Mardi Grass

Mardi Grass (GC1299C) is a puzzle geocache by local cacher Shifter Brains - so called because of it’s proximity to Wyong’s Mardi Dam. 

This was TeamWolfie’s first attempt at a puzzle cache and it was quite fun. We were provided a grid of numbers, and a special code which we quickly worked out related to positions on the grid to the right numbers for the South and East coordinates to Ground Zero.

The puzzle part in this case was pretty easy, but the cache finding proved somewhat of a challenge. We parked at the original coordinates provided in the cache description, which was an excellent parking bay off the road, and only a short walk to the Ground Zero uncovered by the puzzle – presuming we were correct on our puzzle assumptions.

On approach to what we hoped was GZ we re-read the description that the cache would be near the fence, in amongst the rocks – and indeed, we were approaching an area that fit the description exactly.

What followed was a very frustrating search. This was a medium-cache, and a recent previous finder had noted at how large the cache was for it’s hiding place – so we poked and prodded in every hole and lifted rocks to no avail. After a good 20 minutes searching it was nearly time to throw it in and come back another day – but not to be deterred we tried one more spot, and as so frequently happens, there it was!

Wolfie drops the Allendel geocoin into the treasure box

And yes, it was surprising such a relatively large container was able to fit into what seemed like a fairly small hidey hole between the rocks! And it was quite full – containing a couple of travel bugs and a geocoin.

We dropped off the the beautiful Ellandel’s Australia geocoin (we had taken from The Lost Pharoah), and picked up the Clockwork Orange travel bug. Thanks again Shifter Brains – you guys certainly have provided us with a lot of quality finds lately!