28 July 2007 Newcastle caching weekend






Squirrel and i left Durban at about 06:20 to try and be at World view GC104CB (Hilton area) at sunrise, we arrived shortly after sunrise and im glad we did as it was rather spectacular, it was freezing im not sure how cold but i guess about 6' deg. It was a fantastic view, we arrived not really knowing how cold it was gonna be but we found out soon enough. This was the location where the Voortrekkers used to move there oxen along down into Petermaritzburg. A lovely drive through some tree's where people walk their dogs and just seem to relax. We took Girry with us as we always do and he seemed to enjoy it. This was a micro cache but one of those vicious small micros but i love them allot of people dont loke micros but i dont mind. We found it without to much hassels pretty easy as we knew what to look for and it could only be on certain areas. We signed the log and i had to try and roll it up and out it back, which proved more difficult that o thought as my hand's were shivering and they were cold which made it rather difficult to roll up again.
Once it was put back we jumped in the car and headed for Newcastle.

Tim and Sam
Girry looking on

Tim trying to roll up the log sheet

Sam signing the log sheet


Arriving Newcastle
We arrived in Newcastle at about 09:30 settled down had breakfast and just chilled with the folks until later on in the afternoon when we decided to go grab a couple of new caches that have sprung up since we were here last, thanks to Wazat. We left at about 15:00 to go place a cache at the M.O.T.H. club in a very cool place for people to find. It has since been published but can only be found on a Saturday btw 12:00- 15:00 so we will see who finds it first probably Wazat.

Monte Stanco Shell Hole GC14VB6

Inside the shell holeInside the shell hole

From here we left for Ngogo where we would find Crash Cache GC13D9H and then a short way away to April fools cache GC11VRF.

Crash cache was a FTF (first to find) for us, i took my dad with and he seemed to enjoy this as it was the first time he accompanied us on a cache hunt. We found it pretty easily as it is basically a road side cache, on the other side of the cache was this old car that was in a accident many years ago and was now just left on the side of the road. It is lovely out here nothing but the road and wide open country side. We dropped off 2 coins for the cachers in this area to enjoy as they dont really get to see coins in their caches. All in all a great little cache.
Sam and dad with the little Lada in the back, our cache mibile

the car in question
the coin making an appearence.

Off we went to April Fools Cache GC11VRF
On the way to April fools cache

We arrived there with little fuss there were 2 guys sitting on some railings but we retreved the cache without hassle signed the log dropped off a coin and i then had to hide it in another place as the other spot was abit to in the open, so in a now more secure spot we left and went home. It was another cool road side cache a quick and easy grab, as stated by another cacher there was a decomposing cow at the cache site but fortunately when we arrived there it was all decomposed up, so no smell.

29 July 2007

09:00 We met Wazat and family for coffee at Geckos they are relatively new cachers here in Newcastle and it was his caches that we did while up in Newcastle, we had a great chat showed him all the coins i have been collecting for Ireland and we left there at about 12:00 to go pick up the old lady and old man to go to the Pines cache which is actually a nursery but since the new owners took over it has apparently become very run down GC13D97 This was a quick cache found the container in a couple of min signed the log took photos and we were off. There were a couple of cute bunnies with little bunnies but i think they were getting cold as the wind was blowing
the swart family
the bunnys

From here we quickly went to my cache Newcastle view to do some maintenance show Girry around and we were off to the house for lunch and then the trip back to Durban
We left for Durban at about 14:30 we stopped halfway to Ladysmith to hide another cache on and old bridge of historical value i have always wanted to drop one here cause it's such a lovely bridge.
Hime Bridge

Having done that took some pictures were arrived back in Durban at about 19:00 after a long drive back in the little cache mobile.

4 February 2007
Attack 2 on Twin Peaks cache.

Well Brett and i decided to try this one again i had tried the previous month and battled so with my new knowledge we set off to get this one. We got to the first point where we thought we could get access to waypoint 2, but no luck, a few phone calls later and we were on our way.
We drove down a no entry sighn but later found out that the residents had put it up to stop people from just driving down the road. The gate was locked that used to give access to the area for rock climbers so we did not feel bad about jumping over the fence. A lovely short walk of about 180m took us to the spot where the 1st waypoint was. What lovely views over the valley to look at while searching for a waypoint. Needless to say the waypoint was missing so we had to phone a friend to get the waypoint, but still a lovely walk.










































Waypoint 1 was a quick walk but also the waypoint was missing so we phoned a friend who then gave us the final co-ords for this sortie. So off we went parked the car and started walking. The gps showed only about 250m but what it does not show was how the path winds so the walk ends up been alot longer.
We got to about 25-30m but the arrow showed us to go to the left and all there was, was bush so we walked a little more until we eventually got to the river below, and as we were walking we noticed the arrow now pointing in the opposite direction right up against a cliff face so we knew we had to go back up, no fun that was. It was hot i was swetting, we did not bring water so it was not fun.





















Enjoying the cool water







We started up again untill we got to this rock face with a overhang, and we knew we were now at the right place. As we started looking for the cache container i noticed a little bit of green cloth sticking out about 2.5m up from the floor. A quick scramble up the rock face and we had the cache in hand.







TB Jenosity retrieved from the cache who had been there for over a year.
















Another coin going in it's place













I was glad to have done this cache because i do not like doing caches of this nature, especially here in Durban in summer it's just to darn hot. A pleasant cache none the less

21-01-2007

A day out caching with Team Wild,Geomerlin,Windpomp and myself Batsgonemad

We left early in the morning myself and Geomerlin after he sorted out his baby to meet up with Team Wild and Windpomp. We finally left in Wild Teams Discovery for our first cache Twin Peaks GCQWB6 not the easiest to takel but it was early and thought we could wax it in about 2 hours,but alas it was not to be. Can you imagin 2 published way point in a nature reserve with no parking co-ords and surrounded by houses, not an easy task. We arrived at the first parking area and started walking one way only to discover we were going the wrong way because we were following the wrong co-ords, having sorted that out we were on our way about 2km along out gps showed ud to we were 1.5km from the cache and had to make a 90deg left turn, hmm easy enough NOT there was a huge gorge between us and way point 2. We had to walk all the way back to the car and try to locate a access point to waypoint 2 that took us about 45min with no luck so we gave it up and chased our 2nd cache

Here above is a picture abit small though of where we went insearch of the the waypoints.
We then dicided to try Nqutu cache GCJM8V. Well here we also first took the wrong path but a blessing in disguise as we met up with a Zebra who was rather tolorant of us and thus we could get rather close to him/her
So off we went in the other direction and before long we were down in the gourge at the river where the container was hidden, the hint said "At co-ord, find large square rock, with angled rock infront with pebble eroded hole. Stand on large square rock, turn 90 deg to the left +- 10m high on valley wall in front of you is a small triangular space in rocks=cache. Happy hunting" We if it had not been for that hint you would not have found it as the reception is very dodgey down there. We found it with little effort and it had some lovely goddies in there which we traded for other items.The cache location and a coin that i dropped in the cache. The photo below is looking in the other direction
We left to do another cache not too far away called The Boneyard GCZEWQ This is a cache location that overlooks a lovely gourge called Krantzkloof nature reserve and and also where rock climbers come to climb the gourge. The view is majestic and the hight to the bottom of the gourge about 80m. To the one side, one can also find a lovely waterfall abit of a walk away.
Thats me looking over the edge
Thats me stuck to the fence by my caribiner
A close up and you can see Girry my giraffe TB
Next we went to the bottom of the gorge to do Knysna Louirie GCZV96. A lovely walk through a rain forest type area, it's lush green foliage and damp atmosphier make for a great walk, we rushed this one alittle as Geomerlin had to get home to help his wife look after their baby, but fun was had non the less, he also picked up his first TB since joining this crazy game.

This was a terrible day for us as we spent most of our time running around trying to do Twin Peaks, but fun was had. When i arrived back home i uploaded my track log into mapsource and realised we had come with in 26m of waypoint one without even knowing it. It was a very hot day too and doing long walks in a nature reserve is not that pleaseant in the heat.

Team Wildteam without the rest of the team

FUN WAS HAD BY ALL AND WE FOWED TO RETURN TO CONQUER THE TWIN PEAKS.