Troglodyte # 3 at Bungonia

April 2008

With a camping trip planned at Bungonia in the school holidays I decided to see if there were any local caches in the area.
Of course, there were.
Heading off in the Festiva earlier than the others in the van, Jye, his friend James and I set off for the Bungonia State Forest in search of a cache called Troglodyte # 3.
Arriving at our destination we paid the $7- entry fee, grabbed a map and signed the register to say we were in the park. With the co-ordinates punched in to the GPS we were off.


Now when Russell gave me his GPS to lend, I vaguely remember something he said about 'as the crow flies'. Pity I didn't remember what he said exactly!!
With the GPS directing us up a track, we walked 'as the crow flies' only to come to a clearing at the bottom of a mountain. This was no hill...this was a MOUNTAIN.
Over we went and down the other side only to come to another clearing at the bottom of another mountain.
By this time the boys weren't very impressed, especially James who must have been wondering why he'd wanted to go bush with us in the first place.
After reassuring the pair that if we just went over this mountain and down the other side, we would be assured the reward of a find.
So over we went and guess what we found? Another clearing and another bloody mountain!


By this time I was starting to think that maybe we should've stuck to a track...that anyone in their right mind wouldn't walk all this way just to place a cache right?
I mean seriously, what were they...mountain goats?


After looking behind me and realising that...yep...we had to go back the way we came..the cache wasn't looking quite so appetising.
We had to admit defeat...once again.
The journey was far from over though. Somehow the mountains on the way back were much steeper than they were on the way there and it was taking me at least 5 minutes to get from tree to tree on the way back. Even the boys were struggling but they still found it funny to watch me struggle even more especially when I lost my footing and was clinging to the side of this mountain like Gollum with my fingernails literally dug into the dirt!!
Finally we arrived back at the car and found quite a few other people just about to head off on their bushwalks, smiling and nodding at us.
If only they knew half an hour before I was seriously considering sending up a flare for helicopter help!!
Oh well...better luck next time.
Just NOT at this cache!!

One for Mimsie

15 April 2008
Seeing as we'd found our first cache the day before, we thought we'd head out in search of a few more in the local area.
We had to drive out to Werombi to pick Jayden up from his mates place so with GPS in hand we set off to find a cache at Menangle on the way there.
With a hint of it being near a water canal and a peek at Google Earth before we left it was a sure thing we'd find it. NOT!!
Unfortunately we were looking in the wrong spot AGAIN!!
No amount of rummaging around would turn up this cache much to the boys disgust at my handling of the GPS and the many comments about 'Dad being able to find it straight away'. Well Dad was at work and didn't they realise by saying things like this would only make me more determined to find the bloody thing??



After picking Jayden up I had 2 more caches that I thought we could have a look for, but not before I found the Menangle one!
So amid bribes of $1- for the Geo kid that found it we made our way back for another scrounge.
This time we were lucky!! Geo Jedd struck gold this time in a very well camouflaged cache. Thanks Homedg...it was worth going back for!



This time the boys swapped the rubber Ninja tutle for a Cadbury badge and a woven key ring.



The log was signed and we were on our way to the next cache at Woodbine called 'Out on a Limb'. It was a place that was populated with a lot of spiky plants and after the 4 of us searching for what seemed like ages we finally gave up. The boys were much more enthusiastic in going to the next cache we had up our sleeve at Minto called 'Paddle Pop Lion' for obvious reasons.

We walked around and around but the co-ordinates were a little jumpy and the GPS just had a mind of its own. Plus the fact that it had started raining and none of us had jackets on left us no option but to return home disgruntled at only finding 1 out of 3 of the caches :(

We''ll be back though...you can mark my words.
Cheers
Sharryn :)