Geocaching

I'd heard about geocaching a while back, but suddenly got the bug to actually give it a go, and what a great new activity. Geocaching is simply using your GPS to locate hidden caches that others have placed, sometimes at the specified co-ordinates, and other times you need to follow multiple coordinates to build up clues. Our first caching trip was a success, taking us to a familiar location, though down a walking track we hadn't tried before. We spotted an echidna and a kangaroo along the track as we were hunting out the cache. Not only did we find the cache, but it also contained a Travel Bug. A Travel Bug is a tagged item, whos progress from one cache to the next can be followed over the internet. They also usually have an objective or mission. Our first bug is a rainbow trout, who has come from New Zealand and wants to return to Alaska. We'll take him past some nice trout streams as we set him on his way!

Our next location was in Warrandyte. We'd planned on our first geocaching adventure to look at caches in our local area, of which surpisingly there are quire a few. Our second hunt was also successful, and also showed us some nice walking tracks along the Yarra River we'd not known about.

Our 3rd cache was also in Warrandyte, and was another multicache like the first, requiring the visit to a number of locations to gather the clues to the final cache. Not only did we find the cache, but we also spotted a koala in a nearby tree! We were finding as much wildlife as caches today.

We continued downstream of the Yarra, finding another cache in a location we had passed over a number of times, completely unaware of the "treasure" hidden beneath.

We'd had som much fun, that we went looking for some more on Sunday, even managing to drag Mum along as well. Wouldn't you know though, the first one that Michelle comes on proves impossible to find. We spent ages looking around at ground zero, but eventually had to give up. The Park location was fantastic though, and we will return here for a BBQ.

One of the greatest finds though was our last cache for the day; hidden in the original cemetary in Heidelberg. We had no ideas that this 1/4 acre burial plot was hidden in among the houses.

We returned to our failed cache attempt again, but even though we determined we'd misinterpreted one of the clues we still came up empty handed. We returned to a cache we'd been to earlier to pick up another travel bug, Myrtle the Dancing Turtle and then did one more cache on our travels back home.