What are you doing on the 11 April 2020 at 1pm? Feel like hanging out with us at the beach?
If you happen to be at GeoVenture2020 Mega (GC82DAN) in Millicent that weekend enjoying all that the GeoVenture crew have to offer. Why not head on out to Beachport and catch up with us!
Does “sunshine on your shoulders make you happy?” Are you “walking on sunshine?” Well it’s a “good day, sunshine” because we are gathering in Beachport to celebrate the sunshine and promote geocaching in the “Sunshine State” (Queensland)!
We’ve got some exciting news and we want to share it with everyone who wants to hear.The theme is, you guessed it, SUNSHINE so bring your favourite sunnies and join in the fun! We’ll have some goodies to pass out and oodles of information to share.
So, come one come all, find out why the CacheQLD committee has “got sunshine on a cloudy day!”
Don’t forget:Bring your best pair of sunnies because the future is BRIGHT!!
Well according to the official countdown on our website we are 13 months away! It’s actually 13.5 months but who’s counting! Time is certainly going fast now and there is so much to do. The committee has been very busy this month sorting out promotional items such as shirts, pens, trackables, geocoins, pathtags, & car flags. We are also busily looking into sponsorship and working out some fundraising opportunities. Fingers crossed we will soon see a CacheQLD event popping up in a southern state. So much stuff – let’s dig deeper in the what happened since January’s newsletter.
Fundraising – Bunnings Sausage Sizzle
Can you smell it? The deep barbequey smell of onions frying on the hotplate. Can you see yourself at Bunnings with one of these sausage sizzling gastronomy delights in hand – onions under the sausage of course! Wink wink.
However, this time rather than eating you are wearing a rather fetching apron and working up a sweat all in the name of geocaching.
Fundraising through the popular Bunnings sausage sizzle is all the rage and the coveted weekend spots are awarded through raffle system. CacheQLD have thrown our hat in the ring (or trackable in the ammo can) for one of these spots, so now we wait! Recently we got a call asking if we could host a Monday spot. Cue some serious jumping for joy, until we remembered we all have those dreaded Mon-Fri jobs which fund our weekend geocaching exploits!
So it’s time to turn to our community and see if anyone can help an organising team out. Are you available on a weekday to help run a Bunnings sausage sizzle on the northside of Brisbane – maybe you can do weekends and wouldn’t mind putting your hand up should we manage to score one. Please send us an email at admin@cacheqld.com to let us know when you would be available to give us a hand.
Fundraising – Containers for Change
This is a fabulous initiative and one we are keen to get on board with. CacheQLD has an account set up and we ready to go for some serious can and bottle collecting. We are more than happy to take any cans/bottles that are cluttering up your house that perhaps you just can’t quite be bothered to take to the recycling place yourself (this certainly describes at least two committee members – and perhaps how this idea came about). Perhaps you’re out collecting a cache and you spy an old can or bottle just lying there and you decide to do a little bit of CITO. But what to do with that icky can – give it to us!! You are more than welcome to drop off these recyclables at the new regular Northside meeting. At least one of us will be there each month, the next one is on Wednesday 26 February! However, rest assure we venture our further than just the Northside so if you have some bags of cans, give us a shout and we can arrange collection from an event in the South East Queensland region.
We are in the process of setting up a Community Group Scheme Account that will allow you to use our scheme ID to nominate CacheQLD to receive the funds as a donation. Expect more details on this in March’s newsletter.
Pathtags – Backs
Firstly our pathtags backs are in and available on the pathtag website for your selection. Big thanks to E Smiley for letting us know that she selected our tag back on her new pathtag! Can’t wait to see it in person, make a trade and secure the awesomeness of her tag. Please consider using our back, not only will it promote geocaching in Queensland but will help us create an awesome event in April 2021.
Pathtags – Contest
Remember we are currently running our pathtag design competition where we are seeking a design that highlights our wonderful state or features our mascot Cal. The competition is open for another 6 weeks closing on 31st Marc. We’ve had a few submissions, and heard whispers about a few more! We are loving the creativity and can’t wait to see more! Check out the Contest page for further details.
Sponsorship – Black Cat Creations
We are pleased to announce another local sponsorship and welcome Black Cat Creations to the team. This amazing local company (owned by a geocacher!) can print pretty much anything, onto pretty much anything!! Not sure about you, but the committee is eager to be drinking coffee with Cal on one of Black Cat Creations personalised coffee cups! Facebook: Black Cat Creations Instagram: 13blackcatcreations13
Public Map
The team have decided to put together a public map of the caches mentioned in our Monthly highlights. This tool will help you to plan your trip and make the most of your time in the region. Click here to view the Cache Map.
What’s Next
The Brisbane Cycling Festival is on from March 12 – April 5. So to celebrate we will be highlighting some of the great cycling tracks with of course, the caches that can be found along the way! So keep an eye out for our March Highlight post happening on the 1st March.
This month our highlight post features the caches that we love, the caches that need some love, and a couple of challenges to work on where these caches will be helpful.
We introduce you to a rose shaped geo-art – because we all know where there’s love, there’s roses! We show you a very photogenic traditional cache location for Valentine’s Day.
We are also introducing our first Kids Caching Corner that highlights a cache that matches our monthly theme, is kid friendly and has been found and reviewed by kids!
Tim Williams of Capture the Dog Photography shows us one of the hidden location gems that we find by geocaching.
So, lets kick off the month by talking about some of the digital souvenirs up for offer this February.
Souvenir: Fun in all Directions
Recently it was announced that there will be a new souvenir called “Fun in all directions” to be earned on Sunday 2nd February. This special date is an international palindrome, 02.02.2020! By simply finding any geocache, Adventure Lab or attending an event on the day you will be able add this pretty cool looking digital souvenir to your collection.
Souvenir: Leap Day
Who doesn’t love an extra day to geocache, well this month on February 29th we can earn the special Leap Day souvenir by finding a geocache, Adventure Lab or attending an event. Currently there are six Leap Day events planned around Queensland:
GC8HNV1 – Look Again Before You Leap Hosted by Orange Crew 29th February 2020 from 9:00am – 9:45am @ Whiteside Four years on from the first Orange Crew event it’s time to get back together. There will some nibbles on offer for morning tea so bring your own beverages and any trackables or pathtags you wish to trade and come join the fun.
GC8J56D – A Small Step 4 Me, But a Giant LEAP 4 My Calendar Hosted by SunCoastGeocaching 29th February 2020 from 9:00am – 10:00am @ Mapleton This will be the second event planned for the Sunshine Coast Geocaching Community as they visit various locations in their region. Bring a plate of food to share and maybe a chair or blanket to sit on while you chat and make future plans.
GC8JMZJ – Leap Day 2020 Hosted by OzGeoker 29th February 2020 from 12:00pm – 12:30pm @ Mackay A nice quick catch up in the middle of the day to earn your special souvenir. So stop in at Goose Ponds in north Mackay to celebrate this special day with other geocachers.
GC8FV5D – Caching Goals Hosted by burgo78 29th February 2020 from 4:00pm – 5:00pm @ Bushland Beach After a fantastic trip away with some amazing personal geocaching goal achieved, burg78 is keen to share his insights for the locals who are planning to head to Seattle for the 20th Celebrations this year. So come and have a chat and share some of your own goals for 2020.
GC8GZJA – Leap Year Event Hosted by Sweet-Sour 29th February 2020 from 4:00pm – 7:00pm @ Gympie A sequel to the last successful Leap Year event it’s time to have another one. The location is well suited to hosting an event so BYO everything. Bring a pen as it’s hinted that some new caches might be available.
GC8HQA9 – Leap Day Dinner Hosted by Tenkae 29th February from 6:00pm – 8:00pm @ Ormeau Join the host to celebrate the special date with a social dinner at the Shearers Arm Hotel. A family friendly place with a kids room for the little geo-kids. No need to purchase a meal you can just drop in and socialise.
So grab your calendars and make a note on the 29th to get out and get both a smile and souvenir.
The Loved Cache
With February 14 being Valentine’s Day let’s talk about those highly loved caches. When the CacheQLD team were planning for the upcoming Mega in Millicent (GC82DAN) this April we discovered this awesome challenge: SFE Challenge – The Best of the Best (GC8CQDD).
In order to qualify you need to ”find 10 of the best 15 caches in any one of the Australian States or Territory.” Now, not only is this challenge inclusive to all geocachers as you can find them in your home state, but it also highlights the great caches in other states too. Sure, in order to get the actual smile you have to sign the challenge in South Australia, but what a great resource the checker is if you’re traveling interstate. We would like to point out that you need to have found at least one cache in that state to see their top 15 list. Just in case you are planning on visiting Queensland for the first time, and don’t currently have a smile in our great state yet, here is a list of the current top 15 favourited caches at time of writing.
Queensland (#1♥171) GC22EBF Crazy Caterpillar Zipline Queensland (#2♥150) GC3JH1P T.A.R.D.I.S. Queensland (#3♥140) GC3DP9H Noah’s Ark Queensland (#4♥136) GC8E Queens land Queensland (#5♥128) GC1JHWA On A Dark Night Queensland (#6♥126) GC5JZ6P Postie Dog Queensland (#7♥125) GC131 Bravo Hotel Queensland (#8♥122) GC2WXQ9 The Box, the Bicycle and the Bus Queensland (#9♥121) GC18WXV Map Monkey’s Lament Queensland (#10♥120) GC58EJJ Measuring Gum Queensland (#11♥118) GC5JZ6W Gnome’s Country Home Queensland (#12♥116) GC3TK2J Kings View Queensland (#13♥114) GC71AG0 The Hunters Building project Queensland (#14♥109) GC3VWCD Wheel of Fortune Queensland (#15♥105) GC5HM4H Turn back time
How many of these loved up caches can you tick off? Perhaps you need to organise a little heart gathering road trip to see some of these caches that others have thought so highly of.
The Unloved Cache
We can’t forget about those lonely caches that need and deserve some love. You know those who are desperately waiting for someone to come and spend some time with them. To have their logbook held in a tender embrace as you write your geocaching name, then leaving their proud owner a nice detailed story about the adventure of the find. Letting them know how much you appreciated the opportunity of discovery – because let’s face it, really unloved caches aren’t hidden in a guardrail down the road. Nope, usually they are up a mountain or massive tree, down a tricky river, somewhere really remote or perhaps they have a doozy of a puzzle attached to them. These are the lonely unloved caches.😢
On Project GC, under the Statistic tab, you can search ‘Days since last found’ for the most unloved caches in a region. The top 30 caches in Queensland all have over 1200 days since their last log. You could use the list as a guide for adventure! Gather some geo-buddies, leave some detailed travel plans, and head off on mission to gather up some unloved days.
However, if you’re attempting Comet Kingfisher (GCH3DN) – can you give the CacheQLD team a holler, we may just join you as that cache also happens to be one of Queensland’s oldest geocaches and perhaps now the most challenging to get too!
So what’s the point in gathering these unloved caches? Well, in Brisbane there is the “15 Years of No Love” Challenge (GC5D7PK), which asks you to find caches that have not been found for at least 183 days (6 months) for a total of at least 5475 days (15 years). If you enjoy finding these lonely caches and showing them some love you might want to work towards the NSW cache ‘Challenge: Fifty Forgotten Years’ (GC57Z2N), where you must gather up a whopping 18260 days of unloved!!
Lonely caches are out there and they are singing the words of The Beatles 🎶 “Love Me Do” 🎶 enticing you to visit.
Love, Love Me Do You know I’ll love you I’ll always be true So please, love me do Whoa, love me do
Someone to love Somebody new Someone to love Someone like you!
Geo-Art: 65 Roses
One symbol always attached to Valentine’s Day and love is the rose. What could be better than one rose? Try 65 (well cache smiles, but you get the drift)! A rose shaped geoart is what you will discover waiting for you at Kilcoy, which is only a 50 minute drive from Brisbane. Placed by JACS Team in April of 2018, this art is made of up three different cache types, and has Difficulty ratings from 1-5 and Terrain ratings from 1-3.5. The design uses 13 traditional caches that make the stem of the Rose with 34 mystery caches and 8 letterboxes that make up the flower.
Whilst you’re collecting your 65 Roses make sure to spend some time in Kilcoy. It is a lovely rural town, with a great bakery, plus it’s home to the Yowie! Yep, you read that right, the infamous Yowie! The town has had so many Yowie sightings it now has its own Yowie park, complete with a wooden statue so you know exactly what to keep your eyes peeled for. With 130 teams finding at least one of the roses, there has yet to be a reported sighting by a geocacher, so come for a visit and you might just be the first! Click here to go to a bookmark of these caches: 65 Roses.
“Boxing Day and the 28th of Dec were our days to complete and finalise this beautiful series. A day of inspiring music and drinks at Woodford in between sweetened this geoart. Thanks for all the effort and great variety of puzzles and cache locations / types. We are very familiar with all the roads around the township now as drove most of them twice and the farmers started greeting us when they saw our little blue car. This cache deserved a big Fav Point for its location as we enjoyed Pies and coffee (from the nearby bakery) at this place on both days.” Georode 28 December, 2018
Published in August 2012, this D2 T2 traditional cache is at a truly loved up address, Lovers Lane in Ironbark. Ironbark is located just to the west of Ipswich on the way to Somerset Dam. This location claims to be the only official ‘Lovers Lane’ in Queensland. Once there you can read about the history and take your photo between the giant heart and arrow. Some 234 geocachers have dropped into Lovers Lane and there are some pretty cute pics of loved up caching couples in the gallery. Aww!
“On our way home to Brisbane after a great weekend in Toowoomba we decided to pick up some caches on the way home. I have driven past this cache before and wanted to wait to find it with my husband. Fantastic sport for a cache. Loved it. Thanks for placing this cache here for us to enjoy and for taking us here.” Que Sera 5 May, 2019
Hello, thanks for helping with Kid’s Caching Corner this month Hi, that’s okay.
This month we are talking about favourite caches. What is one of your favourite caches? Chasing Tinkerbell. (Chase after Tinkerbell – GC3BTQD)
How long ago did you do that? Well, it was about 2 years ago.
Who did you do the cache with? I did it with my mum and my nana.
It’s a night cache, did you go out and do it at night? Yes, we did it about 7:30 after we had dinner. We brought our torches and had lots of fun. I found the most.
The most? What did you have to find? You had to find Tinker dust.
Tinker dust, and how did you find the fairy dust? We shined a torch in the tree lining and there was fairy dust on the trees.
So, you didn’t know where you were going, you just followed the dust around? We just followed the tinker dust.
What was the path like? Some of it was gravel and some of it was path.
Was there any walking through the bush? There wasn’t much walking through the bush, mostly just gravel path and a little bit through the bush at the end.
Without going into too much detail, as we want to leave a surprise, what was the final cache like? Was it in theme? It was amazing and definitely in theme.
Would you recommend that families come and do this one? I definitely recommend for all families to do it.
Sounds like a really good one, and you just needed to bring torches. Yep
Well, that’s cool. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us on one of your favourite caches. You’re welcome.
“That was a LOT of fun. I dragged two geokids with me and they were pretty anxious at first. However, they soon got the hang of it, and made it a little competition to see who would see the fairy dust first. We found GZ fairly easily and the geokids were delighted to see a huge cache fully stocked and well themed. Dipped in a TB. Prime you’ve created a masterpiece thanks for all your efforts to make a kid friendly night time geocaching experience. FP worthy, and definitely one of the more memorable caches.” oz_bean_counter 23 November 2019
Adult Bit: Chase after Tinkerbell is a night multi-cache located in the Brisbane Northside suburb of Fitzgibbon. It has a difficulty rating of 2 and a terrain rating of 2. It was published in September 2012 by ‘TinkerPrime’. Tinkerbell has been chased after around 200 times and has close to 100 favourite points left in admiration of the challenge. You can take dogs through this bushland if kept on a leash, and it has a stroller accessible attribute. Please be aware that as it’s bushland, you might come across toads and orb spiders on the trail, and of course, take some protection for mosquitos.
Monthly Queensland Photo Highlight by Capture the Dog Photography
Most geocachers would agree that one of the best things about geocaching is the amazing locations you stumble across that you would never find without a cache being there. Tim Williams is a Sunshine Coast local, geocaching as WallabyWanderers, he is also an avid photographer, and the man behind Capture the Dog Photography. This month Tim shares this stunning photo of Stoney Creek which is located between Woodford and Kilcoy and has a natural swimming hole, just waiting to be explored.
Doesn’t this photo make you want to kick your shoes off and dip your feet in the cool stream. If you would like to explore this location for yourself, perhaps on the way to do the 65 Roses, the nearest geocache is Stoney Creek GC10991. If you would like to check out Tim’s other photos you can find him at the following places:
On the 15th February we will be publishing our 2nd Event Newsletter, and letting you know where we are with planning for the Dayboro Easter 2021 event. Don’t forget we are still running a pathtag design contest so check out the Contest tab above to read more and get your submission in!
Cache QLD - Townsville GC9BVWD 