Pages Pinnacle East (QGS 566) Gold Coast City, Queensland, Australia
By Geocaching Australia on 28-Aug-22. Waypoint TP13413

So I’m back here working on my first Wherigo Cache. A very hot yet awesome day! It’s always nice being off-track.. well.. mostly.. I have stories that say otherwise haha. The lighting was good so I decided to take some images of the witness post with the reference blaze. Nature has determined that the blaze was not appropriate so it’s taken over! Nature always wins.

Now, where am I going to hide this large ammo can..

Today I saw the largest snake I have seen in the wild. More on that later..

After spending two days road tripping and Trig hunting in NSW I decided to return to Qld to venture to one of the many unpublished Trigs that I have discovered. On the way back to the Sunshine State I had to visit one more, of course haha. Once that was done I drove north. In general the Trigs in NSW are a lot finer than up here. Yeh you heard Queensland, you know this is true. A galvanised iron pipe sticking out of the ground isn’t quite the same image as a fine concrete pillar with post and disks.. especially in photos with a view haha oh dear. But, a Trig is a Trig regardless of its features. The one I wanted to specifically visit today I couldn’t get to due to a landslide and road closure. The extra time to get there made me change my mind and visit this one instead. The road closure sign was at the parking coordinates so let’s do it. I parked the geo-van and grabbed my bag and stick that I’ve been using as a walking pole. I then realised just how dirty the van really was. Mud everywhere! It was a great two days of adventuring down over the border. Today and the weekend wasn’t finished yet so more adventure is on the way.

I wandered across the road to the trailhead and began the walk. This track is very popular, especially for people training for Kokoda. I used to live nearby and have been up here many times trying to get to the top in under 30 minutes. I never managed it though. 31 minutes was my best. None of that nonsense happening here today! Just walking for me nowadays haha. It’s been a few years since I’ve been up this track and I’d forgotten how steep it gets in places. Walking poles make this track more manageable, especially on the way down. I hit the first waypoint and kept right then arrived at the log (waypoint 2) which is a popular location to take a rest on this track. From here it’s new territory for me.

Looking at the coordinates for GZ and the topo map I could see somewhat of a ridge that I could potentially follow so over the log I went and onwards to Trig goodness. Surprisingly there was faint track to follow. It ended up going right past GZ. There were no dense or difficult sections to get through. Just a nice walk in the bush with no real elevation change. From the log to GZ is about 1km. At GZ there’s a galvanised iron pole to take photos of and no real view down to the dam but it’s still a good walk in beautiful surroundings. I could see slithers of the dam through the trees. After two full days of mostly fine NSW Trigs it felt a little underwhelming looking at this pole hahaha. Welcome back to Queensland!

Time to return. This is where things got really interesting!! I was following the ridge line and track back towards the log when I spotted the largest snake I’ve seen in the wild. It was a beauty! A 3+m Coastal Carpet Python. I spent a good 20 minutes marvelling at this splendid creature. I’ve encountered lots of snakes over the years with the majority being under 2m. Now I’m thinking about this I’ve had a few snake encounters over the last few weeks.
TP13380 Eden - walked over a snake skin
TP13410 Mount Kooralbyn - two brown coloured snakes
TP13275 Station Creek - red-bellied black snake
TP7269 Diggers Camp - python
Before the last few weeks I hadn’t seen a snake since last year. With LOTS more Trigs to find it could be an interesting spring and summer! Once back at the log I sat and relaxed for a while thinking of my awesome weekend of Trig adventuring. Hiking, 4WDing, camping, Trig hunting. Still smiling from the memories of the long weekend I started the walk back to the geo-van. This downhill section should not be underestimated. Many people slip. Focus and take your time. Head down on your hands and bum on the steeper sections if you need to. Lots do that. Once back at the geo-van I grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat at a picnic table to continue going over my weekend. I wonder how everyone else who works in Gold Coast City utilised their day off on Friday for a long weekend.
Thanks for the cache

Rated: for Overall Experience

MattyRx

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