasting and Lava12.

It was getting late and this was the last one to do but I had to excuse myself. Now 8 years later I can finally put that series to bed.

TFTC

I met up with Froghopping for the first of probably many treks into the Onkaparinga River National Park on the search for those elusive smileys. It was decided we would start in the southeast corner and work our way around clockwise and see how far and wide we could get in a six or seven hours. Turns out we did about 20 kms of hiking and went up 120 floors of elevation in doing it. [B)] We got about a dozen in the park and a few just outside. Gonna take a few more trips. [:o)]
This was the first cache we set of in pursuit of. Even managed to find another cache as we collected the waypoints information. arriving at GZ it was in the first place I looked. Gets a FP for a great walk with some interesting waypoints.

**Thanks Hurtle for this cache. **

Well overdue to finally tackle this series, headed off with Brisal 5 for the adventure, walked down a damp path from the overnight dew, all clues were easily found and GZ soon calculated. Disturbed quite a few kangaroos along the way before arriving to find a decent cache at GZ, all in good condition
TFTC Hurtle

Cache is all good to go....
Happy caching....

Sad that one of the last finders, whom was GIVEN the numbers needed to complete this series, felt the need to complain to which one of the cache in the series is now archived AND locked which puts the whole series in doubt!
Sorry to those whom are part way through this great 10 year old series.
Disabling for now, while I contemplate Groundspeak's decision to not un-archive Sundews Ridge Loop Track, without which the final cannot be obtained....

After a long walk I was so happy to see the gate, I walked right past GZ.

A happy snap with the sign and back to GZ to sign the log.

This one is in great condition. Also awesome to see the original log book still intact and to go back and read through some of the names and comments.

Thanks for the walk Hurtle.

Found in 23/March/17 at 10:54 am

i was originally just going to the traditional cache close by but thought why not do this while I'm here. I started my walk just after 6pm and there were plenty of kangaroos out along the walk. All the information was grabbed without hassle. Lovely walk to finish the day. I'm now one step closer to the mystery cache. I just need the other multi to be reactivated. TFTC

It was a beautiful day for a walk so thought I'd give this cache a go. Got the information OK from WP's 1, 2 and 3 but took a bit to find WP 4 (it had been covered over). Did the calculations then onto GZ for a find. All is good with the cache. Thanks Hurtle.

Will get to this one and the others nearby asap.
They have been out over 10 years now for many finders to find, so time for an upgrade of the whole series.
All of the cache in this series will be upgraded/replaced over the next few months,
Then hopefully they will be all good for another 10 years.

We had been what seemed like walking all day and thought it cant be that far to find this one
So off we went to find the number required to unlock final location which we got there just as sun was about to set. A fantastic way to finish off a great day with good friends and beautiful weather.

out with jacknor and rod81w caching the gorge and ended with this mutli. jacknor did the maths side of it, easy stroll after climbing up and down the gorge walls all day. got to gz at dusk.

Out with the guys for a day of caching in around the onk, we was going to leave this for another time as the clouds were starting to roll on in. Jacknor did all the sums to get us to final GZ, water was flowing pretty fast through the barrier, arrived at GZ and found the concealed cache in good order and dry

Thanks for a good multi team hurtle

Day 8 of team Seffnjarah and team Mickjor's trip to Adelaide and beyond. After staying in Cape Jervis overnight I went off to do some caching while the rest of the team members went on a trip to Kangaroo Island for the day.

A 4.00am departure was made with the ambitious intention to complete the whole Onkaparinga River NP series in one day. Predicted 40 degree temperatures and strong winds were an ominous sign for the day.

A meandering walk among the country side in the by now stifling heat. Water bottles were being consumed at a rapid rate to ensure I stayed hydrated. Managed to find all the WPs OK but I did have to stop and think about how to best access WP3 as my usual preferred the direct route from a trail was not feasible on this occasion. The cache was found without any problems and other name was added to the logbook after over 12months of being unloved. TFTC

After reading the description properly we made our way along, collecting all the info as we went [8]. Got the info at WP3 OK, but couldn't get to WP4 due to the water flowing along the creek (our GPS was pointing OVER THERE) .
It was running a banker, but even though it wasn't roaring, after checking for crossing points both up and downstream, we decided it was just beyond our ability today to make a crossing .
Looks like we'll be coming back here again . . .

Another day hiking around the Gorge in the company of *Cache_or_Check*, e.gregory1, Gordon Patrick Samuel, Huurtle, Malco, MtnLioness, postiegirl06, The Tardis Trio and Tiger_Muffin.

The views were just fantastic along with the wildlife that we saw along the way.

Thank Huurtle for the find.

Found on another attempt-to-kill-the-lioness hike around some seriously steep sections of the most amazing views and scenery you'll come across in and around the Onkaparinga gorge with the usual crazies.
I managed to keep pace, kinda, with the other feline as a matter of pride, (heh heh, get it, heh heh) for about half the day but the hills were just too much in the end.
I wondered out loud in Tigers general direction if I could make it across the fly wire and thought perhaps if he could make it, I might give it a go.... he took the bait. I didn't follow, lazy lioness.
This cat don't like getting wet, I took the higher ground but the dew laden grass decided to soak my shoes within minutes of walking, so... oh well.
Nice day hiking with wet feet again anyhow.

A slightly modified Onka Octet was reformed for Part II of the Onkaparinga assault. With the CO and PG tagging (to make sure all was in place) we ventured down into the gorge (for the first time). Needing to cross a tributary of the mighty Onka each in the group did it in their own special way. The weir, by foot (socks and shoes in hand) or by rock. All across, we ventured up the other side to make the find.

The return journey was a little more entertaining. Mtn_Lioness challenged the Team Clown (yours truly) to shimmy across the river on the disused flying fox cable. T_M loves nothing more than challenge, so shimmy he did (somebody please post photo). The CO complained about the cold water on his feet but was soon told to harden up by PG. Love it! One step closer to our goal! TFTC Huurtle.

Mr Tardis went for a lovely day of hiking, bush bashing and moaning up and down steep terrain with some lovely views of Onkaparinga River and Gorge. Accompanied by a keen mob of intrepid explorers; *Cache_or_Check*, e.gregory1, Gordon Patrick Samuel, Huurtle, Malco, MtnLioness, postiegirl06, Mr Scoobster and Tiger_Muffin. I managed 15 caches for the day, mostly in or around the Onkaparinga National Park.

Around WP3 & 4 is a lovely place this time of the year with lots of water flowing. It's a shame that this part of the park is rarely visited.

We saw lots of kangaroos on the way down to WP3 & 4. For the day we saw 24 kangaroos, plus a koala, a two metre red-bellied black snake and two stags crossing the river.

After some more hiking uphill a cache was finally found, the log signed and stamped.

Thanks for the cache Huurtle. I hope this multi needs some more love!

Found at 8:52:00 AM



A nice day hiking in the park from various starting points. A great group to spend the day with.

Thanks Huurtle for placing this cache and sharing this area with us!

Up early for a busy day and a nice walk through the gorge - lots of roos along the way and very wet feet for most the group. Some of us were brave enough to walk barefoot through the river and others just complained LOL It's a shame more people don't visit this beautiful area. I really enjoyed the walk, the cache and the company, SL thanks bestie & Co from PG Hope to come back and visit again soon

Another gathering of the Onka Octet, plus 2 with one-third of the Tardis Trio, Gordon Patrick Samuel, Huurtle (CO) & Postiegirl06 joining the group while losing a couple due to other duties. The final group consisted of *Cache or Check*, Tiger Muffin, MtnLioness, e.gregory1, Mr Team Scoobster, myself, plus the above mentioned, making a posse of 10 cachers. The generous car park was brimming to capacity and the convoy of vehicles carried on during the day as we worked our way around the gorge.

With the CO along, we didn’t have much concern about finding, but we kept ourselves honest, working through the collection of data, to come up with the final coords. The path took us through very interesting features, with a weir and flying fox (which TM used to cross the creek) found along the way. Huurtle commented on how much the scenery had changed from when he first hid this one, a grove of bushes had sprung up in the seven years. The winter grasses by now were thick and lush and this morning the dew was very heavy, soaking everyone's shoes within minutes.

A beaut cache. Thanks Huurtle.

Still half asleep at 8am the Dozing Decuplet set off once again in search of Onkaparinga caches.

It didn’t take long though for the group to wake up. The dewy grass ensured our hiking boots were already drenched even before reaching the river and at the river the cold water ensured that any drowsiness would dissipate very quickly.
Tigermuffin though elected to get back into a sloth position, hanging precariously from the wire across the river. Amazing what cats do to stay dry...

Found with *Cache or Check*, Tiger Muffin, Malco!, MtnLioness, Team Scoobster, Tardis Trio, Gordon Patrick Samuel, Huurtle and Postiegirl06 on another great day out to grab a few caches in the Onkaparinga Gorge area. Always loads of fun and laughs - today was no exception and the weather was just perfect too! Thanks Huurtle for the cache.

Went for a walk in the park today, with a crowd...
Nice day for a walk....
All points in place, and the finders today had no trouble with the calculations.
I have adjusted the start point coords as the carpark has actually been moved...
Hope you enjoyed your day!

Coordinates changed from:
S 35° 08.975 E 138° 36.147

Coordinates changed to:
S 35° 08.994 E 138° 36.099

Distance from original: 265.2 feet or 80.8 meters.
Car parking has moved.

We set off today to find this unloved cache, and thoroughly enjoyed the 4.5 kilometre round trip. We were very surprised to see three cows and a young bull roaming loose in the National Park, they must have entered from an adjoining property.

All clues found easily, and we spent some time just West of waypoints 3 & 4 watching the running stream. According to our topo maps of the ORNP, the area around the fallen windmill is called David Suzuki Forest!

Arriving at the final location, the cache was found in the obvious spot, and we're please to say that all inside is dry and in good condition. We recorded the clue for the mystery, and enjoyed a nice stroll back to the car.

Thanks Huurtle.

Finally got the numbers sorted.
Cache is all good to go.
NOTE..... Start coords have changed, but final gz has not. Also calculations needed have changed, so make sure you got the new formula! Happy hunting.

This one is making a return

Found with sushilord while trying to complete the series in 1 day. There is now a new gate about 80 metres from the coordinates of the old gate. We found the rest of the information, but the new gate has different numbers from the old one. Luckily I had the bits of information needed from an old email, and we found the cache. Nice walk around the further reaches of the gorge, I'd love to see it flowing
TNLN
thanks

How confusing: Gate 10 is now not Gate 10, it seems that all the gates have been renumbered, but the gate numbers on the park maps have not been changed!

After looking at a number of windmills for the Great Aussie Icon Hunt 101 I took a punt the number of blades on the windmill and came up trumps. It was a pleasant walk to the remaining way points and onto Gate 9. Was it Gate 9 that we visited? We didn't check the gate number so don't know. Enjoyed the views from GZ. An amazing part of the gorge, well worth the visit.

Another great cache TeamHurtle

Lava12 and myself decided one more multi cache, we are real enjoyed ourselves - we couldn't find WP1 so call help and Team Hurtle help us... We found WP2,3 and 4. Beauty view and weather getting cool down and take our time - no rush.... finally back to car park at 8pm before dark... saw kangaroos... plenty to see... Worth to visit. Please see pic. SL. Thanks Team Hurtle for organising the multi and cache.

Accompanied by Everlasting. We must have worn Team Waldron out because he went home. We really enjoyed our long walk towards the cache.
Thanks TeamHurtle for the cache.

I'm not as committed as Lava12 and Everlasting.

Is this one still available even though its archived?

That's cos they are officious and don't read their email about me pleading with them to keep it active...
They don't seem to care that it IS part of a bigger series and that cachers NEED the numbers! Doh!!!
I WILL try even harder to get there this week now....

But there is a cache there to be found, so why Archive? It was only found at the start of October!

As there's been no cache to find for months, I'm archiving it to keep it from continually showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.

@ 11:50
I started this one way back on the last day of July when I went to WP1 and confirmed that where was still no 6 digit number visible. I emailed TeamHurtle and they gave me the details I needed from WP1.
When I saw the threat to archive this cache by the Volunteer Reviewer last Sunday, I thought I better complete this one before it disappears on me.
Late yesterday afternoon I found the the clues from WP2, WP3 and WP4.
It was after WP4 that I had a "blond" moment. I did a typo into the GPSr and just could not see it. It was getting dark so I had to give up the chase.
At home I straight away saw my mistake and the hunt was on again this morning.
This time starting at Gate 8 I thought I would kill 2 birds with one stone. I first found "Echidna Walk" and then went on to "Gate 9", not that the two are close to each other, but Gate 8 is between them.
However this did mean that I had to cross the Onkaparinga River which is not an easy feat this time of year. But I was able to find some stepping stones and reeds so I was able to keep my feet dry.
This is a lovely place, and especially so this time of year when everything is green and the flowers are out.
Today was a 7.5 Km round trip in about 3 hours and I enjoyed every minutes of it. Even the drizzle.
(It's only a 5km round trip if you start at WP1 and walk via the other WPs to the cache.)
TFTC. TNLNSL.

After a little help from Hurtle with missing WP1 it was an easy find . A great walk through this excellent part of the park picking up all the numbers for the final GZ, past a big track of burnt out land, a strange looking dam, a windmill that's seen better days and finally a gate in the middle of know were.
Great fun, thanks for the cache Team Hurtle!
Now for the Tatendi Hike!
TNLN

Email sent to the volunteer reviewer.

If someone else is keen to put one here, let me know, but you have to battle the workers at the start point first, hence the reason this is not online yet!!

Wasn't going to let the lack of a waypoint beat us on this one. Given the lack of numbers at wp1 we had a look at the numbers on another gate to get the format then used a few calculations to quickly come up with what should have been. An early start on a nice cool morning saw us at the cache by 0715. Really great walk. Thanks again Hurtle. Dropped in a gc for a quick visit.

Another I need to check out and fix!
Back up asap, for you to all find THE GORGE!

Where do I start? Well, we sure didnt start as intended @ 9am. Instead, we were at the listed coords @ around 1pm! Damn Friday night!

Firstly, rocking up to the carpark, things looked bit suss! Turns out its a new carpark compound with old carpark, GZ and surroundings all bulldozed down with couple of old signs laying around but no 6 digit number in sight! Grrr... I couldnt believe our luck!

It was Astro helpline to the rescue in order to reach Hurtle. Thanks Astro, but no joy reaching Hurtle. We proceeded to the wp2 hoping Hurtle was going to reply soon. That wasnt to be! We found all other wp's and were ready to proceed to the gz but we had incomplete coords!

Bit of logic, few guesses, OziExplorer and we had the cache in our hands soon after! Woo Hoo!

Took Hurtle Coin along to witness some of its owners finest caches!

Found at 1320.

Today I was on a mission to complete the Onkaparinga series. I nearly got there!

I enjoyed the walk in to this one. Thankfully the creek wasn't running very high, as the last thing I wanted was wet feet. I was surprised to find that I was the first to find this one in about a year. A bit of a shame really, as the views are well worth the exercise.

TNLN Thanks again Team Hurtle

Was out with Z and Z's sister inlaw in the onka's this was a nice stroll, not sure if shirley appreciated the "crossing the river" part of this one, but we all made it (without getting too wet and off to the final location .. nice and peaceful location ... I took the "italian" cliche swaggie as he would not fit in the cache (now to find a cement mine for him to travel tooooo).

Cheers
Miss Jane

Finished off today after a start at night earlier in the week.
Of course there is no way to gate 9 apart from the cache way.
Interesting area at wp3 and 4.
Found the cache and took photos of "Mario the Cliche Gnome" for the competition. He didn't fit so Miss Jane took him away.

Fourth cache of the day. This is the one that broke the camels back. And legs and skull and ribs and tail. Not to mention the hump.

Followed the waypoints to the creek. Hmm. Why has no one mentioned the flying fox and the necessity to bring the correct gear. Hopped the very slippery stones and spotted the hiding place of the cache from 70m. Someone even predicted the rock.

From here we thought to get clever. That is because we are clever dicks. It is a gate so it must have a track. Therefore if we follow the track we will return to the car. And miss the creek. Good in theory.

Wandered through a kilometer of farmers paddock to an easement. Down the hill to the CREEK. Major creek here. Contrived to get both shoes wet during the crossing.

Then up the hill to the bitumen road and 1.5km stroll back to the car. Theory not so good in practise. Doh. Should have looked at the shonky maps. However this is why we have GPSr's and it was a lot of fun.

Did I mention that it was starting have light misty rain by now. Beautiful views.

BTW Woohoo that flying fox looks like fun.

My legs were already shot. 5th Hurtle Onky in a day – I think that was 20 terrain stars!

Jelly pins, caput feelings and the arrow was saying 800m. The thought of the plastic box with the vital number had a magnetism I could not resist…

But we knew Hurtle was playing with us by this stage. 800 – yeah right.

We weren’t succumbing to psychological warfare. We plodded on and kept to the middle of the track. Clever dicks we were. The previous logger had that part right.

Counting windmill blades one by one was about as much maths as I could muster. Some counted sectors and did multiplication. Impressive. It was obvious who was the maths teacher. Our results agreed and we exchanged smug clever-dickish smiles.

Besser bricks are a specialty – we had both seen these before and reckon we could spot holes in them easily. But there was the matter of the creek. I was stuck on one side and did not want to risk the jelly legs on the one slippery rock - but I had to. The scout leader crossed with finesse. I had that “kid at the back of the pack†feeling again.

A log was felled and I walked across the stream without getting the feet wet. Better than the flying fox.

GZ was in sight and this too was a no brainer. Just as well. Even the cerebral cortex was struggling at this stage.

That's when things went wrong. 2 cortex’s were obviously not enough. You see a Gate and then you obviously think road. Obvious.

2 hours later we got back to the car. No road for a kilometer though…..We had dodged black Angus, roos, roo poo and big black Angus poo. Zig Zag non arrow style. The track log said it all. Not to mention the fences with no gates.

Bitumen at last. Learner driver day out here I think. They at least veered over the white line when they saw us 2 emerge from the wilderness.

I’m sure we saw the country side from angles not seen by many before.

TFTC and clear skies from TeamAstro.

I have always been fond of this sort of cache. A nice walk, a few waypoints and some interesting questions that make me look closely at what I am passing. And of course solving the mystery of Gate 9.

I didn't get to cross the ford, instead choosing stepping stones above and below it.

Rated: for Overall Experience

Nice to have a walk a little less steep, however we were rained on for the majority of it. Very picturesque in the rain though, although crossing the ford was a bit interesting. Interesting locations at WP3 and 4, and more roos than we've ever seen in one place at GZ! TNLNSL, cheers Team Hurtle.

we had a bit of fun with this the winmill tricked us

We did most of the Onka series back in July, but had the final 3 Unknown locations (and this one) still to do. With warmer weather approaching, we thought we’d better get this whole series finished sooner rather than later. This particular one was the first cab off the rank. Didn’t get to finish it last time because I didn’t have the coords for the intermediate waypoints with me. No such bad planning today , and the trickiest thing was getting across that little creek without going for a swim . Found the final location easily and took patches and left a resus mask, globe keyring and a TFTC card. This was the last one I needed to get the two penultimate caches. Cheers Hurtle. Have enjoyed the exercise immensely so far .

A walk in the park after Tatendi. Experienced cachers will have no difficulty with this at all. On the way back from Gate 9 take the detour across the river: there is a lovely waterfall just upstream from the confluence between the Onkaparinga River and Bakers Gully Creek. Check it out on the uploaded waypoint. Good hunting!

Unfortunately, neither my GSAK printout nor the download to my iPaq had the coords to the various waypoints; just the description of what to do at them. At the time I stood at the gate and thought "That's all very good, but where the @#%*# IS waypoint 2 (and 3... and 4??)I tried ringing the only other person who had found it that I had the number to, but it appears he was out caching and uncontactable [B)] . After I had settled down from my impersonation of Donald Duck , headed off to get Rock Climber. Bugger!

A very nice walk in the sun with views over the hills and plenty of kangaroos. Took our friend Annie, and both she and Mrs S managed to get their feet wet crossing the creek, but had a good laugh about it. The climb back took us a while especially as our legs were still tired from yesterday. TNLNSL So now we know where gate 9 is.

Started on 'Rock Climber' and since I was in the area just continued on to find this one as well. Bonus was another FTF in this fun series.
TNLNSL, Cheers Hurtle.

Dropping TBG's geocoin in to claim the points for the 'Fleet to Federation' game...

Published