Noah's Ark Sutton Forest, New South Wales, Australia
By 0319 on 01-Oct-06. Waypoint GCYM62

yep its moved
http://www.southernhighlandnews.com.au/story/2593624/across-the-river-sex-plovers-rabbits-and-that-yacht/?cs=262

sent you a message

Just received info, the yacht is STILL in the forest, she's moved :-p

Do you know where?

so whats the story with the old girl, has she been moved or been nicked for scrap metal?

just interested to know any more details

the mozzies

Nicked for Scrap is the best bet. had a lead keel..

On my way down to Melbourne for a nurses conference I dropped by here, and spent from 1810 to 1845 looking for it. Being in the dark I couldn't see if the steel hulled boat was still in the area - tho obviously now I know it had moved on. I did see a very cute little mice hiding away in a hole of the stump. Also had a couple of rabbits try to commit 'hare kari' under the car on the way in, with a wombat rushing off the road on the way out. So it wasn't wasted.

Ok are going to archive it. The cache will be replaced with a
"memorial" cache at or near the original location soon.

Please take note, the Ark is no more. Noah has left the forest!!

Traditional Caches MUST be at the listed coordinates and as this one is obviously not then it should be disabled until you find out where it is.

If you are going to take longer than 4 weeks to sort this out then add a note in 4 weeks and I will not action it as a > 4 weeks disabled cache.

Hmm, not sure this new chapter in "The Ark's" interesting history is quite worthy of a "needs Archive" log at this stage. A read of the logs will show that it has been on the move before and found at some new location. So for now I will make a few changes, but not archive it.

One additional catch is that even if I mark it as disabled then people stop looking for it. I may be going to Sydney in a few weeks, so will see what I can sort out. In the meantime I will change the hint and the cache name to reflect the current situation.

Please confirm if this is in place no longer anywhere near GZ

Went back to this one again and this time in the daylight. With 3 GPS' this time all leading us to exactly the same coords for GZ. As the last person who wrote a note said it had moved down the hill even though they had not been there themselves and had no knowledge of if it was even there. We drove around the tracks for a while near GZ travelling up to 1 km or more in each direction. This is no longer anywhere near GZ. This cache needs to be archived until the yacht is located and new coords updated. A second wasted trip out here. Please confirm if this is still in place or if it has been moved.

Noah is on the move!! My parents returned home after a mountain bike ride through the forest and told me she's been moved yet again. The last post mentioned "trail clearing". Trust me, my parents help with the regular trail clearing and they wouldn't move her for that. She's a bit on the heavy side!! What you see isn't clearing, it's the path that the Ark left. There's tractor marks and drag marks. Locals in town think someone might be getting her ready to steal her for scrap metal.

If you arrive at GZ turn right (down the hill) and she's about 200metres down. But this was last week so she might have already gone. I'm not sure how the cache"s" have survived the trip because she's no longer standing up. And I actually haven't found them before so there's no point me checking!! Maybe someone who has found them before can check.

Well after a slow and steady drive into the forest in the dark with lots of wildlife around everywhere we looked, we ended up at GZ to find absolutely nothing no big steel hulled ship. We wandered around the tracks hoping to find something that stood out like a ship with no luck. Not sure if this has moved again nothing even close that looked like a boat. Will have to go back in the daylight when we are not using torches to see if it can be located. Hopefully the recent trail clearing they have done at ground zero hasn't caused them to remove the boat

Thanks to Jabiru62 the nano now has a new log.

Quite a drive out through the tracks and then there it is. I found the camo colored nano on top and signed log. Interesting story here. TFTC

As notes in the previous find there are two caches, how this happened is rather a long story. There is a Nano above decks and a Small below decks..

If someone has a scroll for a nano and is passing by would really appreciate it if you could replace it.

Was in the area investigating some potential camping sites, so it seemed appropriate to go the extra kilometer to find this cache. A quick scramble and a cache was soon in hand (the one we found was a nano not located inside the hull.)

TFTC
Cheers
Odlid Dave

Definitely the caching highlight for today!

Thanks to Odlids for navigating straight to GZ and I surprised myself by locating the cache very quickly!

We found it odd that no one had mentioned that the log was full! However, on further investigation we found that Bug-Juice mentioned the log being full back on 24/2/12 and interestingly no one has signed this log since then! We wondered how many caches could be on the ‘ark’, 2 would be appropriate, we think!

We replaced the log with a new one and signed it. The mystery continues......

To all involved TFTC/s! A favourite from me!

Found it after a quick search! Nice hide! TFTC! Pretty spooky at night!

Spent almost 20 mins inside the Ark looking for the container but no luck. Pretty messy inside from people throwing their rubbish inside. Will try again the next time I am 4wdriving in the forest.

A pretty straight forward find and thanks to Mrs aspitbiker reading the map well the drive in was easy enough. Trouble was Mrs aspitbiker then managed to accidentally delete the pictures! Definitely an amazing sight and well worth a visit to. TFTC

Omg sooo many roads in this forest, after driving around and around I wasn't giving up and finally found it... Driving directions from Goulburn took us bush right thru the forest from wingelo/ Penrose...instead if following instinct and entering from the highway to rest area as I wanted I thought the driving instructions would know best... In the end we did enter from the rest area and found it from there. Interesting find, such a shame it's history is unclear as to its arrival in the forest .

Found it, thought it would be a great place for a container to be here to leave treasures in.

Found on a day out caching with Chickhen TFTC

What a adventure for the grand kids though

Did not find

lots of trails, no way you would find it with out a good GPS unit, we got bang on the money with our Garmin. If its been raining dont attempt this with a 2WD cachers, 4WD no probs.

What a shame seeing this old girl on dry land and in a forest.

The mozzies

Found it last night, but it got too dark for a proper look, and very creepy!! Fun drive, and what an awesome boat!!

Don't think I can fit 2 of every animal in there.
Now to turn my car around...

This entry was edited by Noodles22 on Tuesday, 07 May 2013 at 08:27:58 UTC.

This is my 200th cache! Yay!

In lieu of a real hint, I will just say the rewards come to the brave!

How about a hint?

To all who try to find this cache, do not use Google maps to locate. We tried Google maps and it told us to go along Sally's Corner Road off the Hume Highway, and we ended up on someone's Private Property, near a hobby winery. Even the mapping system on the mobile smart phone said the same thing.

The cache is actually on Stingray Rd, which is an old forestry goat track in Penrose State Forest. I did some checking and there is very poor satellite reception down amongst the forest trees and the deep gullies in the area, so any form of mapping system won't be very accurate.

The only real way to get to this cache is to enter the Remembrance Drive - Kingsbury ( off the Hume Highway ) rest area and follow either Penrose State Forest Road, or back track the entire distance of Stingray Road, into the deep forest, and towards the edge of the Bungonia gorge and Bundanoon gorge.

We ended up not doing this cache, because of the wasted time, having to back track. The cache is doable, just not using the mapping system in your smartphone. Even the compass has trouble locating the site.

Hope this helps and informs.

Nope. GPS (good fix) took me about 5m S of the ark. Nothing there as far as I could see and without much time or a hint Ive left this one for another time.

My mum mountain bikes through this area so we went searching on this very hot first day of summer. I climbed all through the yacht and had a thorough look but no luck. We had our dog with us and were informed by the local residents the whole area has been baited so be careful with your geo dogs. Disappointing we couldn't find the cache but the yacht is pretty cool to see. To the local mountain bikers it's actually known as the yacht club.

Over the years I have driven past this forest more times than I can count. So on my way to Sydney this trip, I took time off to visit this cache which has been on my to do list for sometime.Whilst I did not find the cache (more below) I did find the ark which was the main purpose of my hunt. Like most forests there is a rabbit warren of roads that criss cross through the forest. I managed to drive in my small 2WD (Mazda Astina) to within about 300m of the ark. I took the scenic route in (about 12km) mainly because I took a wrong turn at one of the many forest intersections. The tracks were a little rough in a couple of places but provided you take your time then it is quite easy. I would NOT recommend 2WD during OR after rain unless you are skilled dirt road driver and even then there is the possibilty that you may be delayed longer than you would like. On the way in I saw this huge magnificent Black Cockatoo with yellow markings. A sign of rain, not this time forrtunately. The last 300m walk took me through a huge dried out puddle, definitely not for my 2WD even in dry weather and with my experience on dirt roads. The walk was really enjoyable anyway.

GZ was close to private property but today I did not see anyone there. I was hoping that I might get more info about the story of this ark. Judging by its location I would think that it has reached its final destination. I searched for the cache but with no success. I was not keen on going below decks because I was worried I may not be able to get out, as I am not as flexible and agile as I used to be. After much procrastination I did go below decks but felt very claustrophobic and was continually thinking about how to get out. So I did not give enough time / effort to search below decks.

The drive out from GZ was a bit shorter (about 5km) and little rough for my Mazda but still navigable.

ALL in all a thoroughly enjoyable time and hunt. Thanks very much O319 for taking me to yet another interesting and unique location.

A boat ride where hubby didn't get seasick

Good spot, easy find tftc Signed log.
Been going to visit this one for a while as it was the very first I heard of geocaching, when a story was run in the local paper about 10 years ago.

All good now.

Coordinates changed from:
S 34° 37.505 E 150° 14.254

Coordinates changed to:
S 34° 37.444 E 150° 14.567

Distance from original: 1609.1 feet or 490.5 meters.

The other slope of Mt Ararat?

Well, well well. (3 holes in the ground) the mystery continues. Have sent the updated coordinates to the reviewer as the shift is to far for me to do it. Until then it will stay disabled.

Having no 4WD myself, I had arranged to do a few geocaches with a muggle friend of mine, Denis. His Daihatsu Feroza is a little mountain-goat of a thing and got us to the two Belanglo caches without too much drama. However it was only after organising the trip and doing final checks last night that I realised this cache had been disabled. I contacted the previous finder to see if it was still findable, and, after we'd finished the Belanglo caches and still had some time in hand, we decided to head out here to see what the situation was anyway. We drove most of the way in from the Kingsbury VC and ended up approaching the original GZ along the southern fire trail by foot as there are some fallen trees blocking the path. As noted the boat is no longer at the original GZ, or even at the second set of coords - but you can see it from there. So, a somewhat stealthy approach required as it is now quite near the private property, but still very much on the public land and you don't need to go through any locked fences or anything. Actually this area felt more creepy than the Belanglo caches. Anyway, after a short search with the hint not offering too much help to my non-nautical self, the cache was soon in hand and log signed - amazingly having remained attached despite the movement of the boat. I took an 8-minute averaged waypoint with my eTrex 30 resting right next to the boat - but who knows how long it will stay there now. Anyway, thanks for an amazing cache, definitely a favourite and a real highlight of my caches so far - actually, I'm annoyed it's one short of my 400th! Also a great introduction for Denis who I think now "gets it" about caching.

Current location of Noah's Ark:
S 34 37.444 E 150 14.567

Well, the ark is still on the fire trail, and another 50m on from the previous coord given notes. It is now right next to the neighboring property. It has been dug in, so this might be its resting spot.

When I loaded it onto my GPS, it dropped the notes from the logs (no idea how I managed that, and I cannot get it to repeat it).

We thought we would see if you coukld get in from the northern side (from the servo and in), You can get right up to it, but you are then stopping outside the house, and going through a locked fence.

We went back around south, and walked in (after we found th puddle mentioned previously).

It is certainly worth the extra walk in, but more stealth is now needed. And I should have expanded my search by that few hundred meters.

We didn't sign the log, as I forgot to put the pen in my pocket when we started the walk in (This is definately one of those caches that seems to have me doing everything wrong with it). Will be back to sign the log later, but can we claim it as a "found"?



This entry was edited by YRPsycho on Sunday, 15 July 2012 at 00:04:36 UTC.

It was a great spot... Perhaps a memorial/monument needs to be created. I did stand there for a while wondering what was wrong with me. Even walked in a few hundred meters further. There are also trees down at the start of the trail.

It could just be away getting some bodywork done. I should have logged it as found..... No one would have known.

How do you DNF a boat in a forrest?? I am guessing it has been collected for scrap. Nice drive though, just wish it was still here.

See my previous log. Noah has taken his taken his boat and set sail.

How dare they remove our boat...

Will only disable for now while I think about putting another cache very nearby. Given how cool this story was would be a pity to loose it altogether.

Found it on a 4WD excursion. TFTC

Found during a 4wding trip with some fellow cachers. Love the boat in the middle of the bush. TFTC!

Found it! Great way to break in the new 4x4.

Cache location set agenda for a 4WD day with a convoy of SES friends including a first time outing for Ben86’s jeep. Quite an adventure getting here and think we actually found the “lake” the boat used to sail on when we attempted (unsuccessfully at first) to drive through! Co-ords need updating as we came across GZ (bit hard to miss) after a significant detour from the posted details several hundred metres away.

Having found this amazing piece of nautical machinery before I was keen to show my fellow SES friends what can be found in the bush. So we headed directly towards where I found the cache.

At the last left turn 2 large fallen trees diverted us further down the road to the next left, where we thought we could enter the area from the backside. After negotiating the large puddle I was very surprised to see that the ark had set sail.

Someone has put alot of effort into moving the ark to approx. my attached coords. After a bit of a search we came up with the cache still tucked away in its hiding spot.

Future finders will have to use these revised coords.
Thanks

Came with a 4WD convoy including mizmaz & The Rats. What a sight to see in the middle of a forest!! Mr McPodie had lots of fun climbing on, in and around the ark and claimed the find.

Well you don't come across one of these every day in the bush. signed log but it is full and needs replacing. TFTC

First came up on the GPS as being 1.2kms away After 9 Kms driving we located GZ and then the search began. Read the hint and being an old sailor located the cache easily. Needs new log as the existing one is full. TFTC.

Want to take it Home and place in my Swimming Pool and have Yachting Parties

This entry was edited by JFINDITH on Tuesday, 21 February 2012 at 13:39:46 UTC.

Found this with fitzy_1965, Sol de Lune and AwesomeL after a Blue Mountains weekend...

We started heading home after a big weekend in the Blue Mountains. This one had been on our radar for ever and today was the day ! SDL drove us in in his 4WD and we found the Ark. After photos SDL made the find - fantastic !

Thanks !

Finally catching up with my Logs... So sad to see this one archived...

4371 + 431 = 4802. After Sol de Lune and I finished the Blue Mountains Power Trail yesterday we started heading home with ACBC 66 and AwesomeL.

We have been waiting a long time to do this one - and with the 4WD with us this trip today was the day ! We all piled in and made the many turns to get to GZ. After having a good look and taking some photos Sol did the deed and made the find. Log was soaked so I dryed out the container and replaced the log with some notebook pages.

Graet Cache - Thanks O319 !!

TNLN - TFTC !!

Cheers....

One of the caches that has been on the to do list for a while. After a trip to the Blue Mountains to complete the BMPT, Fitzy, ACBC, Awesome L and myself took the 4WD for a drive through the pine trees.

Turn here, turn there, then turn here and WOW, there it was. Amazing the things you see in hidden in here.

We had a climb over and in and then after a short-ish search had the cache in hand. Log was a bit wet, but fitzy will tell you more about that.

Thanks to all concerned for the cache...and the fun in finding it.

Log is wet and needs replacing. We wouldn't write on it. We stumbled across the ark, when I thought to check if there were any caches around. There was, right under my feet!

Planned to do this cache on an afternoon trip through the highlands. Carefully drew a map of all the trails to take and then left it at home. Used my nose and found the boat easily. The cache, on the other hand, was more challenging. Was just about to give up, disappointed to say the least, when I suddenly spotted it. A most enjoyable cache!

Tftc nice hide cheers

At last I can tick this one off the list of caches worth doing!
I drive past here a couple of times a month these days, but I'm usually in too much of a rush to make the drive in.

I was worried that the GPS would be no help in navigating through the bush but it was surprisingly easy and I arrived to find the Noah's Ark in all it's splendour, too bad I couldn't have done this one when it was a traditional size many years back. Oh well at least there's still a cache here certainly worth a look.

TNLN

Not sure which was harder...finding the Ark or finding the Cache! Cool!

Found with c balk on a beautiful winters day! The kids loved playing on the boat.

Well, this is interesting.

I was hiking through the area for my Duke of Edinburgh, and I had preprepared a geocache to hide while on the hike if I saw something interesting.
This was very interesting, so I hid a geocache - not realising there was one already here!

Back in Sydney as I finished up reporting a new geocache listing, I decided to check, out of curiosity, to see if there had been any geocaches nearby.
Then I saw this listing......

how often do you find a huge sail boat in a middle somewhere in a forest? Wow. Lucky for us muggles on cycles guided us out of this maze!!! Just amazing. S.L T.F.T.C

An easy find after a cool drive in TFTC

On a road trip caching from Goulburn to Sutton Forest, this was definately the highlight of the day. Geo hubby thought he was in a WRX (close we were in a subaru forrester) and went rally driving with me hanging on.
After Geo hubby climbed all over the ark i decided to and found the magnetic nano (i was looking fro something a bit bigger but happened to put my hand on it and it moved) Great Hide.
I assume this is the new magnetic cache that 0319 placed and it looks like we were FTF hehehe but realised its just a new log.
We then rally drove our way back out of the forest.
Also brought back a few memories of me orientering on my horse around the penrose state forest many moons ago.
SL TFTC

PS I have heard that the Ark was dumped there about 15-20 years ago after a wife and husband got divorced and I think she dumped it there so he couldnt have it.

I found the Ark years ago while riding in the forest. Nice hiding spot. TFTC

Nice easy find for the day

Fantastic! Overall our 100th find! This is about the most unexpected thing that anyone would find dumped in a forest. Good spot for a hide, though... TFTC!

This was an amazing thing to see in the middle of no-where. Was hesitant about it but eventually grabbed it and was on our way again.

Took ages to find fairly obvious when I found it, Everyone was filthy
At the end in the wet, also found a dollar coin made it all worth it. SL
TFTC 0319

I randomly came accross this a few years ago whilst living in bundanoon, but not having a map at the time could not mark the spot to revisit- and prove to others what i had found. Then i discovered there was a cache hidden within it was definatly on my to-do list. I had a friend with me, who was getting restless as it was starting to to get dark and rainy. I reassured her that i knew where we were and where we were heading- and that it was well worth the drive in!

She wasnt to sure about climbing inside so in i went- with the dog trying to follow. soon had the cache in hand and signed and on our way home!

Great hiding spot- well worth the search!

Found Noah's Ark but couldn't find the container BUT will come back another time. Thanks 0319

I have wanted to get this one for ages and I finally did it today. Very odd to see such a thing here but there it is. Cache was not too hard to find too, thanks 0319 for the hide.

The KalmlittleExplorers set out to explore the southern highlands today and visit a few caches along the way.

Number six for the day. Headed in from the nearby rest area and with a bit of rain around the forest was fairly damp. Had to trust the GPSr was leading us in the right direction, but we ended up right at the correct spot. The girls didn't believe dad that there was a boat out here in the bush, but were amazed when it appeared.

Decided to get a quick picture before we found the cache, and as we were doing so a trail bike rider came buy. We dived out of the way and then he turned around and came back for a look at the ark. We were considering how we would get this one with a muggle hanging around, but after a quick chat he was on his way.

So into the bowels of the beast we ventured, and soon had the goods in hand.

Makes you wonder what this is doing out here.

SL

TFTC 0319!

Noah's Ark was transferred from Seizer to user O319

This one was on our list of 'to do' especially for the boat factor.
What an eerie (yet peaceful) place. Thanx for showing us this place.
SL, TFTC.

What a incredible spot!! This is why I started caching in the first place. I often wonder how people find such places?
Drove around a while in the woods, my car GPS sees that every road here has the same name!! Had to drive going by the handheld and avoid hitting the many kangaroos and bumps, not easy. Suddenly the forrest gets more densed and then this thing turned up, almost scary. Made a few pictures before going on board. Its that hot in there you will only stand it for a couple of minutes before desiring for fresh air. Found the cache eventually and saw it took me longer than I thought. Had to rush and get the kids out of school!! Driving home I was doubting if I even wrotr my log?? Can the next person please check and sign for me if I didn't
Thanks for the fantastic experience!!!
Wilbert67

Just got back from a week in Fiji and find that my Micro is now online. So I guess i can log it, I was there 9th January with Justjessie and Cookiemonster5, but will log today so it all makes sense.

Found with O319.

Found with O319.

The Ark is back in business as a micro.

Thanks for the offers of help with re-instating it.

Hmmmmm, guess what a week back we placed a micro on it and have only just had time to notify the owner of what was done! Will send a message to the owner and let him work it out.

Fear not - the Ark is returning to a forest near you sometime soon(ish)

As the Seizers no longer live in NSW we are unable to replace it, but we have had an offer of help and hopefully this ever popular cache will be back in business in the future, so please don't give up on it. the floods will end and Noah will be back in business.

This one obviously needs to be disabled until I - or someone else - can get there to replace it.

As I am now living in QLD any offers of help gratefully receive - after all, it is a great and surprising spot to visit

Seizer

Spent quite a while looking for the cache with a mate. It wasn't until I read the comments of previous visitors that I learned that the cache had been muggled.

Maybe the cache should be marked inactive until the cache is replaced.

TFTC.

we knew the Cache was not there but wanted to show our kids the yacht that we had mountain biked past a couple of years ago in the Highland Fling that we have returned for this year.

Shame about the Cache missing, rode past this in the Highland Fling Mountain Bike Race a few years ago & was so amazed. Was great to see it again & show some of my family.

[After spending some time looking around onboard I failed to locate anything below deck that resembled a cache, and wasn't burnt, but found some suspect camo on deck.
Made a call to a previous finder and it was confirmed that it was indeed gone and the camo on the deck was from the cache. Maybe it was the red electrical tape around it that gave it away to muggles.
Knowing what to expect at GZ, "What the", still went through my mind when i saw it.

TFTC]

I placed a black magnetic film container with some log sheets (above the power plant) untill the owner can return and repair.

Had a good look. Found a canvas half bag with red electrical tape around it on top of boat. Looked inside boat but unable to find cache. Had lunch instead. Thankyou for cache.

3rd one for the day and while fiding the spot was easy we could not find the cache.

Our GPS kept leading us to over to where all the dumped insualtion is pilled. I assume it was not buried under that.

We will have to go back another day.

Still an amazing thing to find all the way out here.

What fun! Our standard geomobile had no trouble (good roads, and only two puddles to navigate around), and we enjoyed the drive. Near GZ, we turned down a shady road blanketed with evergreen needles and the vessel came quickly into view. What an amazing sight! Pip quickly found the cache and claimed the honours. Coords were spot on! TNLNSL, and of course replaced the cache exactly as found. With all the muggle evidence, it's surprising that the cache hasn't disappeared. No wonder you camp here, it's a beautiful, tranquil place. In fact, it was so quiet, we could hear something in the trees tearing bits off and dropping them. It wasn't long before the culprits, two Crimson Rosella's, flew down near us and just as quickly took off and disappeared into the forest. On the way out we saw three Crimson Rosella's, quite a few stands of escaped Narcissus (daffodils), and a Black Wallaby bound across the road in front of us. Very nice experience! Thank you for sharing this place, and for the cache Seizer!

I am constantly amazed by the things that cachers find off the beaten track. And this 'dry docked boat' is no different. Even though I was expecting to find it I still went 'WHAT THE?" when I drove around the corner.

And to top it off this is a really nice place. Fern trees, a carpet of pine needles and a thick forest. Lovely

Truly amazing find! Thanx for sharing it.

BTW I drove to this location in my 2000 model auto Corolla, No 4wd required. Except I guess when it’s really wet. See photo for proof.

I had been meaning to visit this spot for a while and today I finally got the opportunity.

It's difficult to understand what a boat like this is doing in the middle of a forest. I quite enjoyed the drive out to the GZ along the fire trails.

Found after a short search, TNLN and TFTC.

Easy find but the old tide chart didn't help with the launching of this salling boat or was someone thinking it might rain very heavy soon? TFTC