Our plan was to park near the Mangrove Creek weir, and cross it – if possible, make our way up Simpsons Track to this geocache, and then progress another 3km further up the track to the Simpson’s Cave geocache.

It was a hot stinky Saturday morning. The temperature was hitting 35′c, and our first obstacle was we couldn’t drive all the way to the weir because access was restricted. So we parked near the gate and walked down the steep, sizzling paved roadway – not looking forward to the return hike up the hill.

Before long we were at the shores of Mangrove creek.

Muddy Mangrove Creek

Our next obstacle was how to cross the creek. There is a concrete weir, and unattended pumping station – with warning signs and fences to keep us out. Adjacent to the weir was an alternate rocky crossing, but difficult to get to. Instead we decided to find a way under the fence and cross the safer, and easier, concrete weir.

Mangrove Creek Weir

Looking back from where we came

After a minor southward detour, were soon following Simpson’s Track westward along the southern shores of Mangrove Creek. This old convict track was oozing history – being the original road from Sydney to the Central Coast and used up to as late as 1930. With the history came the ghostly eeriness of being out here, all alone, on this lonely yet legendary track.

Simpsons Track heading toward the Inn

The heat was stifling. The silence broken by the song of the ever-present bellbirds in the trees above. Now and then wildlife was heard and seen to be scuffling away from us as we approached. We saw goannas,  a platypus, snake tracks slithering across the ground, and probably other interesting things we dared not look for.

Simpsons track - an eerie and haunted place

Perhaps the spookiest thing of all wasn’t found until after we were at home later that afternoon, examining the day’s photos and in at least three cases we could find “faces” in amongst the trees and bush. One of the most startling, and clearest, being that of a young boy.

We were closing in on Ground Zero. First a rusty car, then an out-house as the cache description had hinted we should look for, and a flat area, devoid of trees that we could only assume was the site of the Inn that now no longer exists. But we could “feel” it, like it was still there in front of us – and it was rather unsettling.

The rusty car

The Out House

Something told Wolfie Guy the cache is “here”, I mean “right here” – and I’m not talking about our GPSr. He just was somehow “told” – and he looked, and it was there. Right there. Exactly. First go. In a non-obvious place that would have otherwise taken quite a while to find. We told you this is a spooky place.

Wolfie, the Cache, the TB, in front of the Out House

The cache was last signed in 2007. I guess not many visitors make it out this way. We took from it a Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug that had been sitting out here waiting to hitch a ride since 2006. We thought about leaving the geocoin we picked up yesterday, but didn’t think the owner of the coin would appreciate it being left in a cache that gets visited only once or twice a year, if that!

Now it was time to continue along Simpsons Track toward Simpson’s Cave (GCXZFP) – we made it about one-third of the way along the 3km hike when we came to a junction with a stone monument.

Plaque on Stone Monument

The plaque reads:

SIMPSON’S TRACK TEN MILE HOLOW TO MULBRING

This track was established as a major branch from the Great North Road and intended by Lt Percy Simpson as the road north, at least to Newcastle and Maitland (Wallis Plains). He was Assistant-Surveyor at Wiseman’s Ferry from 1828 to 1832 and one of Australia’s earliest scientific road engineers. He supervised the construction of some of the Road’s finest structures.

The line of Simpson’s Track was like so many others, probably a path used by aboriginals. First known sighting by a white man was by McDonald, who was the overseer of a property at Ellalong. It goes from Ten Mile Hollow on to Mangrove Creek, then up Dubbo Valley on to Mangrove Mountain, then down Bumble Hill up through Yarramalong, Dooralong and then on to Cooranbong.

Lt Simpson had selected land near Dora Creek in 1828 and no doubt wanted the Road to go past his property.

The Great North Road, the first made north of the Hawkesbury, was constructed by convict gangs between 1826 and 1836. Some parts of the Rod have carried traffic continuously since that time. Other sections have been abandoned or have become little used.

The GNR was made when settlers were pushing up into the Hunter Valley and when sailing ships found it difficult to get into the harbour at Newcastle.

Today you can walk or ride ‘the convict trail’ from kerbed and guttered suburban streets, to the dry, rocky ridges and spectacular forests around Wiseman’s Ferry and St. Albans, to the pretty Wollombi Valley and onto the open plains of the Hunter Valley. Along the way you will find much that will amaze you. Get a map and EXPLORE.

After reading the plaque we looked down to see we were standing on some snake skin that looked quite fresh – to be reminded of the potential dangers of being out here.

From this junction, we detoured off the Simpson’s Track a little and headed over toward a nearby cool, refreshing creek, for a bit of a rest in the shade before looking at continuing up the track. As we approached, we startled a crocodile-sized goanna which took off across the water and up a tree – I’m not sure who got the bigger fright – the goanna, or us!

Refreshing cool creek on a stinking hot day

It was a nice cool oasis here – a place for us to dip our hats in the water and get a bit of coolness onto our hot and flustered heads – after which we returned back to Simpson’s Track and made a decision not to proceed today.

This part of the track was becoming very overgrown with knee-height grass, and given the weather and abundance of snakes in the area, we decided to give it a miss this time. The temperature was soaring and we had a fairly long walk back – and besides, it was lunch time and we were getting hungry.

We haven’t forgotten Simpson’s Cave – but next time we’ll approach it from the west, thus giving ourselves opportunity to explore even more of this amazing convict-built historic track. This has definitely been one of our most favourite, and spookiest of places we have been.

Thank you GroovyChook for such an awesome cache hide, and for sharing this piece of history with us.

Steep Stairway on the way to GZ

Unusual Rock Formation

Wolfie overlooking Woy Woy

After a brief hunt we managed to locate the medium-sized cache. The lack of camouflage was surprising, however, I figure not many people have a reason to go walking over this way so it’s probably pretty safe exactly where it is. Inside we found some historic photos of the Murphy’s Cottages.

We left the North Yorkshire Travel Bug race CD in the cache, took nothing. Returned the cache just how we found it.

The trip back down the hill was quite a challenge. This is a very steep, gravel, road – and we found it more challenging to descend – trying to maintain a footing without slipping on the surface… but we made it down in one piece. Back at the bottom we had a new found respect for the little cottages by the waterfront, and took another photo opportunity.

Wolfie with Murphy's Cottages

Thanks for another great hide daznat99. We appreciate the cache, and we appreciate the history lesson, the views and landscapes up here. Thanks!

A few days ago I took a walk down the track on the north-side to survey the terrain to see whether this shorter route is a viable access route, but although a pleasant walk, I discounted this track as an option when it became obvious we’d need to do some serious “bush bashing” to get there. By reading the logs of this cache it was apparent that some avid caches do get to the cache from this direction, but we like to take the easier route wherever possible.

So TeamWolfie returned today to head up the longer-but-easier track that takes us almost to ground zero. Google Maps is almost useful, but don’t be mislead! The “Road” you need to walk down is by no means a road, and is quite well camouflaged – so from the sealed road you really do need to park your car (on the nearby sharp corner is a good option) then look for a track.

Except for the dumped cars and eroding car parts, it was a pleasant and quiet walk. A pretty easy walk too, with just a couple of puddles and minor creeks to negotiate along the way. Our main obstruction seemed to be thin invisible spider webs that had been strung across the the track at face-height every few metres.

As ground zero approached, we examined the hint and established we’d need to head 10m or so off the track, up a fairly steep and slippery embankment. It wasn’t too bad, however, and we were soon rewarded with the discovery of another bucket-sized cache full of some nice treasures.

Wolfie inside the cache, with CD Travel Bug

Given our lack of quality items to trade we made no swaps here, but we took the travel bug attached to what I thought was a DVD, which I hoped contained an interesting message from the owner… Turns out I should have actually read the note inside – it was part of a “race” that ended over six months ago, and it was not a DVD with an exciting message, but a boring old CD which people were supposed to load pictures onto, but nobody had bothered to. So really – little more than a boring useless round piece of plastic!  Oh well…

The cache was a great find, the travel bug not so great. I even went to their website www.harrogatehunters.org out of interest to see who won the race, but the site isn’t even there anymore.

Thanks for the cache Grank. We’ve found a few of yours now, and its obvious you put a lot of thought and effort into your quality hides.

We approached GZ after a short drive down Scaddens Ridge Road, with a minor detour just at the cache location that also acts as a safe parking area. The cache had us stumped for a little bit while our GPSr danced around, but before long we were onto it and the cache was in our paws. Not too easy, not too hard – just right!

Wolfie Towering Over the Cache

We love these sensible geocache containers that Shifter Brains use. They obviously love their SPC fruit, and these containers make for an excellent geocache in the right location, especially when camouflaged.

While signing the log book a muggle drove by – but thankfully too quickly to notice the team squatting in the undergrowth doing our suspicious activities. We quickly returned the cache after signing and left the area before the muggle returned.

Thanks again for another cache Shifter Brains – you’re keeping us busy, and we like it.

This small cache was located directly along a dirt road through the Ourimbah State Forest, and there was a lack of obvious parking opportunities at the cache so we just pulled over to the side of the road and put the hazzard lights on. Although narrow, thankfully it’s normally a quiet road – and we had no passing traffic on this occasion. 

Wolfie in the Woods

This was a nice, quick and easy find. We retrieved it safely after some hesitation with the spider risk, but thankfully there were no angry arachnids waiting for us. Being a small cache we made no swaps, signed the log, and replaced it and moved on.

Another one down. Thanks for the cache!

Our trusty Mio Digiwalker guided us directly to GZ, which turned out to be on a minor subsidiary dirt track, running off a main dirt track through the forest. It was drivable in our AWD vehicle almost all but the last 50m or so which was an easy walk.

The name of this cache is a big clue as to what to look for!  It was, the largest geocache TeamWolfie has discovered so far, and it was pretty easy to find if you have an idea what you are looking for.

Big enough for a Wolfie

It’s a nice change to see a large cache like this, with quality contents. If Wolfie were a travel bug, this is the type of cache he’ would have to sleep in – and as most of us know, there just aren’t enough caches of this size around to accommodate our Wolfie as an official travel bug, so for now he’s stuck traveling around with the rest of the team, going from cache to cache and having his picture taken.

We had no swaps  on us that were worthy of this cache, so we signed the log and moved on after placing the geocache back in it’s resting place.  Thanks for the cache – this being a milestone as our first find for 2009.

The geocache further up the track and deeper in the forest is the unusually named Oh My God, they killed Kenny! – Valley of Annelids (GC1D032), by GeoMonkeys. This weekend we were already in the right area to approach this cache from the south side – being an easier approach.

As a South Park fan myself, I am familiar with the saying “Oh My God, they killed Kenny!”, and as we approached this cache from the easier route from the south, we came up a road called Kilkenny Road which lead us to the Great North Walk and Ourimbah Track – so it all makes sense now.

As far as “Valley of the Annelids” part of the name goes… according to Wikipedia -

“The annelids, collectively called Annelida (from Latin anellus ”little ring”), are a large phylum of animals comprising the segmented worms, with about 15,000 modern species including the well-known earthworms and leeches.”

Leeches? Yes, these are creatures we are growing accustomed to after several encounters with them during our geocaching expeditions. So small, so strong, so hungry, and so fast. 

As we walked from the end of Kilkenny Road down the path we wondered – where are all these so-called leeches… not a leech in site. The path started out relatively flat, and dry, and leech free. It was a trick. Very soon we were descending into the depths of the Valley of the Annelids, and found ourselves surrounded by leeches inching around on the ground whereever we stepped, looking for every opportunity to cling themselves onto our footware.

Despite swamping our shoes with Aeroguard, these strong and hungry little suckers still managed to cling onto our shoes and boots. So disgusting. So much time spent flicking them off. Argh! So frustrating.

The leech population seemed to increase exponentially as we ventured deeper into the valley. It was like something from a horror movie – and one could easily imagine more Kenny being devoured by the little blood suckers. We couldn’t even stop for a rest, or stop to contemplate the location of the cache, or even think about looking at our GPS – for stopping, even only for a brief moment, would surely mean more leeches would hitch a ride on our tasty feet and legs.

We were exhausted. It seemed difficult to get a fix. I think we went too far – probably past the cache. After a while we gave up – with GZ showing as being about 100m off the track, nothing was making any sense down here in this diabolical valley.

It beat us. We gave up and begun the long sweaty journey back up the hill. Perhaps we’ll be back again sometime – next time, better prepared for the onslaught of parasites. The attempt to find this geocache is NOT for the feint hearted, or for those with a phobia of blood suckers!

We have already found many geocaches located along the Great North Walk – including Mooney Valley Micro, Ourimbah Trackhead, Dead Horse Creek and Coventry Street. No doubt there are many more. Thankfully you don’t have to walk the 250km in one session!  Usually, as is the case with Old Scribbly, there is a place nearby where the walk intersects with a road where you can park relatively close to the cache – in this case, Old Scribbly is about 300m down the track off Robinson Road at Somersby.

Recent rain had left parts of the track a little muddy – something to be aware of before venturing down to Old Scribbly.

It was a relatively short, flat, easy walk through the quiet and dense forest. Small animal tracks either side of the human track provided evidence of an abundance of wildlife in the area, although none were to be seen today (that we noticed, anyway).

The Old Scribbly cache was a wonderful find in a wonderful grand old scribbly bark tree. Considering the age of the cache, it’s in excellent condition. This medium sized geocache was of the biscuit container variety – of the type I have not seen since I was a young child in the 1970s! We left a Red Gem, took a small Rabbit – and signed the Log Book.

Old Scribbly Scribbles will lead you to the cache

From the picture, you can see why this tree is called a scribbly-bark tree – and this one is particularly old and prominent. Thank you Geomonkeys for bringing us to another exciting location that we would otherwise have never known existed.

Today was about tranquility, and the first cache of the day was appropriately named Way to Tranquility (GCT5ZJ) – a Micro cache placed by local cacher Shifter Brains. The cache is located near a freeway overpass, which with a little imagination acts as a gateway to tranquility as it separates the forest on one side, with the houses on the other. Not far from here is a beautiful rainforest reserve called the Forest of Tranquility, and hence the name of the cache.

Tranquility under a Freeway Overpass

GZ lead us Wolfie Guy to a fairly obvious place to hide a cache of this type, so it turned out to be a nice quick and easy find, and a very good start to our 10-cache day.

Continuing a few more kilometres along the scenic road we come to our next hunt which is another of Shifter Brains’s geocache hides. It doesn’t have a nice exotic name like the last one – this one being known as Tinitus II (GCT5ZH).

It was time here to get a little muddy and a little dirty. Although right by the road, parking was a bit tricky along this narrow roadway, and as the cache description rightly says – it’s best to park a  bit before or after Ground Zero. 

We had a couple of freaky, weird, mysterious type experiences on this day – and Tinitus II was to bring us our first strange experience. Again – Wolfie Guy was straight onto finding this medium-sized cache hidden under some leaves in a rotted moss-covered log. The box had leeches inching all over it, so we dug it out with a stick. Upon removing it in the silence of the forest a loud and distinct cat’s “MEOW” startled both of us. Looking around we searched for the mystery cat which sounded so close, but no matter how hard we looked about us no feline could be found. Very strange indeed.

Now this alone was strange enough, however, upon opening the cache Wolfie Ben was stunned to find the log bog had a picture of a cat on its cover. We still cannot find an explanation for the “MEOW”, so we called it a ghost cat.

Looking for the Mysterious Ghost Cat

After signing the log we swapped a “Baby Fireman” for a “Green Disco Ball”, and thus adding to our growing collection of coloured Disco Balls. 

We continued our trek further up Ourimbah Creek Road to the last of the planned caches in this area, another of Shifter Brains’s medium-sized hides, this one known as Ourimbah Track Head (GCT5ZG). Forming part of The Great North Walk, the Ourimbah Track makes its way through some beautiful dense forest environments with an array of wildlife.

White blossoms from the tree branches above us floated gently down around us while . Trudging up the steep and muddy trail scattered with broken crumbling leaf litter as we leave the car and road behind us.

A red fox scurried across the path ahead – running close to the ground, it’s white-tipped tail swaying behind it as it melted into the forest. Wow. We had never seen a fox so close in the wild like this, and our presence didn’t seem to concern it too greatly. It had passed right across an intersection that indicated ground zero – the cache was nearby.

A fox similar to this was at the Cache site

We hastily opened the cache under the threat of another leech attack while also inspecting the minor animal track on which the fox had passed right by the cache, wondering if this was a regular route for the fox. A distant barking dog at a nearby house signaled an alarm – perhaps the dog had sensed the fox, or us. It was no time to delay. We signed the log and made a quick swap – leaving behind a bottle opener for a shower timer.

Wolfie and the Ourimbah Trackhead Cache

Suddenly an angry black dog leapt out of the bush, barking viciously at us. Perhaps it was following the scent of the fox, perhaps it’s target was us. TeamWolfie growled back at the angry dog and told it to go back home, at the same time it’s owner was heard in the distance calling it back too.  It turned and left us in peace to replace the cache.

It was time to back-track and head a few kilometres north now, up into the Ourimbah State Forest, but not without another freeway underpass micro. Our next find’s name very accurately describes the cache – Tiny Shiny (GC19KH1), a micro by GeoMonkeys.

For the casual observer, a freeway underpass is a noisy, baron, lifeless place. But for the geocacher it can be a treasure trove of hiding opportunities where a micro can be stashed – in this case so many possible places, all the same. It took less than five minutes – we found the container, and unraveled the scroll hidden in the tiny shiny bejeweled tin stashed in the concrete crack. Broken glass all around the roadside – an environment in which only a geocaching enthusiast could find a moment of bliss.

Getting the scroll back into it’s small housing proved an achievement in itself. Already breaking up in three parts it was becoming delicate, and it must be wound tight to make it fit. We returned the cache to it’s spot, so discrete to the casual observer, yet now so blatantly obvious to those who know it’s there with the sun reflecting off it like a shiny beacon. Sadly we were so caught up in the moment that we forgot to take a photo.

Now it was time to press in and up into the bushland of the Ourimbah State Forest. Our all-wheel-drive vehicle proved indispensable as we climbed up the steep muddy inclines to the next location – a micro called Jump (GC16QAQ) by gkseal. 

GZ lead us to a rocky outcrop with stunning views and cliff drops. There is evidence of the area being used by 4WD enthusiasts, rock climbers, and campers with some impressive nearby caves.

Wolfie Jumping Around

The thought of looking for a micro in the bush seemed a little daunting at first – but don’t let this aspect put you off this cache. This is a very clever cache, in a very clever location that is ideally suited for a micro of this type. After the important business of signing the log it seemed a shame not to do some exploring of the nearby natural features in this scenic location.

Standing on the rocky mountain top on the edge of a cliff, we stared down into the forest of pale trunked ghostly trees. Ferns on the forest floor swayed gently in the wind, waving back at us. Below the cliff to the right was a huge fallen tree cut down by loggers. Following a safe path further down to my right we found a secret cave half way up the cliff, unreachable without some abseiling gear. There are a couple of accessible nice caves in this location, spoilt only by the trash left behind by other visitors.

We continued our journey north-west through the forest along the bumpy dirty track to another of the Shifter Brains caches, 12 or 12 (GC1GQJA). Appropriately named, on the corner of the road to to Red Hill there is a junction signposted 12km to Wyong this way, and 12km to Wyong that way. The main sign here is guarded by large hairy tarantulas mostly known as Wolf Spiders – beware!

Spiders of the Wolfie Variety guard the signs

The clue for this cache came in very handy – it really says it all and lead us right to it. Just keep your eyes open – no bush walking needed. The log book is just that. Enough said. Wolfie Ben found the cache quickly, signed the book, and exchanged a red gem for a metallic star. “12 of 12″ was our “6th of 6″ finds for the day so far. Time to try now for number seven.

It’s amazing to see the landscape and vegetation change so dramatically over such relatively short distances. From thick bushland we were guided to a drier and more dusty place. Forest Fruits (GC1G5DM) is yet another of the Shifter Brains cache hides – so called because of the orchards in the area, one being directly adjacent to ground zero.

Our first thought – what a shame they are lemons! But on reading the log we discovered that others had referred to them as oranges, so perhaps we’re just here at the wrong time.

This location had both the TeamWolfie members stumped for quite a while. It was to be the most difficult cache of the day – and the only one we came close to almost giving up on. The wind blew fiercely as we squinted against the flying dust. Flies buzzed circles around my head adding to the frustration of not being able to find it. The clue and location seemed obvious, but the hide was just so well disguised and easily overlooked. Maybe we were getting tired, but our persistence paid off in the end with the cache being discovered after a 20 minute search when we noticed some oddly placed logs.

The bag containing the log book was damaged – but thankfully TeamWolfie also shop at Aldi and had some spare bags exactly the same, so we replaced the log bag and disposed of the broken one. It’s just some of the good work we do when we go out caching!

Forest Fruit for a Hungry Wolfie

After signing the log and doing our caching business it was time for a well-earned break. Some Forest Fruit seemed appropriate at this location, so we pressed on after a brief food break where we munched down a banana or two.

Time to play Monopoly? Our here in the bush?  Of course!  Geocaching Monopoly – our next hunt was another of the Monopoly series of caches by cphoenix – this one based on the yellow square Coventry Street (GCYWN1) – as it is known in the traditional English version of the game. Probably the most difficult thing about getting to this cache (and another nearby) was deciding where to park and from which direction to get to them. We decided to come in around from the west, hence stumbling across this cache first.

Coventry Street was about a 10 minute walk down a relatively flat track from where we had left the car – this track also being part of The Great North Walk. The path here forms the official boundary between the state forest, and some farming properties. It’s a pleasant and relatively flat walk to this cache, with a couple of small creek crossings (there are foot bridges), and an unusual huge hole burrowed into the ground at one location which we presumed was a wombat den. With the aid of the clue and our two GPS units we found the cache only after a brief search in a couple of obvious places.

Wolfie must pay $22 rent for landing here!

This is the 2nd of the Monopoly series we have come across – the other being The Angel, Islington.

We paid the rent and continued to make our way east toward the 2nd cache in this immediate area.

Another cache awaits us just 500m further east along the track. The track now becomes windy and steep as we head down into a valley toward Dead Horse Creek (GCRC56) by Detourism.  Along the forest trail we walked deep into the lush rainforest – with the bush changing again within a few minutes walk from a dry, windy, semi-rural landscape to something from another world. Bush rock was used as stairs which made the walk a lot easier than it otherwise would be. The variety of plant life was tremendous, it was like visiting another land.

The track wove its way through the mystical forest and at one point orange and black butterflies floated majestically before us. A running stream – presumably Dead Horse Creek, was calling us down into the valley. What a great oasis this would be on a hot summer’s day. On this occasion we didn’t need to cross the creek, as the cache was on the western side, and so were we.

While taking in the tranquil surrounds beside the creek for a split second Wolfie Guy thought he saw a black figure quickly speed past without making a sound. He questioned his own eyes when he looked for what it was and found nothing.

Ground Zero for this cache was a little tricky. The dense forest canopy and the steep walled valley playing havoc with our GPS units, but on reading the clues there was only one very obvious place where this cache could be, so we detoured from the track and made our way to what we were certain was the cache location.

We climbed around it, over it, under it, and looked in the middle of it. Oh dear – we were having a perfect day so far, was this one to get the better of us?  Surely not.  We had come so far.  Keep looking.  And by stroke of inspiration, Wolfie Guy lifts something up – it’s the cache!  It was amazing to find such a large and obviously popular cache – so many treasures, so well hidden in such a natural environment – a place where it simply couldn’t possibly be found by even the most curious of muggles.

Dead Horse Creek cache is tricky, but worth it.

There were many treasures inside the well-packed cache. We left a precious stone and took a beautiful “Suncatcher” geocoin to help it on it’s travels, signed the log, and placed this awesome cache carefully back exactly how we had found it.

Although the cache was tricky, I don’t think we would have been disappointed if we hadn’t found it. This is a beautiful oasis and it’s worth visiting just for the scenery. The cache find is a bonus.

What goes down, must come up – as we make our way up out of the Dead Horse Creek valley and head westward back to our car, passing Coventry Street and the big wombat hole along the way.

Nine attempted caches, nine successful finds. What a day – but why stop at nine, when a tenth is just up the road a little bit? Bumble Along (GC1G5DJ) is yet another of the Shifter Brains caches – conveniently located next to a small roadside parking bay that offers majestic views across the surrounding countryside.

Wolfie just Bumbling Along

It was a short, steep climb down to the cache which we found after a short look in a couple of obvious spots. It was to be our tenth find for the day. Signed the log, left a precious stone, and took a travelbug to move it on.

At the start of this ambitious day we had no idea what to expect or how many finds we would achieve – but achieving a hit rate of 10 out of 10 was beyond our wildest expectations – together with being treated to the experience of finding some great new locations in our local region. We saw a friendly red fox up close, we heard a ghost cat “MEOW”, and caught glimpse of a mysterious dark shadowy creature in the Dead Horse Creek gully.

It’s been a great fun day out and TeamWolfie is looking at coming back here soon to finish off the remaining geocaches in this area that we are yet to attempt.

It’s been three weekends since we discovered the amazing sport/hobby/game of Geocaching. We’ve now found 14 caches, mostly learning as we go about different cache types, contents and hide locations. It was only a matter of time before we were ready to hide our own cache – and that time had come.

Over the weeks it had been in the back of our minds – “Where will we hide our caches, what’s a good place?”, and we settled on three general locations to start with on the Central Coast of NSW near our home base.

For anyone contemplating hiding their own cache I strongly suggest you read geocaching.com’s Tips for Hiding your first Geocache, and their Geocaching Guidelines so we’re all following a set of common rules.

One of the places under consideration was in the Sommersby / Strickland State Forest area near the F3. I know of an old disused bridge adjacent to Dog Trap Road that used to carry the old two-lane “Expressway” over the top of Dog Trap Road. It was built in the 1960’s and became redundant in the mid 1980’s when that section of F3 was built.

It’s an eerie location, and now densely overgrown with vegetation. I initially thought this would be an ideal location for a cache – even with a name in mind: “A Bridge to Nowhere”. But on arrival and surveying the area a few things put us off this location.

For starters there was a new work-site directly adjacent to the entry of this site, which will make it difficult for cache hunters to get in and out discretely. The works are only temporary (some kind of storm water drainage being worked on), but still enough to be off-putting.

Secondly, there appeared to be no “good” spot to put our small plastic container cache on or near the bridge itself, and recent tyre tracks in the mud made it apparent that construction trucks were passing over the bridge along the old roadway – so we couldn’t risk our cache being destroyed.

Finally we looked under the bridge itself, only to find it to be a haven for derelicts and graffiti vandals – again, probably not a suitable location for a cache. ”Plan B” ??  Yes, fortunately there was a Plan B in this immediate area, in the adjacent Strickland State Forest.

Strickland is a beautiful location and you’ve probably zoomed past it many times before on the F3. It’s the site of some amazing bushwalks, some waterfalls, scenic streams, and rainforest vegetation in its valleys. It’s right next to the busy Sydney to Newcastle freeway corridor, but the entrance to Strickland is somewhat out-of-the-way, and I think that’s a good thing.

When you drive into Strickland be sure to pay attention to the signs. The park gates close at 5pm in the winter, and 8pm in the summer.

There’s an upper car park, and a lower car park. The upper car park is near a picnic area that has views across the Gosford area with tables and toilet facilities – and walking tracks to the Strickland Falls.

Given there’s already a geocache at Strickland Falls we proceeded to the lower carpark. There’s no picnic facilities or toilets down here, and the road down is a little steep and rocky in parts but should be negotiable by any standard 2WD vehicle.

Down in the valley you are rewarded with some amazing walking tracks through some beautiful and tranquil rainforest vegetation. It’s also much quieter down here because most people opt for the upper car park. Having said that, there was one other car present on our arrival, and those muggles had invaded the specific walking track we were intending to investigate, so we opted for a track we’d never walked before known as Stoney Creek Trail.

Proceeding along Stoney Creek Trail we noted some possible hiding locations, only to be deterred when it was apparent that sometimes Stoney Creek rushes with water.  There was evidence of a high water level by the location of some vegetation debris caught up against rocks and other trees in the creek bed. We wanted our cache to be safe.

We also wanted our cache to be dry. The last cache we visited was water logged.

Finally we found a suitable resting place in the woods alongside the trail, about 750m from the car park.

It was starting to rain and we had to rush things a little here. If you’re following us you know we like to get pictures of our trademark dog “Wolfie” in cache locations, but we had no time – we were literally getting drenched in a downpour.

We were totally unprepared for rain, and by this time we were absolutely soaking wet, but it wasn’t unpleasant. It somehow felt nice to be in a rainforest, on a warm day, in the rain. Our main concern was keeping our equipment dry, and to focus on getting an accurate location. We had two devices handy on us to help do that – my Apple iPhone, and a Mio car navigator.

Although sometimes very accurate and useful, on this occasion the iPhone didn’t provide us with any useful location. I suspect I didn’t give it enough time to pick up our location – and I have noticed it is quite fussy and needs a wide view of the sky to get a good lock. We’re in a valley, it’s raining, and there’s a tree canopy above us – not favorable for the iPhone GPS.

So we got out the Mio. Positioning it above the cache we took three coordinate readings and wrote them down and made our way along the sometimes muddy path back to the car.

Fortunately it was a short drive home where we could dry ourselves off, and discovered leeches had made their way into our shoes – but fortunately not through our socks (unlike the last time we were attacked by leeches which turned out to be a bloody experience). 

After dealing with all that it was time to look at the coordinates obtained and get them into Google Earth for confirmation. Thankfully the three readings were within 5 metres of each other – which I was very happy with, and we settled on an average of these – simply calculated by taking the average of the three decimalized minute components.

To confirm our methodology we put our three hard readings as placemarks in Google Earth, along with our “averaged” location – and on zooming in we have a nice triangle with our “average” point in the middle, which is just what we wanted.

We are hoping the averaged coordinate, and our hint, will be enough to help anyone find this cache. Looking forward to your comments and feedback.

Keep on Cachin’

PS – we left a special gift in there for the First to Find.