I picked up an eye infection last weekend in Perth and the doctor gave me 2 days off work. As I wasn’t really sick (off work to prevent contamination), I decided to go geocaching to clear out a nearby area.

I headed up to the Park Orchards area where I knew I’d have to do quite a bit of hiking. My first stop was 100 Acre Bush Reserve where I found 2 caches (Double Century and Mercator Madness)and hid one new one. It was a really nice walk (about 2.5km in total) but it was quite hot and I worked up quite a sweat.

I then drove a short distance and quickly had BullsEye in hand.

Another short drive and a 600m hike through dense bush (I missed the path and headed up the wrong side of the creek) to find Hidden Valley.  I took a TB and a geocoin from this cache that had both been here for more than 6 months.

My last stop was in Ringwood to visit Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, an easy find in a small reserve hidden behind some houses.

The hide is not yet active as it has been hidden to celebrate 10 years of geocaching in Australia and will only be published on 18 May 2010. See here for more details.

Tags: 100 acre reserve, mullum mullum, park orchards, ringwood, traditional

By far my worst month yet! Zero cache finds! How embarrasing!

Unfortunately, we had a very busy month and I never got a chance to find any geocaches! Saturday’s are taken up with rugby and we just seemed to have something on every Sunday.

I did managed to hide three caches though. And they seem to have gone down well.

• Scene of the crime
• The murder weapon
• The Killer
  

In case you hadn’t guessed, they are a series. You need the first two to be able to find the third one. A bit of puzzle/detective work is required. So far only 3 people have done the series.

Rugby ends in August, so I may be able to grab some finds then.

I just realised how long it has been since I last wrote about my caching! Wow, too long!

As much as I’m NOT a numbers cacher (I cache for the walking and the interesting places that caching has taken me), my aim was to hit 200 by the end of 2008. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. But I did get some caching done over the New Year’s holiday period.

I did a few caches before Christmas but we were flat out at work (I work in hospitality) so I didn’t have much spare time. Then, over New Year, we went camping in South Gippsland and I took my caching gear with me.

I found some great caches down there. Some were very time consuming (GC1B5ZV – The Turning Point) others were easy finds with great views (GC123TY – Toora Two), but my favourite was actually a DNF at Agnes Falls (GCH2GR – Poor Agnes). The falls weren’t quite in full flow, but the short walk and the magnificent views over the falls and the valley to the other side made this short hike worth while. Like I said, it was a DNF as there were just too many muggles about to hunt for it – and I made the trip twice!

I also hid a cache down on the Great Southern Rail Trail. The trail runs from Leongatha in the north to Foster in the south, 52km. I rode it on my mountain bike on the 2nd last day of our holidays while the family went to the beach. The cache is GC1K3D5 – End of the Rail Trail – Almost. It’s a fairly easy find in a beautiful little spot not far from the town of Foster.

So, I still haven’t hit my target of 200 but I have got to 197, so hopefully this weekend I will do it. Saying that, it’s 43C out there today and the temperature isn’t meant to drop in the near future…

Tags: australia, Great Southern Rail Trail, south gippsland, toora

The past week has been a good week for me cache wise – new coins and new cache hides!

Not only did my 3 Aussie GeoCoins arrive on Thursday (they are beautiful), but I also hid six caches on the weekend. The first hide was near Lilydale Lake – “Joshua’s 2nd birthday bash cache “. It is listed on the Geocaching.com.au website.

The other five hides are my Red Earth (Mooroolbark) Series . 1 – 4 contain clues to find #5 (Red Earth Treasure Chest ) which is also listed on Geocaching.com.au

Tags: australia, lilydale, melbourne, mooroolbark

Today I hid my first cache. Nothing too difficult as it was my first attempt.

It is still awaiting approval from Geocaching.com, but I don’t think it will be a problem.

The cache is a simple affair. An old 1lt soup container with a screw cap containing a tattoo, a keyring, some cuff-links, a casino chip, a squishy face, a toy elephant, a toy soldier, a logbook and a small pen as the starting contents.

The cache is located in the gardens of St John’s Church in Notting Hill. It is a short walk from both Notting Hill Gate and Holland Park tube stations. These are both on the (red) Central Line underground.

St John’s was built in 1844 on the Ladbroke Grove Estate which, at the time, was used as a Hippodrome. For more history and information, visit the church website .

Tags: uk