Station Creek Rest Area

TeamWolfie pushed our geocaching geographical boundaries northward today whilst on a visit to see my dad for his birthday. After lunching at Tea Gardens we headed back and I thought I’d show my dad and his wife what geocaching is about on a visit to the Station Creek Rest Area (GC128GX), a cache by outdoorbloke, located on the Pacific Highway near the Tea Gardens Road turnoff.

It all went as planned, being a nice easy find. There were a few muggles around a the rest area but they were too busy worrying about their toilet stop to be too concerned with us trampling through the shrubs on the side of the road. The cache was sited relatively quickly – and I had to explain to our friends that geocaching is rarely this straightforward.

Wolfie with the cache container

The container had a few small swaps inside – we swapped a red gem for a “fuzzy purple creature” (honestly, I don’t know what else to call it), signed the log book, and replaced the cache in it’s little hiding place.

Thanks to outdoorbloke for a nice straightforward find and a great way to introduce my dad to what geocaching is all about.

TeamWolfie

Fountains Falls – our first FTF

To some people geocaching is about the numbers, to some it’s a casual hobby, a sport, a game, or even a lifestyle. Geocaching can be anything you make it, but it cannot be disputed there are certain milestones and achievements that can make the geocacher feel good about the activity – “First to Finds” (FTF) are one such milestone.

The probability of you getting an FTF depends on a number of factors – such as the geocache density in your area, number of active geocachers, whether you’re regularly checking email alerts from geocaching.com, time of day, or just plain luck. I listen to a few geocaching podcasts where they talk about “First to Find Hounds” (people who put a lot of their geocaching energy into being the first to find a newly listed cache), and “First to Find Parties” (where one may go to seek out a FTF and come across other cachers in there area with the same intention).

So when I noticed an email from geocaching.com about a newly-listed cache only 4km from my home co-ordinates, I did get a little bit excited. The new cache was a medium-sized hide by local cacher Shifter Brains, called Fountains Falls (GC1KPMX). The alert came in very early in the morning as I was getting ready for work.  I figured we’d be out of luck… surely somebody else would beat us to the cache. It was frustrating knowing there was a brand new cache so close to home, yet I couldn’t get a chance to seek it out for another 12 hours. The odds of getting a FTF on this one now seemed slim.

At work I thought about the cache some more. Using my iPhone I checked out the route to the cache on google maps, even looked at the street view so I could be familiar with parking, and location of the track. The day passed slowly, and finally at about 4pm TeamWolfie made their way up to the location for a possible FTF. The online log was still empty, so we were hopeful.

There were two ways to access this cache. We chose the “short” option – about a 600m walk down a fairly well formed fire trail. GZ was close to a beautiful stream running through the bushland. Our iPhones guided us up another track running parallel to the stream as we closed in on GZ. 

Wolfie Enjoying the Creek Nearby

Hoping to get a better fix I punched in the numbers on our Mio DigiWalker – which is designed really as an in-car navigator but we find it quite accurate on the track. The Mio and the iPhones seemed to be matching up and indicating a location just off the track. Time to put the GPSRs away now and rely on the TeamWolfie geosenses… tried one minor trail or animal-track first with no luck, then tried another one and quickly noticed something that didn’t look quite right. Yes – it was the cache. Woo Hoo !

Now the anguish and excitement builds to see if we are indeed the FTF. We carefully remove the cache, and open it. So clean, so new, so very well stocked with nice things. Wow. I’d never seen a cache so new and full of nice new things before. Time to open the log book. YES – It’s Empty!  We are FTF!!

Travel Bug going into new home

We do our caching deeds: signed the log book (and gloated about our first FTF), we took a Bottle Opener and left a Travel Bug, then carefully resealed the cache and placed it back in it’s hiding spot – leaving it exactly how we’d found it.

Wolfie under the Waterfall

After this we did a spot of exploring on the opposite side of the track and found a really nice little waterfall where the stream was running through. Being a hot day, TeamWolfie took the opportunity to cool down and enjoy our moment of satisfaction, knowing we now have a FTF under our belt.

Proud to be the FTF Fountains Falls

Thanks to Shifter Brains for another awesome cache in a great location. You’ve really been giving TeamWolfie a lot of caching to do and we appreciate it.

Head like a Box

Every now and then we come across a geocache that we just know is going to be a memorable experience. Such is the case with Head like a Box (GC2471), by GeoMonkeys – so called because of it’s location on the tip of Box Head on the Killcare Peninsula.

The 1km hike out to GZ from the closest parking place was moderately challenging, and spectacularly rewarding with some of the most fantastic views across Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury River entrance that I have ever seen. A recent bushfire in the area on one side of the track gave an opportunity to see vegetation being regenerated, which in itself was quite fascinating.

Looks like a nice beach down there!

With so many photo opportunities along the hike to ground zero, it would be easy to dedicate half a day or longer to take in all the sites and have a relaxing time.

The Wolfie that ate Lion Island

When you arrive at a place where you can go no further, you’re pretty much at GZ and it’s time to seek out the medium-sized cache, which we did after only a few minutes of searching. We took the travel bug, signed the book, and took some more time to admire the spectacular views and fresh sea breeze.

Wolfie taking in the sea breeze

The walk back was equally pleasant, if not a little more difficult being mostly uphill with a few short steep climbs but nothing the team couldn’t handle.

Thanks GeoMonkeys for bringing us to this fantastic spot which would otherwise remain unknown. It turned out to be a memorable cache find and definitely one of our favourites. We’ve promised to return here again soon to give Wolfie a run and swim at the nearby beach!