Category Archives: Out and About

November 12 of 12 …

November 12, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

It has been not quite a week since getting out of hospital after the “heart attack” and today I needed to go to a funeral of a motor racing identity, Peter Hall, who has driven his last race.

Of course, as I haven’t been driving, the car had a flat battery. Lucky this morning was sunny and the solar panels were soon connected and there was enough charge to get the motor going.

The turn out for the funeral was enormous, filling both chapels, the auditorium and outside. It was a fitting send off for an Aussie Legend.

Part of my rehabilitation involves a lot of exercise to get the heart ticking and the blood flowing. This afternoon, I took off to Belair National Park to grab some of the geocaches that involved a bit of walking near the Upper Waterfall and the old Fire Spotting Tower.

The beauty of this area is that you will always spot a koala or two and today was no exception as well as lizards but luckily no snakes.

Until next month …

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12 of 12, Geocaching, Out and About

October 12 of 12 …

October 12, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

After a week away 4WDing and geocaching up Googs Track and back through the Gawler Ranges it was time to head home. We had spent a couple of days trying to clear the map around Whyalla but failed even though we found 200+ there still are plenty still to go.

Before heading north, we spent a couple of hours getting a few of the picturesque caches mainly along the coast, doing a mini power trail as well.

Arriving at Port Augusta heralded a milestone of 12000 geocache finds with a find of the cache, Dead Boats Don’t Float Two. This is the third attempt on this one and good to get it off the list.

There were some interesting caches including a Japanese puzzle box and one near a giant thong.

That’s it for this months 12 of 12 …

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Family Life, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

Fresh snow – yay but ….

September 19, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

After a night of snowing, there was a fresh 8 cm on the ground but unfortunately we had drizzle to contend with to try and enjoy it.

The temperature was around zero and the drizzle was unrelenting which led to some very slow and grippy snow. There has been no grooming of the runs for a few days and it was very hard going.

After a couple of hours we retreated to Cloud 9 to try and dry off and hope that the drizzle would change to snow. The drizzle didn’t look like it was going to let up after an hour so we headed out again but only lasted about 3/4 of an hour.

By the time we got back to the Lodge, we were saturated right through and were very welcoming of a hot shower.

Rather than finding out whether the car would start tomorrow when we left, I had some time to walk down to the car park in sleet/snow and start it up, letting it run for about 15 minutes, which didn’t even get it warm. There was still snow sitting on it after last nights snowfall.

Only one more day left of this years trip, hopefully the weather will be kind to us so we can enjoy what we have been used to with Spring Skiing in the past, T-shirts and sunglasses. 🙂

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Family Life, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

Big Day of Skiing …

September 18, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

As has been the case the last two days, we awoke to rain on the roof. Oh no, not another day of reduced skiing at Falls Creek.

Turned on the iPad to check the radar and it looked that the rain was just about to pass us with another couple of hours at least before the first cold front made it to us.

A quick bite of breakfast and we got up to the top of the mountain as the rain stopped at 10:30 am.

We skied until 1:00 pm mainly on the northern slopes of Main Street and Highway 83.

After some lunch, (the prices certainly haven’t got any cheaper at Cloud 9) Rachael grabbed the snowboard and headed off for a lesson. The rest of us made our way across to Ruined Castle and Scott’s for the afternoon.

The first cold front hit with about 6 spots of rain and a couple of flakes of snow, so we continued skiing.

Around 3:00 pm, the wind started picking up – a precursor of the second and stronger of the cold fronts.

Rachael had finished here lesson at 3:30 pm, so we did a few more runs with her but the rain was starting followed by sleet. It was time to head back to the Lodge.

It was lucky that we headed down when we did as they shut the lifts down 15 minutes later due to the risk of lightning.

The rain came in strong as we just got into the Lodge (that was lucky), followed by some heavy snow but this was only short-lived, lasting about 30 minutes.

The rest of the evening has been a mixture of rain, sleet, hail and snow so it will be interesting what the slopes are like in the morning and if we will get a full day. 🙂

As well as the GPS I carry in the pocket, I tried an App on the iPhone today called Alpine Replay which seemed promising except that the battery on the phone ran flat 3/4 through the day. Tomorrow I will shut everything down on the phone apart from the App and see if I can get some more time out of it.

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Family Life, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

Stop raining already …

September 17, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

We awoke again this morning to rain. In fact it had been raining all night.

It is one thing to ski in the cold and even when it is snowing but skiing in the rain is no fun as once you become saturated through you need to call it a day or you may end up with hypothermia and that is not good. 🙁

So for another morning we waited it out in Schuss Lodge.

Finally around lunchtime, the rain seemed to have abated but was still overcast. A quick bite of lunch and it was up the mountain.

For most of the afternoon, we were rain free and considering that the slopes were not groomed overnight, the snow wasn’t too bad and we managed to venture to all the 11 runs that were operating today at Falls Creek.

We skied again until closing of the lifts and managed a not too bad 33 km for the afternoon.

The weather is a little hard to predict for tomorrow as we have a low over the top of us with the last 2 days moisture circling the resort and there is a couple of cold fronts over the top of Adelaide heading this way which should make it by morning. Maybe we will get some snow. 🙂

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Family Life, Geocaching, Out and About, Sporting Life

We are the champions …

September 7, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

Rachael had her Netball Grand Final today. Her Ironbank team has been undefeated all year and got to play against the Uraidla Netball Club at Piccadilly. The weather was perfect for the game which is unusual for Piccadilly as every other time I have been to watch her here it has been cold, wet and foggy.

The girls played well with:

16 goal lead by quarter time;

22 goal lead by half time;

23 goal lead by three quarter time;

and a final lead of 24 goals for a 50/26 win.

Well done to Rachael and the rest of the team.

With the the perfect weather, it was time to do some geocaching around the area and made 13 finds for the afternoon with a couple of walks.

I had a 3.5 km walk through Mt George Conservation Park following parts of the Heysen Trail and a 1.5 km walk through the H.K Fry Reserve.

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Geocaching, Out and About

Walk in the Badlands ….

August 26, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

I had finished early at a Workshop at the Fire Service Training College and needed to find a cache for the August Geocaching Challenge.

Looking at my map, there were plenty to be found in the “Badlands”. The “Badlands” is a term given colloquially to the area north of Grand Junction Road and is one of our busiest areas in the Fire Service.

I gave my mate Garry a ring to see if he was up for a walk along the Little Para River behind the Old Spot Hotel. I had heard that there were some very good caches up in that area. What I didn’t tell him was that the terrain on one of the yet to be found caches was “4”. The highest terrain rating is a “5”.

But a “First to Find” is a “First to Find” especially out north where they don’t normally last longer than about 30 minutes. I guess the terrain scared off the local cachers. 🙂

We parked the cars and counted the tyres and headed off up the river. The going was easy to start and the caches were just as good. In fact the work put into the cache containers was exceptional.

The bar has certainly been lifted with these caches. They have been engineered by a new cacher called clojo1 who is also a boiler maker.

The caches included:

GC4FTT2 – Ophidiophobia – a snake;

GC4G7G5 – Arachnophobia – a red back spider;

GC4FWY1 – Chelonaphobia – a turtle;

and GC4K56W – Apipobia – a bee.

The terrain for the 1st three caches was 1.5 and 2 but the fourth cache was the terrain “4” cache. It wasn’t raining today but by the time we got to this one, the heart was pumping and the shirt was saturated with sweat. Lucky I have been hitting the treadmill lately. 🙂

After removing the impressive bee from its honeycomb home, time to check the log book and yes it was blank – yay a”first to find”. 😀

A easy walk back down the river to the cars and a check to see if all the wheels were still there and time to head south home. Today’s walk was 3.5 km but it certainly wasn’t a flat 3.5 km.

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Geocaching, Out and About

But I don’t need rescuing …

August 14, 2013 Scott 2 Comments

What are you here for? We are here to rescue you!! What, do I look like I need rescuing!

Lets start at the beginning…..

A geocaching trip and event had been planned for weeks to take a couple of US Geocachers – RoadRoach58 from Alabama, on a boat ride to Wright Island which had one lonely cache – GC12E7X Yeah Wright.

Mark had organised a tinny and I had borrowed my brothers SeaDoo. Fast forward to last night and the weather was getting rough and we are talking gale force winds and 3 metre swell. All the stuff that Gilligans Island is famous for :).

After some phone calls and checking radars, satellite loops and any other weather thing we could find, it was decided that we would cancel the tinny but would keep with the SeaDoo for those that want to rough it.

On the way home from night shift, I grabbed a new wetsuit as the old one seems to have shrunk in the wardrobe, then onto home to start up the SeaDoo and hit the road to Victor. An hour later and I still couldn’t get the SeaDoo started. Mark had arrived and rang to say it was still fairly rough so there was no need to bring the SeaDoo down.

I threw the kayak on the roof on the off chance that conditions would change in the next hour.

Arriving at the meet point and we were greeted with some friendly faces as well as flat seas and sunshine. What a difference an hour makes.

Well the decision was made, the kayak was in the water and I was on the way. There was still a breeze which was coming from behind assisting in a quick passage to the island. The distance to travel was 1 km.

Around 3/4 way, I encountered a couple of large waves and was soon in the water. Oh well, time to paddle the rest of the way like a surfer.

It wasn’t long and I was on the beach on the northern end of the island. Made a phone call to the others back at the boat ramp to say that all was well and I was on the way up to the top to find the geocache.

It was very windy up top with a few rain showers but apart from that it was easy going to GZ. Unfortunately the vegetation was reasonably thick and I was finding the cache a little elusive. Again I rang back to the boat ramp to see if anyone had any clues to where I should look but no luck there.

Another 5 minutes of looking with no luck and the phone rang. Gary said that I had better cut the search short as the rescue boat is waiting on the beach for you.

“What the hell!!! You are pulling my leg aren’t you.”

“No lies, they are down there waiting for you.”

I made the trek down the hill back to the beach to find the Sea Rescue “bogged” on the beach.

“Hey – what are you guys here for?”

“We are here to rescue you!”

“Do I look like I need rescuing.”

“No, but because the Police called us in, we have to rescue you.”

“To me, it looks like you are the ones needing rescue at the moment.”

The tide was going out and the boat looked like it was going to be there a while. In fact they got on the radio to organise another boat to pull them off.

“You won’t need another boat guys. The waves will be here in a minute as they are coming in sets and the boat will float off.”

I am not the local and knew that and sure enough another set came in and the boat was floating again.

So we loaded the kayak onto the boat and I got the limo ride back to the boat ramp. It was a shame as I was looking forward to riding the waves back to shore. 🙁

On arriving back to shore there was a huge welcoming party including Channel 9 News. There must have been a big breaking story around here somewhere. 😉

No chance of not getting photographed around here.

After talking with the local cop, it seems that one of the locals saw me go from being a paddler to a surfer and reported me as drowning and unconscious.

The Sea Rescue guys were good about it and the cop didn’t hang around and even the News cameraman lost interest very quickly. So much for my 15 minutes of fame.

So at the end of the day, I still have to go back to Wright Island to find the geocache.

But I don’t need rescuing ….

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12 of 12, 4WDing, Geocaching, Holidays, Out and About

June 12 of 12 …

June 12, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

Once again, another month and on the road again. This time in the Northern Territory. We had a big drive today from Alice Springs through to Mataranka (1075 km).

Camp was broken on daybreak and after a brief stop in Alice Springs getting fuel and supplies. we headed north on the Stuart Highway.

We made a few stops for geocaches but not for me as I had found them all last year. I was travelling with a mate that had never been to the Northern Territory and I had him on rations with some cache finds each hour to break up the drive. It was 800 km between cache finds for me. 🙁

Some of the stops included the Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, Native Gap, Wycliffe Well (the UFO Capital of Australia), Tennant Creek then onto Mataranka.

Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop at Devils Marbles, but you always need to leave something for next time. 🙂

A few more stops at some memorials and we arrived at Mataranka just on sunset and it was spectacular with the moon and stars appearing as the sun set.

A quick meal at the homestead and then it was into the Thermal Pool for a well deserved 1.5 hour soak. A great finish to the 12th of June.

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12 of 12, Firefighting, Out and About, USA 2013

April 12 of 12 …. Last Day in the US

April 12, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

Lucky I was still in the US this month as it gave me an extra day before having to remember the 12 of 12 as I forgot last month.

Today was my last day after a month flitting around the US from Reno, Los Angeles, Orange County, Oxnard, San Diego, Las Vegas, Austin, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi and San Antonio.

Not a lot on the agenda today which started with a couple of LPC (Lamp Post Caches) geocache finds around Anaheim before heading over to Signal Hill near Long Beach.

My visit to Signal hill was to see the private Fire Collection of Chan Brenard. Chan has been collecting fire related material for a long time and it is an impressive collection from helmets, fire truck models, books and a large amounts of fire equipment catalogs from over the last 50 years.

Another interesting thing about Signal Hill is that it is a small city of around 3 square miles that has refused to be annexed into the much larger City of Long Beach that surrounds it because of oil. There is a huge amount of oil underneath the hill providing good revenues to the city.

There are bobbing oil pumps everywhere including backyards of houses and even the drive thru of the local McDonalds. After having lunch at the Black Bear Diner at the bottom of the hill with Chan and Gill it was back to check out more of Chan’s stuff.

Time was getting on and I had a hour or so to drive up to LAX for one last time. Traffic wasn’t too bad so there was time for a meal at In ‘n Out Burger and watch a few planes land as the sun set on Los Angeles.

Dropped off the car then headed to the Qantas check-in with no issues regard to weight. I might have been saved as I upgraded the Melbourne-Adelaide leg to business which gave me extra privileges here as well. 🙂

Still had some time to wait so went outside and walked the terminals grabbing around 20 Munzee’s that were located here.

Managed to get through the TSA checkpoint OK and it was off to the gate which of course was the furthest away. It was fairly quiet here and it wasn’t long before it was announced that we were going to another gate – which was the one with the plane parked alongside I had passed on the way to this one.

We were all on board when the power started doing weird stuff with drop outs and the screens resetting and all this before the push back from the gate. An announcement came that there were issues – I guess we already knew that. Supposedly it was some sensors on the doors were not working properly and engineers were working on it.

An hour later and we were pushing back but it wasn’t for a further 30 minutes that we joined the queue to take off. At this point we were 1.5 hours late from taking off. It was going to be interesting at the other end with connecting flights if they don’t make up the time over the pond but that is another story …….