Logs for The_Groke 

A close one to bring me out of the cold. (A Groke joke)
Co-ords were spot on for me.
Forgot to take a pen, so had to scratch in the log - will pencil that in later.
TFTC
Took a green ball, wasn't expecting to be going out so had nothing to leave. Maybe when I return to sign the log.

 

Another muggle magnet. Haven't these muggles got anything better to do than sit around caches all day!

Again, I'm pretty sure where it is - just need to come at a better time. 

OK OK I'm going to have to add up all my reconnoitres and call it a DNF! Can't seem to get here with a low muggle count. I know where the cache is (I think), but I just can't get a good search in.

Damn this being such a beautiful spot!!! 

I know I'm being pedantic, but unless you want finding the se7en studios to be part of the challenge those coords are way off. They put you down at the corner of King & Castlereagh. 

Lousy reception with all these clouds, trees, buildings. But my pre-map checkup had me right on the spot.

Nice hidey hole. Dedicated to Arabia meets China - I'm not sure they ever met, but I certainly spent many a lunch hour matching up the the cryptic description.

 

Ahh a nice easy one to lift my confidence. Didn't have to pretend to take photos here, this tree is as photogenic as they come.

TFTC 

Hmm. Despite all my technology - GPS, digicam, palm T3, super snooper blinding white torch - I didn't manage to find it & I DID manage to somehow not have entered the hint into the T3 database. Bugger!

And it was HOT - GPS says 36C. Had to take a lot of bad pictures to throw the muggles off. Left after a fairly short search before I got heat stroke.

I'll be back and then I'll get you my cachey, hahahahahaha! (Ooh maybe I did catch a bit of sun).

 

Got to play Captain GPS with this one - hooked GPS to laptop in car & had scrolling maps, proximity alarms etc, etc. It was like being commander of the USS Enterprise (well in my head it was). We thought we'd missed a turn at one point only to be completely reassured via the power of TECHNOLOGY!!!

A tree across the road forced us to walk an extra 200m. GPS led us straight to GZ without any trouble but it was HOT HOT HOT in that forest. Groke_pup couldn't handle it anymore despite wanting to hunt down anything that moved.

Took CD left trick gum & monitor lizard (not to scale).

TFTC - love this forest.

 

Second find for the day. Better going than last week (see Little Cache & Smoky Cape LH).

Tried coming up here a few years ago but the track was block by a fallen tree. Beautiful location.

Galloped off toward a likely place, but quickly realised that I had a GPS for a reason. GPS took me straight there.

Lots of mozzies around. TNLNSL 

Third one today!!!! Clouds were coming in & making the GPS a bit sketchy, but eventually found it. AND ABOUT a ZILLION MOZZIES. Almost had no blood left by the time I finished signing the log.

But a beautiful view.

TNLNSL 

Wished I'd read Team Yota's entry - I tackled this from the beach & in the face of an impending storm.

Not being a mountain goat I was completely bamboozled by this cache - well from this direction anyway. I wanted to have a crack at Smoky Cape Lighthouse before the storm hit, so no time to tackle it from further along the path.

Intended to come back later in the week, but it will have to wait until next year. 

Hmm. A big storm was coming over & I'd spent too much time not finding "Little Cache". Thought I'd found the spot, but no-one home - after all how many places fit the hint?

I'll be back next year.

 

Dropped off Nostraldamas. 

No problems getting straight to GZ on this one.
Thought I was going to be clever and get this one without using the clue;
but then I spied a HUMAN number two! Eeuugghh! (but at least they used toilet paper!??)
The desire to hunt around evaporated immediately. Decoded the clue, found the cache. Was going to drop Nostraldamas TB off as I'm not travelling north until November now.
But the little bugger forgot to come along with me. I'll bring him along next week.
 

A spot Grokette and I often walk the Groke_Pup. Earlier attempts at this cache were always muggled and I mean picnic size muggling, so no searching has been possible.

UNTIL NOW! And... just as I was settling in to peer into every crook and nanny and work the grid, the Grokette walks up and says "There it is!". No searching, no hard work!

Took Nostrildamas TB, left pipe fish and masked lapwing.
 

Grokette and I walk here often with the Groke_pup, but we never knew what lurked in the vault!!!

It didn't seem worth searching for part 1 as no-one seems to have found it recently.

It took some lateral thinking from the Grokette to identify the glacier - my idea was way off as usual.

Nicely hidden.

TNLNSL.

 

Thanks Dernel for a nice easy find! Needed it.

TNLN

The Groke 

At last I can say I found one easily.

"I found one easily."

Lots of nice spidies to play with, spied it just as I called quits. Have to admit that I did decrypt the clue.

Brought the Grokette & Groke_pup over later to give her a chance to find her first cache - we'd basically been walking around kicking bushes in the vicinity of GZ & then giving up. Now starting to realise you actually have to hunt for the things!

Met Dernel after a few seconds of shifty pretence, GPSrs dangling carelessly as if to imply "its just my mobile phone".

TNLN - think I can progress to swapping soon.

Thanks RD 

My second find!! Would have been my first but for the following very important mishaps:

a) being so new to this sport, I was trusting my GPSr a little too much & began searching in the vicinity of San Francisco. Reading through the logs, all clues were twisted in my warped and, now fevered, mind to 'prove' my location as correct

b) I translated the hint in my head & subsequently spent many fruitless attempts looking for a tap. I found many, many taps and several 'taps'. After discovering my mistake I knew exactly where it was. "This is in the bag," I thought.

Which leads to:

c) Muggle-timing. They seem to swarm from nowhere when I near GZ. I need an invisibility cloak.

d) Bad acting. Faking a heart-attack in order to replace a cache is a bad idea - it just attracts more attention. (No I didn't really - but I don't think any really believed that I had just decided to sit there & read in that icy wind).

I promise to improve. 

My first find. Just starting to appreciate how cleverly these things are stowed!