Category Archives: Geocaching

Geocaching, Holidays, NT-QLD 2018, Out and About

Another Geocaching Milestone – 19000 finds …

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After a sleep-in, we finished off the geocaches around Muttaburra including a mini power trail along Broadwater which is a section of the Landsborough Channel available for camping but there were not too many camping.
 
Many of the caches in the area have been hidden by RoddyC and youngoldfella in readiness for a major Geocaching event to be held in September. I will be coming back for that event.
 
It just happened that they were in the next town called Aramac (about 85 kilometres away), placing more caches for the event.
 
After a couple of phone calls, we organised to catch up in the afternoon.
 
It was getting close to the 19000 milestone so after checking out which cache it would be, we headed to Aramac.
As it turned out, White Bull (GC72TC3), in the centre of Aramac was the lucky cache and was also the spot we caught up with Rod and John.
 
It was good to catch up and chat about the September event.
 
After clearing the geocaching map around Aramac, it was back to Muttaburra, dodging the dead kangaroos, live kangaroos, live emus, live cattle and live horses.
 
At one point I stopped to see if my eyes were deceiving me. There were three rogue cotton bushes growing on the edge of the road complete with cotton ready to pick.
 
Tomorrow we head to Longreach for 5 days of tourist activities.
 
Geocaching, Holidays, Motorsport, NT-QLD 2018

Mingle at Mindil again …

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An easy day today with no need for me to be at the track until later this afternoon for a Seniors Meeting. 
 
This left me time to do some maintenance on my Darwin geocaches, which showed signs of weathering or disappeared altogether after the cyclone back in March.
 
Down to the Hidden Valley Raceway to check out Race Control and all looked in order for tomorrow then up to the Seniors Meeting.
 
It was a quick one with me wasting no time to get down to Mindil Beach to catch up with 3 different groups.
 
I had missed the sunset but was sent plenty of photos  from my mates that were down there.
 
After catching up with the first 2 groups, Race Firies and the Blackwood Mob, it was time for my annual Geocaching Event, “Mingle at Mindil“.
 
I have held this event for the last 5 years and it is always interesting where the attendees come from. This years saw no locals attending but we had cachers from Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.
 
There was still time to get something to eat at the Markets including a tropical smoothee.
 
Another good night out, tomorrow it is race time.
 
Geocaching, Holidays

Gee it is busy in the Alice …

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It looks like it is nearly time to break out the shorts as the temperatures start to rise as I keep heading north.
 
After filling up at Cadney Park with very reasonable prices ($1.589), I was on the road at 1000 with the target of Alice Springs tonight.
 
The weather was fine with a little wind which affected the fuel economy but this only lasted a couple of hours.
 
Stopping into Marla to do some geocache maintenance on my cache here and make some phone calls to find a spot to camp in Alice Springs for couple of nights.
 
Due to the Finke Desert Race, every caravan park is booked out til Sunday night. The last option was the Showgrounds where they said I should be able to be fitted in.
 
On arrival, that comment was obviously tongue in cheek as there was plenty of room even with the large amount of campers already here. 
 
Apparently, the showgrounds open their gates when major events are in town and all the caravan parks are full. Its even cheaper than the caravan parks.
 
A couple of kilometres short of the NT Border, I came upon a Queensland caravan with Mick and Gwen written on the back. It ended up being some geocachers I know – The X-trailers.
 
We caught up at the Border Carpark and chatted for a while before it was time to hit the road again.
Stuarts Well was a last chance to throw some fuel in the tank to make it to Alice Springs and made it into the Showgrounds at 1710.
 
Diesel at Stuarts Well was $1.80 and $2.019 at Erldunda where I avoided fuelling up. I am carrying 30 litres from Adelaide and have used 20 litres so far.
 
4WDing, Geocaching, Holidays

Finally the Painted Desert …

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Woohoo – It has taken 5 years but I have finally beaten the weather even if it is probably only by one day. For the last five trips to Darwin for the Supercars, I have been trying to get out to the Painted Desert and each time there has been rain and the road out has been shut. Well not today.
 
Leaving William Creek the skies were looking ominous with the cloud starting to build up. There is some rain on the way but I thought I would be able to get through the Painted Desert before it arrived.
 
The road was in good condition through to Oodnadatta with a few spots with roadworks that were turning it into something better than some bitumen roads. 
 
Even though there were a couple of rattling spots which took one of my Anderson plugs. Looks like some more maintenance required.
 
It has taken a couple of days but I finally realised why there were so many motorbikes on the track. They are all headed to Finke for the Finke Desert Race which is on this weekend. There were even teams camped in William Creek last night.
After filling up at the Pink Roadhouse it was time to head to the Painted Desert . The sky was getting darker but the road was still open to 4WD’s and Heavy Vehicles so I ticked those boxes.
 
The road wasn’t too bad but there were some interesting creek crossings (all dry) and the track even was in a creek bed at times (again dry) and the occasional bull dust hole. Cant wait to see how much bull dust got in the caravan.
 
Soon I was at the Painted Desert and made the couple of kilometre walk to grab all the Geocaches, keeping one eye on the incoming weather. It was worth the venture out here finally with some spectacular rock formations.
 
It was 90 kilometres to the bitumen and you could see some rain in the distance. I made it out just on dusk without a drop of rain. I didn’t feel like driving onto Marla tonight and as I was a day ahead anyway, digs for the night was at the nearby Cadney Park.
 
Diesel was $1.839 at Oodnadatta.
Geocaching, Holidays, NT-QLD 2018

Warm weather – here I come …

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A last minute chance to stock up at the local supermarket as there isn’t too much up the Oodnadatta Track and I was on the road at 0930.
 
The route took me through the rolling green hills of the mid-north, before giving way to the Flinders Ranges with a lot drier and sparser vegetation.
 
There was plenty of road kill with kangaroos predominately to the south giving way to Bush Chooks (Emus) the further I travelled north. 
 
In fact, there seemed to be an over abundance of emus running around rather than kangaroos jumping around.
The Flinders Ranges were spectacular especially as the sun was getting lower in the sky.
 
Digs for the night was the Leigh Creek Caravan Park.
 
Diesel was $1.529 a litre at Burra (cheaper than Adelaide), $1.667 at Hawker and $1.729 at Leigh Creek.
4WDing, Geocaching, Holidays, Motorsport, NT-QLD 2018, Rally

Looks like there is a Rally in town …

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There was no wondering if there was a Rally in town this weekend with the burble of Rally cars driving the street at the edge of the Caravan Park.
 
First thing on the agenda was a Geocaching Breakfast at the local cafe and given that we were a couple of hours away from Adelaide, it was a good turn out with 14 attending, the furthest from Mildura.
 
There was time to wander around town to pick up supplies for tomorrows BBQ I was putting together for the Emergency crews then it was reconnaissance time with the Emergency crews that were already here.
 
Even though I did all the paperwork for last years event, I never attended the Rally due to it clashing with the Darwin V8’s. This year was the first chance to check out the roads being used as our Stages rather than just lines on a map.
 
Some of the roads were familiar to me as I used to work at Burra 33 years ago as a Stock Agent for Elders Pastoral, however there were new roads on the ridges where the wind farms are located. These wind farms were not here when I was here in my former life. 
 
Back into town for another pub meal, this time at the Commercial Hotel with the Emergency Crews.
4WDing, Geocaching, Motorsport, NT-QLD 2018, Rally

Done with working for 2 months …

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With my last night shift behind me and the preliminary work for the Rally of the Heartland complete, it was time to hitch up the Taj and start on this years adventure.
 
I have two months off work with a combination of standby’s (people working my shifts), Long Service Leave and Recreation Leave.
 
The plan is to travel to Burra for the Rally of the Heartland, then take the Oodnadatta Track (provided it doesn’t rain again), then back on the Stuart Highway with a stop at Mataranka for a few days before heading into Darwin for the Supercars.
 
Jenny will then join me in Darwin and we will head back down the Stuart Highway, turn left and head to Outback Queensland taking in Mt Isa, Longreach, Charleville and Birdsville before taking the Birdsville Track back into South Australia (provided the floodwaters haven’t cut it off).
 
With some last minute shopping and packing, I was hitched up and on the road at 1030. Making a few stops on the way for geocaches and I checked into a relatively empty Burra Caravan Park around 1400.
 
There were a few Rally types also camping but this place will be packed by tomorrow afternoon.
 
Into the Burra Hotel to discuss last minute Rally items with Ivar before hitting the hay.
Geocaching, Holidays

Heading west towards home …

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Today was a big travel day with 550kms from Orbost through to Bendigo. It wouldn’t be too bad except that there was only one route to get there and that involved skirting through Melbourne and its traffic.

The Princes Highway was good doing until I hit Narre Warren and the traffic started to build up and slow down. Roadworks didn’t help much. It took a while to get round to the Metropolitan Ring Road and just as I reached the Calder Highway exit the traffic stopped. It was OK though as I was headed to the Calder Highway.

It was certainly different when travelling through Morwell. Last time I was here you couldn’t see for smoke. I was here fighting the coal mine fire in February 2014 – it doesn’t seem that long ago. The fire went for a month and cost somewhere around $1 million a day to fight, with helicopters, ground crews and lots of different fire appliances from all around Australia. Today, the power station is closed and the only activity in the pit seemed to be remediation work. Oh and the air was clear.

There was one little “oh wow” moment when I took the Alternative Calder Highway exit and what looked to be a stick in the middle of the road was a 1.5m snake. I tried to miss it and didn’t see it come out the back. Hopefully he is not coiled up somewhere under the car or van.

Onward to Mildura tomorrow.

Thats a snake
Geocaching, Holidays, Vic Challenge

Can’t go any further East …

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Well the rain did make it here with some heavy downpours through the night and continuing through the morning. This rain didn’t slow me up much as I had a drive through the forest to the north to grab a cache.

It was a 45km drive on windy, hilly, thick forested road for a single cache that gave me a geocache find on Map 23 for the Victoria Country Road Atlas Challenge. It rained all the way there, rained while I was signing the log in the geocache and it rained all the way back.

After doing some restocking and having lunch, it was time to head east to grab the last 2 maps for the Victoria Country Road Atlas Challenge, Map 24 and 34. This would also take me to Mallacoota which is the furthest east you can get in Victoria without serious bushwalking. The rain had moved on, I guess onto New Zealand.

Mallacoota must have one of the biggest foreshore caravan parks in Australia. It seemed to go on forever and was starting to fill up. It has somewhere around 600 sites with around half with power. Although the sites looked small in places – hopefully they were tent sites.

After grabbing a few caches at the beach lookouts along the coast, it was time to head back to the van at Orbost. It was a straight drive back as I had grabbed all the caches on the way here. Just out of Cann River, there was a slight delay with a learner motorcyclist not making it around a corner. Luckily he was wearing full leathers and seemed to be moving OK. The ambulance didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get to him when it passed me.

The rain started again when I arrived back at Orbost but it was just showers that came and went.

Tomorrow it is time for the journey home via Bendigo.

Mallacoota