This month we welcome Wazza&Kara to the blog as they share with us their insights and local knowledge to geocaching in Cairns.
Geocaching in Cairns
The capital of Far North Queensland offers many world class tourist destinations from the World Heritage Rainforest to the Great Barrier Reef. With our beautiful tropical climate, especially between March and October, geocaching offers a fantastic opportunity to view our natural wonderland.
With 450 caches within a 50km radius of Cairns City, there are plenty of caches to locate and log especially for the more adventurous cachers.
Cairns’ region boasts the highest cache in Qld located on the top of Mt Bartle Frere (Qld – Top Secret GC11FJB) along with a trail of geocaches that climb the 900m + of Walsh’s Pyramid at Gordonvale finishing with stunning views out over Cairns at (GCR4QJ).
Many of the local geocaches allow for an outdoor hiking experience and located to the west of Cairns, the Atherton Tablelands, also provides opportunity to visit such sites as Mareeba, Atherton, Malanda and Tinaroo Dam to take in some tourist spots and pick up a cache or two.
All styles of caches can be found in the Cairns region with the four most favourited including Virtual (62 Cairns Esplanade Lagoon GC7B7WR), Puzzle (55 Chirping JaW GC3TTYJ), Traditional (50 Creation Windows GC2QKGM), Multi (50 Foreshore Walk GC2QHR9), Earthcache and Adventure Labs.
For the sea loving cacher hides can also be located on Fitzroy Island (GC4WRC6), Green Island (GC69VG4), Michaelmas Cay (GC28PEV) and Low Isles (GC619MJ and GC64F09).
For the exceptionally adventurous, the Cairns region boasts some forgotten gems which have not been found for the last couple of years with those much-coveted higher terrain and difficulty ratings (GC20R9D, GC18ZZF, GC3M2Y6).
The Cairns Region has much to offer a visiting geocacher and is just a short flight from Brisbane or a pleasant drive north along the Bruce Highway from Townsville. If you are planning to visit the Townsville Mega-Event, why not plan in a couple of additional days a little further north for some more great geocaching experiences.
Fundraiser
If you happen to be around the Townsville region on Saturday 11th September, how about dropping in to the Townsville Central (Domain) Bunnings between 9 am and 3pm to grab one or two of those famous Bunnings snags and help raise funds for the Mega Event. CacheQLD would like to send a big thanks to our local volunteers, Mark Burgess (Burgo78), Jilly Singleton (ESCO), Ben Manning (BenM70), Chris Brunner (GC_Diver), Simon Brooks (CachedinNQ), Emily Potts (greencordial), Jason Potts (greyfire326), Michelle Orth (Orth71), Nicole hands (ANEHANDS), Ree Dunkly (ree8) and Nickie Clayton (mudbloods6) for manning the stand.
Townsville Information Event
If you are still looking for something to do on Saturday 11th aside from snacking down on those fundraiser sausages, why not pop along between 11:30 and 12:30 to the ‘Easter planning and prep‘ GC9E6YN event to hear more about what’s happening over the Mega Event weekend and how you can get involved and help out.
Welcome to August! This month we are introducing a new CacheQLD friend, talking about Charters Towers and announcing some sponsorship for the event.
Introducing….?
Remember Cal, our official CacheQLD mascot?
This friendly little guy was designed for the committee by none other than puzzle guru Cully Long. Despite us geocachers knowing him best for his book “How to Puzzle Cache”, Cully is also very talented scenic designer, graphic designer and illustrator!
Joining Cal in Townsville this year is Minty the crocodile! Both Minty and Cal are going to be hanging out with us on all our promotional material and can be found on some of our event pathtags and geocoins!
Last month we ran a promo on our Facebook group and then used a random number generator to select the winner. Congratulations go to Tim Williams! We will be in touch with your code for a one year geocaching membership.
Keep an eye out for more chances to win in the coming months!
Caching in the Towers
Following the Overlander’s Way, approximately 130km south west of Townsville, you’ll soon be upon the historic town of Charters Towers. Once a booming Goldfield, the Charters Towers region now has new hidden treasures with more than 130 caches to be found.
Sometimes known as the ‘Bat Park’ Lissner Park in the heart of town is home to two of our Wherigo’s GC8VD3J GC8YT4N and an Adventure Lab so a great place to start learning about times gone by.
Cache your way north of town along Weir Road GC8TDN6 to the beautiful Burdekin River. Upstream from the weir you will find ‘Cachedin NQ’s’ We’ir series GC8ZQJN
Be sure to bring your watercraft and enjoy our glorious weather and water course. With a Wherigo, an Earthcache, 2 Letterboxes, 3 Multicaches, 4 Puzzles and 11 Traditional caches there is sure to be something for everyone.
Towers Hill is another popular caching spot. Perfect for taking in the views, reading about the history and picking up a few smilies along the way. At some GZs you will be caching next to abandoned mines so stick to the track and exercise care GC8N5T6
The Acacia Vale road is home to a short trail with differing containers some with room for swag. This trail is perfect for the bike enthusiast GC7E5DJ.
Between Charters Towers and Townsville is a little township of Mingella worthy of a stop. From here you can head south on to Ravenswood picking up some cute and quirky ‘Orth’ caches along the way GC9AMV6. Continue on to Burdekin falls dam or head east and loop back to Townsville via Clare/Ayr GC3PP3D.
Traveling North towards Greenvale GC7EV64 will get you to Harvey’s Range road which eventually loops you back to Townsville via a gorgeous scenic route via the Heritage Tea Rooms GC1RR6C and various interesting caches including Harvey’s Range Tunnels which are a must visit and an iconic photo op GC8BM2M.
With so much to see and do be sure you include a trip to the Charters Towers region in your itinerary when attending the CacheQLD Townsville Mega Easter 2022.
Sponsorships
Caching Supplies
Cache QLD are proud to be keeping it local to Queensland and announce that Caching Supplies have come on board for another CacheQLD event! They will be available onsite over the Event weekend. We look forward to seeing them there, but in the meantime please check out their website.
What’s Next: Check back next month to see all the event updates and make sure you follow our Facebook page for any further competitions to be announced.
In the lead up to the Townsville Mega we will be highlighting some of the ‘must do’ geocaches in the area. With new Geo-Art planned for the event, this month focuses on the puzzles and challenges in the area beginning with the existing Geo-Art.
Breaking Bad & El Camino Geo-Art Series
Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with inoperable, advanced lung cancer. Desperate to secure financial stability for his family – his pregnant wife and disabled son he turns to a life of crime.
This Geo-Art series of 17 mysteries and 3 letterboxes caches reference notable scenes from Breaking Bad’s eight seasons and the epilogue movie, El Camino. At GZ many of the hides require you to solve a themed field puzzle to access the log.
Caches in this series are placed just off walking or biking trails at regular intervals along the 11.5km Under the Radar trail and the 4.7km Lagoon trail in the Town Common and Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park.
During the walk you can expect to see expansive island views, sheltered beaches bordered by rocky headlands, deep-water lagoons, seasonal wetlands and coastal woodlands all feature in this park. Mangrove-lined tributaries of the Bohle River meander across the floodplains that fill each year during the wet summer months. Up to 280 bird species have been recorded in the area. Magpie geese, brolgas and many others gather here to feed and nest, particularly as the wetlands dry out and food sources become concentrated in the remaining lagoons.
This combination of theme, location and container has seen the series receive 432 logs and has garnered 237 favourite points. With a number of visitors from SEQ visiting specifically to complete the series.
Here is a sample of some of the logs.
Snickersallan – 12/2020 On a road trip from the Gold Coast with hatzoff, grannysmith1947 and RoddyC on Day 14 and it was time to tackled the long awaited Breaking Bad series that has come highly recommended to us. Oh, my goodness, it’s been a long time since I have enjoyed finding such quality and quantity of caches in the one location, some we got frustrated with for longer than we should have but patience was the order of the day. Really appreciated all the time, effort and expense that has gone into placing this series of puzzles and field puzzles by the CO, great brain exercise for us and worthy of a favourite point on the majority of the hides …
Willis007 – 10/2020 … A lovely walk around the reserve, such a beautiful day, the views are simply amazing. I loved solving all of the puzzles in the series and have been very much looking forward to finding these caches. I found the lab and after consultation with the bats I entered. Cache soon in hand, ok this is easy. Oh, ok no it really isn’t. Eventually I spied what I was looking for. EVIL EVIL EVIL. But so very clever. … Thanks burgo78 for the awesome puzzle, the cache and for bringing me here. Another fav!
nature0nut – 11/17 I had solved some of these incredibly well thought out puzzles months ago not knowing if I’d ever visit Townsville but here we are! Breaking Bad is my favourite series of all time and I was so excited when I booked my flight to visit a friend and of course, GEOCACHE! I was a bit daunted by the walk at first, but I knew I didn’t do it I probably never would have so I’m incredibly grateful I was joined by JACS Team and Mrs Sobrington! This entire trail has been by far my favourite! The consistency of creative keeping with the theme caches were phenomenal and I am so appreciative of the CO’s hard work and dedication. Thank you so much for placing and maintaining these fun-filled caches and equally fun puzzles.
So, check out this list and get solving. Allow a day to collect the series, you will not be disappointed, unless you forget your lockpicks!
Townsville Puzzles
There are currently 128 puzzles within 16km of the city. With more planned for the event, it is advisable to make a start on them now. With a wide variety of DT’s, there is bound to be targets for even the seasoned cachers amongst us.
With so many to choose from, this post highlights 10 of the best.
2. GC6NQC2 ‘A Box of Red Herrings’ One of only two in Queensland that has been awarded Geocache of the Week by Geocaching HQ. ‘A Box of Red Herrings’ is a field puzzle hidden with permission inside the Aitkenvale Library. It is not difficult to spot, but accessing the logbook inside is a challenge.
3. GC6ZNVE ‘Steps’ An online puzzle where you have to figure out the next step in the sequence, amending the website’s URL to progress. With the coordinates obtained you then have to climb the physical steps of Castle Hill to reach GZ.
4. GC4505D ‘Forest Rain’ A classic field puzzle amongst the tropical plants of Queen’s Garden’s, close to the city centre.
5. GC6PD07 ‘Borrowing from Irma Pince’ Another library cache which requires finders to search the shelves of the Kirwan Library.
6. GC49MQT ‘Mt Stuart Scenic Reserve – Bonus’ Enjoy a bush walk with spectacular views over Townsville from Mt Stuart, collecting clues from cute containers in order to find this bonus cache.
7. GC8KTCB ‘Adventure Lab Bonus – Townsville Icons’ Beginning close to the city’s heart at Victoria Bridge this Adventure Lab explores a number of Townsville icons at 5 locations along the banks of the Ross River. Collect the clues to find this bonus cache.
8. GC7EN23 ‘RRPT – TB Key Cache’ This mystery cache is at the listed coordinates however you will have to find the trackableTB6C390 first, which has the key to open the ammo can’s padlock and access the log. Difficulty and terrain will vary depending on where the key is located and the height of the river at the time of your attempt.
9. GC8HXZT ‘Tanks for the View Townsville’ Perched above the city on Castle Hill, this fun field puzzle will surely bring a smile to your face.
10. GC9AFV3 ‘Leirum’s Lost Places World Tour’ A global tour of 10 interesting sites around the world from your armchair.
Townsville Challenges
Townsville has several challenges for visitors to seek out.
GC7JR20 ‘Caching Bingo Challenge’ 5/5 Based on PACMAN’s challenge, well-rounded cachers must achieve 5 geocaching milestones in a line to call “Bingo!”
GC89VKJ ‘The Adventurers Challenge’ 5/4.5 If you like mint tins in guard rails and nanos’s in the bush then this probably isn’t the cache for you. This challenge is for the Adventurers, for Indiana Jones and Bear Grylls wannabes.Find 100+ caches with a T rating or 4.5 or above then navigate approximately 200m along a drain to make the find.
GC8G04H ‘D/T/T Challenge’. 5/4 Find 250 unique D (difficulty), T (terrain) and T (cache type), then solve a dexterity, twist and turn field puzzle to obtain the log.
GC8Q03W ‘Completed Calendar Challenge’ 4.5/4.5 Complete at least one of the 3 finds calendars – Jasmer, found date or placed date. An ammo can awaits on a rocky cliff face overlooking the ocean for anyone that qualifies.
GC9586M ‘The Fizzy Challenge’. 5/5 One of the originals, complete the DT matrix then take a walk through mangroves before climbing to your prize.
GC97AFH ‘Diversity – 11 Type Challenge’ 5/3.5 Have found 11 or more different cache types before setting off on a pleasant bush walk.
GC8RWH7 ‘Townsville’s Golden Oldies Challenge’ 5/1 This one will take you on a tour of the region to find 10 of the oldest 20 geocaches in the Townsville LGA.
GC9584M ‘Townsville Region Challenge’. 5/3.5 You might need longer than a weekend to find 400 of the 800+ hides in the Townsville, Charters Towers, Burdekin, Hinchinbrook and Palm Island LGA’s.
GC8ZH5T ‘RRPT – Power Trail Challenge’ 5/2.5 Find 100 caches with the power trail attribute. If you don’t have enough, then be sure to hit the Ross River Power Trail (featuring soon).
GC8Z9VA ‘Brainiac Challenge’ 5/2.5 Easy for some, but difficult in this part of the world hence the D rating. Find 50+ D4.5’s or above.
GC8RWMG ‘99% Monkey Challenge’ 5/4.5 Find caches with the attributes; tree climbing, difficult climbing or climbing gear, totaling 50 or more. Then make your way up approximately 15m to the container.
GC93RPE ‘The Cheeky Ballerina Challenge’ 5/4 Nothing under a tutu! Find 500 caches with a DT of 2/2 or higher.
GC8E6NJ ‘Lonely Cache Challenge’ 5/2.5 Find at least 10 active caches of any type where the average days per find exceed 180. Be warned though your find might drop that number.
GC8DJ5V ‘Salty Seadog Challenge’ 4.5/5 Find 50+ caches with the boat attribute than sail to a very remote rocky outcrop in the middle of the ocean, climb the rocks and make the find. Simple.
GC8WR8K ‘7 Day Geocaching Streak Challenge’ 2/2 As the name suggests, have a geocaching streak of 7 days or more.
GC8Y79M ’31 Day Streak Challenge’ 2.5/1.5 Another that speaks for itself.
GC8T6PY ‘100 Consecutive Days Geocaching Challenge’ 4/2.5 And again.
This month we are providing some great insights as to why Townsville was selected as the next location for the CacheQLD Mega event. Before we get to that, in what turns out to be some fantastic timing for geocachers in Brisbane and the surrounding regions, greencordial, who hails from Townsville, is holding an event GC9C2ET in Brisbane this Saturday the 26th June from 10-11am. A few of the Brisbane based committee members are planning on attending and are happy to answer some early questions you may have. In the meantime check out the Top 10 reasons for traveling to Townsville next April.
1. Location
Townsville’s location offers a great deal of flexibility in accessing surrounding areas. It’s possible for visitors to the city to “check off” bucket list items such as the Aussie Outback, the Great Barrier Reef, and World Heritage listed tropical rainforests all in a single trip.
2. The City
The once quiet coastal town has grown into a modern metropolis. The undisputed event capital of North Queensland and the largest urban centre north of the Sunshine Coast.
3. Growing our Game in Regional Areas
Prior to this event the furthest north a mega event has been in Australia was last Easter’s Dayboro event, over 1,000km away. The committee felt it was time to take the Mega experience even further north.
4. Easy Access
With direct flights from Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin, Cairns, Mackay and Mt Isa, nearly all bases are covered. Direct routes to Adelaide are scheduled to begin in August. Alternatively, visitors can use the nearby train station or arrive via their own transport.
5. Weather
With an average of 320 days of sunshine per year, Townsville truly shines.
6. Venue
The Townsville Showgrounds is in a very central location – 2.5km to the city centre, 3.2km to the Strand, 4km to the airport, 1.5km to the train and across the road from a major shopping centre and many restaurants. The site has excellent facilities, multiple pavilions and function rooms and approximately 175 sites for caravans and campers.
7. Muggle Friendly
Close proximity to the City, the Strand, Castle Hill, restaurants and shops means non-cachers will be easily entertained.
8. Cache Quality
With over 600 caches within 25km of the venue, over 800 with 110km and many more planned for the event you’ll need more than a long weekend to discover why the LGA has received more than 3500 favourite points.
9. Local Caching Community
The committee and the locals are extremely enthusiastic about showcasing this part of the world to the broader caching community. With a number of creative activities planned this is an event not to be missed.
10. Magnetic Island
Just a short ferry ride from Townsville, Magnetic Island offers the natural beauty and serenity of an untouched paradise. Rocky granite headlands and towering hoop pines stand sentinel over tranquil sandy bays on this rugged, mountainous island covered with open eucalypt woodlands and surrounded by coral reefs. Most of the island is protected as national park and features a 36 kilometre network of walking tracks which are noted for its abundant wildlife and varied history.
The CacheQLD team have had discussions since the close of the Dayboro Mega and we have come to an agreement that it’s high time we travel north and invite everyone to come and play in Townsville!!
So, we know where, now to the when … taking into considerations the weather and other large events already planned around the country, it’s time to check out how the Easter Bunny copes with the North Queensland weather.
Check out that average rainfall for April!
So get your diaries out and pencil in Friday 15th – Sunday 17th of April 2022 for the next Mega CacheQLD event! Log your will attends here for GC9BVWD
We know people will be keen for further details, and they will be coming in the following months. However, we can let you know that home base will be at the Townsville Showground, which is located only 2.5km to the city centre with ample powered camping spots, approximately 170 sites.
And we are done! A bit of stress in the lead-up with the brief COVID lockdown, but we were released just in time to still hold the event!
We had amazing feedback for our gadget trail. Over 240 people started these Adventure Labs, and they were given an average rating of 4.9+! A huge thanks to committee members EatSleepCacheRepeat, JACS Team, and Gcoven for the work they put into constructing these.
The trivia on the Saturday night was well attended and lots of fun! Thanks again to our amazing hosts Net88 and Captain Terror!
Sunday night saw plenty of colourful shirts and big smiles at the Tropi-cal themed party! Even Cal got dressed up for the night’s festivities that ran well into the morning.
Prize Winners
Below is a quick round up of our prize winners from the weekend! These were announced at our closing ceremony.
Pineapple award: KittyKatch – although I think finding a bottle of whiskey is a prize in itself! Runner up: burgo78 (We tracked down a first aid kit for Burgo considering all his entries involved injuries!)
Bingo: TeamDFL ($100 caching supplies voucher)
Kids scavenger hunt: Damien – We hope you enjoyed that huge chocolate!
Photo competition – with thanks to our judge Ian George (The Coffee’s) Winner: SaintsMadHouse ($100 Caching Supplies voucher, plus 1 year premium membership) Runner up: Patrol14 (ammo can with geocaching TOTT inside)
Letterbox Code word: IolantheK (Geocaching TOTT)
CITO story: kingfisherau (USB torch)
Tropical Night Best Dressed: JustATrifle (Ammo Can with goodies and a $100 Kathmandu voucher)
Thanks again to Adam & Matt from our local geocaching store, Caching Supplies!
Merchandise
Thank you everyone who organised pick up of your merch if you couldn’t make it! For the orders that we have left behind, we will start contacting you next week to organize late collection or delivery.
A HUGE thank you to Kelly (bubba_89) from Black Cat Creations for working to get orders together even as they were coming through, even over the weekend! Amazing! Kelly has a huge range of merchandise that she can customize to suit whatever you need!
Puzzle Seminar
Ardom (Allan) ran this year’s puzzle seminar which was very well attended. There have been a few requests for his slides so click here to download a copy!
Post-Event Survey
Thank you everyone who attended the event! We would love if you could follow this link to complete a quick post-event survey. We use this information for future sponsorship applications!
Keep an eye on the Geocaching page for the official event photo that will be posted as soon as Ian (Mr Coffee’s) get’s home and uploads!
As predicted the weather was slightly in pleasant yesterday with lots of showers. We said farewell to a number of our campers as they escaped the rain and saw more relocate around the grounds to find some firmer ground.
The gadgets continued to be a popular choice with many taking advantage of the covered verandah to complete these. The seminars on Drones and Puzzles were well received
The evening it was a much quieter affair for the Tropi-Cal party night with a good chance to sit down, eat dinner and catch up with friends. Congratulations to Just a Trifle whose commitment to the tropical theme was outstanding and most deserving of the best dressed prize.
A quick reminder about getting your entry in for the photography competition post it on our Facebook page with the hashtag country life.
Weather
What’s On
It’s a very quiet day on the schedule as we wrap up the event. It’s going to be another wet day I site and we understand that for some of you it may be ‘home time’ well before the closing.
8-9 am Pathtag Swap
The final chance to catch up with other targets and trade your signature items. Due to the weather this will be held inside the main hall.
6pm Official Closing
We will be announcing the competition winners and saying our final farewell at 6pm in the hall. If you are unable to make it we will also announce these on our Facebook and website over the coming days.
9pm Adventure Labs close
The four Adventure Labs, Dayboro Orientation, Fun Stuff, Gadget Trail 1 and Gadget Trail 2 will be turned off at 9pm. The gadgets will also be removed and packed away at this time. Our tourist locations Adventure Lab will be around for another two weeks.
Whatever your doing today drive safe and happy caching.
Firstly let’s wrap up yesterday! Wasn’t the first official day of the Mega fun! We kicked off with our Opening Ceremony before the well attended Reviewers Seminar. Then it was caching time before coming back in the evening for the very popular and fun Trivia Night.
A few of the many milestones and securing the rare cache type!Caching with friends and family and spending time on Rodeo Drive!Everyone’s got their thinking caps on for Trivia!
Weather
Looks like we may finally be out of luck with the rain, so gumboots, raincoats might be the fashion of the day.
What’s On Today
It’s a little bit of a quieter day, with the morning an opportunity to check out Caching Supplies in the Main Hall, enjoy catching up with friends over the day – perhaps making use of the main hall to stay dry!
In the evening we have the last of our two seminars.
4-5pm Droning with The Coffees’
Australians are flying drones in record numbers. If you’re flying as a hobby, you don’t need any special training or certification before taking a drone into the air. But that doesn’t mean you should take your new drone out of the box and start flying it immediately. Instead, learn how to use it safely and effectively to get the best images and video, without sacrificing the safety of yourself and others. Ian has completed a Remote Pilot License for Drone photography (RePL). With his background of workplace training and assessing Ian loves helping and teaching others and is looking forward to passing on knowledge of what he has learnt so far!
5-6pm Puzzle Caching with Ardom
Geocaching novices and pros alike are often daunted by puzzle and mystery caches. Ciphers, enigmatic photos, nonsensical text, or just a blank page — it often isn’t clear what the CO wants or expects you to do, and even less clear how any of it will lead you to a cache. In this seminar, Ardom will cover the basics of puzzle caching!
Tropi-Cal Party Night
Got your tropical party shirt ready? Well it’s time to bring it out and get ready to mingle up in the Main Hall. Our food trucks are on site again and Cal’s Corner Bar will be open. The evening starts around 6pm.
A big thank you to everyone for taking care of the grounds yesterday in relation to the cars and mud. We encourage everyone to continue parking around the outside of the ring and using the available space near check in.
Please remember if you are on site already, you need to complete the QR check in for the Showground and head down to the front gate to get your Saturday Day pass – today’s is white! We need to keep a record ourselves of who is on-site.
Friday’s Fun
Friday saw many of our guests arrive on site and put their minds to work on the gadgets labs. We took a few inside for the night, rest assured they will be back out for puzzling over tomorrow from around 7am including the Locationless Banner. We also heard of many milestones being reached through the day so congratulations to all those teams.
Gate Guardians, Gadget trails and Seminars Adventure Lab Logs
Saturday’s Weather:
After our good weather yesterday it seems we are heading for some light showers today and a cool evening – pack a jumper for Trivia Night.
Coffee Van, Food Trucks& the Bar
You may have noticed the coffee van arrived yesterday afternoon and this will be open in the morning to perk you up for a great day.
The food trucks will be arriving during the day and we ask that you please keep the parking area around the main hall free as one will be positioned out the front and the other down at the bar end of the main hall.
The bar is stocked ready to go for Saturday and Sunday night – the bar accepts cash only and we ask that you please consider using small notes and coins as we may be unable to change a large note.
COVID RESTRICTIONS: All food and drink items must be consumed sitting down at a table.
What’s On
8am Opening Ceremony and Offical Photo
What would an event be without an official opening? Who knows, and we won’t have to find out here as at 8am we ask that everyone present on-site head to the Main Hall to be officially welcomed to the CacheQLD Dayboro Mega and it being declared opening. This is also where you will receive the verbal clue for the Opening Ceremony in the Fun Stuff Adventure Lab. You’ll need to be there to get it or beg your mates later for the codeword. After the welcome, we are gathering onto the Showground ring to take the official Dayboro Mega photo.
8:30-9:30 am ReviewersPanel
Sadly we have lost a reviewer to illness but we still have at least one reviewer going to be represented here. So if you have a question about the review process this is the perfect opportunity to see if you can get your questioned answered.
5-6 pm Pathtag Swap
The location for the pathtag swap is at the undercover area at the back of the main ring (part of the Orientation Adventure Lab). If you have pathtags to trade this is the place to be. We have a second pathtag trade session on Monday morning if you miss this one.
6pm – Trivia Night
We have the current table seating sorted. This is going to be a large event in itself and we must adhere to some rules. Firstly you must be registered, secondly you must sit at your allocated table in the spot that it is located, please no number switching. As this will be an indoor event, with all the doors open we can muster, we need to be mindful of the space and strongly encourage everyone to wear a mask, unless you are medically exempt. Not only will this keep you and everyone else safe, it will help lower the risk of someone lip reading your answers! BONUS!!
COVID RESTRICTIONS: As mentioned above, all food and drink must be consumed sitting down at your table. Masks can be removed for eating.
Welcome to the pre-event day of the CacheQLD Dayboro Mega. As you go about your caching business today, please be mindful that it is a public holiday, there’s bound to be traffic and an increased police presences our roads checking for speed etc. Being a public holiday also means that pubs, clubs, some restaurants and shops will be closed, so please be prepared for this and make sure you have your dinner plans sorted.
You’ll also notice with the increased rain some of the areas inside the Showground are getting pretty muddy. It might be a good idea if your camping to park your car elsewhere and walk to your caravan – this will save the roads and in particular the Showground ring from being churned up by vehicles.
Weather Forecast
What’s On Today
Today we are having a settling in kinda of morning. With just a few thing happening in the morning as we wait for our guest to arrive before kicking off the Mega with our first seminars from 4pm.
7am Check-in Opens
Everyone needs to check in with our gate guardians during the day. Be sure to use your QR scanner to register at the Showground. You will also need to leave your name with Waz and Vik as part of the event tracking. We know it’s painful to do it twice but it’s a requirement in these times to do both. In exchange you will receive your all important Friday Day Pass, this will allow you to go out and come back in with ease.
If you have paid for camping you will also need to pick up your camping area pass, please attach this to your extension lead. This is a once only pass.
7-9am Merchandise Collection
If you ordered merchandise from the shop you can pop up to the Main Hall reception area during this time window to collect your goodies. Should you miss this morning session we have another time in the afternoon. If possible we ask that you wait until at least 8am as due to the lockdown we do not have all the merchandise sorted into their orders and this will take some time.
9am Adventure Labs Go Live!
The Adventure labs will go live at 9am – we originally had planned for our tourist lab to be published earlier for our early arrivals, but with lockdown it was held over. Be sure to check out where those labs are if your heading in to the city area. All labs are set in the Showgrounds so you will be able to find them easy. They can also be done in any order
12pm SA GeoVenture2020 pre-lunch event
Sadly due to the recent lockdown and unknown border restriction our host for this couldn’t make it. However, there is nothing stopping you from taking a drive out to the location and grabbing some lunch on the way or staying on site and making plans for an SA Adventure in October.
4-6 pm Merchandise Collection
If you ordered merchandise from the shop you can pop up to the Main Hall reception area during this time window to collect your goodies. Should you miss this session we have another two collection times tomorrow.
4-5 pm Seminar 1 – Cachetur.no hosted by KittyKatch
Cachetur.no is a trip planning tool for geocachers. As an ambassador for the app, Kath will share her knowledge of how to utilize all the apps best features. Cachetur.no lets you plan geocaching trips of all sizes, near or far, alone or together with others. You can quickly and easily see what caches you have planned and what caches you or any of the trip’s participants own or have found. The script even allows you to see your route directly on the geocaching.com and Project-GC maps and to quickly add new caches to your trip directly from those maps (and cache pages)!
5-6 pm Seminar 2 – Photography hosted by The Coffee’s
Ian from Coffee Table Images was first involved in photography in the late 70s and early 80s although left his passion behind to pursue other endeavors. In 2014, after the removal of a benign brain tumor his neurosurgeon suggested a creative hobby to help with recovery and it was then that he decided to pick up his camera again. Since that time he has had great successes in photography competitions, and is now a judge with the Australian Photographic Judges Association (APJA). In this seminar Ian will cover some photography basics leaving you to walk away with knowledge of many elements of photography.
You can see some of Ian’s work on Facebook under ‘coffeetableimages’.
Cache QLD - Townsville GC9BVWD 