All posts by Scott

AJ2010 – Visitors Day

January 9, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

Today Bradley and I made the trek up Bulli Pass to Cataract Park not sure if we would make it as the car was working on fumes as I had forgotten to fill it up. We made it OK but would we make it home?

Our trip today was to the AJ2010 Visitors Day to catch up with Jenny and Rachael after their first week.

It was a warm day (35C with about 70% humidity) which made for close conditions with plenty of sweat and keeping up fluids.

We managed a car park very close to the entrance (our arrival time was 11:00 am) and they had finished sending all the cars down to the dam and were filling up spaces that were left. Through the entrance was quick and we were on site within 5 minutes. Seemingly those that had entrance times at 8:00am only got on site about an hour before we got there.

The thing with Cataract Park is the walking and distances. Of course Troop 0404 was not the furthest from the entrance, it wasn’t far off. (1.3 km from the entrance).

Jenny and Rachael were happy to see us and we had a quick look at the cap then headed to Sub Camp 4 Market Area then back for lunch with all the other family members that had made the trek across from SA. Meat and Salad Rolls for lunch today.

After lunch, the kids disappeared, and I headed off to the Geocaching Event that was scheduled for today on site. They introduced Geocaching as an activity for this Jamboree and it was being taken up by many with a number of temporary caches set up on site. I caught up with many cachers from Australia and NZ. We exchanged tips, pathtags and travel bugs and headed on our way.

After walking around some more, taking in the Contingient Tents, we went to Sub Camp 2 to catch up with Liam and Lochie McHenry who were attending their first Jamboree. An exchange has been set up for Tuesday night where Rachael’s patrol will dine at 0224 and Lochie’s patrol will dine at 0404.

After another meal with Troop 0404, Bradley and I made the trek back up to the car and into Appin to get fuel (we made it).

While in Appin and on the way back to Wollongong, picked up some caches of course.

Caches for today were:

GA1702 – Jamboree Scout Geocacher Get Together

GA1691 – Where the wild things used to be

GA1747 – Scouts, Why Knot?

GC10F0X – Cataract Scout Park

GC22ET3 – Ferals

GC22ERZ – Eye Spy

GC13R02 – Appin Gateway

GC21KRZ – Barefoot in the Park

GCYJ6N – Da BOM

GC1A9BY – Copious Caches on the Coast #2

GC101VK – Dharawal Gateway

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Family Life

The second wave heads to AJ2010

January 6, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

It was time for the second wave to head to AJ2010. Bradley and I were heading to the Visitors Day to catch up on the first week of Jenny and Rachaels Jamboree.

Got away from home on time at 9:30 am but later in the day I realised that the water fridge was still sitting on the lounge room floor. 🙁

First stop was Nairne to pick up Bradley as he had a sleepover and was supposed to be ready when I arrived – was he – NO!!

Next stop was at Mannum to drop off Molly at Grandma’s for our time away. Molly is always happy to see Grandma but I think she still wanted to come with us.

Travel today was pretty good stopping at Pinnaroo for lunch. We headed to the bakery to find Alex and Lachlan Brockbank there. They travelled with us to Ouyen then we parted company as they were heading south along the Murray and we were heading north.

Our first night stop was the Balranald Caravan Park where we had a comfortable cabin.

Not much in the cache stakes today but managed to grab a few mainly Trig Points.

Caches today were:

TP2424 – Kay Hill

TP0340 – Kiamal Area

GCMQYR – WeirBal

TP5310 – Balranald Area Trig

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Family Life, Scouts

AJ2010 – Troop 0404 Departure

January 2, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

It was 12:30 pm and all except 1 family were waiting at the Blackwood Primary School (the missing family were at the Belair Primary School wondering where everyone was). We were wondering where the bus was. It didn’t arrive until 1:00 pm.

Once the bus arrived, bags were loaded on and kids found their seats. It was then back off the bus for the departure photos, final farewells and then it was time for Rachael and Jenny to depart for the AJ2010 at Cataract Park for the 22nd Australian Jamboree.

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Geocaching

Time to wear off that Xmas lunch …

December 26, 2009 Scott Leave a comment

Like I am sure many others yesterday, I indulged too much in the food and drink department. So after a sleep in, it was time to head out and walk some of it off.

There were a few caches that I had been leaving for such a day in the local area. One was in Belair National Park and the other two were in the quarries half way down Old Belair Road.

Drove up to the Park Boundary and found the right fire track to get close to GZ. I grew up in this park in my early years – it was more or less my backyard. It seemed so bigger back then. GZ was located in the northern part of the Park (don’t want to give away too much).

We used to be able to ride our bikes all the way to GZ but it is so overgrown that it was a real struggle through blackberries to get anywhere near. Made it through leaving skin and blood along the way.

Once getting to GZ it was a relatively easy find – another “Z” cache bites the dust. Now to get out ……

The other two caches were in a quarry that we have used over the years for Road Crash Rescue training and Rope Rescue training so again I was familiar with the area.

The first was one of series of Mitcham Quarries which I still have a couple to grab and was a quick find at the base of one of the cliffs we use for Rope Rescue. The second cache was another “Z” cache …..

Many of the previous finders had resorted to using abseiling gear to retrieve this one – I was hoping to utilise my climbing skills.

I scouted out the cache location. I could see it from the other side of the quarry. There appeared to be enough hand and foot holds even for my large frame. Made the climb, retrieved the cache, back down, signed the log, back up to rehide the cache and back down without even losing any skin. 🙂

I think I had worked off enough of yesterday – well I was certainly sweating it out, so back hoe for a swim.

Caches for the day:

GC1KV2M – Alternative toMultiply is Divide

GC1XCD8 – Mitcham Quarries #2 – Car Crash Crag

GC18AX7 – Ransom

$GC18AX7 - Another \"Z\" cache is mine ...$

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Family Life, Holidays

Xmas Lights

December 17, 2009 Scott Leave a comment

It is that time of the year again, but we are always way too busy it had taken a bit longer to get the lights up and running.

We are one of the few this year with lights up in the neighbourhood, but the kids still get a kick out of them and so do I.

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12 of 12, Family Life, Firefighting, Geocaching, Scott at Work, Scouts

December 12 of 12

December 12, 2009 Scott 3 Comments

Today was an interesting and varied day for a 12 of 12.

The day started out in the early hours of the morning with a 3rd alarm fire at the old Julia Farr building at Fullarton where I attended as a Safety Officer.

After a pretty broken sleep with the pager continuing to go off every hour or so, it was time to head up to the Blackwood Scout Hall to assist the Scout Leaders to pack the pallecon with the equipment for Troop 0404 attending the AJ2010. After packing the 2 trailers with the last minute bits and pieces we headed down to Gillman to start packing.

When we saw the size of the pallecon and the amount of gear to fit in, we were not sure of whether it was possible. Many of the other troops packing also were of the same mind and kept coming over to see how we were going.

After 2 hours all but 2 water containers (they will go in the bus) made it in and the pallecon started its journey to Cataract Park.

It was then time to do some geocaching in the Gillman area.

Caches found today are:

GC1KKCT – Sister of the South

GC1NXH0 – The Fifth Element

GC1BBEX – BIC

GC1FYQV – Come Chase The Bunny

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12 of 12, Family Life, Geocaching, Home Life, Rally, Scott at Work

November 12 of 12

November 12, 2009 Scott Leave a comment

It is that time of the month – 12 of 12.

This month I have published the photos on Facebook. Enjoy.

Geocaching

Our New Pathtag

October 26, 2009 Scott Leave a comment

Our third pathtag is now in production. The theme for this tag is our California Holiday a couple of months ago.

This will be part of the Team Firesafe set that includes the Original Tag and the 333 Days of Non-stop Caching Tag.

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12 of 12, Family Life, Geocaching

October 12 of 12

October 12, 2009 Scott 2 Comments

Today was going to be a productive day at the Rally Office but flexibility is the key. FedEx had tried to deliver a Microsoft package last week while I was in the Flinders but left “Sorry” cards instead. Going on the previous attempts, it should be some time in the morning.

That’s OK, gives me a chance to log the geocache finds for the last 10 days.

Logging the last 10 days of geocache finds

I had Budge the Budgie and Molly the Dog to keep me company, although Molly would rather have Budge for breakfast.

Had the September Geocoin Club Coin arrive in the mail today with it’s accompanying pathtag. It is always interesting to see what design they come up with.

New Arrival today - Geocoin Club Coin and Pathtag

Spent a little time finishing the cleaning of the 4WD after 10 days of Flinders Ranges mud and dust and it is now ready for its next adventure at the Coorong in three weeks.

Time for some morning coffee and a phone call to FedEx to see where it is. Still going to be delivered today ….

Have adopted some caches from another cacher that doesnt want to maintain them unfortuneately they have been archived so I had to make up new listings for them – 6 new caches waiting for review 😀

Still no package, so it was time to get down and do some Classic Adelaide work. Have some printing deadlines coming up for various publications. It is all going well.

It has been a day of sunshine and rainfall all day but during the afternoon, I received a couple of pages for some severe weather. Should be an interesting night tonight.

After tea, Rachael put on her formal dress for me to see and a fitting image to complete this months 12 of 12. 🙂

Holidays

Farina – what were they thinking …..

October 8, 2009 Scott Leave a comment

One of our group wanted to head up to Farina to see the ruins – why not -its only 150 kms away.

Farina is like any other ghost town in the Australian outback until you see the background to the town. It was originally called Government Gums in 1878 but called Farina later after the Latin word for “flour” as they had plans to grow wheat – what were they thinking.

This town was a major railhead with a couple of hotels, bank, police station, school, stores and hospital. At its peak there were 300 people living here.

We stopped at Leigh Creek on the way up, checking out the Drag Line, coal mine and Titan Truck.

Another stop on the way home was Talc Alf at Lyndhurst, even though Alf wasn’t around there was plenty of his work around.

At Copley, the group split up. Half took the bitumen and went through Beltana back to camp while the rest of us followed a line on the map. It would have been quicker if we could have found the end of the track onto the Warraweena track.

Took the chance to have a look at the ruins of the Sliding Rock Mine ruins – one of the many mine ruins in the Flinders Ranges, before heading back to Black Springs Campsite.