We’ve managed to pick up quite a few of these now. This one is listed as a “micro” – but I’d personally call it a small cache because, despite the size of the container – there was room for a few small swaps – and of course, the Monopoly card itself.

Wolfie lands on Regent Street. Rent Owed.

This was a nice, handy, and relatively straightforward cache. There’s even a freeway exit for both north and southbound access very close by – so a great “park-and-grab” style geocache for anyone traveling between Sydney and Newcastle.

Thanks for the cache!

This small cache is located in a clever spot along Glenrock Parade. It is the stereotypical park-and-grab cache – you find a spot to park, walk a few paces, grab the cache, do the business, return the cache, get back in your car, and off you go. Nice and easy when you’re not in the mood to go hiking through the forest – or you want a quick find to get you motivated for the day, as we did.

Kool View, Kool Cache

We enjoyed finding this cache and taking a drive up a few streets we don’t normally get the chance to visit. Left a red gem, took an Aussie Flag sticker.

Thanks for the cache daznat99 – it is a Kool cache and a Kool view.

Gosford Gateway (GCT91B) by Shifter Brains is located at a spot that you’d call the northern gateway into the Gosford City council area, alongside the Pacific Highway. With the aid of the hint, TeamWolfie found the small-cache fairly quickly, although it was being “guarded” by a large tan-coloured lizard at first.

Gateway to Wolfie's Home

Thankfully you can search for this cache fairly discretely – even in spite of the busy passing traffic, so don’t let its location put you off. We were able to park alongside the site and have relatively good privacy while we searched. 

We quickly signed the cache and returned it. The hardest part was actually waiting for a break in the traffic to take the picture without looking like an idiot.

66 caches down, 6 for the day, and a great start to 2009.

Mosquito Island (GC19D59) by basscadetz is a mysterious and peaceful place. Located at the end of a peninsula at Tacoma South where the mouth of the Wyong River runs into Tuggerah Lake. The cache hider guaranteed a “water feature” at the end of the track, and a “water feature” we got. Although we were woefully unprepared for any water activity, we kicked off our shoes and decided to GO FOR IT !

Mosquito Island - no mosquitos, but there is a geocache.

If you’ve ever waded through a muddy estuary before, you probably already know the sensation of having your feet sink up to 30cm deep into the thick, slimy, sludgy mud – if barefoot, hoping there’s nothing too unfriendly in amongst it all! If you can’t handle this sensation, we strongly suggest gum boots – the type that come up to your knees (or higher)…

We braved it barefoot and had no dramas. The water was warm and inviting – with the appeal of a small child’s wading pool, and who knows what natural or man-made evils lurk beneath the surface?

The island is pretty cool. If I was a bird, like a pelican or a swan, I’d love to have a nest here. For bird watchers there is an abundance of pelicans and black swans swimming in Tuggerah Lake nearby, feeding from the outflow of the Wyong river.

We found the small cache after a brief sniff around, signed the log, and mentally prepared ourselves for the trip back across the murky and muddy waterway.

Contemplating the return to the mainland

Trying to re-trace our steps, I’m sure we sank even deeper into the sludge on the return trip than we did on the way over – perhaps because we’d already stirred it up.

Mosquito Island was certainly a different and memorable place, although I’m surprised this cache only had a terrain difficulty of 2. I would have expected a bonus terrain point for trudging through bog to get to the cache!

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!

Sadly, this could be the case for Secret Vision (GC1871T) by d.d.dudes.

After reading the cache description and checking out the pictures and logs, it seemed this was going to be a really cool and fascinating place to visit. I parked at the Waypoint described, and headed off up the discrete track, and came across the little plaque, as described by the cacher.

This is looking interesting

We headed a little further up the track to where it opened up to a rocky outcrop, and noticed some beautiful and fascinating carvings on ground – the most prominent being a very large kangaroo.

A VERY large Kangaroo carving.

Some of the carvings were well worn and camouflaged, so they’re hard to photograph. It was a very peaceful, almost mystical place. Something rustled in the bush nearby, I turned to spot a large Goanna race up a tree. I must’ve startled him.

With the aid of the hint, I retrieved the cache very quickly and opened it to start signing the log book. Upon doing so I was very surprised to turn around and find two State Forest rangers had appeared from behind – and they wanted to know what I was doing!

I had the cache right there, log book opened which I was in the process signing — so I just told them I was geocaching, and asked if they’d heard of it before.  They explained they knew what geocaching is – but were concerned about it going on at a sacred aboriginal women’s site.

He said he saw my car parked out by the road and wanted to know what I was up to.  They told me there had been some vandalism and disrespectful activities going on, a person called “JACOB” had used an angle grinder to put his name in the rock, and he was very upset that somebody had once “outlined” the carvings with a chalk-type rock to make them stand out so that they could be photographed.

I showed him the log and explained it brought in a few people – but not large numbers, and geocachers are overall a very responsible bunch of people, which he understood – but he explained that to place a geocache at this location is “tacky and disrespectful” to the aboriginal tribe and their ancestors – and is “about as tacky as Nicole Kidman trying to play a didgeridoo.” 

Being a women’s site, they also do not like men being here. Period.

He wanted to know the website and the cache name, which I gave him. I offered to contact the cache owner – which I will, and the ranger said he will also follow it up.  He wants the cache owner to move it – say, a couple of hundred metres away somewhere down the other track. He said “there’s no problem with putting the cache in the state forest, but the problem is with it being at a sacred site.”

Wolfie, on sacred ground.

I returned the cache to its location. I’m not sure if it will still be there now.

This was my 60th find, my last for 2008, and sadly it might also be the last time this cache is found because this is a great spot which should be shared and accessible by responsible people.

There are a few local “residential” ones around the Narara area just near Gosford where I live so I decided to check one out. This one is plainly called Mini Reserve (GC1B604) by BountyHunter1980. Difficulty rating 1, Terrain rating 2, Cache size small.

As the name suggests, the geocache is located in an ordinary grassy reserve in a residential area. Thankfully at 10:30am on New Years Eve on this warm sunny day there were surprisingly few local residents out and about – so it was a very quick park-and-grab.

The cache was about 15m from GZ as per the GPS. I’d already pretty much established its location before getting out of the car just by reading the description and recent logs.

Here’s the google street view of the site:

An ordinary residential reserve.

I made my way across to where I thought it would be, and yes – it was just there. Too easy!

Stealth Wolf

As I bent over to pick up the cachemy leg brushed against something, then shortly, after I felt a sharp stinging sensation. I looked down and realised I’d just brushed up against a small wasp nest, and the wasp in attendance was not happy.

It stung a little – I’d never been stung by a wasp before, but it was nowhere near as bad as I imagined a wasp sting would be.

I carried the cache back to the car where I went about my caching duties. Signed the log book. Left Nothing, Took Nothing (was feeling lazy). The log was a little damp and pages separating – but that seems normal with these caches. Returned cache to its resting place – amazed at the array of bugs, spiders, and wasps that I’d failed to notice when I first retrieved the cache in the excitement of finding it.

Wolfie Watches Wasps

Okay – that’s about as exciting as I can make an ordinary “Mini Reserve” cache sound. Excitement, adventure, stinging insects, and stealthy undercover work… what more could you want?  Thanks BountyHunter1980 for providing us the means to attain our 59th find, and for the pleasure of experiencing a wasp sting for the first time.

Breathless (GCWN51) is a cache by GIN51E. As a Central Coast resident who commutes to Sydney for work, I’ve zoomed past this location hundreds of times and given it little or no thought. I hadn’t even realised there was a bush track leading up the hill until reading the cache description.

I might be debatable whether it’s legal to park here on the Freeway, and this is one of those little places where police cars like to sit back and have the radar gun operating, but we took the chance today and thankfully we had no dramas.

The steep hill was the perfect exercise needed to walk off our caching-lunch at Pie in the Sky from where we had just come, although about half way up the hill I was really wishing I’d just driven my AWD vehicle up there instead – as it just seemed to go on, and on, higher, and higher.

GZ was at the highest point, and our GPS receiver lead us toward a rocky outcrop with sweeping views overlooking the Hawkesbury River from a vantage point I’d never seen before. Yes, the view was absolutely breathless and I can understand why the cache hider GIN51E, says he spent an hour sitting here admiring the view.

The view was breathless, and so were we!

I put myself in his vantage point and turned back and asked myself where would be the logical place to put a small-sized cache?  Ahhh, right there!  And thankfully, right there it was.

I’ll never forget the experience of climbing up to the top of this hill and the fantastic views up here, and it will certainly give me something to think about every time I drive past here now on the F3 as I remember this special Sunday afternoon.Whenever I see a car parked in that little place alongside the freeway I’ll be asking myself, “might they also be looking for the Breathless geocache”?

By this time we were extra wary of snakes! When we approached GZ we found the likely spot for the cache to again be in a spot that looked like a great habitat for snakes and other nasties, so we approached with caution and made a lot of noise along the way, hitting the ground with our sticks in an effort to scare off any little surprises that might be waiting for us!

Landed on Vine Street. Pay $18 Wolfie!

Within a few minutes we had located the Vine Street cache. No snakes this time… we swapped a couple of plastic “bugs” from our Christmas Bon Bons for a couple of Football card, and placed the cache back in its resting place.

Located along the Sid Pulsford Trail, this small-sized geocache is an easy and relatively-flat 10 minute walk from the main car park. When we got to ground zero, finding the cache in it’s clever little well-hidden nest only took a few minutes of sniffing around.

Wolfie sniffing out The Road Not Taken

After signing the log book we left a clear blue stone and took a cute little star. You can think you’re all alone out here, especially early on a Saturday morning, however while we were signing the log and doing the swaps a power-walking muggle appeared from nowhere coming from the opposite direction, but went off in a different direction. Thankfully she didn’t see us!

We carefully replaced the cache in it’s well-covered nest. Thanks for a great find Super Snoop.